Palestinian man concerned for his friends and family in Palestine

Transcript

00:00 My name is Osama. I come from a city called Nablus in the West Bank of the occupied territory of

00:07 Palestine. Of course in my home city we lived with the Jewish community, very nice, peaceful.

00:16 We loved each other, no harm. We lived in peace and harmony.

00:21 I've been in England for a long time. I consider myself British and Palestinian as well because

00:29 you can never ever forget your homeland. First of all I must insist as we lived in peace before

00:38 we'd love to live in peace again. Now the situation now in the Middle East is very difficult.

00:47 For the last let's say 75 years since the establishment of the state of Israel, 15th of May

00:56 1948, there have been so many wars. So many thousands of innocent people get displaced

01:06 of their homes, of their country, murdered, left their country, left their houses, left their land.

01:14 And three wars 1948 war, 1967 war, 1973 war.

01:25 How many people get killed? That is a shame.

01:28 Again what is the United Nations or the international community doing about that?

01:35 Nothing. It's only one-sided. When the Palestinians defend their country, they want their rights,

01:45 they want to live in peace, they are called something else. Before we say anything we should

01:52 listen, we should look at the history of the conflict. We should look at the history of the

01:58 conflict, what causes it and why is it there. We had lots of opportunities for peace. I believe,

02:04 if I remember, Yasser Arafat signed a court with Israelis I think in 1994 for peace and they were

02:13 given the West Bank of Jordan to do the self-rule country including Gaza. But 16 years ago with the

02:24 differences between the Palestinians themselves, Gaza was separated from the West Bank and they

02:32 have their own ruling people. Where the West Bank is with Mr. Abu Mazen as you know. But for 16 years

02:42 the Gaza Strip was suffocated. There's no sort of like, they don't have borders,

02:51 they cannot leave their city in peace. It's very difficult for them to leave or come back

02:57 through the Egyptian border or through the Israeli border. What do you expect? People starving, sick,

03:06 they're short of electricity, gas, water, medicine, everything. So many peace agreements

03:15 happened between the Gaza Strip and the Israelis. Nothing gave a fruit, nothing happened. Therefore

03:25 the people get fed up. I personally, I don't agree with the bombardment of civilians.

03:34 I think the war should be between armies and the innocent civilians should be involved in

03:41 these sort of things. And of course we always pray for peace everywhere in the world. And

03:47 for my home country I wish the peace will prosper and this killing to stop, God willing.

04:00 Palestine is a country for the three religions. We have the Christianity, the Jews and the Muslims.

04:06 We always lived in peace and harmony. I have no families in Gaza but I have friends

04:14 and they're telling me how bad it is. They see the buildings go upside down.

04:27 They're telling me about hundreds and hundreds of people get injured, hundreds got killed,

04:35 there's no water, there's no electricity, no internet sometimes, no medicine.

04:43 And they are suffering now or before, to be honest with you, now or before, during the conflict or

04:50 before. Because the people of Gaza have been squeezed between Israel and Egypt and it's very

04:59 difficult sometimes to get the supplies. I'm asking everybody to refer to the ambassador

05:06 and the United Nations, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations. He was asking the same

05:12 questions, why and how. And for me, all what I do, I pray for peace, I pray for my country,

05:21 I pray for everybody in the world, for the oppression, for the oppressor, for the oppressed

05:27 people all over the world. I pray for them and I hope the oppression of any kind will be lifted

05:34 off the people all over.