There I was, all set to go into Manchester, go to a couple of shops and then meet some friends for lunch. Then my phone pinged a message to me: one of the friends had just discovered that there were no trains running from Bolton, where she lives, to Manchester: rail workers on strike! It was one of those moments when you have feelings of solidarity for the striking workers but still feel peeved that your plans have been disrupted. But we contacted the third member of our lunch party and rearranged it for next Friday - fingers crossed for no further disruption. And here I am, all dressed up and nowhere to go!
Mind you, it’s a miserable day to go anywhere. As I spoke to my Bolton friend and she commented that it had just started snowing over there, I looked out of the window and saw that the snow had arrived here too. It was quite heavy at that point but now it’s just wet and sleety, nothing picturesque going on. Granddaughter Number One has been protesting because her weather app tells her “2° - Real feel -7°”. Certainly when I stuck my head out of the door to bring in the milk delivery it felt rather colder that the 2° my weather app assures me we have here.
Out in the wider world France is calling for an investigation into the reported attack on people frying to get food from an aid convoy in Gaza:
“France calls for 'an independent probe' into circumstances in which Israeli troops fired at crowd seeking humanitarian aid
France has called for an independent investigation into the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza who were gathered to receive humanitarian aid on Thursday.
Stéphane Séjourné, the minister for Europe and foreign affairs, told France Inter:
We will ask for explanations, and there will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened. France calls things by their name. This applies when we designate Hamas as a terrorist group, but we must also call things by their name when there are atrocities in Gaza.
AFP reports Séjourné said his country would not apply “double standards”, and said that if an investigation should conclude that the Israeli shooting was a war crime, “then obviously this becomes a matter for the judiciary”.
Israel’s military has denied shooting into large crowds of hungry people and said most were killed in a crush or run over by trucks trying to escape. A spokesperson said Israeli soldiers only fired at a small group that moved away from the trucks and threatened a checkpoint. More than a hundred Palestinians were killed.”
Mainstream media here is now sometimes reporting events going on from a Palestinian viewpoint. Maybe reports of armed “settlers” attacking Palestinians who are going about their everyday lives have tipped the balance. Here is a link to an article about such events.
Palestinians living in other countries, such as here in the UK, must be desperately worried about family left behind on that war-torn country. Worry mixed with guilt for not being there perhaps. Here is a link to an account by a Palestinian woman, a qualified radiologist now looking after her small children, married to a surgeon, a Palestinian presumably helping to keep our NHS going. She took her children to visit her parents in August last year and found herself trapped there when the conflict started. Fortunately her husband was able to have her name and their children’s names added to a list for evacuation, but her Palestinian family remains behind in a refugee camp. She says, “I feel guilty every moment. How can I be happy that I’m safe while they are not?” And her children still cover their ears when they go to bed for fear of hearing bombs and shelling.
If Netanyahu succeeds in driving all the Palestinians out of the country, if the state of Palestine ceases to exist, what will be the nationality of people like Farah Morad, the writer of that account?
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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