This is sick.

Prompted by Elviza's kind email regarding relief efforts by Mercy Malaysia offered to Palestine, I took some time off this evening from my readings and read up a little more on the situation in Gaza. I'm sure most of you would have kept yourself more informed than I have, so I'm just going to show some pictures ripped from NYTimes. Because many of us are quite insensitive to human suffering unless it is shoved in our faces.

The funeral for 14 of around 40 people killed on Tuesday when Israeli mortar fire struck near a United Nations school in Gaza where many people were taking refuge. Picture and caption taken from NYTimes.com

Women grieved during another funeral, for ten family members killed in a missile strike. Picture and caption taken from NYTimes.com

The aftermath of an airstrike in the Rafah refugee camp on Wednesday. The rising civilian death toll in crowded Gaza heightened international urgency to end the combat. Israel has said repeatedly that it will not end the operation in Gaza until it is certain that Hamas will no longer fire rockets into its civilian areas. Picture and caption taken from NYTimes.com

From Yasmin Ahmad's blog, I read SMSes from Dr. Jemilah from Mercy Malaysia who is currently delivering aid on the ground at Gaza.

"Salaam. I am leaving tonight for Egypt and onto Rafah, to set up a pipeline for aid into Gaza. Don't worry, it is safe there. Pray for us and the people who are suffering there. Happy new year, I love all of you." (Dec 31)

"Salaam, Min. As I write this, in the last 15 minutes more than 20 bombs have fallen on Gaza, within the distance I can hear them. We are about 2 km from Palestine, and it is a case of so near and yet so far. Our five trucks are loaded with USD100,000 worth of valuable medicine, surgical sets, and disposable items, including syringes, intravenous infusions and bandages. We will wait till the bombings stop, and once the gate opens, we will try to push the goods through. While the Egyptian border has thankfully allowed aid to go through, the challenge is to wait for trucks from the Palestine side to come and collect the goods. For the past day, they have not been able to collect even life saving goods as Israel continues with land and air assaults. We will try our best and stay till we can assure our aid goes through. Many people have been kind to us here and we ask for your continued support and prayers." (4 Jan)

"Alhamdulillah (Praise the Lord). Nothing short of a miracle and Allah's love and mercy for us. We managed to transfer 50 tons of supplies. Many people waited for days, but we sailed through. Alhamdulillah. How was your TV thing? To be honest, it's been very slow on the fund-raising side from HQ." (5 Jan)

"Alhamdulillah. I am fine. Spent some time with Palestinian kids transferred to Cairo for treatment. They were crying and wanting to go home! They don't realise their homes have been blown apart. So very sad. Getting the second consignment ready to go again. Take care. Salaam to all and thank everyone for their generosity and doas." (7 Jan)

I think, witnessing all the efforts that Mercy Malaysia is putting into helping all the innocent lives taken and injured (according to Elviza's blog, Al-Jazeera has the figures that 700 Palestinians have been killed, 219 of whom are children; more than 3000 are wounded), supporting them is the least that we can do.

How you can help? Monetarily, Mercy Malaysia needs more contributions to buy surgical kits, medicines and hospital equipments to help the hospitals in Gaza.

• Cheque is to be made payable to “MERCY MALAYSIA” and addressed to Mercy Malaysia, Level 2, Podium Block, City Point, Kompleks Dayabumi, Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin, 50050 Kuala Lumpur.
• Cash donations can be made via on-line transmission or deposit at CIMB Bank Account No: 1424-000-6561053.
• Donation form can be downloaded from here.
• Further enquiries are to be directed to +603-22733999 or info@mercy.org.my

No amount is too little, every contribution can make a difference to someone's life out there. Please, please help. Elviza, who has been volunteering for Mercy Malaysia for about a year, has more details here.

***

And then I watched two videos, also from Yasmin Ahmad's blog, on the American media portrayal of the Israel-Palestine conflict. As a media student I am fascinated, but as a layperson I am overwhelmingly disgusted by the underhanded tactics used to virtually mask the events from the rest of the world. Each clip takes 30 minutes, but I assure you it's worth it, to learn from media activists, scholars and journalists what's really the situation, and how the media twisted the facts.

Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land - U.S. Media & The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Part 1)



Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land - U.S. Media & The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Part 2)


To sum things up, these videos will show you how Israel is obsessed with its PR image, how the media content goes through some 4 major filters, i.e. 1) the owners of the US media and their business interests, 2) the political elites, 3) the PR efforts of Israel and 4) Pro-Israel media watchdogs. Then they show you, in six clear points, the PR strategies of Israel. Interesting bits include how the journalists are being forced to use language such as "neighbourhood" instead of "settlement" to mask the (very much illegal) occupation of Palestine; and how they give uneven portrayal (empathy on Israel side and nonchalance on the Palestine side); and how they use words like "retaliation" to imply that the Israelis were acting out of self-defense... it is really fascinating.

It's too long to summarize here and I'm quite eager to get this post out, so for you weirdos who want to read the transcript of the videos instead of watching them, here's the link to the transcript. The videos are produced by the Media Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization which produces documentaries looking at media critically.