Dear President Biden,
On Thursday morning, October 26, I woke up to the news of yet another massacre in Gaza.
This time, Israel killed members of my own extended family. The crime scene was the Khan Younis refugee camp, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip – note, not in the north, but in the south, where people were supposed to be safe, according to the Israeli military. An entire residential neighborhood in the camp where I was born and raised was mercilessly bombed and reduced to rubble by Israeli apartheid.
The people there experienced it like an earthquake. A brutal man-made earthquake. This ended the journey on earth of 47 souls who have now returned to God. Among them, 36 were direct family members and the others were people taking refuge at home, in search of illusory security.
Mr. Biden, two and a half years ago, in a speech at the White House on the occasion of the sentencing in the trial of George Floyd, you spoke of the common goal of the people who stood up to say that Black Lives Matter, people who shouted: “Enough. Enough. Enough of these senseless killings.
But today, as members of my family are murdered, you refuse to even acknowledge that these senseless killings are taking place. Instead, you offer words of encouragement to Israel. Today you say, “No more. More. More of these senseless murders.
And Israel is happy to grant your wish.
When a member of their community is mercilessly killed by America’s militarized police forces, Black Americans honor their victims by saying their names aloud. As Israeli forces – who are similar in spirit and weapons to their American counterparts – are killing my people now, I also want to honor them by speaking their name.
Today, Mr. Biden, we mourn the loss of my great-uncle Nayif Abu Shammala, 79, alongside his wife, Fathiya, 76 – both survivors of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine which took place in 1948 to pave the way for the creation of Israel.
Their village, Beit Daras, about 30 km north of Gaza, was ethnically cleansed and destroyed, along with 530 other Palestinian towns and villages. Fathiya and Nayif, like many of the 750,000 refugees from the Nakba, sought refuge in the Khan Younis refugee camp, meant to be only temporary until they returned home.
Nayif and Fathiya are no longer with us, Mr. Biden. They died before being able to exercise their right to return to their land, guaranteed by the UN.
Also among the victims of the bombing were their three daughters: Aisha, the cutest, happiest face of Khan Younis; her sister Dawlat, one of the most beautiful women in my family who had just returned from the United Arab Emirates to visit her family; and Umaima, the youngest sister, with her daughter Malak. They came to the family home to seek shelter from the constant bombings.
Four of Nayif and Fathiya’s sons were also killed: Hassan, Mahmoud, Mohammed and Zuhair as well as their wives, Fadia, Nima and Easha. Zuhair’s wife only survived because she had gone to another family in the camp to offer condolences for their deaths. Among those murdered were also Hassan’s three children: Mohammed, Ismail and Salma. Nayif and Fatiya’s surviving son, Ibrahim, lost his eldest son, Nayif, named after his grandfather.
Members of the Qedeih family and the Allaham family who had also taken refuge in my great-uncle’s house were also killed.
As if that wasn’t enough, Mr. Biden, my great aunt’s house was also bombed. His name was Um Said. She was 92 years old, a Nakba survivor, also from Beit Daras.
She lived in her house in Khan Younis with her daughter Najat. Both now find their resting place under the rubble. People tried to remove their bodies, but were unable to do so. The adjacent homes of his two sons, Marwan and Asaad, and his daughter Muna, were also bombed.
Marwan survived but his wife, Suhaila, and four children – Mohammed, Mahmoud, Aya and Shahd – were killed. Muna also died along with her two sons, Amjad and Mohammed. Assad; his wife, Imtiyaz; and his son Abdelrahman, a fourth-year medical student, also left.
Asaad’s house was destroyed, as was his small grocery store. It was a favorite place that my own son, Aziz, wanted to visit when we returned to visit our homeland. Asaad was known throughout the Khan Younis camp as a gentle soul who sold goods for little money. He kept a large account book but often forgot to collect debts and simply forgave them. Today, Asaad’s beautiful smile, his kindness, his family and his store have all been taken away from us.
When the attack took place, many relatives and neighbors were at Asaad’s store to buy basic necessities and use the solar power unit, which he had purchased to help people charge for free their phones and their batteries. Also among the murdered are Akram, Riman, Beirut, Imad, Niema and others whose names I do not remember.
Mr. Biden, do you think that the pain of an Israeli mother hurts more than that of a Palestinian mother? Is the life of an Israeli child more valuable than the life of a Palestinian child? This is the only explanation I can find for what you are doing now – encouraging the massacre of children in Gaza.
When I talk about children, I’m referring to real human children with their own faces, names, laughs and dreams. Israel has cost the lives of more than 4,000 children, including babies, with your complicity, Mr. Biden; 4,000 beautiful souls were taken from us.
Among them is my sister’s granddaughter, Julia Abu Hussein, who was only three years old. My nephew Amjad and his wife Rawan took Julia with my sister Samia’s family to Khan Younis in search of safety. It took them three days to make the journey from their home in northern Gaza – a journey that would normally take less than 30 minutes. They listened to the Israeli army’s calls to evacuate. But they found no security.
When the bombing began, Rawan took Julia in his arms and rushed to the kitchen with the rest of the family. The force of Israeli bombs damaged our house and broke the windows. Several pieces of shrapnel entered the house through the broken windows, killing Julia in her mother’s arms and seriously injuring her aunt Nagham.
So, Mr. Biden, here is a child whose life was taken by the violence of the war machine that you wholeheartedly support. Can you imagine that? Can you really understand the magnitude of this and other tragedies? Or do you still intend to question whether Israel is guilty of the massacre of Palestinians?
As I hear about relatives and friends being killed every day in Gaza, I struggle to find new ways to describe the death – gone, carried away under the rubble, their souls in paradise. Meanwhile, the media is telling me either they’re not dead or they’re dead, but they’re terrorists.
Last summer, during my visit to Gaza, Um Said kindly gave me her embroidered dress. She insisted that I take it back to Canada with me. I’m grateful I did it. Today, Um Said also remains under the rubble of her house. Her embroidered dress is all I have left to remember her by.
Mr. Biden, when the history of what is happening today is written, I am confident that you will be remembered as the man who encouraged and enabled the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people. You will be remembered as a man whose government actively participated in war crimes.
But more importantly, Mr. President, as a man who professes faith in God, what do you say to Him in your prayers to justify the blood on your hands?
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
