Where in the world could these sorts of teams, routinely mobilized by Western nations as good will and humanitarian gestures, have been more useful than in Jenin? Where were they? Where are they? Where will they be after the next Israeli outrage?
Many dozens, and maybe more Palestinians remain buried beneath dust and rubble, bombs and belongings. While these neglected victims of unconscionable aggression were all certainly dead bodies by then, after more than a week beneath the rubble, expert international teams were disturbingly obvious in their absence. Were they in Jenin, search and rescue experts would have saved the lives and limbs of desperate family members clawing through what remained to be exhumed of former lives, looking for answers about missing family members, or trying to retrieve some important possession in the great Palestinian tomb that is now Jenin. Now, however, weeks after the carnage, the great work in Jenin is not saving, but remembering – making sure the world never forgets what happened there.
Gaza, in most ways, is even more shocking, for the outrages here are status quo. The Gaza strip is an Israeli-constructed prison for 1.3 million Palestinians which the world community ignores by international convention. It is a concentration camp divided up into three cell blocks and several isolation cells where the men, women, and children of this bitter slice of Palestine wile away lives, cut off from trade, opportunity, freedom, and the world; it is a prison, nothing more.
Many dozens, and maybe more Palestinians remain buried beneath dust and rubble, bombs and belongings. While these neglected victims of unconscionable aggression were all certainly dead bodies by then, after more than a week beneath the rubble, expert international teams were disturbingly obvious in their absence. Were they in Jenin, search and rescue experts would have saved the lives and limbs of desperate family members clawing through what remained to be exhumed of former lives, looking for answers about missing family members, or trying to retrieve some important possession in the great Palestinian tomb that is now Jenin. Now, however, weeks after the carnage, the great work in Jenin is not saving, but remembering – making sure the world never forgets what happened there.
Gaza, in most ways, is even more shocking, for the outrages here are status quo. The Gaza strip is an Israeli-constructed prison for 1.3 million Palestinians which the world community ignores by international convention. It is a concentration camp divided up into three cell blocks and several isolation cells where the men, women, and children of this bitter slice of Palestine wile away lives, cut off from trade, opportunity, freedom, and the world; it is a prison, nothing more.