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TechnoratiAyman is a soft-spoken 14-year-old boy in Jabalia City, Gaza. His family is poor, and his parents have already sold almost all their furniture to pay for food and schooling for their children. Recently, after collecting a government food handout, Ayman's father, who has been unemployed since March 2006, had to sell the milk to pay for the journey back home.
Ayman works very hard in school and dreams of a future career. But, with 47 students in his cramped classroom and double shifts the norm, his learning environment is very stressful. Home is no refuge: the recent incursion into Jabalia was 200 meters from where Ayman lives. The shooting and shelling so terrorized his five-year-old sister that she still wakes up screaming at night.
Ayman's experience is all too familiar in Gaza's crowded, crippled neighborhoods, where those who are least to blame for the troubles are suffering the most. Indeed, among Gaza's 840,000 children - of which 588,000 are refugees - Ayman's story is luckier than many. Since the recent escalation of violence that began last month, at least 33 Palestinian boys and girls have been killed and many more injured or maimed - caught in the crossfire, shot in their living rooms, or struck by explosions in their own backyards. On February 28, four children playing soccer were hit by a missile, which dismembered them so completely their own families could not identify their bodies.
Ayman, his siblings, and all Gaza's children are finding their lives diminished each day - a cruel, slow suffocation of their spirit and their dreams. Instead of enjoying expanding horizons, they are trapped in a virtual prison, where things that every child should be able to take for granted are instead being taken away: the right to play, to go to school, to have enough to eat, to have light to study by at night, and to feel safe in their own homes. The weight of one of the world's longest-running conflicts is resting on their thin shoulders, crushing their childhood and inflicting psychological scars that may never heal.
Palestinians were once reputed to be among the best-educated people in the Middle East; today, after years of violence, isolation, and poverty, their proud tradition of educational excellence has been shattered. Almost 2,000 children in Gaza have dropped out of school in the last five months. Those who remain must share tattered textbooks and do without crucial resources.
The January 2008 semester exams at schools in Gaza operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) found 50-60 percent failure rates in mathematics and a 40 percent failure rate in Arabic - the children's native language. Despite this, Ayman insists, "I want to be an educated person. I want to be an engineer to build my country."
Let the world recall that Gaza's crisis is a manmade disaster. And let the world take note that conditions are worse today than at any time since the occupation began. Seventy-nine percent of Gaza's households live in poverty; eight out of ten depend on food assistance. Almost half the labor force is unemployed; local industry has collapsed. Water and sewage systems are failing; garbage is piling up in the streets.
UNICEF is working around the clock to restore a sense of normalcy for Gaza's youth - developing remedial worksheets to help children keep up with their studies; creating sports and recreation programs in schools; and working with communities to establish play areas where kids can be kids in safety. UNICEF works with partners to get water, hygiene, and medical supplies to households and health facilities. And UNICEF-supported counseling teams are spread across the area, helping Palestinian parents and children cope with the burden of stress.
But, while UNICEF is doing all it can to comfort those in the midst of Gaza's madness, only political leaders can bring the dreadful nightmare to an end. It is time for new engagement. The siege must be lifted. The killing of civilians has to stop, on both sides. Palestinian and Israeli children deserve to grow up in peace. And leaders on both sides, supported by the international community, must join in the kind of honest dialogue that is the only viable path toward achieving it.
Ayman's father quietly says, "My children are my hope." The children of Gaza are a light in the darkness. They deserve a chance to shine.
Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children. This commentary is published by DAILY NEWS EGYPT in collaboration with Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).
© Daily News Egypt 2008
17 Comments so far
Show AllTherzal,
I've read plenty of history of Israel, including about: the violent subjugation of Jews in the area prior to the formation of the state, the foundation of Palestinian liberation in Nazism, the forced expulsion of Jews throughout the middle east, the backs and forths of the political negotiations prior to the founding, and much more. And I'll tell you this, none of it means a damn thing, along with all your conspiracy theories and new world order BS.
Here's what matters: There is a nation called Israel. There are refugees who demand, on religious principle, its destruction. That's what's called the makin's of a fight. If you want to avoid that fight, teach the PA people to back off unrealistic demands and make real lives for themselves. If you want that fight to happen, just keep on yapping in your good old "peaceful" ways.
I would ignore what TheMiddleRoad is saying on here. He or she is probably a big-nosed Zionist. Obviously, being a big-nosed Zionist killer of Palestinians loses all credibility.
TheMiddleRoad..
So you think the Palestinians invited al Nakba on themselves do you??
That indicates just how much you know of the history of the situation.
Al Nakba was a campaign of ethnic cleansing that began in 1948 and goes on to this day. The so called "6 day war" was the second part of it, the illegal settlements are the third and almost final part of it.
What the majority of Arab states want is hard to determine, so effectively have they been sidelined and divided by the cunning of the Zionists and their own shortsightedness and it has to be said, greed.
What the majority of their people want though, is fairly clear. It is for their fellow Arabs in Palestine/Israel to enjoy the same civil rights as the (Caucasian) Jews.. Not too much, you would think. However, the innate racism that is at the core of Zionism is too strong for most Israelis to resist.
The Future is not very bright at the moment.
The fight against Israeli Apartheid is just beginning.
