RIYADH — I was away on my vacation when the massacres in Jenin took place. For a week I had been shut off from the world. I had deliberately kept my eyes away from all forms of the media — printed or televised. On a small island in the Indian Ocean, I found my piece of mind. News of murder, shooting, bombing, and injustice inflicted by humans on other humans was something I did not want to hear.

My tranquillity was not to last for long. Upon boarding my plane back home, the curiosity of my eyes overpowered the stubbornness of my brain. And that is when my depression set in.

Some days later, I watched footages on Al-Jazirah satellite channel of Palestinians entering of what was left of the Jenin camp; looking for any survivors under the ruble. I froze when I saw some of the bodies burned so bad it was black; and seeing passers-by covering their mouths from the smell of rotting bodies which at that time Israeli soldiers have prevented from burying. Yet such powerful and vivid images — which I am sure were never on air in most Western television stations — still have done nothing to budge the world conscience.

I do not understand how just a year ago fair-minded people of the world had gone berserk when the Taleban in Afghanistan made their plans public to destroy Buddha statues. Wire agencies; anchors of television stations; the world press; thinkers around the world — all agreed that it would be a crime against humanity if such statues built centuries ago were blown to pieces.

And today, a year after the statues were blown, human beings of flesh and blood were massacred. Their homes were destroyed when some of them were still in them, and those who were injured were left to bleed to death. And ambulances that came to the rescue of the injured still alive were either prevented from entering or shot at. And people of the media who wanted to show the rest of the world what was happening, were threatened with their own lives.

My only question to those same fair-minded people who condemned the destruction of the Buddha statues a year ago is: A crime against humanity has just been done in the occupied territories in Palestine. Where are your protests? Where are your calls for humanity? No answer is given.

Over the period of two weeks, I have read articles of both Saudis and foreigners about the war waged against the Palestinians. I have spoken to people of several nationalities about the unfolding of the massacres in Jenin, the siege of the Palestinian leader and the biased reporting of some Western news agencies such as CNN.

I am glad that despite the biased reporting of some news agencies portraying the Palestinians as victimizers rather than victims, people around the world are realizing that this reporting will no longer pollute their minds from the truth. That what is happening in the occupied territories is a war against the existence of a nation.

People struggling to live freely, without occupation, in a state of their own. And people who are never hesitant to be martyrs for the cause of freedom.

Never in the past five decades of the struggle of the Palestinians have people in Europe been more sympathetic with their cause. Four days ago, a non Arab, non- Muslim official in Europe showed her solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggle for freedom. Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh announced that she shall boycott Israeli products available in the Swedish market. Speaking to the Swedish television last Friday, April 19, Lindh said, “if I’m unable to influence my government’s policy to boycott Israel, I can at least personally boycott their products in the light of the recent massacres committed by the Israeli Army in the Palestinian territories”

Thank you for showing your solidarity with the Palestinians, foreign minister. You have done humanity a favor.

As a Saudi, as a Muslim, and as a human being, I too have made a decision. I will not chant anti- American slogans like some people. I will not curse and swear against the blind support of the US to Israel in my gatherings with my friends when we watch television. And since their no Israeli products — thank God — in Saudi Arabia to boycott, I will personally boycott the products of the country that has been supporting the crimes committed against a nation in its struggle for freedom over the past 50 years. I will boycott American products as much as I can. And even though I realize that the riyals I spare could be few or many, it is the principle that counts.

My family, my relatives, my friends, have all joined hands with me. All it needs is the will to say “NO”. Won’t you join us?