Streetcorner

Mullah, Mulling

This week's issue of the Economist ran a pretty unbiased article on the conflict in Gaza. It is easy to see the fighting in Gaza as a clash of religions or a clash of civilizations but to do so would be to miss the real root of the problem. Yes, there is the shadow puppet play between Iran and America, causing a divide between the neighboring Arab states along those lines. But at the heart of the conflict is a fight over land, a place which two people want to call home.

And now, the world watches as a well armed conventional army takes on a militia hiding amongst the populace. There is only one assured outcome of such a confrontation, a high civilian death toll. Palestinians put the death toll of this two weeks old conflict at over 700 with at least 2,500 wounded. It has been reported that as many as 40% of the dead are women and children and that a large majority have been non-combatants. Not so tragic when reduced to statistics and numbers? Sometimes I wonder what it is like to live in fear, that the next explosion could be the last you hear, or the last your children hear.

"Despair quivered in Muhammad al Majdalawi's voice as he described the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza strip, four days after Israeli troops had entered the territory. 'The soldiers are 500 meters from my house,' he said. 'Three children in my neighbourhood were killed alst night. the walls in my house are shaking. Every minute there are explosions, every minute there are martyrs. We can't sleep, we can't move, we have almost no food, no electricity and its very cold'. He spoke hurriedly, afraid that his mobile phone would run out of power"
~ Briefing, The Struggle for Gaza. The Economist January 10th 2009.