Gaza fight is one-sided
Last Friday afternoon, the mosques of Bristol came together for the first time ever to organise a public protest march from Easton into the city centre, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza; 400 people braved the freezing cold to make their voices heard.
Last Saturday afternoon, I was asked to speak at the Save Palestine event at the Trinity Centre. It featured the pro-Palestinian poetry of 10 rap artists, and 200 young people paid £10 each to attend. Remarkably, it was all organised by five young Muslim girls, all under 17.
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Last Sunday evening, I was invited to chair a panel discussion and fundraising event for Palestine; 220 people raised £10,500 in 20 minutes.
I was born in Bristol and I have lived here all my life, but rarely have I seen the Muslim communities so supported by non-Muslims, so mobilised, so concerned and so angry about an issue.
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Israel is making a gargantuan mistake and now the world is less safe for all. This war is not about religion, it's about a people's right to self-determination, to freedom.
I have tried to express those concerns and the thoughts of Bristol's Muslim communities in this column every week since the bombardment began. I have been criticised for being one-sided, yet 900 Palestinians have been killed, and 45 per cent of them were women and children; that's 300 dead children.
On the other side, 12 Israelis have died, nine of them soldiers.
This conflict is shamefully one-sided. I am just telling it as it is.
I was also criticised for comparing the suffering and resistance of the Palestinians in the Gaza ghetto today to the suffering and resistance of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto of World War II. Let me make it clear, I was not referring to the Holocaust.
However, last year, Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, had no such reservations. He told Israeli army radio: "The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger Shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves."
Shoah is the Hebrew word often used to refer to the Holocaust. Is that what Israel is now doing?
I take strong exception to the idea that Israel is defending itself. The widely-respected Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, looked at days of "non-violence" – periods of one or more days when no one was killed on either side – from September 2000 to October 2008.
Fact: 79 per cent of periods of "non-violence" were broken by Israel killing Palestinians and only eight per cent were interrupted by Palestinians. The remaining 13 per cent were interrupted by both sides on the same day.
However, of the 25 periods of "non-violence" lasting seven to nine days, 96 per cent of the time Israel killed first. Of the 14 periods of "non-violence" lasting longer than nine days, Israel killed first 100 per cent of the time.
So, the longer the period of peace, the more likely it is that Israel will break it, and the more likely it is that Palestinians will not. Isn't that one-sided?
Comments
by Anon, Bristol
Friday, January 23 2009, 5:10PM
“Legal parker when you mention the muslims parking illegally, do you mean the 2 million of them in the uk?”
by Observer, Bristol
Wednesday, January 21 2009, 6:52PM
“(IsraelNN.com) 21 st Jan 2009 The economic cost of the three-week Gaza war to the Palestinian Authority totals more than 1.9 billion US dollars, according to PA estimates. Saudi Arabia has pledged to pick up more than half of the tab, with other states offering financial assistance to Hamas as well.
Dr. Loai Shabana, Director of the PA's Central Bureau of Statistics, claimed Monday that the massive economic damage included the destruction of 14 percent of Gaza's infrastructure, including residential buildings and public facilities. According to a 2007 PA census, there were 147,437 buildings in Gaza.
Speaking in Jerusalem, Shabana said that more than 5,000 PA residents were injured during Israel's Operation Cast Lead and will require some form of rehabilitation or financial assistance. Thousands of other households lost their breadwinners or their homes. She estimated that 31.5 million dollars will be needed in direct aid to Gazan families and individuals.
Saudi Arabia to Pick Up the Tab
Saudi Arabia pledged to provide the PA in Gaza, under the jihadist Hamas regime, with one billion dollars. The funds, Saudi King Abdullah said, are to go towards the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Gaza.
According to the Saudi monarch, "One drop of Palestinian blood" is more valuable than all the money in the world. He announced his kingdom's intention to make the billion-dollar donation at an Arab League economic summit held in Kuwait City on Monday. The meeting was called in light of harsh economic indicators regarding the Arab world in light of the global economic downturn. Aside from the Gaza issue, delegates focused on development in the Middle East.
In other forums, Syria and Iran also offered significant financial aid to help the Hamas regime recuperate from the heavy blows struck by Israel in the Jewish State's recent counter-terrorist offensive.”
by Abdu, Gloucester
Wednesday, January 21 2009, 5:48PM
“Englishman, you are about the most racist and islamophobic human being i have ever come across. BNP by any chance?
