This State of Exception

According to a UN official Israel will be paying the UN "around $10.5 million" in compensation for the "damage"- caused during Israel's war last winter against Gaza:

1. of U.N. property (two U.N. schools and a World Food Program warehouse in Gaza City- nevermind the over 40 refugees sheltering there after being told to do so by leaflets dropped by Israeli fighter jets in order to "safety")

2. for the life of the driver of a U.N. truck 

nevermind the over 1,300 other lives, 

nevermind the over 20,000 injured, 

nevermind the over 22,000 buildings destroyed, 

nevermind the ongoing destruction lived by people like you and me in the Gaza Strip today,

and I wonder, how does the people behind this entity called Israel get away with it.

Absolute Devastation

tonight i talked to jamal in gaza. he has not worked in a month because there is no gas in gaza for his taxi. i asked him how he is surviving, he was embarrassed to talk, he said there is always one of the family fasting, they have nothing to live on. we cried together on the phone, he spends his days on the internet and watching tv. that there is, but food there isn't.

this is UNRWA's statement to the press about gaza from april 23rd, but no one seems to notice. gaza has become old news.

world WAKE UP!
This is a deepening scar on the moral record of this generation, it will not go unanswered for.

UN: Gaza risks economic collapse

How long will the UN have to go on making statements of this kind and the world sits idly by?

"The Gaza Strip is in danger of a general economic collapse, unless Karni crossing, the main point of entry for commercial goods into the territory, is reopened soon."

The assistant deputy commissioner general of the UNRWA went on,

“Gaza risks becoming a virtually 100 percent aid-dependent, closed-down and isolated community within a matter of months or even weeks,” said Filippo Grandi. “The window of opportunity in which we can address this most urgent situation is small and fast closing.”

1.49 million Palestinians in Gaza. 100 percent aid-dependent. Is anyone reading this?

Dust clears in Gaza

After a turbulent few days and the initial stages of surprise some changes have started to become clear on the ground in Gaza.

UNRWA announced all its operations would return to full capacity after early signs that they would be reduced due to inter-factional fighting.

Hamas has announced that negotiations were taking place with Alan Johnston's captors and promised release by Saturday.

Under U.S. pressure the Government of Israel declared it would release tax monies withheld from the PA since Hamas' election victory early last year (over $700 million dollars) in order to strengthen Abu Mazen's political position vis a vis the Palestinians. As can be seen in this picture, the weak leader is in urgent need of anything he can get.




We walked the streets at midnight tonight, they seemed safer than ever. A friend of mine's brother was shot in the leg yesterday by Hamas forces and is in hospital after a critical operation. I will go visit him and Dr Attalah in the morning.

After routing Fatah in Gaza and taking over every last security stronghold, it seems Hamas has noticed it has reached a bit of a dead end politically and has declared its continued recognition of Abu Mazen as the legitimate Palestinian president.

Fatah on the other hand has responded by naming the Gaza Strip a renegade entity and declaring an emergency government in the West Bank. This is the most bizarre democracy concoction the U.S. hass created here.

What occurred across the Gaza Strip this week was not a civil war, from my understanding of the concept, because it was a one-sided offensive. Yet, we have seen little signs of tit-for-tat arrests and threats taking place between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.. this could be the birth pangs of something like a civil war.

Things you don't see every day

Karen Koning AbuZayd head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was recently reported saying this:

"Everybody is just in bad shape now with the whole economy going down so badly. They just don't have any opportunities," citing high unemployment and shortfalls in wage payments over the past year.

Donors have poured in more money last year than ever before "but that's because we've made everybody aid-dependant."

What does this mean:

The Twalbe family live in the Beach Refugee camp just North of Gaza City. Of the seven school aged children two don't go to school. The oldest, 13-year old Yousef has asthma and has been made fun of at school since he was young. He quit school a long time ago and stays home to help his father at the market. Abd Karim, the third oldest was recently kicked out of his school for getting in too many fights with his fellow students. Even the teachers are scared of him. The school's headmaster said if Abd Karim comes back he would give up his job.

When I asked Abd Karim to describe his surroundings he listed one incident after another of inter-clan fighting and internal political clashes in the refugee camp he lives in.

In 1948 70,000 Palestinians lived in the Gaza District, after the ‘48 war 200,000 refugees were added to the area and the regional classification “Gaza Strip” was created. The root of Abd Karim’s mental instability is a society that was never meant to take the shape it has today. The “Gaza Strip” has never been a sustainable society. When you add 200,000 farmers with their families to an urban prison you create chaos. Anarchy isn't created out of thin air.

Abu Yousef, Abd Karim’s father, sells humanitarian aid that is distributed to his family by organizations like UNRWA. This is his only form of income. At least two of his sons participate in the daily activity of selling plastic bags of flour, rice and bottles of oil at the local market just five minutes away. A shopping cart is filled with the goods in order to transport them to the market. Over five years ago Abu Yousef used to work in Israel as a laborer, like thousands of other refugees like him. Prior to the last Intifada there were 150,000 such daily laborers from Gaza. Being a refugee means, once you had land, now you no longer have land and thus must work on other’s land. In Gaza employment opportunities are extremely scarce.

I have not traveled the world, but I am certain there are other areas on this planet that suffer even more hardship, with higher unemployment, with even more human cruelty and consequently even more human suffering. But here, in this conflict, what grips me, is the fact that it is man-made, in this case there is no need to be gender neutral, because it is largely men that were the instigators, the leaders, the protagonists of this sad chapter of human history. Building one human calamity on another. I can weep over the past, but I am responsible for my activity or inactivity, my words of praise, or condemnation for the injustice of the present.

Abd Karim has epilepsy and is mentally unstable, I believe he is schizophrenic, but Gaza has no psychiatric facilities for children under the age of 15. In the evening when I return to the family’s home the boy has disappeared. Sometimes he returns at 1 or 2am. Abu Yousef worries about him and can’t get to sleep until his son is home.

Getting around Gaza

Signpost in former colonies: Firing weapons not allowed

Flowers growing in a former Israeli army guard tower