GAZA'S HELL

US trying to stop Al Jazeera showing footage of Gaza beach massacre
Date: 11 / 06 / 2006 Time: 11:51



Gaza-Ma'an-The Ma'an News Agency has learned from its sources in the Qatari capital, Doha, that the US consulate has called the Al Jazeera Satellite channel and urged them to stop broadcasting the images of Huda Ghalia weeping and crying next to the body of her dead father. Huda's father was killed on Friday in an Israeli shelling aimed at Gazans who were relaxing on a beach in north Gaza.

The images on Al Jazeera show Huda running around the beach in agony, weeping and screaming, while she shouts out for father and other members of her family who perished instantly. She looks like a slaughtered sea gull or a migrant bird on the sands of the Gaza beach - the sand which was already covered with the blood of her father, mother, sisters and brothers, with all the members of her family.

10 year-old Huda went to the beach with her whole of family to see the sea. Her father wanted the children to enjoy the shining sands of the beach and to have a good time because it was the start of their holiday. They had just finished their end-of-year exams so he thought that they deserved to be taken on a trip to the beach.

Huda spent only an hour – such a short time - with her loving father and mother, and the rest of her family, before the Israeli army struck. There were many other families on the beach that day, but after a short time, there was no happiness left. All Huda's happiness had gone with the shattered flesh and blood of her family. She ran on the beach like a little lost bird that does not know how to fly to follow the family.

The Al Jazeera images show her alone on the sand in this huge and wild world. She moves around the bodies in quick darts and jerks – she does not know who to look at or who to hold close to her chest, so she keeps running and throwing the beach sand onto her long hair as she faces the horror all alone. The family that should be there to comfort her and guide her as she grows up lies lifeless on the sand, victims of an Israeli shelling.

The US is ashamed of what Israel has done, but they dare not say that or criticize it , so they are trying stop the world from seeing the footage of the human impact of Israeli atrocities. They are trying to stop the world from seeing the sorrow of an orphaned Palestinian child who is in so much anguish that everyone who sees the images immediately questions the actions of the Israeli army.

The US is contacting the Al Jazeera Channel in an attempt to stop the world from seeing this latest Israeli atrocity against Palestinians and their children. The US should let the world watch these scenes and bear witness to who the victims of violence are, and who the perpetrators of violence are. The world should see these Israeli crimes and feel ashamed that they protect Israel. Why is the US ashamed that Al Jazeera is showing the world what Israel has done? The US should instead be ashamed of, and feel and feel guilt for, its' own role in covering up Israeli atrocities and acts of barbarism against Palestinians since the state of Israel was established in 1948.