Local activist: ‘If there is ever a chance for peace in the world, we must change’
Oct 11, 2023, 3:21 PM | Updated: 5:08 pm
Cari Conklin-Larsen is a software engineer who lives in Seattle. She is also the co-founder of a group that supports the welcoming of refugees to the Puget Sound region. Conklin-Larsen has been a volunteer in Israel and occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) many times working with organizations dedicated to peace in the region.
“I think we, as Americans, have lost the ability to see the humanity in our enemies,” Conklin-Larsen told MyNorthwest. “If there is ever a chance for peace in the world, we must change.”
Her Jewish friend was helping a little girl named Lulu, who was born in Gaza, receive life-saving surgery. Living in the OPT, getting medicine was difficult before the Hamas strike, but almost impossible now.
“I met my friend at a demonstration for peace near the Gaza border in 2018,” Conklin-Larsen explained. “We have been friends since then advocating for peace and equality between Israelis and Palestinians.”
On her Facebook page, Conklin-Larsen wrote of Lulu.
“My Palestinian and Jewish Israeli friends that were scrambling and clawing to get (3-year-old Lulu) medical care for her life-threatening heart condition.”
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Her medical options were limited because of the few facilities in Gaza and she had to pass through checkpoints if she went into Israel, which had many more doctors and medical facilities.
Lulu was able to get her life-saving surgery. “She went from a listless baby to this playful and happy little girl,” Conklin-Larsen wrote.
After the operation, Lulu needed post-op care and medicine. That’s when life changed.
The first attack on Israel by Hamas Saturday meant Israel was not as accessible as when Lulu began her care. In Gaza, she was in a war zone.
“I am furious at Hamas for their violent and horrendous attack in Israel and the pain it has inflicted on so many,” Conklin-Larsen wrote. “There is absolutely no justification for what they did to innocent civilians.”
Conklin-Larsen explained that “the dignity of life in Gaza” is gone. For Lulu, it is far more than that.
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Lulu is one of the thousands of innocent people who are victims of war, Conklin-Larsen believes. “She is out of medicine and food and water and electricity. And hope.”
Conklin-Larsen wonders now, “Who will hear Lulu’s cries?”
