Stuart Littlewood, Jan 16 2009
A very moving message from the elderly priest who leads the Christian community in Gaza, Fr Manuel Mussallam, has just arrived in my computer inbox.
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| Funeral Mass said by Father Manuel Musallam at Holy Family Church in Gaza City for Christine Wadee' al-Turk, 14, who died from unknown causes after an Israeli missile barrage shook her home. Christine had no visible wounds so it is thought she died from fright/heart attack. Christine attended Holy Family Parish School. (Al-Quds Newspaper (Jan 4, 2009)) |
This remarkable and much-respected man of the Catholic church runs the best school in Gaza, where some 70% of the pupils are, believe it or not, Muslim. I was lucky enough to meet him in Gaza about a year ago when the situation was already dire.
People ought to understand that the starvation, hardship and slaughter did not begin with the Israeli air offensive on 27 December. It had been going on since before the election of Hamas in early 2006 and the spiteful siege immediately imposed by Israel and the US and supported by Britain and the EU. Between 2005 and 2008 the Israelis killed nearly 1,250 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.
"From the valley of tears," says Fr Manuel in greeting, "from Gaza that is sinking in its own blood, the blood that has strangled the joy in the hearts of one and a half million inhabitants, I send you this message of faith and hope. But the message of love is imprisoned, choked in our throats as Christians. We do not venture to even say it to ourselves.
"The priests of the Church today are raising hope as a banner, so that God will have mercy on us and have compassion on us and keep a remnant of himself in Gaza so that the light of Christ that was lit by Deacon Philip at the establishment of the church will not be extinguished and will continue to shine in Gaza.
“May Christ's compassion revive our love for God even though it is currently in 'intensive care'."
Deacon Philip, if I remember correctly, was one of the Seven Deacons appointed by the Apostles.
She went to complain to her Creator and request a home and a refuge
In his message Fr Manuel reports the first Christian casualty in this Gaza war - Christine Wadi al-Turk, a pupil at his school. "Christine was in the tenth grade and she died this morning, Friday January 2, as a result of fear and the cold. The windows in her home were open to protect the children from flying glass caused by bomb blasts. The bomb that hit her neighbour's home caused her whole body to shake in horror. She could not bear all this, so she went to complain to her Creator about her situation and request a home and a refuge where there is no crying, screaming or wailing, but joy and happiness."
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| Father Manuel Musallam, Holy Family Church, Gaza City (Photo Mohammad Omer) |
He is concerned that what we in the West see on TV is only a fraction of the harsh reality. "The television and radio cannot transmit the whole truth because of its enormity... The bitter siege on Gaza has become a hurricane that is growing every hour until it has become a war crime, a crime against humanity.
"The children of Gaza and their parents are sleeping in the corridors of their homes, or in the toilets and bathrooms for their protection. They are trembling with fear at every voice, movement and shelling and the heavy bombing by F-16 planes. It is true that these planes have mostly targeted the main government and Hamas headquarters, but these are near people's homes and are not more than 6 metres away, which is the legal distance between buildings. Therefore, people's homes have been severely damaged and many children have died because of this.
"Our children are living in a state of trauma and fear. They are sick from it and for other reasons such as the lack of food, malnutrition, poverty and the cold... The hospitals did not have basic first aid before the war and now thousands of wounded and sick are pouring in and they are performing operations in the corridors. The situation is frightening and sad."
He illustrates the chaos and confusion with a story about the Abdel Latif family. "One of their sons disappeared during the first bombing and his family looked for him, but could not find him on the first or the second day of the war. On the third day, while searching the hospital, they came upon the Jaradah family who were surrounding one of their injured sons. This young man had had a leg amputated and his face was disfigured, not directly by a bomb but because shattered glass had fallen on him while he was lying in the hospital during an air raid. The Abdel Latif family approached the Jaradah family to console them, and when they saw the injured man, Mr. Abdel Latif felt sure that this was his son and not the son of the Jaradah family. Amid the family controversy, they waited for the wounded man to wake up and say his name and so settle the argument..."
I read that on the first day of the air assault up to 250 Palestinians died, which suggests around 1,000 maimed and injured, so the sudden impact on an already overstretched and seriously disabled hospital service must have been appalling.
"Our people in Gaza are treated like animals in a zoo,” continues Fr Manuel. “They eat but remain hungry, they cry, but no one wipes their tears. There is no water, no electricity, no food, only fear, terror and blockade... Yesterday the bakery refused to give me bread, the reason being that the baker did not wish to disrespect my priesthood by supplying me with flour unfit for humans. The good flour had run out, and what flour he had was unfit for human consumption. I have avowed to not eat bread for the duration of this war."
