WEBVTT

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Dear hermanos,
our motto "Stay Human" is now also a book.

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Please find within
the three-week story of a massacre

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written to the best of my ability

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more often than not very precarious conditions

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often scribbling about the inferno
all around me in a tattered notebook...

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...while crouched
in an ambulance screaming down the street.

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Or frantically tapping away at the keyboard
of any available computer I could find...

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often inside a building shaking like
a crazed pendulum as explosions went off all around.

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I must warn you that leafing through this book
could prove dangerous.

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These are harmful pages, blood-stained

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imbued with white phosphorous,
and as sharp as bomb shrapnel.

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If read within the quiet of a bedroom,
your walls will shake from our cries of terror.

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I feel concerned for the walls of your hearts,
which I recognize have not yet become soundproofed to pain.

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Please store this volume somewhere safe,
within the reach of the young

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so that they may immediately learn
of a world not so far away from them

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where indifference and racism
tears their peers to little bits as if they were mere rag dolls.

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This way they may be inoculated against racism from an early age,
against any epidemic of violence towards whoever is different

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or against neutrality when faced with injustice.
For tomorrow, so as to stay human.

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I trust you who trust me

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not for the ones who died but for the ones
wounded to death in this horrendous massacre.

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One hug as big as the mediterranean sea
which joins us by dividing us.

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Stay Human

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Never giving up, yours Vik.

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27th december 2008

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Guernica in Gaza

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My apartment in Gaza faces the sea,

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a panoramic view that's always done wonders for my mood,
often challenged by all the misery that a life under siege can bring.

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That is, before this morning,
when all hell broke loose outside my windows.

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We woke up to the sound of bombs dropping,
many of them falling a few hundred meters from my home.

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Some of my friends have fallen under them.

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So far the death toll has reached 210, but it's bound
to rise dramatically. It's an unprecedented bloodshed.

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They've razed the port to the ground,
and pulverized police station.

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I've been told that the Western media
are on-message and are repeating...

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...the press releases issued
by the Israeli military parrot-style

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according to wich the attack only targeted
Hamas' terrorist dens with surgical precision.

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In actual fact, when visiting Al-Shifa, the city's main hospital,
and gazing over chaotic lines of bodies laid out in its courtyard

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we mostly saw civilians among those awaiting treatment,
lying randomly alongside other bodies, awaiting rightful burial.

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Can you picture Gaza? Every house leans against another,
every building rises over the next one.

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Gaza is the place
with the highest population density in the world...

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...which means that when you bomb from a height
of 10,000 metres, you'll inevitably butcher many civilians.

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You're aware of it, you're guilty as charged, it's no error,
and certainly no case of collateral damage either.

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When shelling the central police station in Al-Abbas,

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the neighbouring elementary school
was also damaged by the explosion.

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It was the end of the school day
and the children were already in the street.

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Most of their flapping sky-blue aprons
were splashed with blood..

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When bombing
the Dair Al-Balah police academy,

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some dead and wounded were also recorded
from the souk nearby, this being Gaza's central market.

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We've seen the bodies of animals and humans mixing
their blood in rivulets trickling down the asphalt roads.

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A Guernica transfigured into reality.

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I saw many corpses in uniforms
in the various hospitals I visited, I knew many of those boys.

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I greeted them every day when I met them in the street on my way
to the port, or walked to the central cafÈ of an evening.

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I knew several of them by name.
A name, a history, a mutilated family.

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The majority were young,
around 18 or 20...

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...mostly without political leanings,
neither siding with Fatah nor Hamas

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simply enrolled into the police force
once they had finished university...

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...in order to have a secure job in Gaza

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which under Israel's criminal siege
has more than 60% unemployment among its population.

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I have no interest in propaganda...

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...and let my eyes bear witness, my ears stay in tune
with the screaming sirens and the rumbling of TNT.

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I haven't seen any terrorist among the casualities today,
only civilians and policemen.

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Just last night I poked fun at a couple of them for the way
they were cloaked up agaist the cold.

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I want the truth to redeem these dead.

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They'd never fired a single shot against Israel,
nor would they have ever done so

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it wasn't in their job description to do so.
They acted as traffic wardens, took care of internal security.

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The port is quite a distance from the Israeli border anyway.

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I own a video camera,
but today i discovered what a terrible cameraman I am.

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I can't bring myself to film mangled bodies
or faces drenched in tears. I just can't.

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I start crying myself.

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The other International Solidarity Movement volunteers
and I went to Al-Shifa Hospital to give blood.

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That's where we received a call informing
us that Sara, a dear friend...

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...had been killed by a piece of shrapnel
near her home in refugee camp of Jabalia.

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She was a sweet person, a sunny soul,
and gone out to buy some bread for her family.

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She leaves 13 children behind.

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A moment ago I got a call from Tawfiq,
from Cyprus.

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Tawfiq is one of the Palestinian students lucky enough
to have left the enormous prison camp of Gaza...

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...on one of our Free Gaza Movement boats,
to start anew somewhere else.

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He asked me if I'd visited his uncle and whether
I had gone to say hello on his behalf, as I had promised.

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Hesitatingly, I apologized
because I hadn't found the time.

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And it was too late anyway, he was buried
by the rubble in the port area along with many others.

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Israel launches the terrible threat that this is just the first day
of a bombing campaign that could last for up to two weeks.

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Israel launches the terrible threat that this is just the first day
of a bombing campaign that could last for up to two weeks.

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They want to make a desert
and then call it peace.

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The 'civilized' world's silence is more deafening
than the explosions covering the city...

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...like a shroud of death and terror.

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Stay human.

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29th december 2008

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Dying slowly while listening out in vain

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An acrid smell of sulphur

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fills the air while the sky
is shaken by earth-shattering rumbles.

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My ears are now deaf to the explosions
and my eyes are all out of tears from all the corpses.

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I stand infront of Al-Shifa, Gazaís main hospital

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when we receive Israel's latest, terrible threat:
they intend to bomb the wing that is under construction.

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This wouldnít be a first,
as Weaím Hospital was bombed just yesterday

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along with a medicine warehouse in Rafah,
the Islamic university

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and various mosques scattered along the Strip.
Not to mention many other civilian infrastructures.

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Apparently, no longer able to find 'sensible' targets,
the air force and navy now are killing time targeting

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places of worship, schools and hospitals.

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Itís another 9/11 every single hour,
every minute around here...

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and tomorrow is always a new day for mourning,
bringing equal desperation.

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You notice the helicopters and airplanes
constantly overhead

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you see a flash, but youíre already a goner
and itís too late to take flight.

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There are no bunkers against the bombs in the Strip
and no place is really safe.

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I canít contact my friends in Rafah,
not even those who live north of Gaza City

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hopefully because the phone lines are overloaded.
Hopefully.

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I haven't slept in 60 hours,
and the same can be said of any Gazan.

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Yesterday three other ISM members and I spent the night
at the Al-Awda Hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp.

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We were there in fearful expectation
of the much-dreaded ground raid that never happened.

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But the Israeli tanks are strung all
along the Stripís borders

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as we speak, creaking their way
into a funeral procession.

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Around 11.30pm, a bomb fell
about 800 metres from the hospital...

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the shock wave blowing several windows apart
and injuring the injured.

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An ambulance rushed to the spot where a mosque
had been shelled, but it was thankfully empty at the time.

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Unfortunately
(though it actually has nothing to do with fortune...

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rather with the deliberate criminal and terrorising
will to massacre civilians)

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the Israeli bomb had also struck the building
adjacent to the mosque, which was likewise destroyed.

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We watched as the tiny bodies of six little sisters
were pulled out of the rubble...

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five are dead, one is in a life-threatening condition.
They laid the little girls out onto the blackened asphalt...

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and they looked like broken dolls,
disposed of as they were no longer usable.

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This wasnít a mistake, but a wilful and cynical horror.

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We're now at a toll of 320 dead, more than a thousand
wounded and, according to a doctor at Al-Shifa...

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60% of those are destined to die in the next few
hours or days, after enduring a prolonged agony.

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There are many missing.

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For the last two days despairing wives
have been searching for their husbands...

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or children in the hospitals, often to no avail.

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The morgue is a macabre spectacle.

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A nurse told me that, after hours of searching through
body parts in the refrigerator cell, a Palestinian woman...

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recognize her husband's amputated hand.
That was all that was left of her husband...

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along with the wedding band on her finger,
a remnant of the eternal love they had sworn to one another.

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Out of a house once inhabited by two families,
very little remained of their bodies.

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They showed their relatives
half of one torso and three legs.

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Right now, one of our Free Gaza Movement boat
is leaving the port in Larnaca, Cyprus.

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I spoke to my friends on board. They've heroically
amassed medicine and packed it tightly onto the boat.

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It should reach the port of Gaza tomorrow
around 8.00pm.

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Here's to hoping that the port will still exist
after another night of non-stop shelling.

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I'll be in touch with them during the entire night.

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Please, someone stop this nightmare.

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Choosing to remain silent means somehow
lends support to the genocide unfolding right now.

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Shout out your indignation,
in every capital of the 'civilised' world...

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in every city, in every square,
covering our own screams of pain and terror.

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A slice of humanity is dying
while pitifully listening out for a response.

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Stay human.

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30th December 2008

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The Angel Factories

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Jabilia, Bet Hanun, Rafah, and Gaza City
are the legs of the journey in my personal map of hell.

00:13:14.092 --> 00:13:22.000
Whatever the press releases
from the summit of the Israeli military may say,

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recited parrot-style all over Europe and the US
via the disinformation experts,

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in the last few days Iíve been an eyewitness
to the bombing of mosques, schools...

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universities, hospitals, markets
and many, many civilian buildings.

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The medical director at Al-Shifa Hospital has confirmed...

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...he received calls from members of the IDF,
the Israeli Army,

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ordering him to evacuate the hospital, or else face being
showered by missiles. But they never let the Army intimidate them.

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I should be sleeping at the port (though we havenít shut
our eyes once in Gaza for at least four days),

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but its being constantly bombed at night.

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You no longer hear the sirens of ambulances in a mad chase,

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simply because there isnít a living soul left
at the port or its environs. Everyone is dead,

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and it feels like treading a cemetery
in the aftermath of an earthquake.

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The situation is really that of an unnatural catastrophe,
a hate-fuelled and cynical upheaval...

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...catapulted onto the people of Gaza like molten lead,
tearing human bodies apart.

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Contrarily to all predictions, it unites all Palestinians,
brought together by their collective endurance of a horrific massacre.

00:15:45.008 --> 00:15:59.076
These are people who may not even
have greeted one another until recently,

00:15:59.076 --> 00:16:09.044
on account of belonging to opposing factions.

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But when the bombs shower down
from the sky from a height of 10,000 metres,

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you can be sure they wonít make a distinction
between a Hamas or Fatah banner hanging from your window.

00:16:34.012 --> 00:16:43.096
Thereís no such thing as a surgically precise military operation.

00:16:43.096 --> 00:16:56.084
When the Air Force and the Navy start bombing,
the only surgical operations...

00:16:56.084 --> 00:17:06.084
...are those tackled by the doctors,
unhesitatingly amputating limbs reduced to a pulp,

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even when those arms and legs might have been spared.

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Thereís no time, you have to run,
and the time you use to treat a seriously injured limb...

00:17:28.024 --> 00:17:38.044
...may spell death for the next wounded patient
in line awaiting a transfusion, or worse.

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At Al-Shifa Hospital, 600 inpatients are in very serious condition,
with only 29 breathing machines available.

00:17:55.012 --> 00:18:03.024
Theyíre short of everything, especially experienced staff.

00:18:03.024 --> 00:18:11.048
For this precise reason, exhausted as we were
(not so much by the sleepless nights...

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...as by the apathy and compliance
of Western governments with Israelís crimes),

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we decided that last night was time for one of our
Free Gaza Movement boats to leave the port of Larnaca, Cyprus,

00:18:37.016 --> 00:18:44.044
ferrying over medical staff and three tonnes of medicine.

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I waited for them in vain
ñ they ought to have docked the boat at 8am this morning.

00:18:56.032 --> 00:19:07.096
Instead, they were intercepted
by 11 Israeli war ships at 90 nautical miles from Gaza,

00:19:07.096 --> 00:19:13.008
trying to sink them in full international waters.

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They rammed into them three times,

00:19:19.028 --> 00:19:25.076
provoking an engine failure and a leak in the hull.

00:19:25.076 --> 00:19:32.072
By pure chance the crew and passengers are all still alive,

00:19:32.072 --> 00:19:41.068
and have managed to dock the boat
at the port of Tiro, in southern Lebanon.

00:19:41.068 --> 00:19:51.024
Feeling increasingly frustrated
by the ëcivilizedí worldís deafening silence,

00:19:51.024 --> 00:19:58.006
my companions will make a second attempt soon.

00:19:58.006 --> 00:20:06.036
Theyíve in fact unloaded the medicine
from our damaged boat, the Dignity,

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and filled another boat ready for departure,
heading straight for Gaza.

00:20:17.016 --> 00:20:31.076
Many journalists who interview me ask me
about the humanitarian situation of Palestinians in Gaza,

00:20:31.076 --> 00:20:40.048
as if the problem amounted just to food,
water, electricity and fuel shortages,

00:20:40.048 --> 00:21:04.044
rather than the matter being
about who is actually causing all of this...

00:21:04.044 --> 00:21:10.028
At the Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia
Iíve seen corpses and wounded bodies flooding...

00:21:10.028 --> 00:21:25.032
...in not only in ambulances,
but on animal-drawn wooden carts.

00:21:25.032 --> 00:21:37.068
Tanks, fighter planes, drones, Apache helicopters
ñ the worldís fiercest army...

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...attacking a people who use donkeys
as their main means of transportation, like in Jesus Christís time.

00:21:54.008 --> 00:22:02.064
According to Al-Mizan,
a human rights monitoring centre,

00:22:02.064 --> 00:22:10.002
while we speak 55 children have been caught in bombings,

00:22:10.002 --> 00:22:16.004
20 are dying and 40 are seriously injured.

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Israel has turned the Palestinian hospitals
and morgues into angel factories,

00:22:26.008 --> 00:22:37.006
not realizing just how much hatred
they are generating in Palestine and the rest of the world.

00:22:37.006 --> 00:22:47.004
The angel factories are churning out angels at the rate
of a non-stop production line tonight as well:

00:22:47.004 --> 00:22:59.008
I can tell from the rumbles of explosions outside my window.

00:22:59.008 --> 00:23:13.002
Those tiny dismembered and amputated bodies,
those lives snuffed out before they had a chance to blossom,

00:23:13.002 --> 00:23:23.000
will be a recurrent nightmare for the rest of my life.

00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:29.006
If I can still find the strength to talk about this,

00:23:29.006 --> 00:23:49.004
itís only because I want to bring justice to those who
no longer have a voice, those whoíve never had a hint of a voice,

00:23:49.004 --> 00:23:56.052
perhaps for the benefit of those whoíve never had ears.

00:23:56.052 --> 00:24:41.096
Stay human.

00:24:41.096 --> 00:24:44.016
1st January 2009

00:24:44.016 --> 00:24:46.008
The Unnatural Catastrophe

00:24:46.008 --> 00:24:52.028
The New Year just came in with the same omens of bleakness
and death as the old one, increasing its destructive power tenfold.

00:24:52.028 --> 00:24:55.044
Iíve never seen so many bombs
drop all around my apartment in front of the port.

00:24:55.044 --> 00:25:00.068
An explosion just 100 metres away
violently shook our seven-storey building,

00:25:00.068 --> 00:25:03.088
making it rock like a crazed pendulum.

00:25:03.088 --> 00:25:08.092
For an instant, while the window panes exploded,
we dreaded it would topple over.

00:25:08.092 --> 00:25:15.016
It was a major moment of panic in which I prayed
and clung to the unlikely illusion that our building had been built...

00:25:15.016 --> 00:25:17.064
...using earthquake-proof criteria,

00:25:17.064 --> 00:25:21.016
even though Gaza is perched upon a strip
of land that never quakes.

00:25:21.016 --> 00:25:25.012
Around here earthquakes are of the unnatural kind,
and theyíre called Israel.

00:25:25.012 --> 00:25:30.024
I continue with my desperate search
for those friends who no longer pick up their phone.

00:25:30.024 --> 00:25:33.000
I heard from Ahmed at his place,

00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:38.048
one of the few houses still standing
in the centre of the Tal El-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza city,

00:25:38.048 --> 00:25:39.068
now surrounded...

00:25:39.068 --> 00:25:44.088
...by a post-apocalyptic scenario
so reminiscent of the Shiite neighbourhood in Beirut...

00:25:44.088 --> 00:25:48.012
...after the bombs razed it to the ground in 2006,

00:25:48.012 --> 00:25:52.096
those bombs having been produced in the same part
of the world as those falling on our heads right now.

00:25:52.096 --> 00:25:54.064
Ahmed is OK...

00:25:54.064 --> 00:25:56.008
...and so are his relatives,

00:25:56.008 --> 00:25:59.044
though his mother had a brush with death last Saturday.

00:25:59.044 --> 00:26:03.012
She teaches at the United Nationsí Balqees School.

00:26:03.012 --> 00:26:06.088
On that day sheíd stayed on in the classroom
for a little longer than usual,

00:26:06.088 --> 00:26:08.084
which ended up saving her life.

00:26:08.084 --> 00:26:10.056
Many of her students,
standing at the bus stop,

00:26:10.056 --> 00:26:17.068
were buried by the rubble produced after an explosion.

00:26:17.068 --> 00:26:20.076
A bomb fell onto Ahmedís car,

00:26:20.076 --> 00:26:22.092
a pistachio-green economy car,

00:26:22.092 --> 00:26:27.008
the very same with which he roamed the city
the previous evening, in search of some bread...

00:26:27.008 --> 00:26:31.004
...in a city where flour is being sold at the price of gold.

00:26:31.004 --> 00:26:34.052
As for Rafiq, in the end I reached him on the phone.

00:26:34.052 --> 00:26:37.092
His cavernous voice
seemed to rise up from a deep well,

00:26:37.092 --> 00:26:40.064
a pit of desperation and sadness...

00:26:40.064 --> 00:26:47.008
...from having just heard of the death
of three best friends during the attack at the port.

00:26:47.008 --> 00:26:50.006
In one of the last cafÈs still operating in Gaza,

00:26:50.006 --> 00:26:54.028
providing caffeine and an internet connection,

00:26:54.028 --> 00:26:58.088
smiling wryly I showed a couple of friends
an article of news from my laptop...

00:26:58.088 --> 00:27:02.048
...speaking of "one victim and 382 wounded".

00:27:02.048 --> 00:27:07.092
This wasnít an estimate of the victims provoked
by the Qassam "rockets" shot against Israel yesterday,

00:27:07.092 --> 00:27:10.008
thankfully harming no one,

00:27:10.008 --> 00:27:15.016
but the aftermath of the "massacre" our New Yearís
Eve firework displays had provoked in Italy.

00:27:15.016 --> 00:27:18.072
I told my friends that Hamas are wet behind the ears...

00:27:18.072 --> 00:27:22.076
...if they think they can compete with Israel
using those homemade toys of theirs.

00:27:22.076 --> 00:27:30.076
They ought to take lessons in Naples
to produce truly lethal rockets.

00:27:30.076 --> 00:27:36.036
As a pacifist and non-violent person,
I abhor any form of Palestinian attack against Israel,

00:27:36.036 --> 00:27:39.048
but out here weíre sick
to the back teeth of hearing that tired old adage...

00:27:39.048 --> 00:27:42.044
...that this massacre of civilians...

00:27:42.044 --> 00:27:47.028
...was Israelís answer to the Palestinians launching
their modest, homemade "rockets".

00:27:47.028 --> 00:27:50.088
For precisionís sake, from 2002 to the present-day...

00:27:50.088 --> 00:27:54.036
...the Qassam rockets against Israel
have produced 18 dead,

00:27:54.036 --> 00:27:57.028
while only last Saturday, in just a couple of hours,

00:27:57.028 --> 00:28:03.032
we counted more than 250 civilian casualties in the hospitals.

00:28:03.032 --> 00:28:09.012
At the cafÈ I enquire about the ceasefire
proposed by the European Union and rejected by Israel,

00:28:09.012 --> 00:28:15.028
clearly still in possession of the vast supplies of war equipment
it needs to use up from its arsenals.

00:28:15.028 --> 00:28:17.096
They all shake their heads grimly.

00:28:17.096 --> 00:28:19.072
Had there ever really been a truce...

00:28:19.072 --> 00:28:23.084
...before this fierce attack
upon an unarmed population commenced?

00:28:23.084 --> 00:28:28.088
In November alone,
the Israeli Army killed a good 17 Palestinians

00:28:28.088 --> 00:28:32.044
43 in total from the start of the "ceasefire".

00:28:32.044 --> 00:28:36.028
And even before that, the criminal siege of Gaza...

00:28:36.028 --> 00:28:40.008
...had produced more than 200 dead
among the Palestinian sick.

00:28:40.008 --> 00:28:45.096
Sick, with their papers in order,
and waiting to find treatment in foreign hospitals,

00:28:45.096 --> 00:28:50.004
but prevented from getting anywhere
with the borders being sealed off.

00:28:50.004 --> 00:28:54.036
The criminal siege of Israel
has destroyed an already shaky economy,

00:28:54.036 --> 00:28:57.036
producing a rate of more than 60% unemployed,

00:28:57.036 --> 00:29:02.068
forcing 80% of Palestinian families
to live off humanitarian aid.

00:29:02.068 --> 00:29:08.036
This is aid trickling through with huge difficulty,
crossing the iron curtain erected by Israel...

00:29:08.036 --> 00:29:14.064
...around the largest
open-air prison in the world: Gaza.

00:29:14.064 --> 00:29:17.092
We were soon forced to evacuate that cafÈ, and fast.

00:29:17.092 --> 00:29:24.000
The umpteenth threatening phone call had come in:
the cafÈ would be bombed within a few minutes.

00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:27.006
Yesterday at the Jabilia refugee camp...

00:29:27.006 --> 00:29:32.008
...an F16 plane
dropped some missiles onto an ambulance.

00:29:32.008 --> 00:29:36.008
A doctor, Ihab El-Madhoun,

00:29:36.008 --> 00:29:39.088
and his trusted nurse, Mohamed Abu Hasira, both died.

00:29:39.088 --> 00:29:44.064
For this reason, today, we ISM volunteers...

00:29:44.064 --> 00:29:46.096
...have appeared at a press conference...

00:29:46.096 --> 00:29:50.088
...before the cameras
of the most popular Palestinian television stations.

00:29:50.088 --> 00:29:54.036
We informed Israel...

00:29:54.036 --> 00:29:58.032
...that weíll hop on to those ambulances,

00:29:58.032 --> 00:30:03.032
hoping that our presence as internationals
may act as a slight deterrent...

00:30:03.032 --> 00:30:06.096
...against these inhumane and bloody crimes.

00:30:06.096 --> 00:30:12.024
Sometimes, our conversations get pretty bleak:

00:30:12.024 --> 00:30:15.032
itís likely that at the end of this massive,
blood-curdling attack,

00:30:15.032 --> 00:30:21.036
some of us will have to go out there and do a final count
of the dramatic toll of the dead and missing.

00:30:21.036 --> 00:30:25.032
We try not to think about it for now.

00:30:25.032 --> 00:30:58.012
Stay human.

00:30:58.012 --> 00:31:00.036
3rd January 2009

00:31:00.036 --> 00:31:03.012
Ghosts demanding Justice

00:31:03.012 --> 00:31:06.072
While I type this,
Israeli tanks have just entered the Strip.

00:31:06.072 --> 00:31:10.024
The day has begun the same way
as the previous one ended,

00:31:10.024 --> 00:31:13.008
with the earth shaking beneath our feet,

00:31:13.008 --> 00:31:16.056
the sky and sea conniving endlessly
against us overhead,

00:31:16.056 --> 00:31:19.006
hanging over the destinies
of a million-and-a-half people...

00:31:19.006 --> 00:31:22.044
whoíve gone from the tragedy
of living under siege to the catastrophe...

