To Gaza, With Love

When I traveled to Gaza last
week, everywhere I went, a photo haunted me. I saw it in a brochure
called "Gaza will not die" that Hamas gives out to visitors at the
border crossing. A poster-sized version was posted outside a makeshift
memorial at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. And now that I am back
home, the image comes to me when I look at children playing in the park,
when I glance at the school across the street, when I go to sleep at
night.

It is a photo of a young Palestinian
girl who is literally buried alive in the rubble from a bomb blast,
with just her head protruding from the ruins. Her eyes are closed, her
mouth partially open, as if she were in a deep sleep. Dried blood covers
her lips, her cheeks, her hair. Someone with a glove is reaching down
to touch her forehead, showing one final gesture of kindness in the
midst of such inhumanity.

What was this little girl's
name, I wonder. How old was she? Was she sleeping when the bomb hit
her home? Did she die a quick death or a slow, agonizing one? Where
are her parents, her siblings? How are they faring?

Of the 1,330 Palestinians killed
by the Israeli military during the 22-day invasion of Gaza, 437 were
children. Let me repeat that: 437 children-each as beautiful and precious
as our own.

As a Jew, an American and a
mother, I felt compelled to witness, firsthand, what my people and my
taxdollars had done during this invasion. Visiting Gaza filled me with
unbearable sadness. Unlike the primitive weapons of Hamas,
the Israelis had so many sophisticated ways to murder, maim and destroy-unmanned
drones, F-16s dropping "smart bombs" that miss, Apache helicopters
launching missiles, tanks firing from the ground, ships shelling Gaza
from the sea. So many horrific weapons stamped with Made in the USA.
While Hamas' attacks on Israeli villages are deplorable, Israel's
disproportionate response is unconscionable, with 1,330 Palestinians
dead vs. 13 Israelis.

If the invasion was designed
to destroy Hamas, it failed miserably. Not only is Hamas still in control,
but it retains much popular support. If the invasion was designed as
a form of collective punishment, it succeeded, leaving behind a trail
of grieving mothers, angry fathers and traumatized children.

To get a sense of the devastation,
check out a slide show circulating on the internet called Gaza: Massacre
of Children (www.aztlan.net/gaza/gaza_massacre_of_children.php). It should be required viewing for
all who supported this invasion of Gaza. Babies charred like shish-kebabs.
Limbs chopped off. Features melted from white phosphorus. Faces crying
out in pain, gripped by fear, overcome by grief.

Anyone who can view the slides
and still repeat the mantra that "Israel has the right to self-defense"
or "Hamas brought this upon its own people," or worse yet, "the
Israeli military didn't go far enough," does a horrible disservice
not only to the Palestinian people, but to humanity.

Compassion, the greatest virtue
in all major religions, is the basic human emotion prompted by the suffering
of others, and it triggers a desire to alleviate that suffering. True
compassion is not circumscribed by one's faith or the nationality
of those suffering. It crosses borders; it speaks a universal language;
it shares a common spirituality. Those who have suffered themselves,
such as Holocaust victims, are supposed to have the deepest well of
compassion.

The Israeli election was in
full swing while was I visiting Gaza. As I looked out on the ruins of
schools, playgrounds, homes, mosques and clinics, I recalled the words
of Benjamin Netanyahu, "No matter how strong the blows that Hamas
received from Israel, it's not enough." As I talked to distraught
mothers whose children were on life support in a bombed hospital, I
thought of the "moderate" woman in the race, Tzipi Livni, who vowed
that she would not negotiate with Hamas, insisted that "terror
must be fought with force and lots of force" and warned that "if
by ending the operation we have yet to achieve deterrence, we will continue
until they get the message."

"The message," I can report,
has been received. It is a message that Israel is run by war criminals,
that the lives of Palestinians mean nothing to them. Even more chilling
is the pro-war message sent by the Israeli people with their votes for
Netanyahu, Livni and anti-Arab racist Avigdor Lieberman.

How tragic that nation born
out of the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust has become a nation
that supports the slaughter of Palestinians.

Here in the U.S., Congress
ignored the suffering of the Palestinians and pledged its unwavering
support for the Israeli state. All but five members out of 535 voted
for a resolution justifying the invasion, falsely holding Hamas solely
responsible for breaking the ceasefire and praising Israel for facilitating
humanitarian aid to Gaza at a time when food supplies were rotting at
the closed borders.

One glimmer of hope we found
among people in Gaza was the Obama administration. Many were upset that
Obama did not speak out during the invasion and that peace envoy George
Mitchell, on his first trip to the Middle East, did not visit Gaza or
even Syria. But they felt that Mitchell was a good choice and Obama,
if given the space by the American people, could play a positive role.

Who can provide that space
for Obama? Who can respond to the call for justice from the Palestinian
people? Who can counter AIPAC, the powerful lobby that supports Israeli
aggression?

An organized, mobilized, coordinated
grassroots movement is the critical counterforce, and within that movement,
those who have a particularly powerful voice are American Jews. We have
the beginnings of a such a counterforce within the American Jewish community.
Across the United States, Jews joined marches, sit-ins, die-ins, even
chained themselves to Israeli consulates in protest. Jewish groups like
J Street and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom lobby for a diplomatic solution. Tikkun
organizes for a Jewish spiritual renewal grounded in social justice.
The Middle East Children's Alliance and Madre send humanitarian aid
to Palestine. Women in Black hold compelling weekly vigils. American
Jews for a Just Peace plants olive trees on the West Bank. Jewish Voice
for Peace promotes divestment from corporations that profit from occupation.
Jews Against the Occupation calls for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

We need greater coordination
among these groups and within the broader movement. And we need more
people and more sustained involvement, especially Jewish Americans.
In loving memory of our ancestors and for the future of our-and Palestinian-children,
more American Jews should speak out and reach out. As Sholom Schwartzbard,
a member of Jews Against the Occupation, explained at a New York City
protest, "We know from our own history what being sealed behind barbed
wire and checkpoints is like, and we know that 'Never Again' means
not anyone, not anywhere - or it means nothing at all."

On March 7, I will return to
Gaza with a large international delegation, bringing aid but more importantly,
pressuring the Israeli, U.S. and Egyptian governments to open the borders
and lift the siege. Many members of the delegation are Jews. We will
travel in the spirit of tikkun olam, repairing the world, but
with a heavy sense of responsibility, shame and yes, compassion. We
will never be able to bring back to life the little girl buried in the
rubble. But we can-and will--hold her in our hearts as we bring
a message from America and a growing number of American Jews: To Gaza,
With Love.

For information about joining
the trip to Gaza, contact gaza.codepink@gmail.com.