Arab World Reacts to “Gaza Massacre”
People from across the Arab world are lamenting the fate of Gazans, after a wave of Israeli aerial attacks, which have killed more than 200 Palestinians and wounded more than 700.
The silence of Arab governments in particular is hitting a raw nerve.
Ayhamjzzan from Syria writes in Arabic:
نصف الشهداء ال200 نساء وأطفال
100 طن متفجرات من 100 طائرة أطلقت على غزة اليوم
أين العرب والشعب العربي هل هذه حرب ضد حماس أم إبادة لأهل غزة
أين الكرامة العربية ولماذا نقف متفرجين كما الأنظمة العربية البائسة تتفرج ولاتفلح إلا بالتنديد
Still in Syria Qunfuz says that the massacre was easy to foresee. The blogger adds:
This is a deliberate, cruelly organised crime. And nobody notices.
This morning, with children in school, people on the streets and in offices, policemen at a graduation ceremony, the sky screamed and roared. There are reports of general panic, and of streets clogged with corpses.
I know the writing becomes a whine when these simple sentiments are expressed: but, again; imagine you are living, or dying, with your children, in such a place. And imagine that the world ignores you.
Jordanian Mohammed Badi posts this image and writes:
Gaza… Don't Cry, We Are With U
Label Ash [fr], a Moroccan from Barcelona, is swamped by a sense of doom:
La ligue arabe dit qu'elle va se réunir lundi pour contrer l'offensive israélienne. Ils arrivent à garder un sacré sens de l'humour.
La ligue va juste condamner avec des joutes verbales stériles.Y a-t-il quelque chose à faire? Non.Pardon pour la froideur sentencieuse de la formule, mais cela ne sert plus à rien. La Palestine s'éteint, petit à petit, mais elle s'éteint.
“La Palestine appelle le monde, mais ça sonne occupé” (Amazigh Yacine)
They sure keep a sense of humor. The League will only condemn the attacks with sterile talks. Is there something we can do ? No.
Sorry for the coldness of this word. But it's of no use now. Palestine is dying, little by little.
“Palestine calls the world, but the line is busy” (Amazigh Yacine)
Jordanian SimSim is also appalled with Arab and international reactions to the suffering of Palestinians. The blogger says that every time such a tragedy strikes, history seems to repeat itself – with the same reactions and statements.
On Arab government reactions, SimSim notes:
– طلب السماح والعفو من الصهاينة ورجائهم بوقف قتل المدنيين والا بنزعل منهم
Turning his attention to the international arena the blogger says:
ليش اسرائيل متى هدت اللعب ؟ ولكن الآن تقتل بموافقة الأغبياء العرب … طبعا بحجة توحيد الصفوف وايجاد حكومة واحدة لفلسطين
احلى اشي البيت الاسود ….. تدعو اسرائيل الى تركيز ضرباتها بعيدا عن المدنيين ….. هاي الحنان ولا بلاش
When has Israel stopped? It is now attacking with the approval of the stupid Arabs, under the excuse, of course, of unifying our ranks and establishing a single government for Palestine.
The best thing is the Black House, which has called on Israel to focus its attacks far from civilians. This is what I would call compassion.
SimSim also describes Arab people as follows:
A fitting finale to this round up can be found at On Olives and Sake, where Syrian blogger Yazan Badran posts a headline which reads:
Happy Bloody New Year.
For more reactions, stay tuned to Global Voices Online.
36 comments
Living in this world is a real travesty!
If you have money,weapon and media, then you can even justify an obvious genocide under some (ludicrous!) pretext.
I simply got this reaction after reading some comments from
some of our Israeli or Israel-defenders friend.
Habib
Dhaka
Bangladesh
It is moments like these that western democracies start to look ethically corrupt and just a bunch of Oligarchies justifying the unjustifiable. It is at moments like these that the government independent media in the west start to appear as an integral part of the real powers running the State. It is at moments like these that any sense of morality and humanity that the west professes becomes just meaningless slogans. Using the most powerful and most sophisticated weapons against occupied civilian highly populated urban concentrations is nothing but a war crime. After the strangulation of the Palestinian population for many years, and starving them, these glorified fireworks were a scream for help. The cynical Israeli response was to open the crosses for few days then unleash these coward barbaric attacks on people that cannot respond with anything but these very inaccurate primitive home-made toys. Whereas western media reports these events as a response to Palestinian rocket attacks, they fail to highlight the plight of the Palestinian people and represent the sequence of events leading to these desperate rocket attacks. Also, the use of words like “missiles” is not only misleading but seems to me a misrepresentation of the inexistent treat they truly represent. This is propaganda at its best. It is at moments like these that the Jewish Diaspora worldwide shows how influential and powerful she is. It is at moments like these that the west works as a recruitment sergeant for Islamists and plays a pivotal role on the radicalisation process of youth across the Islamic world and show how weak and irrelevant are the Arab regimes. This Israeli ethnocratic theocracy with Universal Suffrage will stop at nothing to realise their biblical land judaisation dreams and the total inhalation of any Palestinian opposition. The question that remains is Israel allowed to go as far as she deems necessary to eradicate a militarily inexistent treat?!!
civax
Yes defiantly these funky people will never understand: They will never understand that they should forget about a land which just 60 years ago was their. They will never understand that they should not feel choked when they hear someone like you referring to their homeland, their grandfathers houses with “MY CITY- MY HOME).
