For the children's sake

When asked some time ago what they would wish for, the children of Gaza didn't want toys or designer goods but rather clean water to drink and the opportunity to go to school.

In recent weeks that has changed but the American-Jewish activist who asked that original question is still determined to help the troubled territory's youngsters.

Barbara Lubin, 67, is founder and executive director of the American-based Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) and she has been working to provide clean, safe water in Gaza for several years.

Now she is seeking Middle Eastern partners to get involved and she visited Bahrain, following a trip to the war torn Palestinian territory, to speak of the horrors of the recent Israeli assault and seek support for the project

She said: "We partnered with a local-based group in Palestine who provided us with a water purifying and desalinating equipment.

"We have now installed it in two high schools and one preschool.

"When the machine was first brought into the school, the children were literally fighting for it. It was so great."

She recently accepted an invitation to Bahrain from businessman and GeoArabia consulting editor Hassan Al Husseini.

She said: "Mr Husseini contacted me a year ago when he was trying to get some equipment into Palestine and asked if we could help.

"We started writing to each other and then when I was in Egypt a month ago I thought I could maybe come and meet him.

"I am hoping that Bahrainis will want to join the water project as it is time for us to come together and try to do the most we can do for the people of Palestine."

Before coming to the island she visited Gaza going round hospitals, schools and clinics and talking to families and friends and making sure everyone was ok. She said: "It was a disaster. They have created new weapons now that destroy the tissue of the body. On one of our hospital visits I saw the worst. A 16-year-old boy was in so much agony. His entire back up till his buttocks had shrapnel in it.

"They are using these deadly weapons and experimenting on the children in Gaza. I think it's our job to fight this and stand up against this."

Mrs Lubin grew up in a Jewish home in Berkeley, USA.

She said: "My father's family was wiped out in the holocaust and we were brought up with this fear that it was going to happen again and we were next.

"When I first went to Palestine in January 1988, it changed my life.

"Like many Jewish families we raised money to plant trees in Israel. We had to make the 'land of milk and honey' grow. I went to find my family's trees and when I saw the site, I saw hundreds of trees. I was then told that these were planted on top of a Palestinian cemetery.

"That was it. I never want to hear about Israeli or Jewish morality."

It was following this trip that she set up the MECA and as well as her work with the organisation she is now interested in taking legal action against the Israeli government on behalf of the children of Gaza.