Enough is enough

When is enough actually enough?

One of the few Arabic words I know well, and hear a great deal in the streets is ‘khalas’, one of the words for ‘enough’. You hear is shouted everywhere, especially within families! But if you ask an Arabic speaker what the word for ‘enough’ is, they give you a list of alternatives, and ask whether you mean ‘enough’ in colloquial or formal Arabic. It’s a rich language, much more so than English.

The colloquial Arabic Khalas literally means Stop. When you hear khalas in the streets, it means Stop.

Given all that is happening between Israel and Gaza, with so far 1,336 deaths on the Gaza side, 74% of which are civilians and include 243 children and 131 women, against 59 deaths on the Israeli side, of which 5% are civilians (2 Israeli’s and 1 Thai worker), the rest being killed in active combat, surely for the sake of the overwhelming loss of civilian population of Gaza enough is enough.

In case we are confused, in international law, in the arena of war, such targeting of civilians is deemed a crime of war, and yet day by day the civilian death total rises in Gaza. (100 yesterday in case you happen to switch off for the day). Apparently these lives are merely collateral damage, human shields for a terrorist organisation which has to be defeated whatever the cost. It is a shame that some lives are lost, but I see little real concern. After all they aren’t real people – apparently insects to be crushed in the words of one leading Israeli politician. Some of them children sleeping next to parents in a school room within a UN compound which had sent out 17 messages to the Israeli Defence Force informing them of the presence of the new families who had had to relocate due to previous IDF bombing warnings. Surely enough is enough.

And this does not include the wounded, now into their many thousands, and soon heading towards 10,000 – not shipped to well equipped medical facilities, or the psychiatrist’s chair to talk through their stress related issues, but left in an effective prison increasingly without medicines, food, water or power. Left to slowly die of wounds, or disease which is on the increase. Surely enough is enough.

When is the world going to cry Stop? We are all degraded by this. Where’s our humanity? We are losing our souls as we try and legitimise this action, or effectively say this is nothing to do with us, or try to argue that this is an equal fight. If it is, why don’t the numbers add up? Surely enough is enough.

And who will win? No-one, because this is all about loss – of life, of respect, of dignity, of soul, of humanity. Peacemakers on both sides are being verbally and physically attacked. There is much talk about the rights of one side to defend itself from another. When shall we hear again the voice of responsibility for offering life and hope to both sides in this enduring conflict? Enough is enough….and you and I should do something about it.

Enough. Khalas. Stop this massacre.

3 thoughts on “Enough is enough

  1. Hi Ian. Thanks for the blog. Hearing the news over the last few days / weeks has kept making me ask ‘what can I do?’

    I come up with excuses, I don’t understand the situation, I am too far away, I’m not hearing all the facts. But really they are lame excuses. The situation is that people are being killed. Civilian people. And whatever the reason, wherever it is, whatever the facts, that is not ok.

    But I am still left with the question – what can I do?

    And I feel you may be a sensible person to ask that question to. Enough is enough. What can we do?

    • Hi Andy. Good questions. Pray obviously. Refuse to accept propaganda, but seek the truth. Get into honest conversations with people about this situation. Contact Philip Hammond MP and express your concerns about the UK Govt approach – ask questions abou the Israel lobby, and why Conservative Friends of Israel so recently when on a support tour to Israel, and were shown around an Israeli military facility. Look to rebuild Gaza via Christian funding projects. Refuse to be defeated by helplessness! Pray again. Cheers, Ian

  2. Perhaps psalm 22 is a fitting lament for an honest disciple?
    “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Gaza?
    Why are you so far from saving Gaza, so far from the words of my groaning?”

    I look forward to v 27: “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.”

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