From Gaza to the Wall

In the the West Bank town of Beit Ummar Palestinians are rather ashamed and disturbed with what is taking place between their brothers in Gaza. Many West Bank residence feel a total disconnect with Gazans, they are separated by Israeli checkpoints and borders that are inaccessible for a majority of Palestinians. These borders have driven a wedge between these two communities that are one people. It is the more obvious of the two examples of Israeli’s strategy of Conquer and Divide being utilized to fragment and divide Palestinians between each other, West Bank from Gaza, Hamas from Fatah, exiles outside of Palestine from Palestinians within.

Abu Louai kept repeating how depressed Palestinians are, there is so little hope, such a bleak outlook for the future, he told me, "compared to Gaza at least here in Beit Ummar we have work." In Om Salamona near Beit Ummar ongoing efforts are taking place to demonstrate the building of the wall there. Just this week I understood why Palestinians are calling this the third Nakba, catastrophe, because it is the third time that their land is being annexed by Israel. First in 1948, then 1967 and today its ongoing. In Om Salamona land is being lost yesterday, today and tomorrow as the Israeli bulldozers build on land that is not theirs, in order to wall off further land that is not theirs. And all our friendly Western institutions sit by writing reports that have no teeth says Amira Hass an Israeli journalist living in Ramallah.

“In 2002, following the release of a report on the impact of Israel's closure policy, the previous World Bank representative in the occupied territories, Nigel Roberts, praised the Palestinian society's endurance and suggested that any Western society would have collapsed had it undergone an economic disaster similar to that experienced in the territories. Today, five years after that report's warnings and pleas, Palestinian society's collapse is more worrying than ever - primarily in the Gaza Strip and Nablus, which not coincidentally are the areas facing the harshest Israeli siege.”

“And why should Israel take into consideration the warnings of the World Bank when they have no teeth? The Western countries chose to punish the occupied with very concrete means - but not the occupier, which it sees as part of their Enlightened Civilization. They thus signal to Israel that it may adhere to the same policies whose impact the reports are warning against.”

In Gaza, Israel is imposing economic subjection is an unseen enemy, far away. In Om Salamona, a village just south of Bethlehem, the bulldozers are there in sight, the soldiers stand by their side as more and more land is unjustly confiscated from Palestinians. Here, the villagers are doing something about it, using non-violence.

On Friday Palestinian villagers, international and Israeli activists demonstrated the route of the wall, which runs right through Palestinian land. The army showed up en masse in opposition to any public efforts of disapproval of Israeli policies.

On Saturday a small field of a Palestinian family was planted with olive trees, where trees had been cut down by the Israeli army. The army again appeared, took lots of pictures, surrounded the activists and farmers and then disappeared. Later piles of stones and dirt were removed from a small road that leads to a farmers land. The Israeli army had blocked it preventing the farmer from cultivating his land; another form of collective punishment.

Unless the world speaks out, this will be the course of the wall around the town and villages of Bethlehem.

Burning buildings in Gaza City

Earlier today a building a few minute from my place was taken by Hamas militants. A neighboring building was occupied by Fatah forces and fire was exchanged throughout the day. Eventually the building occupied by Hamas was surrounded by Fatah forces, the Hamas members inside have now set it on fire. Hamas has reportedly occupied other buildings in a Fatah dominated area of Gaza City.



My friend Abu Wa'al and his family have had to leave their home and are sleeping in the school he works at because armed militants are squatting on the roof of their building.

The Aljazeera office in Gaza City is under fire with 30 journalists locked inside it.

Qassams struck Sderot close to the home of Israeli Minister of Defense Amir Peretz and Israel has vowed to retaliate appropriately.

Eeports have been heard that when Israel bombed Hamas headquarters in Rafah, where factional inter-fighting has not yet reached, Fatah members came to their rescue and pulled them out from beneath the rubble.

Hamas has announced a cease-fire to begin at 8pm.

Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president has called all parties to hold their fire.

Israeli attack on Rafah Hamas headquarters

This report from AP just minutes ago..

"GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli aircraft fired missiles at the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Wednesday, Palestinian officials and the Israeli army said, and Hamas confirmed that one of its security buildings was hit in the strike.

Palestinian rescue officials said several people were buried under rubble after the strike but that their condition was not immediately known. A photographer at the scene said there appeared to be dead.

The Israeli army confirmed its aircraft had fired on southern Gaza, but did not give details. Palestinian security officials said at least three missiles were fired from an Israeli helicopter."

Is Israel choosing sides and sending in reinforcements to cover Fatah? Is Israel trying to spread to chaos from Gaza City to the rest of the Gaza Strip where there has been relative quiet?

First reports coming out now are saying that at least five are left dead and many severely injured.

Erin Brokovich in Gaza

I woke up just before 6am today. The shooting doesn’t usually wake me, but the past two days it has been of a different nature. I looked outside only to see two guards ducking for cover, I decided to try and get some more sleep. Yesterday 16 people died, 60 were injured. In the evening, when things seemed quieter I ventured downstairs with Mohamed to the little “park” next to our building. The trees and flowers were planted there just 2 weeks ago. Abu Raed told his boys to water the plants even though they had been watered the day before because “we don’t know when we will be able to water them again.”

Yousef, a close friend of Zakaris’ was among the dead yesterday. I had bought some of my favorite Egyptian cheese from Yousef a few months ago in Rafah. He was part of reinforcements that were ambushed as they arrived on the scene of 200 National Security forces that were under attack by Hamas. Zakari had no words to share on the phone, neither did I.