00:31:22.044 --> 00:31:26.044
...of a targeted attack on civilians.

00:31:26.044 --> 00:31:29.008
My horizon is devastated by the flames,

00:31:29.008 --> 00:31:36.048
and thereíve been cannon shots rumbling from the sea
and bombs raining from the sky all morning.

00:31:36.048 --> 00:31:40.088
The same fishing boats
we accompanied into the open sea just a few days ago,

00:31:40.088 --> 00:31:45.056
well beyond the six miles imposed by Israel
in their illegal and criminal siege,

00:31:45.056 --> 00:31:48.036
are now reduced to charred wrecks.

00:31:48.036 --> 00:31:52.008
If the fire-fighters tried to put out the fires,

00:31:52.008 --> 00:31:56.008
theyíd instantly become the targets
of the F16ís machine guns,

00:31:56.008 --> 00:31:59.024
this already happened yesterday.

00:31:59.024 --> 00:32:01.072
After yet another attack,

00:32:01.072 --> 00:32:07.024
once the exact estimate of the dead is out,
if this will ever be possible,

00:32:07.024 --> 00:32:11.006
the city will have to be rebuilt over a desert of rubble.

00:32:11.006 --> 00:32:14.088
Israelís Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni,

00:32:14.088 --> 00:32:19.036
is declaring to the world
that "there is no humanitarian emergency in Gaza".

00:32:19.036 --> 00:32:23.032
Clearly, "being in denial" isnít the sole preserve...

00:32:23.032 --> 00:32:28.004
...of figures like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
the Iranian president.

00:32:28.004 --> 00:32:32.048
The Palestinians
are in agreement on one thing with Tzipi Livni,

00:32:32.048 --> 00:32:38.002
as Joseph, an ambulance driver,
who calls her "an ex-serial killer with the Mossad", tells me:

00:32:38.002 --> 00:32:41.012
more food is indeed coming in through the borders,

00:32:41.012 --> 00:32:44.032
simply because in December,

00:32:44.032 --> 00:32:47.068
next to nothing had managed to make it
across the barbed wire fence stretched out by Israel.

00:32:47.068 --> 00:32:53.024
But what point is there
in serving freshly baked bread in a cemetery?

00:32:53.024 --> 00:32:57.004
The first priority ought
to be stopping the bombing immediately,

00:32:57.004 --> 00:33:01.016
well before bringing any supplies to the survivors.

00:33:01.016 --> 00:33:03.000
Corpses donít eat;

00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:05.004
they can only provide compost for the earth,

00:33:05.004 --> 00:33:11.004
and, at the moment,
Gaza has never been more fertile from decomposition.

00:33:11.004 --> 00:33:15.006
On the other hand,
the disembowelled bodies of the children in the morgues...

00:33:15.006 --> 00:33:19.068
...ought to increase the sense of guilt
in the indifferent lookers-on,

00:33:19.068 --> 00:33:22.004
those who could have done something.

00:33:22.004 --> 00:33:27.008
The images of a smiling Barack Obama,
the US President, playing golf...

00:33:27.008 --> 00:33:30.096
...were shown on all the Arabic satellite TV stations,

00:33:30.096 --> 00:33:34.056
as if to scorn the shroud of mourning covering this land,

00:33:34.056 --> 00:33:38.068
and, as it happens, out here no one
is under any illusion that the colour of oneís skin...

00:33:38.068 --> 00:33:43.096
...will do wonders
to change Americaís foreign policy radically.

00:33:43.096 --> 00:33:47.012
Yesterday, Israel opened the Erez Pass...

00:33:47.012 --> 00:33:51.012
...to evacuate all foreigners
who are still currently in Gaza.

00:33:51.012 --> 00:33:53.028
We internationals of the ISM...

00:33:53.028 --> 00:33:55.088
...are the only ones to have remained.

00:33:55.088 --> 00:34:00.024
Today we addressed the Israeli government
by means of a press conference,

00:34:00.024 --> 00:34:04.048
explaining the motives that commit us to staying put.

00:34:04.048 --> 00:34:09.028
Weíre disgusted by the passes being opened
for the evacuation of foreigners,

00:34:09.028 --> 00:34:12.064
the only possible eyewitnesses to this massacre,

00:34:12.064 --> 00:34:15.002
while they are being kept well shut...

00:34:15.002 --> 00:34:18.024
...to the flow of international doctors and nurses...

00:34:18.024 --> 00:34:24.064
...pressing to get in
and bring their heroic Palestinian colleagues some relief.

00:34:24.064 --> 00:34:26.016
Weíre not going anywhere

00:34:26.016 --> 00:34:28.006
because we believe that our presence is essential...

00:34:28.006 --> 00:34:34.008
...to provide eyewitness accounts of the crimes
inflicted against an unarmed civilian population...

00:34:34.008 --> 00:34:37.036
...hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute.

00:34:37.036 --> 00:34:40.044
Weíre now up to 445 dead,

00:34:40.044 --> 00:34:45.024
with over 2,300 wounded and many, many more missing.

00:34:45.024 --> 00:34:50.048
As I write this,
63 minors have been torn apart by bombs.

00:34:50.048 --> 00:34:54.064
At the moment Israel has counted three victims in total.

00:34:54.064 --> 00:34:56.024
We havenít fled,

00:34:56.024 --> 00:34:59.024
as our consulates have advised us to do,

00:34:59.024 --> 00:35:04.068
because weíre well aware that our contribution
as human shields on the ambulances in giving first aid...

00:35:04.068 --> 00:35:08.092
...could be decisive in saving lives.

00:35:08.092 --> 00:35:14.016
Once again yesterday, an ambulance was hit in Gaza City.

00:35:14.016 --> 00:35:17.032
On the previous day
two doctors at the Jabalia refugee camp...

00:35:17.032 --> 00:35:21.096
...had died when they were hit by a missile shot
from an Apache helicopter.

00:35:21.096 --> 00:35:24.056
Personally, Iím not budging from here...

00:35:24.056 --> 00:35:27.008
...because my friends
have implored me not to abandon them,

00:35:27.008 --> 00:35:30.088
my surviving friends, as well as the dead ones,

00:35:30.088 --> 00:35:33.008
who crowd my sleepless nights like ghosts.

00:35:33.008 --> 00:35:37.048
Their diaphanous faces are still smiling at me.

00:35:37.048 --> 00:35:39.032
7.33pm,

00:35:39.032 --> 00:35:42.004
Red Crescent Hospital in Jabalia.

00:35:42.004 --> 00:35:46.004
While I was connected via phone
to the demonstrating crowds in Milan,

00:35:46.004 --> 00:35:49.000
two bombs fell in front of the hospital.

00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:50.096
The front windows were shattered,

00:35:50.096 --> 00:35:55.056
and, by pure chance, the ambulances were not damaged.

00:35:55.056 --> 00:36:00.012
The shelling has become more frequent
and powerful in the last few hours.

00:36:00.012 --> 00:36:03.092
Nearby, Ibrahim Maqadme Mosque...

00:36:03.092 --> 00:36:06.068
...has just crumbled under the bombs:

00:36:06.068 --> 00:36:08.006
itís the tenth in a week.

00:36:08.006 --> 00:36:12.012
Eleven victims for now, and about 50 wounded.

00:36:12.012 --> 00:36:15.092
An elderly Palestinian lady
I met in the street this afternoon...

00:36:15.092 --> 00:36:21.008
...asked me whether Israel thought it was still
in the Middle Ages rather than in 2009,

00:36:21.008 --> 00:36:26.008
considering the way it continues
to hit mosques with such precision.

00:36:26.008 --> 00:36:33.076
Itís as if it is concentrating on a personal holy war
against all the Muslim places of worship in Gaza.

00:36:33.076 --> 00:36:38.084
Yet another downpour of bombs hit Jabalia,
and then the tanks came in.

00:36:38.084 --> 00:36:43.024
They, which had tormented the borders by day
with their creaking,

00:36:43.024 --> 00:36:49.048
are now entering north-west Gaza
and razing the houses, metre by metre.

00:36:49.048 --> 00:36:55.032
Theyíre burying the past and the future,
whole families and an entire population,

00:36:55.032 --> 00:36:58.052
illegitimately dismissed from its own land,

00:36:58.052 --> 00:37:04.036
a people who havenít found any form of shelter
except for huts in refugee camps.

00:37:04.036 --> 00:37:11.012
We rushed out here to Jabalia after another terrible menace
showered down from the sky last Friday evening.

00:37:11.012 --> 00:37:13.092
Hundreds of leaflets were thrown out of the planes...

00:37:13.092 --> 00:37:17.016
...ordered the general evacuation of the refugee camp.

00:37:17.016 --> 00:37:20.044
This threat has unfortunately materialized.

00:37:20.044 --> 00:37:25.048
The most fortunate have managed to escape instantly,
taking a few possessions with them,

00:37:25.048 --> 00:37:27.008
a TV, a DVD player,

00:37:27.008 --> 00:37:33.016
and a few pieces of memorabilia
from the life that once existed in Palestine,

00:37:33.016 --> 00:37:36.002
a land lost about 60 years ago.

00:37:36.002 --> 00:37:39.036
The vast majority havenít found anywhere to go.

00:37:39.036 --> 00:37:43.016
They will face those tanks hankering after their lives...

00:37:43.016 --> 00:37:45.084
...with the only weapon the Palestinians have left,

00:37:45.084 --> 00:37:49.036
the dignity of dying with their heads held up high.

00:37:49.036 --> 00:37:54.002
My companions and I
are aware of the enormous risk weíre coming up against...

00:37:54.002 --> 00:37:57.084
...tonight more than any other.

00:37:57.084 --> 00:38:01.064
But weíre more at ease in the midst of this Gazan hell...

00:38:01.064 --> 00:38:05.008
...than relaxing in a metropolitan heaven
in Europe or America,

00:38:05.008 --> 00:38:08.024
where people celebrating the New Year...

00:38:08.024 --> 00:38:11.092
...and arenít really aware of just how complicit they are...

00:38:11.092 --> 00:38:16.028
...with the butchering of all these innocent civilians.

00:38:16.028 --> 00:38:51.004
Stay human.

00:38:51.004 --> 00:38:55.000
5th January 2009

00:38:55.000 --> 00:39:03.032
Doctors with Wings: Arafa Abed Al-Dayem R.I.P.

00:39:03.032 --> 00:39:09.084
"To the innocent people of Gaza,
our war is not against you but against Hamas.

00:39:09.084 --> 00:39:16.004
If they donít stop shooting rockets against us,
youíll be in danger."

00:39:16.004 --> 00:39:24.044
Itís the transcription of a recording you can hear
when answering the phone in Gaza just now.

00:39:24.044 --> 00:39:28.008
The Israeli Army is under the illusion that

00:39:28.008 --> 00:39:31.006
the Palestinians have no eyes or ears.

00:39:31.006 --> 00:39:38.008
No eyes to see that the bombs
are hitting civilian targets almost exclusively,

00:39:38.008 --> 00:39:40.068
such as mosques

00:39:40.068 --> 00:39:47.056
(15, the last being
the Omar Bin Abd Al-Azeez in Beit Hanoun),

00:39:47.056 --> 00:39:53.076
schools, universities, markets and hospitals.

00:39:53.076 --> 00:39:59.024
No ears to hear the cries of pain
and terror of the children,

00:39:59.024 --> 00:40:01.036
innocent victims...

00:40:01.036 --> 00:40:07.024
...and yet, at the same time,
the pre-determined targets of each one of these bombings.

00:40:07.024 --> 00:40:11.016
According to hospital records, as Iím writing,

00:40:11.016 --> 00:40:15.036
120 minors were struck by the bombs,

00:40:15.036 --> 00:40:19.052
548 being the total death toll so far,

00:40:19.052 --> 00:40:26.000
in addition to 2,700 wounded and many,
many more missing.

00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:33.008
Two days ago, night time never came
to the Red Crescent Hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp.

00:40:33.008 --> 00:40:39.006
Apache helicopters hovering constantly overhead
shower us with luminescent devices,

00:40:39.006 --> 00:40:43.036
to the point that we could no longer
tell the difference between day and night.

00:40:43.036 --> 00:40:48.088
The repeated cannon fire from a tank
positioned less than a kilometre from the hospital...

00:40:48.088 --> 00:40:52.032
...seriously cracked open the buildingís walls,

00:40:52.032 --> 00:40:58.056
but it managed to stand more
or less intact until morning.

00:40:58.056 --> 00:41:03.012
Around 10 white phosphorous bombs
were dropped on the neighbouring field,

00:41:03.012 --> 00:41:07.024
with machine gun fire exploding all around.

00:41:07.024 --> 00:41:13.002
To the doctors of the Red Crescent Hospital,
this was clearly a message from the Israeli Army

00:41:13.002 --> 00:41:16.044
ordering an immediate evacuation

00:41:16.044 --> 00:41:18.072
(or face destruction).

00:41:18.072 --> 00:41:21.056
We moved the wounded into other hospitals,

00:41:21.056 --> 00:41:26.096
and the operative ambulance base
is now on Al-Nady Street.

00:41:26.096 --> 00:41:31.016
The medical staff
sits on the sidewalk waiting for the calls...

00:41:31.016 --> 00:41:34.024
...that follow one after the other, frantically.

00:41:34.024 --> 00:41:37.004
For the first time since the Israeli attack started,

00:41:37.004 --> 00:41:41.052
Iíve actually seen corpses of members
of the Palestinian Resistance.

00:41:41.052 --> 00:41:45.072
A handful of individuals,
next to the hundreds of civilian victims,

00:41:45.072 --> 00:41:52.036
the numbers of whom
have risen exponentially since the land attacks started.

00:41:52.036 --> 00:41:54.096
Following the shooting at Jabalia Mosque,

00:41:54.096 --> 00:41:59.012
which left 11 dead and about 50 wounded
and all of which took place while the tanks were coming in,

00:41:59.012 --> 00:42:04.088
for the whole of Saturday on board the ambulances...

00:42:04.088 --> 00:42:11.088
...we realized just how terrifyingly
powerful the howitzers shot by the Israeli tanks were,

00:42:11.088 --> 00:42:16.024
as if destructive power
had been lacking in the previous few days.

00:42:16.024 --> 00:42:17.088
At Beit Hanoun,

00:42:17.088 --> 00:42:21.008
a family huddled
in front of a wood stove in their house,

00:42:21.008 --> 00:42:24.056
was struck by one such killer cannon shot.

00:42:24.056 --> 00:42:27.032
We carried 15 wounded away,

00:42:27.032 --> 00:42:30.032
four of whom were in a hopeless condition.

00:42:30.032 --> 00:42:31.084
Later,

00:42:31.084 --> 00:42:34.044
towards 3.30am,

00:42:34.044 --> 00:42:36.048
we replied to an emergency call,

00:42:36.048 --> 00:42:38.092
but we ended up being too late.

00:42:38.092 --> 00:42:42.008
Standing by their front door,
three women in tears...

00:42:42.008 --> 00:42:46.008
...handed us a four-year-old girl
wrapped in a white sheet,

00:42:46.008 --> 00:42:49.084
shroud, she was stone cold by then.

00:42:49.084 --> 00:42:54.008
Another family was hit in full,
this time by the Air Force in Jabalia,

00:42:54.008 --> 00:42:58.002
with two adults injured by shrapnel.

00:42:58.002 --> 00:43:01.068
Their two children were only slightly hurt,

00:43:01.068 --> 00:43:06.000
but from their screaming it was obvious
they were suffering from psychological trauma,

00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:10.032
something they would carry with them
for the rest of their lives,

00:43:10.032 --> 00:43:14.024
an injury much deeper than a cut on the cheek.

00:43:14.024 --> 00:43:16.084
Even though no one ever remembers to mention them,

00:43:16.084 --> 00:43:20.088
there are thousands of children
suffering from serious mental illnesses

00:43:20.088 --> 00:43:25.006
caused by the terror of constant bombing,

00:43:25.006 --> 00:43:33.048
or, worse, by the sight of their parents
or siblings being torn apart by the explosions.

00:43:33.048 --> 00:43:39.008
The crimes that Israel
is staining its bloodied hands with in these hours...

00:43:39.008 --> 00:43:42.096
...go well beyond the boundaries of what can be imagined.

00:43:42.096 --> 00:43:46.036
The soldiers actually prevent us
from running to the aid of the survivors...

00:43:46.036 --> 00:43:48.016
...in this immense unnatural catastrophe.

00:43:48.016 --> 00:43:54.064
When the wounded are close to the armoured vehicles
they were just attacked by,

00:43:54.064 --> 00:44:01.088
we, in our Red Crescent ambulances,
arenít allowed anywhere near,

00:44:01.088 --> 00:44:06.096
as the soldiers take pot shots at us.

00:44:06.096 --> 00:44:10.096
Before we can hope to run in aid of any human lives,

00:44:10.096 --> 00:44:17.004
we need to be escorted
by at least one Red Cross ambulance,

00:44:17.004 --> 00:44:21.096
thanks to an agreement
of the latter with the Israeli Armyís senior command.

00:44:21.096 --> 00:44:25.032
Just try and imagine
how long such proceedings would take

00:44:25.032 --> 00:44:27.076
a death sentence...

00:44:27.076 --> 00:44:31.036
...for all those awaiting transfusions or urgent care.

00:44:31.036 --> 00:44:38.036
This is even truer considering
the Red Cross has its own wounded to care for,

00:44:38.036 --> 00:44:44.000
leaving them without a chance
of answering our every call.

00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:50.044
We must thus park in a "protected" area,
this term being a euphemism in Gaza,

00:44:50.044 --> 00:44:58.006
and wait for people to bring us their languishing relatives,
often carrying them on foot.

00:44:58.006 --> 00:45:01.064
Thatís what happened around 5.30 this morning.

00:45:01.064 --> 00:45:05.084
We stopped the ambulance with the engine on,
in the middle of a crossing,

00:45:05.084 --> 00:45:11.036
communicating our whereabouts via phone
to the relatives of some patients on their way.

00:45:11.036 --> 00:45:13.092
After 10 unnerving minutes,

00:45:13.092 --> 00:45:17.032
when weíd already decided to evacuate the area...

00:45:17.032 --> 00:45:20.092
...in response to another call,
we noticed them as they turned the corner,

00:45:20.092 --> 00:45:26.096
advancing towards us slowly,
a mule-drawn cart carrying some people.

00:45:26.096 --> 00:45:29.096
It turned out to be a couple and their two children.

00:45:29.096 --> 00:45:34.076
The best possible illustration of this non-war.
This isnít really a war.

00:45:34.076 --> 00:45:37.008
There arenít two armies battling it out on one front,

00:45:37.008 --> 00:45:42.028
but a people enduring a siege by an Air Force, a Navy,

00:45:42.028 --> 00:45:47.004
and what is now
one of the worldís most powerful infantries,

00:45:47.004 --> 00:45:52.072
certainly the most technologically advanced
when it comes to military equipment.

00:45:52.072 --> 00:45:56.012
Here they are, attacking a miserable strip of land,

00:45:56.012 --> 00:45:59.032
just 360 square kilometres,

00:45:59.032 --> 00:46:04.076
a place where its inhabitants
still use mules to move around,

00:46:04.076 --> 00:46:12.088
with a hotchpotch resistance
whose only real strength is their readiness for martyrdom.

00:46:12.088 --> 00:46:17.036
When that mule-drawn cart got close enough,

00:46:17.036 --> 00:46:22.008
approached them and beheld its macabre cargo with horror.

00:46:22.008 --> 00:46:25.076
A child was lying with his skull cracked open,

00:46:25.076 --> 00:46:29.028
his eyeballs literally hanging out of their sockets,

00:46:29.028 --> 00:46:35.004
swaying onto his face like those at the end of a crabís stalks.
When we picked him up, he was still breathing.

00:46:35.004 --> 00:46:39.002
His little brother had a disembowelled chest,

00:46:39.002 --> 00:46:44.064
and you could distinctly count
his white ribs through the tatters of his torn flesh.

00:46:44.064 --> 00:46:48.044
Their mother pressed her hands
on to that eviscerated chest,

00:46:48.044 --> 00:46:52.048
as if trying to fix what the fruit of her love
had managed to create,

00:46:52.048 --> 00:46:56.000
and which the anonymous hatred of a soldier,
obeying orders,

00:46:56.000 --> 00:46:58.076
had now forever destroyed.

00:46:58.076 --> 00:47:03.028
Yet another crime I want to report,

00:47:03.028 --> 00:47:05.006
and our umpteenth personal mourning.

00:47:05.006 --> 00:47:10.002
The Israeli Army continues to target the ambulances.

00:47:10.002 --> 00:47:14.036
After the butchering
of the doctor and nurse in Jabalia four days ago,

00:47:14.036 --> 00:47:21.088
odayís new victim was a friend of ours:
35-year-old Arafa Abed Al-Dayem,

00:47:21.088 --> 00:47:23.092
a father of four.

00:47:23.092 --> 00:47:29.006
Around 8.30 yesterday morning,
we received a call from Gaza City.

00:47:29.006 --> 00:47:33.044
Two civilians had been struck down
by a tankís machine-gun fire.

00:47:33.044 --> 00:47:39.044
One of our Red Crescent ambulances
rushed to their aid.

00:47:39.044 --> 00:47:43.024
Arafa and one of the nurses
were loading the two wounded onto the ambulance...

00:47:43.024 --> 00:47:45.048
...and, while shutting the ambulance doors,

00:47:45.048 --> 00:47:48.006
they were hit by a howitzer from a tank.

00:47:48.006 --> 00:47:54.008
The shot decapitated one of the wounded
and also killed our friend.

00:47:54.008 --> 00:47:58.088
Nader, the nurse accompanying them,
managed to survive...

00:47:58.088 --> 00:48:02.056
...although he is now a patient
in the same hospital that he works in.

00:48:02.056 --> 00:48:08.084
Arafa, an elementary school teacher,
was a voluntary paramedic in emergencies.

00:48:08.084 --> 00:48:15.008
We were being showered with bombs and, yet,
hadnít had the heart to call Arafa in such a high-risk situation.

00:48:15.008 --> 00:48:20.024
He showed up of his own accord, working
with a full awareness of the risks involved,

00:48:20.024 --> 00:48:23.072
convinced as he was that, aside from his family,

00:48:23.072 --> 00:48:27.096
there were other human beings
in need of protection and aid.

00:48:27.096 --> 00:48:30.012
We miss his jokes,

00:48:30.012 --> 00:48:34.002
his irresistible and contagious sense of humour,

00:48:34.002 --> 00:48:38.024
and a balm for the soul in our bleakest moments.

00:48:38.024 --> 00:48:41.008
Someone has to stop this massacre.

00:48:41.008 --> 00:48:44.068
In the last few days
Iíve seen things, heard uproars...

00:48:44.068 --> 00:48:50.072
...and smelt pestilential miasmas
that Iíll never have the courage to talk about,

00:48:50.072 --> 00:48:56.024
if I should ever have children of my own.

00:48:56.024 --> 00:48:59.016
Is there anyone out there?

00:48:59.016 --> 00:49:05.092
The desolation of feeling isolated and abandoned is equivalent
to a view of a Gaza neighbourhood after a heavy air raid campaign.

00:49:05.092 --> 00:49:07.028
Saturday evening,

00:49:07.028 --> 00:49:11.052
I was connected via phone
to the protesting crowds in Milan,

00:49:11.052 --> 00:49:17.008
and I handed my cell phone over to the heroic doctors
and nurses Iím working with at the moment.

00:49:17.008 --> 00:49:21.004
They looked reassured for a few moments.

00:49:21.004 --> 00:49:25.008
Demonstrations the world
over are a sign that you can still believe in someone,

00:49:25.008 --> 00:49:32.068
but these demonstrations are still not large enough
to exercise the necessary pressure on Western governments,

00:49:32.068 --> 00:49:35.064
which should be forcing Israel into a corner,

00:49:35.064 --> 00:49:44.036
making it take responsibility
for its war crimes and crimes against humanity.

