When observing the aerial bombardment, heavy artillery and haubitzer shelling of Gaza, three years ago, I remembered Erich Maria Remarqe´s, book All quiet on the Western Front, and the passage that has been deeply imprinted into my memory, where he described the shelling of a graveyard during the first world war, while a platoon of troops that got caught in artillery fire while passing the site was desperately seeking cover in the craters riddled with the bones of their rotting fellow human beings. The dead were killed for a second time, he wrote.(1)
The mere fact that Remarqe and this passage of his book come to mind when contemplating the situation in Gaza is sufficient for me to know that I need no further contemplation to know that something is going terribly awry in our sense of humanity when it comes to Palestinians, and who would wonder that the people of the world stand idly by when schools, women and children are bombed to unrecognizable pieces of flesh, and when children are taken hostage by IDF troops who are using them as human shields, as occurred during operation Cast Lead.
One could read “Palestine Israel, History and Theirstory ” (2) if one wants to know more about why much of the world does not care about Palestinian suffering.
Early this morning Israeli jets shelled areas in Northern and Central Gaza.
According to Israeli military forces because the areas had been used to fire a few home made Katusha rockets into what is now called Israel. After having had a look at what these dreaded Qassam Missiles are it becomes obvious that they are nothing more than some super sized firecrackers.
The damage that can be caused by 10 of them can hardly be compared to the energy that is released by a single tank shell with a killing radius of the size of a football field.
There is a very useful term called proportionality which elicits much of the problem. When an entire people is systematically deprived of it´s humanity by corporate media, entertainment industry and propaganda experts, who are euphemistically called spin doctors, then it becomes understandable that the merciless butchering of a thousand Palestinians by a thousand highly explosive high tech artillery shells plus bombs and rockets, is a proportionate response to two firecracker like Qassam missiles that injured a goat and frightened someone who chose to live on illegally occupied land.
It´s absolutely proportional to keep hundreds of Palestinian child prisoners, thousands of adult male and female prisoners who have been illegally arrested in prison, because those terrorists have kidnapped one of the heroic Israeli soldiers who valiantly defend the genocide.
Israeli military sources are reporting that the bombing raid a couple of days ago, on the anniversary of Cast Lead as well as the bombing raid this morning, may be precursors of a new offensive.
It seems Israel is developing a delicate sense for the celebration of genocide. “Bibi, it´s the three year anniversary of our murder of 1.200 Palestinian women and children, lets celebrate“
If Bibi Netanyahu and company need a pretext for another large scale massacre, why not wait until New Year. Imagine the awesome firepower of all those celebratory rockets sent into the skies and the countless firecrackers at new years eve. Bibi could even blame the Chinese for delivering those dangerous weapons to the terrorists, right ? Or when was the last time you have seen fireworks not made in China?’
There “must” be one or two of them that fall into our liberated Holy Land, so we can murder a few thousand more Palestinians“. “Bibi, you could also have a couple of delicious preemptive strikes against Gaza, because I am sure that those damned tunnels are used to smuggle all kinds of food that they use to celebrate .”
“No, General, we must have the tunnels open so they can get their new years firecrackers to Gaza, how else should we find an excuse for bombing them.”
My best wishes to the people who are condemned to live within the worlds largest extermination camp, Gaza. My deep respect for those who live in the worlds largest extermination camp and still make full use of their right to resist against the genocide on their people, rather than behaving like a sheep waiting for the slaughter.
And my deepest respect for them not giving up to insist on their right to live on their own land, to self determination, statehood, peace, and their right to defend themselves from an attacking, occupying or besieging military force.
Happy New Year Gaza
Happy new year Palestine
Happy Anniversary of the Cast Lead Genocide, Israel.
Dr. Christof Lehmann
29.12.2011
1) All quiet at the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, 1928, https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/All_Quie…Front
2) Palestine Israel, History and Theirstory, Lehmann Ch. 2011, nsnbc http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/palestine-israel-…tory/
Israel, Gaza, and the Celebration of the Aniversary of Genocide.
