Lauren Booth – Responding to Horror

			I get messages. I'm in touch with several families right now.
		

			He said instead, they're seeing babies with a skin stripped off, and mothers with their arms cut off
and people burnt to death
		

			no a water coming through. And then there's no light. Israel has committed a war crime cutting off
the electricity. There's intermittent internet, they don't know if their family is alive or dead.
		

			That's an American sister Lauren, both. Thank you for accepting us. We are going through really hard
times as an ummah. We know that in Palestine, our brothers and sisters are displaced from their
homes that our babies dying food, supplies, water and electricity are cut off. They don't know what
to do. As a journalist, you have been among those people many times, you have the opportunity to
look at the events from both sides. Many things are told in the media about this issue. But can you
tell us what is really happening there right now, what is going on now is a game play that the
Palestinians particularly in Gaza have been used to? Not for 50 months, not for 50 weeks? 50 years.
		

			This is not a 10 days old conflict. This isn't two weeks. It hasn't just started a week ago. That's
that's the phrase that I'm taking out here. This is a long, extended era of pain for the Palestinian
people where their resources than their land have been stolen deliberately and maliciously by
Zionist and Zionism and that ethical, unethical, I should say, way of dominating a population. So
it's not a new thing. You know, I spoke to my friend, Yasser, last night and he's in Gaza City, may
Allah protect him, protect his family and all our brothers and sisters. I mean, and I said, where
are you? He said, We're outside our house. And I said, How are the boys doing? He's got two young
		

			sons. He said, Well, I your sister, they're struggling. They're only babies. They're only young,
less than 10 years old, he said and when I look at them, I think they should be doing their homework
or playing on a beach or going on a roundabouts. You know, being pushed in a playground having some
fun, he said, Instead, they're seeing babies with their skin stripped off, and mothers with their
arms cut off and people burnt to death. How is this a childhood? I want you to imagine this for a
second. No, a water coming through. Right? They're going sip by sip right now. Oh, I've had my three
sips for the day. I've had my cup of water for today. That's That's it and then there's no light
		

			Israel has committed a war crime cutting off the electricity. There's intermittent internet they
don't know if their family is alive or dead and then they're told to get out of their houses. So I
know families last night you slept in the street even as bombings were going on.
		

			And do you get messages from our brothers and sisters in Palestine right now? Yeah, the messages I
get I get messages I'm in touch with several families right now. And it's things like pray for us
this may be my last day and Muhammad as your he's got no legs already from an Israeli a missile
attack. 10 years ago. He's a basketball player, pro basketball player in a wheelchair. He said this
may be our last day pray for us. I've got parents in the street saying that they're leafleting our
homes, we're not going to leave. And then I have other friends who are trying to say how are you?
How's your morale? Are you okay? And that will lie that's the thing that breaks me. That's what
		

			brings me because they ask they have that they have strong enough Amman to say Are you okay? I'm
sitting here in Istanbul in a luxurious condition, but they're a man cares about the Ummah do we as
a nama care about them?
		

			Many people in the West including celebrities, such as Justin Bieber posted support messages for
Israel. There are also people that say Hamas has massacred civilians and that's why Israel is
attacking it is self defense. Can this be looked at like this? Can all these bombings on Gaza be
justified like that? Justin Bieber and people like this should be quiet? Don't open your mouths.
Don't even say the word Palestine? Well, you can't use the word won't leave their lips because they
don't understand the situation. You know, anybody who has not looked into who the people of
Palestine are in their struggle, you have no right to even comment about what is going on now
		

			because you have no idea about the pain that the people have had to go through Subhanallah so to
celebrities who don't know this inside and out to the people in the pubs or the people in the West,
you know, talking over the internet to the trolls, shush. This is not your time, be quiet. If I if I
come into your home, I want to believe I come into your home, beat your wife, kill your children and
kick you out of your home and
		

