Syria: Bloggers React to Gaza Blockade

Light Up GazaThis picture is dedicated for a Gaza in darkness. As Israel continues its blockade on the strip, humanitarian conditions dip lower and lower. And while the Middle East shivers under the exceptional weather conditions, Gazans find themselves without fuel for heat or electricity.

Here are some reactions from the Syrian blogsphere:

Ayman, from The Damascene Blog, simply posted a Nizar Kabbani poem entitled “The Angry Ones” [AR]:

يا تلاميذ غزة
نحن أهل الحساب والجمع والطرح
فخوضوا حروبكم واتركونا
نحن موتى لا يملكون ضريحاً
ويتامى لا يملكون عيونا
قد لزمنا جحورنا
وطلبنا منكم أن تقاتلوا التنّينا
قد صغرنا أمامكم ألف قرن
وكبرتم خلال شهر قرونا

Oh, pupils of Gaza,
We are the people of calculus, addition, and subtraction,
Fight your wars and leave us,
We are dead, who have no caskets,
We are orphans, who have no eyes,
We stayed in our dug holes,
And asked you to fight the dragon,
In your eyes, we have become a thousand centuries smaller,
In, a month, you've grown centuries’ worth.

Rime, from Mosaic, echoes that sentiment of frustration towards the response of the international community and international media:

You really do have to read other media or to watch other news to know that once again, Israel’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians will stop at nothing, and that after the systematic murder of dozens of Palestinians over the past few weeks, the barbaric siege of the world’s biggest, most desperate ghetto goes on.

Abu Fares, says in the comments section, reflecting an opinion shared by many Syrians:

Those babies who make it through this ordeal will one day come of age and face their oppressors, and possibly those who rewrite the truth according to their own twisted sense of morality.
They would be called “terrorists” by the Israelis and the prevalent media because:
1. They didn't die in their incubators when they were given the chance to prove that they are good babies.
2. Because they will stand by their rights and fight… again and again!

Annie, a Belgian who lived in Syria for years, and who blogs at Vivre en Syrie, publishes a joint statement by 40 international, Israeli and Palestinian development and human rights agencies:

We, the undersigned international, Palestinian and Israeli development and human rights organisations urgently call for an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, an end to the international isolation, and dialogue and reconciliation between Palestinian parties. We also call for an end to 40 years of Israeli occupation in the interests of peace and justice for all.

‘We are living in fear of the devastation of our society. The siege of the Gaza Strip is a terrible crime. I want to tell the world: don't say that you didn't know.’

More on that from fellow GlobalVoices Authors…
Palestine: Gaza Under Seige
Egypt: Gaza In the Headlines
Pitch Black Gaza: Jordanian Bloggers React!
Israel: Israeli Bloggers Respond to Crisis in Palestine

7 comments

  • cobi2

    It is not hard to appreciate why people of conscience would express deep concern for the plight of people in Gaza. It is, however, unsettling to realize that many people who are all too ready to heap scorn and moral indignation upon Israel for closing its border to Gaza have been silent about the thousands of missiles that have been fired from Gaza at innocent civillians in Israel. The matter is thrown into even starker perspective when one notes that there has been overwhelming silence about the tragic human rights abuses that the Hamas lead government in Gaza has been perpetrating against many of its own people. Does Palestinian pain only matter if Israelis can be blamed for it?

    Of course, Israeli actions are sometimes worthy of criticism. Yet, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that there is something deeply cynical about some of the criticsm of Israel (on this blog and elsewhere) that has been leveled in the name of human rights. Much of it appears like little more than thinly veiled swords that are being put to use in the service of a larger effort to deligitimize and, as Hamas would like, destroy Israel.

  • Good post. Check out my latest post on http://peoplepowergranny.blogspot.com, and vote in my poll that examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Gaza blockade. Thank you!

  • Cobi2,

    I think that you haven’t been following the conversation on the Syrian blogsphere, this was strictly the responses on the blockade. When it comes to the rockets [more like the fireworks when you compare them to Israel’s missile arsenal, which is being used quite freely], when it comes to Hamas’s takeover, Hizbulla, when it comes to many things, many people do raise their voices.

    What we are protesting here, is something very clear and well defined, there’s nothing cynical in babies dying in their incubators. That is very real. There’s nothing cynical in the collective punishment of the palestinians in Gaza, and the daily life hell that the wall and the check points are giving palestinians in the west bank. There is nothing cynical in the land law in jerusalem, there is nothing cynical about the everyday human rights abuses in Hebron.

  • […] Artikel erschien zuerst auf Global Voices. Die Übersetzung erfolgte durch Clemens Harten, Teil des “Project Lingua“. Die […]

  • BernardoD

    Supongo que el artículo se refiera al mismo corte de energía que “afectó” al parlamento, no? Ese mismo corte en el cuál se veia una sala a oscuras iluminadas por velas, pero donde se ovldaron de sellar bien las cortinas para que no se vea la luz de los cuartos adyacentes y sacar loos microfonos. Otra mala producción de Pallwood.

  • […] Syria: Bloggers React to Gaza Blockade (January 2008) Posted by Maya Norton  Print version Share This […]

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