Israel's Onslaught: One of Its Bloodiest Attacks on Palestinians in 60 Years

By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!. Posted December 30, 2008.

JG: I'd like to ask also Fida Qishta back into the conversation -- this continuing occupation and encirclement and the problems that you face in Gaza, how do persevere, you and other residents there, day to day, manage to get through?

FQ: Well, for Palestinians, in general, they face a lot from the Israeli occupation. And if you don't find a house in the whole Gaza Strip that isn't damaged by losing a son or a father or a daughter or a mother -- we used to face lots of problems with the Israelis. And me, myself, I'm one of the people and a person who lost their house in 2004. We managed to continue our lives. We managed to build a new house, and now we survived. But the problem of the other people who can't build new houses or even afford food for their families.

Palestinians try to be strong. But under these attacks that the Israelis now -- actually, the war that Israelis started with Palestinians in Gaza, it's really unbelievable and not acceptable. It's genocide. And all the world should stop and say to Israel, "Stop it. That's enough. The Gazan people chose this government, and you should accept it." And for us, as Gazans, we try to continue our lives, no matter what happens. We keep the hope, and we keep the struggle for the future and for our families. We don't think, for example, if the Israelis destroy a house or kill a son or a daughter, that means our life is ended. We try to survive and continue our life. We try to do our best with it, but Israel is trying every single day, every single minute, to destroy the Palestinians' hope. And I don't know what these normal Palestinians did for them, what these civilians did for them. So we try to manage and continue our life. This is what we try to do. No matter what, we try to continue our lives.

AG: I want to go back to Ali Abunimah. The next step now? Israel is preparing for a ground invasion, calling up 6,500 troops. Do you hold Hamas responsible for any of this? What do you think Hamas should be doing now?

AA: Well, what could -- I mean, this thing about if they hadn't fired rockets, this was the Israeli propaganda that Mahmoud Abbas was repeating in Cairo. And as Dr. El-Haddad said, has one single rocket ever been fired from the West Bank? No. And as Dr. Barghouti was saying, the West Bank is under constant attack. People are being killed. Amy, you had on your show the settler pogroms that were happening in front of the eyes of the world in the West Bank, the settlement construction that goes on. There has not been a single rocket fired from the West Bank. Abbas has capitulated to the Israelis. His so-called security forces, trained by the United States and armed by the United States, have been fighting the resistance in the West Bank. Did that spare one single Palestinian in the West Bank from Israeli violence or colonization? No, it did not.

This notion that Israel has a right to defend itself -- against who? Against 1.5 million people who are refugees, who are starving, who are caged in the world's largest prison or concentration camp? Don't Palestinians also have a right to defend themselves? What should Palestinians do? I turn the question of those who keep pointing the finger at the Palestinians. Resistance is not acceptable, and so --

AG: Ali Abunimah, we're going to have to leave it there.

AA: Thank you, Amy.

AG: I thank you very much for being with us, Ali Abunimah in Florida; Dr. Moussa El-Haddad and Fida Qishta, both in Gaza; Dr. Mustafa Barghouti in Ramallah.

See more stories tagged with: israel, palestine, amy goodman, gaza, hamas, air strikes

Amy Goodman is the host of the nationally syndicated radio news program Democracy Now!

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from World! Sign up now »