Civil Disobedience Earns Respect in Palestinian Resistance Struggle

My complaint with this article though is that it makes it seem like non-violent resistance is a novel concept for Palestinians when in fact the first Intifada (uprising) was almost completely non-violent and still do this day Palestinians regularly engage in CD and non-violent means. What the article misses is the fact that the American media coverage is so biased in favor of Israel that we are blind to these realities until unfortunately something like the Flotilla Massacre occurs and we think "oh, wow. people must be using non-violent means" - - even when Israel tried to villify this endeavor also.

Given this complaint though, I think the article is still very interesting because it reports on how groups that have in fact adopted violent means in their engagements with Israel and how they see CD now.

I'm sure though that in the long run that this sort of 'approval' from Hamas and Hezbollah will lead to even greater scrutiny of non-violent protests and resistance, but more so especially, because Israel too is realizing their powerful impact internationally.

-

Israel's Foes Embrace New Resistance Tactics
Hamas and Hezbollah Find Inspiration In Flotilla, Support Protest Movements

By CHARLES LEVINSON

JERUSALEM—Hamas and Hezbollah, groups that have long battled Israel with violent tactics, have begun to embrace civil disobedience, protest marches, lawsuits and boycotts—tactics they once dismissed.

For decades, Palestinian statehood aspirations seemed to lurch between negotiations and armed resistance against Israel. But a small cadre of Palestinian activists has long argued that nonviolence, in the tradition of the American civil rights movement, would be far more effective.

Officials from Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, point to the recent Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, in which Israeli troops killed nine activists, as evidence there is more to gain by getting Israel to draw international condemnation through its own use of force, rather than by attacking the country.

Agence France-Press/Getty Images

Israeli troops approach a model of a ship representing the Gaza aid flotilla during a demonstration by activists in the West Bank in early June.

"When we use violence, we help Israel win international support," said Aziz Dweik, a leading Hamas lawmaker in the West Bank. "The Gaza flotilla has done more for Gaza than 10,000 rockets."

Hamas and Hezbollah, the Islamist movement in Lebanon that has been fighting Israel since the early 1980s, haven't renounced violence and both groups continue to amass arms. Hamas still abides by a charter that calls for Israel's destruction; Palestinian youths still hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers across the West Bank separation barrier. And the flotilla incident didn't fall into conventional standards of peaceful protest: While most activists passively resisted Israeli soldiers, some on the boat where protesters were killed attacked commandos as they boarded, according to video footage released by Israel and soldiers' accounts.

The incident triggered international condemnation and plunged Israel into one of its worst diplomatic crises in years. In response, Israel said it would take some steps to ease its blockade on the Gaza Strip.

After the incident, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on supporters to participate in the next flotilla bound for Gaza. Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a member of the Hezbollah politburo in Beirut, said it was the first time Mr. Nasrallah had forcefully and publicly embraced such tactics against Israel.

"We saw that this kind of resistance has driven the Israelis into a big plight," he said. Organizers in Lebanon say they have two ships ready to sail, but no departure date has been set.

A senior Israeli foreign ministry official said Israel recognizes "changes in the tactical thinking of Hamas and other resistance movements." The official said the groups are no less committed to Israel's destruction, but have simply concluded they are more likely to defeat Israel by encouraging its international isolation instead of through military force.

"People who are provoking violence are using peaceful protest as a cover," said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.

The Palestinian protest movement picked up steam in the past year, spearheaded by activists in the West Bank and a coalition of pro-Palestinian international human-rights groups.

The absence of peace talks for much of the past two years has pushed the Palestinian Authority leadership to embrace the movement as well. Dominated by members of Hamas's more moderate rival Fatah, they long advocated a negotiated settlement with Israel and dismissed popular protest campaigns.

But in January, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad launched a campaign to boycott products produced in Israeli settlements and to plant trees in areas declared off limits by Israel. In April, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas outlawed settlement products in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas.

