“I’m a mother just like you, I dream only to see my children grow,” Munira Al Najjar says in a plea for an end to Israel's war in Gaza, addressed to mothers around the world.
The poem, which has been widely shared on social media, reflects the desperation and heartbreak that mothers in Gaza endure daily – living mostly in tents, trying to feed their children amid a blockade on aid and trying to keep them safe from Israeli attacks.
Ms Al Najjar, an English teacher, wrote the poem in her tent in Rafah, where she now lives with her four young children after her family was displaced by the war. It invokes “the voice of every mother who endured, grieved and who still dares to dream of peace”.
“I ask mothers around the world to stand with us, to understand our struggles, and to help raise their voices for peace and justice in Gaza and beyond,” Ms Al Najjar, 40, told The National. “We urge the world to stop the war so our children can continue their normal life and education and build a future filled with hope and opportunity,” she says.
She hopes for enough food to feed her children, for clean water and daily essentials, for a life without fear of being torn to pieces by Israeli bombs and gunfire. “We do not ask for pity but for witness, we do not ask for silence but for a voice beside ours so that your children, when they grow up, will know that we had children too,” she writes in her poem.
Rachel Accurso, the creator of a YouTube channel of songs for toddlers under the name Ms Rachel, which has more than 16 million subscribers, shared Ms Al Najjar's poem on social media. “This is a call to all mothers, please show the mothers in Gaza that they are not alone. The only difference between you and Munira is geographical luck,” Ms Accurso said in an Instagram post.
The poem was then shared and read out publicly by US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and other influential figures, triggering an array of emotional responses. Ms Al Najjar said her poem had received 15 million views on Instagram after Ms Accurso shared it.
Out of nearly 62,000 people killed and more than 150,000 injured in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, more than 50,000 are children, according to a Unicef estimate. Earlier this month, the UN agency said that on average at least 28 children have been killed every day.
Hunger has reached starvation levels as Israeli restrictions continue to make aid inaccessible, while plans for a military offensive into Gaza city threaten to displace a million people, or half the population of the Gaza Strip. Newborns and young children are reported to be dying from malnutrition.
“My message to mothers everywhere is, although our circumstances may be different, the love we have for our children unites us all. Mothers everywhere want nothing more than safety, peace and opportunities for their children to grow and thrive,” Ms Al Najjar says.
Displaced with her family at least seven times already, Ms Al Najjar says the war has taught Gazans how to “hold on to each other more tightly”, and adds: “We will emerge from this war stronger, seeking life.”
No Shame
Lily Allen
(Parlophone)
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Miss Granny
Director: Joyce Bernal
Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa
3/5
(Tagalog with Eng/Ar subtitles)
Fighting with My Family
Director: Stephen Merchant
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Florence Pugh, Thomas Whilley, Tori Ellen Ross, Jack Lowden, Olivia Bernstone, Elroy Powell
Four stars
Results:
5pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic (PA) Prestige Dh 110,000 1.400m | Winner: AF Mouthirah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic (PA) Prestige Dh 110,000 1,400m | Winner: AF Saab, Antonio Fresu, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 80,000 1,600m | Winner: Majd Al Gharbia, Saif Al Balushi, Ridha ben Attia
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Championship (PA) Listed Dh 180,000 1,600m | Winner: RB Money To Burn, Pat Cosgrave, Eric Lemartinel
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Handicap Dh 70,000 2,200m | Winner: AF Kafu, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 2,400m | Winner: Brass Ring, Fabrice Veron, Ismail Mohammed
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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'Falling%20for%20Christmas'
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Meydan card
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (PA) Group 1 US$65,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm: Conditions (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 1,400m
7.40pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) $100,000 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 1,200m
8.50pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (TB) Group 2 $350,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (D) 1,900m
10pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 1,600m
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
Captain Marvel
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn
4/5 stars
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
