Back it January a group called “Gaza Youth Breaks Out”, issued the Manifesto reproduced below which perfectly sums up the problems of ordinary Palestinians young and old. Remember that Gaza has been virtually sealed off from the world since Hamas was elected to power back in 2006.
The manifesto ends with "We want three things. We want to be free. We want to be able to live a normal life. We want peace. Is that too much to ask?" Unfortunately the answer seems to be yes.
In the British Newspaper “Observer“ article one of the activists comments "Politics is bollocks, it is screwing our lives up. Politicians only care about money and about their supporters. The Israelis are the only ones benefiting from the division."
Fatah who run the West Bank have been effectively bought by the USA to give Palestine away in the endless farcical “peace process”, while the families of it’s leaders live abroad in relative luxury. Meanwhile Hamas is paid by Syria and Iran to run a proxy conflict with Israel. The REAL QUESTION for the “Likud Israeli Lobby” with branches in every Western capital, who seize on this to justify Israeli government policies, what other choice do Palestinians have to finance their resistance. Blame as always lies with the strong who have the space to make choices.
Hamas and Fatah have now agreed to work together. When the Palestinians gain their rights they will then have to fight their own politicians to keep them.
Here is the manifesto, I particularly liked the comment in the last paragraph about being sick of “religious bullshit”. There seems more of this than real faith in the world. Who will make this change? …………………………………..
"Fuck Hamas. Fuck Israel. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNWRA. Fuck USA! We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community!
"We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference like the Israeli F16s breaking the wall of sound; scream with all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of this fucking situation we live in...
"We are sick of being caught in this political struggle; sick of coal-dark nights with airplanes circling above our homes; sick of innocent farmers getting shot in the buffer zone because they are taking care of their lands; sick of bearded guys walking around with their guns abusing their power, beating up or incarcerating young people demonstrating for what they believe in; sick of the wall of shame that separates us from the rest of our country and keeps us imprisoned in a stamp-sized piece of land; sick of being portrayed as terrorists, home-made fanatics with explosives in our pockets and evil in our eyes; sick of the indifference we meet from the international community, the so-called experts in expressing concerns and drafting resolutions but cowards in enforcing anything they agree on; we are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being kept in jail by Israel, beaten up by Hamas and completely ignored by the rest of the world.
"There is a revolution growing inside of us, an immense dissatisfaction and frustration that will destroy us unless we find a way of canalizing this energy into something that can challenge the status quo and give us some kind of hope.
"We barely survived the Operation Cast Lead, where Israel very effectively bombed the shit out of us, destroying thousands of homes and even more lives and dreams. During the war we got the unmistakable feeling that Israel wanted to erase us from the face of the Earth. During the last years, Hamas has been doing all they can to control our thoughts, behavior and aspirations. Here in Gaza we are scared of being incarcerated, interrogated, hit, tortured, bombed, killed. We cannot move as we want, say what we want, do what we want.
"ENOUGH! Enough pain, enough tears, enough suffering, enough control, limitations, unjust justifications, terror, torture, excuses, bombings, sleepless nights, dead civilians, black memories, bleak future, heart-aching present, disturbed politics, fanatic politicians, religious bullshit, enough incarceration! WE SAY STOP! This is not the future we want! We want to be free. We want to be able to live a normal life. We want peace. Is that too much to ask?"
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