The road to peace is peace
Appealing to the wider world Fr Manuel says: “We want you to raise your continuous prayers to God, and not to hold a mass or service without remembering the suffering of Gaza before God. We have all agreed to pray this prayer at the top of every hour:
O Lord of peace, rain peace on us; O Lord of peace, grant peace to our land. Have mercy, O Lord, on your people and do not keep us in enmity forever.
“Love does not recognize political and social barriers, wars and so on. When your love reaches us, it makes us feel that we, in Gaza, are an integral part of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and our Muslim brothers and sisters in our midst are our people and our destiny, we have what they have and we suffer like they do, we are all the people of Palestine.
“In the midst of all this, our people in Gaza reject war as a means for peace and confirm that the road to peace is peace. We in Gaza are steadfast: between slavery and death, we have no choice.”
Fr Manuel ends by saying: "We want to live to praise the Lord in Palestine and witness for Christ, we want to live for Palestine, not die for it, but if death is imposed on us, we will not die except honest, brave and strong."
Now that’s what I call a priest.
About Stuart Littlewood
Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. Read other articles by Stuart, or visit Stuart's website. He contributed this article to RamallahOnline.com
Related:
Christine Turok (14 yrs old) + + (Sam Bahour)
- A young girl from Gaza joins the Angels (Frank Hope)
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As me being Christen's older sister, I need to clarify that she had no problems in her heart and there has been no offical or Medical resorces that have said that she died from a Heart attack, all what has happened was that she woke up with difficulty in breathing. My sister died of fear.
Here's the story of that night and all of what has happened, please read it to know the truth..
Thank you and God Bless you..
That night was as black as coal, as cold as pole, an as loud as more than you could imagine. The sky was full of black clouds which smelled like burn, and about every two minutes as explosion is heard. That night was the 7th day of the Israeli’s war on Gaza Strip. The ”cast Bullets” war!
My, 15 years old, sister, Christen, was sleeping beside my other, 16 years old, sister and my, 6 years old, brother, on a mattress, on the ground. Beside the mattress, my parents slept on a single-bed. My whole family was sleeping in the same room, that night.
During the shelling, Christen suddenly woke up, on the sound of a very big explosion, near our house, with difficulty of breathing. The extreme number of the rockets and missiles were too much stress for her that she got scared and couldn’t tolerate the continues shelling for 7 days in a row. Although it was very dangerous to go outside in the streets, my father took risk and held his youngest daughter to the car to take her to the hospital in attempt to rescue her. He was racing the time, ignoring the voices of shelling, pretending not to notice the rockets flying above their heads and forgetting the danger they are going through; my father drove under a fire-raining sky, and through an atmosphere full of fear. Despite the fear, the fire, and the danger, her young soul dared everything around her and left her body between her father’s arms and said goodbye to this earthly hell she was living in.
That night, the 2nd of January 2009, another innocent victim has been recorded dead, in order to increase the pleasure of the Israeli’s addiction to the Palestinians death. That victim was my little sister. My little sister who shared me her dreams and ambitions. My little sister who used to always laugh and bring joy to everyone around her. She was a close friend to everyone she knew. Christen knew she was living in an occupied country and her life is completely not the same normal life of other people her age around the world. According to that truth, she tried to make up a world of her own. A world of joy, laughter and dreams; hoping that the real world might change one day. I don’t know if that is a mistake (to try to live the life however and try the best to laugh and dream) but it seems that the answer turned out to be a “YES”; it is a mistake and we, the Palestinians, are forbidden from our least rights in laughing, dreaming, and hoping for a better future.
That night, the war didn’t just kill my sister alone, it left an entire family die every second of a broken heart. The tears and the screams are not enough to describe what am I feeling deep inside my heart, while the sorrow is tearing me apart. There is no words can explain the suffering of my parents neither any condolences can cool down their burning hearts. There is no cure for my other sister’s pain and I of losing our beloved little sister and there is no toys or magical stories can make my little brother forget the memory of that night.
Christen was not the first or the last to die on the Israelis hands, but she was a sample on how simple these monsters can kill.
As an 18 years old girl, I can do nothing to bring my sister back to life, neither do anything to stop the Israelis from killing my nation; all I can do is asking God to rest my sister’s soul in peace and to bless my family and my country, Palestine.
Finally, I am begging whoever have a sense of feelings, to stand up, hand in hand and say ENOUGH to the crime against Palestine.
