By Fedwa Wazwaz, Engage Minnesota

“He said: ‘Here is a she-camel: she has a right of watering, and ye have a right of watering, (severally) on a day appointed.’” (Qur’an 26:155)

I begin this blog or article with a passage of the Qur’an. I enjoy this passage as it gives you insight in looking at problems – what to look for so you are not swayed by deception.

There are many dangerous forms of oppression from physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional forms of abuse.  At times, when solving problems, we stop at who is doing the violence – in the last 5 cases that stirred our interest.

Yet, numbers and statistics can be used to lie, and an uninformed mass or crowd can be utilized as a tool to excite and rationalize all sorts of violence and/or oppression against the violent other.

Instead, I have argued in the past that peace is defined by the presence of healthy boundaries. What do I mean by healthy boundaries? Healthy boundaries that allow people a path to the watering place, to life, to grow, to build and to nurture.

Do these boundaries exist in Gaza or in the Occupied Territories?  Let us stop asking who is doing the violence and ask a more important question, do Palestinians have a right and a path to the watering place?

I will continue to this blog later.

For now, visit and share this page:  Gaza BlackOut