Subscribe to Print Edition | Mon., January 26, 2009 Shvat 1, 5769 | | Israel Time: 12:41 (EST+7)
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Lucky my parents aren't alive to see this
By Amira Hass
Tags: Hamas, Israel News, Gaza 

Click here for more articles by Amira Hass

What luck my parents are dead. Back in 1982 they could not stand the noise of the Israeli jet fighters flying over the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The shriek of a plane horrified them in their house in Tel Aviv. We don't have to see it to know, they said.

That's how it was then. And what now, when from me they would have learned about 2-year-old Sham, who climbs nimbly onto the table to look at her sister drawing in her notebook; 5-year-old Tayyib with the space between his front teeth that shows when he smiles; or 6-year-old Carmel with the picture books she loves. The world is exploding around these children, again and again, just five or 10 meters away. For 10 days now, every minute is a minute of fear. Every minute of fear is a minute of death. Multiply that by a million and a half.
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My parents despised all their everyday activities - stirring sugar into coffee, washing the dishes, standing at a crosswalk - when in their mind's eye they saw, based on their personal experience, the terror in the eyes of children, the desperation of mothers who could not protect their young ones, the moment when a huge explosion dropped a house on top of its inhabitants and a smart bomb struck down entire families. Salmeh's mother says: "When I wake up [from a restless sleep] I am surprised. I know it's only by chance that I am alive."

How would they have been able to stand their daily routine now, when they would hear from me about 70-year-old Umm Khaled. A bomb fell on the closed concrete room on the square in the Shabura refugee camp. Two civilians were killed. Dozens of houses made out of hollow concrete were severely damaged. An asbestos roof fell centimeters from Umm Khaled's head. Only that persuaded her to "be evacuated" to her daughter's house, half a kilometer away, under the illusion that a new house would be safer. "All I hope is that I die before I see something happen to you," she repeatedly tells her children.

Even before the language laundromat developed to its current sophistication, my parents were nauseated by phrases like the "the war for peace in the Galilee" or "disturbances of public order" when the public order was the occupation and the disturbance was resistance to it. When order is preventing the Palestinians from having what the Jews have a right to and demand. What luck that they are not alive to hear Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni explaining that we have nothing against the Palestinian people, and the cabinet secretary explaining that there is no humanitarian crisis and this is just Hamas propaganda. To recognize lies, they did not need to know the names of the people who had not had running water for five days or more. Forget the bombardments, forget the electricity, food, even sleep. But no water? Because of the bombardments by sea, land and air, people cannot even go out to get drinking water from the city faucets. And when someone does have running water at home, it's undrinkable.

Because of my parents' history they knew what it meant to close people behind barbed-wire fences in a small area. A year, five years, 10 years. From 1991. How lucky it is that they are not alive to see how how these incarcerated people are bombarded with all the glorious military technology of Israel and the United States. "We urgently invite Mohamed ElBaradei to come here and prove we do not have nuclear weapons," says Iyad - a well-known comic, even under bombardment. But Saturday night he only said "difficult, difficult," and hung up the phone.

