ZGram - 7/27/2001 - "The Captive Boy"

[Ingrid Rimland]

Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

July 27, 2001

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

The letter below was all over the Internet yesterday, but I am still
sending it out this morning for those of you who haven't seen it yet.

But before you read this, PLEASE go to
http://home.dal.net/rami/intifada.html   This demo is effective in its
stark simplicity.  You will not easily forget it.

If you go to church on Sunday, I urge you to take this letter along and ask
your pastor to read it to his congregation.  If you can spare a dollar,
make 20 copies at your nearest copy place and hand it to your neighbors.
If you are on the Internet, as my ZGram readers are, send it to your
representatives in Washington.

Do what you can.  It is your DUTY to do what you can!

[START]

THE CAPTIVE BOY

 By C. E. Carlson

  The captive in the Reuters photograph could be any man's son, dragged
along by no less than seven armed men.   A short but powerfully built
figure holds the boy from behind, sturdy left arm wrapped across his chest.
It is a civilized arm wearing a gold watch and wedding band.   His dark
face is seen over the boy's head, beneath the plastic full-face visor
attached to his helmet.

 The look on the child's face is of unmistakable, indescribable fear.  It
is the face of an adolescent boy, with smooth, clear light olive skin and
eyes that appear to be blue.  His mouth is agape as though crying, but no
tears show on his face.  He is dressed in faded blue jeans with dirt scuffs
on his knees, and a long-sleeved blue pullover.  He could be described as
beautiful.

 This Reuters photo appeared on the front cover of Washington Report for
Middle Eastern Affairs in May.  The captive child's left arm is in the grip
of a tall, young Israeli who, from his appearance, could be an American
from any town, a foot taller than the boy, in green military garb, a rifle
hung from a shoulder strap so as to free his arm.

 On the other side, a large and powerfully built lantern-jawed Caucasian,
his Israeli nametag clearly legible on his jacket, has a strangle hold on
the boy.  His face is also partly masked by a visor and he wears a war
flack jacket and kneepads with the ever-present slung, automatic rifle.
His grip on the boy indicates that there must have been a struggle before
the photograph was taken, for the big Israeli has apparently wrestled the
boy's blue sweatshirt from off his arm and wrapped it around his neck so
that the boy's face and chin appear in the neck hole of his own shirt,
which twists around his neck like a noose.

 The impassive-faced Israelis, all armed to the teeth, encircle the boy in
his panic.  How is it your author knows it is terror and not defiance that
we see in the boy's eyes?  His blue jeans attest to his fear, for in his
fright, he has wetted his trousers.  From his crotch to his knees, he is
drenched in his own urine.

 Who among us can remember this kind of fear?  Few of us have ever been so
frightened as to humiliate ourselves in public by drenching our clothes.
Perhaps at five or six, but not at twice that age!

 This boy may also defecate in his clothes before the ordeal ends, as men
under torture often do.  For he must know from a hundred true stories that
he may not survive the next hour of questioning by the Israeli Defense
Forces and the Border Police.  He has surely heard the accounts of boys no
older than himself who have had their sex organs crushed with clubs, a
reminder that more Palestinians are not welcome in Israel.  He may have
seen, or at least heard of, the bodies of Palestinians returned to parents
with fingernails pulled from the quick before being strangled or beaten to
death.   The torturing of prisoners is no secret in Israel; Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon publicly acknowledges it and seeks to have torture
re-legalized.  This boy's body fluids tell us he knows indescribable fear.

 According to The Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, this boy's
name is Kamal Ali As'idah who lives with his parents and four sisters in
Adi ellJaz in Jerusalem.  He was only 10 years old on April 6th when he
decided to join the older boys throwing rocks at the unwelcome Israeli
"Defense" Force intruders.

 Little Kamal played a dangerous game of defiance, even though he had
little or no chance of hurting the hooded automatic rifle bearing soldiers.
According to Washington Report's editorial in the July issue, Kamal got too
close, perhaps because he could not throw as far as the older lads.  And he
did not run as fast; he was the only boy caught and arrested this day.  He
became the captors' example to discourage his peers from throwing rocks.

