By Reginald Johnson
Johnny Sakakini knows the suffering of the Palestinian people. He’s lived it.
On October
23, 16 days after the Israel-Gaza War broke out, he got a call from his mother with some devastating news. Describing what had been told to her by relatives, his mother said 12 members in their wider family in Gaza had been killed by an Israeli
rocket attack against a Christian church in Gaza City.
“They came
to the church that Sunday, mothers, fathers and their kids,” said Sakakini. “The
parents told the kids, ‘go to the hall (next to the chapel) and play with the
other kids.’ They went and moments later, there was a sound --- Psst! --- a
missile came in and took out the whole hall.”
In total, 80 people lost their lives in the
attack on the hall, which was part of the Greek Orthodox St. Porphyrius Church, which dates to the
1100s and is one the oldest Christian churches in the world. Many of the people killed were refugees who had fled more war-torn areas and were seeking shelter in the church. Sakakini said he used to
go to the church when he was a boy.
No explanation or apology was offered by Israeli authorities for the strike.
“They went to
the church thinking they were safe,” said Sakakini. “But they weren’t safe. They
weren’t safe...” he repeated, his voice trailing off.
Sakakini is a
Palestinian-American who came to the United States to escape the Israeli
Occupation from the West Bank city of Ramallah in 1988. He now runs a
restaurant called “Abi’s Falafel” in Trumbull.
He sat down
recently to talk about the tragic incident at church, the war in Gaza and the Occupation in Palestine.
Our talk
took place as the war in Gaza raged on with over 30,000 people killed. (3000
more people have been killed since the interview took place). Another 1.5
million people have had to leave their homes and find shelter somewhere away
from the violence.
The war began
when Israel retaliated for an attack Oct. 7 in southern Israel by Hamas extremists
which killed 1200 people attending a concert.
Israel has
been accused of using disproportionate force in its military campaign and
committing a number of war crimes, including carpet bombing residential neighborhoods and bombing churches, mosques and hospitals. The IDF has also bombed food centers, refugee
camps and schools. Israel is also being criticized for blocking the delivery of
food supplies into Gaza. There’s now growing concern about famine engulfing the region.
On April 1, the Israeli military fired missiles at aid trucks from World Central Kitchen, killing seven workers. Israeli authorities said the attack was a
mistake.
Officials of the
UN, International Court of Justice and human rights organizations claim that there is substantial evidence
showing Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza.
Israeli
officials deny the charges of war crimes, saying the military is “precise” with the bombing attacks and
efforts are made to avoid civilians. And in general, they stress that Israel
has a right to self-defense in the wake of the horrific October 7 attack.
“I understand
that Israel has a right to self-defense,” said Sakakini, “but this is way beyond
self-defense, way beyond. You know when we went into Afghanistan, did we bomb everybody
that lived there? No, we didn’t. We went there and took out the guys we needed
to take out… Killing 35,000
civilians is not justified under self-defense.”
Often
Israeli officials maintain that if civilians were killed in an attack, it was either a
mistake, Hamas rockets had been fired from the area or there were Hamas terrorists mixed in with the civilians and the
killing of the civilians was unavoidable.
Sakakini responds, “Israel will use anything as
an excuse. If the bird flies the wrong way, they’ll use that as an excuse to
target civilians.”
He added, "The
funny part is, in the United States people will believe everything Israel says.
Nobody believes what other people say like Amnesty International, the United
Nations or other human rights groups --- what their reports show.”
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| Johnny Sakakini at his restaurant in Trumbull. He immigrated to the United States to escape the Israeli occupation of Palestine. He said living under occupation was like being in a "concentration camp." (Reginald Johnson photo) |
Since the Gaza war began, passions have been running high in the United States with
widespread demonstrations taking place in support of the Palestinians. But there’s also been considerable support voiced for Israel.
A number of
cities around the country have seen efforts by pro-Palestinian groups to
pass cease-fire resolutions to stop the war, but there's been fierce pushback by advocates for Israel.
In Bridgeport, a cease-fire resolution was passed by
the City Council after weeks of debate. Passionate speeches were made both for and against the resolution at the public forums prior to the council meetings. One night, a heated argument erupted at the end of the forum, and police had to be called in to keep it from getting out of hand.
“In the
beginning after October 7 happened, there were some issues,” he said. “One guy
came in and shouted, ‘I don’t support Palestine!’ and then spit on the floor and
walked out.” There were other people, as well, who walked out after seeing the Palestinian flag by the door.
“It’s funny,” said Johnny. “I’ve had that big flag by the door for six
years. All those years it didn’t bother anyone. After October 7 it becomes an
issue for some people. But it is what it is. I am a Palestinian. I support my
country. If you want to support Israel and the soldiers, go to the McDonald’s
up the street and support them.”
(McDonalds
has been criticized for supporting the Israeli government by advocates of the movement to boycott Israeli goods and disinvest in Israel.)
But Sakakini noted that many people have come to his business and expressed support for the Palestinians. He recalled one day when a lady came in with her children
and sat down.
