Friday, January 9, 2009

The Fifth Day

This is the fifth day of the Israeli military operation on Gaza called 'Cast Lead'. Horror and destruction is everywhere. There are things that are not well reported in the news, feelings!! I have three children, a daughter Nour who is 14, a son Adam who is 9 and another son Ali who is 3. We live in an area in Gaza city that used to be described 'safe'. Nowhere is safe anymore. My children cannot sleep and I cannot help them. The feelings of helplessness and guilt (which always accompanies your inability to protect or at least comfort your children) are stronger than those of fear and horror. My daughter was telling a journalist on the phone yesterday that she had never got the real support she sought from me whenever there was a shelling. I was shocked!! I felt so guilty because my daughter felt my fears. But is it not normal to be scared after all?! Adam is asthmatic and he uses a ventilator. Due to the stress and the pollution resulting from rubbles, he is getting more frequent asthma attacks and there is no electricity for his ventilator. Each time he has an attack, we have to put the generator on for him and then put it off. There is no enough fuel to keep the generator on and we have no idea till when this is going to continue. Ali has no idea what this is all about. All what he does is scream in fear whenever there is a bombing and when it is over, he uses his imagination to tell stories about 'qasef - bombing'. The kids do not sleep. We spend our days and nights in one single room with my sister in law and her daughter. You feel the stress and fear. You can see it on everyone's face.
Last night I was thinking about all this. I do not want anyone of my family to get hurt and I thought if anything should happen, I pray it happens to me and not my kids. Then I thought I do not want my kids to see me torn into pieces. The scenes on tv of people killed are so terrifying and I know what it means for children to see such thing. What I really want is for all this to end and for me and my kids to live just like anyone else in the world. I want to get rid of the feeling of guilt towards my kids. Was I mistaken to have kids in the first place? Do not I have the right to be a mother? But am I really doing a good mother's 'job' in being the source of comfort for my kids. I know it is not my fault but I knew also that I live in Gaza and Gaza has never been a healthy environment to raise children. Was I that selfish to think about my own feeling to want to be a mother and ignoring my expected failure to protect my kids?
Nirmeen Kharma Elsarraj, Palestinian
Gaza

3 comments:

  1. Tomorrow in all France of tens of thousands of people will express to stop the massacre of the occupying forces Israeli.
    Manifestations of the Saturday, January 3, 2009 in Paris, Lyon and Lille

    http://thazmourte.blogspot.com/2009/01/manifestations-de-soutien-au-peuple.html

    The governments do not dare to criticize Israel but the people support you in your resistance to the occupation.

    Courage

    Farid

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  2. Thank you very much for writing this important blog, my prayers are with u and palestine
    my blog http://afreediary.blogspot.com/
    salam :)

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  3. A l’adresse des Peuples d’Israël et de Palestine


    La fin de cette vengeance sans fin est entre vos mains !



    Exigez d’abord de mille façons de vos représentants le cessez-le feu immédiat, l’arrêt complet des hostilités.



    Choisissez par la base des délégués des deux côtés, renommés pour leur non-violence.

    N’importe qui, pas des experts ou des dirigeants, juste des sages, des aimants.



    Qu’ils se réunissent au milieu des ruines, le temps qu’il faudra, jusqu’à pouvoir venir annoncer à Jérusalem la paix équitable décidée à l’unanimité.



    Peuples d’Israël et de Palestine, fraternisez pour la paix, pas une trêve entre deux guerres, vivre bien les uns à côté des autres, peut-être un jour les uns avec les autres.

    Il n’y a pas d’autre solution, ou bien que quelqu’un la donne et qu’elle soit mise en œuvre, vite.

    ReplyDelete