A baby girl, 10 months old, died on Monday in Gaza, choked by tear gas.
My niece's baby girl, 13 months old, lives peacefully in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her parents and older brother.
Layla Ghandour was born with many strikes against her. She lived in the Gaza Strip, a prison from which no resident can leave. Both Israel and Egypt have closed their borders.
Last February Egypt opened one gate for four days, but only to those with visas granted by humanitarian concern for urgent medical cases.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/21/thousands-of-gazans-rush-to-border-as-egypt-opens-crossing
Layla's parents' first baby, a son, died of a heart condition--one for which Layla was also being treated. But "Relatives couldn't afford to buy the recommended medicines," reports Alexandra Zavis in a front page story in today's Los Angeles Times.
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-gaza-child-20180516-htmlstory.html
Layla's family buried her on Tuesday along with 60 others shot by Israeli soldiers on Monday for protesting at the border.
Tuesday was also the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day--Disaster Day--for Palestinians both in Gaza and in the West Bank. This day remembers the 700,000 Palestinians who were expelled from their homes or fled to set up the nation of Israel in 1948.
By Tuesday, Layla Ghandour had made international news as a symbol of the Palestinian cause. The Gaza Health Ministry added her name to a list of protest martyrs — the youngest of more than 60 people who died on the bloodiest day of weeks of protests.
Layla died as Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and members of the Trump base celebrated moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Read this article: "'Ashamed to be Jewish': As Trump Base Celebrates Embassy Move, Horrified US Jews Mourn Gaza Deaths" in the Israeli newspaper Ha-Aretz to get the full story. Not all Israelis support the unilateral move prior to a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian agreement. Alison Kaplan Sommer writes:
The opening ceremony for the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem was, essentially, an invitation-only Trump campaign rally.
Those in attendance had all sworn loyalty to the president and belonged to one of the groups that has hailed him as a modern-day Cyrus the Great: Orthodox Jews, right-wing Israelis (including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) and the pro-Trump Republican base – particularly those in the evangelical community.
In a sad footnote, a right-wing evangelical preacher added his blessing to the day, as Ha-Aretz continues the report:
This was all on display from the ceremony’s opening blessing, by Texan Baptist megachurch pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. His eyes squeezed closed in prayer, he thanked God for “our great president, Donald Trump,” lauded how Israel “has blessed this world by pointing us to you, the one true God, through the message of her prophets, her scriptures, and the Messiah,” and praying for Jerusalem “in the name of the spirit of the Prince of Peace, Jesus our lord.”
The Prince of Peace weeps.
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