00:49:44.036 --> 00:49:50.032
Many terrified pregnant women
are prematurely giving birth right now.

00:49:50.032 --> 00:49:55.068
I was personally present with three of them
as they were rushed to the delivery room.

00:49:55.068 --> 00:49:59.052
One of these, Samira, seven months pregnant,

00:49:59.052 --> 00:50:03.012
gave birth to a beautiful, tiny baby called Ahmed.

00:50:03.012 --> 00:50:06.084
Rushing to the Al-Auda Hospital
on board the ambulance with her...

00:50:06.084 --> 00:50:11.006
...and leaving behind in our rear-view mirrors
the scenarios of death and destruction

00:50:11.006 --> 00:50:16.006
(the places where just a moment before
weíd been picking up corpses)

00:50:16.006 --> 00:50:21.008
I thought for a moment that this new life,
on the point of blossoming,

00:50:21.008 --> 00:50:24.008
could be a harbinger for future hope and peace.

00:50:24.008 --> 00:50:28.036
But the illusion melted away with the first rocket...

00:50:28.036 --> 00:50:32.088
...falling by the side of our ambulance
from the centre of Jabalia.

00:50:32.088 --> 00:50:36.002
These brave mothers sadly give birth to creatures...

00:50:36.002 --> 00:50:41.004
...who take in nothing
but the military green of tanks and jeeps...

00:50:41.004 --> 00:50:45.076
...or the blinking flashes that precede an explosion.

00:50:45.076 --> 00:50:51.076
What kind of adults will they grow up to be?

00:50:51.076 --> 00:51:34.088
Stay human.

00:51:34.088 --> 00:51:38.000
6th january 2009

00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:40.064
Al-Nakba

00:51:40.064 --> 00:51:44.008
They parade in fear, their eyes turned upwards,

00:51:44.008 --> 00:51:49.016
surrendering to the sky which keeps raining terror
and death down upon them,

00:51:49.016 --> 00:51:51.096
and fearing the earth that keeps shaking
under them with every step they take,

00:51:51.096 --> 00:51:56.006
craters opening up where there were once houses,

00:51:56.006 --> 00:52:02.064
schools, universities, markets and hospitals.

00:52:02.064 --> 00:52:07.012
I've seen caravans of desperate Palestinians...

00:52:07.012 --> 00:52:13.006
...evacuate Jabalia, Beit Hanoun
and all the refugee camps in Gaza,

00:52:13.006 --> 00:52:20.084
crowding the United Nations' schools
like earthquake survivors,

00:52:20.084 --> 00:52:23.052
like the victims of a tsunami...

00:52:23.052 --> 00:52:30.044
...eating into the Gaza Strip
and its civilian population,

00:52:30.044 --> 00:52:37.004
without pity or compliance with human rights
and the Geneva Conventions.

00:52:37.004 --> 00:52:48.004
Most of all, without a single Western government
lifting a finger to stop this massacre,

00:52:48.004 --> 00:52:57.008
or sending medical staff out here, or stopping the genocide
that Israel is smearing its hands with in these hours.

00:52:57.008 --> 00:53:06.016
The indiscriminate attacks against
the hospitals and their medical staff continue.

00:53:06.016 --> 00:53:12.096
Yesterday, after having left the Al-Auda Hospital in Jabalia,
I received a call from Alberto,

00:53:12.096 --> 00:53:16.044
a Spanish colleague with the ISM.

00:53:16.044 --> 00:53:20.004
A bomb had been dropped there

00:53:20.004 --> 00:53:25.006
and Abu Mohammed, a nurse,
had been seriously injured to his head.

00:53:25.006 --> 00:53:34.068
Just moments before, in front of a cafÈ,

00:53:34.068 --> 00:53:39.036
I'd been listening to the stories of the heroic deeds
of the communist Abu Mohammed's heroes...

00:53:39.036 --> 00:53:50.032
...the leaders of the Popular Front:
George Habbash, Abu Ali Mustafa and Ahmad Al-Sadat.

00:53:50.032 --> 00:53:54.088
His eyes lit up when I told him...

00:53:54.088 --> 00:54:04.008
...that the first understanding of Palestine
and its immense tragedy had been passed onto me by my parents,

00:54:04.008 --> 00:54:08.028
both communists through and through.

00:54:08.028 --> 00:54:17.044
He asked me who'd been the truly
revolutionary leaders of the italian left,

00:54:17.044 --> 00:54:23.076
and I'd replied, "Antonio Gramsci".

00:54:23.076 --> 00:54:31.076
As for those of the present-day,
I'd said I'd think it over and tell him the next day.

00:54:31.076 --> 00:54:41.008
But Abu Mohammed now lies in a coma,
in the same hospital where he works.

00:54:41.008 --> 00:54:46.028
He spared himself my disappointing reply.

00:54:46.028 --> 00:54:50.028
Towards midnight I received another call,
from Eva this time.

00:54:50.028 --> 00:54:54.008
The building she was in was under attack.

00:54:54.008 --> 00:55:00.064
I know that building well:
it's in downtown Gaza City.

00:55:00.064 --> 00:55:10.008
I'd once spent the night there along
with some Palestinian photojournalist,

00:55:10.008 --> 00:55:14.006
whose job it is to try
and capture through images and words...

00:55:14.006 --> 00:55:22.000
...something of the unnatural catastrophe
we've been enduring these last 10 days.

00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:29.052
Reuters, Fox News, Russia Today
and many, many other local or foreign agencies

00:55:29.052 --> 00:55:36.004
were under fire from seven rockets shot
by an Israeli helicopter.

00:55:36.004 --> 00:55:43.036
They managed to evacuate everyone in time
before anyone could be seriously injured

00:55:43.036 --> 00:55:50.024
all those cameramen, photographers, reporters,
all Palestinian,

00:55:50.024 --> 00:55:59.004
given that Israel won't allow
any international journalists into Gaza.

00:55:59.004 --> 00:56:04.008
There are no "strategic" targets
around that building,

00:56:04.008 --> 00:56:12.064
nor a resistance fighting off
the deadly armoured Israeli vehicles,

00:56:12.064 --> 00:56:17.048
currently located only a long way away
towards the north.

00:56:17.048 --> 00:56:26.076
Clearly, someone in Tel Aviv cannot bear
the images of the massacres of civilians...

00:56:26.076 --> 00:56:36.008
...clashing with those briefings the Israeli officers provide,
while offering mercenary journalists their aperitifs.

00:56:36.008 --> 00:56:41.002
These press conferences
are persuading the world...

00:56:41.002 --> 00:56:47.076
...that the bombing targets
are solely targeting Hamas terrorists,

00:56:47.076 --> 00:56:58.012
not one of those atrociously mutilated children
we pull out of the rubble every day.

00:56:58.012 --> 00:57:02.028
In Zeitoun,
about 10 kilometres from Jabalia,

00:57:02.028 --> 00:57:09.002
a bombed building crumbled over a family,
leaving about 20 dead.

00:57:09.002 --> 00:57:14.092
The ambulances had to wait several hours
before they could reach the spot,

00:57:14.092 --> 00:57:19.048
as the military persist in shooting at us.

00:57:19.048 --> 00:57:24.032
They shoot at ambulances
and bomb hospitals.

00:57:24.032 --> 00:57:29.044
A few days ago, while I was being interviewed
live on a well-known Milanese radio station,

00:57:29.044 --> 00:57:33.044
an Israeli "pacifist"
clearly spelt out to me...

00:57:33.044 --> 00:57:41.002
...that this was a war where both sides
used all the weapons at their disposal.

00:57:41.002 --> 00:57:53.064
I then invited Israel to drop one
of its many atomic bombs upon us,

00:57:53.064 --> 00:57:59.006
those they keep secretly stashed away,
defying all treaties against nuclear proliferation.

00:57:59.006 --> 00:58:04.004
Why not just drop that decisive bomb of theirs

00:58:04.004 --> 00:58:17.024
and put an end to the inhuman agony of thousands of bodies,
lying in tatters in the overcrowded hospital wards that I visit?

00:58:17.024 --> 00:58:24.052
I took some black-and-white photos yesterday,
the caravans of mule-drawn carts,

00:58:24.052 --> 00:58:31.052
overloaded beyond belief with children
waving white drapes pointing skywards,

00:58:31.052 --> 00:58:38.048
their faces pale and terrified.

00:58:38.048 --> 00:58:48.084
Looking through those snaps of fleeing refugees today,
shivers went down my spine.

00:58:48.084 --> 00:58:59.004
If they could only be superimposed with those
portraying the Nakba of 1948, the Palestinian catastrophe,

00:58:59.004 --> 00:59:02.084
they would be the perfect mirror image of them.

00:59:02.084 --> 00:59:09.002
The cowardly passiveness
of self-styled democratic states and governments...

00:59:09.002 --> 00:59:13.004
...are responsible
for a new catastrophe in full swing,

00:59:13.004 --> 00:59:21.012
a new Nakba, a brand new ethnic cleansing
befalling the Palestinian population right now.

00:59:21.012 --> 00:59:29.008
Until a few moments ago we counted 650 dead,
153 murdered children,

00:59:29.008 --> 00:59:35.012
in addition to 3,000 injured,
and innumerable missing.

00:59:35.012 --> 00:59:43.076
The number of civilian deaths in Israel
has thankfully remained at four.

00:59:43.076 --> 00:59:52.028
But after this afternoon the death toll on the Palestinian side
requires an urgent recount,

00:59:52.028 --> 00:59:59.000
ever since the Israeli Army has started attacking
the United Nations schools,

00:59:59.000 --> 01:00:08.008
the very same that had been offering shelter
to the thousands evacuated under threat of an imminent attack.

01:00:08.008 --> 01:00:17.092
They chased them out of the refugee camps, the villages,
only to collect them all in one place,

01:00:17.092 --> 01:00:21.006
an easier target.

01:00:21.006 --> 01:00:31.002
Three schools were attacked today,
the last being at Al-Fakhura, in Jabalia,

01:00:31.002 --> 01:00:36.028
which was hit smack bang in the middle.
Over 40 dead:

01:00:36.028 --> 01:00:41.028
in a heartbeat,
men, women, elderly people and children were wiped away,

01:00:41.028 --> 01:00:51.044
who believed themselves to be safe within those
blue-tinted walls adorned by a United Nations logo.

01:00:51.044 --> 01:00:58.002
The peole sheltered within the other 20 UN schools
are now shaking with fear.

01:00:58.002 --> 01:01:01.064
There's no way out anywhere
in the Gaza Strip.

01:01:01.064 --> 01:01:07.006
This isn't Lebanon, where the civilians in the southern villages
targeted by the Israeli bombs...

01:01:07.006 --> 01:01:13.004
...could flee to the north,
or to Syria or Jordan.

01:01:13.004 --> 01:01:26.012
From being one enormous open-air prison,
the Gaza Strip has become a deadly trap.

01:01:26.012 --> 01:01:28.072
We look at one another in bewilderment...

01:01:28.072 --> 01:01:34.028
...and ask ourselves
whether the UN Security Council will finally...

01:01:34.028 --> 01:01:41.004
...and unanimously condemn...

01:01:41.004 --> 01:01:47.008
...these attacks
after their own schools have been targeted.

01:01:47.008 --> 01:01:52.072
Someone out there has really decided...

01:01:52.072 --> 01:01:57.092
...to turn this place into a desert,
and then call it peace.

01:01:57.092 --> 01:02:07.084
A long night on the ambulances awaits us now, even though the arrival
of down has become nothing but an illusion around here.

01:02:07.084 --> 01:02:17.068
Antenna towers all along the Strip have been destroyed
and we've stopped relying of them for our mobile phones.

01:02:17.068 --> 01:02:26.084
I hope I may one day be able to see all the friends
I can no longer contact, but I'm under no illusions.

01:02:26.084 --> 01:02:37.004
Bar none, everyone in Gaza
is a walking target.

01:02:37.004 --> 01:02:47.008
The Italian Consulate has just contacted me,
saying that tomorrow they'll evacuate a fellow italian,

01:02:47.008 --> 01:02:55.028
an elderly nun who'd lived
near the Catholic church in Gaza for the last 20 years,

01:02:55.028 --> 01:03:01.052
and who had by now
been adopted by the Palestinians in the Strip.

01:03:01.052 --> 01:03:07.092
The consul gently urged me
to seize this last opportunity...

01:03:07.092 --> 01:03:14.012
...and escape from this hell with the nun.

01:03:14.012 --> 01:03:22.056
I thanked him for the offer,
and told him I'm not moving from here, I just can't.

01:03:22.056 --> 01:03:26.088
For the sake of the losses we endured...

01:03:26.088 --> 01:03:37.002
...before being Italian, Spanish, British or Australian,
right now we are all Palestinian.

01:03:37.002 --> 01:03:48.048
If only we could do that for just one minute a day,

01:03:48.048 --> 01:03:53.096
the way we were all Jewish during the Holocaust,

01:03:53.096 --> 01:04:03.096
I think we would have been spared this entire massacre.

01:04:03.096 --> 01:04:32.004
Stay Human

01:04:32.004 --> 01:04:34.084
7th January 2009

01:04:34.084 --> 01:04:38.088
Slingshots vs. White Phosphorous Bombs

01:04:38.088 --> 01:04:42.068
"Take some kittens,
some tender little moggies in a box",

01:04:42.068 --> 01:04:47.024
said Jamal,
a surgeon at Al-Shifa, Gazaís main hospital,

01:04:47.024 --> 01:04:52.008
while a nurse actually placed a couple
of blood-stained cardboard boxes in front of us.

01:04:52.008 --> 01:04:56.088
"Seal it up, then jump on it
with all your weight and might,

01:04:56.088 --> 01:05:03.076
until you feel their little bones crunching,
and you hear the last muffled little mew."

01:05:03.076 --> 01:05:08.032
I stared at the boxes in astonishment,
and the doctor continued:

01:05:08.032 --> 01:05:12.068
"Try to imagine what would happen
after such images were circulated.

01:05:12.068 --> 01:05:15.052
The righteous outrage of public opinion,

01:05:15.052 --> 01:05:18.008
the complaints of the animal rights organizations...."

01:05:18.008 --> 01:05:20.068
The doctors went on in this vein,

01:05:20.068 --> 01:05:24.008
and I was unable
to take my eyes off the boxes at our feet.

01:05:24.008 --> 01:05:29.092
"Israel trapped hundreds of civilians
inside a school as if in a box,

01:05:29.092 --> 01:05:35.072
including many children,
and then crushed them with all the might of its bombs.

01:05:35.072 --> 01:05:38.006
What were the worldís reactions?

01:05:38.006 --> 01:05:40.008
Almost nothing.

01:05:40.008 --> 01:05:44.084
We would have been better
off as animals rather than Palestinians,

01:05:44.084 --> 01:05:48.076
we would have been better protected."

01:05:48.076 --> 01:05:54.032
At this point the doctor leans towards one of the boxes,
and takes its lid off in front of me.

01:05:54.032 --> 01:06:00.092
Inside it are the amputated limbs,
legs and arms, some from the knee down,

01:06:00.092 --> 01:06:08.064
others with the entire femur attached, from amputees injured
at the Al-Fakhura United Nations school in Jabalia,

01:06:08.064 --> 01:06:12.024
which resulted in more than 50 casualties.

01:06:12.024 --> 01:06:15.092
Pretending to be taking an urgent call,
I took my leave of Jamal,

01:06:15.092 --> 01:06:19.044
actually rushing to the bathroom to throw up.

01:06:19.044 --> 01:06:25.008
A little earlier Iíd been involved in a conversation
with Dr. Abdel, an ophthalmologist,

01:06:25.008 --> 01:06:29.012
regarding the rumours
that the Israeli Army had been showering us...

01:06:29.012 --> 01:06:33.024
...with non-conventional weapons,
forbidden by the Geneva Convention,

01:06:33.024 --> 01:06:36.088
such as cluster bombs and white phosphorous.

01:06:36.088 --> 01:06:41.004
The very same that the Israeli Army
used during the last Lebanese war,

01:06:41.004 --> 01:06:47.044
as well as the US Air Force in Falluja,
in violation of international norms.

01:06:47.044 --> 01:06:51.004
In front of Al-Awda Hospital
we witnessed and filmed white phosphorous bombs...

01:06:51.004 --> 01:06:55.096
...being used about 500 metres from where we stood,

01:06:55.096 --> 01:07:02.008
too far away to be absolutely certain
there were any civilians underneath the Israeli Apaches,

01:07:02.008 --> 01:07:05.072
but so terribly close all the same.

01:07:05.072 --> 01:07:08.000
The Geneva Treaty of 1980...

01:07:08.000 --> 01:07:13.006
...forbids white phosphorous
being used directly as a war weapon in civilian areas,

01:07:13.006 --> 01:07:18.006
allowing it only as a smoke screen or for lighting.

01:07:18.006 --> 01:07:21.056
Thereís no doubt that using this weapon in Gaza,

01:07:21.056 --> 01:07:25.008
a strip of land concentrating
the highest population rate in the world,

01:07:25.008 --> 01:07:28.072
is a crime all on its own.

01:07:28.072 --> 01:07:32.012
Doctor Abdel told me that at Al-Shifa Hospital...

01:07:32.012 --> 01:07:36.016
...they donít have the medical and military competence

01:07:36.016 --> 01:07:42.064
to say for sure whether the wounds they examined
on certain corpses were indeed caused by illegal weapons.

01:07:42.064 --> 01:07:46.044
But he gave his word that, in 20 years on the job,

01:07:46.044 --> 01:07:51.048
he had never seen casualties like these
that were now being carried into the ward.

01:07:51.048 --> 01:07:54.032
He told me about the traumas to the skull,

01:07:54.032 --> 01:08:02.012
with the fractures to the vomer bone, the jaw,
the cheekbones, the tear ducts, the nasal and palatine bones,

01:08:02.012 --> 01:08:08.036
all showing signs of the collision
of an immense force against the victimís face.

01:08:08.036 --> 01:08:12.084
What he finds inexplicable is the total lack of eyeballs,

01:08:12.084 --> 01:08:18.048
which ought to leave a trace somewhere
within the skull even with such a violent impact.

01:08:18.048 --> 01:08:24.052
Instead, we see Palestinian corpses
coming into the hospitals without any eyes at all,

01:08:24.052 --> 01:08:30.044
as if someone had removed them surgically
before handing them over to the coroner.

01:08:30.044 --> 01:08:35.052
Israel has let us know that weíve been generously
granted a three-hour daily ceasefire,

01:08:35.052 --> 01:08:38.016
from 1.00 to 4.00pm.

01:08:38.016 --> 01:08:42.076
These statements from the Israeli military leadership
are considered by the people of Gaza...

01:08:42.076 --> 01:08:50.068
...as having the same reliability as the Hamas leadersí declarations
that theyíve just provoked a massacre of enemy soldiers.

01:08:50.068 --> 01:08:58.056
Just to be clear on this point, Tel Avivís worst enemy
is the very same that fights under the Star of David.

01:08:58.056 --> 01:09:02.032
Yesterday, a warship off the coast of Gazaís port...

01:09:02.032 --> 01:09:06.076
...picked out a large group of alleged guerrilla fighters
from the Palestinian Resistance,

01:09:06.076 --> 01:09:10.016
moving as a united front around Jabalia.

01:09:10.016 --> 01:09:12.056
They shot their cannons at them.

01:09:12.056 --> 01:09:18.092
But as it turned out, they were their own fellow soldiers,
with the shooting resulting in three being killed...

01:09:18.092 --> 01:09:22.036
...and about 20 injured.

01:09:22.036 --> 01:09:26.016
No one here believes in the ceasefires that Israel calls,

01:09:26.016 --> 01:09:32.004
and as it happens, today at 2.00pm
Rafah was under attack by Israeli helicopters.

01:09:32.004 --> 01:09:36.076
There was also yet
another massacre of children in Jabalia:

01:09:36.076 --> 01:09:41.076
three little sisters aged two, four and six...

01:09:41.076 --> 01:09:44.076
...from the Abed Rabbu family were slaughtered.

01:09:44.076 --> 01:09:51.076
Just half-an-hour earlier in Jabalia, once again
the Red Crescent Hospitalís ambulances were under attack.

01:09:51.076 --> 01:09:59.012
Eva and Alberto, my ISM companions were on board
that ambulance and managed to film everything,

01:09:59.012 --> 01:10:03.048
passing those videos and photos
on to all the major media.

01:10:03.048 --> 01:10:08.048
Hassan was kneecapped,
fresh from mourning the death of his friend Araf,

01:10:08.048 --> 01:10:14.064
a paramedic who was killed two days ago
as he was going in aid of the injured in Gaza City.

01:10:14.064 --> 01:10:18.092
They had stopped to pick up the body of a man
languishing in the middle of the road,

01:10:18.092 --> 01:10:23.076
when they were showered
by about 10 shots from an Israeli sniper.

01:10:23.076 --> 01:10:29.052
One bullet hit Hassan in the knee
and the ambulance was filled with holes.

01:10:29.052 --> 01:10:34.056
Travelling towards Al-Quds Hospital,

01:10:34.056 --> 01:10:39.002
I raced along on board
one of the very few fearless taxi drivers left,

01:10:39.002 --> 01:10:42.004
zigzagging to avoid the bombs,

01:10:42.004 --> 01:10:48.002
and, on the corner of one street, I saw a group
of dirty street urchins in tattered clothes,

01:10:48.002 --> 01:10:53.032
looking exactly like the "sciusci‡" kids
of the Italian post-war period.

01:10:53.032 --> 01:10:57.032
They threw stones towards the sky with slingshots,

01:10:57.032 --> 01:11:01.088
at a remote
and unreachable enemy toying with their lives.

01:11:01.088 --> 01:11:10.012
This is a crazy metaphor, which could serve
as a snapshot of the absurdity of this place at the moment.

01:11:10.012 --> 01:11:37.016
Stay human.

01:11:37.016 --> 01:11:39.032
8th january 2009

01:11:39.032 --> 01:11:42.056
I won't leave my country!

01:11:42.056 --> 01:11:47.036
My toothpaste, toothbrush,
razors and shaving foam.

01:11:47.036 --> 01:11:53.012
The clothes I'm wearing, the cough medicine
I'm using to get rid of a persistent cough,

01:11:53.012 --> 01:11:58.004
the cigarettes I bought for Ahmed,
and some tobacco for my arghile.

01:11:58.004 --> 01:12:08.044
My cell phone, the laptop onto which I compulsively type
eyewitness accounts from the hell surrounding me.

01:12:08.044 --> 01:12:14.052
All that's needed for a modest,
yet dignified, existence in Gaza comes from Egypt,

01:12:14.052 --> 01:12:21.004
and arrives onto the shop
shelves through the tunnels.

01:12:21.004 --> 01:12:30.004
These are the very same tunnels that the Israeli F16s
haven't stopped bombing heavily in the last 12 hours,

01:12:30.004 --> 01:12:36.044
destroying thousands of Rafah houses
near the border.

01:12:36.044 --> 01:12:41.036
A few months ago
I had three dodgy teeth fixed,

01:12:41.036 --> 01:12:49.032
and at the end of the operation I asked my Palestinian dentist
where he'd gotten all of his dental equipment from

01:12:49.032 --> 01:12:54.016
the anaesthetic, the syringes, the ceramic inlays
and all the other tools.

01:12:54.016 --> 01:12:59.088
With a sly look on his face, he'd made
a certain gesture with his hand: from underground.

01:12:59.088 --> 01:13:06.002
There's no doubt that explosives and weapons
were also smuggled through the tunnels underneath Rafah,

01:13:06.002 --> 01:13:15.044
the very same that the resistance is using today to try
and contain the terrifying advance of the Israeli tanks.

01:13:15.044 --> 01:13:22.096
But it's next to nothing compared with the tonnes
of consumer goods flowing into famished Gaza...

01:13:22.096 --> 01:13:26.092
...under this criminal siege.

01:13:26.092 --> 01:13:36.068
It's easy enough to find photos on the web showing
how even livestock comes in from Egypt through the tunnels.

