Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift Of The Givers Current Situation In Gaza 12 Nov 2023
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AI: Transcript ©
Salim A bad Salim. Assalamu. Alaikum.
Alhamdulillah. We would like to warmly welcome you to La baik ya
Aqsa, a new series that we at the grassy Park mosque are launching
this evening to create awareness about Palestine, the situation in
Palestine, focusing on informing and enlightening and inspiring our
viewers on matters relating to the holy lands of Al Aqsa and
inshallah. Through the coming weeks, various guests will be
sharing their insights and their thoughts and the knowledge on a
variety of topics relating to Al Aqsa Inshallah, so that we may be
enlightened and inspired and Alhamdulillah, speaking about
inspiration, in our studio, we commence this series of lebeya
Aksa with somebody who is in fact an inspiration to not only all of
us, but To the entire South Africa, and in fact, the entire
world, one of the heroes of South Africa, Alhamdulillah, the founder
of the wakul wakien, the gift of the givers, which is the largest
disaster response, NGO,
that heralds From Africa and in South Africa, Alhamdulillah, one
of the most respected international humanitarian
agencies. And we have the founder of the gift of the givers present
in our studio. This evening, we say, ahalan musahalan, welcome to
Doctor MTS Suleiman dazakala, Dak sab for being present in the
studio with us, forgiving from very, very valuable time. We know
that you're a busy man, and your trip and your time in Cape Town is
very short. We say hello to you, and we say JazakAllah for you to
joining us in the studio this evening. Thanks for inviting Salah
doctor. You know the entire South Africa, we are well aware of all
your work that you're doing locally here in South Africa, and
as our focus during this series, Lebe Aksa is on Palestine. What I
would like to know from Doctor SAAB is regarding the gift of the
givers and your work in Palestine. You know, like, since when is the
gift of the givers operation in Palestine, we know many
international organizations are working there for many, many
years, and it's not our international organizations are
not just seasonal charities and which work in the affected areas
when there is a war, but but tell us a little bit more about the
previous work of gift of the givers in Palestine. And do you
employ staff there and and some of your long term projects, which is
running there. So it started in 2002
it's strange, as his part called me, and he said he's going to
visit Arafat. That time, Arafat was bombed, and you know, he was
staying in a compound, and he said they requested some medical
support, so we had made arrangements to send medical
equipment from here to move it to Israel, and from there into
Ramallah. We were obstructed by Israeli Government for 12 weeks to
try to get the stuff. Eventually, with support from Turko at that
time, they were called International Relations, you know,
we managed to, sorry. They were called DFA Department of Foreign
Affairs. We managed to put pressure, and the Cope and arrived
at the same time as we arrived inside, we hired a plane, a cargo
plane, moved stuff from there and by trucks, we took it to hospital
and one hour, Palestinian South African people was in the South
African Palestine MC was a guy called Rafi ganget, and he
supervised the entry of the items into hospital because we couldn't
go to the hospital. Aziz, of course, visited Arafat, and that
was the first trip that we went in. And on the way, I remember it
was absolutely quiet. The streets were dead silent. There was no
people moving around. You couldn't see a cat. You couldn't see a dog.
It was so so silent. You couldn't understand how people lived like
this. And then subsequently, we supported other organizations over
a period of time. And then our real, major permanent intervention
in Palestine started in Gaza in 2009 with the first war. We took
in supplies out again. South African government spoke to the
Egyptian Government. Egyptian ambassador was called into deco I
was there the meeting. They were very good. You know, they went in
48 hours. They cleared everything.
And we sent in eight supplies that went came in with us, and we took
in medical teams. We took in and we took in media teams too. So and
it was the first time we added trauma counselors to our normal
interventions. So that was in 2009 medical teams, trauma counselors,
medical equipment, supplies, food and other items that were required
that went well. We didn't have much challenges. Then, 2014 we
were obstructed to some level. You know, there was some delay in in
getting the permission from Egypt, but eventually it happened. And
then when we got to the border, we were delayed for some extent, but
that also got cleared. And they tell you, Look, you have to wait
at a border. That happens normally again. But they we were not
allowed to take many. We only were allowed to take 10 medical
personnel. And again, we took in supplies and equipment. And from
that period onwards, between 2009 and 2014 we started setting up
offices inside Gaza. And then we when we set up offices, we don't
bring South Africans into a foreign country. We give
employment to the local people, because it's job creation for
them, plus they understand the culture. They know the people,
they know the terrain, it makes sense to use local people. So we
set up the offices, and then we started exp. Started programs.
Initially it was scholarships for medical students and other
students. Then we put up our women and child care center, one of the
biggest ones in Gaza, six story building, where they take care of
orphans, preschool, empowerment for women, teaching,
entrepreneurship skills, counseling, and from there where
food parcels are delivered to orphans, to widows, to old people.
