Last Friday 1 June a Palestinian volunteer medic Razan Al Najar was fasting and tending to the wounded at Gaza’s artificial fence with Israel. Thousands of miles away the US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley was scheming on behalf of Israel at the world body. The day ended with martyrdom and glory for Razan and shame and humiliation for Nikki.
Just like she had done since the start of the Great March of Return on 30 March Razan said goodbye to her family to go to the border knowing that her skills would undoubtedly be called upon to treat Palestinians planning to march to the fence that artificially separates Gaza from the rest of historic Palestine. They have been marching to exercise their right of return to the homes they and their families hail from and which Israel and its terrorist gangs had expelled them from in 1948 and continued to do since then. Razan’s medical skills would surely be needed because Israel decided to deploy tens of highly trained snipers to kill Palestinians. The number killed has now reached 119 with over ten thousand injured; some estimates put this figure at over 13000.
A post on Facebook whose accuracy I cannot verify says that her last words to her mother were to ask her to cook stuffed vine leaves for her breaking of the fast meal at sunset. She said her goodbyes and left to join her medical colleagues at the fence. Nikki Haley would at that time probably been having her breakfast before heading to the UN to decide how to deal with the 15-member Security Council. It had failed to agree on any statement regarding the events at the Gaza fence since the start of the marches despite the high number of casualties. The choice for the Council that day was whether to back a resolution tabled by Kuwait calling for protection for the Palestinian people or to back an American resolution condemning Hamas for a volley of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip in response to Israeli crimes.
Twenty-one-year-old Razan was the eldest of six siblings. She had a diploma in general nursing and had completed some 38 first aid courses. Although she had not secured paid work she volunteered in hospitals and with NGOs and medical organisations building skills and experience that made her an asset when it came to the Great March.
In an interview with The New York Times last month Razan explained why she had volunteered to help with the Great Return March especially as a woman. “Being a medic is not only a job for a man” Razan said. “It’s for women too.”
She also bore witness to the final moments of some of those who were fatally wounded. “It breaks my heart that some of the young men who were injured or killed made their wills in front of me” she told Al Jazeera. “Some even gave me their accessories [as gifts] before they died.”
In a post on her Facebook account on the 16 May Razan denied claims that she and others went to the fence under duress.
On 1 June she was shot in the back by an Israeli sniper the human rights group Al Mezan stated citing eyewitnesses and its investigations. She was100m from the fence the moment she was shot and was wearing clothing which clearly identified her as a medic. Her blood stained medical vest accompanied her to her grave during what was a massive funeral the following day.
Contrast the humane and selfless acts of 21-year-old Razan with limited opportunities to bring peace and justice to her people with the shameful and brazen attempts in the Security Council by US Ambassador Nikki Haley to deny another people Razan’s people protection from Israeli terror. While Kuwait had brought a resolution to the Council to call on it to fulfil its responsibility to an oppressed people and ensure their protection Haley was bringing a resolution to denounce Hamas for the volley of rockets that were launched into other Israeli controlled areas following the deadly attacks at the fence and bombings of the beleaguered enclave.
Votes on the two texts came shortly after Razan’s death. Haley failed to garner any votes for the resolution except her own with three countries voting against it and 11 abstaining. A complete humiliation for the US and for Haley personally leaving observers scrambling through historical records to find another occasion when a resolution only had the support of the country proposing it. None were found at the time of writing this piece.
Haley was again isolated when the US vetoed a resolution to protect Palestinians. With her Israel proxy she had turned her back on a largely unarmed Palestinian people facing the might of Israel’s military aided by American military hardware worth billions of dollars. She had walked out of a previous Council meeting on Israel’s killing of Palestinian protesters when their representative began to speak. It was a clear breach of protocol which brought heavy condemnation. Given her overall performance as US ambassador President Trump should without delay sack Haley. She has brought isolation and disgrace to her country; all for the sake of an undeserving ally Israel.
On 1 June 2018 Razan lost her life while Nikki Haley lost her humanity defending the terrorist actions of a rogue state Israel. Razan died a proud Palestinian full of humanity and will be remembered with the same name she was born with. In contrast Nimrata Randhawa the daughter of Sikh immigrants will one day pass away to be remembered by her adopted name Nikki Haley hiding her Indian heritage. Razan will be remembered for her selfless volunteering while Hayley will be remembered for her astonishing role supporting and shielding the world’s only apartheid state.
Razan had little power to change the dynamics and bring peace to the holy land while Haley from one of the most powerful offices in world politics could have helped protect Palestinians and bring peace to the region. If only Razan had such a high profile office the world would be a better place.
– Professor Kamel Hawwash is a British Palestinian engineering academic based at the University of Birmingham. He is a commentator on Middle East affairs Vice Chair of the British Palestinian Policy Council (BPPC) and a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). His article appeared in MEMO.