Hamas's turnaround has been more striking, said Mustapha Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian advocate for nonviolent resistance. "When we used to call for protests, and marches, and boycotts and anything called nonviolence, Hamas used these sexist insults against us. They described it as women's struggle," Mr. Barghouti said. That changed in 2008, he said, after the first aid ship successfully ran the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

"Hamas has started to appreciate just how effective this can be," Mr. Barghouti said.

Hamas has started organizing its own peaceful marches into the Israeli-controlled buffer zone along the Gaza border and supported lawsuits against Israeli officials in European courts. Hamas says it has ramped up support for a committee dedicated to sponsoring similar protests in Gaza.

Mr. Dweik, the Hamas lawmaker, recently began turning up at weekly protests against Israel's West Bank barrier.

Salah Bardawil, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza City, says Hamas has come to appreciate the importance of international support for its legitimacy as a representative of the Palestinian people and its fight against Israeli occupation, and has adapted its tactics. Hamas hasn't claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in years and now denounces the tactic as counterproductive. Since an Israeli military incursion into the territory in December 2008-January 2009, it has also halted rocket attacks into Israel.

"Hamas used to believe [international support] was just empty words," said Mr. Bardawil. "Today it is very interested in international delegations … and in bringing Israeli officials to justice through legal proceedings."

Indian Dock Workers Continue Labor Resistance to Apartheid

From Labor for Palestine

Dockworkers at the major Indian port of Cochin are refusing to unload Israeli cargo in protest of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip.

According to the Indian communist publication People’s Democracy, “The boycott began on June 17 on receipt of information that cargo unloaded at Colombo Port [Sri Lanka] from Israeli ship m/v Zim Livorno 16 was bound to arrive at Cochin Port in a feeder vessel.”

“On June 23, trade unions held a joint protest rally in Cochin Port near the office of Zim Integrated Shipping Services (India) Pvt Ltd – the Israeli shipping line,” the report added. At the demonstration, labor leaders denounced Israel’s attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May which left nine people dead.

Representatives of several trade unions—including those aligned with both left and right wing parties— joined the demonstration.

The port of Cochin, in the state of Kerala, is one of the biggest ports in India.

The Chochin dockworkers join workers at ports in Sweden, South Africa, and other countries who have refused to unload Israeli cargo. Calls for boycotts against Israel intensified in the wake of the flotilla raid.

On June 20th, dockworkers in Oakland, California, refused to unload an Israeli cargo ship after protesters picketed at the dock.

WHAT GREAT NEWS!!

solidarity is always SO unbelievably replenishing.

we are one.

Exciting BDS Update

Some very exciting BDS news within the Palestinian territories was featured recently in The Guardian.


I think this symbolizes a tangible connection between BDS actions internationally in countries like the U.S., Turkey, and Australia, to the resistance within the actual Palestinian territories. It is a very exciting time, indeed.

Enjoy!

"The objective is to ensure the Palestinian market is free of Israeli settlement produce by the end of this year," the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, said at the launch of the Store to Store campaign at the Alameen supermarket.

A team of volunteers will inspect 66,000 stores across the West Bank in the coming weeks, awarding certificates and window stickers to those free of settlement produce.

After a period of grace, shopkeepers retaining such produce in their stores could be liable to a fine of more than £9,000 or up to five years in prison under a law already passed but not yet enforced by the Palestinian legislative council.

"This is the daily expression of rejection of the occupation," Fayyad said. "It will help ensure that the Palestinian economy is self-sufficient. There will not be a store in Palestine which cannot carry our stickers."

Union & Liberation Struggle Solidarity

This post officially marks my revamping of this blog. I used it to originally detail my trip to Egypt for the Gaza Freedom March and instead of starting a whole new one, I figured I would use this to write, post, and keep up on things going on with this "conflict".
--Will post later on why I put the word conflict in quotations :)

As a labor union organizer currently working for a local in D.C. this made me infinitely happy today. In many countries, and even in the history of this very local in Oakland, California, labor unions have been deeply embedded within social justice struggles. While there are few that are hardly as militant (read as in staunch, not as in violent) as they used to be, this certainly replenishes my hope in their change. I think for the greater BDS movement in the U.S. this is a very significant step and the fact that it was not only leftists/activists who participated but also Union Dock Workers makes me all the more optimistic for this movement.