And then we expanded in what we brought in the
poor patient program, because once they go to hospital, many can't
afford to pay for the visit hospital. So we started paying the
fees for those patients to go to the hospital. And then eventually,
kidney disease is quite common. There. Kidney transplant is
common. So we bring in twice or three times a year. We bring in
special surgeons. They come from the UK, and they do kidney
transplants in for these patients the other then we take care on a
general way, monthly or widows, you know, and all people. And in
between, when there's floods or storms and the houses have been
bombed by a previous war, we don't fix the whole house. We fix the
house where it can be fixed, you know, whatever needs to be done in
terms of infrastructure. And also, if a family is living in a
particular type of house, it's not conducive. The kitchen is not
good. The bathroom is not good. We upgrade those things for those
four families. We can't be for everybody, but we do it whatever
extent we can. And when the rains come, of course, a lot of roofs
have been damaged, so we roll out plastic sheeting, you know, so
they can cover the roof so the house inside doesn't get wet. And
then, of course, with an Algerian organization, set up a clinic at
kuza, and they couldn't run it, so they gave it to us. So we've taken
over the management, the financing, the medical care, the
doctors in that clinic, we started running it. And then there's a
preschool called kuza preschool, where we also supply equipment and
food, other items to the it's not our preschool, but we support an
existing preschool. And then over a period of time, we put in three
desalination plants, just a $100,000 each, but it requires
maintenance. So we got our own trucks. We got our own maintenance
people come to the desalination plant to collect water, and then
the trucks go out to schools. And now, right now, they're going to
the refugee camps. Well, I mean, it's all a mess right now inside
Gaza. So they distribute water wherever they can. Our plants are
still functional right now. And the other thing we do is,
unfortunately, they have a system where if you can't pay your debt
over a period of time, you get locked up. So it's not big money,
$15 $100 $80 so we've been at quite often wiping out the debt of
people because they're living such terrible lives. Already. The
father is separated from them, from the mother and the children.
It's a hard life already, and we clear the debt, 2030, $40,000 for
tons of people so they can be back with their family again in
Ramadan, we provide the city and Iftar, but they take it home. You
know, they don't sit like a one place to eat it. We give it to
them to take it to the house, and then on each day, we get them
vouchers, and we put up with like a fair market, but that's before,
before eat itself, they come and choose clothes for the adults, for
the kids, choose whatever they want. So it's like they're paying
for it. They get the voucher, and they come and choose. So that's
the kind of things that we've done in Gaza over a period of time. And
of course, our medical interventions has been big support
of scholars have been big. Water desalination plants have been big,
and sometimes school stationary and school bags, you know, some
different type of project we do. And, of course, food parcels in a
big way, subhanAllah, wow. It's absolutely amazing. I'm glad you,
you highlighted and mentioned all this doctor, because I think a lot
of people,
they are unaware of the work of the international organization,
especially your organization, gift of the givers throughout the year
in Palestine, people usually take note of the of the water relief
efforts of the organizations, only when it comes to wartime or
disaster system. And the other thing that we do is, for the last
three to four years, we do Iftar at the.
Azido laksa, you need special permission for that. You don't get
all the days. You get certain days in a week. And we've been doing
that for the last three to four years. Or the other thing we've
done also, we supported them with ambulances. We take interest in
Gaza now, you know, we've taken our own ambulances in. You need a
time when, when we went in in 2009 and again, 2014
and we've got an ambulance now that supports physically and
mentally challenged people and moves them from their house to the
place of where they have to go for the treatment, and then it takes
them back again. So that's another project we've implemented, op and
now we were about to start supporting people with artificial
limbs. You know, those people got polio. We're about to start the
project, and
the war started. You know, there's, there's a lot of things
we're seeing on the TV nowadays, since the war started a month ago,
and on social media, we're seeing the images. We're seeing the
videos. But I'm sure your people on the ground there, there's much
more that you have heard from, what is happening directly from
your own sources, and things that we don't necessarily hear of on on
TV, on the radio and social media. Can you tell us what is the the
actual current situation in Gaza, at the one, especially in Gaza,
even the rest of Palestine, because now there's tax in the
West Bank as well. But what are you hearing from your people?
Inshallah, well, fortunately, this time, you know what I'm
unfortunate part is about information. For the first time
ever information has come out openly, which is seven, it's what
you see, is what I see. What you know is what I know. It's not any
different, you know. And that's the great thing about this war.
For the first time, Palestinians have actually won this war
already, right? Because for you, for 75 years, you know, they've
been blocked, and everybody takes the war to the current one, or the
war started on seventh October. The war didn't start in seventh
October. The war started in 19 started in 1948 that narrative has
changed, where people have realized that 4075 years ago, the
war started. The Palestinian people are not the terrorists.
