Hiroshima August 6th 1945
Kind regards and Salaam Mahmoud Baroud
I first met Mahmoud Baroud in Gaza in 2005, and I cannot recall how. I interviewed him on my Cannon camcorder as he stood on the mound which was the family home on the north side of the Philadelphi road. This defines the southern 'border' of the 25 mile strip containing the most dense population on this still wonderful earth. In its carpet bombing, shelling and 'missiling', Gaza has been subject in this ultimate convulsion since 10-10-2023 to record tonnage of high explosive - greater that the fissile energy of the previous holocausts recorded above. The crucifixion of this noble, industrious, eloquent people in the Via Maris, this oasis at the foot of the Silk Road, is happening because the most terrible crimes of the USA - with the assistance of Britain especially, have never been held to account. The rope was made redundant and a long line of war criminals has followed to torment our world and crush millions upon millions, half being dear children.
This home in Rafah of Mahmoud, his wife Mona, and then 3 children, was dynamited by the Zionist 'engineers' after Mahmoud was given 30 minutes to leave. His sister was still 'living' there, but underground. I had tea under the concrete and met a son who had a chaotic mind after seeing an atrocity done by the 'only democracy in the ME.'
Sue, me and our staunch friend of the Palestinian people, Jo Clarke-Irons, have given some wired support of money to the family. This has allowed them to buy flour and WATER. This is symbolic of our love for the whole. The symbolism is enhanced further. The eldest son is a trained nurse and it is very likely that the hospital where he served is rubble - as is the Islamic University of Gaza where Mahmoud is a senior lecturer in English Literature.
Currently they are surviving in a tent in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_al-Balah - The Monastery of the Date Palm. ( I can see the palms as I journeyed south in my ten visits to Palestine and Gaza.) Mahmoud's current need is to have some money to pay for transport north to Gaza City where the family plans to make two rooms habitable for shelter as cold and rain bite hard.
Susan and me are very good friends of Dr Khamis Elessi MD Manila. We see ourselves having supper with the family in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuja%27iyya - in 2011. I heard from Mahmoud that he and his family were still alive about a year ago.
This poetic prose by a close colleague of Mahmoud's in the English faculty of the IUG is the essence of the 'resistance' to the 'barbaric horde'
