Seventy-seven years ago, Ghada Abu Muaileq’s grandfather was forced from his home in Gaza. Now Ghada herself is reliving that same trauma in the ruins of that town.
Ghada is an English literature and translation student at the Islamic University in Gaza. Also known as IU Gaza, it is (in fact it was) an independent Palestinian university established in 1978 in Gaza City. It is (actually, it was) the first higher education institution to be established in the Gaza Strip. The university has (it had) 11 faculties capable of awarding BA, BSc, MA, MSc, MD and Ph.D. degrees in addition to 20 research centers and institutes and the affiliated Turkish Palestinian Friendship Hospital.
Alas! Not anymore. It suffered damage in airstrikes during the 2008-2009 and the 2014 Gaza wars. It was totally destroyed in December 2023; professor Sufyan Tayeh, the university’s president, was killed along with his family in an Israeli airstrike. The university was generally considered the top-ranked in the Gaza Strip.
Alas! Not anymore. Not only the IUG but all the schools, all the hospitals and all the refugee camps have been totally destroyed by the genocide government of Israel with the arms provided by the United States, Italy, Germany, the U.K., Canada and India.
Those hundred thousand rounds of tank gun projectiles and millions of ammunition for automatic or semi-automatic firearms, land vehicles and technology for the development, assembly, maintenance, and repair of those weapons not only destroyed homes, hospitals, and schools, but ended lives, dreams and hopes of at least 53,272 Palestinians and wounded 120,673 people since Israel began attacking the besieged territory following Hamas raid on an Israeli military camp and illegally occupied Palestinian land on Oct. 7, 2023. (For Ghada’s full story, here’s the link.)
Last week, the dear president of America seemingly distanced himself and his country from the genocidal government of Israel; he danced and sang with the Muslim brothers of Palestinians in the Muslim countries of the Middle East. He signed multitrillion dollar worth of investment agreements and sales contracts without talking first to the Israeli government. He said powerful words about the “condition of the Gazan people” meanwhile the U.S. media reported that Trump administration was not going to consult with the Israelis on the U.S. humanitarian aid to Gaza, which Mike Huckabee, U.S. ambassador to Israel and the Zionist par excellence, said to resume very soon and Israel would not be involved in its delivery and distribution.
Hallelujah! The good old the U.S of A finally saw the light and found God!
Yeah, because we the Muslim people are so drug-naive that the first drop of “Trump Serum” cured the American connivance in the forced removal from their ancestral home of Al Jazeera columnist Ghada Abu Muaileq’s grandfather, where, 77 years later, professor Sufyan Tayeh, president Islamic University and his family were martyred in an Israeli airstrike with American bombs.
We are so ready to exonerate those countries that have been partners in crime since 1948, because they have jolly dancing presidents, lovely prime ministers and other charming leaders! Israel has been killing, maiming and banishing Palestinians, and the Zionist settler-colonists are occupying innocent Palestinians homes, farms and villages. Even the early Zionist settlers of the first and second immigration of Jews to Israel (1881-1914) used to refer to themselves as colonists! Today, those dancing and singing Western leaders try to have us believe that Israel is a democratic country, and the Palestinians are terrorists, or hiding terrorists in their universities and hospitals.
While the Muslim women have been flipping their hairs in the Al-Ayyala dance welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump in Abu Dhabi airport, American transport fleets were delivering the killing force to Israel that “Little Marco” promised. (Trump used to call Marco Rubio “Little Marco” 10 years ago but since then he found Trump’s favor and became the ‘Secretary of Everything’ with four jobs.) He put his secretary of state hat on and signed a declaration to use emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion of arms to Israel. Meanwhile, the dancing U.S. president, boasting about the trillions of dollars in business he had conducted, left behind 400 more dead Palestinians killed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his four-day visit to the Middle East. However, he didn’t miss to tell his hosts that “U.S. is troubled by humanitarian situation in Gaza,” who in turn, gave Trump a $400 million Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift! Let the legal experts discuss whether it is a gift or grift, while Trump says only a stupid person would reject such a plane.
Saudi Arabia also committed $600 billion in U.S. investments, including an expansive defense partnership valued at nearly $142 billion, which the White House has touted as the “largest defense sales agreement in history.” The Saudis could not get a U.S. cooperation on a civilian nuclear program they had been hoping for. They should start wondering why! Neither did Qatar get a concrete U.S. commitment against Iran despite the fact that it promised to buy “up to 210 American-made Boeing planes” and gifted Trump one of them! The UAE’s main target from Trump’s trip was deeper investments on AI and technology, and while it achieved victories in that regard, the visit fell short of what Abu Dhabi really wanted: unrestricted access to advanced American microchips.
Trump has been finally calling to end the Gaza War; but he did nothing that would make Netanyahu listen. If you are secretly planning to move 1 million Palestinians to Libya, why should Netanyahu listen to you to end his war on Gaza? NBC News reported during Trump’s Middle East tour that the secret U.S. plan would sugar-coat the new Nakba with the promise of a stipend and housing. Jerusalem Post reported that despite the fact that Israel was not on his itinerary, it is still on his mind. Trump, in his meetings with leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian Authority, he pushed them to join the Abraham Accords. As The Wall Street Journal soothed those Jewish bankers on the Wall Street reporting that White House does not have “major disagreements with Israel.” The president’s only goal in that tour was “to align the region’s markets and investment with America, not China.”
So! While the Muslim girls shaking their hair to dance, the U.S. military shipped Israel new batch of heavy MK-84 bombs and other munitions to support military operations in Gaza and prepare for a possible attack on Iran to fulfill America’s long-standing commitment to Israel’s security. The “Little Marco” had already bypassed Congress to send Israel $4 billion in arms, which hopefully could ease Netanyahu’s way to expand his ground offensive across Gaza to occupy it entirely.
Incidentally, last week on May 15, the Nakba Day was supposed to be observed to commemorate a collective trauma that defines Palestinians’ national identity and political aspirations; but no Muslim shaked his or her head. Perhaps they were busy shaking hair from side to side in Trump’s honor!