Thursday, August 23, 2007

Memo to England.


What a surprise. The same country that originally played Solomon and carved up the Middle East has decided that the members of the Palestinian National Under-19 Soccer Team are too poor to get visas to play in a tournament in Britain. Scheduled to play against the minor teams of a handful of English soccer clubs, the Palestinian team – who have little access to any sort of soccer field – have been told that the British Government suspects they may try and stay in England instead of returning to the hell hole that Gaza has become. Let’s not forget that Britain plays a significant role in contributing to what Gaza now resembles. Theirs, and other “democracies”, are the ones who cut off aide to the Palestinians after they elected Hamas. And their unwillingness to apply even a modicum of pressure on Israel to alleviate the slow suffocation of the people of Gaza should be seen as criminal. Their denial of visas to these Gazan teenagers for a soccer tournament smacks of their lack of compassion or understanding of their own culpability in the crisis. The reason that the visas have been denied is that the players are incapable of showing that their life in Gaza is good enough for them to want to return. Incredible. Bottom line for the British Government should be: "maybe, even if they DO want to stay in England (which they have no evidence to suggest) we should take responsibility for the mess we helped create and let 15 kids stay."

Not that they’d necessarily want to. There’s a reason that Palestinians have been fighting the Israelis since 1948. It’s called: "Love of Palestine". I hate to spoil it for you England, but your country ain’t that great. And just because they’re poor, it doesn’t mean they want to be rich, it doesn’t mean they want to be British, it doesn’t mean they wouldn’t want to go back to Gaza when they’re done getting beaten by your little English lads. They’re poor because of what you’ve helped do to them, helped do to their people. You want to know how you could solve this problem? When they arrive to play, monitor their movements very closely – like, don’t let their bus go ten minutes without checking to make sure they are allowed to be where they are - and put them up in your local prisons. It’ll actually make them feel at home!


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