Power Of The Press?

Recently, I wrote a post about Salma Abuzaiter, the eight-year-old girl whose family moved to Canada from Gaza and became Canadian citizens five years ago. Having accompanied her father, a physician, back to Gaza this summer so he could render medical assistance while she visited with her cousins and grandparents, Salma became trapped there after the latest outbreak of hostilities with Israel. Despite requests for some small logistical assistance from the Canadian government, her mother, in Brantford, initially received no response, later being told by Canadian officials in Ramallah that they were too busy to help.

As reported in the Toronto Star, they recommended Salma board a bus for a five-hour ride from Gaza City to Jordan, part of an “assisted departure” arranged by the Canadian government for its citizens. But Abuzaiter feared the bus plan would be unsafe for a young girl travelling alone.

But things changed, and the story appears headed toward a happy ending, without doubt due to the unpleasant light cast on indifferent Canadian officials by the press. Salma's mother reports:

During a recent break in the violence, ... Salma was escorted by her father, a doctor working in the country, to the Israeli border to meet with two female Canadian government officials, who helped her board a plane in Amman, Jordan, to Toronto.

“I never asked the government for financial help, just logistical help,” said Abuzaiter, who is paying all of the girl’s rescue expenses.

“When they told me they could take care of Salma and send representatives to her, I couldn’t stop crying.”

Sometimes, just sometimes, there is a light that is able to dispel the seemingly perpetual darkness enwreathing our government under the current regime.