My parents' personal history led them to despise the relaxed way the news anchors reported on a curfew. How lucky they are not here and cannot hear the crowd roaring in the colosseum.
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Disturbing trend
Jewish Agency says Anti-Semitic acts in Jan. 2009 triple last year's records.
After the war
IDF gains in Gaza have softened Israel's stance on Shalit deal.
  1.   The thing is, Amira, you`re just being used 08:36  |  Colin Wright 07/01/09
  2.   Well... At Least, The Supplies Reached The Hospital 08:44  |  Yosemite 07/01/09
  3.   LUCKY your parents aren`t alive to see you ignore Sderot 08:47  |  PETER SM 07/01/09
  4.   No amount of Death and Mayhem will settle the argument 09:00  |  Bader S Abu-Ghosh 07/01/09
  5.   Hamas is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity 09:32  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 07/01/09
  6.   Speak Up 09:54  |  Lama 07/01/09
  7.   Symmetry - Bader S Abu-Ghosh 10:01  |  DW 07/01/09
  8.   Colin Wright you are right! 10:17  |  John and the truth 07/01/09
  9.   Sincerely, thank you Amira. 10:34  |  D.S 07/01/09
  10.   thank-you for your humaneness 10:35  |  peaceful 07/01/09
  11.   Weakness of Israel - Thank you from paris 10:37  |  paul 07/01/09
  12.   Amira, you are a great person 11:28  |  deen 07/01/09
  13.   PAUL Paris"How to resist"?Stop the 100 years of terror. 11:48  |  PETER SM 07/01/09
  14.   to paul : stop firing rocket, human shield and start to work! 12:08  |  jofromparis 07/01/09
  15.   Just wish you weren`t so alone, Amira 12:12  |  Equality 07/01/09
  16.   Amira, you are not alone 13:00  |  Anne 07/01/09
  17.   To Jo 13:04  |  paul 07/01/09
  18.   to jo and peter 13:13  |  paul 07/01/09
  19.   jo is right 16:16  |  ziggi 07/01/09
  20.   Says What No American "Leader" Will 16:19  |  Nancy 07/01/09
  21.   Amira`s omissions make those bombs fall 16:23  |  scambio 07/01/09
  22.   Thank you 16:25  |  Anna 07/01/09
  23.   Too Many Good People Victims Of A Criminal Leadership 16:27  |  IamNOTtheIranJUNTA 07/01/09
  24.   Darkness and Death 16:28  |  Sophie 07/01/09
  25.   Amira, You give hope 16:29  |  Jeannie 07/01/09
  26.   Let`s Create Hell-Part II 17:59  |  Yaakov Sullivan 07/01/09
  27.   Amira Hass..... 18:06  |  BIGSur 07/01/09
  28.   Lucky my paretns aren`t alive 18:10  |  berry 07/01/09
  29.   Amira Hass 18:16  |  B.D. Shepen M.D. 07/01/09
  30.   You just spoilt my breakfast again! 18:20  |  ateeq ahmad 07/01/09
  31.   Amira Hass 20:34  |  American 07/01/09
  32.   A friend from the Caribbean 23:33  |  Rafael Taveras 07/01/09
  33.   hope 23:39  |  ulf 07/01/09
  34.   to Colin Wright #1 (2nd try) 23:53  |  zeev 07/01/09
  35.   Are you willing to feed the residents of the South to Hamas Dogs? 23:56  |  Stacy 07/01/09
  36.   Journalistic fairness or Art of War 23:56  |  allang 07/01/09
  37.   Gaza suffering 23:58  |  Ines 07/01/09
  38.   Haaretz...could you please 00:01  |  Connie 08/01/09
  39.   to CJ Kohn #5 00:02  |  zeev 08/01/09
  40.   Amira Hass 00:03  |  Ros 08/01/09
  41.   Connie 05:24  |  Nancy Klein 08/01/09
  42.   Also lucky my parents aren`t alive 06:25  |  Janice 08/01/09
  43.   Amira Hess has no Arab counterpart 06:33  |  fiona 08/01/09
  44.   Where is your sympathy 09:35  |  Marvin 08/01/09
  45.   Most survivors are right wing 16:17  |  Erez 08/01/09
  46.   what about the shelling of south israel 18:54  |  tal 08/01/09
  47.   to tal #46 19:39  |  zeev 08/01/09
  48.   to fiona #43 - right you are (2nd try) 19:40  |  zeev 08/01/09
  49.   I Understand Your Motivation, But I Can`t Agree 19:57  |  Sheldon Tyber 08/01/09
  50.   to Ros #40 (3rd try) 20:14  |  zeev 08/01/09
  51.   to Marvin #44 - (4th try) 08:47  |  zeev 11/01/09
  52.   to PETER SM #13 (5th try) 08:48  |  zeev 11/01/09
  53.   my parents are not here 05:52  |  sara parsons 19/01/09
 Read & React
Livni: Israel should strike Hamas again to halt arms smuggling
Responses: 44
Amir Oren: 'Decisive' Gaza offensive merely rehearsal for next crisis versus Iran
Responses: 6
Netanyahu: Likud-led government wouldn't build new settlements
Responses: 30
Akiva Eldar: Saudi plan offers Israel united front with Arab states against Iran
Responses: 7


More Headlines
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11:24 Iran MPs plan Gaza visit to praise Hamas resistance against 'Zionist offensive'
11:55 Sky News joins BBC in refusing to air Gaza fundraiser
10:14 Nine held for allegedly attacking Israeli Arabs in Upper Nazareth
09:33 IDF rabbinate publication during Gaza war: We will show no mercy on the cruel
10:35 Haaretz probe: Unknown overseas sources paid MK Lieberman NIS 2.5m
10:51 2 hurt, 1 seriously, after light plane crashes near Beit She`an
04:42 EU presses Egypt to take action against Gaza arms smuggling
11:27 Number of laid-off Israelis set new high in December
07:41 U.S. businessman Guma L. Aguiar gives $8m to Nefesh b'Nefesh
07:43 Program launched to bring all Jewish teachers worldwide to Israel
04:43 Court to state: Let foreign media into Gaza when borders open
04:45 Egypt evacuates Rafah area, fearing IAF strike on Gaza
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