			years later you kick the door and and try to get home. And you're in the house saying, This is my
house who is defending what here, there is no self defense ideal when you're squatting on people's
land when you are deliberately and continually killing people and starving them of their human
rights. This is not self defense. This is what they've wanted all along. And Netanyahu stood just a
couple of weeks ago, in the European Union or at the United Nations, Netanyahu stood at United
Nations just a couple of weeks ago with a map that completely erased any Palestinian presence at
all. This is their excuse to enact upon that, but they had the plan anyway, this is was this is what
		

			they've wanted to do. If you see the disgusting words coming out from Israeli news media, from their
Zionist politicians, and from so called supporters of Israel, you'll see annihilate the
Palestinians, kill their kids, take their land, make them suffer, push them into Egypt, their agenda
is very, very clear. That's not self defense. That is ethnic cleansing. That's depopulation. You
know, as human beings we are affected, even if we see someone's arm being broken. So how can Israel
be so merciless, so cruel? What kind of mindset to these oppressors have while committing these
horrible acts? What goes through their mind with what is their mindset? That's a really good
		

			question. If you can look at somebody being hurt, and have no feeling for that person, that is
called dehumanization. And there has been a process of dehumanization from the beginning of the
Zionist state in 1948, when it was announced, they have always referred in their spaces to
Palestinians. And the Arabs generally, by the way, as two legged cattle, right, this is from their
own sources, as animals to be herded here and herded there. They have no concept of, of our people,
Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians, as real people. This is very, very dangerous. And it is one of the
markers of impending genocide, there is a famous list, which gives the 10 steps towards genocide.
		

			And one of the final ones is the utter dehumanization of the other. So they don't see Palestinian
children as children. They see them as Hamas supporters. I've never seen a six month old vote in any
election. And while we're at it, by the way, can we just address something you must have heard? Gaza
having been referred to as an open prison? Yeah, you've heard that right. It's not it's a
concentration camp. Right? Let's start using the terms. We don't mind that the other doesn't like
these terms, we need to use what is accurate. Can I just describe why Gaza concentration camps are
very important. Let's talk about prison. First, a prison is somewhere where criminals go. So the
		

			minute you talk about prison, it's like, oh, yeah, Palestinian criminals. They're all in that prison
called Gaza. No, men, women and children who have committed no crimes are not prisoners agreed. They
can't be imprisoned by the state good. Secondly, in a prison, the one who controls the prison has to
give three meals a day, they have rights to health care, they have to have clean water. And here's a
really important thing. They get visitation from the outside world from their families, and they
have a due date to leave. None of these apply to the people of iser, who have for 16 years been
under an illegal siege. People don't seem to understand what that means. You can I have been on a
		

			boat from Cyprus to Gaza, through the Israeli naval blockade. That's the only way you can get to
Gaza. They're fishing. There see the Gaza an area of sea, enshrined in this useless international
law, our high seas, their fishing men, their fishermen regularly bombed out of the water regularly
murdered, so there's no way to get in or out there's no airport does. There's no rail system,
there's no buses, taking them here or there. So therefore, the definition of a concentration camp, a
PE space where men women and children are crowded into oppressive conditions by an external force
because of their and listen to this political beliefs, religious beliefs, views, ethnicity, and then
		

			they are treated harshly. That's what the garden people have experienced and are experiencing right
now. We have Zionist Jews bombing a concentration camp. Congratulations. These lands have been under
the role of Jews, Christians and Muslims in different periods throughout history. In which period
was that land the most peaceful and why? You know there's a couple of moments in history that it's
worth reflecting upon. When we look at the possibility of Jerusalem having peace, and that was the
first one I'll bring up is when Omar Abdullah who N
		

