Saturday, June 1, 2013

No One Deserves a Life of Fear

No matter what the age, race or ethnicity, NO ONE deserves to live a life of violence or fear.
In a variety of locations around the globe, civilians are surrounded by violence and live in fear because of it. In the middle east people live with this fear daily. Specifically in Israel and Palestine. For near a century, Israelis and Palestinians have been disputing over land, including The West Bank, The Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem. The political disputes over the territories have lead to violence and war endangering the lives of innocent civilians in both states. Despite all the effort and support from the UN and international community, an agreement has yet to be made. And as a result the situation is slowly being neglected while violence continues to rise.
    In 2000, Israel proposed an agreement to give Palestine a territory in Gaza and nearly all of the West Bank. The Palestines refused this offer and responded with bombing that killed more than 1000 Israelis. Five Years later, Israel withdrew from Gaza, but the Palestines didn’t populate the region for shelter. Instead they build rocket bases that destroyed towns and villages claiming the lives of many in southern Israel. Due to the constant change of territory, Israelis and Palestinians are frequently interacting with one another which results in violence, injury, and casualties in towns near the Green Line, borders. And when one group is attacked, they retaliate and the violence goes in a cycle. The cycle of violence has resulted in the death of over 2,546 Palestinians and 816 Israelis, and the injury of over 23,930 Palestinians and 5,616 Israelis from the beginning until now. Sadly, young children have been affected by this cycle. Currently, a total of 1,619 kids have lost there life to this conflict in warfare. 129 Israeli children and 1,519 Palestinian children have been victims to this conflict and more and more continue to lose their lives today.
    Imagine your child or loved one at risk every single day because of a situation like this. Even I can’t think of how I would feel if I lost my younger sibling or cousin. I would be absolutely devastated.
    In the memoir, The Hour of Sunlight by Sami Al Jundi, Al Jundi w tells the story of his youth and his hatred for the Israeli occupation and his ambition for overthrowing it. In the beginning of the memoir Al Jundi retells the story of his mothers youth and what she experienced when she was very young. She was also blind, which in her view is a gift and a curse because although she couldn’t see the beautiful things in the world, she couldn’t see the evil. She discussed how her father died when she was young. She said, “My father…was shot in the heart...I was only five years old”, (7, Al-Jundi). In addition to the sorrow of losing her father, she was forced to cope with death threats from Israelis who were responsible for a massacre resulting in the death of over 100 innocent villagers. "[The israelis] are warning us to leave the village or they will do...what they did to the people in Deir Yassin...where over one hundred villagers had been killed", (9, Al-Jundi).
    These massacres, attacks and threats have been extremely frequent and nothing is changing, its only getting worse. As citizens of a privileged country with a strong government to provide us with safety, its our duty to help those abroad who aren't blessed with the privileges that we have. We must raise awareness and spread the word to let the government know that we care for the Israelis and Palestinians before they're are entirely neglected and violence possibly reaches the extremes of genocide. We can use social networking like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to spread the word. Together we CAN do this.

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