As the slush-covered pavements make running more than a little hazardous, I was planning to walk to the library in Upoermill this morning, a good brisk walk replacing a jog. However, all day the sleet and snow showers have come and gone. I am resigning myself to putting off the walk to the library until tomorrow when I can combine it with a trip to the market. Somehow though I suspect that the market will be very depleted. I seem to remember the fishman saying he would not be back until January 15th and Jenny-Biscuit is often reluctant to turn up if the weather is bad. Tomorrow is forecast bright and crisp and very cold but I’m not sure how far Jenny-Biscuit travels to set up her stall. We shall see!
Now for some more serious stuff. Here is a photo I have posted once already. It’s the last photo of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, detained after refusing to abandon his colleagues and patients.
Up to a couple of days ago nobody seemed to know what had become of him. Here’s a report from Mondoweiss on January 3rd
“Where is Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, and what is Israel doing to him?
It has been one week since the Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained by Israeli forces. Reports indicate he is being held inside a notorious torture facility, but Israeli officials won't confirm where he is.
His white coat stands out in stark contrast to the gray ash and rubble surrounding the hospital he had been fighting tirelessly to defend for the past few months. Two massive tanks, their guns pointed in his direction, stand ready to fire. A voice calls out from the tank, calling the name that has now become a symbol of steadfastness, heroism, and tragedy in Gaza: Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.
This is the scene that played out on December 27, as the Israeli army made its final move towards the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which it had been besieging and attacking for weeks as part of its ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign in north Gaza.
Upon being summoned by the soldiers, Dr. Abu Safiya ventured out amidst the rubble towards the tanks, in a now viral photo, which supposedly caught the last moment he was seen before being abducted by the Israeli army. Eyewitnesses in the hospital say that Dr. Abu Safiya, despite the imminent danger awaiting him, did not hesitate to go out to the army – once again, putting himself on the front line to protect the hospital and the patients and staff inside.
The Israeli military would later release recordings documenting the moment Dr.Safiya approached the tank. Through the loudspeaker from inside the tank, the soldier orders the doctor to lift his sweater for inspection. The soldiers then open the door for him; he lowers his head to enter and extends his hand to shake hands with the Israeli officer, who shakes his hand and says to him in Arabic: “Good morning. Come in. Come in, doctor, how are you? Is everything okay?”
The footage, published by Israeli media, went on to show Dr. Abu Safiya leaving the tank back towards the hospital, with a series of shots purporting to show patients, staff, and emergency services being “safely” evacuated from the hospital. What the Israeli army footage did not show, however, is that once the cameras cut, Dr. Abu Safiya, and a number of other patients, journalists, and hospital staff inside Kamal Adwan were abducted, beaten, and abused by the soldiers. “
And here’s Michael Rosen on the same topic, also from a good few days ago:
“How normal can they try to make it
that at this very moment
we are waiting to find out
whether a hospital doctor has been arrested
or is being incarcerated
or being hurt?
How difficult can it be
for the authorities to tell us
what is happening to the hospital doctor?
How much doubt and mystery
can they spread about this moment
so that enough people in the world
might think that the hospital doctor
is a terrorist in disguise as a hospital doctor?
How many social media posts
can announce that the hospital doctor
is dangerous
because he has treated terrorists,
as if it's the job of hospital doctors
to prosecute, try and sentence people,
so that, if they find someone guilty,
they should leave them to die?
How normal is this
that we watch this
and the story should leave us
being suspicious of the hospital doctor
and thinking that the army officers
who've ordered the hospital doctor
to be arrested
are doing good things?”
In the meantime, there is no more news. And we are distracted by snow here, reports of snowstorms in the USA, reports of excessive heat in Australia. All this and rich men trying to tell us how to run our country.
Standing in the snow-covered path near the millponds on Sunday morning I got into conversation about the state of the world with one of my dog-walking nodding acquaintances. We agreed that today’s world is a good deal crazier than the world in which we started our careers back in the early 1970s. Full of idealism and optimism, we thought then that the world could only improve, become more tolerant, more just, more egalitarian, generally better! Little did we know!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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