They are the ones fighting. They are the resistance fighting. If
anybody takes your land, your house, you're allowed to fight
them back anyway. In the world, do you know like, what happened? The
ANC fought against apartheid state. Israel is now the only
apartheid state in the world, and that information has come out
loudly and clearly to the whole world. The world has now realized
that the real terrorists, they love certain television they're
not in Gaza. You know, that information has come out, and for
the first time, Western public have realized they've been
hoodwinked by the international media machinery that's controlled
by the Zionist funding. You know, they control all the finances,
they control the companies, they control the narrative. They
control the information. It's broken completely. So in every
way, this has been a huge success for the people of Palestine. Yes,
they've lost a lot of life, but take it relatively, the fourth
largest army in the world, needs the support of Europe and America
and everybody else but all the weapons in the world to take on an
unarmed nation, and 33 days later, they still haven't made any
progress. You know, it shows the spirit of the people. Had it been
the other way around, what would happen is, right? It was probably
been down to the ground, already destroyed completely. So that's
the power of spirituality. That's the power of faith. In terms of
narrative, the story of what's going on inside. Let me give you a
story of my own staff. Yesterday, after three days, we managed to
find one our staff. You know, sometimes it takes three days,
sometimes it takes five days. We lose communication with them. And
from the first week when we saw the extent of the bombing, we told
them, You guys have to prepare. The reality is that you guys can
die, you know, and it's more yes than no, and that you need putting
additional people in to run the programs to support your own
people in the event something happens to you. So they said, We
know this. In our history, it's never been like this before. This
is a total massacre. It's a total genocide. It's heartless, it's
ruthless. They're terrorizing the population. They're bombing
hospitals, but they do that all the time. It's nothing new, but
the world can see that. The difference the world can see that
now they're bombing hospitals, refugee camps, schools, mosques,
churches, or the other good point is the Christian world didn't know
that the Christians were also harassed and bombed and killed and
attacked. This war has shown the Christian world again. You know,
the Quranic teaching, truth always conquers falsehood. Truth always
becomes manifest. There is no better, clear example. And then
the situation since seven October, 2023
so they said. They bombed the mosque, the churches, the refugee
camps. They knocked out the solar panels. People went out to fish.
They knocked out the fishing boats, you know, anything to stop
them? Blockade, air blockade, land blockade, sea blockade, all types
of blockade. Now they want to starve them out, you know. And
they play the sad sack. Israel likes to play the sad sack like
they the victim. The world is in that too. You know, they are the
perpetrators, people involved. What, you know, what occupation
and the words that have come out, occupation, massacre, genocide,
masculine, crimes against humanity, war criminals. And I
agree with our government that Benjamin Netanyahu should be
charged by the International Criminal Court. Agreed that we
should take the ambassador and throw him right out of our
country. There's no discussion required about that. People have
no humanity. Don't belong here.
Given our past in our country, they need to be thrown out. You
know, no time wasting. But going back to the story of my staff
yesterday, we found him after three days, and he said, Today,
we've taken a decision as a family. We're not going to move
out of Gaza City. We're not going to move to the south. Me, my wife
and my three children together with 30 members of my family.
We're going to stay in our building. It's better to die in
dignity collectively. We're going to wait for the bombs to come, for
our turn to die. We will die as martyrs, because whilst we're
waiting, we are still serving the people. We've served our nation,
we've served our country, we serve the homeless. It's destruction.
Everywhere we see death and dying. Everywhere we see people without
limbs in the street. We see the injured. We see the dead. They're
under the rubble. We don't know who they are, where they are, how
many they are, but we see this every day, the psychological
trauma. There's emotional trauma, but we continue serving where do
we try our turn to die as matters you know, and will die in dignity.
We're not going to run to the south, because as you run out,
they bomb you and they kill you and they directly target you.
There are people that cannot be trusted, you know, and they lie
and they deceitful. So we can't do that. We rather wait here and wait
to die. My team members, those that work inside Gaza and those
that work outside Gaza with me, in the last four weeks, they've lost
80 team members. They've lost 80 family members.
And I can't understand, how is it that they can still continue
working in that state? They've lost houses, they've lost
businesses. But of course, those are all material things. You can
get them back. But people, 80 family one person lost 5050,
family members, one of my team members. She lives here in
Johannesburg. Another one lives in Canada. Has lost 15. Other one has
lost four. Other one has lost three. Altogether, about 80 that
they know of what's under the rubble they don't know of because
communications is cut, so you can't get the message through all
the time, so we really don't know. And under those kind of
circumstances, you ask me, what's happening Gaza? That's what's
happening in Gaza from my own that's my one team. What about all
the other families?