01:13:36.068 --> 01:13:44.052
Sedated, strapped-up goats and cows
are lowered into an Egyptian well,

01:13:44.052 --> 01:13:50.016
re-emerging on this side
to provide milk, cheese and meat.

01:13:50.016 --> 01:13:55.052
Even the main hospitals in the Strip
stock up surreptitiously at the border.

01:13:55.052 --> 01:14:03.004
The tunnels were the only means by which
the Palestinians could survive the siege.

01:14:03.004 --> 01:14:10.068
Long before the current bombing, this siege
became the cause of a 60% unemployment rate,

01:14:10.068 --> 01:14:17.036
forcing 80% of families
to live off humanitarian handouts.

01:14:17.036 --> 01:14:23.092
Our ISM colleagues in Rafah
describe the umpteenth mass exodus they've witnessed:

01:14:23.092 --> 01:14:33.008
caravans of desperate refugees leaving their homes
for Egypt, on mule-drawn carts or hodgepodge vehicles.

01:14:33.008 --> 01:14:41.008
A dÈj‡-vu scenario. In recent days, leaflets were raining down
from the planes, intimidating the Palestinians into evacuating.

01:14:41.008 --> 01:14:48.006
Since Israel always keeps her threatening promises,
bombs are now pouring down from her planes.

01:14:48.006 --> 01:14:53.048
Today's new homeless will spend the night
with their relatives, friends or acquaintances in Gaza.

01:14:53.048 --> 01:15:00.092
After yesterday's massacre in Jabalia, no one dares
take shelter in the United Nations schools anymore.

01:15:00.092 --> 01:15:07.024
But a considerable number haven't gone anywhere,
as they have nowhere safe to go.

01:15:07.024 --> 01:15:11.032
They shall be spending the night
praying to God that they'll be spared,

01:15:11.032 --> 01:15:16.064
since no one on earth seems to take
any interest whatsoever in their existence.

01:15:16.064 --> 01:15:26.012
The death toll at present is of 768 Palestinians,
with 3,129 wounded, and 219 children dead.

01:15:26.012 --> 01:15:34.000
The count of civilian victims on the Israeli side
is thankfully still only four.

01:15:34.000 --> 01:15:39.068
In Zeitoun, a neighbourhood East of Gaza City,
the Red Cross ambulances...

01:15:39.068 --> 01:15:45.006
...could only rush to the scene of a massacre
after several hours,

01:15:45.006 --> 01:15:49.012
with permission from the Israeli military leadership.

01:15:49.012 --> 01:15:54.008
When they finally got there,
they picked up 17 corpses and 10 injured,

01:15:54.008 --> 01:15:58.088
all belonging to the Al-Samouni family.

01:15:58.088 --> 01:16:00.084
It was a perfect execution:

01:16:00.084 --> 01:16:04.048
in the tiny bodies of the children
it was possible to notice...

01:16:04.048 --> 01:16:10.008
...bullet holes rather
than wounds caused by shrapnel.

01:16:10.008 --> 01:16:15.044
The last two nights
in the Gaza City hospitals were quieter than usual,

01:16:15.044 --> 01:16:19.052
as we assisted a number of injured
in the dozens rather than in the hundreds.

01:16:19.052 --> 01:16:23.016
Obviously after the massacre at the Al-Fakhura school...

01:16:23.016 --> 01:16:28.004
...the Israeli Army
surpassed the daily total of civilian casualties...

01:16:28.004 --> 01:16:34.006
...as an offering to its bloodthirsty government
in view of the imminent elections.

01:16:34.006 --> 01:16:41.024
We have a feeling though that the morgues
will be filled to bursting point again tonight.

01:16:41.024 --> 01:16:48.084
With our sirens screaming, we continue to rush
pregnant women into hospital as they give birth prematurely.

01:16:48.084 --> 01:16:53.036
It's as if nature
and the conservation instinct...

01:16:53.036 --> 01:17:00.024
...were inducing these brave mothers
to pre-empt the due-date of these newly-born...

01:17:00.024 --> 01:17:03.032
...making up for the growing number of the dead.

01:17:03.032 --> 01:17:07.068
The first cries of the newborn,
when they survive...

01:17:07.068 --> 01:17:12.048
...can, only for a moment,
rise over the rumbling of the bombs.

01:17:12.048 --> 01:17:22.088
Leila, a colleague at the ISM, asked our neighbours'children to write
some of their impressions of the atrocious tragedy we're enduring.

01:17:22.088 --> 01:17:29.044
Here are some extracts of their words,
the horrors of war seen through the pure and innocent...

01:17:29.044 --> 01:17:32.016
...gaze of Gaza's children:

01:17:32.016 --> 01:17:34.072
Suzanne, aged 15:

01:17:34.072 --> 01:17:39.028
"Life in Gaza is very difficult.
Actually we can't describe everything.

01:17:39.028 --> 01:17:43.008
We can't sleep,
we can't go to school and study.

01:17:43.008 --> 01:17:47.004
We feel a lot of feelings,
sometimes we feel afraid...

01:17:47.004 --> 01:17:52.084
...and worry because the planes and the ships,
they hit [us] twenty-four hours [a day].

01:17:52.084 --> 01:18:01.036
Sometimes we feel bored because there is no electricity
during the day, and in the night, it comes for just four hours...

01:18:01.036 --> 01:18:05.008
...and when it comes
we are watching the news on TV.

01:18:05.008 --> 01:18:11.036
And we see kids and women who are injured and dead.
So we live under siege and war."

01:18:11.036 --> 01:18:14.032
Fatma, aged 13:

01:18:14.032 --> 01:18:17.002
"It was the hardest week in our lives.

01:18:17.002 --> 01:18:21.064
The first day we were to school,
having the final exam of the first term...

01:18:21.064 --> 01:18:27.006
...then the explosions started,
and many students were killed and injured...

01:18:27.006 --> 01:18:32.036
...and the others surely
lost a relative or a neighbour.

01:18:32.036 --> 01:18:35.044
There's no electricity, no food, no bread.

01:18:35.044 --> 01:18:38.092
What can we do?
It's the Israelis!

01:18:38.092 --> 01:18:45.072
All the people in the world celebrated the New Year;
we also celebrate but in a different way."

01:18:45.072 --> 01:18:49.006
Sara, aged 11:

01:18:49.006 --> 01:18:56.056
"Gaza is living under a siege, like a big jail:
no water, no electricity.

01:18:56.056 --> 01:19:01.008
People feel afraid, [they] don't sleep at night,
and every day more people are killed.

01:19:01.008 --> 01:19:08.088
Until now, more than 700 are killed
and more than 3,000 injured.

01:19:08.088 --> 01:19:18.024
And students had their final first-term exams,
so Israel hit the Ministry of Education, and a lot of ministries.

01:19:18.024 --> 01:19:21.072
Every day people are asking,
"When will it end?",

01:19:21.072 --> 01:19:27.036
and they are waiting for more ships
with activists like Vittorio and Leila."

01:19:27.036 --> 01:19:30.032
Darween, aged 8:

01:19:30.032 --> 01:19:35.024
"I am a Palestinian kid:
I won't leave my country...

01:19:35.024 --> 01:19:39.008
...so I will have lots of advantage,
because I won't leave my country...

01:19:39.008 --> 01:19:45.002
...and I hear a sound of rockets,
so I won't leave my country."

01:19:45.002 --> 01:19:47.016
Meriam is four.

01:19:47.016 --> 01:19:51.072
Her siblings asked her,
"What do you feel when you hear the rockets?"

01:19:51.072 --> 01:19:54.068
And she said,
"I'm scared!",

01:19:54.068 --> 01:20:00.024
before running to take cover
behind her father's legs.

01:20:00.024 --> 01:20:04.064
Sadly, Gaza has been shrouded
in obscurity these last 10 days.

01:20:04.064 --> 01:20:08.088
I can recharge my computer and phone
only in the hospitals.

01:20:08.088 --> 01:20:15.036
We watch TV with the doctors and paramedics
while waiting for an urgent call.

01:20:15.036 --> 01:20:21.004
We listen to the rumblings in the distance,
and after a few minutes the Arab satellite networks...

01:20:21.004 --> 01:20:25.032
...report exactly
where the explosions took place.

01:20:25.032 --> 01:20:36.002
We often watch ourselves pull bodies out of the rubble,
as if having seen it all in the flesh weren't enough already.

01:20:36.002 --> 01:20:40.084
Last night I switched over to
an Israeli channel with the remote.

01:20:40.084 --> 01:20:48.056
They were showing a traditional music festival, complete
with scantily-clad showgirls and firework displays at the end.

01:20:48.056 --> 01:20:53.072
We went back to our horror,
not on screen, but in the ambulances.

01:20:53.072 --> 01:21:01.084
Israel has every right to laugh and sing
even while they're massacring their neighbours.

01:21:01.084 --> 01:21:07.084
Palestinians only ask to die
a different kind of death,

01:21:07.084 --> 01:21:13.000
say, of old age.

01:21:13.000 --> 01:21:45.048
Stay Human

01:21:45.048 --> 01:21:50.052
9th January 2009

01:21:50.052 --> 01:21:54.008
Killing Hippocrates

01:21:54.008 --> 01:21:59.016
In Gaza, a firing squad...

01:21:59.016 --> 01:22:06.044
...put Hippocrates up against a wall,
aimed and fired.

01:22:06.044 --> 01:22:13.096
The absurd declarations
of an Israeli secret servicesí spokesman,

01:22:13.096 --> 01:22:19.088
according to which the army
was given the green light to fire at ambulances...

01:22:19.088 --> 01:22:27.004
...because they allegedly carried terrorists,

01:22:27.004 --> 01:22:33.076
, is an illustration of the value
that Israel assigns to human life these days

01:22:33.076 --> 01:22:38.072
the lives of their enemies, that is.

01:22:38.072 --> 01:22:41.084
Itís worth revisiting...

01:22:41.084 --> 01:22:45.008
...whatís stated in the Hippocratic Oath,

01:22:45.008 --> 01:22:48.016
which every doctor swears...

01:22:48.016 --> 01:22:51.008
...before practising their profession.

01:22:51.008 --> 01:22:58.068
The following passages
are especially worthy of note:

01:22:58.068 --> 01:23:09.002
"I solemnly pledge myself
to consecrate my life to the service of humanity.

01:23:09.002 --> 01:23:18.000
I will practise my profession
with conscience and dignity.

01:23:18.000 --> 01:23:31.000
I will cure all patients
with the same diligence and commitment.

01:23:31.000 --> 01:23:38.032
I will not permit considerations of religion,
nationality, race,

01:23:38.032 --> 01:23:44.002
party politics, or social standing to intervene
between my duty and my patient.í

01:23:44.002 --> 01:23:52.032
Nine doctors and voluntary nurses
have been killed since the start of the bombing campaign,

01:23:52.032 --> 01:23:58.004
and about 10 ambulances
were shot at by the Israeli artillery.

01:23:58.004 --> 01:24:01.064
The survivors are quaking with fear,

01:24:01.064 --> 01:24:04.004
but refuse to take a step back.

01:24:04.004 --> 01:24:07.008
The crimson flashes of the ambulances...

01:24:07.008 --> 01:24:14.056
...are the only bursts of light
in the dark streets of Gaza,

01:24:14.056 --> 01:24:19.092
bar the flashes that precede an explosion.

01:24:19.092 --> 01:24:25.052
Regarding these crimes, the last report comes
from Pierre Wettach, Head of the Red Cross in Gaza.

01:24:25.052 --> 01:24:34.004
His ambulances had access to the spot of a massacre,
in Zeitoun (east of Gaza City)...

01:24:34.004 --> 01:24:38.004
...only 24 hours after an Israeli attack.

01:24:38.004 --> 01:24:40.076
The rescue workers state...

01:24:40.076 --> 01:24:45.004
...that they found themselves
facing a blood-curdling scenario.

01:24:45.004 --> 01:24:53.048
"In one of the houses four small children
were found near the body of their dead mother.

01:24:53.048 --> 01:24:58.068
They were too weak to stand on their feet.

01:24:58.068 --> 01:25:07.006
We also found a grown man,
also too weak to stand upright.

01:25:07.006 --> 01:25:13.008
About 20 corpses were found
lying on the mattresses."

01:25:13.008 --> 01:25:21.088
The witnesses to this umpteenth massacre
describe how the Israeli soldiers,

01:25:21.088 --> 01:25:24.064
after arriving in the neighbourhood,

01:25:24.064 --> 01:25:31.008
gathered the numerous members
of the Al-Samouni family into one building...

01:25:31.008 --> 01:25:38.008
...and then proceeded to bomb it repeatedly.

01:25:38.008 --> 01:25:45.002
My ISM companions and I have been driving around
in the Red Crescent ambulances for days,

01:25:45.002 --> 01:25:48.068
suffering many attacks.

01:25:48.068 --> 01:25:56.092
Our duty on the ambulances is to rescue the injured,
not to carry guerrilla fighters.

01:25:56.092 --> 01:26:02.064
When we find someone lying in the street
in a pool of their own blood,

01:26:02.064 --> 01:26:09.008
we donít have the time to check their papers
or ask them whether they support Hamas or Fatah.

01:26:09.008 --> 01:26:16.072
Most of the seriously injured canít talk,
much like the dead.

01:26:16.072 --> 01:26:19.016
A few days ago,

01:26:19.016 --> 01:26:23.052
while picking up a badly-wounded patient,

01:26:23.052 --> 01:26:32.028
another man with light injuries
tried to hop onto the ambulance.

01:26:32.028 --> 01:26:35.000
We pushed him out,

01:26:35.000 --> 01:26:39.064
just to make it clear
to whoeverís watching from up above...

01:26:39.064 --> 01:26:45.096
...that we donít serve as a taxi
to carry members of the resistance around.

01:26:45.096 --> 01:26:53.044
At Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City,
seventeen-year-old Miriam was carried in,

01:26:53.044 --> 01:26:55.072
in full-blown labour.

01:26:55.072 --> 01:27:05.068
Her father and sister-in-law, both dead,
had passed through the hospital in the morning,

01:27:05.068 --> 01:27:12.016
both victims of the indiscriminate bombing.

01:27:12.016 --> 01:27:16.028
Miriam gave birth to a gorgeous baby during the night,

01:27:16.028 --> 01:27:18.064
not aware of the fact...

01:27:18.064 --> 01:27:22.032
...that while she lay in the delivery room,

01:27:22.032 --> 01:27:30.048
her young husband
had arrived in the morgue one floor below her.

01:27:30.048 --> 01:27:32.012
In the end,

01:27:32.012 --> 01:27:36.024
even the United Nations
has started to see that...

01:27:36.024 --> 01:27:40.028
...weíre all in the same boat here in Gaza.

01:27:40.028 --> 01:27:44.056
Weíre all walking targets for the snipers.

01:27:44.056 --> 01:27:50.064
The death toll is now at 789 dead,

01:27:50.064 --> 01:27:53.068
3,300 wounded

01:27:53.068 --> 01:27:58.004
with 410 in critical condition,

01:27:58.004 --> 01:28:03.092
230 children killed and countless missing.

01:28:03.092 --> 01:28:07.064
The death toll on the Israeli side...

01:28:07.064 --> 01:28:12.036
...has thankfully remained at four.

01:28:12.036 --> 01:28:19.088
John Ging, Director of UNRWAís (United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees)...

01:28:19.088 --> 01:28:23.088
...Field Operations in Gaza,
has related the UN announcement that theyíll suspend...

01:28:23.088 --> 01:28:28.056
...their humanitarian activities in the Gaza Strip.

01:28:28.056 --> 01:28:33.004
I bumped into Ging
at the Ramattan press office...

01:28:33.004 --> 01:28:41.004
...and saw him wagging his finger
with disdain at Israel before the cameras.

01:28:41.004 --> 01:28:48.048
The UN stopped its work in Gaza after
two of its operators were killed yesterday,

01:28:48.048 --> 01:28:58.092
ironically during the three-hour ceasefire that Israel
had announced and, as usual, had failed to stick to.

01:28:58.092 --> 01:29:08.008
"The civilians in Gaza have three hours a day
at their disposal in which to survive,

01:29:08.008 --> 01:29:12.084
the Israeli soldiers have the remaining 21...

01:29:12.084 --> 01:29:16.068
...in which to try and exterminate them",

01:29:16.068 --> 01:29:22.028
I heard Ging state, two steps away from me.

01:29:22.028 --> 01:29:29.008
Yasmine, the wife of one of the many journalists
waiting in line at the Erez Pass, wrote to me from Jerusalem.

01:29:29.008 --> 01:29:41.008
Israel wonít grant these journalists a pass to let them in
and film or describe the immense unnatural catastrophe

01:29:41.008 --> 01:29:43.004
She said:

01:29:43.004 --> 01:29:47.088
"The day before yesterday
I went to have a look at Gaza from the outside.

01:29:47.088 --> 01:29:53.044
The worldís journalists
are all huddled on a small sandy hill...

01:29:53.044 --> 01:29:57.016
...a few kilometres from the border.

01:29:57.016 --> 01:30:01.028
Innumerable cameras are pointed towards us.

01:30:01.028 --> 01:30:05.006
Planes circle overhead,
you can hear them but you canít see them.

01:30:05.006 --> 01:30:09.068
Theyíre like hallucinations,

01:30:09.068 --> 01:30:14.008
like something in your head until you see the black smoke
rising from the horizon, in Gaza.

01:30:14.008 --> 01:30:21.004
The hill has also become
a tourist site for Israelis in the area.

01:30:21.004 --> 01:30:27.016
With their large binoculars and cameras,

01:30:27.016 --> 01:30:32.006
they come and watch the bombings live."

01:30:32.006 --> 01:30:39.024
While I write this piece of correspondence in a mad rush,

01:30:39.024 --> 01:30:44.000
a bomb has been dropped on to the building
next to the one Iím in right now.

01:30:44.000 --> 01:30:47.048
The windowpanes shake,
my ears ache

01:30:47.048 --> 01:30:56.032
I look out the window and see that the building holding
the major Arabic media agencies has been struck.

01:30:56.032 --> 01:31:00.000
Itís one of Gaza Cityís tallest buildings,

01:31:00.000 --> 01:31:03.028
the Al-Jawhara building.

01:31:03.028 --> 01:31:07.024
A camera crew is permanently stationed on the roof,

01:31:07.024 --> 01:31:09.096
and I can now see them all waving their arms...

01:31:09.096 --> 01:31:15.016
...and asking for help
as theyíre covered by a black cloud of smoke.

01:31:15.016 --> 01:31:22.002
Paramedics and journalists,
the most heroic occupations in this corner of the world.

01:31:22.002 --> 01:31:26.088
Yesterday
I paid Tamim a visit at the Al-Shifa Hospital,

01:31:26.088 --> 01:31:31.032
heís a journalist whoís survived an air raid.

01:31:31.032 --> 01:31:36.036
He explained how
he thinks that Israel is adopting the same,

01:31:36.036 --> 01:31:39.096
identical terrorist techniques as Al-Qaeda:

01:31:39.096 --> 01:31:42.004
bombing a building,

01:31:42.004 --> 01:31:45.004
waiting for the journalists
and ambulances to rush in,

01:31:45.004 --> 01:31:48.004
then dropping another bomb...

01:31:48.004 --> 01:31:51.012
...to finish the latter off as well.

01:31:51.012 --> 01:31:54.052
In his view thatís why...

01:31:54.052 --> 01:31:59.016
...thereíve been so many casualties
among the journalists and paramedics.

01:31:59.016 --> 01:32:03.064
As he said this, the nurses around his bed
all nodded in agreement.

01:32:03.064 --> 01:32:09.052
Smilingly, Tamim showed me his two stubs for legs.

01:32:09.052 --> 01:32:15.012
He was happy
he was still around to tell the story,

01:32:15.012 --> 01:32:18.002
while his colleague, Mohammed,

01:32:18.002 --> 01:32:24.006
had died with a camera
in his hand when the second explosion had proved fatal.

01:32:24.006 --> 01:32:30.096
In the meantime I asked about the bomb
that had just been dropped on the building next door,

01:32:30.096 --> 01:32:35.056
where two journalists, both Palestinian,

01:32:35.056 --> 01:32:41.012
one from Libyan TV and the other from Dubai Television,
have been injured.

01:32:41.012 --> 01:32:52.088
This is a harsh new reminder that
this massacre must in no way be described or recorded.

01:32:52.088 --> 01:32:55.006
All thatís left for me to hope...

01:32:55.006 --> 01:33:00.064
...is that among the Israel's military leaders,

01:33:00.064 --> 01:33:03.016
no one reads Il Manifesto,

01:33:03.016 --> 01:33:09.036
or habitually visits my blog.

01:33:09.036 --> 01:33:30.024
Stay human.

01:33:30.024 --> 01:33:36.024
10th January 2009

01:33:36.024 --> 01:33:40.048
Total Destruction: Work in Progress

01:33:40.048 --> 01:33:49.028
Some Palestinian families have handed us some leaflets
that had fallen from the sky in the last few days,

01:33:49.028 --> 01:33:56.084
courtesy of the Israeli Air Force,
in lieu of the customary bombs.

01:33:56.084 --> 01:34:01.096
The first leaflet,
translated from the Arabic, reads:

01:34:01.096 --> 01:34:05.064
To all the people living in this area.

01:34:05.064 --> 01:34:14.000
Due to the terrorist acts
with which the terrorists from your area are attacking Israel,

01:34:14.000 --> 01:34:22.008
the Israeli Army Forces
were forced to take immediate action in your area.

01:34:22.008 --> 01:34:29.008
We thus urge you, for your own safety,
to immediately evacuate the area.

01:34:29.008 --> 01:34:32.088
The Israeli Army.

01:34:32.088 --> 01:34:41.032
In short, the Israelis
are sticking a "work in progress" at every door,

01:34:41.032 --> 01:34:46.048
before razing whole neighbourhoods to their foundations,

01:34:46.048 --> 01:34:52.068
and forever dashing hopes of a life
in the present or in the future.

01:34:52.068 --> 01:35:01.084
Apparently, those who havenít got anywhere
to flee to are consigned to be buried under tonnes of rubble.

01:35:01.084 --> 01:35:08.008
A little while ago they had warned us
they intended to throw more leaflets,

01:35:08.008 --> 01:35:13.076
threatening us
with a "third phase of war of terror [that] is about to start".

01:35:13.076 --> 01:35:18.052
Israeli military commanders are indeed polite,

01:35:18.052 --> 01:35:24.036
they ask the population of Gaza to cooperate
before crushing them like insects.

01:35:24.036 --> 01:35:27.088
If the leaflets arenít persuasive enough,

01:35:27.088 --> 01:35:34.076
itís up to the Air Force
to knock gently on the roofs of Gazaís houses.

01:35:34.076 --> 01:35:43.044
Itís a brand new tactic,
slightly less powerful bombs are dropped,

01:35:43.044 --> 01:35:54.076
though powerful enough to tear the roofs clear off the houses,
"gently" persuading their occupiers to evacuate them.

01:35:54.076 --> 01:36:05.048
After two or three minutes the planes drift past again,
and nothing remains of the buildings.

01:36:05.048 --> 01:36:09.000
Where should the evacuees go?

01:36:09.000 --> 01:36:13.048
There are no safe shelters in the whole of the Strip,

01:36:13.048 --> 01:36:20.072
and personally I fear for my own life more
when walking past a mosque or a school,

01:36:20.072 --> 01:36:29.012
than when standing in front of any of the government buildings,
which are still standing intact.

01:36:29.012 --> 01:36:32.076
Last night, 20 metres from my home,

01:36:32.076 --> 01:36:36.048
Israeli jet fighters tore down the fire station.

01:36:36.048 --> 01:36:45.052
This morning, on the street running parallel to the port,
I discovered some craters several metres deep,

01:36:45.052 --> 01:36:56.004
as if meteors had rained down from the sky,
as are often featured in sci-fi movies.

01:36:56.004 --> 01:37:03.028
The difference here
is that the special effects are pretty damn painful.

