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during the 1992 Madrid Talks, concerning Israel’s brutal 20-year occupation of Lebanon. On the same
<br />panel was Dr. Haidar Abdel Shafi who represented the Palestinian Authority. Growing up in the
<br />greater Syrian community (Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians, and Jordanians), I always have been in
<br />solidarity with Palestinians whom Israel has dispossessed and occupied their land for 75 years, much
<br />akin to the history of the indigenous people of the Americas.
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<br />I lived 3-4 months at a time for 6 years in The Gaza Strip, assisting the Gaza Community Mental
<br />Health Programme in the analysis of survey data, which related to the traumatic effects of Israel’s
<br />wars on Gaza, and the ongoing siege on the mental health of the Palestinian population. This data
<br />was submitted to the United Nations. I also taught American Ethnic Studies at the American Corner
<br />at Al Azhar University, and research methods at Al Aqsa Open University. In 2011 I experienced
<br />Israel’s periodic bombings of Gaza City, which I have documented in op-eds in Al Jazeera and
<br />Counterpunch.
<br />
<br />Over the years I developed close friendships with colleagues and students, the latter of whom I taught
<br />at Al Azhar University. I contact my friends daily to check if they are alive or not. Throughout Israel’s
<br />genocidal campaign on Palestinians in Gaza, they have shut off the internet and blocked the cell
<br />towers. Three weeks ago, during Israel’s carpet bombing of North Gaza, I contacted my friend, who is
<br />like a sister to me, and she related a horrific story to me that her father was siphoning water from a
<br />meager water source to give to his three grandchildren, two toddlers and a six-month-old. While the
<br />Israeli Occupation Forces were shelling in his neighborhood, a piece of shrapnel entered her father’s
<br />rear end, blowing off his sacral lumbar, which damaged his colon and rectum. He now is in Cairo,
<br />Egypt, waiting for reconstructive surgery of his buttocks and a sphincterotomy. The photos showing
<br />the extent of the injury of his large intestine are far too graphic to attach to this letter. As a side note,
<br />my friend’s family are not supporters of Hamas as also was the case of other students of mine at the
<br />university.
<br />
<br />On my friend’s way from North Gaza to the Rafah border to enter Egypt, traveling by car and by foot
<br />on the road was treacherous. Contrary to what Israel instructed the Palestinian population that
<br />traveling from North to South would be safe, this was not the case. Palestinians were not safe as they
<br />walked on Salahdin road, which connects North Gaza to the South. My friend and other friends I
<br />spoke with, recounted that they and other Palestinians were humiliated by the Israeli Occupation
<br />Forces, and some women were asked to remove their hijabs and strip naked behind Israeli tanks.
<br />Israeli snipers abounded, and my friend witnessed “things that she should never see”, scorched,
<br />mutilated, and headless corpses, which she had to cross over to head to the Rafah border. Israel now
<br />is mowing down Khan Younis in the South, and the numbers are climbing to close to 20,000. I am a
<br />quantitative researcher and a trained survey analyst, and careful in citing numbers. I must caution
<br />against our U.S. administration that the Ministry of Health is a Hamas organization. The Palestinian
<br />Ministry of Health predates Hamas and was instituted by the Palestinian Authority. Moreover, in
<br />previous wars between Israel and Hamas, the United Nations, and also, the U.S. State Department
<br />have stated that the number of Palestinian deaths reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in
<br />Gaza has been accurate. In the interim, Israel has killed 250 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank
<br />where the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, is in control. As a scholar of Middle East Studies, I must
<br />educate those who might not realize that both Hamas and Hezbollah are considered part of the
<br />political fabric, respectively of Palestine and Lebanon. They cannot be considered as paramilitary
<br />forces, they have ministries of education, welfare, finance, and a police force, many of whom might
<br />support either of these two political parties, but in need of employment work for them.
<br />
<br />th
<br />In closing, what I understand is that on December 19, Santa Ana Council members will reconvene to
<br />offer another watered-down version of the initiative, I hope for the sake of our brothers and sisters in
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