Sarah Joseph said:
The situation in Gaza is distressing in the extreme. Israel as the Occupying Power over the Palestinian Territories has moral and legal responsibilities over the people in Gaza, to ensure their safety and security. Instead, it's aggression has killed innocent people, including young children. If Israel is responding to the rockets fired from Gaza, then its use of excessive and disproportionate force against unarmed civilians is wholly unacceptable, and should cease immediately. For those of us watching the horrors via the media and the internet, it is easy to feel a mixture of negative emotions: anger, hatred, despair, impotence. Here are a few ideas to attempt to deal with these emotions that may also build a culture where such an attack on Gaza becomes unacceptable on a global basis.
1. Stay calm, focused and in control at all times.
2. Write a letter to the leader of your nation that details how you find the human tragedy unacceptable. Ask them to request Israel to immediately cease the attack. If your nation is offering support to the attack then explain that as a citizen of a nation you find this totally unacceptable.
3. If you believe in God, pray! Then pray some more. Now here's the tricky bit, pray that the violence stops, but also pray that the hearts of Israeli citizens are turned against this violence, and opened to peace and coexistence, so they themselves will request the attack to cease.
4. Give to a charity that is operating in Gaza. There will be a desperate need for medical resources, food, etc. Even if it is a tiny amount, give. The collective amount will increase exponentially if we all give something.
5. Become aquainted with the historical facts, and with the a discourse on the current situation. There are a number of good books on both. For a quick and easy read, I suggest "Extreme Ramblings" by Mark Thomas for a view of The Wall.
6. Hold an event that promotes the culture and people of Palestine. We have to humanise the situation and show that this is not a Muslim issue, but a human issue.
7. Reach out to others beyond your own community-people from other faith groups, people from other nations, and explain the situation to them. Hence the important of points 1 and 5 above.
8. Write to the media explaining where their coverage was good, and where it was biased in favour of the Israeli attack.
9. Take to the social media forums and forward articles, information etc that helps our understanding of the situation.
10. Do not hate. Hatred pollutes the soul. If you say that this is impossible then read the works of Izzledien Aboulaish who lost three daughters in the 2009 Israeli incursion into Gaza. Here is an interview with him on YouTube: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=uslS-In4hPQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DuslS-In4hPQ&gl=GB
11. Know within your heart that such injustice cannot and will not continue. It goes against the natural order, which demands justice. Similar inhumanities have occurred in our human history, and were resolved.
12. Be a source of good for your community, for your fellow humanity, and for the world. Work for good in whatever way you can.
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