Te gast: Eyad Sarraj
Gaza, December 28, 2008

Best way to secure Israel is Justice to Palestine

Israel’s air force launched a major bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip
today, killing over two hundred people and injuring many more.
Typically, Israel justifies this horrific scale of killing as
retaliation against the rocket launching from Gaza. The spate of
Israeli bombing continued throughout the day and into the night. I was
interrupted several times while trying to finish this note, by the
devastating sound of bombing.

In the core of the vicious cycle of violence that has engulfed the
region for decades and lead to the many wars of the Middle East and
beyond, lies the tragedy of the Palestinian uprooting in 1948, the
justice denied to their plight and the living under the oppressive
Israeli occupation for over forty years.

Instead of acknowledging the real issues of justice, mutual security
and peace, the region was drowned into mutual hatred, revenge killing
and insecurity.

Israeli policies and strategies rested always on the supremacy of its
brutal force. Palestinians, in defiance of the Israeli scheme, were
drawn into the resistance and some used homemade missiles and suicide
missions.

Brute force and carnage in Gaza on the scale of today is a dangerous
omen. Israel must restrain its military might and face up to the
consequences of dragging the region into such a serious and intensified
path of violence.

Palestinians must stop all forms of violence and unite in the pursuit
of peace and justice. We, in the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian
Peace-International, FFIPP-I, call for an immediate halt of the Israeli
military attack on Gaza and ending the siege on the deprived strip.
The United States of America is the only power that could play a
positive role in ending the unending tragedy in the Holy Land. We hope
that the new administration of President Obama will make the necessary
change; a fresh approach as an honest broker of peace.

Eyad El-Sarraj

Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj is the founder and director of the Gaza Community
Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) and the president of
FFIPP-International