“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
Bishop Desmond Tutu
Madonna is coming! What excitement! Yes the diva, Madonna Ciccone, Catholic raised who adopted the Hebrew name Esther and who dabbles in kabbalah is coming to Israel!
In 2012 she launched her World tour in Tel Aviv iand now is ignoring human rights organizations asking her to respect a cultural boycott of Israel. She assured all her fans that “My heart breaks every time I hear about the innocent lives that are lost in this region and the violence that is so often perpetuated to suit the political goals of people who benefit from this ancient conflict.” She says she prays for “a new path toward peace.”
Roger Waters in a Guardian article asked if she stood behind UN Declaration of Human Rights and do the right thing or or will she cross over and walk by on the other side?
Madonna walked to the other side and will sing in Eurovision 2019 on Saturday. This prompted a letter from the mother of journalist Yaser Murtaja who was shot dead by an Israeli sniper while he was clearly wearing a press vest and covering the Great March of Return in Gaza.
“Dear Madonna,
You certainly do not know me, but you may know my son Yaser Murtaja, and you may have heard about him in the news or seen his video reports, and maybe you did not believe that he was murdered. even I do not believe it to this moment!
My son Yaser was a photographer journalist who had dreams and only the sky was his limit, just like birds!
His job and passion was to carry his camera to document Israeli violations against unarmed civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Yaser’s camera passed through three wars, in which Israel grounded and besieged Gaza for ten years. He had the foresight to depict the destruction, to lift the children out of the rubble, and to accompany the wounded and the orphans, to the extent of the tenderness and compassion he carried in his heart.
In the afternoon of Friday, April 7, Yasser, like other journalists, was carrying his camera and wearing his armor. Israel knew perfectly well that he was a journalist with his camera doing his job . Nevertheless, Yaser was shot without mercy, Israelis shut him with a type of bullet called “explosive bullet” that penetrated his body and killed him.
Did you ever hear about the explosive bullets? It is an internationally prohibited arms. It penetrates the body and runs through the bowels and internal organs and does not come out until it has confirmed the destruction of all enteral organs.
This is what Israel done to my beloved son.
Please sister, allow me to tell you about my son Yasser, he is my eldest son, who dreamed of traveling the world to share his pictures and make people aware of the untold truth. He dreamed of being a messenger of Gaza.
His videos were used by popular news and media outlets even after his murder.
Dear Madonna, before you head to Israel to take part in the Euro Vision song contest I want you to You can imagine how a mother’s heart should feel knowing another mother’s heart is accepting such an inhuman destructive act of killing towards an unarmed journalist who is doing his job.
Israelis deliberately nursed my son with cold blood leaving a mother to suffer the loss of her beloved son, leaving a baby boy and young widow to live in agony and misfortune.
I urge you to read this message with your heart and human senses in order to understand the meaning of having a child, whom you raise with love and dreams for a happy future. This is all I lived for, Yaser was my joy and source of happiness until he was killed by the Israeli army.
Yasser was a modest young man, peaceful, unarmed, carrying his camera to convey to the world the real picture of Israel on the borders of Gaza, which assassinate the dreams of children and young people, to kill the picture conveyed by Yasser, a picture of the Palestinian demand for his right to live and prosper, which was stolen by Israel.
My son simply did not want to die, he was looking for life, he loved his job, he wanted to raise his son with dignity and freedom, Yaser loved his country, and he did not want to leave me.
Dear sister, do you know why I write to you now, because you decided to sing on the side of the murderer and call for love and peace in a country that does not know the true meaning of peace and knows only the language of murder and war?
Can your songs restore my son’s right to life, can your songs bring Yaser back to us?
Kind regards,
Khayreia Murtaja
Theology in the Vineyard 