“Let them sign what they like. False peace will not last.“ – Yasser Arafat after the signing of peace agreements between Egypt and Israel.
Lieutenant Kristy Miles was with the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in Sinai Egypt set up as a result of the original UN peacekeeping force in 1947. Under the agreement between Israel and Egypt, Palestinians are confined to the Gaza Strip thus making it the largest open air prison in the world. Here is Lt Miles’ reflection on deployment to the Sinai in 2020. Her most powerful recollection was of a video she saw of a Palestinian woman trying to bottle feed her baby in Gaza. Here are Lt. Miles’ recollections given in Anzac Square in Brisbane /Meanjin as the keynote speaker at the Australia Peacekeepers annual celebration organised by the United Nations Association of Australia. Her keynote speech was given on 28th May 2022 before the governor of Queensland, Jeanette Young, to a crowd of peacekeepers, military, united nations community of ambassadors, consuls and volunteers from India, Rwanda, Turkey, Cyprus, Indonesia, Portugal, Japan and the Queensland Country Women’s Association.
Meanwhile the apartheid state of Israel’s merciless war against the Palestinian people continues apace with no UN intervention, no peacekeepers. This is despite the UN’s sponsoring the settler state of Israel in the Middle east orgsanised by the Australian Attorney General and Minister for External Affairs, Dr H.V. Evatt, as President of the United Nations Assembly. Evatt played a pivotal role in the partition of Palestine creating the apartheid state of Israel resulting in al Nakba (the catastrophe) for the Palestinians in 1948. – Ian Curr, 30 May 2022.
Lt Kristy Miles: "Of all the images and video I saw in my time as serving as part of Operation Mazurka. There's one image that still haunts me. The image is of a Palestinian woman living in the Gaza Strip, who sat crouched in the dirt beside an open fire under a tarp bottle feeding her baby. My immediate thoughts were questions like was that breast milk she was using? If so, how does she keep it cold? Is it formula? If so, does she have a steady supply? Is it in date that she needs to water it down to make it last? I lived in Canberra first world city and even I dealt with formula supply issues have been limited to two tins per purchase when it wasn't already sold out. ...