“I went
over, thanked her for coming in and asked if she was Palestinian. She said ‘No,
I’m American.’ I said, ‘Thank you for supporting us,’ Suddenly, she started crying. I said, ‘What’s the matter?’ She said, ‘I’m 35
years old and I never knew the struggle the Palestinians are going through
until now. Why wasn’t I told?’ “
“So people
are opening their eyes,” Sakakini said. “People are seeing what is happening and they
can’t ignore it anymore.”
Sakakini, who
wears a wrist band which says “Free Palestine,” runs the restaurant with his
wife Simone. They have two children, both in college. So far they haven’t
encountered any problems. “But they told me they don't want to look at
any of the pictures of destruction in Gaza. It gets to them," he said.
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| Palestinian flags and a picture of Palestine at Abi's Falafel in Trumbull. (Reginald Johnson photo) |
Johnny, 50, came
to the United States alone before his parents arrived and at one point worked
at a Subway in downtown Bridgeport. Later he opened the restaurant.
He recounted
the difficulty of growing up in the occupied West Bank. While
Israel technically does not have sovereignty over this area they control many
aspects of life there. In particular, the military has checkpoints at many locations. Palestinians have to go through those
checkpoints, show their ID and answer questions before they can go on. In some cases, people are subjected to strip searches.
When Johnny and his friends were growing up and going to school, Israeli soldiers
would frequently harass them.
Sakakini said
he was jostled by soldiers one time coming home from school. Another time he saw a soldier slam a boy with the butt of his rifle.
“When you
live under military occupation it is not a piece of cake," he said. "They control your
water, they control your electricity, they control where you can walk
where you cannot walk, they control the schools, when they open when they close, they control when you can open shops. They can put you up against
the wall for 20 hours and you can’t move and God forbid you make a move they'll shoot you or they’ll say 'you're trying to resist' and they’ll charge you.”
Sakakini likened Palestine under occupation to "a concentration camp."
The
bitterness felt by many Palestinians for living under military control sparks
random violence, such as kids throwing stones at soldiers. Some kids have been
shot and killed for doing this.
“People don’t understand international law gives you the right to fight occupation,” said Johnny. “So if you think shooting kids who are throwing stones is the right thing, something is wrong with the whole picture… You know this whole thing did not start with October 7. This has been boiling since 1948."
(In 1948, the UN created Israel out
of the old Palestine controlled by the British. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to leave their homes and many were killed. Palestinians call that period the "Nakba," meaning catastrophe).
“Imagine
five generations of Palestinians who've been living under occupation,” Johnny said.
Under the UN Partition Plan, Israel received 56 percent of the land from the British Mandate. A second state was envisioned for the Palestinians but no agreement was reached on setting it up.
In the 75 years since then, there has still
been no agreement on a second state and now much of the land that Palestinians nominally
have, has been chipped away at as the Israeli government has allowed Jewish settlers
to take over Palestinian areas to build homes. Now Israel has full control over
about 80% of what was the British Mandate and have occupying forces in the
remaining Palestinian areas in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
“It’s a
land grab. No matter how you look at it, it’s a land grab,” said Johnny.
“People accuse the Palestinians of using the slogan ‘from
the river to the sea Palestine will be free’ but in reality it is the Israelis
that used that term in the beginning. It was in the Israeli Likud Party charter
of 1970 where it is stated that Israel should be on the land ‘from the sea to
the river,’ you know.”
One of the
things that most bothers Sakakini is the way the media portrays Palestinians --- likening
them to terrorists due to the actions of extremist elements of Hamas or other
militant groups.
“Nobody knows
it, but you see how the media dehumanizes us and makes us look to the world
like we’re terrorists," he said. “Customers
don’t even know that Jesus was Palestinian. I said, how could you not know
where Jesus was born? Jesus was born in
Bethlehem. Where is Bethlehem? It’s in Palestine. Jesus was a Palestinian Jew, just like there are Palestinian Jews today, Palestinian Muslims and Palestinian Christians.”
Sakakini said he
does not justify the attacks by Hamas last October. “There should not be violence used by either side. There should be peace for us and peace for the Israelis.”
Members of the Palestinian community around the country have been pressing their Congressional representatives to get the Biden administration to arrange a ceasefire in the Gaza War and get humanitarian aid into Gaza. Sakakini and three others --- including a young woman from Greenwich who has lost 120 members of her wider family in the war --- met with U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, and told him how much suffering their community has endured and pleaded with him to back a ceasefire.
But the meeting was fruitless. "He basically said, 'I understand your pain, but we have to back Israel,' " Sakakini said.
The resistance by members of Congress to criticize Israel and push for peace has left Palestinians like Johnny bitter at the Democrats. He said many Palestinians will stay uncommitted in this year's election.
"I was a Democrat all my life. I always voted for them," he said. "But things have to change."
Sakakini was asked what the solution is to the long-running Palestinian-Israeli dispute.
“A two state
solution. Give the Palestinians the right to live as human beings with all the
resources. Give the land back to us that we had. Give the land back
so we're living in peace and have all the rights like anyone else," he said.