01:37:03.028 --> 01:37:08.084
Visiting the wards of Al-Shifa Hospital,
crowded with injured patients awaiting treatment,

01:37:08.084 --> 01:37:12.036
you can bump into a doctor who doesnít look very Arab.

01:37:12.036 --> 01:37:18.072
Mads Gilbert is a Norwegian doctor
from the NGO Norwac.

01:37:18.072 --> 01:37:27.068
Gilbert, an anaesthetist, confirms our suspicion regarding
the use of forbidden weapons by Israel on Gazaís civilians:

01:37:27.068 --> 01:37:35.008
"Many injured arrive with extreme amputations,
with both their legs reduced to a pulp,

01:37:35.008 --> 01:37:40.016
which I suspect is an effect of Dime weapons."

01:37:40.016 --> 01:37:44.076
(The Dime bomb
is an innovative explosive...

01:37:44.076 --> 01:37:57.076
...made to strike specific targets
and cause as much damage as possible.)

01:37:57.076 --> 01:38:05.000
This is happening while Navi Pillay,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,

01:38:05.000 --> 01:38:14.088
reports that "extremely serious violations
possibly constituting war crimes" are taking place.

01:38:14.088 --> 01:38:21.076
The last instance of one such crime happened
a few hours ago, east of Jabalia,

01:38:21.076 --> 01:38:27.002
where a family,
at the point of evacuating their house,

01:38:27.002 --> 01:38:30.032
was stocking up
on some food supplies at a small shop.

01:38:30.032 --> 01:38:36.024
When it was promptly bombed, eight were killed,
and all members of the Abed Rabbu family,

01:38:36.024 --> 01:38:39.068
in addition to two others, were left severely injured.

01:38:39.068 --> 01:38:46.008
People I speak to in the street
are under the impression that Israel is biding its time,

01:38:46.008 --> 01:38:52.004
even while the bombs are being dropped non-stop
and the land artillery is slowly advancing.

01:38:52.004 --> 01:39:01.072
The soldiers have no problems in stocking up with "K-rations",
the individual military food rations,

01:39:01.072 --> 01:39:07.044
unlike many people in Gaza
who can no longer get any bread.

01:39:07.044 --> 01:39:20.044
The bakers, having run out of flour, have resorted to mixing it
with animal flour with which to make buns.

01:39:20.044 --> 01:39:26.016
Itís week-old bread, green with mould.

01:39:26.016 --> 01:39:30.056
You cook it over a small fire lit
with a couple of pieces of wood...

01:39:30.056 --> 01:39:38.072
...and I can assure you that,
even then, itís not exactly a delicacy.

01:39:38.072 --> 01:39:50.096
All over the net, Israel is uploading
dozens of films featuring birdís eye-view images,

01:39:50.096 --> 01:39:55.002
allegedly showing how precise its bombings...

01:39:55.002 --> 01:40:02.008
...against the "terrorists" are, or against hypothetical enemy
warehouses stocking weapons and explosives.

01:40:02.008 --> 01:40:07.032
The dizzying count of civilian casualties
is enough to discredit these videos.

01:40:07.032 --> 01:40:17.028
I wonder how Israel
can call itself civilized and democratic,

01:40:17.028 --> 01:40:20.072
when its army, in trying to drive out and kill an enemy,

01:40:20.072 --> 01:40:30.008
wonít hesitate to knock down an entire, crowded building,
burying dozens of innocent victims alive in the process.

01:40:30.008 --> 01:40:37.068
Itís as if the Italian army
hunting down a dangerous mafia criminal...

01:40:37.068 --> 01:40:43.006
...started heavily bombing the centre of Palermo.

01:40:43.006 --> 01:40:54.006
As sit here I writing this, there are 821 Palestinians dead,

01:40:54.006 --> 01:41:03.076
93 being women,
and 235 children.

01:41:03.076 --> 01:41:16.064
Twelve paramedics were killed while fulfilling their duty
and three journalists died with cameras hanging round their necks.

01:41:16.064 --> 01:41:22.004
A good 3,350 are among the injured,

01:41:22.004 --> 01:41:25.076
with more than half being under 18 years of age.

01:41:25.076 --> 01:41:32.008
According to the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights
based in Jabalia, renowned for its reliability,

01:41:32.008 --> 01:41:41.024
they make up 85% of the Palestinian civilian casualties
massacred in the last two weeks.

01:41:41.024 --> 01:41:48.004
The death toll on the Israeli side
has thankfully remained at four.

01:41:48.004 --> 01:41:53.004
If the United Nations
cannot protect the Palestinian civilian population...

01:41:53.004 --> 01:41:58.076
...from the massive Israeli violations
of their own international humanitarian obligations,

01:41:58.076 --> 01:42:10.004
my friends from the Free Gaza Movement will give it a shot,
ready as they are to sail to Gaza in a few days.

01:42:10.004 --> 01:42:15.064
Among them are doctors,
nurses and human rights activists,

01:42:15.064 --> 01:42:25.036
who consider it their personal moral duty to do whatever
is humanly possible to provide some measure of protection.

01:42:25.036 --> 01:42:33.072
They had already tried to get here
on the 31st December, on board the Dignity.

01:42:33.072 --> 01:42:38.004
But the Israeli Navy had rammed our boat
in international waters,

01:42:38.004 --> 01:42:47.064
trying to sink it,
and had subsequently spoken of "an accident".

01:42:47.064 --> 01:42:54.088
I will wait for my friends with their load of humanitarian aid
among the ruins of whatís left of the port.

01:42:54.088 --> 01:43:02.004
Hereís to hoping that no more "accidents"
will occur off the coast this time.

01:43:02.004 --> 01:43:12.072
The second leaflet dropped from planes
that weíve translated is a scream:

01:43:12.072 --> 01:43:18.088
Citizens of Gaza,
take responsibility for your destiny!

01:43:18.088 --> 01:43:24.088
In Gaza the terrorists and those who launch rockets against Israel
represent a threat to your lives...

01:43:24.088 --> 01:43:27.084
...and to those of your families.

01:43:27.084 --> 01:43:32.006
If you wish to help your families
and brothers in Gaza,

01:43:32.006 --> 01:43:39.008
all youíll have to do is call the number below
and give us information...

01:43:39.008 --> 01:43:43.004
...on the whereabouts
of those responsible for launching rockets.

01:43:43.004 --> 01:43:48.008
The terrorist militia has turned you
into the first victims of their actions.

01:43:48.008 --> 01:43:55.016
Avoiding more atrocities being committed
is now your responsibility!

01:43:55.016 --> 01:44:00.004
Donít hesitate! Complete discretion is guaranteed.

01:44:00.004 --> 01:44:03.004
You can contact us at the following number...

01:44:03.004 --> 01:44:07.072
Otherwise write to us at the following email,

01:44:07.072 --> 01:44:15.024
giving us any information
you may have on terrorist activities.

01:44:15.024 --> 01:44:27.044
Many write to me from Italy, filled with frustration at not being
able to do anything against the genocide currently taking place.

01:44:27.044 --> 01:44:34.036
I would urge you to continue showing your indignation
and supporting human rights.

01:44:34.036 --> 01:44:39.004
If you then have five minutes to spare
and a phone card,

01:44:39.004 --> 01:44:48.096
the details contained in the last leaflet
could come in useful in communicating your disdain...

01:44:48.096 --> 01:44:59.032
...to those who cynically gamble
with the lives of a million-and-a-half people via air, sea and land.

01:44:59.032 --> 01:45:05.032
Never would a phone card have been better spent.

01:45:05.032 --> 01:45:15.008
Those 235 massacred children are asking for it.

01:45:15.008 --> 01:45:47.002
Stay human.

01:45:47.002 --> 01:45:51.052
13th January 2009

01:45:51.052 --> 01:45:54.076
Vultures and Bounty Hunters

01:45:54.076 --> 01:45:59.008
We still try to create routes of salvation via the sea,

01:45:59.008 --> 01:46:06.028
to make a breakthrough into this tormented land,
now confiscated and imprisoned,

01:46:06.028 --> 01:46:14.044
every inch of it raped and reduced to a cemetery
for corpses that are being denied a peaceful repose.

01:46:14.044 --> 01:46:16.012
For a few days now,

01:46:16.012 --> 01:46:20.092
even funerals have become the targets
of the Israeli Air Force,

01:46:20.092 --> 01:46:27.068
as if murdered Palestinians
deserve additional punishment in death as well.

01:46:27.068 --> 01:46:32.044
If a humanitarian passage
is struggling to make its way...

01:46:32.044 --> 01:46:36.036
...and come in aid of a people at the end of their tether,

01:46:36.036 --> 01:46:38.004
the Spirit of Humanity,

01:46:38.004 --> 01:46:44.036
one of our Free Gaza Movement boats,
will try to be there for them.

01:46:44.036 --> 01:46:47.008
It sailed from Larnaca, Cyprus, today

01:46:47.008 --> 01:46:51.096
and will bring tonnes of medicine to Gazaís port,

01:46:51.096 --> 01:46:57.000
in addition to about 40 doctors, nurses, journalists,

01:46:57.000 --> 01:47:05.024
European parliamentarians, and human rights activists
representing 17 different nations in all.

01:47:05.024 --> 01:47:08.000
Human beings, like myself,

01:47:08.000 --> 01:47:10.084
like many who vent their indignation,

01:47:10.084 --> 01:47:13.044
are ready to risk their lives...

01:47:13.044 --> 01:47:16.088
...rather than lounge passively in their living rooms,

01:47:16.088 --> 01:47:18.008
watching news bulletins...

01:47:18.008 --> 01:47:27.036
...that reveal only a tiny fraction
of what the massacre being inflicted upon us is doing here.

01:47:27.036 --> 01:47:30.056
On the 29th December,

01:47:30.056 --> 01:47:35.000
my friends gave it a shot with Dignity:

01:47:35.000 --> 01:47:39.084
but they were attacked by the Israeli Navy.
It tried to sink them.

01:47:39.084 --> 01:47:44.028
They had to send out an SOS and fled to Lebanon...

01:47:44.028 --> 01:47:48.064
...with engine failure and a leak in their hull.

01:47:48.064 --> 01:47:53.006
On that occasion it was only by pure chance
that no one was badly hurt,

01:47:53.006 --> 01:47:54.084
so we hope...

01:47:54.084 --> 01:48:01.012
...human rights as well as the lives of the activists
will be spared tomorrow.

01:48:01.012 --> 01:48:06.088
There are terrifying catastrophes in this world,
such as earthquakes and hurricanes,

01:48:06.088 --> 01:48:09.072
inevitable natural phenomena.

01:48:09.072 --> 01:48:15.024
But Gaza endures
an unnatural humanitarian catastrophe...

01:48:15.024 --> 01:48:18.012
...being perpetuated by Israel,

01:48:18.012 --> 01:48:23.064
damaging a people long reduced
to abject poverty and submission.

01:48:23.064 --> 01:48:29.052
Gazans are a desperate people
without bread or milk to feed their children.

01:48:29.052 --> 01:48:33.004
They no longer shed any tears when mourning,

01:48:33.004 --> 01:48:37.028
as their eyes are also on a strictly imposed diet.

01:48:37.028 --> 01:48:40.008
The entire world cannot ignore this tragedy and,

01:48:40.008 --> 01:48:45.068
if they continue to do so,
we donít want any part of it.

01:48:45.068 --> 01:48:50.052
Every day we invoke someone above us
to stop the genocide,

01:48:50.052 --> 01:48:52.012
but for tomorrow...

01:48:52.012 --> 01:48:56.052
...all we ask is for our small boat to land in Gaza...

01:48:56.052 --> 01:49:00.068
...with its cargo of compassion and empathy.

01:49:00.068 --> 01:49:05.076
May the Palestinians also
receive the same rights that Israelis,

01:49:05.076 --> 01:49:10.048
or any other people on earth enjoy.

01:49:10.048 --> 01:49:13.024
The sea can be an anchor of hope,

01:49:13.024 --> 01:49:16.012
or a scenario of destruction.

01:49:16.012 --> 01:49:22.084
According to the Maían Press Agency, with Reuters
echoing their statement,

01:49:22.084 --> 01:49:28.008
the United States are about to ship
300 tonnes of weapons to Israel...

01:49:28.008 --> 01:49:31.076
...via cargo ships sailing from Greece.

01:49:31.076 --> 01:49:36.068
Weapons and enormous amounts
of explosives and fuses,

01:49:36.068 --> 01:49:38.004
and all thatís needed...

01:49:38.004 --> 01:49:43.036
...to raze thousands of houses to their foundations.

01:49:43.036 --> 01:49:50.000
There are 120,000 homeless displaced
from Gaza to Jabalia already.

01:49:50.000 --> 01:49:53.032
But most, including many of my friends,

01:49:53.032 --> 01:49:56.092
havenít budged and have nowhere to flee.

01:49:56.092 --> 01:50:00.006
Journalists, doctors and gravediggers:

01:50:00.006 --> 01:50:08.072
for 16 days non-stop now
these have been the busiest professionals in Gaza.

01:50:08.072 --> 01:50:17.064
The circling vultures in follow in the wake
of the bomber planes stir up more hatred among the Palestinians,

01:50:17.064 --> 01:50:24.006
especially towards those
seated where the late lamented Yasser Arafat...

01:50:24.006 --> 01:50:33.084
...(1929-2004), the former Chairman
of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, used to sit.

01:50:33.084 --> 01:50:41.088
They now itch to come
and take over the throne towering over Gazaís ashes.

01:50:41.088 --> 01:50:45.048
The death toll is now at 923,

01:50:45.048 --> 01:50:48.084
with 4,150 wounded,

01:50:48.084 --> 01:50:55.088
including 255 horrendously butchered
Palestinian children.

01:50:55.088 --> 01:51:01.068
The number of dead on the Israeli side
has thankfully stayed at four.

01:51:01.068 --> 01:51:10.002
Rumour has it that Ehud Olmert,
the Israeli Prime Minister, had told his side...

01:51:10.002 --> 01:51:21.056
...that hitting a death toll of 1,000 civilians marked the limit
after which this brutal attack and infanticide would be halted.

01:51:21.056 --> 01:51:27.028
Itís a bit like what happens
at the Vucciria markets in Palermo,

01:51:27.028 --> 01:51:32.048
where quarters of beef
are hung up to drip blood out in the open,

01:51:32.048 --> 01:51:37.012
and you haggle for the meat,
so much per kilo.

01:51:37.012 --> 01:51:49.032
Few Palestinians now miss tuning in for Ismail Haniyehís
appearances on the small screen here in the Gaza Strip.

01:51:49.032 --> 01:51:56.076
You canít speak of a ceasefire
without simultaneously establishing an end to the siege.

01:51:56.076 --> 01:52:03.008
Continuing to keep Gaza under siege
now that itís been reduced to a heap of rubble,

01:52:03.008 --> 01:52:06.072
not allowing provisions and medicine to come through,

01:52:06.072 --> 01:52:09.076
preventing the sick and injured from getting out,

01:52:09.076 --> 01:52:14.084
is equivalent to condemning them
to more prolonged agony.

01:52:14.084 --> 01:52:20.084
These in brief were the words spoken by Hamasís leader,

01:52:20.084 --> 01:52:30.072
spoken from an underground bunker from God knows where.
These words find an echo in Gazan public opinion.

01:52:30.072 --> 01:52:36.096
This was the speech of a leader
who could have fled and taken refuge elsewhere.

01:52:36.096 --> 01:52:44.004
To the contrary, he decided to risk a bomb
being dropped on his head like everyone else.

01:52:44.004 --> 01:52:48.092
I was just interrupted, while typing this piece,

01:52:48.092 --> 01:52:52.052
by the usual intimidating phone call...

01:52:52.052 --> 01:52:56.084
...ordering us to evacuate the building
before a bombing.

01:52:56.084 --> 01:53:03.068
Iím currently in the building
where the main international media agencies operate,

01:53:03.068 --> 01:53:10.036
these being, among others,
Al-Jazeera, Ramattan and Reuters.

01:53:10.036 --> 01:53:17.012
We were forced to unplug our PCs,
rush downstairs and crowd the street,

01:53:17.012 --> 01:53:21.068
where we kept our eyes glued to the sky,
trying to pick out...

01:53:21.068 --> 01:53:26.008
...where the destructive thunder
would strike from this time.

01:53:26.008 --> 01:53:33.036
There wonít be any cameras or reporters
around to document the civilian massacre tonight,

01:53:33.036 --> 01:53:40.076
as we suspect that Gazaís innocent casualties
will be more numerous than usual.

01:53:40.076 --> 01:53:46.064
Still standing in the street,
I stared at Alberto, winking at him.

01:53:46.064 --> 01:53:50.044
He came up closer and, whispering,

01:53:50.044 --> 01:53:58.024
I asked him whether he thought it plausible that the threatening
phone call had been made especially for the two of us,

01:53:58.024 --> 01:54:01.088
after the discovery of the American website...

01:54:01.088 --> 01:54:05.008
...singling us out as targets:

01:54:05.008 --> 01:54:10.008
ALERT THE IDF MILITARY TO TARGET ISM

01:54:10.008 --> 01:54:17.092
Number to call if you can pinpoint the locations of Hamas
with their ISM members.

01:54:17.092 --> 01:54:20.068
From the US call,

01:54:20.068 --> 01:54:28.016
...011-972-2-5839749.

01:54:28.016 --> 01:54:31.096
From other countries drop the 011.

01:54:31.096 --> 01:54:35.084
Help us neutralize the ISM,

01:54:35.084 --> 01:54:40.084
now definitely a part of Hamas
since the war has begun.

01:54:40.084 --> 01:54:46.052
#1 ISM TARGET FOR THE ISRAELI AIR FORCE
AND IDF GROUND TROOPS:

01:54:46.052 --> 01:54:54.092
VITTORIO ARRIGONI (PICTURED BELOW)
IS CURRENTLY IN GAZA ASSISTING HAMAS

01:54:54.092 --> 01:54:59.084
This is copied from "stoptheism.com".

01:54:59.084 --> 01:55:02.044
Don't bother to visit this website...

01:55:02.044 --> 01:55:06.072
...or provide a link to it from your own websites.

01:55:06.072 --> 01:55:13.048
Itís a sociological case
to be passed on to future generations for study.

01:55:13.048 --> 01:55:16.092
On closer analysis of the present,

01:55:16.092 --> 01:55:21.006
the future will pronounce its sentence without appeal:

01:55:21.006 --> 01:55:26.016
of how hatred was the purest of all feelings.

01:55:26.016 --> 01:55:32.044
Spite against anything
thatís different could fuel whole armies,

01:55:32.044 --> 01:55:37.008
becoming the feeling
that brings masses of people together.

01:55:37.008 --> 01:55:41.002
Thereís no need for my enemies...

01:55:41.002 --> 01:55:46.012
...and those who wish for my martyrdom
to dial that number.

01:55:46.012 --> 01:55:50.028
The Israeli Army
knows exactly where to find me tonight,

01:55:50.028 --> 01:55:55.000
on the Al-Quds Hospital ambulances in Gaza City.

01:55:55.000 --> 01:55:57.088
Stay human.

01:55:57.088 --> 01:56:39.028
Stay human.

01:56:39.028 --> 01:56:42.056
14th January 2009

01:56:42.056 --> 01:56:48.048
The children of a lesser God.They continue to atone
for the spite passed on from one generation to the next,

01:56:48.048 --> 01:56:51.052
through no fault of their own.

01:56:51.052 --> 01:56:57.028
The soldiers bearing the Star of David are perfectly at ease
in their roles as so many contemporary Herods,

01:56:57.028 --> 01:57:02.024
with 253 massacred Palestinian children so far.

01:57:02.024 --> 01:57:04.008
An endless horror,

01:57:04.008 --> 01:57:07.008
for which no soldier, no Israeli army officer,

01:57:07.008 --> 01:57:15.012
nor the Israeli government
will ever be put in front of its responsabilities of war criminal.

01:57:15.012 --> 01:57:18.092
If these innocent victims are spared for a few hours,

01:57:18.092 --> 01:57:21.084
it might not necessarily be so for the buildings
and courtyards providing a backdrop for their games,

01:57:21.084 --> 01:57:24.096
dreams and ambitions, their fantasies of growing up.

01:57:24.096 --> 01:57:29.000
The places filling the void left by
their deceased fathers and mothers,

01:57:29.000 --> 01:57:33.088
that is, orphanages, have become a favourite nesting place
for a species of Israeli mechanical bird.

01:57:33.088 --> 01:57:37.096
Itís there that the fighter
planes go and lay their bombs.

01:57:37.096 --> 01:57:41.056
My fellow ISM volunteers in Rafah
have written to me, saying:

01:57:41.056 --> 01:57:45.092
On Sunday, 11th January, at about 3.00am,

01:57:45.092 --> 01:57:51.012
the F16s bombed the orphanage
of the Dar al-Fadila Association,

01:57:51.012 --> 01:57:55.004
which included a school, a college,
a computer centre...

01:57:55.004 --> 01:58:02.044
...a mosque in Taha Hussein Street,
in the Kherbat al-Adas neighbourhood, north-east of Rafah.

01:58:02.044 --> 01:58:08.084
Parts of the buildings were severely damaged.

01:58:08.084 --> 01:58:13.006
The school assisted 500 orphaned children.

01:58:13.006 --> 01:58:19.004
This very personal Israeli jihad
against Islamís sacred places along the Strip...

01:58:19.004 --> 01:58:23.048
...is still under way as well, with blessings from the international
communityís lack of anything resembling a protest.

01:58:23.048 --> 01:58:25.092
Including the Kherbat al-Adas Mosque,

01:58:25.092 --> 01:58:29.048
20 Muslim places of worship
have been razed to the ground up till now.

01:58:29.048 --> 01:58:34.024
Thankfully, no Qassam "rocket"
has as yet even brushed the walls of a synagogue.

01:58:34.024 --> 01:58:41.024
Otherwise, weíre certain that weíd have heard rightful
cries of disdain from every corner of the world.

01:58:41.024 --> 01:58:46.008
God must be paying a tax
for receiving prayers from the Palestinians.

01:58:46.008 --> 01:58:51.064
Out of almost 950 victims, 85% are civilians.

01:58:51.064 --> 01:58:58.008
The infernal Israeli death machine is slowly advancing,
taking over the whole of Gaza,

01:58:58.008 --> 01:59:02.004
knocking down houses, schools, universities, hospitals,

01:59:02.004 --> 01:59:08.096
without any tangible sign from the international community
of a will to boycott these actions.

01:59:08.096 --> 01:59:11.024
Itís now our turn,

01:59:11.024 --> 01:59:13.052
as ordinary citizens without citizenship,

01:59:13.052 --> 01:59:18.000
if not without the feeling of belonging
to the one and only community of people,

01:59:18.000 --> 01:59:19.088
the Human family.

01:59:19.088 --> 01:59:25.002
it's time we put a spoke in this this hellish contraption.

01:59:25.002 --> 01:59:30.076
I recently met Doctor Haidar Eid,
a Professor at Al-Quds University in Gaza City.

01:59:30.076 --> 01:59:36.008
A leftist intellectual type, tough as nails
and simultaneously good-humoured, passionate and generous,

01:59:36.008 --> 01:59:38.012
the likes of which is completely extinct in Italy today.

01:59:38.012 --> 01:59:41.068
And if they're still to be found their type is likely to be
imprisoned in some basement, removed from the collective memory.

01:59:41.068 --> 01:59:44.052
Itís impossible to adapt their type to the bipartisan...

01:59:44.052 --> 01:59:48.032
...trend whereby post-fascists and post-socialists
walk arm in arm,

01:59:48.032 --> 01:59:54.028
reciting in unison their refrain
to defend every single massacre Israel carries out.

01:59:54.028 --> 01:59:57.008
Haidar also happens to be a spokesman for PACBI

01:59:57.008 --> 02:00:01.016
(The Palestinian Campaign
for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel),

02:00:01.016 --> 02:00:06.092
and BNC (The Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
Campaign National Committee),

02:00:06.092 --> 02:00:10.056
and with him
i discussed about the boycott.

02:00:10.056 --> 02:00:13.004
History is a teacher, but it has no students.

