I can see my cousins beginning to scream and cry and Liz and Mike cut so deeply by the feeling of powerlessness as they watch their children’s security vanish, their home pillaged, their rights trampled on, their humanity denied, and then without even a moment to exchange a word or a kiss, my brother, Michael, taken from his home, blindfolded, handcuffed, and dragged away. Liz picks up the clump of trembling boys in front of her and moves them towards the window when the door is slammed shut. His little boys and wife watch, still terrified, as he disappears in M-16’s and shadows, taken by a military jeep far, far away.
You think about beatings, physical force, the various stories you’ve heard about torture and cruelty, interrogations, the weather, is he cold? No idea where he is, for how long, in what conditions or with whom. Disappears. Stolen. Right in front of your children and your eyes. No charge, no reason. To your hundreds of questions there will be no answer.
The world will watch and remain silent, say that you likely deserved it, call your partner a criminal or a ‘terrorist’, assume that if he was taken, there must be a reason and then move right on to business as usual and the morning traffic jam.
Same old story, just another Palestinian “gunman” imprisoned.
No, I said “They came for your brother last night.”
Date: February 17, 2003
Author: Susan Barclay
Area: Nablus
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
http://www.palsolidarity.org
Please also read:
Israel: Sharon government builds fortified wall around West Bank,
by Robert Stevens, 4 February 2003
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/isra-f04.shtml
BELGIUM'S CHALLENGE TO WAR'S ANCIENT CALCULUS,
byLaurie King-Irani, International Campaign for Justice
for the Victims of Sabra and Shatila, 17 February 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1169.shtml
You think about beatings, physical force, the various stories you’ve heard about torture and cruelty, interrogations, the weather, is he cold? No idea where he is, for how long, in what conditions or with whom. Disappears. Stolen. Right in front of your children and your eyes. No charge, no reason. To your hundreds of questions there will be no answer.
The world will watch and remain silent, say that you likely deserved it, call your partner a criminal or a ‘terrorist’, assume that if he was taken, there must be a reason and then move right on to business as usual and the morning traffic jam.
Same old story, just another Palestinian “gunman” imprisoned.
No, I said “They came for your brother last night.”
Date: February 17, 2003
Author: Susan Barclay
Area: Nablus
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
http://www.palsolidarity.org
Please also read:
Israel: Sharon government builds fortified wall around West Bank,
by Robert Stevens, 4 February 2003
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/isra-f04.shtml
BELGIUM'S CHALLENGE TO WAR'S ANCIENT CALCULUS,
byLaurie King-Irani, International Campaign for Justice
for the Victims of Sabra and Shatila, 17 February 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1169.shtml