Letters
It is said that the first casualty of war is the truth. The headline on Page 27 of the Midweek Nation, October 11, 2023, screams Israel ‘Shall Prevail Again’. It introduces the edited version of the statement by the representative of the Zionist state of Israel to CARICOM.
How does Israel prevail? For 75-plus years the Zionists have prevailed in their attempts to wipe away all traces of Palestinian lands and its people. Millions of Palestinians are refugees across the Middle East and the world with no right of return. Palestinian lands are seized and occupied despite several UN resolutions against such actions. Palestinian homes, schools, mosques, churches, hospitals, and buildings are destroyed.
Thousands of Palestinians in Palestine have been subjected and continue to be subjected to the most humiliating, dehumanising, brutalising system of apartheid humankind has witnessed since the end of the mid-Atlantic slave trade and apartheid in South Africa. The murder, torture and abuse of innocent Palestinian men, women and children by Zionist Israeli forces is commonplace. That is how Israel prevails.
The Gaza strip is smaller in size to Barbados, yet it is a prison to almost ten times as many people who live in Barbados. Gaza is an open-air prison as your Editorial, ironically on the same day, so rightfully pointed out. It is the Palestinian ghetto, like the Warsaw ghetto of the 1940s, with more horror and brutality. The Zionist representative speaks of pogroms, that is exactly what people in Gaza have faced for over 20 years. Food, water, energy, travel, the entire life of a Palestinian living in Gaza is at the whim and fancy of the Israelis. Why? Because in the words of the Israeli Defence Minister, “they are animals”. That is how they treat animals. Put them in a cage and do with them as they feel.
Gaza today is on the brink of annihilation. Whole neighbourhoods are bombed and the entire strip is under siege, no food, no water. Israel has committed more war crimes with impunity than any other nation or group.
The late freedom fighter of the 20th century, Nelson Mandela said it best: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinian people.” Caribbean people, having suffered the legacy of the most brutal and inhumane system of slavery and colonialism, know too well the struggle for freedom and the obligation of standing with the oppressed against the oppressor.
– Suleiman Bulbulia
Are we waiting for another jet ski tragedy before something is done to control the erratic, dangerous behaviour of jet ski operators? There used to be a path by the Cruising Club marked by buoys for jet skis to depart and arrive on the beach. It is no longer there and jet skis come and go as they please, take off at great speed within a few yards of the Radisson Pier, and roar along where people are swimming, as little as a hundred yards from the shore. They should be going directly out to at least 250 yards, well beyond the swimmers.
To paraphrase the Mighty Gabby, this sea is all of ours as sea bathers and swimmers, not exclusively that of a handful of irresponsible jet ski operators.
There appears to be no regulation, no common sense guiding operators, and it is only a matter of time before another terrible tragedy occurs. Who is responsible for regulating them? Who will bell the cat?
– Professor Emeritus Sir Henry Fraser