02:00:13.004 --> 02:00:17.088
Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi
are at the moment unable to hold remedial lessons.

02:00:17.088 --> 02:00:24.000
Thankfully, the history lesson offered by South Africaís example
can show us the way towards forcing a racist and colonialist Israel...

02:00:24.000 --> 02:00:26.028
...towards compromise.

02:00:26.028 --> 02:00:31.052
Refraining from boycotting the regime of apartheid back
then was a little like being an accomplice to it.

02:00:31.052 --> 02:00:33.048
What has possibly changed today?

02:00:33.048 --> 02:00:40.006
Like myself, the vast majority of Palestinians donít think
the answer to the Israeli occupation and the ongoing massacre...

02:00:40.006 --> 02:00:44.048
...is suicide bombings,
ëkamikazesí and ërocketsí against Sderot.

02:00:44.048 --> 02:00:47.032
Boycotting is peaceful and non-violent,

02:00:47.032 --> 02:00:54.024
the most humanly acceptable answer to a conflict so depraved
it has turned every gesture into something inhuman.

02:00:54.024 --> 02:00:57.002
Itís the best weapon in our arsenal of non-violence,

02:00:57.002 --> 02:01:01.072
as Naomi Klein reminds us in the London Guardian.

02:01:01.072 --> 02:01:06.088
Haidar even manages to look on the bright side
despite the bloody pit weíre sinking into.

02:01:06.088 --> 02:01:12.024
Just as the world felt the time had come to say "Enough!"
after the Sharpeville massacre of 21st March 1960...

02:01:12.024 --> 02:01:21.016
...when 78 black citizens were torn to pieces
by the will of a barbaric regime in South Africa,

02:01:21.016 --> 02:01:28.028
the incomparable massacre of 1,000 Palestinian civilians
could breathe life into an equally strong activist campaign...

02:01:28.028 --> 02:01:30.088
...to punish Israeli crimes.

02:01:30.088 --> 02:01:35.012
Haidar also supports the idea of Israel and Palestine as a sole,

02:01:35.012 --> 02:01:38.004
secular, democratic, and inter-religious state:

02:01:38.004 --> 02:01:44.072
he sees no other pragmatic way out of the conflict.

02:01:44.072 --> 02:01:48.064
More intimately, he speaks to me of al-Nakba,
which he was spared from by a few years,

02:01:48.064 --> 02:01:52.068
as if it had been very much brought to life by the stories
he had inherited from his family.

02:01:52.068 --> 02:01:56.008
As the child of a post-catastrophe,
he speaks without mincing his words.

02:01:56.008 --> 02:01:59.000
The Nakba has been passed down to him as a nightmare...

02:01:59.000 --> 02:02:03.012
...that has fed into the collective unconscious
of thousands of Palestinians.

02:02:03.012 --> 02:02:08.008
The nightmare has come to life again,
knocking on the rooftops on the 27th December 2008.

02:02:08.008 --> 02:02:12.056
It still hasnít finished inflicting sleepless nights ever since.

02:02:12.056 --> 02:02:16.006
Haidar encourages me to divulge all this,
so I jot down his appeal in my tattered notebook...

02:02:16.006 --> 02:02:22.008
...to no longer buy anything "made in Israel".

02:02:22.008 --> 02:02:28.048
You can pick out Israeli products
on the shelves from their barcodes,

02:02:28.048 --> 02:02:32.016
with 729 being the first three numbers.

02:02:32.016 --> 02:02:38.044
To obtain the complete list of products
you can access at www.boycottisraeligoods.org.

02:02:38.044 --> 02:02:46.002
Get hold of a list and stick it on your fridge door
for safe keeping until your next shopping trip.

02:02:46.002 --> 02:02:50.000
"if you buy just one glass of water
that was imported from Israel,

02:02:50.000 --> 02:02:57.076
you might be funding one of the bullets that might lodge itself
into one of our childrenís bodies,í said Haidar.

02:02:57.076 --> 02:03:02.002
The boycott movement
that saw the light in Palestine in 2005...

02:03:02.002 --> 02:03:07.044
...is now taking gigantic steps forward and is spreading
among millions of consumers around the world.

02:03:07.044 --> 02:03:11.052
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
who expelled the Israeli Ambassador...

02:03:11.052 --> 02:03:15.004
...and stopped all relations
with the state thatís currently strangling us,

02:03:15.004 --> 02:03:18.096
is an example for all of our politicians to emulate.

02:03:18.096 --> 02:03:25.004
The South African leaders of the struggle against apartheid,
Nelson Mandela, Ronnie Kasrils and Desmond Tutu...

02:03:25.004 --> 02:03:31.064
...have stated that Israelís oppression of Palestine
is far worse than South Africaís of the blacks ever was.

02:03:31.064 --> 02:03:35.072
Voices certainly most authoritative
than italian politicians Frattini and Fassino.

02:03:35.072 --> 02:03:39.044
Some Israeli Jews have joined the boycotting campaign,

02:03:39.044 --> 02:03:43.004
about 500 so far, among them Ilan PappÈ and Neta Golan,

02:03:43.004 --> 02:03:48.004
the descendent of Holocaust survivors,
who protests, ëNever again!í

02:03:48.004 --> 02:03:51.092
The Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai also urges us to act:

02:03:51.092 --> 02:03:54.004
"My hopes rest on Europeís support,

02:03:54.004 --> 02:03:57.092
hoping that the descendents
of Voltaire and Rousseau might help Israel,

02:03:57.092 --> 02:04:03.064
because Israel wonít end its occupation
until Europe says "Enough!"

02:04:03.064 --> 02:04:10.096
Only pressure from civilized and democratic nations
can change the situation and bring us peace.

02:04:10.096 --> 02:04:14.088
The current situation, with the army in charge,

02:04:14.088 --> 02:04:17.008
cannot be changed from the inside.

02:04:17.008 --> 02:04:23.056
For the values that it represents,
Europe must refuse to continue cooperating with Israel.

02:04:23.056 --> 02:04:28.000
729 must therefore become our Shoah:

02:04:28.000 --> 02:04:31.004
never again!"

02:04:31.004 --> 02:05:06.002
Stay human.

02:05:06.002 --> 02:05:09.008
15th January 2009

02:05:09.008 --> 02:05:13.008
Jabaliaís Circles of the Inferno

02:05:13.008 --> 02:05:23.024
Dante Alighieri could never have imagined circles as hellish
as the wards of the damned in Jabaliaís hospitals.

02:05:23.024 --> 02:05:26.008
The laws of divine justice
are turned on their head around here:

02:05:26.008 --> 02:05:33.036
the more innocent the victim, the less likely
that theyíll be spared martyrdom through shelling.

02:05:33.036 --> 02:05:40.088
At Kamal Odwan and Al-Auda Hospitals,
the ceramic tiles in the first aid units are always pristine.

02:05:40.088 --> 02:05:46.002
The cleaners are kept permanently busy
wiping away the blood dripping copiously...

02:05:46.002 --> 02:05:52.032
...from the stretchers constantly being
brought in carrying massacred bodies.

02:05:52.032 --> 02:06:01.016
Iyad Mutawwaq was walking in the street
when a bomb tore open a building not far from him.

02:06:01.016 --> 02:06:05.016
He and other passers-by rushed over to try and help...

02:06:05.016 --> 02:06:09.004
...when a second bomb
was dropped on the same building.

02:06:09.004 --> 02:06:13.064
It killed a father of nine,
two brothers...

02:06:13.064 --> 02:06:20.048
...and another passer-by
who had rushed over to help.

02:06:20.048 --> 02:06:25.036
The same story
could be told over ten or a hundred times.

02:06:25.036 --> 02:06:33.088
The perfect terrorist technique is being carried
out immaculately by the Israeli Army.

02:06:33.088 --> 02:06:37.008
You drop a bomb,
wait for the first-aiders,

02:06:37.008 --> 02:06:40.044
then drop another bomb on the wounded
and the people rushing in to help.

02:06:40.044 --> 02:06:48.084
In Iyadís eyes, these were American bombs, but they also carry
the stamp of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian dictator

02:06:48.084 --> 02:06:55.004
who rivals Ehud Olmert here in Gaza
when it comes to stirring up resentment.

02:06:55.004 --> 02:07:03.048
Behind Iyadís bed, an elderly man
with both his arms in plasters is lying staring at the ceiling.

02:07:03.048 --> 02:07:09.012
Iím told heís lost everything,
his family and his home.

02:07:09.012 --> 02:07:11.088
Khaled stares at the cracks in the falling plaster,

02:07:11.088 --> 02:07:18.052
as if seeking an answer
for the sheer destruction of his existence.

02:07:18.052 --> 02:07:24.012
He worked in Israel for 25 years,
prior to the first Intifada.

02:07:24.012 --> 02:07:28.024
In recognition,
Tel Aviv hasnít even granted him a pension,

02:07:28.024 --> 02:07:32.028
only a series of missiles
from land and air onto his house.

02:07:32.028 --> 02:07:36.052
He suffers from shrapnel wounds all over his body.

02:07:36.052 --> 02:07:41.096
I ask him where he plans to go after
heís been discharged from hospital.

02:07:41.096 --> 02:07:46.036
He says heíll join his family,
out on the streets.

02:07:46.036 --> 02:07:50.092
Not unlike Khaledís,
many families donít know where to find shelter.

02:07:50.092 --> 02:07:56.024
The most fortunate were offered hospitality
by relatives and acquaintances,

02:07:56.024 --> 02:08:04.024
but can you really say that 100 people crammed
into two apartments having three rooms each is really a life?

02:08:04.024 --> 02:08:08.076
Two bombs were dropped onto Ahmed Jaberís home
and though his family initially fled,

02:08:08.076 --> 02:08:12.032
it wasnít third time lucky for some of them.
The third explosion...

02:08:12.032 --> 02:08:16.044
...buried seven of his relatives under the rubble,

02:08:16.044 --> 02:08:21.008
including two children aged eight and nine,
plus his neighbourís children.

02:08:21.008 --> 02:08:28.044
He says: "They made us leap back in time,
back to 1948.

02:08:28.044 --> 02:08:32.002
This is their punishment
for our attachment to our country.

02:08:32.002 --> 02:08:40.006
They can tear my arms and legs off from my body,
but they wonít make me leave my land".

02:08:40.006 --> 02:08:47.048
A doctor takes me aside and tells me that Ahmedís seven-year-old
daughter was just brought in, or what was left of her,

02:08:47.048 --> 02:08:52.012
inside a tiny cardboard box.

02:08:52.012 --> 02:08:59.004
They donít have the heart to tell him
and make his already precarious health condition any worse.

02:08:59.004 --> 02:09:06.028
In the evening they took the phone away from Iyad as well,
to prevent him from receiving any more bad news.

02:09:06.028 --> 02:09:12.048
A tank had hit his sisterís house,
beheading her in the process.

02:09:12.048 --> 02:09:17.024
In the end, our Free Gaza Movement boat
never got to the port in Gaza.

02:09:17.024 --> 02:09:21.028
About 100 miles from their designated destination,
they were intercepted in international waters...

02:09:21.028 --> 02:09:25.084
...by four Israeli war ships,

02:09:25.084 --> 02:09:33.088
poised to open fire and kill its cargo of doctors,
nurses and human rights activists.

02:09:33.088 --> 02:09:40.076
No one must dare to obstruct the massacre of civilians,
now in full swing for the last three weeks.

02:09:40.076 --> 02:09:44.044
East of Jabalia, in front of the border,

02:09:44.044 --> 02:09:50.008
eyewitnesses speak
of numerous decaying bodies in the streets.

02:09:50.008 --> 02:09:53.036
Their rotting flesh is being devoured by dogs.

02:09:53.036 --> 02:09:59.012
There are also hundreds of people
unable to get anywhere, many of whom are injured.

02:09:59.012 --> 02:10:06.096
The ambulances simply cannot get anywhere near,
with trigger-happy snipers all over the place.

02:10:06.096 --> 02:10:13.004
Palestinians are sick of languishing
in the midst of this general indifference,

02:10:13.004 --> 02:10:17.092
and many even accuse the International Red Cross
and the UN of not doing enough,

02:10:17.092 --> 02:10:25.056
including not fulfilling their duties,
nor risking their lives to save hundreds.

02:10:25.056 --> 02:10:32.052
We of the ISM will thus equip ourselves
with some stretchers and proceed on foot to the areas

02:10:32.052 --> 02:10:40.012
where humanity has surpassed all boundaries,
eclipsing itself in the process.

02:10:40.012 --> 02:10:43.088
The heavy-bottomed settlers
sitting in the pristine lounges of armchair politics...

02:10:43.088 --> 02:10:46.096
...harp on about military strategies
against Hamas.

02:10:46.096 --> 02:10:51.004
Meanwhile,
weíre being literally massacred out here.

02:10:51.004 --> 02:10:53.002
They bomb hospitals,
and yet there are some...

02:10:53.002 --> 02:10:57.004
...who still champion Israelís right to self-defence.

02:10:57.004 --> 02:11:02.004
In any self-styled civilized country,

02:11:02.004 --> 02:11:06.072
self-defence is proportionate to the attack.

02:11:06.072 --> 02:11:13.002
In these 20 days weíve counted 1,075 dead Palestinians,
85% of whom were civilians,

02:11:13.002 --> 02:11:19.004
and over 5,000 injured,
of whom half were under 18 years of age.

02:11:19.004 --> 02:11:24.072
303 children were atrociously massacred.

02:11:24.072 --> 02:11:31.004
Thankfully, there were still only four victims
on the Israeli side.

02:11:31.004 --> 02:11:34.002
Itís equivalent to saying that for Israel,

02:11:34.002 --> 02:11:43.008
butchering at least 250 Palestinians is a justified blood-bath
in avenging each civilian victim on its own side.

02:11:43.008 --> 02:11:49.064
How can this lop-sided reaction not take one back...

02:11:49.064 --> 02:11:55.092
...to some of modern European historyís bleakest periods?

02:11:55.092 --> 02:12:00.008
Letís get straight to the point:
are we seriously talking about self-defence?

02:12:00.008 --> 02:12:05.016
For journalists who support the refrain
that Hamas bears full responsibility for this genocide,

02:12:05.016 --> 02:12:14.008
as well as for breaking
the truce between Israel and Palestine,

02:12:14.008 --> 02:12:19.008
I would like to remind them
of the UN's position on the matter.

02:12:19.008 --> 02:12:25.000
Professor Richard Falk,
a special rapporteur for human rights at the UN,

02:12:25.000 --> 02:12:28.004
has clearly expressed his views:

02:12:28.004 --> 02:12:32.000
it was in fact Israel
that broke the ceasefire in November,

02:12:32.000 --> 02:12:36.064
by literally exterminating 17 Palestinians.

02:12:36.064 --> 02:12:41.036
In the same month,
no Israeli victims had been recorded,

02:12:41.036 --> 02:12:46.024
none in October
and none in the previous two months.

02:12:46.024 --> 02:12:53.006
We were also recently reminded of this
by Nobel Peace Prize winner and ex-US President Jimmy Carter.

02:12:53.006 --> 02:12:56.056
It really is a crying shame
that a journalist like Marco Travaglio,

02:12:56.056 --> 02:13:03.004
whoís earned our admiration
as a proud upholder of freedom of the press,

02:13:03.004 --> 02:13:06.088
is now sporting an IDF helmet...

02:13:06.088 --> 02:13:11.008
...and entertaining the masses on TV

02:13:11.008 --> 02:13:15.028
while amusing himself
with the pastime most in vogue at the moment:

02:13:15.028 --> 02:13:18.032
infant-shooting in Gaza.

02:13:18.032 --> 02:13:22.024
As I franticly tap at my keyboard
in the Ramattan Press Agency office,

02:13:22.024 --> 02:13:28.044
all the Palestinian reporters around me
are wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets.

02:13:28.044 --> 02:13:32.006
They havenít come in straight
from driving a tank,

02:13:32.006 --> 02:13:36.004
theyíve simply been sitting in front of
their computers the whole time.

02:13:36.004 --> 02:13:41.064
Two floors above,
the Reuters offices were recently struck by a rocket,

02:13:41.064 --> 02:13:44.002
which seriously injured two.

02:13:44.002 --> 02:13:49.096
Almost all the floors in the building are empty at the moment,
and only the most heroic of journalists are still around.

02:13:49.096 --> 02:13:54.064
The story of this hell
must somehow continue to be told.

02:13:54.064 --> 02:14:00.000
And yet earlier this week, the Israeli Army
had assured Reuters it wouldnít need to evacuate,

02:14:00.000 --> 02:14:03.004
as they would be safe staying in their offices.

02:14:03.004 --> 02:14:08.048
This morning the bombing of the United Nations building
also caused many casualties,

02:14:08.048 --> 02:14:12.096
built, among others,
with money from the Italian government.

02:14:12.096 --> 02:14:15.084
Silvio Berlusconi, where are you?

02:14:15.084 --> 02:14:18.000
There were many dead and wounded.

02:14:18.000 --> 02:14:21.004
John Ging,
Director of UNRWAís Field Operations in Gaza,

02:14:21.004 --> 02:14:26.064
spoke frankly
about white phosphorous bombs.

02:14:26.064 --> 02:14:33.012
In the Tal El-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City,
a whole wing of Al-Quds Hospital is presently in flames.

02:14:33.012 --> 02:14:41.016
Leila, an ISM colleague is trapped inside,
alongside 40 doctors and nurses and about 100 patients.

02:14:41.016 --> 02:14:46.006
She described
these last dramatic hours to us by phone.

02:14:46.006 --> 02:14:51.016
She described
these last dramatic hours to us by phone.

02:14:51.016 --> 02:14:57.044
A tank is stationed in front of the hospital.
There are snipers everywhere, ready to shoot at anything.

02:14:57.044 --> 02:15:00.064
Destruction is all around.

02:15:00.064 --> 02:15:06.002
At night, from their windows, they could observe
a building going up in flames after having been shelled.

02:15:06.002 --> 02:15:10.028
They heard the cries of whole families with children,

02:15:10.028 --> 02:15:12.044
pleading for help.

02:15:12.044 --> 02:15:15.096
hey were impotent to help,

02:15:15.096 --> 02:15:20.052
watching people being devoured by flames,
running out on to the street...

02:15:20.052 --> 02:15:23.016
...and then being reduced to ashes.

02:15:23.016 --> 02:15:30.072
Hell has switched places
and come to the centre of Gaza,

02:15:30.072 --> 02:15:33.096
and we are the damned,

02:15:33.096 --> 02:15:36.076
designated as such by an inhuman hatred.

02:15:36.076 --> 02:16:22.004
Stay human.

02:16:22.004 --> 02:16:24.088
16th January 2009

02:16:24.088 --> 02:16:27.004
Turning Geography on its Head

02:16:27.004 --> 02:16:33.028
Thereís a story of an elderly Palestinian
who leaves his house in search of his next meal...

02:16:33.028 --> 02:16:36.016
...during one of our rare morning ceasefires.

02:16:36.016 --> 02:16:39.092
But he is then unable to find his way back home.

02:16:39.092 --> 02:16:44.012
Shelling and bombing has radically changed Gazaís cityscape,

02:16:44.012 --> 02:16:47.076
warping its social structure with it as well.

02:16:47.076 --> 02:16:53.092
Hundreds of families are forced to flee
to different destinations all over the whole of the Strip,

02:16:53.092 --> 02:16:58.002
and hundreds who used to live alongside one another before...

02:16:58.002 --> 02:17:01.008
...are now no longer even in touch.

02:17:01.008 --> 02:17:06.024
In order to reach the Tal El-Hawa neighbourhood
in south-eastern Gaza City,

02:17:06.024 --> 02:17:09.052
you have to walk across a lunar landscape.

02:17:09.052 --> 02:17:12.088
Leaving behind a trail of craters and mounds of rubble,

02:17:12.088 --> 02:17:18.006
the Israeli tanks yesterday have pulled away after a 48-hour siege.

02:17:18.006 --> 02:17:26.072
Ever-present in this desolate scenario
is the lingering, pestilent and unmistakable stench of death.

02:17:26.072 --> 02:17:34.028
Struggling past what remains of entire buildings and houses,
carcasses of burnt-out cars and ambulances,

02:17:34.028 --> 02:17:37.016
I started searching for Ahmedís house.

02:17:37.016 --> 02:17:43.032
It wasnít an easy task
because of the radical transformation that whole neighbourhoods...

02:17:43.032 --> 02:17:49.068
...razed to the ground and burnt to cinders
had endured at the hands of the Israeli military.

02:17:49.068 --> 02:17:54.096
I remembered that Ahmed lived
at the end of a dirt road, impossible to recognize...

02:17:54.096 --> 02:18:01.008
...now that I was struggling to tread
over one whole vast surface of debris...

02:18:01.008 --> 02:18:03.092
that had been chewed and spat out by the tanks.

02:18:03.092 --> 02:18:09.004
If a satellite photo of Gaza
were taken at the end of this massive genocidal attack,

02:18:09.004 --> 02:18:18.076
it would be difficult to convince anyone
that the city in the photo was the same one pictured just 20 days earlier.

02:18:18.076 --> 02:18:21.064
I had a chance to put my arms around Ahmed again,

02:18:21.064 --> 02:18:24.008
it was as if we hadnít seen one another in years...

02:18:24.008 --> 02:18:28.006
...after a long journey from somewhere far off.

02:18:28.006 --> 02:18:32.076
Unfortunately,
our journey at the end of the night had no new dawn in sight,

02:18:32.076 --> 02:18:41.036
except the one set alight by the hatred
of those ordering the generals and troops into action for this massacre.

02:18:41.036 --> 02:18:45.012
My friend showed me
where an Israeli tank had stood for two days,

02:18:45.012 --> 02:18:47.048
right in front of his garden.

02:18:47.048 --> 02:18:54.004
During all that time his entire family
had remained huddled underneath a stairwell,

02:18:54.004 --> 02:18:59.092
terrified that a shell shot
by a howitzer might wipe them out at any minute.

02:18:59.092 --> 02:19:04.084
Only last night,
Ahmed went against the orders of his apprehensive father...

02:19:04.084 --> 02:19:11.096
...and, dragging himself across the floor,
dared to look out the window at the hellish scenario all around.

02:19:11.096 --> 02:19:14.072
He saw the tank moving about 30 metres away,

02:19:14.072 --> 02:19:20.004
smashing into the shutters of a supermarket
and opening a hole in it.

02:19:20.004 --> 02:19:23.064
He then watched soldiers emerge from the armoured vehicle...

02:19:23.064 --> 02:19:27.092
...who cheerfully wandered in to "do some shopping".

02:19:27.092 --> 02:19:31.088
"They filled the tank
to the point that they were struggling to get back in."

02:19:31.088 --> 02:19:37.056
He then described the jubilant laughs, the mocking songs,

02:19:37.056 --> 02:19:40.032
providing a soundtrack to the explosions all night long:

02:19:40.032 --> 02:19:46.002
"Ali, Mohammed, this is a message to your Allah Akbar!"

02:19:46.002 --> 02:19:52.044
The resistance, which for some days
had stoically succeeded in limiting the advance of the Israeli tanks,

02:19:52.044 --> 02:19:55.006
fizzled out within a couple of hours.

02:19:55.006 --> 02:19:59.024
Kalashnikovs can only tickle plated tank armour,

02:19:59.024 --> 02:20:03.008
while the shells of howitzers
can blow up a house from wall to wall.

02:20:03.008 --> 02:20:07.004
The residential neighbourhood of Abraj Towers,

02:20:07.004 --> 02:20:14.036
mainly inhabited by the families of the teaching staff
from Al-Aqsa University and in large part sympathetic with Fatah,

02:20:14.036 --> 02:20:19.024
certainly does not host any "Hamas terrorists".

02:20:19.024 --> 02:20:25.052
The same way that Iím aware of this,
Iím certain that itís also common knowledge in Tel Aviv.

02:20:25.052 --> 02:20:32.004
It didnít seem to matter, though,
as the neighbourhood was reduced to a pile of rubble all the same.