They will never realize that they should throw all the door keys they inherited from their fathers and continue living like sacks of potatoes. kissing your hands and maybe your feet, for all the generousity your are offering them .They will never, so keep shooting them.
1-people died and injured? While you easily can count the number of people died and injured, and maybe even mention their names in ten minutes, I need a calculator and a whole year to write down the names of people who died and injured!!
These rockets sound so dangerous actually, that’s why the man in the photo which u have attached on ur site, is carrying her, that’s why it has caused only a hole in the wall!! Woudn’t a car crashing into this wall make a bigger damage!!
This photo just reminded me of all the photos of the men carrying the remains of babies between their hands in each time your government wants to make a global show.
2-you didn’t “LEAVE” Gaza Strip… you ended an “OCCUPATION” and this is the first time I hear that an occupier would leave the land which he had been occupying , full of opportunities for the people to continue living!
History should write down this: Israel: A generous good – hearted occupier.
Hamas didn’t take over, Hamas won the election . your “democratic” government didn’t like it …and you know the rest of the story, in case you don’t ..google for it.
PS:
DO not AHALAN me!!
civax:
Yes, I am sure Dr. Frankenstein was as upset as you were at the monster he had made.
But I do agree, the best thing for the person chained up in the the back yard of their own house is to make the best of it, no need for them to be angry and fight back because nothing will come of it. However, that would be admiting defeat, and in some cultures that’s not acceptable.
I do find it funny that Israel always says it feels threatened by a small, unorganized, under-equiped group like Hamas, when Israel itself has a well trained army, high tech equipment, support from america, etc, and can easily kill, and feels justified killing hundreds of people a day in response to some low-grade shelling that kills very few. I think there’s a bit of the Napoleon Complex going on here! It’s dangerous when the “victim” is better equiped than the “attacker”…
I am stunned by the reaction of a majority of Arab bloggers and the public to the events.
There is a lot of passion and calls ‘to do something’, and a lot of hatred towards Israel. However, outraged commentors are unable to explain how do they want to solve the situation. There is also no attempt of thinking about ahead of Israeli government’s responses to Hamas action. And Hamas is exposed now a classic ultra-right insurgent army and movement. Hamas press conferences are like shows staged for sponsors and for arousing irrational passion of the Palestinians.
The only sane persons in this situations seem Abbas and Mubarak, who rationally interrpret the situation and propose concrete solutions.
But in the mainstream Arab discourse there seems to be no reflection, no contemplation, or no rational analysis. Maybe I am reading wrong blogs.
Go go go Palestina many bulgarians supports you .
i amvery sad for the gazzans right now.. i am israeli and believe that my country does need to defend itself but it doesnt change the fact that i am sad for the gazans.. they live in hell.. and my defense comes at a very steep price..
not all gazans are terrorists.. in fact very few are terrorists.. they selected hamas because hamas used to give hand out and social security that the PLO didnt.. hamas however abandonned its social ways as soon as it got into power and instead dragged the palestinians into armed conflict..
i dont believe that the palestinian street deserves these horrors.. and i dont believe that slaughtering hundreds of local enforcement agents is the answer to the qassams..
all hamas needs to do to win this war is fire a single missile once we declare the war over.. if they fire even one then they have won because we wont have crused their ability to hurt us..
the price of our inevitable perceived loss will be a crazy amount of death..
this cannot be the way.. my heart goes out to everyone suffering from this conflict both palestinian and israeli..
we all deserve better..
Err… ok, I’m not here to start a flame war. We have enough of that already. I was trying to talk clamly and I do understand there hard emotions involved (on your and my side as well).
But I think Andry as a valid point. We’re in a mess, what are your solutions?
Since neither side have any trust in the other (I’ve personally lost any hope for peace with Gaza when Hamas overthrew the Fatah by force), I currently see only one solution:
Palestinians: Gaza would stop ALL activities and declarations against Israel (yes, I mean stop shooting rockets, as well as the announcement of Hamas that it wants to destroy Israel). No more heavier weapons than AK-47s will be allowed to be smuggled in.
Israel: Israel in return, will stop attacking, lift the siege on the sea, air and Egypt border. Israel will keep providing electricity until Egypt will take over or Gazans will be able to support themselves, which ever comes first. same about Fuel.
Negotiations of the release of Gilad Shalit in exchange of Gazan prisoners will be renewed. (Abbas doesn’t want Fatah prisoners out by Hamas, that’s why Israel released 250 prisoners to the west bank as a token a few weeks ago)
This will conclude the current round of violence. We can keep arguing in media and all, but arguing doesn’t kill anyone. Gazans will be in Gaza and Israelis in Israel. And that’s that.
Just to add to what Lirun had said. I have no hate towards the regular Palestinian. He has no more control of what happens on his side than I have on mine. But I can express my strong opinions against the GROUP actions of Hamas and others in power in Gaza, just as you can express your strong opinions against the government in Israel. Both is legitimate.
I also agree violence is not solution, though I don’t believe Israel can talk peace while under fire.