It is really sad to hear this doctor. But you know, I also take
take heart from this, you know, because we always, we look at our
own lives, and we we make dua to Allah, and we ask Allah, Ya Allah,
make my life beneficial to humanity, to mankind, to my
community. We ask that Allah SWT take good service from us so that
we can be of a benefit. And we we die for the sake of Islam. We die
in the path of Islam. I think what you are speaking about your
people, I'm not going to call them your staff members, but I'm going
to say those who make the khidmat of humanity, who are in Gaza at
the moment, and the people of Gaza, I think they have this
understanding and this realization that it's going to take the
sacrifice of lives, and it's going to take martyrdom to attain and
achieve the liberation of Al Aqsa, and they have accepted this
responsibility. They have. They are prepared for the second. You
know, we keep going back to Al Aqsa. Yes, Al Aqsa is important,
but Allah takes care with Adam. You know, what's important is,
Allah said, In Islam, the highest level principle is the saving of
life, protecting the lives, protecting honor and protecting,
you know, the possessions of people. Those are the three level
categories. And these people are there, yes, and Allah, you know,
they're taking care of and one of the reasons why the reason was
started because the Israelis were desecrating the majla. They walk
in with their boots. And, you know, let's be honest, they are
not real soldiers. I call them sissies because you fight unarmed
people. You need to waste $3.8 billion of support you need
America to send warships to you. What all your weapons you can't
fight an unarmed people that you pull women by the hair, talk about
women's rights and human rights. You got your disaster in terms of
an example. And they go to the mosque and they were harassing.
More and more attacks in the West Bank were increasing. Many died
before seven October. In this period from seven October to now,
193 people have died. You know, more houses have been damaged.
There's increasing illegal settlement occupation, and they
say that you're the bad guy when they're doing all this to you. So
to answer the question, my staff, I've taken great risk to do what
they have to do. As you go out, there's no road. The roads are
bombed. You if you move around, the bombs fall anyway. And now, if
you sit in your house quietly, it's less chance of getting
attacked. Between the street, there's more chance of getting
attacked, but they're going to be in the street 12 hours a day to
move around to help people the desalination plants, the
electricity cut off. They went and found generators. Also requires
movement. Found a generator, connected it now how the
Palestinians have worked. Some you would say, my brother, you got a
generator. Take the fuel from my car, so they bring the fuel from
the car. And we got the general up till now the trip, so the
desalination plants are working. And in addition to that ambulance
fuel, so we provided fuel to the ambulances. And the other beauty
that has happened because we.
Was between 2009 and 14 offices came somewhere in the period in
that time, I just said nine years, but it's between 2009 and 2014
when ad hoc office and then big office came in, where the
suppliers know us, so we gave people a voucher. Went from the
beginning into first few weeks. Now it's not easy like that
anymore, because there's no fuel, there's no car, there's no
buildings, everything's gone. They go to the shop, they give the
voucher, and, you know, it gets redeemed. They can take clothing,
hygiene packs, whatever they want, food. They can take it and go and
the supplies. Tell us, you can pay us directly. We can do that. But
something different happened. You know, we've got the funds to do
that. But the people came, they said, we're getting bombed. We're
gonna die. Our money's gonna get burnt. Take the money. So close to
$100,000 you know, they came to us and take the money, but we said,
we'll pay you back. They said, if we are alive, you can give us the
money back. If you're not alive, the money is yours, you know, to
use for our people. So $100,000 came from the people themselves,
because they say, let's be practical. We may not be here
tomorrow to spend this money, so they gave it to us to spend on
other Palestinian people inside. So currency became easy, you know,
to use. So we did that inside. And again from the first day, when, on
the seventh of October, I told my friends, Netanyahu is going to go
crazy because you guys have damages ego. You know, my father
always said, you know, whom did gods want to destroy. He makes
mad. First, classical example, and we told him, go to wholesalers, go
to the shops all over Gaza, make the arrangements. Say the stuff is
coming. They bought medical supplies, medical equipment,
hygiene packs, wheelchairs. They bought clothes. So the guys
bombed, come to hospital. They didn't clothes. Give them clothes.
Last week, they found 35 A matrices. I don't know how they
found it, where they found it, but they found 35 A matrices for
paralyzed people to lie on. Now there's no more normal matrices.
It's gone. Normal blankets are gone. You know, we still managed
to get clothes then, in all the difficulty providing food parcels,
besides to camps, they go to individual homes. It's not a home,
it's a damaged building. There's no roof, there's no window,
there's no door, it's just an open space to all people. They took
there where they could deliver medicines to privately, to the
houses. They did it, where they could keep warm, hot meals. They
carried on doing that, and, of course, delivering the water. And
then they said, You know what? Now, the hospitals are
overstaffed. I mean overworked, so many patients, and remember, so
many hospitals are non functional because either they bombed or
there's no fuel, so now all the patients have to go to limited
hospitals in loaded with patients, but there's not enough staff. So
they said, as an incentive, we'll pay 100 volunteers from the first
hospital, and then we'll pay the second hospital and then the third
hospital, and in the process, our hospitals got bombed, but they
gave the money, and then they said the kids are so traumatized in the
camps, the arranging arranging for counseling services, and we would
pay the counselors, and we provide toys to the kids to keep them
mind. Okay, but, I mean, it's a difficult situation, but those are
the kind of innovative things they try to do. We were sharing
offices, you know, with some organizations that building is
completely flattened to the ground, so that offices ground. So
that office is gone, totally destroyed. But we know how Israel
works. So we've got multiple places where we can operate from.