02:20:32.004 --> 02:20:38.008
Next to the crumbled buildings stands the Al-Quds Hospital,
set on fire only yesterday.

02:20:38.008 --> 02:20:42.024
My ISM companions have assisted the hospital staff...

02:20:42.024 --> 02:20:49.008
in evacuating the 300 wounded there
to Gaza Cityís other hospital, Al-Shifa.

02:20:49.008 --> 02:20:54.004
It took them many hours,
especially since moving seriously-injured patients...

02:20:54.004 --> 02:20:59.052
...required the use of specialist ambulances
that the Palestinians donít have.

02:20:59.052 --> 02:21:05.008
We waited for the last evacuees with Dr Dagfinn Bjorklind
from the Norwegian NGO Norwac...

02:21:05.008 --> 02:21:11.052
and asked some questions
of the nurses whoíd survived the Al-Quds fire.

02:21:11.052 --> 02:21:18.004
These were blood-curdling stories,
backed up by my companionsí own eye-witness accounts.

02:21:18.004 --> 02:21:24.012
About 200 metres from the hospital lay about 30 bodies,

02:21:24.012 --> 02:21:27.000
among them many women and children,
many of whom were still alive.

02:21:27.000 --> 02:21:32.006
They couldnít be rescued as the snipers
on the roofs shot at anything that moved.

02:21:32.006 --> 02:21:37.056
Those bleeding bodies in the street were what was left of civilians
whoíd escaped from their own homes...

02:21:37.056 --> 02:21:40.036
...when theyíd caught fire after being shelled.

02:21:40.036 --> 02:21:45.024
The Israeli snipers hadnít hesitated to shoot them, one by one,

02:21:45.024 --> 02:21:51.064
including the children,
once they were framed by the viewfinders on their guns.

02:21:51.064 --> 02:21:55.006
Iíll confess that my motto "stay human"...

02:21:55.006 --> 02:22:02.008
...has been direly tested in the last few days,
but has survived intact nevertheless.

02:22:02.008 --> 02:22:09.008
It pulled through,
just as the pride for and attachment to oneís native land,

02:22:09.008 --> 02:22:15.016
expressed as identity and the right to self-rule,
has enabled Gazaís people to carry on.

02:22:15.016 --> 02:22:20.004
From the university professors
to the people you meet in the street, doctors and nurses,

02:22:20.004 --> 02:22:23.088
reporters, fishermen, farmers,

02:22:23.088 --> 02:22:30.064
men, women and teenagers,
those whoíve lost everything and those who had nothing to lose,

02:22:30.064 --> 02:22:34.064
all will use their last breath to say ëinshaíAllahí, for the sake...

02:22:34.064 --> 02:22:40.064
...of the sincere conviction that their roots run so deep...

02:22:40.064 --> 02:22:44.012
...that no enemy bulldozer can tear them out.

02:22:44.012 --> 02:22:52.008
While I write, a TV screen not far off is showing images
from the inside of the Al-Shifa Hospital.

02:22:52.008 --> 02:22:57.048
Men in tears cover their faces
as if to contain a flood of desperation.

02:22:57.048 --> 02:23:04.012
At Shijaíiya, east of Gaza City,
a shot from a tank just killed seven and wounded 25.

02:23:04.012 --> 02:23:10.084
The casualties were all at a funeral commemorating a family member
whoíd been killed the previous day.

02:23:10.084 --> 02:23:17.000
Yesterday the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak
apologized to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon,

02:23:17.000 --> 02:23:20.004
for the artillery fire against the UN Agency...

02:23:20.004 --> 02:23:22.084
...for Palestinian Refugees in Gaza City,

02:23:22.084 --> 02:23:28.092
which had been built with the Italian governmentís money.
(Berlusconi, where are you?)

02:23:28.092 --> 02:23:31.072
"It was a grave error", Barak said.

02:23:31.072 --> 02:23:38.048
There wasnít the trace of an apology to the families
of the 357 Palestinian children killed up till now.

02:23:38.048 --> 02:23:41.032
Clearly, that was no error.

02:23:41.032 --> 02:23:48.012
I listened a Red Cross paramedic tell me
the story of their arrival on the scene of a massacre at Zeitoun.

02:23:48.012 --> 02:23:52.008
A visibly malnourished child
crouched in front of his motherís corpse,

02:23:52.008 --> 02:23:54.076
already in an advanced state of decay.

02:23:54.076 --> 02:24:00.032
He had taken care of that body for four days,
as if she were still alive.

02:24:00.032 --> 02:24:02.052
He had dried the blood from her face...

02:24:02.052 --> 02:24:05.092
...and dragging himself through the rubble
of what had been their home,

02:24:05.092 --> 02:24:11.052
bringing her water, bread and tomatoes,
which heíd carefully placed next to her head.

02:24:11.052 --> 02:24:14.052
He thought she was only sleeping.

02:24:14.052 --> 02:24:19.088
The Israeli snipers had prevented the Red Cross
from rushing in to bring aid,

02:24:19.088 --> 02:24:25.032
and they only managed to reach the scene of the massacre
several days later.

02:24:25.032 --> 02:24:58.032
Stay human.

02:24:58.032 --> 02:25:01.092
17th January 2009

02:25:01.092 --> 02:25:04.096
Love under the Bombs

02:25:04.096 --> 02:25:10.000
Making love under the bombs.
I remember a friend from Nablous once telling me...

02:25:10.000 --> 02:25:16.064
...how difficult it was during the occupation
to reserve a moment of intimacy with his wife.

02:25:16.064 --> 02:25:22.084
One evening, while they lay in a tender embrace,
a bullet lodged itself into their headboard...

02:25:22.084 --> 02:25:25.052
...inches away from their heads.

02:25:25.052 --> 02:25:31.000
In Gaza these days canoodling under the bombs
is out of the question,

02:25:31.000 --> 02:25:38.024
and the conjugal future of young Palestinian couples
is shaping up to be quite a challenge.

02:25:38.024 --> 02:25:43.006
Many have lost their homes
and are forced to live huddled together in the UNRWA schools,

02:25:43.006 --> 02:25:49.004
or crammed inside a tiny apartment
with as many as 20 people.

02:25:49.004 --> 02:25:55.092
"Tonight is Saturday and the young couples in Tel Aviv
go out and have fun in the clubs or on the beach.

02:25:55.092 --> 02:26:00.000
Meanwhile, out here,
we canít even make love in our own beds",

02:26:00.000 --> 02:26:03.064
says Wissam,
who got married in November.

02:26:03.064 --> 02:26:07.008
"We do have strobe lights though",

02:26:07.008 --> 02:26:14.004
he says, pointing to a succession of flashes to the south,
the evidence of bombing in full swing.

02:26:14.004 --> 02:26:23.096
Young men like Wissam, himself aged nineteen, become fathers
very early on in life and are already grandfathers by middle age,

02:26:23.096 --> 02:26:33.012
being aware that ñ as they are in Palestine ñ
this is the only form of survival available to them.

02:26:33.012 --> 02:26:40.068
While thereís talk on the outside of a ceasefire,
accepted by Hamas but, as usual, rejected by Israel,

02:26:40.068 --> 02:26:44.068
in the last two days
thereís been an escalation of bombings...

02:26:44.068 --> 02:26:47.092
...with a subsequent boost in civilian deaths

02:26:47.092 --> 02:26:50.056
60 only yesterday.

02:26:50.056 --> 02:26:55.002
About 10 were killed
outside a mosque at the time of prayer.

02:26:55.002 --> 02:26:59.064
What worries Palestinians
the most is the call for a ceasefire...

02:26:59.064 --> 02:27:04.012
...without reopening the border crossing points
at the same time.

02:27:04.012 --> 02:27:08.012
Even before materials
for reconstruction are let in,

02:27:08.012 --> 02:27:10.008
food supplies are urgently needed,

02:27:10.008 --> 02:27:15.002
and those whoíve been seriously injured
need to get out.

02:27:15.002 --> 02:27:18.088
Hospitals are overwhelmed
from the overcrowding.

02:27:18.088 --> 02:27:24.036
In the entire Strip,
they have a capacity of only 1,500 beds.

02:27:24.036 --> 02:27:30.006
But the number of the wounded
presently hovers at around 5,320

02:27:30.006 --> 02:27:38.004
In addition, Palestinian public opinion mistrusts Egypt,
the chosen intermediary for the talks,

02:27:38.004 --> 02:27:43.024
whose leadership
is notoriously obsequious to Israel.

02:27:43.024 --> 02:27:46.028
"Why not have a European country mediate?

02:27:46.028 --> 02:27:49.036
The role of Germany, a truly neutral country,

02:27:49.036 --> 02:27:54.008
was decisive in the resolution of the conflict
between Israel and Hezbollah",

02:27:54.008 --> 02:27:59.008
says a heavy-hearted Hamza,
a university professor.

02:27:59.008 --> 02:28:03.028
This morning another UN school in Beit Lahiya,

02:28:03.028 --> 02:28:08.056
in the northern Gaza Strip,
was heavily hit by Israeli tanks.

02:28:08.056 --> 02:28:17.006
There were 14 injured and two little brothers,
Bilal and Mohammed Al-Ashqar, aged five and seven, were killed.

02:28:17.006 --> 02:28:21.064
Their mother survived, but lost both her legs.

02:28:21.064 --> 02:28:24.064
Along with 42,000 others,

02:28:24.064 --> 02:28:31.032
they had sought shelter in the school
after Israel had ordered them to evacuate their homes.

02:28:31.032 --> 02:28:35.076
They believed theyíd be safe there,
just like the 43 refugees

02:28:35.076 --> 02:28:42.004
exterminated on the 6th January
in the UNRWA school massacre in Jabilia.

02:28:42.004 --> 02:28:45.006
"These two children were without a doubt innocent,

02:28:45.006 --> 02:28:50.024
just as there isnít the shadow of a doubt
that theyíre now dead",

02:28:50.024 --> 02:28:55.056
said John Ging,
the Director of UNRWAís Field Operations in Gaza,

02:28:55.056 --> 02:29:04.012
who tirelessly, albeit in vein,
continues to report the war crimes committed by the Israeli Army.

02:29:04.012 --> 02:29:13.002
But the Israeli generals are still busy preparing the "mission
accomplished" speech they intend to deliver to the world.

02:29:13.002 --> 02:29:17.036
I went back to whatís left
of Tal El-Hawa Hospital,

02:29:17.036 --> 02:29:23.241
the part still standing after the building
was set on fire by the Israelis.

02:29:23.241 --> 02:29:30.052
It has now started operating as a first aid unit
and logistical base for ambulances again.

02:29:30.052 --> 02:29:39.068
They continue to extract casualties trapped for days
under the rubble, found around its seriously-damaged buildings.

02:29:39.068 --> 02:29:45.024
Al-Shifa Hospital hosts a child called Suhaib Suliman,

02:29:45.024 --> 02:29:51.016
the only survivor in a family of 25,
all of whom are dead.

02:29:51.016 --> 02:29:56.088
A young girl,
Hadil Samony, lost 11 relatives.

02:29:56.088 --> 02:30:02.004
Sheíll have no one to take care of her
after being discharged from hospital.

02:30:02.004 --> 02:30:07.036
Excuse me, but can someone please explain
what kind of mission this is?

02:30:07.036 --> 02:30:11.561
Itís straight from collective punishment
to mass slaughter.

02:30:11.561 --> 02:30:19.721
On his blog, a frustrated Arab
called Raja Chemayel sums it all up as follows:

02:30:19.721 --> 02:30:25.006
"Take a strip of land
about 40 km long and only five km wide.

02:30:25.006 --> 02:30:27.401
Call it Gaza.

02:30:27.401 --> 02:30:31.241
Then cram in 1.4 million inhabitants.

02:30:31.241 --> 02:30:37.088
After that surround it by the sea to the west,
Egypt with Mubarak in the south, Israel in the north,

02:30:37.088 --> 02:30:41.072
and dub it "The land of terrorists".

02:30:41.072 --> 02:30:48.201
After that,
declare war against it and invade it with 232 tanks,

02:30:48.201 --> 02:30:51.401
687 armoured vehicles,

02:30:51.401 --> 02:30:54.601
43 airports for fighter jets,

02:30:54.601 --> 02:30:57.084
105 war helicopters,

02:30:57.084 --> 02:31:01.072
221 units of ground artillery,

02:31:01.072 --> 02:31:06.096
349 mortars,
three spy satellites,

02:31:06.096 --> 02:31:12.006
64 informers,
12 spies and 8,000 assault troops.

02:31:12.006 --> 02:31:16.006
Then call all of this "Israel defending itself".

02:31:16.006 --> 02:31:20.521
After that,
stop for a minute and state that

02:31:20.521 --> 02:31:23.881
you will "avoid hitting the civilian population"

02:31:23.881 --> 02:31:28.008
and call yourself
the only democracy in action.

02:31:28.008 --> 02:31:33.006
Whichever way you look at it,
only a miracle could prevent you hitting those civilians,

02:31:33.006 --> 02:31:41.002
or it could quite simply be a lie.
But once again, just call it "Israel defending itself".

02:31:41.002 --> 02:31:43.052
Now comes the question:

02:31:43.052 --> 02:31:47.092
what would happen
if the invader turned out to be a liar?

02:31:47.092 --> 02:31:51.002
What would happen to those unarmed civilians?

02:31:51.002 --> 02:31:56.201
With such firepower,
how could even Mother Theresa, or Mickey Mouse,

02:31:56.201 --> 02:32:02.000
avoid hitting all those civilians,
considering the ... situation?

02:32:02.000 --> 02:32:04.004
Call it whatever you like,

02:32:04.004 --> 02:32:09.024
but Israel knew damn well
those unarmed people were out there.

02:32:09.024 --> 02:32:12.032
It was Israel itself that had put them there.

02:32:12.032 --> 02:32:18.016
So, go ahead and call it genocide.
Itís much more credible".

02:32:18.016 --> 02:32:21.076
Aside from a couple
of brutally-assassinated leaders,

02:32:21.076 --> 02:32:25.008
Hamas hasnít suffered from this attack,

02:32:25.008 --> 02:32:28.032
and certainly hasnít lost its popularity.

02:32:28.032 --> 02:32:31.032
If anything,
theyíve gained some more.

02:32:31.032 --> 02:32:37.006
Once in a while it would be wise to remember
that Hamas arenít a bunch of terrorists, nor a political party,

02:32:37.006 --> 02:32:38.921
but a movement,

02:32:38.921 --> 02:32:45.004
and as such theyíre impossible
to neutralize with storms of cluster bombs.

02:32:45.004 --> 02:32:51.241
When I ask Palestinians for their opinions
on the real agenda behind this brutal massacre,

02:32:51.241 --> 02:32:56.044
many say it has everything to do
with the Israeli elections in February.

02:32:56.044 --> 02:32:58.096
"They made successful propaganda,
one vote at a time.

02:32:58.096 --> 02:33:04.044
Itís always been like this
on the eve of all elections".

02:33:04.044 --> 02:33:09.092
Just a month ago, Benjamin Netanyahu
was forecast to be the sure winner,

02:33:09.092 --> 02:33:18.016
but heís now expected to lose in competing
against the bloodthirsty vision of Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni.

02:33:18.016 --> 02:33:28.028
Avigdor Lieberman is the leader of Yisrael Beitenu, a growing
political force, that had won 11 seats after the 2006 elections,

02:33:28.028 --> 02:33:31.048
but the polls show that they are gaining
in popularity even with statements like the following,

02:33:31.048 --> 02:33:36.000
"Gaza ought to be erased from the map
with a nuclear bomb,

02:33:36.000 --> 02:33:41.001
the way the Americans
did with Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

02:33:41.001 --> 02:33:46.004
Yesterday Israeli writer Abraham Yehoshua
stated to Haaretz:

02:33:46.004 --> 02:33:51.000
"We kill their children today
to save many more tomorrow."

02:33:51.000 --> 02:33:55.561
Iím afraid that now,
his "Journey to the End of the Millennium"

02:33:55.561 --> 02:34:00.004
has ended up on board a tank
in front of a hospital in flames.

02:34:00.004 --> 02:34:04.008
Voltaire invited us to respect all opinions.

02:34:04.008 --> 02:34:07.084
I would suggest
stopping the sowing of seeds of hatred,

02:34:07.084 --> 02:34:12.841
sprinkling them with blood
and feeding them with terminal resentment.

02:34:12.841 --> 02:34:49.068
Stay human.

02:34:49.068 --> 02:34:53.044
19th January 2009

02:34:53.044 --> 02:34:55.052
The Living and the Dead

02:34:55.052 --> 02:34:59.081
In Gaza,
only the dead have seen the end of war.

02:34:59.081 --> 02:35:05.068
For the living, no ceasefire can make up
for the daily battle of a constant quest for survival.

02:35:05.068 --> 02:35:08.008
They have no running water,
gas, electricity,

02:35:08.008 --> 02:35:12.072
and no bread and milk
with which to feed their children.

02:35:12.072 --> 02:35:14.761
Thousands of people
have lost their homes.

02:35:14.761 --> 02:35:19.000
Humanitarian aid seeps
through the passes in drips and drabs,

02:35:19.000 --> 02:35:21.004
and you get the feeling that the benevolence...

02:35:21.004 --> 02:35:24.048
...of the killersí accomplices is only temporary.

02:35:24.048 --> 02:35:29.088
Tomorrow, Ban Ki-Moon,
the UNís Secretary General, will travel to Gaza,

02:35:29.088 --> 02:35:37.801
and weíre pretty sure that John Ging, Director of NRWAís
Field Operations in Gaza, will have many stories to tell him...

02:35:37.801 --> 02:35:40.092
...after Israel bombed two UN schools,

02:35:40.092 --> 02:35:43.241
assassinated four of their workers,

02:35:43.241 --> 02:35:48.004
and bombed and destroyed
the UNRWA Centre in Gaza City,

02:35:48.004 --> 02:35:53.084
reducing tonnes of medicine
and food supplies destined for the civilian population...

02:35:53.084 --> 02:35:57.012
...to ashes in the process.

02:35:57.012 --> 02:36:03.036
Gazaís mountains of rubble
continue to spit out corpses back on to the surface.

02:36:03.036 --> 02:36:10.601
Yesterday in Jabalia, Tal El-Hawa in Gaza City
and Zeitoun, the Red Crescent paramedics,

02:36:10.601 --> 02:36:13.961
with some help from the ISM volunteers,

02:36:13.961 --> 02:36:17.052
have pulled out
a total of 95 corpses from the ruins,

02:36:17.052 --> 02:36:22.281
many of which
are in an advanced state of decay.

02:36:22.281 --> 02:36:24.064
Walking through the streets of the city

02:36:24.064 --> 02:36:31.076
and no longer feeling constantly terrified by the thought
of a bomb surgically aimed to decapitate me,

02:36:31.076 --> 02:36:36.024
I still tremble
at the sight of stray dogs gathering in a circle,

02:36:36.024 --> 02:36:39.048
imagining what could reveal itself before my eyes...

02:36:39.048 --> 02:36:42.056
...as constituting their meal.

02:36:42.056 --> 02:36:47.241
Relieved-looking men go back to hanging out
in their mosques and cafÈs,

02:36:47.241 --> 02:36:51.721
but their attitude of feigned normalcy
is easy to detect.

02:36:51.721 --> 02:36:55.401
Many of them
have lost a relative or have nowhere to live.

02:36:55.401 --> 02:37:01.321
They pretend to go back to their everyday routine
to boost their wives and childrenís morale,

02:37:01.321 --> 02:37:06.032
somehow,
even this catastrophe must be dealt with.

02:37:06.032 --> 02:37:12.008
This morning we drove in some ambulances
to the most devastated neighborhoods in the city,

02:37:12.008 --> 02:37:15.002
Tal el-Hawa and Zeitoun.

02:37:15.002 --> 02:37:21.076
Questionnaire in hand, we went door-to-door compiling
a survey of the extent of the damage suffered by the buildings,

02:37:21.076 --> 02:37:25.036
and wrote down
the familiesí most urgent requirements:

02:37:25.036 --> 02:37:29.052
medicine for the elderly and sick,
and rice, oil and flour,

02:37:29.052 --> 02:37:34.004
basically the essentials,
to feed themselves with.

02:37:34.004 --> 02:37:38.024
All that weíve been able to give them
so far are meters of nylon,

02:37:38.024 --> 02:37:43.068
to be used in lieu of their shattered windowpanes
to block out the cold.

02:37:43.068 --> 02:37:46.761
ISM colleagues in Rafah informed me...

02:37:46.761 --> 02:37:51.044
...that the municipality
has handed out a few thousand dollars,

02:37:51.044 --> 02:37:56.032
mere pennies, to the families whoíve had their houses
completely razed to the ground by the bombs,

02:37:56.032 --> 02:38:03.002
the very same that according to Israel,
had been dropped only to destroy the tunnels.

02:38:03.002 --> 02:38:05.056
After the end of the conflict with Lebanon,

02:38:05.056 --> 02:38:11.004
Hezbollah had donated millions of dollars in cheques
to support homeless Lebanese citizens.

02:38:11.004 --> 02:38:14.068
In Gaza,
embargoed and under siege,

02:38:14.068 --> 02:38:18.032
Hamas is hardly able to support its people...

02:38:18.032 --> 02:38:22.121
...with what "would barely be enough
to rebuild a barn for livestock",

02:38:22.121 --> 02:38:25.481
says Khaled, a Rafah farmer.

02:38:25.481 --> 02:38:31.561
As the truce is unilateral,
Israel unilaterally decides not to respect it.

02:38:31.561 --> 02:38:37.084
Khan Yunos, a Palestinian boy was killed yesterday,
and another was injured.

02:38:37.084 --> 02:38:40.012
East of Gaza City,

02:38:40.012 --> 02:38:45.004
helicopters have showered a residential area
with white phosphorous.

02:38:45.004 --> 02:38:47.092
The same happened in Jabalia.

02:38:47.092 --> 02:38:53.044
In Khan Younis today,
the warships shot their cannons against an open plain,

02:38:53.044 --> 02:38:56.201
thankfully without harming anyone.

02:38:56.201 --> 02:39:01.008
But, as I write,
news of advancing tanks has reached me.

02:39:01.008 --> 02:39:06.084
Weíre not aware of any Palestinian rockets
having been fired in the last 24 hours.

02:39:06.084 --> 02:39:11.561
International journalists
are clamoring for news all along the Strip.

02:39:11.561 --> 02:39:18.004
They only managed to get in today. Israel granted them
a pass only now that the massacre is winding down.

02:39:18.004 --> 02:39:24.064
Standing by the blackened skeleton
of what remains of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City,

02:39:24.064 --> 02:39:28.076
an astonished BBC reporter
asked me how the army...

02:39:28.076 --> 02:39:32.521
...could possibly have mistaken the building
for a terroristsí den.

02:39:32.521 --> 02:39:34.048
I said:

02:39:34.048 --> 02:39:39.048
"For the very same reason
that children running away from burning buildings...

02:39:39.048 --> 02:39:42.068
...are put in the sights of snipers on the roofs,

02:39:42.068 --> 02:39:45.161
who then donít hesitate to kill them,

02:39:45.161 --> 02:39:49.028
spreading their grey matter
all over the road."

02:39:49.028 --> 02:39:51.561
The journalist furrowed his brow further.

02:39:51.561 --> 02:39:58.008
The enormous difference between us eyewitnesses
and firsthand victims of the massacre,

02:39:58.008 --> 02:40:04.028
and those who heard about it through our stories,
is now further highlighted.

02:40:04.028 --> 02:40:07.012
From Rome
Iím told that the EU intends...

02:40:07.012 --> 02:40:10.004
...to freeze the funds assigned
for the reconstruction of Gaza...

02:40:10.004 --> 02:40:16.006
...while itís still being governed by Hamas.

02:40:16.006 --> 02:40:19.002
He hinted.

02:40:19.002 --> 02:40:27.076
The European Commissioner for External Relations,
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, has made her point clear on this score:

02:40:27.076 --> 02:40:33.001
"The aid for the reconstruction of the Strip",
stated the European diplomat,

02:40:33.001 --> 02:40:38.024
"will only arrive if Palestinian President Abu Mazen...

