The Salah Family

The Salah family

From: David Gwynne
To: admin(at)canpalnet-ottawa.org

Dear Friends:

My wife Laurie Ellen and I are Canadians living in Boston. I am copying you on a letter that tells the tragic story of our friends, the Salahs, of Nablus.

Sincerely,

David Gwynne, Ph.D.
E mail: dgwynne(at)comcast.net
___________________________

Dear Friends:

Early this month, our dear friend Khalid Salah and his son Mohammed were shot and killed by Israeli Defense Forces in their home in the city of Nablus on the Israeli Occupied West Bank.

Please pass this letter on to your friends. Perhaps the act of putting human faces on these incidents will eventually have some impact on our government's biased approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The incident occurred during an Israeli Defense Forces attack on their home in Nablus. Khalid and his wife had permanent resident status in the United States (and were preparing to move here), and two of his children, Amr and Diana, are U.S. citizens.

Dr. Khalid Salah was a member of the Palestine-Israeli Peace Association at An Najah University in Nablus, where he was a Professor of Electrical Engineering. He was a very gentle man who loved his family, his work and his community. Despite living with war for many years Khalid retained his perspective and told me often that Israelis were his cousins and that he prayed for peace.

Salam, Khalid's wife, has described to us the circumstances of Khalid's death and this has been confirmed by many news sources including the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. In the early hours of July 5 the Salah family, Khalid and Salam and their children Mohammed, Diana and Ali were asleep in their home and they became trapped during an Israeli military pursuit of two armed men. Their apartment building was attacked with rockets and machine guns during the first hours of this action. The family somehow survived this initial attack without injury and, following an Israeli command to evacuate the building, Khalid spoke to the soldiers (in English) to tell them that their damaged door could not be opened.

The soldiers then fired through a window in the top part of their front door and Khalid and then his son Mohammed (16 years) were both shot. Khalid died instantly from a chest wound and Mohammed was wounded by a bullet in the mouth when he came to his father’s aid. The Israeli forces then entered the apartment and forcibly removed Khalid's wife Salam, Diana and Ali and, despite Salam's pleading not to abandon him, her son Mohammed was left by the Israelis and he subsequently bled to death. There was no attempt to gain medical help for Mohammed or to allow local ambulances access to the area. Newspaper reports of the incident made it quite clear that the Israeli military were actively evacuating their wounded at the time of the shooting. When Salam returned to the apartment three days later the building was damaged further from demolition blasts and their home had been extensively machine-gunned to destroy the contents.

Khalid’s oldest son Amr, is a U.S. citizen and lives with my family here in Massachusetts. He attended a local High School and is currently attending college where he is studying computer science, following in his Dad’s footsteps. Amr had just returned home from college on the evening of the attack and my family held a celebration dinner for Amr and some of his college friends (Amr had made the Dean’s list). After dinner, we received the terrible news about Amr's father and brother from his uncle.

Israeli radio had reported that an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at the building in which Faraj (the man being pursued) was holed up, killing him and two civilians: an academic from Al Najah University, Dr. Khalid Saleh and his son Mohammed, 16. CNN reported on an ongoing operation to round up wanted Palestinians, Israeli forces battling Palestinian militants in the Ein Bei Ilma refugee camp of Nablus, in what an Israel Defense Forces spokesman described as heavy fighting. One Israeli soldier died in the firefight, according to IDF. Three Israeli soldiers were also wounded in the fighting. Palestinian medical sources said four Palestinians were killed, including two militants.

The press reports read as the usual impersonal accounts of yet another “operation” and two more bystander “civilians” killed by rockets, shells or bullets. The “building” was a home. The home was near a “refugee camp” and was a community in many ways just like our communities here in America.

We read these headlines every day but we rarely know the details behind the stories.

It was a privilege and an honor to have had Khalid as our friend. We first met 22 years ago at the University of California and shared in the joy of the birth of our first children, the Salah’s daughter Diana and our son Frank. The Salahs returned to Nablus in 1989. Khalid had turned down a lucrative job offer in Silicon Valley. He wanted to teach in his home town and help those who did not have the educational opportunities that he had experienced. Despite the curfews, closings and constant military action in Nablus during the last 15 years, Khalid managed to stimulate young minds with his love of science and, more importantly, with his his love of peace. Khalid abhorred violence in word and in deed and would not tolerate inflammatory language, even against Israelis. Mohammed, who died next to his Dad, was a tall, handsome boy with a quiet demeanor, very much like his father.

Diana has been devastated by the attack. She is a beautiful, bright and articulate young woman. She referred to herself as "Diana Honda" when we call, a joking reference to the fact that Salam almost gave birth to her in our car on the way to Sacramento Hospital 23 years ago.

How many more Khalid and Mohammed Salahs will die in the West Bank and Gaza before we comprehend that these aggressive Israeli tactics often radicalize reasonable Palestinians, as well as Israelis, and ensure that the “tit for tat” violence will be perpetrated. Salam, Khalid's wife, witnessed the brutal killing of her beloved husband and son. She abhorred Israeli tactics but she also condemned the tactics of Palestinian terror groups both of which “are killing our children as well as Israeli children”. We hope and we pray that she can mobilize the strength get through this terrible time.

Soon Amr will attempt to return to the Middle East to be with his family. Amr loved his father dearly and was very close to Mohammed. They shared a love of soccer and their friendly arguments on the telephone were about the English soccer team (favored by Mohammed) and the Italian team (favored by Amr). Amr adores his little brother Ali. I pray that Amr will be safe on his journey and will return to the U.S. to pursue his studies in September. We also pray that his grief will be replaced by a desire to emulate his Dad, a man of peace.

We will also miss Khalid terribly-he was more a brother than a friend. Khalid and Salam were with us in Beverly last January on holiday enjoying a brief respite from the Israeli siege of their city. Our solace is that Khalid did not suffer; our hope is that he did not die in vain.

Please tell your friends about Khalid, and his family, who he was and how he and his son died. Perhaps this small gesture will eventually have some impact on our government's approach to this terrible situation in the Middle East.

More information about this can be found in a Haaretz article by Gideon Levy.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/455097.html

and a Boston TV interview at http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3547811/detail.html

Sincerely

David and Laurie Ellen Gwynne