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A Palestinian child's Eulogy
By Yazan Majaj
Amman - My name is Shaheed, I am an 11-year-old child, a human being with the innocent ability to laugh, cry, love and dream. I carry with me three thousand years of heritage and a million years of love.
Today is the most vital day in my journey of existence; today is my funeral.
My father woke me up yesterday morning and asked me to accompany him on a trip to a nearby town. Though my mother had warned him repeatedly to stay out of the path of trouble (there were demonstrations all over my country), he reassured her that he will, and she trusted his paternal instinct and peaceful nature.
As we walked down the path to destiny, my father started lecturing me on the importance of fighting for freedom, but not losing one's taste of enjoying that freedom once attained, and celebrating being human. He kept on repeating that the fact that we had been occupied for more than fifty years is the biggest reason why our nation values freedom as if it was a privilege, not a right.
Our conversation was suddenly interrupted by an outlash of Palestinian stone-throwing freedom fighters evading the live ammunition aimed at them by the Israeli occupiers. My father took me behind a wall and asked me to stay down. He waved his hand to the Israeli soldiers and cried: "Don't shoot, we are just passers by. I have my son with me." And then, just by "accident", due to our untimely fall in the "crossfire" between the bullet- shooting Israelis and the stone-throwing Palestinian freedom fighters, two bullets pierced his waving hand.
The Israeli soldier mistook my father for a rock throwing child; the soldier was simply trying to protect himself and his colleagues from a rock which could, potentially, be thrown at his bullet proof helmet and vest or, God forbid, at his pointed laser riffle.
A second later put another bullet in my father's leg. Yet another unfortunate "accident".
And no sooner than a bullet's whisper, the fatal 'accident.
My father had pushed me behind him so that my life would be saved if he was destined to die; he wanted to make sure that someone was there to take care of my mother and brothers.
The Israeli sniper seemed to have mistook me as well for a rock throwing "terrorist" - that being any Palestinian child between two and 15 who already knows how to throw rocks or might one day learn such a threat to Israel's national security.
I felt no pain as a bullet penetrated my heart, only to be rushed by another. As blood started dripping from my mouth, the wisdom of death struck me with that pre-death serenity everyone talks about. I looked into my father's eyes, and thanked him for my life.
I would like to take this occasion to thank the Israeli sniper - shooting on command - for the swift, painless death he masterfully conducted. I hope that his son will be treated with such mercy should the occasion rise.
If you are patient with me, I feel compelled to tell the story of the events leading to the current "violence" in my homeland.
A few days before, Ariel Sharon - member of the Israeli nation, cousins of the Arabs as I was told through the father of our dynasty, Abraham - decided to conduct a "non- political " visit to my nation's holy place of worships, Al Haram Al Sharif, otherwise referred to by the Israelis as the Temple Mount.
Sharon is the leader of the rightwing Israeli opposition, the same party Benyamin Netanyahu belongs to. Sharon was the military commander in charge of invading Lebanon, an 18-year adventure aimed at protecting the "security" of Israeli northern borders through the termination of Palestinian freedom fighters in Palestinian refugee camps (mission accomplished in 1982), and creating an enclave by occupying Southern Lebanon to sod off potential "terrorists". (Smart technique; occupy another country, call its freedom fighters terrorists, and commit a series of massacres over 18 years to "scare them off").
Sharon is, additionally, the mastermind behind the Sabra and Shatilla Palestinian refugee camps massacre. This massacre was conducted by the Israeli "defence" army on the outskirts of Beirut. Right after the Palestinian freedom fighters evicted the camps, Sharon and his freedom "defenders" invaded the camp and ethnically cleansed over 2,000 Palestinian "terrorists" less than 15 years old, in addition to their mothers and the elderly. Sharon maintains that this act was directed at stopping the "terrorists" from growing up and the mothers from producing more "terrorists" that endanger the "national security of Israel".
