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https://theconversation.com/a-palestinian-bus-crash-that-killed-six-kindergarteners-represents-an-oppressive-system-but-a-fathers-story-offers-hope-224272>
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Review: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story – Nathan Thrall
(Allen Lane)
Nathan Thrall’s stunning book
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: a Palestine
Story explores a dreadful accident, where six Palestinian kindergarteners and
a teacher died in 2012 after their bus collided with a semitrailer, on the Jaba
road, northeast of Jerusalem. At the book’s centre is bereaved father Abed
Salama, who tragically loses his five-year-old son Milad.
Thrall, an American-Jewish journalist who’s lived in Jerusalem since 2011,
reveals the accident to be influenced by a range of political decisions. These
include the elaborate system of control that governs the West Bank,
particularly the byzantine ID system, borders and sections that restrict the
everyday access of Palestinian residents.
The Palestinian children, unable to play in a nearby Jewish settlement, were
taking “a long, dangerous detour” to a playground along a notorious “death
road” when their bus crashed. Originally one of many bypass roads designed to
enable Jewish settlers to easily access Jerusalem, the “badly maintained” Jaba
road was now mostly used by Palestinians.
Emergency services in the Israeli-controlled area failed to attend to the scene
quickly: the bus burned for more than half an hour before official help
arrived.
In the accident’s excruciating aftermath, it was unclear which children had
died and which hospital or morgue they had been taken to. The first paramedic
on the scene, Palestinian Nader Morrar, could only take his badly burned
patients to Ramallah:
if they attempted to go to Jerusalem, they could waste valuable time or even
lose a patient while waiting at the checkpoints for permission to carry the
victim on a stretcher to an Israeli ambulance on the other side."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
