Three of Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish’s young daughters were killed in 2009 when an Israeli tank shelled their home in Gaza. Now based in Canada and internationally recognised for his human rights advocacy, he talked to Joanna Wane before flying to New Zealand for the premiere of a new documentary about his life. Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish had left his daughters’ room seconds before the first shell hit.
Mayar, 15, was sitting at her desk, studying by candlelight because the power was out. Bassan, a 21-year-old university student, was curled up on the bottom bunk bed with Aya, 13. Shatha, 16, was chatting with her 17-year-old cousin, Noor.
Aiming directly at their bedroom window, the tank fired again. Only Shatha survived. “They were drowning in their blood,” says Abuelaish as he recounts the events of that night in a new documentary I Shall Not Hate , which is to have its international premiere at the Doc Edge film festival this week.
“I can’t recognise them. At that moment, I lost faith in humanity.” Up to 1400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in Operation Cast Lead, a 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip that began in late December 2008.
Watching news reports of that now, only the scale of destruction distinguishes it from the bombardment by Israeli forces today as the war in Gaza approaches its ninth month. With no international media allowed across the border, the deaths of four girls in the Jabalia refugee camp, where the Abuelaish family lived, would normally have.