Sharon's visit to the mosque was of a strictly spiritual nature. Being the pious man he is, he maintains that the Arabs have constructed a mosque in that area over the Temple of Solomon. He wished to reiterate the right of Israelis to tear down that mosque and rebuild the temple over it. More than fifty years of excavations have lent no proof to the existence of the ruins of the temple around or under the mosque. But what would happen did such ruins really exist? Would the Israelis destroy one house of God to build another? Or maybe they worship a different God than mine. In school I was taught that there is but one God and that Israelis worship him too. Do they teach their children the same? The Western news agencies failed, yet again, to mention any of this. They stressed that Israelis would like to "share" this site of worship, not destroy it.
Share a place of worship that has been for more than a thousand years a holy shrine for the now 1.3 billion Arabs and Muslims in the world. I wonder what the rabbis would say if Palestinians asked to "share" worshipping in the temples they have built over the ruins of mosques and churches the Israelis had destroyed throughout their occupation of Palestine.
In addition to that, seconds of news coverage of Sharon's "visit" were not enough to show the 3,000 soldiers accompanying him on this "spiritual" mission. Of course no time was allocated for that since attention had to be focused to the "violence" that erupted when thousands of Palestinian "terrorists" attacking this "pious" man and his "defence" army.
Luckily enough, an accidental cameraman and a courageous reporter witnessed my death and showed it to the world; and the whole world was "shocked". As if such an act of sadistic cruelty were alien to the meek, peace-loving Israeli nation fighting for acceptance among 240 million Arab "terrorists" surrounding them on the four boundaries.
What would the world think if more media witnessed and showed the death of all the children caught in "crossfire" and "accidentally" killed by Israeli snipers under direct command from their leaders.
And would the international "public opinion", the force behind any possible halt of offences against human rights (only when "shocked", of course), change its mind about us, the savage terrorists endangering the security of Israel, if it knew details of the over 50 years of massacre-infested events conducted by Israeli "freedom fighters" and their defence army? What would change if the world saw coverage of the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre where Palestinian families where killed in their sleep at the hands of a Jewish group, leaders of which later became prime ministers and presidents of the "peace-loving" Israel? Or the Qana shelter in Southern Lebanon where more than 100 Lebanese women and children were burnt to death by an Israeli laser-guided missile; another "accident" committed to defend security of the Israeli northern border attacked by real Lebanese freedom fighters trying to liberate their country from Israeli occupation.
Should I go on? Qufr Qasem, Yalo and the rest of the Arab villages turned into dust and then turned into parks denying the existence of the bones of my ancestors under them.
Then, of course, there is the cold-blooded killing of Palestinian bystanders by Israeli "settlers". In case you do not know, "settlers" is part of the Israeli terminology meaning the inhabitants of settlements built over ruins of towns or villages or farmlands and houses confiscated from Palestinians. The Israelis devised this word, "settlements", to address the Western (and more specifically American) public. The aim is to convey the subliminal message that the "settlers" are living in rough, uninhibited and/or undercivilised areas; bringing civility and modernity to the area and its savage surroundings (including of course the uncultivated batches of Arabs living there). Every time CNN speaks of settlers and settlements, Americans visualise Palestinians in alliance with the distorted indigenous Americans image (Red Indians just a few years back). The image of blood painted, weird dressed savages carrying machetes and axes, crying weird noises while raiding the settlements is what many Americans think Palestinians are doing - right before they are shot by the "settlers" or the victorious champions of civilisation and development.
I would like to declare such media manipulations a crime against humanity and an insult to the intelligence of the viewers, an act of treason against academic honesty and a violation of the right of ethical and honest declaration.
I can see the crowd at the funeral clearly now.
Mother, tears of grief and a look of shock. Fifty years of occupation and your mind still cannot comprehend how such atrocities could occur.
Mother, you brought me up a human being. You taught me that we are all humans - sons of one loving God - and you asked me never to forget it. My only identity was a human being, until that day we were stopped at the Israeli check point on the way to my grandmother's house. Mother, the soldier .... he called me a filthy Arab; that day I carried my first burden, my identity. Tell me mother, how could I not put my identity before my humanity when throughout my short life Israelis have treated me according to the colour of my skin, my religion, my birth place, my name? Mother, you told me of days long gone when Arabs and Jews lived together in Palestine.
