| Apr |
| 13 |
I’m pleased to give you access to the full written version of a letter written by an Israeli woman, a member of MachsomWatch.
MachsomWatch-Checkpoint Watch is a voluntary movement of Israeli women, founded in 2001, dedicated to monitoring and reporting human rights violations at checkpoints in the West Band and Jerusalem. It brings together Israeli women who are united in their opposition to the occupation and their commitment to human rights.
The video clip of this letter has been seen a lot on Youtube:
Come
Come to Israel, free us from controlling other people.
Come and force us to do what is clear, and written, and fitting, and necessary.
Come and get us out of the Occupied Territories.
Make it so that I don’t have to get up in the morning – I hate to get up early, to go to the checkpoints, to watch and to weep.
Make it so
Make it so I will not have to see 19-year-old children who have been convinced into believing that they are defending the home front by pointing rifles at 5-year-old children.
Make it so that when my daughters take a shower for half an hour I don’t have to think about the families who bring water from far away wells on top of donkeys, in Coca Cola bottles
Make it so that when I stand on line in the supermarket, I don’t have to think about the vast numbers of people who stand up on line at the checkpoints, in and out the cities, on their way to school, to visit relatives, to hospitals or to work.
Make it so that when my sister urgently rushes to the hospital to give birth and when I rush my husband to the hospital practically with red lights flashing, I don’t have to think about the women giving birth and the heart patients and the wounded people who are moved from an ambulance without a permit, to another ambulance with a permit.
Make it so that when I see a soldier in uniform on the street I do not wonder what he did last night. What house he entered in with his weapon on, what boy he beat up in the alleys of Hawara because he smiled the wrong way.
Make it so that in the morning I don’t hear the satisfaction in the voice of the radio newsreader who relates that the army has killed 6 terrorists. 6 people without a name. Without moms.
Obama,
Obama, this autumn I did not go to the olive harvest to help the Palestinians. It didn’t work out. Please make it so that I will not suffer from pangs of conscience because I am not doing enough. That I am living my own good life, pursuing my career, while for the other people just to get home safely is a career in itself.
Please relieve me of this pain that I have all the time deep in my belly. It never lets up, I can never really enjoy life, children, friends or work, because my mind is preoccupied with the image of the bound blindfolded boy and the 3 year old girl who got hit on the head by the carousel at the checkpoint, and the barriers of dirt and the concrete blocks that stop the lives of so many people from flowing smoothly.
Come, Obama, come and save us from ourselves.
And if that is what they mean when they say you are not a friend of Israel, then don’t be a friend. We have already had friends who arm us and justify every horror we carry out and save us from the international courts. Be a truely true friend. Save us from ourselves. And don’t do it for the world, do it only for me, so I can have peace. You owe it to me. I do not believe in God but still I prayed for you.
I wrote this letter on the day you were elected. Before Israel attacked Gaza strip. Before the Israeli media stood full of extazy while watching Gaza in flames,
This letter was written by an Israeli woman, a member of MachsomWatch. MachsomWatch- Checkpoint Watch is a voluntary movement of Israeli women, founded in 2001, dedicated to monitoring and reporting human rights violations at checkpoints in the West Band and Jerusalem. It brings together Israeli women who are united in their opposition to the occupation and their commitment to human rights.
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