Here's to many more ships being turned away.

-sj.

Bay Area dockworkers refused to cross a picket line early Sunday, leaving a ship loaded with cargo from Israel floating offshore.

Seven hundred demonstrators had gathered to protest Israel’s May 31 attack on a flotilla attempting to break the blockade on the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The assault on the flotilla, carrying 10,000 tons of aid, killed nine people and injured more than 100.

After members of Local 10 of the Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) chose not to cross the line at the Port of Oakland, citing a contract provision that protects their health and safety, the stevedoring company cancelled the next shift, anticipating another refusal to unload the ship.

The events followed a similar action by dockworkers in Sweden, responding to the call put out by the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) to turn away Israeli goods. Dockworkers in Norway, Malaysia, and South Africa have also said they will not unload Israeli ships and cargo.

The call for longshore unions to refuse Israeli goods was amplified when Israel dispatched commandos in helicopters three weeks ago to seize small ships that were attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The humanitarian mission was sponsored by Turkish organizations, and hundreds of unarmed activists were on board.

Israel has prohibited food, household goods, and construction materials from reaching Gaza since the 2006 election of the militant Hamas movement to the territory’s government.

Israel, under heavy international pressure since the deadly assault on the flotilla, announced Sunday it will widen the list of goods allowed into Gaza.

Israel’s three-year blockade—and a 2008 military assault on Gaza that killed 1,440 Palestinians and destroyed 4,000 homes along with hospitals and water treatment facilities—has left the tiny territory in ruins, unable to rebuild.

Scores of unions around the world have condemned Israel’s blockade and attack on the flotilla, with the Congress of South African Trade Unions calling it “state-sponsored piracy.”

Along with US Labor Against the War, Labor for Palestine, a small US-based cross-union network, decried the assault on the flotilla. The AFL-CIO declined to comment.

BOYCOTT STRATEGY

Meanwhile, the South African Municipality Workers, among others, is campaigning to have cities break ties to Israel. Their drive is part of the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which activists in many countries are taking up to pressure Israel to change its behavior toward Gaza and its own Palestinian citizens. The campaign is modeled after the international movement that brought down South African apartheid in the 1980s.

Palestinian labor is asking for union solidarity in the campaign to sever ties with Israeli businesses, and to support new flotillas attempting to bring essential goods into Gaza.

Manawell Abdul-Al, a PGFTU executive committee member, responded to ILWU Local 10’s action: “This genuine solidarity is something we have longed for and expected,” he said. “We expected from you nothing less because of your history of defending the oppressed.”

The events followed a similar action by dockworkers in Sweden, responding to the call put out by the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) to turn away Israeli goods. Dockworkers in Norway, Malaysia, and South Africa have also said they will not unload Israeli ships and cargo.

The call for longshore unions to refuse Israeli goods was amplified when Israel dispatched commandos in helicopters three weeks ago to seize small ships that were attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The humanitarian mission was sponsored by Turkish organizations, and hundreds of unarmed activists were on board.

Israel has prohibited food, household goods, and construction materials from reaching Gaza since the 2006 election of the militant Hamas movement to the territory’s government.

Israel, under heavy international pressure since the deadly assault on the flotilla, announced Sunday it will widen the list of goods allowed into Gaza.

Israel’s three-year blockade—and a 2008 military assault on Gaza that killed 1,440 Palestinians and destroyed 4,000 homes along with hospitals and water treatment facilities—has left the tiny territory in ruins, unable to rebuild.

Scores of unions around the world have condemned Israel’s blockade and attack on the flotilla, with the Congress of South African Trade Unions calling it “state-sponsored piracy.”

Along with US Labor Against the War, Labor for Palestine, a small US-based cross-union network, decried the assault on the flotilla. The AFL-CIO declined to comment.