You said your father went with them to school, ate at their home and they at his, visited them during their holidays and they did the same. You said that the identity of today was the social spice of yesterday. It was constantly a source of sharing, whether in celebration or grief. Mother, you said that everyone knew that no one chose who they were, and all knew well that beyond the guise there lies a human being with a brain.
Mother, I ask you when it's too late, was I ever a human being? In my world, I'm sure I was, but my world I could never share. The mere sight of an occupier looking down at me was enough to tear my world down. But mother, I tell you that that world always came up again, for me and all my friends and brothers. Mother that is what a "freedom fighter" meant to us.
I cannot see my father anywhere. His injury made him miss his own son's funeral.
Father, I tell you not to feel guilty for you did all a father could: you put your life on the line and the rest was left to insanity.
Father, don't be angry because now I know it is insanity.
If the soldier who killed me that day was ever put on trial and I were the jury, I would free him on count of insanity. Father, tell me how a father can turn into a beast when he puts on a uniform and wears a sniper riffle? How he could shoot me through the heart knowing his son was waiting his return back home? Father, I ask you what that soldier saw when he looked at us through his riffle's scope? I bet he saw us as animals, wild savages ready to kill him if he doesn't first.
Cold creature with dangerous manoeuvres (hand waiving) and bad intentions; members of a pack that speaks a senseless language; guerrillas with weird facial expressions and excessive compulsivity. What would you call a person who sees all that in a father trying to protect his son from death? Insane. There is no other explanation, there cannot be.
The obvious question is: Why is he that way? What did this to him? A whole century of brainwashing triggered by the Basle declaration, that's what it is.
The Israelis have been brainwashing themselves with a very powerful mental tool: dehumanising the "enemy". For a whole century they have been hearing stories of savage Arabs, emotionless irrational creatures whose sole aim in life is the termination of the Israelis.
A century of brainwashing Western leaders and public into false convictions leading to binding promises, such as the Balfour declaration and ridiculous interpretations of world resolutions against Israel's occupation. Balfour promised the Jews a homeland in Palestine, an uninhabited desert that, incidentally, had hundreds of towns and villages with hundreds of thousands of mainly Arab populace - "accidentally" neglected by the declaration. The aftermath was the successful creation of the state of Israel, I will admit. A failure to create a nation of human beings, I will guarantee.
Israel is a powerful state led and "defended" by people dehumanised to the point of insanity... just a dead child's point of view on things, mind you.
Today I met my brothers and sisters in humanity, victims of the Nazi holocaust.
Children like myself, mother, fathers, uncles and aunts.... A mother approached me and held my hand: "Forgive them, for they know not what they are doing," she whispered.
My friends Mohammad, Issa, Haroon and Salam. I see you standing there with gloomy faces. You are too young to understand death, though your parents could not lie to you: "Shaheed was shot dead." You thought it was not fair, that I didn't deserve to die. Your world of innocent justice and fairness does not account for the logic behind such death.
Don't be angry my friends, and don't be afraid. Share your humanity with the world.
Don't go through life having not asserted your humanity, then celebrate your identity, as our forefathers did.
Start by praying for forgiveness for those who know not what they are doing.
Pray for the soldier who shot me, for he will have to face his wife and children every day for the rest of his life.
Pray for Israeli leaders who order their troops to commit crimes against humanity, for they are responsible for creating beasts.
Pray for Ariel Sharon, for the souls of Sabra and Shatilla victims will haunt him to eternity.
Pray for brainwashing tools, news agencies, biased reporters, coward holders of truth, politicians and world leaders, for they are all part of a killing machine through which they deny responsibility for their actions, sheltered behind individualism and other shortcomings of "the system", or through claims of ignorance.
Pray for Israeli children growing up in today's world, for the rest of their lives is a strife for humanity and mental health.
Pray that you can one day walk with these children as brothers and sisters in humanity, not cousins in dynasty or enemies of identity. Walk with them over the sites of massacres and plant flowers that will flourish with the blood of martyrs; cleansing the insanity of war.
Only then can you build "settlements", the new foundations of a humane civilisation.
The writer is a sales executive in Musqat, the Sultanate of Oman. He contributed this article to the Jordan Times.