We always plan in advance. We disaster specialists. We've got
different areas from which to work from. And then our building, the
Algerian man that gave us the clinic, we can't retreat. There's
only we can see from far. There's only rubble around it. We're not
sure if that building is hit. We can't make out. You can't go
there. It's too dangerous. So that building is not functional at the
moment, but our desalination plants are functional. Our
ambulance is functional. And you know, our other building is we did
the child care center. You close it. Everybody had to move from
there. So there's nobody there right now. So it's ad hoc work
around you. And this one is in his house, you know, with his family,
crawls out, does the distribution come back? The bomb falls. The
bomb falls, and we're not sure we're going to get a message that
we can't get through to him because it's no
more alive. So, Alhamdulillah, you know, with the resources that you
have at the moment, the work is continuing in hamburgla, and it
will continue, but it's very difficult circumstances and trying
conditions. But we also know that the borders are still closed. I've
heard that the borders open just for a few moments, for a few
trucks to go, to go through. So I'm sure you come your the
campaign of the gift of the givers is running in South Africa. People
have to rate it and and you have your your supplies ready to take
through. Can I tell it again? Can you tell us what is, what is your
plan? You know, what is your your plan to to deliver this relief to
the people of Aza, especially, and how, how are you going to
implement this? I know it's a the first part is what you're doing at
the moment, buying inside, but essential items are not there
anymore. It's, you know, carrying whatever you can get, a cloth,
kind of food gets the hydrant. It's the critical stuff we can't
get anymore. It's finished, although I can't understand how,
up to today, they're still delivering stuff. I don't know how
they're doing it and where they're getting it from. The critical
stuff is two, the supplies from outside and medical teams. Medical
teams, because their doctors have died, their health care workers
have died, so there's less qualified people to treat.
Not the normal amount of patients, the injured amount of 26,000
people injured. And what about all the normal disease that's every
day in a normal country that we have, high blood pressure and
diabetes? Does that any other all that requires so we need medical
personnel. We need medical supplies, because there's no fuel.
We're going to need water trucks, loads of bottled water, you know,
and later on, of course, reconnect more desalination plants. Right
now you need what is the fastest way to take it from the outside?
And of course, they're starving them. So you need and high quality
energy foods for adults and for kids. And you're going to need a
normal hygiene stuff, blankets, mattresses to give people comfort.
So we've already, from within the first week, I'd approached
Egyptian Ambassador directly. That was on the ninth of October. I
mean constant communication with him. I said, with DECO, I've
spoken to minister la japano. I've spoken to Zen Django, I've met
them. The entire team has been put together. It's a combined decor
case of the givers team, you know, to intervene directly if the
borders open. I know they've been speaking to the Egyptian
Government. Egyptian Ambassador called me on Friday. He said he
has the contact person of the person the Egyptian Red Crescent.
Our guys have spoken to them. We saw supplies. We've got four Super
links. It's not full, but it's ready to fill. If we need to, we
can probably fill 50. But, you know, we want to do a trial run
first, yeah, to see how it goes in. So there's a system to follow.
Egyptian governments give the permission. Egyptian Red Crescent
deliver the goods. The Palestinian red customers distribute. On the
other side, the whole chain. We we've made the connection the
entire chain. And from inside, you know, we're not too fussy whether
it goes to site A or site B or side c. Everybody is in need. It
doesn't really matter where it goes to. And they know what has
come from which truck, and you know previously, so they know who
got and who didn't get. So that doesn't matter. In terms of
medical teams and equipment and supplies, we ready, you know, just
on my personal I have a core medical team. I put it on the
chat, Gaza, are we ready? Three minutes, 40 confirmations,
and then, without mentioning it outside, we've got already 100
people who send us their names. Already. I've got 100 highly
qualified personnel, trauma surgeons, respirator surgeons, any
sisters, general surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, highly
qualified ICU nurses, theater nurses, psychiatrists,
psychologists, all ready to go in instead of waiting, just let us
know. We'll fund the entire program. We can do that. And derko
will travel with us. Our MC staff will travel with us. State
Security will travel with us. It's a combined
group. We may send the first advanced teams, not medical teams,
but supply teams. We may send them across next week to Egypt to
supervise that the purchase is already bought, but just to see
what else is required. And if permission comes, when in 24
hours, you can more surprising, it's going to take much longer for
medical personnel. That's going to take a long time to get
permission. I know that. And of course, where do you work? There's
nothing to work. Everything's gone. It's bombed, you know? So we
have to find alternative ways to sort not some it's not something
we can't solve. We've done this before in many disasters from past
experience. I mean, if there's a earthquake in southeast so now I'm
in South East Asia, Asia, or earthquake in Turkey, or floods in
Sudan, or drought in Sudan, floods in Pakistan. Doctor, India.
