| Description: | On 8 July 2014 the Israeli government commenced Operation Protective Edge, their latest military operation in the Gaza Strip. Fifty days later, when the ceasefire was declared on 26th August between Israel and Hamas, United Nations figures stated that 2,251 Palestinians, mainly civilians, including 551 children, had been killed in the conflict. Over 3,400 children were injured - resulting in a permanent disability in 10% of cases - and more than 1,500 children were orphaned. (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2015)
The already overstretched Education sector was severely affected; 258 schools and kindergartens were damaged, including 26 schools beyond repair. (UNICEF, September 2014)
Linda was outraged at the scale of destruction and needless loss of life and responded via needle, thread and fabric. Her letter, tucked in a pocket at the back of the arpillera, questions: “…why a nation that has suffered …feels it can justify killing … and destroying hospitals, schools and mosques.” Further linking recent events to the destruction of the Holocaust she reflects: “… I felt that the spirits of those who died at the Holocaust would be desperately wishing they could say ‘why do this when you know how much it hurts’.”
Her sentiments are echoed by the group Jews Against Genocide (JAG) a global movement of Jews, including Israelis, who protest against Israel’s indiscriminate attacks against the non-Jewish indigenous people of Palestine. Their burning of dolls – symbolising the horror faced by Gazan children - at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Museum in July 2014, was intended “to show Israel, and the world, the absurd reality of using the memory of one genocide to justify another”. (Neta Golan, July 2014) ”Jewish activists light children’s dolls on fire at Yad Vashem to protest Gaza attack”
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