 The Washington Report Editor followed up the amazing photograph a month
later, found Kamal and talked to his family.  His father told the Editor
that his son was released to him after eight hours in custody.  His head
and legs had been badly beaten, and one arm was broken.

 Kamal's father was subsequently fired from his job with an Israeli tour
bus company after the incident  became known to his employer--retribution
for the acts of his 10-year-old son.  The bus company probably thrives on
American Tourists who learn about the nobleness of the Israeli State on its
tours.  Mr. Ali As'idah may no longer be trusted.  Like many of his
neighbors, he is now unemployed.  Reprisals against families are standard
fare in occupied Palestine.

 What father of a son cannot find a tightness across his chest on thinking
of this 10 years old?   Imagine your child so frightened that he cannot
hold his urine, dragged away, jailed for 8 hours alone, beaten by men twice
his age and strength to the point where his bones break. What manner of men
are these who do these acts repeatedly, with the full blessings of their
national leader?  A few say they hate Arabs, even children--perhaps they
feel they must.  Others say the Jewish soldiers are only doing their job.
But Christian leaders, what is your excuse?

  Rather than accusing the Israeli recruits, we must ask, what manner of
men are we?  Christian fathers, what have you to say to Kamal's father?
You professing Judeo-Christian Celebrity leaders say nothing because you
say the men with the clubs and flack jackets are God's "chosen people."
But would you tell this to the boy's mother?  How can you local church
leaders turn your backs on what you cannot deny?  Arab Americans, living in
comfort, where are your voices?

 Did not Jesus say, "I was in prison and you came unto me - inasmuch as you
did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me?"   What
would Jesus say about you, his chosen ones, ignoring the torturing of Arab
children before your very eyes?  If He were to walk into your temple this
Sunday, what would Jesus say of your silence to the sniper rifle reports,
the ritual assassination of children?

 Jesus said, "Suffer these little ones to come to me."   He was talking
about little Palestinian children then.  What has changed?  Every time a
child screams out in terror in his own humble home, fearing the midnight
pounding on the door, Christ sees.  He suffers for the terrified children
and their mothers. What is your excuse, Pharisee worshipers of the "chosen
people" myth?    You cling to the pale excuse that these destroyers of the
youth and innocence are acting in "self defense."  The blood and shattered
bones of little Kamal are on you!

 Demand a stop to all military support for Israel now!  Stop all trade with
Israel until torture and terror are excluded from its national policy.
Believers, do not junket to Israel and patronize the tourist bus companies
like the one that fired Kamal's father.  Reconsider your support of any
religious organization of any kind that does not speak out for Kamal and
his four sisters and for all those like them.  Give this letter to your
Pastor.  This movement can only start in the Christian Church.  It must
start now.

 Copyright 2001, may be reproduced only in full.

 We Hold These Truths

 (www.whtt.org)

 4839 E. Greenway Road,

151

 Scottsdale, AZ 85254

 480-947-3329

  Recommended reading:  One Nation under Israel.
(http://www.whtt.org/onui.htm )  Learn why our leaders support Israel, and
how its organizations control our Congress.  Learn why it does no good to
tell your Congressman about Israel's crimes, for he has already been there
on a free junket.  $17.50; 2 for $30.00

 Recommended Viewing:  The People and the Land, by Tom Haynes, filmed in
occupied Palestine, paid for by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,
who refused to show it to you after you, the taxpayer financed it.  $25.00
(http://www.whtt.org/bookstor.htm ) A site to see:
(http://home.dal.net/rami/intifada.html )

=====

Thought for the Day:

"Thou waitest for the spark from heaven;  and we
Light half-believers of our casual creeds,
Who never deeply felt, nor clearly willed ...
Who hesitate and falter life away,
And lose tomorrow the ground won today,
Ah, do not we...await it, too?

(Matthew Arnold)