Before I had even known about the existence of the Gush Katif zoo, I had warned the journalist I was accompanying that she would see beautiful parks that we had created for our children. It wasn't fair, I told her the first time I met her, to simply take our parks and compare them to where Palestinian children play. It is too easy a trap in which to fall. It is too simple to conclude that those who have are guilty simply by virtue of the fact that there exist those who do not have.
I had tried to explain to this journalist from a far-off land, that we are not to blame if we choose to spend our money on parks and zoos while the Palestinian leaders embezzle millions (if not billions) of dollars, because Palestinian terrorist groups buy mortars and not swings, Kassam rockets and not animal cages. The Karine A ship that was loaded with weapons purchased by the Palestinian Authority was worth millions of dollars. How many parks and zoos could the Palestinians have built with that money?
Thinking about the sadness I heard in zookeeper David Amichai's voice as he talked about dismantling something he clearly loved so much, I again felt a sense of anger at the irrational choices our government is making; and I felt anger at the unjust comparison of Palestinian poverty with our perceived opulence.
What harm does this zoo do to the Palestinian children? Did it cause them to live in squalor? Will dismantling this zoo make their lives better? Because we gave our children a place such as this, does that make us wrong? If they stopped the terror, they could come here, I explained. We could help them build a zoo, as we have helped give them work, health care and so much more. There are so many options, once the violence stops.
Years ago, they chose hatred and mortars and incitement over building zoos and parks, just as they chose to reject the state they were offered by the United Nations in favor of waging war to push us into the sea. They did not succeed then, but they kept trying, focusing their resources on war and not on peace, on weapons and not on parks. It is not fair to look at what the Israeli child has and find us guilty because Palestinian children do not have these things. Per capita, Palestinian refugees have received more aid than anyone else. More than the victims of the droughts in Sudan and Ethiopia, more than the tsunami survivors, more than those suffering in Darfur. When our nation was born, we were just as poor and we had refugees that had come from all over the world. We housed them, we nurtured them, and half a century later, we are a nation without refugees, a nation with beautiful parks and zoos.
Where has the more than 10 billion dollars in funding from the European Union gone? The answer clearly is not to those who needed it. Not to the children, not to the schools. Not to the hospitals. Not to the parks. Why is this zoo to blame if Palestinian money was given to buy Suha Arafat a luxurious villa? If Palestinian leaders are driving around in fancy cars and live in fancy homes, why do you blame us for building beautiful parks for our children?
To all of this, the journalist had no answer. The squalor, the poverty, the have-nots. These are the images in her head that she took out of Gaza and what she will broadcast over the airwaves. Long before she ever arrived and long after she is gone, the images of Palestinian poverty will continue to frame her perspectives and, therefore, her journalism.
It is quite clear that there was squalor before the Israelis captured the Gaza Strip in 1967. Jewish residents told us that Palestinian poverty before they arrived was so bad, the Israelis were welcomed after the harsh rule of the Egyptians. The only difference is that now, with Israelis there, world media cares enough to report on the squalor, while pre-1967 it simply was not newsworthy.
We witnessed Palestinians building and working within the Jewish settlements. Clearly, they benefit from this relationship with jobs, a secure source of water and electricity, improved health care, better living conditions and more. One Palestinian told us all he wanted was peace. He did not mention a Palestinian homeland and he certainly did not say he wanted the land on which he stood. Sand it once was, cursed land that yielded nothing. Cursed sand it will be again, if Ariel Sharon's expulsion plan is implemented.
[Part 2 of 2]
I had tried to explain to this journalist from a far-off land, that we are not to blame if we choose to spend our money on parks and zoos while the Palestinian leaders embezzle millions (if not billions) of dollars, because Palestinian terrorist groups buy mortars and not swings, Kassam rockets and not animal cages. The Karine A ship that was loaded with weapons purchased by the Palestinian Authority was worth millions of dollars. How many parks and zoos could the Palestinians have built with that money?
Thinking about the sadness I heard in zookeeper David Amichai's voice as he talked about dismantling something he clearly loved so much, I again felt a sense of anger at the irrational choices our government is making; and I felt anger at the unjust comparison of Palestinian poverty with our perceived opulence.
What harm does this zoo do to the Palestinian children? Did it cause them to live in squalor? Will dismantling this zoo make their lives better? Because we gave our children a place such as this, does that make us wrong? If they stopped the terror, they could come here, I explained. We could help them build a zoo, as we have helped give them work, health care and so much more. There are so many options, once the violence stops.
Years ago, they chose hatred and mortars and incitement over building zoos and parks, just as they chose to reject the state they were offered by the United Nations in favor of waging war to push us into the sea. They did not succeed then, but they kept trying, focusing their resources on war and not on peace, on weapons and not on parks. It is not fair to look at what the Israeli child has and find us guilty because Palestinian children do not have these things. Per capita, Palestinian refugees have received more aid than anyone else. More than the victims of the droughts in Sudan and Ethiopia, more than the tsunami survivors, more than those suffering in Darfur. When our nation was born, we were just as poor and we had refugees that had come from all over the world. We housed them, we nurtured them, and half a century later, we are a nation without refugees, a nation with beautiful parks and zoos.
Where has the more than 10 billion dollars in funding from the European Union gone? The answer clearly is not to those who needed it. Not to the children, not to the schools. Not to the hospitals. Not to the parks. Why is this zoo to blame if Palestinian money was given to buy Suha Arafat a luxurious villa? If Palestinian leaders are driving around in fancy cars and live in fancy homes, why do you blame us for building beautiful parks for our children?
To all of this, the journalist had no answer. The squalor, the poverty, the have-nots. These are the images in her head that she took out of Gaza and what she will broadcast over the airwaves. Long before she ever arrived and long after she is gone, the images of Palestinian poverty will continue to frame her perspectives and, therefore, her journalism.
It is quite clear that there was squalor before the Israelis captured the Gaza Strip in 1967. Jewish residents told us that Palestinian poverty before they arrived was so bad, the Israelis were welcomed after the harsh rule of the Egyptians. The only difference is that now, with Israelis there, world media cares enough to report on the squalor, while pre-1967 it simply was not newsworthy.
We witnessed Palestinians building and working within the Jewish settlements. Clearly, they benefit from this relationship with jobs, a secure source of water and electricity, improved health care, better living conditions and more. One Palestinian told us all he wanted was peace. He did not mention a Palestinian homeland and he certainly did not say he wanted the land on which he stood. Sand it once was, cursed land that yielded nothing. Cursed sand it will be again, if Ariel Sharon's expulsion plan is implemented.
[Part 2 of 2]