BOYCOTT STRATEGY

Meanwhile, the South African Municipality Workers, among others, is campaigning to have cities break ties to Israel. Their drive is part of the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which activists in many countries are taking up to pressure Israel to change its behavior toward Gaza and its own Palestinian citizens. The campaign is modeled after the international movement that brought down South African apartheid in the 1980s.

Palestinian labor is asking for union solidarity in the campaign to sever ties with Israeli businesses, and to support new flotillas attempting to bring essential goods into Gaza.

Manawell Abdul-Al, a PGFTU executive committee member, responded to ILWU Local 10’s action: “This genuine solidarity is something we have longed for and expected,” he said. “We expected from you nothing less because of your history of defending the oppressed.”

Bay Area dockers refused to unload a South African ship in 1984, and would not load bombs headed for Chile’s military government in 1978.

Don't Tell Me You Thought This Was Over -

Gaza Freedom March URGENT UPDATE

December 29, 2009

9:30 am - 12 noon: Embassy visits

11 am: Press Briefing including hunger striker Hedy Epstein

2 pm: Hunger Strikers Hold Candle Light Vigil


6 pm: Protest of Netanyahu's visit with Egyptian groups

This will be a demonstration against Netanyahu's visit to Cairo and Egypt's role in the siege on Gaza. Egyptian activists are calling for international solidarity, which is vital in showing those in power that we will not be deterred by their attempts to divide us and that we, Egyptians and internationals side by side with Palestinians, will stand fast in our opposition to the crippling Israeli siege on Gaza and Egypt's complicity in it.

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Here is a message of solidarity from Roger Waters of Pink Floyd:

A message of solidarity with THE GAZA FREEDOM MARCH

27 December 2009

My name is Roger Waters. I am an English musician living in the USA. I am
writing to express my great admiration for and solidarity with the 1360 men
and women from 42 different countries around the World who are gathering
in Egypt, preparing for The Gaza Freedom March. We all watched, aghast,
the vicious attack made a year ago on the people of Gaza by Israeli armed
forces and the ongoing illegal siege. The suffering wrought on the
population of Gaza by both the invasion and the siege is unimaginable to us
outside the walls. The aim of The Freedom March is to focus world attention
on the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza in the hope that the scales will
fall from the eyes of all, ordinary, decent people round the world, that they
may see the enormity of the crimes that have been committed, and demand
that their governments bring all possible pressure to bear on Israel to lift the
siege.

I use the word 'crimes' advisedly, as both the siege and the invasion have
been declared unlawful by United Nations bodies and leading human rights
organizations. If we do not all observe international law, if some
governments think themselves above it, it is but a few short, dark, steps to
barbarism and anarchy.

The Gaza Freedom March is a beacon to all those of us who believe that
under the skin, we are all brothers and sisters, who must stand shoulder to
shoulder, if we are to make a future where all have recourse to law and
universal human rights. Where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is
not just the preserve of the few. All the oil in The Middle East is not worth
one child's life. So to those of you who march, I tip my hat. It is a brave and
noble thing you do, and when you reach your goal please tell our Palestinian
brothers and sisters, that out here, beyond the Walls of their Prison, stand
hundreds of thousands of us in solidarity with them. Today, hundreds of
thousands, tomorrow, millions, soon, hundreds of millions. We Shall
Overcome.

Roger Waters

Palestinians Continue to Struggle - and Die.

This news makes me sick.

-

---

December 27, 2009

Israeli Military Kills 6 Palestinians

By ETHAN BRONNER

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military killed six Palestinians on Saturday, three in the West Bank whom it accused of killing a Jewish settler and three in Gaza who it said were crawling along the border wall planning an attack. It was the deadliest day in the conflict in nearly a year.

Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, called it “a sad day for Palestinians and their National Authority” and condemned the West Bank operation as an “assassination” and “an attempt to target the state of security and stability that the Palestinian Authority has been able to achieve.”

Maj. Peter Lerner, spokesman for Israel’s Central Command, which controls the West Bank, said that its forces had spent the past two days looking for the killers of the settler, Rabbi Meir Hai, a 45-year-old teacher and father of seven, who was shot dead on Thursday as he drove near his home in the settlement of Shavei Shomron.