When observing the aerial bombardment, heavy artillery and haubitzer shelling of Gaza, three years ago, I remembered Erich Maria Remarqe´s, book All quiet on the Western Front, and the passage that has been deeply imprinted into my memory, where he described the shelling of a graveyard during the first world war, while a platoon of troops that got caught in artillery fire while passing the site was desperately seeking cover in the craters riddled with the bones of their rotting fellow human beings.
The dead were killed for a second time, he wrote.(1)
The mere fact that Remarqe and this passage of his book come to mind when contemplating the situation in Gaza is sufficient for me to know that I need no further contemplation to know that something is going terribly awry in our sense of humanity when it comes to Palestinians, and who would wonder that the people of the world stand idly by when schools, women and children are bombed to unrecognizable pieces of flesh, and when children are taken hostage by IDF troops who are using them as human shields, as occurred during operation Cast Lead.
One could read “Palestine Israel, History and Theirstory ” (2) if one wants to know more about why much of the world does not care about Palestinian suffering.
Early this morning Israeli jets shelled areas in Northern and Central Gaza.
According to Israeli military forces because the areas had been used to fire a few home made Katusha rockets into what is now called Israel. After having had a look at what these dreaded Qassam Missiles are it becomes obvious that they are nothing more than some super sized firecrackers. The damage that can be caused by 10 of them can hardly be compared to the energy that is released by a single tank shell with a killing radius of the size of a football field.
There is a very useful term called proportionality which elicits much of the problem. When an entire people is systematically deprived of it´s humanity by corporate media, entertainment industry and propaganda experts, who are euphemistically called spin doctors, then it becomes understandable that the merciless butchering of a thousand Palestinians by a thousand highly explosive high tech artillery shells plus bombs and rockets, is a proportionate response to two firecracker like Qassam missiles that injured a goat and frightened someone who chose to live on illegally occupied land.
It´s absolutely proportional to keep hundreds of Palestinian child prisoners, thousands of adult male and female prisoners who have been illegally arrested in prison, because those terrorists have kidnapped one of the heroic Israeli soldiers who valiantly defend the genocide.
Israeli military sources are reporting that the bombing raid a couple of days ago, on the anniversary of Cast Lead as well as the bombing raid this morning, may be precursors of a new offensive.
It seems Israel is developing a delicate sense for the celebration of genocide. “Bibi, it´s the three year anniversary of our murder of 1.200 Palestinian women and children, lets celebrate“
If Bibi Netanyahu and company need a pretext for another large scale massacre, why not wait until New Year. Imagine the awesome firepower of all those celebratory rockets sent into the skies and the countless firecrackers at new years eve. Bibi could even blame the Chinese for delivering those dangerous weapons to the terrorists, right ? Or when was the last time you have seen fireworks not made in China ?
” There “must” be one or two of them that fall into our liberated Holy Land, so we can murder a few thousand more Palestinians“. “Bibi, you could also have a couple of delicious preemptive strikes against Gaza, because I am sure that those damned tunnels are used to smuggle all kinds of food that they use to celebrate .” “No, General, we must have the tunnels open so they can get their new years firecrackers to Gaza, how else should we find an excuse for bombing them.”
My best wishes to the people who are condemned to live within the worlds largest extermination camp, Gaza. My deep respect for those who live in the worlds largest extermination camp and still make full use of their right to resist against the genocide on their people, rather than behaving like a sheep waiting for the slaughter.
And my deepest respect for them not giving up to insist on their right to live on their own land, to self determination, statehood, peace, and their right to defend themselves from an attacking, occupying or besieging military force.
Happy New Year Gaza
Happy new year Palestine
Happy Anniversary of the Cast Lead Genocide, Israel.
Dr. Christof Lehmann
29.12.2011
1) All quiet at the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, 1928, https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/All_Quie…Front
2) Palestine Israel, History and Theirstory, Lehmann Ch. 2011, nsnbc http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/palestine-israel-…tory/