Suleiman, gift of the givers is there, and one of the specialties
is also doctor, organizing your your medical team out there was
once I was in Sudan. I know, not Sudan, yeah, it was Sudan.
Ethiopia was one of the countries I was we, you took over a part of
hospital, and you set up your medical team. Then Republic of
Congo, those Congo, there was
an explosion in also Somalia, within five hospitals, five
hospitals? Yeah. So I was just wondering, you know, how is, how
stocks are going to facilitate this? Would it be? That's the easy
part. That's easy, but we need the permissions geniuses, that what
they do is not a problem. And the thing they got, the determination,
they got a commitment, they got and it's across, sub Muslims. It's
mixed teams. And also our search industry teams are ready, because
you may have to move the rubber to take our bodies, you know, so
they're ready to come into and we've got the equipment, but, but
if you're going to set up this Medical Institute, so these
facilities, will you be taking over portion of current hospitals
that are there, or you going to we normally first first, first place
is to take an existing hospital and just attach to it. It's far
easier. You've got all our pipelines and everything that they
already it's not bombed, or even it's bombed. You know, if half of
it is working, it's better to work an existing hospital, because
people know the hospital this day, you know, it's much easier. And
you can give the staff a break, and you can work with them and
give them a rest, whatever they require for the same as
psychologically, emotionally and physically exhausted right now.
And of course, many have died. So that's the first place. If you
don't get that. We can take a wee house, you know, any fixed
building. We can take that next worst case scenario you can't get
it put up tents and work, you know, we just have to connect
generators, oxygen machines, ventilators, ICU stuff, monitors.
We can do all that. I've heard the doctor.
Sab has been working with Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza, also for many
years. And just this morning, I heard that that hospital has
collapsed. I don't think Dr sub can verify that, if any of the
staff members look at the word collapse has been used for quite
some time. In essence, health services has collapsed when you
can't treat the amount of patients that come to hospital, it's
already collapsed, and for the last two weeks, doctors have been
very broken, because they can save the person's life, but because
they don't have enough medical personnel, because they don't have
enough equipment, and now they perform operations without
anesthetic. They don't have the antibiotics, they don't have the
painkillers, they don't have other medication and the sutras required
to save the life. They actually watch people die in front of them
on the floors because they don't have the supplies yet. It's
saveable. It's protecting they can save these lives. It's the most
destructive thing for a medical professional to see this
happening. They have other challenges, because there's no
antibiotic. They're spread of infection inside the hospital from
hospital infection. There's lots of diarrhea right now because the
switch plants are not working, so the water is contaminated because
there's no electricity, no solar panels, no fuel to drive the
switch plants. So 1000s of kids are getting dehydrated in
dehydration. The other big challenge is they have to take the
fridges of the hospital and to take ice cream trucks to put
bodies inside, because they couldn't bury them. The bombing
was too intense, and now those bodies that are under the rubble
are decomposing. And of course, a decomposed body gets into the
water, again, the spread of water, burning disease, they have all
these challenges. There's nothing left. In terms of disaster, you
know that can affect them. It's in every possible scenario. They've
been affected. It's going back to fix an entire country. But what
you can break, and nobody can break, is a spirit of the people,
their spirit, their faith and their conviction that they've won.
Of course they've won. The whole world knows where the real
terrorists come from. Subhanallah, may Allah preserve and strengthen
that spirit of this inshaAllah and keep their feet firm and their
hearts firm. Inshallah, during this disaster, DAGs up, as I said,
you know, you've been all over the world, and you've been in refugee
camps, in medical camps, and in different parts of the world, and
you've been on the ground assisting people with your with
your own two hands. And
what is that, if you can try to translate that feeling to our
viewers of
of the sense of gratitude, the sense of appreciation and the
sense of honor that you feel when you when you assist somebody who
is in desperate need, and if you can, like, draw a difference
between or is there a difference, from a psychological point of view
of helping somebody or a child who's affected by by drought, for
example, compared to somebody who a child who is running around in a
war torn zone like like Gaza? No, that doesn't make any difference,
to be honest, because both, in both cases, you're facing that it
doesn't matter what the cause of death is. It just that what a
drought is a natural phenomena. You know, it's in its nature. Not
much you can do about that. In Somalia, they walked 800
kilometers from Lobo shabel and the South Kismayo towards
Mogadishu. And on the way, when they got to the medical facility
we set up, we asked them, like Somalis, got big families, like
only two came, where's the other five or the other six? And every
family told you the same story, but on the way, there was no food.
