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Letter 103 - Dec. 2017
PEACE LINES
MESSAGERIES
DE LA PAIX
www.peacelines.org
Newsletter n°103 : GAZA still
- and the Women walking !
September 11 / December 11, 2017
The error ? It would be to think that the double siege of Gaza (by Israel and Egypt) can last indefinitely, without the worst consequences.
Gaza without electricity, in the dark… Gaza where men dig endlessly…
Pictures taken in Havana / in Gaza : natural disaster (tornado) / manmade disaster (11-year siege)
How many countries do you think you can name on this map, out of 28 ? of 50 ?
For you how far away is Gaza (2 million people besieged for 11 years now) ?
A few figures, regarding Europe as a 4000-km sided square :
Gaza – Lisbon : 4.000 km / Gaza – Sicily : 2.000 km / Gaza – Athens : 1.200 km
Utsjoki (Finland) – Lagos (Portugal) : 4.200 km / Utsjoki – Cyprus : 3.900 km
Paris – Bucarest : 1.870 km / Amsterdam – Lisbon : 1.870 km
Brussels – Alicante : 1.430 km /Dublin – Berlin : 1.300 km
From Cyprus, 17th European state, Gaza is 420 km only (230 miles).
A few facts to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
On the left, Palestine as it was 2000 years ago.
On the right : the "livable" surface in Israel-Palestine : around 20,000 square kilometers, including the Palestinian territories (6,000 square kilometers), without the Negev desert
On these 20,000 square kilometers (imagine a rectangle of 200 km only by 100) about 11 million people live side by side. 6.5 million are counted as Jews and 4.4 as Arabs - plus 2 million Palestinians who survive in deep isolation, locked inside the Gaza Strip (on 365 square kilometers of sandy land)
In Israel proper, there are 2 million Palestinians, represented at the Knesset by 13 Members of Parliament (out of 120). In the Palestinian Territories, 2.4 million people are represented by a Legislative Council of 132 members, which has not functioned since the 2006 elections; 600,000 Jews live there (200,000 in East Jerusalem).
Gaza-City is 73 km from Bethlehem, 77 from Jerusalem.
The impending risk ?
Whereas all the little parasitical thoughts penetrate into our brains ceaselessly, besiege us without any truce, in our protected worlds, in Strasbourg, London, New-York, Brussels, the feeling of helplessness is growing on one side, and the sensation of iniquity on the other one.
In the New-York subway, on December 11, 2017, or in this martyred Hyper Kosher grocery in Paris on January 9, 2015, do we always have to tremble inside, for fear of finding oneself at the "wrong place, wrong time" ?
The alternative
In Israel, in the summer of 2014, in the heart of the explosion of fatal forces in Gaza, hundreds of women made the decision to leave this endless tunnel of angst and despondency. They are most ordinary women, of all ages, from all walks of life, who made this extraordinary choice. In conscience, simply. The choice not to close their ears anymore, not to veil their eyes. Not to reject anymore what's inhumane, only blaming politicians for the problems (be they right or left, liberal or conservative).
They decided to take their destiny into their own hands, Israelis, Arabs, Palestinian, Jewish, of one creed or another. As Messengers of Peace we have been walking with them since the fall of 2016, their first March of Hope.
On this narrow foot-bridge from despair and donothingness to sharing and moving, they have started walking. A handful of women to start with. More lucid ? More sensitive ? They decided to get together, to reinforce one another, to confront reality, together, and to break the vicious circle of complaints and laziness .
It begins like this - in some desert, some void or other, be it made of sand, earth, or stone. Despite the terror attacks and their threats, the dirty news one on top of the other, chaining us to that lowdown feeling of fatality. Nobody has tro carry the same routine burden forever.
Comes the time to think otherwise, of a different voice, joining us, speaking differently : life has nothing to do with this daily, constant brainwashing, radios, televisions, and the endless invasion of virtual devices. It is not for us to sink into the role of the overwhelmed spectator, the blasé persona who's had it with the infortunes of the world.
In Jaffa, towards the end of the second March of Women for Peace, we came across the traditional character named Handala,with his arms locked in his back, and his head lowered. In the flesh and bones !
But it's not just in Jaffa that he can be found, this sinister little man who always remains with both hands tied in his back, as if they were bound by some invisible rope. Almost everywhere he's following us, step by step, and often gets into our immediate vicinity,and then inside of us, deep into our thoughts.
Women Wage Peace are the answer we have waited for so long - the answer to the human relays of passivity and shoulder-shrugging. In Jerusalem, in 2001, with a friend living there, we had this dream, together, of a long white march, throughout the land, from city to city, for peace, the silence of weapons. It was impossible, you had troops everywhere, due to the omnipresent threat of suicide-bombers in buses and cafés. We had to wait 15 years to see this dream come true. Come on in, and join them, without any procrastination, join us !
Political, polarizing speeches are pointless to us.
We do not claim we're out to remake the world at large, or redefine the State. Dialogue between the ones and the others is our only aim, our core priority. The Abrahamic Reunion, of the hearts and minds, face to face, without screens or go-betweens.
Palestinians, Jews, « Aravim », « Yehudi », believers, secular, what do we care ? From one creed or another, the only thing that matters is that we inhabit the same Earth, facing the same climatic perils, facing the same children.
Join us !
Here as well :
Help us !
http://www.peacelines.org/d-autres-voix-se-levent-c27103086
http://womenwagepeace.org.il/en/a-propos-du-mouvement/
The Road to Peace goes through each one of us…
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