Millions unite – that’s solidarity!

Madam – I refer to your letter from the white supporter of peace dated August 14 in response to my letter; this person clearly did not have the courage to put his or her name.

Firstly, you say that I have a very bitter, racialist attitude. I was born and brought up in England, a white dominated country. The majority of my friends are white and they share the same views I do.

You say I am one sided, hell bent on making the white community feel guilty, I was merely expressing my opinion on what I observed as a person coming from the United Kingdom and if you had read my letter correctly, I had stated Jews and Arabs lived side by side in peace and harmony before 1948, so don’t you think I would want that still?

Innocent lives are being lost. Who do you blame when an Israeli life is lost? I wouldn’t blame the Palestinian boy throwing the stone or blame Hamas for firing the home made rockets in retalliation to the high powered machinery being bombed at them, I would blame Israel’s own government for putting them in that situation and by the way, Israel created Hamas; 67years of occupation created Hamas!

You asked if the people of Gaza really even know how many marches were held in their honour? Do you really think they’ve got time to count when they are losing their entire families in one blow?

You say marches will not make a difference in the conflict. You are where you are today not because ignorant people like you sat on their backsides doing nothing; they took part in marches, the world spoke, boycott, divestment and sanctions were placed against South Africa.

As Ahmed Kathrada said, life under apartheid and the outcome of it, today we would want it to be a triumph of the human spirit, against the forces of evil, a triumph of wisdom and largeness of spirit against small minds and pettiness.

A triumph of courage and determination over human frailty and weakness. I don’t know what kind of peace your are supporting when you say this is not the first war nor will it be the last. How do you expect peace to come doing nothing? There is no peace without a voice!

Peace can only come when Israel lifts its siege, gives the Palestinians back their lands and their right to freedom! The peace I am supporting I hope god will put an end to this war and I pray that I do not have to see another war again where INNOCENT, INNOCENT lives are lost!

When I wrote the letter seven days ago, the death toll of Palestinians was 1400, today it stands at almost 2000 and you telling me I am calling it murder in Palestine.

What would you call it then? Make no mistake, the lesson of the holocaust is not that we should close our eyes to other people’s suffering in the name of self protection, the lesson of the holocaust is not that some lives are worth more than others or that only some deaths are worth grieving.

The lesson of the holocaust is that crimes are perpetrated when people forget we are all HUMAN BEINGS! I am writing not in spite of Jewish history, I am writing because of Jewish history, I can never turn a blind eye to dispossession and discrimination, to occupation and murderization wherever it takes place and whoever its victims are and whoever its perpertrators are. I am writing as a human being.

White supporter of peace, going back to what you said marches would not make a difference in the conflict; it is not a conflict when the world’s largest military power blockades, besieges and imprisons a stateless people who have no army of their own, is that a conflict?

No! Is it a conflict when Israel bombs families in their homes and sick patients in their hospital beds, cutting of electricity supplies and killing babies on life support, is that a conflict?, No!, when people flee for their lives to United Nations shelters and that Israel attacks the shelters, is that a conflict?, NO! NO! NO!, THIS IS NOT A CONFLICT, THIS IS A MASSACRE!!!

What future awaits a child of Gaza?, Their diets are stelting because the Israeli siege blocks access to food; there are hardly any jobs because Israel has cut Gaza off from the rest of the world and just a few days ago Israel bombed a university.

This scale of injustice is criminal so we got to send a message to our own government today, STOP ARMING ISRAEL and while we are at it, let’s send a message to governments all over the world, if you call yourself an international community, give that place a meaning, let’s put sanctions on Israel until this barbarism ends.

I just want to leave you with one important point. In the early 20th century, people from all over the world from all backgrounds who stood for the oppressed might have declared, I too am a Jew, when Apartheid dispersed the earth, people might have said, I too am a black South African.

Well today people from all backgrounds, from all walks of life, all over the world come together and say in our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians. White supporter of peace, that is what you call SOLIDARITY!!!

Aisha Moolla