It was too hot, there was no water. The father or the mother or
the bigger child or the smaller child was too tired. They had no
energy. They had to make a decision, whether they all stay,
or the ones who still carry on. And they all decided all the
families to leave behind, those that could not manage. And we
asked them, where's your father or your sister, your two year old
brother, your seven year old sister? They said they probably
all did now, so they had to take that the way was survived. Had
they lost both ways. If they stayed, they all died. If they
walked, they walked, they left the family members behind to die. What
choice did they have? It's a psychological and emotional trauma
for them to come through. But they were very, very strong. Of course,
strong is a relative term. I don't love their life. They love their
own life. They're going to deal with it in a war zone like this.
It's heartbreaking when your own people can't come to your
assistance. And Islamic teaching, you know that if your brother is
in difficulty, the rest of the army is supposed to come the I
think the most heartbreaking thing for them is that no Muslim
countries have come to the existence to their support that is
emotionally breaking. But they know that's not going to happen.
They know this is the common story. You know the knob is going
to intervene for them, and that's why the total faith is in Allah.
You don't do anything for them. They actually do something for
you. You've learned about faith, is it? You say I believe, but you
haven't been tested. They've been tested, and they've proven it over
and over again. They are the ones that have the faith you learn from
them in 2014
I took a Hindu doctor with me, you know, very brilliant surgeon
general
surgeon, and when she started operating this Palestinian people
are swabbed because, you know, they they don't get a chance to go
out tell her from the textbook or from the Google or from the
screen, because they can't go out to get the experience, and then
they can't come back in. So she was doing the procedure, and all
the men came and watched how she was operating. They were
absolutely amazed. They had a chance to learn. We do skills
transfer when you go. One of the surgeons came and said, Can you do
a hanya repay the mother of the Father? I can't remember now, so
long time ago, but she then repaid the hanya on one of the parents.
And then an old man came and they said to her, my daughter, he was
old. She's quite young. He said, My daughter, you know you can see
where you've come. There's nothing here. We have nothing. Everything
is destroyed. Economy. We've got income, nothing. I'm an old man. I
respect the fact that you came here to see our people. We
appreciate that very deeply. And I got nothing really to give you. So
from his neck, he takes out a big orange tasbih, and he gives it to
her. And he says, All I got my life, I've been praying God's name
on this, and I give this to you. I've got nothing else to give you.
She, on other hand, is a devout Hindu. That tasbih is taken and
put by the lamp at the site at her house from 2019 up till today,
it's still there. And
that's the kind of story you get where humanity meets humanity,
where you see compassion and you see care, and you see people in
very difficult situation still come out. They've got so much to
give yesterday. Yes, they've lost everything. My staff members lost
40 members is still working all out for the sake of Palestine.
Anybody else would have been broken by now. And that's the
spirit of people. They've won the war. I keep repeating. They've won
the war, you know. And you know what? But nothing in their hands.
An army can't take over their land. And of course, retribution
is going to come. That's the promise of Allah. They haven't
seen that side yet, Honey, let's say I take my time. You know, I
give rope, and then when I decide to hang our land. So I'm looking
forward
to that day. Alhamdulillah, the people of South Africa is
supporting the campaign of the gift of the giver. So besides us
helping financially, that financial aid will always be
there.
You are a very spiritual person. You are a man of Tariqah,
Alhamdulillah. So please give us some spiritual insight to as how
we can contribute and help the people of well, prayer. I mean,
that's the most that's the most logical thing. You know that Allah
says we do a sincere prayer for your brother, your prayer for your
brother, the one that you don't know, you know, and you pray for
him. It's more acceptable than anything else, because you don't
know speech Palestinian. You praying for you don't know their
names. You don't know they are the angels. And then what you pray for
them comes back to you. We know that, so prayer and make the
effort. Late at night, early hours of the morning, get up. No, make
the effort. You say you involved in faith and brotherhood. And this
show it, prove it. Don't be fertile is at the same time. Take
a listen life. Anything can happen in life. You can change anytime.
Take the lessons and fix your own life up. Don't be caught up by the
lights and the glory of this world. You know, Glory is an
inverted commas. What is realistic? What is real? It's a
temporal world. It's, you know, it's a fleeting world. Change your
system. You know, be prepared. Life can take you. Death can take
you at any time. Learn and prepare and let that goodness come to you
like they've got it. How they have the faith do that. It's important
for us to inculcate that spirit of faith and to love it. It's very
easy to say, I got faith when covid came. Omnipot really had
faith. People got terrified, you know, scared of death. You can't
be afraid of death. That's the only certainty of our life is
dead, and we need to understand that. And you haven't learned to
change your life, not to be materialistic, not to be wasteful
and be charitable. Blessings come through charity and open your
hearts. Or, I must say, South Africans have opened their hearts
like I've never seen in my history. I just hundreds of people
collecting throughout the country, and it's all coming to us. I have
no idea who these people are, what they're doing, how they're
selling, kids, 10 years old, Adani campaigns, raising under 200,000
and at the age of 10, making bangles, selling things. That is
fate, that is commitment, that is love. Palestine won't lose this
war they've already won. But it's only more than that, you know,
Alhamdulillah. It just remind me that you know, everybody's
everybody's doing something, you know, Alhamdulillah, this Majda
has raised quite a lot of funds also. And, you know, just
recently, we had a group of henna artists who booked the the whole
downstairs, and they invited people to come in to patterns on
their hands. And all those funds of that day was also related to
the gift. There's one other thing more important than money, the
information. Information. This is an information war, you know, and
people, and my personally, I met so many people and said we didn't
know this. We didn't know this. We educate yourself and pass
information on. When people understand, it makes a huge
difference, and that's why the tide is turned against.