			The conquest of Jerusalem from then the Crusades are Christians who had massacred all the Jews and
all of the people living in Jerusalem when they took it 1000 years ago, and before and before, and
when Omar Al de la when he arrived there, and he said, I won't pray in the Christian church, I'll
pray outside because this has a right to exist. This is part of the history, and I don't want it to
be taken away after I've prayed in there. And to this day, there is the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites in Christianity, and around the corner, a tiny little mosque
called Masjid Omar. Right. And Then There followed a period where the Jews were actually welcomed
		

			back back by the friend of the Prophet Muhammad, did you know that they were welcome back
SubhanAllah. And then the Ottomans came, and for 500 years, there was a thriving society of three
faiths SubhanAllah. It is possible, but it is not possible with Zionism because they do not want it.
It is not what they want. They want a Jewish only state, Jewish only Jerusalem, and they don't want
Christians or Muslims there. And we have to be very clear about that. Because they make it clear.
And I want to ask, Did you experience any unforgettable events that you when you were there? Are
there any unforgivable events you witnessed there? In Gaza? I was in Beit Hanoun several years ago,
		

			and I was visiting a family who lived on the barbed wire fake border that the Israeli regime was put
there. And I it was like a garage, they were effectively living in a garage. So whatever your garage
looks like, times it by three, that's what this family of 12 were in. And the mother was introducing
me to her children and young Yacine he had a white phosphorus burns all across his legs, terrible.
The other son 16, he had a terrible, you know, fresh scar from a bullet from an Israeli sniper
because he'd been collecting rubbish to sell. And there was a little girl and she was just doing
this. She said, Oh, she hasn't talked since the last war. She's got shell you know, we'd call it
		

			shell shock or PTSD. And it just went on and on and on. And then the van went and I was Muslim at
this time. This is 2012. And I went into a back room and I just started to cry. I just started to
cry. A lie. Can't do this alone. I don't know. Please help them. And the mother came in and she put
her hand on my shoulder. And she said Habib, T Why are you crying? I said, I'm crying for you. I'm
crying because I hate this. I hate this for you. And I hate that I can't do anything. And I hate
that you have to live like this. And she said, Don't cry for us. We are so happy because we have a
law and we know that if we are steadfast he will give us Janna Alhamdulillah as Muslims,
		

			unfortunately, we are helpless. They're watching these events at home. What would you say to a
Muslim who asks, What can I do as an individual as our feeds are now full of the death of babies
beheaded by Israeli rockets and mothers screaming and grief and father's dying bleeding out on the
roadside? Because there's no more beds. As we see whole areas decimated and the smoke fills the air
and the people are crying and fleeing. Don't give up hope Allah is with the believers. We remember
what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in a famous battle when he was driven up a
mountain with a few of his followers. And the enemy was mocking him and saying, Look how many of
		

			your famous fighters are dead and your friends and family and the Prophet sallallahu wasallam said
to tell them ah but here's the difference. Our dead are in Jana, and yours are in Johanna. And then
Allah to Allah tells us in the Holy Quran, don't say the Shaheed are dead, for truly we know that
they are alive. And I have seen this from brothers who have reported directly to me, their Shaheed
that they've seen of their friends, seven years after they've been buried fresh like the day before,
the smell of Messiah coming from and will lie he brothers and sisters, the Palestinian sea angels in
other wars, I have had friends call me and say, sister I wish you were here and I'm saying Why would
		

			you wish me to be under the bombs I love you but and they're like will lie he because the Sakina has
descended and the angels are amongst us. Subhan Allah miracles exist. Trust Allah has spun Allah
when your malware kill and Shakti Calbee strengthen our hearts. This is not a time for crying. This
is a time for steadfastness and Wallahi in the dictionary next to the word for steadfast should be
one word Palestine. So let's remember brother as well at this time, okay, that che Tom wants us to
feel hopeless. Shaytan wants us like this. Oh no, oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. That's not Islam. Put the
phone down and go to your prayer mat and sit there
		

			It doesn't matter if it's prayer time and just say you're a manual Rahim Yeah, could you see a Salam
ya allah victory to the oppressed people victory to your slaves victory to your servants Oh Allah
bless them. Oh Allah bless them make your vicar strengthen your heart through Vivica Allah curse the
oppressors Allah bless the Palestinians with victory me