Gareth W R Smith, Byron Bay
Falling off a ladder and breaking my hip at age 76 is no joke.
I am yet another statistic as 70 per cent of falls involve men aged 45 and over.
Having braved a cadetship in the Merchant Navy, faced off with the UN against the Young Boy militia in East Timor and being a keen ocean swimmer, I thought myself ‘invincible’.
Wrong! Fortunately I was injured in Byron Bay and not Gaza where I would have been lumped together with the other 14,600 victims of Israel’s killer sharp-shooters.
I have the highest praise for the medical staff at Byron Bay and Tweed Heads hospitals and for the ambulance paramedics who attended me.
Unlike in Gaza where Israel has blocked anaesthetics and opiate painkillers, I did not writhe in agony.
If complications arose I knew I could be transferred to other hospitals, but in Gaza, Israel prevents the injured from seeking treatment elsewhere and consequently hundreds of young men have had their injured limbs amputated.
For how much longer, Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten, will you continue to claim Israel as Australia’s bosom friend and count its values as synonymous with those of Australia?
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