Tyranny can not last, historically it always dies.
peerooz21 ... beware ... this is commondreams ... any , i repeat ANY criticism of israel is enough to get you thrown of the board (its called moderation). The same rules ofcourse dont apply to muslim bashing.
peerooz21, I don't quite get your point. You wish Israel was nicer to the Palestinians? I think Israel has tried to be, with mixed success, but it just didn't work out in Israel's favor in any way.
My main point was those, who think cutting off funding or doing anything that threatens the existence of Israel will help the Palestinians, are sadly misguided.
Another point I did not make is that they are equally misguided when thinking the Palestinians, as a whole, are the victims of a situation they had no part in making.
TheMiddleRoad,have you ever heard of a one way street in the entire history of the world? It has alway been up and down, winner takes it all and believes the world will stay his/her way for ever. The intervals may vary but the results will be the same. My hope was that after the up and downs that Jews have gone through in their own history, they would treat other people differently for a change, when they are on the top. Alas, when thes very smart people can not realize and implement this fact what do we expect from "less mart" and "unchosen" people? It will always be like this: up and down regardless.
Truths
1. The Israeli public will not accept a peace deal where the existence of the Jewish state is not ensured.
2. If US funding were cut off to Israel, Israel would face an existential threat. It would force them to use their military immediately and decisively, while they still have a huge advantage. It could lead to forced displacement in Gaza and the West Bank as Israel moves to end the conflict through purely military means. It may even lead to another regional war. Talk about unintended consequences.
3. The Palestinians in power and a majority of the Arab street throughout the Middle East want nothing less than the destruction of the state of Israel. They will attempt to accomplish their goal anyway possible, through force, demographics, and politics. Any peace deal made is purely temporary until, someday they hope, the table of military advantage is turned. At that point, without hesitation, you would see the same bloody forced displacement of Jews out of Israel as has already happened throughout the rest of the Middle East.
peeroooz21
You are right! This is the first time I heard her speaking for her own people. But let's not forget that her husband is a Western ally.
It is better to be late than never. Her majesty was borne to Palestinian parents in Kwait. She married his majesty in Jan.1993. This is the first time I have come across her comment about Paletinians.Her involvement in organizations does not include any related to palestinan support groups. With this kind of support the Palestinians may have to wait some 15 years for the echo of her voice.
The world continues to ignore the plight of the Palestinians, and the U.S. in particular continues its hypocritical foreign policy of seeking freedom for all except for the Palestinians. What's needed more than ever is for prominent world leaders to demand justice--Queen Rania is a good start, but we need someone to take the courageous steps that Jimmy Carter took to start the dialogue. Unfortunately, Carter had little support and the issue soon died. If Michael Moore (for example) had the courage to do a documentary on the sad condition of the Palestinians, I believe that Americans would be shocked into action.
http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/1261-Gaza-Under-Siege.html
March 17, 2008
Garza Under Siege by Ralph Nader
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AIPAC's influence on US foreign policy being what it is, the US is almost as complicit in the continuous slow-motion genocide being perpetuated in Palestine, maybe more so. If the US were to tell Israel to back off from their horrendous treatment of the Palestinians, it may be the first step towards an eventual peace in the occupied terrirories. But, then again, who is calling the shots with regard to the Middle East foreign policy, AIPAC or the other US neocons, or both? All of them are crazy.
Famines are brought on by nature and not by government policy. Shame on you Israel.
Donald Veach
Cambridge, MA
The situation in Gaza should be addressed as what it really is -- Genocide in Slow Motion. Just because there are no gas chambers does not make it any less horrendous. The Jewish people in Israel and New York should be ashamed at what their government is attempting in Gaza.
This is a very very painful article.
My question is why are those running for prsident so silent on the plight of the Palestinians? Hillary was a so called "close friend" of Queen Noor when she was living on Pennsylvania Avenue. This is an issue that will shape the future Middle East. Without a resolution to the most hideous war of ethnic cleansing perpetrated upon Palestine, we will have no peace or stability in the region. I think we can all agree now in retrospect that the partition of Palestine was a mistake and now there isn't enough left in the West Bank to create a "Palestinian State" to live side by side in peace with Israel. What is left on the table is either a Palestinian state created out of the pre 1967 borders or more likely a one state solution which would accord all the people in the region the chance to live in security and equality under the law and the right to elect a government that would look after their interests. Yes, it may mean the end of the "Jewish State" in a generation or two, but the young Israelis would prefer that to another sixty years of death and destruction. Look at all the waste over the past three or four generations, just to end up back where we started - one free and independent Palestine where all segments of that society lived in peace and prospered until the mass migrations from Europe plunged the region into chaos.Please call on your choice for predident to address this issue and outline what they would do in 2009.
thank you common dreams for posting Queen Rania Al Abdullah's article.
"they are trapped in a virtual prison, where things that every child should be able to take for granted are instead being taken away: the right to play, to go to school, to have enough to eat, to have light to study by at night, and to feel safe in their own homes."
"Let the world recall that Gaza's crisis is a manmade disaster"
the palestinian children pay the price for israeli insecurity. the insecurity that transpires after one group of people takes the land of another group of people while shuttling the occupied off to detention centers, 'virtual prisons'. however ugly and inhuman this system is, it is the 2 state solution that the israelis accepted.
yet the israelis continue to impose intolerable living conditions upon the palestinians. would the palestinian children be experiencing these conditions if they where lighter skinned practicing jews, if they spoke russian, english or hebrew as their first language ?
may Ayman and his family find peace and security.......
please forward this article to your congressperson.... suspend US military aid to israel..........
...peace...