Tampa  Bay Coalition for Juatice and Peace

Jan. 14, 2005
Commemorating Dr. Sami Al-Arian’s Birthday

The statement below will be read a Jan. 14 press conference, following a pre-trial hearing in the case of Dr. Sami Al-Arian:
From the family of Dr. Sami Al-Arian:

Today our father, Dr. Sami Al-Arian will spend his 47th birthday in a solitary confinement prison cell at Coleman Federal Penitentiary. Almost two years since his unjust arrest, our father has not yet been tried and continues to suffer under the most atrocious and inhumane conditions of confinement.

Since his arrest on February 20, 2003, our father has been kept in isolation, away from his family, friends, and supporters. The past 694 days have been a trying and traumatic experience, in which countless holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries were spent without our beloved father, with whom we have had only four contact visits. Normally, there is a large, thick glass separating us from him, and we must use a telephone to speak with him. As we watch convicted felons hug their children, we are unable to comprehend this unjust disparity in treatment.

Furthermore, this occasion marks our father’s 30th birthday since migrating to America. Though he has been targeted and attacked for years of intellectual activism and political advocacy, we are proud of all that he has accomplished. Whether building bridges through interfaith dialogue, or founding one of the nation’s leading Islamic schools, fighting for civil rights in the halls of Congress, and helping carve a place for U.S. Muslims in the American political spectrum, our father was driven by a deep commitment to public service.

A Palestinian refugee, our father appreciated the freedom of expression that our country offered and felt a profound responsibility to give voice to the oppressed Palestinian people suffering under a brutal occupation. He worked towards a just and peaceful resolution through dialogue and understanding. Informing others about the tragic human rights violations against the Palestinians was a first step in that direction. Therefore, on this day, like any other, he would ask that we commemorate his birthday through remembering the 3,549 Palestinians killed during the past four years, a quarter of whom were children. Most recently, an incursion by an Israeli tank killed seven children as they were picking strawberries, and their families in turn were forced to pick up their burned, scattered remains.

Our father envisions a bright future where no family anywhere should have to suffer such harrowing scenes. Even in the midst of his physically torturous conditions of confinement, his compassion for the suffering of others remains one of his defining characteristics.

We ask that you keep him and all other political prisoners in your prayers.

————————————— Below is the New York Times’ account of last week’s tragic incident in Gaza.

January 9, 2005

In Gaza’s Berry Fields, a Family Reels After Losing 7 Boys to Israeli Fire

By STEVEN ERLANGER

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza, Jan. 7 – The neighbors had heard that Muhammad Ghaben, 18, had died in the hospital during the night, but no one wanted to tell his mother.

“How can we tell her?” asked Im Yehya Fadoos, walking along a muddy path between the poor houses and the strawberry fields of northern Gaza. “She was kissing him last night in the hospital. She’s lost so much.”

Three sons of Mariam Ghaben, 50, died Tuesday, all at once. They were blown apart by a single Israeli tank shell that was aimed at militants firing mortars toward Israel. In all, seven boys from the extended Ghaben family, ages 11 to 17, died in the explosion.

Mrs. Fadoos did not tell Ms. Ghaben that Muhammad had died, and as it turned out, he is still alive. But his legs and a hand were blown off and he lost an eye, and doctors say he is in critical condition, along with three others of the six Palestinians wounded in the same explosion.

On Friday, Ms. Ghaben was already in shock, sitting with her daughter-in-law, whose own son, Rajeh, 12, died in the explosion, and another relative, Halima al-Kaseh, who lost her son, Jibril, 17, while her two other children, 12 and 15, are badly wounded.

“Suddenly I saw everyone running, and I started running, and then I saw them collecting the parts of my children,” Ms. Ghaben said, rocking on a cushion against a cement wall. “I don’t know what kind of thing the Israelis fired, but my children were torn apart,” she said, chopping the air with her hands.

“They showed me this pile of parts, and they said, ‘This is your son,’ all in a pile, and another was missing his lower half, and the parts were scattered all over,” she said, as Ms. Kaseh held her hand.

“The head of my son was on one of the greenhouses,” Ms. Ghaben said, still astonished. “Four hundred meters away, the head of my son. And I kissed it,” she said softly. “I saw a hand in one of the trees, and I kissed the fingers.”

The family had nothing to do with politics, she said.

“I never threw a stone,” she said. “My kids never did anything against the Israelis. I work every day to feed my children. I plant strawberries for them to live, and in one minute they were chopped apart, pieces of clothes and pieces of bodies.”

She tried to gather what was left of her children from the field and the trees in her head scarf and dress, she said.

There was a young girl in the field, age 6, Ms. Ghaben said. “She saw the parts, and they were burned, and she saw me collecting the parts in my clothes, and she asked, ‘Why are you collecting this meat, my mother? Will you eat this?’ ”

Ms. Kaseh said her children in the hospital, Imad, 15, and Ibrahim, 12, asked repeatedly for their brother, Jibril. ” ‘Where is my brother, my mother?’ they ask,” she said. “And I can’t tell them he’s dead. I told them he’s in the other room. They bulldozed my land and then they took my sons, and when I go to the hospital my heart is in pieces.”

Ms. Ghaben grew angry. “This is a crime,” she said. “This a massacre. I ask those with hearts, not only Arabs but those who still have hearts and a conscience, if this happened in Israel everyone would condemn it!

“But what about us?” she demanded. “I collected the parts of my children. And if someone gives me a gun, I’ll kill Sharon,” she said, referring to Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister. “Let Sharon lose his son. Let Sharon collect the parts of his son.”

She pointed dramatically to her waist. “Put the explosive here!” she shouted. “I’ll go to the tank and explode myself!”

She fell silent then, and the women consoled her. “I wanted peace,” she said. “I wanted to go to vote. I want to protect my other children. I don’t want to lose them.”

A spokeswoman for the Israeli Army said the tank fired a single, ordinary shell at a group of Palestinian militants who were firing mortars toward Israel from the strawberry fields. The army said Tuesday night that the shell had hit its target and that five of the dead were Hamas fighters. Later, Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Resistance Committee said they had fired the mortars. The army now says that it is investigating the incident and that it regrets any harm to civilians.

Outside, near the field, another son, Ghasan Ghaben, 32, described the loss of his brothers, Hani, 17, Bassam, 14, and Mahmoud, 13 – and of his own son, Rajeh, 12. “He was so happy, he was helping me with the strawberries,” Mr. Ghaben said. “I have a bad back, and he was helping, but then he went to play marbles over there with his friends.” He stopped and looked away. “Can’t the Israelis see with their cameras? These are kids playing marbles, just kids. Then they were in little pieces. You see it, but you can’t take it in.”

He, too, shied away from criticizing the militants who fired the mortars, saying, “As long as Israelis are killing them, they have to respond.” But that did not interest him.

“We want peace, only peace,” he said. “The Jews are our cousins. Let these children be the last to die.”