DAN MACKAY: Such joy at new life is not matched across a troubled world
The Real Mackay by Dan MacKay
They say a week’s a long time in politics. Just ask poor Humza Yousaf!
But strange how a year can also go by in just the blink of an eye.
It was this time last year that I was discharged from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary following surgery in the aftermath of a cancer diagnosis. I’m one of the lucky ones and can, very thankfully, say I am a cancer survivor. All praise to the NHS.
The day I was discharged my daughter Kirsty gave birth to baby Jess, my sixth grandchild, in Raigmore Hospital. It was Jess’s birthday last week and, wo and behold, she took her first teetering steps the day before the celebrations.
Jess has since discovered how to open the kitchen cupboard and has been known to raid the biscuit and sweetie tin! We all feel so blessed having her in our lives and are so very happy.
But, today, I want to write about another baby whose briefest of life’s has been so tragically cut short. Her name was Sabreen Jouda. You may recall seeing and hearing about the harrowing story of her family, most of whom were killed by an Israeli airstrike in the southern city of Rafah on the Gaza Strip.
The world’s media posted shocking images of baby Sabreen being born by caesarean section from the body of her dead mother Sabreen al-Sakani, who was 30 weeks pregnant. Baby Sabreen’s father and four-year-old sister were also killed in the attack.
It had seemed that Sabreen had a fighting chance as she was rushed to an incubator in a neonatal intensive care unit but, alas, she died just five days later. I imagine, like me, you share the great despair about the ongoing deaths of so many innocent civilians – most of them women and children.
What Hamas did to equally innocent Israeli civilians on October 7 last year when its terrorists broke through their defences and carried act the most heinous acts of brutality was unforgivable. And the West has upheld Israel’s right to defend itself. But now, more than six months later, it has gone way beyond that.
And whilst it is true that Hamas has used innocent Palestinians as human shields, the ends most certainly do not justify the means. Satellite images have shown that 35 per cent of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed. More than 34,000 people are said to have been killed.
Isreal’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown no signs of backing down and plans another offensive, this time amidst the refugee camp in Rafah. The consequences are unimaginable. Indeed, the whole Middle East is also teetering on a knife edge with the potential for wider regional conflict.
World leaders, amongst them Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak, have urged restraint.
International aid agencies are finding it increasingly difficult to carry out their humanitarian relief work in such a hostile environment. The United Nations has been trying to pursue a peaceful two-nation resolution to the crisis, with little success.
Yet, neither Biden nor Sunak will step in and say enough is enough. On the contrary, they continue to sanction arms supplies to Israel.
Across the world people are marching and protesting in support of Palestine. It is too late for baby Sabreen Jouda and her family. Think of the outrage if it were yours…
