[HCCN] Kathy Kelly from Gaza, new

[Judy Robbins]

Published on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
The Strongest Weapon of All
by Kathy Kelly
Dr. Atallah, a physician in Gaza, invited us to meet him in his home  
in Gaza City, just a few blocks away from the Shifaa Hospital.

Early this morning, he and his family returned to their home after  
having fled five days earlier when the bombing attacks on Gaza City  
had become so fierce that they feared for their lives. "Believe me,  
when I would drive from the hospital to the place where my family was  
staying, I prayed all the way," said Dr. Atallah, "because the  
Israelis would shoot anyone on the roads at night."

Dr. Atallah has been practicing medicine as a General Surgeon all of  
his adult life. Now, at age 61, he says he has never seen such  
terrible and ugly wounds as he saw during the past three weeks when  
he and a surgical team tried to help numerous patients with broken  
limbs, shrapnel wounds, and severe burns. Neurosurgeons, vascular  
surgeons, orthopedic and general surgeons worked together on  
patients, as a team, trying to save them, but there were many whose  
lives they couldn't save. He described patients with shrapnel wounds  
in their eyes, faces, chests, and abdomens, patients whose legs were  
amputated above the lower limbs. Most, he said, were civilians.

"These are strange ways of destroying the human body," said Dr.  
Atallah. "Please, come tomorrow to the Burn Unit, and you will see  
patients suffering from the use of white phosphorous."

Dr. Atallah said that he began to understand the extent of the trauma  
and danger by listening to the stories of wounded and injured patients.

"Some were sitting in their houses when a tank bomb hit them. They  
didn't know what happened to them," said Dr. Atallah. "Survivors  
would reach the hospital after many of their relatives had been killed."

Patients from Beit Lahia told him that in one home, an extended  
family of 25 people had been attacked while inside their home. When  
relatives came to help them, Israeli snipers shot eight of them. Many  
of the wounded were left to die. Ambulances and Red Cross relief  
workers weren't allowed to enter the area.

At one point, Israel announced a lull in the fighting, but then  
bombed the Palestine Square, near the municipal offices. Four people  
came to the hospital, severely injured. "We couldn't save them," said  
Dr. Atallah. "Seven others were injured, and they survived."

"In Gaza City, all of the important buildings necessary for  
maintaining a city have been bombed," said Dr. Atallah. "From  
ministries to civilian police stations, all have been destroyed. Some  
were Hamas buildings, but not all."

We had just walked through the area where the buildings housing  
ministries of justice, education, and culture were completely  
destroyed. Driving into Gaza City we saw mosques, factories, houses  
and schools reduced to rubble. We asked Dr. Atallah to tell us why,  
in his opinion, the Israelis had attacked Gaza so fiercely.

He believes that the attacks are essentially irrational but that a  
main cause for the timing and the magnitude of these attacks is that  
certain Israeli candidates for upcoming elections want to assure the  
Israeli public that they are willing to use military force to insure  
security for Israelis. "Palestinians all the time pay the taxes in  
blood," said Dr. Atallah.

"One of the worst aspects of this war," says Dr. Atallah, "is the  
lack of respect for the UN. Three United Nations Relief and Works  
Agency (UNRWA) schools were bombed. In Jabaliyah, more than 45 people  
were killed at a UN school; F16s bombed UNRWA supplies and stores."

"In Shifaa Hospital, we saw plumes of smoke for day and night. All  
Gaza, every day, was covered with smoke and chemicals. We don't know  
how it affects the health."

"Yes, 'rocklets' did go out," says Dr. Atallah, referring to Hamas  
rockets fired into Israeli towns, "and we felt sympathy for any  
Israelis hurt by the rocklets. But, if someone hurts you with a pin,  
you don't cut off his head. You ask WHY the person tried to prick you  
with a pin. Consider that people here are trapped in a prison and  
there is a shortage of everything. No one can repair anything. People  
wanted borders opened so that goods could come and go. After six  
months of closed borders, people are frustrated. Now, one side  
declares a cease fire, they say nothing about opening the borders,  
nothing about withdrawal, and yet they want NATO to help tighten the  
siege."

"I hope President Obama will be much better than George Bush  
concerning these things," said Dr. Atallah. "Human beings that have  
such a strong army should be civilized and not behave like a  
terrorist group. Fanatics can be expected to use terror, but a  
democratic state shouldn't use fallacious statements as an excuse for  
massive killing. A state which does this should be brought before an  
International Court of Justice."

"And yet," he said, "we must experiment with ways of love. We are  
trying, with Jewish people...by feelings and actions. We need to  
succeed. We need to live together. We are trying to be in good  
relations with all the partners, all the views."

"The strongest weapon all over the world is love," says Dr. Atallah,  
adding that he has always believed this and has said this to his  
colleagues, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish, throughout his  
career. He recalled declaring this same belief at the Eretz border  
crossing, shortly after the Israelis launched "Operation Cast Lead."  
He had been among the 200 Christians who were chosen (800 had  
applied) to cross the border and celebrate the Orthodox Christmas  
holiday with family members in the West Bank. When the attacks began,  
he ended his holiday and hurried to the border, knowing he must  
return to his work and his family. At the border crossing, he greeted  
soldiers, "Merry Christmas." Soldiers answered, "Do you have  
weapons?" "Yes," Dr. Atallah replied, "I have the strongest weapon of  
all, the weapon of love."
Kathy Kelly (kathy at vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative  
Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org)   She and Audrey Stewart are writing from  
Gaza.
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