The people who performed the terrible bombing attacks o 9/11 and 7/7 are terrorits, Al Qaeda and Osma Bin Laden are terrorists, most muslims know this, they give islam a bad reputation. But the fact is that muslims are being killed all over the world, chechnya, kosovo, more than one million iraqis based on a pack of lies just for america to get their oil. And now the palestinian problem where israel broke the ceasefire, blamed hamas for hiding behind their own families, which is a lie just to murder palestinins. 1400+ womn and children killed excluding men, not to mention the many many millions more palestoinians that have killed and the hundred of massacres and hamas just shoot rockets in self defence which they are entitled to do, and they are called teroroists!!!!???????!!!!!!!!
This is worse than illgal parking, legal parker.
Yet Englishman you always conveniently avoid most things i say about this conflict every time i reply to your racist ridden comments. This is not about the PEACEFUL religion of islam, it is about the oppresion of one terrorist state of a helpless one. So, i suggest to stop these racist and ignorant comments and give our view on this conflict.
And thank you again Farooq Siddique for another outstanding, truthful article!!!!!! If people think its one sided they are ignorant, and should see the real one sided media the pro israeli, bias british and american media.”
by Legal Parker, Bristol
Tuesday, January 20 2009, 10:04AM
“The Muslims are willing to march from Easton to the City Centre on a Friday but they are not willing to march to their Mosques on Friday afternoons for their prayer meetings. Parked on pavements, on double yellow lines and blocking other drivers in.”
by Martin, Knowle,Bristol
Tuesday, January 20 2009, 8:27AM
“"This war is not about religion, it's about a people's right to self-determination, to freedom."
says Mr Siddique.
This war is between two violent cultures based on religions.The Islamists in Gaza use classic Marxist/early Christian ideology to enlist sympathy because it works.The more deaths the more sympathy. As Mr Siddique has said before, we love an underdog.
There is no way I will give money to anyone for the advancement of these cultures.
Hamas can claim the credit for it. Some of it may go towards replacing weapons. some may go towards teaching one of the cultures that is the problem in the first place.
On the other hand there is no way I am going to stop buying an onion just because it may have been grown by a Jew, or a Gazaan or anyone else. I WANT them to grow and sell onions.”
by Englishman, Bristol
Monday, January 19 2009, 10:20PM
“So our eminent Islamist apologist comes up with a classic closing paragraph in another one-sided, blinkered weekly rant:
"So, the longer the period of peace, the more likely it is that Israel will break it, and the more likely it is that Palestinians will not. Isn't that one-sided?"
Well are you now going to admit it is Hamas who are to blame for breaking this latest ceasefire, on live BBC and Sky TV news we could see their rockets still going skywards as the IDF pulled out.
However you are certainly right when you say things are one-sided. The Islamic world against Israel.
BTW Farroq, did you go on marches to protest after Muslim acts of terror after their 9/11, 7/7 and the Madrid train bomb campaigns?.
No, thought not.......”
by Sally, Bristol
Monday, January 19 2009, 8:29PM
“Sorry Farroq but this time you're wrong. Israel stopped the attacks and Hamas would not stop firing rockets. This situation is not about faith any more it is about principle. It is now the job of a world court to step in and shake a few heads together.”
by Martin, Clifton
Monday, January 19 2009, 8:23PM
“Palestines right to self-determination, to freedom, does not include the right to continually send rockets and bombs into Israel.”
by Steven, North Bristol
Monday, January 19 2009, 5:36PM
“What a surprise - a rabid religionist claims that the conflict is not about religions. Yeah, right.
The BEP should give both sides of the story equal weight and not allow one side to have free reign to spout off unchallenged every week.”
by James S, Bristol
Monday, January 19 2009, 4:52PM
“While I'm not a fan of the religious angle I'm proud and impressed by the BEP and commend them fully for supporting Mr Siddiqi's articles.
We live in a world of mostly one sided media, from watching various media sources over recent weeks it's clear almost all of them have their own angle and agenda - Some Pro-Israel, some Pro-Palastine.
What it seems you'd do well to remember Steven is that in this case this is not a 'news' article in the sense of a mainstay peice of journalism, it's a columnist, and as such brings the views and feeling of Mr Siddiqi and through him other elements of (as he points out well) both the relegious and non religous communities.
I'd point you back at the 5th paragraph of the article so you can reassess your belief that this is 'religionist propoganda '”