02:40:38.024 --> 02:40:44.000
...will once again re-establish his authority
over the territory".

02:40:44.000 --> 02:40:50.024
For Gazaís Palestinians this is an explicit invitation
from the outside to engage in civil war,

02:40:50.024 --> 02:40:52.048
or in a coup díÈtat.

02:40:52.048 --> 02:40:56.004
Itís equivalent
to legitimizing the massacre of 410 children,

02:40:56.004 --> 02:41:00.016
who died
because their parents support democracy...

02:41:00.016 --> 02:41:05.052
...and freely elected Hamas.

02:41:05.052 --> 02:41:11.008
"The EU is diligently echoing the criminal policy
of collective punishment imposed by Israel.

02:41:11.008 --> 02:41:14.068
Why not entrust the funds to the UN?

02:41:14.068 --> 02:41:17.052
Or some governmental organization?"

02:41:17.052 --> 02:41:21.004
"The Unites States
are free to elect a warmonger like Bush,

02:41:21.004 --> 02:41:26.052
Israel can choose leaders with bloodied hands
like Sharon or Netanyahu,

02:41:26.052 --> 02:41:28.841
but we, the people of Gaza,

02:41:28.841 --> 02:41:31.016
arenít free to chose Hamas?",

02:41:31.016 --> 02:41:34.072
suggested Mohamed,
a human rights activist,

02:41:34.072 --> 02:41:37.641
who never voted
for the Islamic movement himself.

02:41:37.641 --> 02:41:41.052
I had no arguments to contradict him.

02:41:41.052 --> 02:41:45.052
Living Palestinians learn from their dead;

02:41:45.052 --> 02:41:49.801
they learn to live while dying,
right from the youngest age.

02:41:49.801 --> 02:41:55.401
Truce after truce,
the general perception here is that of a macabre pause...

02:41:55.401 --> 02:42:00.041
...during which to count the dead
between one massacre and another,

02:42:00.041 --> 02:42:02.072
and peace has never felt so elusive.

02:42:02.072 --> 02:42:08.028
Scouring Gaza City on board an ambulance
with the siren switched off for once,

02:42:08.028 --> 02:42:10.004
the war is still everywhere,

02:42:10.004 --> 02:42:16.048
among the ruins of a city pillaged of smiles
and now populated only by frightened gazes,

02:42:16.048 --> 02:42:22.008
eyes that insist upon scanning the sky
for the planes still flying endlessly overhead.

02:42:22.008 --> 02:42:26.096
Inside a home
we visited with some paramedics,

02:42:26.096 --> 02:42:31.000
I noticed some pastel drawings on the floor.

02:42:31.000 --> 02:42:37.001
It was clearly a childís hand that had abandoned them
after evacuating the house in a mad rush.

02:42:37.001 --> 02:42:39.241
I picked one of them up,

02:42:39.241 --> 02:42:44.000
tanks, helicopters and a body in pieces.

02:42:44.000 --> 02:42:50.008
In the middle of the drawing a child
with a stone had succeeded in reaching the sunís height

02:42:50.008 --> 02:42:53.052
and was damaging one of the flying death machines.

02:42:53.052 --> 02:42:56.008
Itís been said that in a childís drawing,

02:42:56.008 --> 02:43:01.008
the sun represents their desire to be,
to exist.

02:43:01.008 --> 02:43:07.036
The sun I saw
was crying tears of blood coloured in red pastel.

02:43:07.036 --> 02:43:14.761
Is a unilateral ceasefire enough
to heal such traumas?

02:43:14.761 --> 02:43:42.056
Stay human.

02:43:42.056 --> 02:43:45.028
20th January 2009

02:43:45.028 --> 02:43:47.052
Traces of Death

02:43:47.052 --> 02:43:50.441
"When the details of Gazaís massive destruction become known,

02:43:50.441 --> 02:43:54.281
my only reason to travel to Amsterdam...

02:43:54.281 --> 02:43:57.961
will be to appear before The Hagueís International Court".

02:43:57.961 --> 02:44:01.321
These words were ascribed
by the Haaretz newspaper...

02:44:01.321 --> 02:44:05.161
...to an Israeli minister,
who prefers to remain anonymous.

02:44:05.161 --> 02:44:09.088
All around the world,
indignant humanitarian organizations and citizens...

02:44:09.088 --> 02:44:14.048
...wish to see the Israeli Army
and its government dragged in the courtroom,

02:44:14.048 --> 02:44:23.048
hoping theyíll be found guilty of the war crimes
their hands were bloodied with during the 22-day massacre in Gaza.

02:44:23.048 --> 02:44:30.004
In their public appearances,
the military and government leaderships donít seem too phased.

02:44:30.004 --> 02:44:34.068
They claim to have solid proof
that the sites they bombed...

02:44:34.068 --> 02:44:39.004
...were all support bases used by Hamas terrorists.

02:44:39.004 --> 02:44:41.321
Let me get this straight:

02:44:41.321 --> 02:44:46.002
weíre talking about
over 20,000 houses damaged by the shelling,

02:44:46.002 --> 02:44:49.092
including 1,300 human casualties.

02:44:49.092 --> 02:44:51.096
To check out these alleged,

02:44:51.096 --> 02:44:55.012
crucial strategic hide-outs of Islamic terrorism,

02:44:55.012 --> 02:45:02.032
I headed to one of the most heavily bombed areas,
Jabal Al-Dardour in the northern Strip.

02:45:02.032 --> 02:45:05.044
Dozens of buildings had been razed to the ground.

02:45:05.044 --> 02:45:11.241
The mammoth-sized, armour-plated bulldozers
are custom-built by Caterpillar (boycott it!)

02:45:11.241 --> 02:45:13.088
to raze Palestinian houses to the ground,

02:45:13.088 --> 02:45:18.921
and are used to lend the army tanks a hand
in their destructive effort.

02:45:18.921 --> 02:45:25.052
Out there I saw men and women rummaging through the rubble,
looking for things, such as an article of clothing,

02:45:25.052 --> 02:45:31.561
a few dust-coated school bags
or portrait photos of families in cracked frames.

02:45:31.561 --> 02:45:34.032
Iíve never caught sight of any destroyed arsenals,

02:45:34.032 --> 02:45:42.084
only buildings with their ceilings torn clear off their walls, where you can
catch sight of what was once a living-room, the remains of a bedroom,

02:45:42.084 --> 02:45:45.006
or a kitchen reduced to cinders.

02:45:45.006 --> 02:45:48.006
Abu Omar, a molecular biologist,

02:45:48.006 --> 02:45:52.056
has invited me to come
and see whatís left of his apartment.

02:45:52.056 --> 02:45:55.006
His neighbour, Osama,
a paediatrician,

02:45:55.006 --> 02:46:00.008
also showed me his house,
reduced to a colander.

02:46:00.008 --> 02:46:02.008
The propulsive power of the missiles...

02:46:02.008 --> 02:46:08.064
...splashed some debris
from the near-by orange orchard onto the building.

02:46:08.064 --> 02:46:14.072
The juice of oranges,
mixed with the clotted blood splattered all over the floor,

02:46:14.072 --> 02:46:18.921
looked like a naÔf painterís canvas.

02:46:18.921 --> 02:46:21.801
An elderly man,
his head wrapped in a kafiyeh,

02:46:21.801 --> 02:46:28.024
approaches us to ask Natalie,
our Lebanese companion with the ISM, where sheís from.

02:46:28.024 --> 02:46:30.601
Waving his walking stick in the air,

02:46:30.601 --> 02:46:34.004
as if to draw a wide arc
over the devastated landscape before us,

02:46:34.004 --> 02:46:36.028
he says,

02:46:36.028 --> 02:46:39.881
"Beirut and Gaza, same painting, same artist."

02:46:39.881 --> 02:46:44.004
Even Osamaís pigeon coop
hasnít been spared by the shelling.

02:46:44.004 --> 02:46:50.004
His birds lie on the ground,
as if defeated by a sky too heavy for their wings,

02:46:50.004 --> 02:46:52.028
as heavy as "cast lead".

02:46:52.028 --> 02:46:54.096
"They tried to defeat the Palestinian air force,

02:46:54.096 --> 02:46:59.064
or perhaps they thought these birds
might be dispatch carriers for Hamas",

02:46:59.064 --> 02:47:04.024
I told the paediatrician,
causing him to smile sadly.

02:47:04.024 --> 02:47:07.068
As we travelled in our broken-down taxi,

02:47:07.068 --> 02:47:12.008
we crossed routes
with the UNís Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon.

02:47:12.008 --> 02:47:19.081
A long line of brand-new SUVs,
all tinted windows and UN logos,

02:47:19.081 --> 02:47:23.096
darted through Gaza as
if the earth shook beneath their tires.

02:47:23.096 --> 02:47:28.072
As it happens,
this was actually the case until a few days ago.

02:47:28.072 --> 02:47:32.072
Wandering around the impossible puzzle
of Jabal Al-Dardourís ruins,

02:47:32.072 --> 02:47:38.036
I heard someone call my name.
When I looked over my shoulder, I saw Abu Ashrafa.

02:47:38.036 --> 02:47:44.064
Iíd attended his sonís funeral
when he was killed by a bomb last November,

02:47:44.064 --> 02:47:50.000
a month in which, according to Israel and the Western media,
a ceasefire had been called.

02:47:50.000 --> 02:47:57.004
Abu Ashrafa had just lost another relative,
and his house has been razed down to its foundations.

02:47:57.004 --> 02:48:04.064
"They havenít left us a single head of livestock,
a rock, or an olive tree standing ñ theyíre not human",

02:48:04.064 --> 02:48:07.721
he said, leading me to his olive orchard.

02:48:07.721 --> 02:48:14.008
Many trees ñ the centenary ones ñ
have been torn down by Israeli bulldozers.

02:48:14.008 --> 02:48:24.088
Itís as if they were trying to make up for not being able
to erase lives that are impossible to uproot from their origins,

02:48:24.088 --> 02:48:30.921
their identity and their burning desire for justice,
surviving all destruction.

02:48:30.921 --> 02:48:33.068
Not far away a middle-aged man approached me,

02:48:33.068 --> 02:48:37.088
asking if I thought all Palestinians
were Hamas guerrilla fighters.

02:48:37.088 --> 02:48:42.000
From a window
in his damaged home flapped a yellow Fatah banner.

02:48:42.000 --> 02:48:44.681
"Our Kalashnikov is our faith and honour,

02:48:44.681 --> 02:48:51.081
we will stand up for our land tooth and nail
in the same way you would defend your daughter from being raped",

02:48:51.081 --> 02:48:53.088
this Fatah supporter told me.

02:48:53.088 --> 02:48:57.076
If Israelís objective was to isolate
and rid the Strip of Hamas...

02:48:57.076 --> 02:49:02.441
...by dividing further a people
already split by internal diatribes,

02:49:02.441 --> 02:49:06.281
then Israel has achieved
the exact opposite of what it intended.

02:49:06.281 --> 02:49:10.024
The bombing
has in part given Gaza back its national identity.

02:49:10.024 --> 02:49:12.072
The litmus test of this new situation...

02:49:12.072 --> 02:49:16.072
...is represented by the muqawama,
the Palestinian resistance,

02:49:16.072 --> 02:49:20.361
heroic in its attempt
to stop the Israeli Army from advancing.

02:49:20.361 --> 02:49:26.024
The flowing beards of the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam
Brigadesí Islamists, Hamasí fighting wing,

02:49:26.024 --> 02:49:34.441
have fought side-by-side with the scampish, goatee-sporting Marxist
guerrilla fighters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,

02:49:34.441 --> 02:49:37.072
and alongside Fatahís Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

02:49:37.072 --> 02:49:42.032
Only time will tell
if this newfound unity among the militias

02:49:42.032 --> 02:49:48.028
is a reflection
of unity within civic and political society.

02:49:48.028 --> 02:49:54.064
Leaving behind us the lunar atmosphere
of Jabal Al-Dardour, denuded of its buildings,

02:49:54.064 --> 02:50:00.041
we paused before a frowning child
sitting atop a small pile of rubble,

02:50:00.041 --> 02:50:03.016
or what was left of his houseís courtyard.

02:50:03.016 --> 02:50:06.064
We asked him what was going through his mind.

02:50:06.064 --> 02:50:11.008
In his simple words he seemed
to be saying that Hamas and its resistance...

02:50:11.008 --> 02:50:14.048
...were responsible for this catastrophe.

02:50:14.048 --> 02:50:19.008
So Fida, our ISM companion
took him aside in a motherly manner...

02:50:19.008 --> 02:50:22.088
...and briefly told him of their history.

02:50:22.088 --> 02:50:26.008
She spoke of soldiers marching into Rafah in 2004...

02:50:26.008 --> 02:50:30.000
...and razing entire neighbourhoods to the ground,

02:50:30.000 --> 02:50:34.016
exactly as had happened here and now.

02:50:34.016 --> 02:50:42.441
Back then, there was no Hamas, and Fatahís leader, Yasser Arafat,
was the designated terrorist, the number one enemy...

02:50:42.441 --> 02:50:46.068
...to dethrone and wipe away from Palestine.

02:50:46.068 --> 02:50:55.006
But rather than targeting Fatahís headquarters, even then
the Israeli troops struck indiscriminately and killed dozens of civilians,

02:50:55.006 --> 02:50:59.076
razing Fidaís house in the process as well.

02:50:59.076 --> 02:51:01.092
Travelling back towards Gaza City,

02:51:01.092 --> 02:51:10.004
the car in which we drove plunged into a hole
in the concrete created by the tanksí creaking wheels.

02:51:10.004 --> 02:51:12.064
The taxi driver turned around and said:

02:51:12.064 --> 02:51:16.841
"Death was here and left its footprints."

02:51:16.841 --> 02:51:23.241
I wonder how long itíll take
for the scars of this land to heal.

02:51:23.241 --> 02:52:08.008
Stay human.

02:52:08.008 --> 02:52:13.036
22nd January 2009

02:52:13.036 --> 02:52:16.096
What her tears have seen

02:52:16.096 --> 02:52:25.088
I crossed the threshold of my house in Almina,
facing Gaza Cityís port, after several daysí absence.

02:52:25.088 --> 02:52:30.004
Everything was exactly as I had left it,

02:52:30.004 --> 02:52:36.012
the gas tank was still anorexic
(feeding it is too expensive)

02:52:36.012 --> 02:52:41.036
and the power had been cut off
by a perfect strangerís pliers.

02:52:41.036 --> 02:52:46.084
The pleasant panorama
that had once been outside my window has changed...

02:52:46.084 --> 02:52:52.096
...and no longer raises my spirits
from the miseries of living under siege.

02:52:52.096 --> 02:53:03.000
To the contrary, it now rubs salt in the wound,
a trauma that wonít heal with its reminders of a massacre.

02:53:03.000 --> 02:53:11.000
Twenty metres from my front door,
where the fire station once stood, a huge crater now gapes...

02:53:11.000 --> 02:53:19.032
...wide for children to mess around in,
as if to exorcize its horror for their parents.

02:53:19.032 --> 02:53:28.521
The afternoon call to prayer no longer has the same comforting
quality of the muezzinís chant that I had grown accustomed to.

02:53:28.521 --> 02:53:38.002
I wonder where heís gone to, and if he managed to survive
at the top of one of the few minarets still left intact.

02:53:38.002 --> 02:53:46.064
The last time Iíd listened to him, this anonymous muezzin
had had to interrupt his solemnly chanted call to prayer...

02:53:46.064 --> 02:53:50.036
...because of a chesty cough.

02:53:50.036 --> 02:53:53.076
Itís an affliction Iím familiar with myself,

02:53:53.076 --> 02:53:59.081
as the gases of the bombing in Gaza
have spared no one.

02:53:59.081 --> 02:54:04.088
I found a note at the foot of the French window
looking onto my small balcony,

02:54:04.088 --> 02:54:08.681
as if it had been put there
by a friend.

02:54:08.681 --> 02:54:16.004
The street and garden were littered with these same leaflets.
They had been dropped from Israeli airplanes...

02:54:16.004 --> 02:54:24.201
...warning the Palestinians to stay alert,
and be aware that the walls had ears and eyes.

02:54:24.201 --> 02:54:31.881
"At the slightest threatening action against Israel
weíll be back to invade the Gaza Strip again.

02:54:31.881 --> 02:54:38.068
What youíve seen these days
is nothing compared with what awaits you."

02:54:38.068 --> 02:54:45.001
Some kids in the streets had picked up the leaflets
and folded them into paper airplanes,

02:54:45.001 --> 02:54:51.016
seemingly sending the message back to its destination.

02:54:51.016 --> 02:54:56.008
Over the phone,
Ahmed told me about a new kidsí game.

02:54:56.008 --> 02:55:05.004
Until a few days ago, they amused themselves by relighting the
fires, simply kicking the fragments of white phosphorous bombs

02:55:05.004 --> 02:55:08.841
scattered all over the Strip.

02:55:08.841 --> 02:55:16.032
The debris left by these bombs
has very long-lasting flammable properties.

02:55:16.032 --> 02:55:26.921
Even when picked up several days after their detonation,
they can still catch fire if shaken about.

02:55:26.921 --> 02:55:33.801
The Al-Quds Hospital paramedics
speak of how they have given up trying to put out the fires...

02:55:33.801 --> 02:55:37.481
...provoked by these illegal bombs,

02:55:37.481 --> 02:55:42.096
their flames seemed to feed off the water
being thrown at them.

02:55:42.096 --> 02:55:48.681
"The consequences of all the shit
thatís been thrown at us in these last three weeks...

02:55:48.681 --> 02:55:55.006
...will surface again in the near future,
with new cancer cases and deformed babies",

02:55:55.006 --> 02:56:01.321
Munir, a doctor
at Al-Shifa Hospital told me.

02:56:01.321 --> 02:56:10.601
Even Gazaís neighbours seem to be worrying about this massive
use of weapons forbidden by all international conventions.

02:56:10.601 --> 02:56:18.441
In Sderot, and likewise in Ashkelon,
Israeli citizens have formally asked their government...

02:56:18.441 --> 02:56:24.008
...for clarification regarding the weapons
that have been used to torment us.

02:56:24.008 --> 02:56:30.016
Itís obvious that impoverished uranium
and white phosphorous...

02:56:30.016 --> 02:56:36.088
...scattered in such a criminal manner
all over the tiny patch of land that is Gaza...

02:56:36.088 --> 02:56:45.801
...wonít discriminate between Jews and Muslims
when it comes to provoking generic illnesses.

02:56:45.801 --> 02:56:49.161
The truce ought to have started by now,

02:56:49.161 --> 02:56:54.921
but today I was awoken in my bed
by the deafening rumble of cannon shots from the warships,

02:56:54.921 --> 02:56:58.004
exactly like a few days ago.

02:56:58.004 --> 02:57:06.096
Some brave Palestinian fishermen had ventured from the port
equipped with fishing nets on their tiny boats.

02:57:06.096 --> 02:57:09.801
The Israeli Navy pushed them back.

02:57:09.801 --> 02:57:13.641
Nowadays, the only edible fish found in Gaza...

02:57:13.641 --> 02:57:19.084
...are the Egyptian cans of tuna
that came through the tunnels months ago.

02:57:19.084 --> 02:57:28.521
East of Gaza City two children were blown up
when playing with an unexploded device.

02:57:28.521 --> 02:57:35.096
The witnesses we heard spoke of active mines
in front of the ruins of Tal El-Hawaís houses.

02:57:35.096 --> 02:57:41.008
some bomb disposal experts
sent over by Hamas defused them and,

02:57:41.008 --> 02:57:46.064
judging by the care
with which they loaded them onto an off-road vehicle,

02:57:46.064 --> 02:57:59.064
I think the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades might return that
message of death straight back to its lawful owners sometime soon.

02:57:59.064 --> 02:58:08.000
Looking from Naeemaís roof, the Israeli-Palestinian border
has never seemed so easy to pick out.

02:58:08.000 --> 02:58:13.084
On one side lie the green hills,
being constantly watered by the Israeli kibbutzim.

02:58:13.084 --> 02:58:20.076
On the other you see the parching thirst
of a land robbed of its water springs and herds.

02:58:20.076 --> 02:58:24.096
Naeema wished to tell me all about her last few days,

02:58:24.096 --> 02:58:30.441
a tactile,
aural and olfactory account of the massacre,

02:58:30.441 --> 02:58:35.081
considering that young Naeema is blind.

02:58:35.081 --> 02:58:44.088
The soldiers threateningly ordered her fellow villagers to evacuate
their homes only a few minutes before storming the place.

02:58:44.088 --> 02:58:51.092
The men loaded the younger children onto their shoulders
and ran away, along with their women.

02:58:51.092 --> 02:58:57.088
Naeema chose to stay
so as not to slow down their escape.

02:58:57.088 --> 02:59:03.016
She took refuge in her own home,
believing herself to be safe,

02:59:03.016 --> 02:59:08.028
and welcomed her neighbours,
who had nowhere else to go:

02:59:08.028 --> 02:59:15.004
three women, an elderly lady
and a paralyzed old man.

02:59:15.004 --> 02:59:20.521
Then the tanks and bulldozers came,
spreading death and destruction,

02:59:20.521 --> 02:59:28.681
devouring acre by acre,
until they stopped in front of Naeemaís house.

02:59:28.681 --> 02:59:35.048
Standing on a small hill,
the building she inhabits is the tallest in the village,

02:59:35.048 --> 02:59:41.004
and the Israeli soldiers,
who found that it was strategically positioned,

02:59:41.004 --> 02:59:46.032
let themselves in
and occupied it for two weeks.

02:59:46.032 --> 02:59:51.044
"They came in and pointed their weapons at us,

02:59:51.044 --> 02:59:56.032
pushing us into a small room,
where they locked us up for 11 days", Naeema said.

02:59:56.032 --> 03:00:02.000
"During that entire time
they only brought us water to drink twice,

03:00:02.000 --> 03:00:07.052
and food came in the form
of leftovers from the soldiersí rations.

03:00:07.052 --> 03:00:15.002
hey never let us go to the bathroom,
so we had to relieve ourselves one corner of the room.

03:00:15.002 --> 03:00:20.032
hey wouldnít let us talk among ourselves,
and would come in and beat us at night,

03:00:20.032 --> 03:00:26.004
when, huddled in a circle,
we tried to gather some strength from prayer.

03:00:26.004 --> 03:00:32.024
Sometimes theyíd come over and, intimidating us
by pressing their weapons against our napes,

03:00:32.024 --> 03:00:35.721
they demanded that we confess
our alleged support for Hamas,

03:00:35.721 --> 03:00:40.072
insulting us when we wouldnít comply."

03:00:40.072 --> 03:00:43.084
At the end of the eleventh day of imprisonment,

03:00:43.084 --> 03:00:50.008
the international Red Cross finally arrived
and released the six prisoners from their jailers.

03:00:50.008 --> 03:00:55.081
"They didnít allow us to pick anything up,
not even my sunglasses",

03:00:55.081 --> 03:01:03.401
Naeema related, bringing her story to a close, adding
that when she and her neighbours returned to their homes,

03:01:03.401 --> 03:01:07.881
they discovered the thievery carried out by the soldiers.

03:01:07.881 --> 03:01:15.064
They had taken all their gold trinkets and hidden savings,
after having destroyed their few possessions:

03:01:15.064 --> 03:01:23.036
two TV sets, a radio, a fridge,
and the solar panels on the roofs.

03:01:23.036 --> 03:01:29.481
I saw tears in this womanís eyes,
hidden by her dark glasses.

03:01:29.481 --> 03:01:33.036
They seemed the most vivid
I had ever seen.

03:01:33.036 --> 03:01:37.001
In actual fact, what Naeema "saw"...

03:01:37.001 --> 03:01:43.068
...is a lot more that any young woman her age
will ever get a chance to see,

03:01:43.068 --> 03:01:53.002
if she had the misfortune of being born
in this tortured strip of land.

03:01:53.002 --> 99:59:59.999
Stay human.