You know, designers is right, because you've seen the matches
all over the world. It's not Muslims, yeah, it's people from
other races and other religions, and no religion, you know what?
They because they understand humanity. They understand how
they've been hoodwinked by government, governments and
international media. And more and more, every day, I meet people
saying, You know what? And I'm taught about Muslims, I'm talking
people not from Islamic faith, telling us we didn't know that.
And the other important point we need to understand, this is not a
fight between Muslims and Jews. You know, the Judaism is part of
our Christianity and Islam. We are sister religions, and don't
misdirect your anger and attack Jewish people. Or, you know, talk
bad about Jewish people. There are a lot of very religious Jewish
people who do the right things, disgusted with what they see. The
support from Jewish people from all over the world is very, very
strong. It is standing out against Israel and saying it's destroying
the name, not in my name is the campaign, as many in South Africa
too I've met in termite tariqa, Jews that came from America,
absolutely decent, disciplined people. Don't make the mistake of
labeling everybody, because if everybody, if they tell us, all
Muslims are telling us we don't like that. So don't apply the same
thing and tell all Jewish and bad people. You know, open your heart.
Dialog, people. The Prophet always said, Make dialog. Let people
understand. We know, in this campaign is exposed the hypocrites
is exposed. Who the people are in the media, which editors, which
medical guys, which companies are involved in this kind of heinous
activity. We know that it has been exposed because Allah promises the
truth will suffers. We've seen it. We know who they are all over this
country and all over the world, but it always leaves the door open
for dialog to show people and say, see the other side of the story.
We've been bad with dialog. Muslims are not very good at
presenting dialog, but this time, the dialog has been excellent, and
the information transformation has been excellent. Very pertinent and
important points. Dr Saab,
in conclusion, any final and closing comments before we
conclude today's program. You know, I've been disgusted by some
of the political parties in this country that have openly and come
blindly, come out in support of a country, of a government that's
massacring people. If you can stand up so openly, how can I
trust you? How can I trust you? In other words, you are supporting
inhumanity, injustice, apartheid massacre, genocide, concentration,
you know, destruction of hospitals, blockage of water, fuel
and food,
occupation, war crimes and all types of collective punishment,
destruction of houses. You are acknowledging and supporting that
when you take that brazen stand that we stand with Israel, when
you do that, how can I trust you to run my country? Because we've
just said you have shown me that you have no humanity and you have
no compassion, and that all those core support attributes that you
support you on the other side, you can implement in this country. I
need our public to remember those political parties when election
times come. We can't have people like that running our country.
When people have no humanity, no compassion, no spirituality, we
need to remember that very clearly. If you don't there's
something seriously along with your level of faith and your lip
service, then you're only providing lip service and you're
not at home with me. Doctor. MTS. Suleiman, it was an honor sitting
down with you today and having this conversation and this
interview with you. It was very insightful and informative and
inspirational to all of us, I'm sure all our viewers who benefit
tremendously from it. We'd like to thank you for your time, first of
all, for coming here this evening to our studios and to recording
this program. And we salute you and your entire team,
international and local team of the gift of the givers. And we
pray to Allah. Allah grants you all the hidden topic to continue
this wonderful khidma and service of humanity and the deen inshallah
for many, many more years to come. Inshallah, we We know you've been
accredited. The organization has been accredited as proudly South
Africa. And I speak on behalf of all of us. So we are proud of you,
Alhamdulillah, and we are proud of the gift of the givers, JazakAllah
once again, for joining us here today and Shukra LA and thank you
very much for the opportunity to share information and to
disseminate information you know, and
opportunity to expose the plight of the Palestinian people. We pray
for their victory. You know what? Either way martyrdom or victory,
both way they've won.
That was Dr imtia Suleiman, the founder of the gift of the givers,
joining us in the grassy Park mosque Media Studio on this first
program of La bakia Aksa. We trust that you our viewers, have enjoyed
these programs. I urge you to subscribe to the graciapak Mosque
YouTube channel. Click the notification link if you haven't
not if you have not yet, and join us for our programs to follow in
the coming days on La bakia Aksa, our next program will, Inshallah,
be on.
You tonight, and that will be a talk delivered by honorable Sheik
Ridwan Talib join us then again, O Salaam Alaikum, wa rahmatullahi wa
barkatuh.