GAZA casualties live statistics
Mr. Secretary, you have provided the weapons and the political cover that enabled the murder of 65 members of my family, mostly women and children, over the past four months. In strikes in mid-November, three generations of my family were killed by missiles as they sought shelter and safety. I carry their memories with me. I see their crushed bodies when I close my eyes. The survivors in my family are homeless. Some 70% of homes in Gaza have been destroyed, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal, along with almost all the schools, all the universities, many of the hospitals, the mosques, the churches, the historical sites and the public records.
Rajaie Batniji
On February 1, I met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a 90-minute private discussion on the situation in Gaza.
I was seated directly across the table from Blinken in an ornate meeting room at the State Department. Blinken was flanked by advisors. I sat alongside a handful of fellow Palestinian Americans.
Some of the invited Palestinian Americans declined to attend, pointing out that there is nothing more that administration officials “need to hear or see to compel them to end their complicity in this genocide,” referring to the situation in Gaza.
I shared some of their concerns. But I decided to attend because I felt it was my duty as a Palestinian American with family in Gaza whose lives hang in the balance to let the secretary know directly the horrors and war crimes he is aiding and abetting.
Throughout our discussion, Blinken took extensive notes and nodded attentively. As we ran well past our scheduled time, he insisted on extending the discussion.
Here is what I told him:
I am Rajaie Batniji.
I take no pride and no honor in being here.
Many of my fellow Palestinian Americans discouraged me from speaking with you today, concerned that this discussion was solely performative. I share their concern.
I come here out of a sense of duty, to try – as futile as it may be – to save my family in Gaza from being killed.
I was born in Gaza and immigrated to California as a young child.
I grew up visiting Gaza often, and those visits shaped me in many ways. I personally experienced some of the violence of occupation.
I studied the history of the region at Stanford, completed my doctorate in international relations at Oxford as a Marshall Scholar – honoring the legacy of one of your predecessors in this office – and became a physician focused on the health of those that have the least privilege.
I’m an entrepreneur who builds teams and technologies that improve American health care.
I would rather not be here today.
Mr. Secretary, you have provided the weapons and the political cover that enabled the murder of 65 members of my family, mostly women and children, over the past four months. In strikes in mid-November, three generations of my family were killed by missiles as they sought shelter and safety. I carry their memories with me. I see their crushed bodies when I close my eyes.
The survivors in my family are homeless. Some 70% of homes in Gaza have been destroyed, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal, along with almost all the schools, all the universities, many of the hospitals, the mosques, the churches, the historical sites and the public records.
My paternal grandparents’ home in Shejaiya had been among the last homes of my family still standing. This is the home where I was born. It collapsed in a “controlled demolition” just before the new year.
According to our own US intelligence agencies, Israel used 29,000 air-to-ground munitions during the first two months of its assault on Gaza. That’s more than were used in the years of the Iraq War – and Gaza is less than one thousandth the size.
No one I know in Gaza has a home, or possessions beyond what they carried as they fled Israeli bombardment….
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/14/opinions/palestinian-american-blinken-gaza-batniji/index.html
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