Israel reveals its true face

By Ahdaf Soueif

This will count. A flotilla of relief boats attacked in international waters. Armed commandos boarding a vessel carrying supplies for a besieged civilian population. More than 10 peace activists reported killed. This has to be made to count.

The dead have joined Rachel Corrie, Tom Hurndall, James Miller and Brian Avery in giving up their lives for the Palestinians. None of these young men and women went out to die or wanted to die or was accepting of death. Each and every one of them ultimately believed that they were safe; that there was a boundary – call it a boundary of legality, a boundary of civilisation – that Israel would not cross. They were wrong. And in proving them wrong, Israel has revealed, once again, its true face to the world.

This face, of course, the Palestinians know well. They see it every day in the teenage soldiers of the occupation chewing gum as they dish out humiliations, in the settlers shooting young Palestinians with impunity, in the soldiers firing gas canisters at the heads of demonstrators. The world saw that face in January last year when Israel unleashed the might of its air force on Gaza – the only time in modern warfare that a civilian population was sealed in as it was being bombed and shelled. Now Israel is out on the high seas killing internationals.

So never mind the multimillion- dollar public relations campaign – actions speak louder than words, and the murder of these peace activists is Israel's message to the world. It does not matter what Mark Regev or any other Israel spokesperson says. It does not matter what spin the Israeli government tries to put on this; the only link between Israeli words and Israeli deeds is this: Israel uses words as a decoy and an obfuscation and a cover for its deeds. It has done so for 62 years. These internationals, dead now, murdered, have ensured that anyone who does not see this is wilfully blind.

Western governments are fond of holding up Israel as the "only democracy in the Middle East". So should we assume that the Israeli people are behind their government? That they approve these killings? Last month I was at al-Quds University in Abu Dis. Israel's wall shaved the edge off the campus. On it, in tall blue letters, a Palestinian student had written: "My Israeli sisters: this is not the answer."

A few days ago, young Jewish Israeli activists told me they saw that the only hope for their country lies with the international community. Israel is on a path to self-destruction, they said, and it will take the region with it. It will not stop, they said, until the price it pays for its actions becomes too heavy. This price has to be a moral and economic price imposed by the world.

My anger and my sadness are so great that I have to deliberately draw a deep breath from time to time to ease the bands I feel around my chest. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that millions of people in the world are feeling the same. People everywhere see and understand what is happening. Many of us feel that Palestine is nearing its South Africa moment. This latest outrage must push it closer. And it will.

Donations will, I'm sure, flood in to the other relief boats waiting in harbour. More and more people will take the boycott to heart. More civil bodies will insist on divestment from companies that do business with Israel. The time has come for the governments that represent us to stop engaging with Israeli lies and excuses. The price of Israel's action today has to be to put the issue of sanctions squarely on the table.

This article appeared in the UK Newspaper - The Guardian dated 31st May 2010 (here)


PS. Please make doa and do solat hajat for our friends captured on board the ship Mavi Marmara, 12 of whom are Malaysians, 2 of whom are our dear old friends – Dr. Selamat Aliman (JIM) and Ustaz Hasanuddin Mohd. Yunus (Aqsa Syarif). The fate of all those on board the ship involved in the Life Line 4 Gaza (LL4G) mission, up to the point of this entry, is still not known. A few has fallen shahid. Subhanallah! Allahu Akbar!

Nothing surpasses Allah…

My tight schedule has driven me up the wall. This blog has not been updated for weeks. However, it all seem worthwhile. The time spent, the energy driven, the efforts put into seem meaningful when success awaits you at the end of the tunnel. Even though we only managed to garner a Silver Medal at ITEX 2010 for our invention, it has cast enough happiness in our hearts as a research team.

The most important thing was that we were able to showcase our work to the public, a system that may be of use in a vast number of applications. Numerous parties have expressed their interest in developing and enhancing the basic platform. For example the Department of Irrigation and Drainage in managing the illegal sand digging at their rivers.

Today, in the STAR, there is news coverage for the press conference which was held yesterday at the main campus lake in Minden, Penang. (Read here)

Our invention is named Drosobot (Drosophila Robot). They may be deployed as a group (or swarms - in technical terms) to enable contour mapping of lakebeds, rivers and dams. The cost incurred is substantially reduced, extra manpower is not necessary while the results of the mappings may be looked at there and then (in real time). Compare this to the available equipment system in the market, (originating from where else but the West?) which is so exorbitant (costs RM 200,000 to buy, if rented then the charges would be RM8,000 per kilometer; it also needs to have at least 4 people to man the equipment)and most importantly, the results of the mappings are not instant - only made available 2 weeks later.

The most interesting fact that we discover is that, lake contour mappings are not available as yet. (We did not know this when we first embarked on the project). Only land and the sea (for seafarers). Considering the vast number of lakes available in Malaysia, we are glad that we are able to contribute in making contour mappings of lakes to be easily done. Amongst our interested visitors (in charge of maintenance of one of the dams) during ITEX 2010 expressed his gratitude and appreciation because he knew and understood the problems. He has been doing the job manually.

We were inspired by the foraging and searching movements of the fruit fly (scientific name being Drosophila Melanogaster) to be adopted as the intelligent algorithm integrated in the school of autonomous water surface vehicles. Adopting the algorithm means that the movements of the group of robots become faster and optimized in the contour mappings as they glide across the surface of waters.

Did not Allah give us mankind the power to think? Nature and its happenings may be used as a source of inspiration for creative inventions. Creatures - be them large or as small as the ants, bees, all have their specialties. If only we take the time to contemplate and use our minds to focus. Thinking has been advocated by our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in a Hadith:

“Purposive thinking (tafakkur) for an hour is better than a year’s worship.”

The humble fly which we would not even look with one eye has a lot to offer – only if we stop, think and observe. The tiny creatures go about their ways according to the ordained paths set by its Creator. However, that is all they can do. It is only us – mankind who has the ability to explore, formulate and venture further than the other creatures. For we are bestowed with powerful brains by our Creator to think and relate. However, there is only one thing that we as mankind should do and never forget i.e. we must remember that no matter how great and high we soar, we can never surpass His powers.

".. of knowledge it is only a little that is communicated to you, (O men!)" Al Isra’: 85

Unto Allah belongeth All Praises…