The information gathered, he said, led them to three men in the city of Nablus early Saturday. Troops in jeeps descended on their homes and in each case, he said, the suspect was asked to give himself up. None did so, and all were shot dead.

All three, he added, had been involved in anti-Israel violence in the past through activities in the Aksa Martyrs Brigade, a militia associated with the Fatah movement led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

One of them, Annan Sleiman Moustafa Tsubakh, 36, was hiding with two assault rifles, two handguns and ammunition in a crawl space in his house when the Israeli troops found him.

Major Lerner said that the three were the killers of Rabbi Hai and that they acted as an isolated cell rather than as part of some larger organization. Asked if the Israelis had coordinated with the Palestinian security forces that had been patrolling West Bank cities for a year and a half, he said no, that the army’s job was first and foremost to protect Israeli civilians.

Ghassan Katib, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, said Palestinian security had been investigating the killing when the Israelis interfered.

“This is what they do,” he said. “They kill people and then claim they were responsible. Our security forces had begun an investigation into the killing but the Israelis did not coordinate with us.”

Relatives of two of the three men who were in the houses when the raids occurred contended that the men were not armed and that the Israelis shot without warning. In the case of Mr. Tsubakh, relatives said they fled while he remained inside.

In the middle of the second Palestinian uprising in 2002 and 2003, drive-by shootings of settlers like the one that killed Rabbi Hai had become almost common in the West Bank. An Israeli clampdown and a Palestinian security focus — and greatly increased cooperation between the forces — have turned such attacks into a rarity and have led to a sense of increased personal security and potential prosperity.

But since the war in Gaza a year ago and the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, peace talks have been suspended, and officials on both sides fear that violence may pick up again and that security coordination could decline.

Each side blames the other. Mr. Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, called on his people not to be “dragged into a circle of violence, chaos and instability.”

At the Nablus funeral procession on Saturday for the three killed, attended by thousands, some shouted for revenge and condemned the security coordination with the Israelis.

A man who claimed to speak for Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade issued a statement saying that by killing six Palestinians on Saturday, “the occupation forces have opened the doors of hell on themselves.”

The killing of the three Palestinians in Gaza occurred when Israeli soldiers guarding the border from inside Israel saw people crawling along the border barrier near the main civilian crossing point. Israel permits no such movement near its border.

The soldiers said they fired warning shots but the three continued to crawl. An Israeli aircraft then shot at the men and killed them, an army spokeswoman said. She added that the army was convinced that the men were planning an attack.

Khaled Abu Aker contributed reporting from the West Bank.

Israel Threatens Gaza With War - AGAIN.

Ugh.

I am so angry right now. I don't even have the words to describe how ridiculous this nonsense is.

Commentary to come later when I'm not as tired or angry.

Peace.

-

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114471&sectionid=351020202

Israel threatens another large-scale Gaza war

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:55:35 GMT
Israel has threatened another massive war against the Gaza Strip as the impoverished enclave continues to suffer in the aftermath of the devastating January offensive.

Israeli planes have been dropping thousands of leaflets across Gaza, warning Palestinians against cooperating with the resistance fighters based in the coastal sliver.

The leaflets also threaten Gazans with a new attack just ahead of the first anniversary of Israel's 22-day onslaught against the Palestinian territory.

On December 2008, Tel Aviv launched an all-out military action against Gaza, killing 1,400 people, including a large number of women and children, killed and leaving thousands more injured.

The threats come despite the Israeli army's failure in its January operation to reach its strategic and military objectives — above all its pledged overthrow of Israel's long-time arch foe, Hamas.

In July, the activist group Breaking the Silence released print and video testimony from some 30 soldiers who said they entered Gaza with firing guns upon a "permissive" guideline by commanders, urging to shoot first and worry later about distinguishing civilians from combatants.

The 112-page testimony also accused Israeli troops of using Palestinian civilians as human shields and charged Israel with dropping forbidden white phosphorus bombs indiscriminately into Gaza streets on the top of aerial bombardment and heavy artillery fire.

In April, former South African UN prosecutor Richard Goldstone led an independent fact-finding mission commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations during the Gaza war.

The committee's 575-page report mostly highlighted Israeli atrocities against the people in the beleaguered Gaza Strip and documented deliberate targeting of centers, such as schools and mosques, known to be holding civilians.

The document also filed complaints that the Israeli soldiers killed unarmed people on the run, saying some of the victims were even waving white flags.

In October, the damning report was put up for a vote in the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council and endorsed by an overwhelming majority of 114 countries while 18 opposed and 44 abstained.

The three-week Israeli land, sea and air offensive in the Gaza Strip also devastated a large part of the infrastructure in the impoverished coastal enclave, which remains under Tel Aviv's blockade despite international opposition.

In light of all this, and many other things, please take just ONE moment to send an email pressuring the Egyptian government to allow the Gaza Freedom March to take place. You can send an email here.

Lots of love from Cairo,

Sana

(updates on today's adventure coming soon, promise!)

Long Live Gaza

Best video.

<3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Pj3i8YgR0

Why We Fight.

Amnesty International and several other human rights organizations and groups from the international community released a report today on how the world has failed the people of Gaza by not acting more strongly to shatter this brutal occupation.

I cannot believe how timely the release of such a strong report is, especially with the Gaza Freedom March. I hope this will answer the "why" and "what for" questions when people ask why it is not time for action - great action, to end this inhumanity. This is why the Gaza Freedom March is critical because while the diplomats and the Prime Ministers have stopped paying attention - we haven't. The people of Gaza have not forgotten their loved ones who were so ruthlessly murdered in the name of 'defense', their suffering has not lessened by any degree whatsoever, and the culprits behind all of this brutality are not only not being held accountable, their crimes against humanity are completely ignored. What kind of world is this?! While they all may have forgotten, the people of Gaza, of Palestine, have not and neither have we.

We have not, we will not, and we will not be silent by any measure.

It is time for this occupation to end, it is time for the inhumanity to stop, it is time, it is time, it is time.

Read the report and the articles here:

Aid agencies have strongly criticised the international community for failing to help bring an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza.

The charities made the accusation in a report published just ahead of the anniversary of Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The aid agencies condemn not just Israel, but the world community.

In the words of Oxfam's director, Jeremy Hobbs, "world powers have failed and betrayed Gaza's ordinary citizens".

The charities call for more pressure to be exerted on Israel to end what they describe as its illegal collective punishment of Gazans.

Gazans despair over blockade Gaza voices: Life under blockade Guide: Gaza under blockade

Israel imposed a tightened blockade after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power two-and-a-half years ago.

That was bad enough, say the aid agencies.

Matters became that much worse after the destruction caused by the Israeli offensive in Gaza earlier this year.

The report points to an acute shortage, in particular, of building materials.

A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister told the BBC that Israel remains committed to humanitarian supplies of food, medicine and power.

But he said that sanctions will remain in place as long as Hamas is committed to destroying Israel and killing Israelis.

Getting ready.

Peace everyone,

My name is Sana Javed, and I'm going to graduate this Sunday from the University of Maryland with a degree in Government and Politics and Spanish Languages and Literature. I'm a member of the Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine.

I am from the DMV- (D.C./MD/VA) and in one week I will be leaving for Egypt. On December 26th I will be joining over 1300 activists and other human beings of conscious for the Gaza Freedom March. This march is to demand an end to the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and to remember that exactly one year ago, Israel massacred 1400 Palestinians, where 900 of them were women and children.

I hope with this blog that I can describe and write the things I've seen, the people I've met, and relay what life under a brutal occupation is really like. I doubt this will be a fun blog with vacation like memories, but it will be real and honest and about the people living in the Gaza Strip.

Oh and the name of this blog, is in reference to what Palestinians use when they are gassed by Israeli soldiers. When gassed, they tie their keffiyeh on like a mask, and then cut onions and hold it up to their face to lessen the burning from the gas.

This one is for Gaza.

In struggle,
Sana.