Earlier in the evening Mohamed and I witnessed an attempted attack on the presidential headquarters by gunmen on boats. The coast was beautifully lined with fishing boats on the horizon and suddenly we heard gunfire and red flares filled the sky. Just hours earlier I saw Fatah men playing volleyball on a makeshift volleyball net. Somehow sports and warfare seemed to be compatible. Over his radio Mohamed heard that a Fatah man had been picked up on his was to the Shifa hospital, killed and left on a street in front of a popular restaurant. Despair filled his face. He turned off the radio and we watched ‘Erin Brokovich’. Somehow the statement Julie Roberts makes at the end of the film that money could buy anything one ever needed rang hollow. Money won’t buy security here; bringing justice to the historical events that have created this conflict is the only thing that will bring about change.

After dinner Mohamed told me he thought he had a sleeping sickness. He was tired all day. He had slept till 11am, then took a nap from 1 to 4:30 and by 11 was tired again. I believe Mohamed is depressed, because hope is missing. He will never forget the memory of his nephews being murdered in December. Mohamed is continually dreaming of a life elsewhere, outside of these walls, beyond this place he is supposed to call home. He has only lived here for the past five years, like so many others he has grown up in a whole slew of countries, Yemen, Syria, Tunisa, Libya and Egypt. He doesn’t feel at home here, he doesn’t belong anywhere. Beyond all the TV headlines, beyond all the fighting yesterday, this is what the nakba, the catastrophe of displacement is really about.

In Gaza adding Castrophe to Catastrophe

The streets are closed this morning still. Reportedly another truce was formed last night, but things remain as they are, this morning the house of Rami's brother was attacked with RPGs. I believe no one was harmed. Rami just came back from Cairo where he was in a car accident and had to have surgery. Now he has returned to this chaos, this hell where Palestinians are fighting each other rather than recalling the events of the nakba, the catastrophe that took place 59 years ago today when over 200,000 Palestinians were exiled to this place called the Gaza Strip. Ali Abunimah quotes Israeli historian Benny Morris, "the Jewish state would not have come into existence without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians. Therefore it was necessary to uproot them… There are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing." Today Gaza is reaping the consequences of this “necessary” ethnic cleansing.

The only time I left home yesterday was to go to my favorite fruit store just down the street. The place was closed first the time in the course of the two years that I have been here. Three soldiers sat on the sidewalk in front of the sealed store. The kids in my building seemed to be loving the traffic standstill, all around my building they are playing football, using the roadblocks as goals, the guards are their spectators, no doubt tempted to lay down their guns and join in the game.

Earlier that day the Minister of Interior had resigned. This one man was the glue that held together a very shaky unity government. In a press conference he explained, "I cannot agree to be a minister without jurisdiction since we need deeds rather than words." During his time in the post he complained that neither Fateh nor Hamas gave him the jurisdiction he needed in order to control the rival factions on the streets. This Interior Minister was a figurehead.

The invisible hand stirring this pot of anarchy in Gaza is a vague entity called the “International Community.” With the USA at the forefront they have been trying to suffocate Hamas ever since they won a majority of parliament seats in democratic elections early last year. Over the course of Hamas’ tenure in government international aid has not been blocked but actually increased, with just one minor clause… that the aid be limited for humanitarian use. Thus 80% of Gazans survive from such handouts but are left without jobs and totally unempowered to provide their families with a livelihood. The donated money cannot be used to build a house, to create a job, to fix a street or to repair a sewage pipe or improve water facilities, but food can be carted into this prison and distributed to unemployed fathers and their children. What were to happen if this aid stopped flowing? Palestinians would actual go hungry, then we would see people starve, but the invisible hand won’t allow for that, because it would force the “International Community” to actually search for viable solutions to the crisis that has been brewing in the Gaza Strip since May 15th 1948.

Meanwhile, since their election loss the US has financed Fatah to train their military. Fatah party members have been recruited all across the Gaza Strip for intensive training in Gaza to prepare them for further training abroad.

Friday night my friends Jamal and Ibrahim came over to play cards. They are from Beit Lehya in the North of the Gaza Strip. That week Fatah had summoned Jamal for 45 days of intensive closed training starting Sunday, in exchange for 600 shekels, $150. Jamal told me a friend of his would get him excused from the training; he has no interest in participating in any military activities in Gaza. Ibrahim’s cousin is being trained in Russia; another cousin is about to return from Yemen after basic military training there. Over the past week heavy activity has been sighted at a number of Hamas training locations in Gaza. Funds reportedly are received from Iran and other donors.

The Gaza Strip has become the playground for world bullies to play out their differences.

It seems that since February when the Mecca Agreement brought about a unity government both Hamas and Fatah have taken this time of relative calm to build up their military wings. It took the two parties five weeks to agree on one man to play the mediating role of Interior Minister. Hani Al-Qawasmi was suggested by Hamas and approved of by Mahmoud Abbas’s office but he was a straw man with little if any authority from either party. Yesterday he finally threw in his cards and it seems the whole house of cards is collapsing in his wake.

This morning a Hamas man was killed. Later in the five Fatah National security members were reported dead after their convoy was ambushed. Two men that escaped were killed by the Israeli army at the border. 450 Fatah fighters entered Gaza today where they were training in Egypt. After not being able to leave his house this morning Dr Attalah has spent some hours in the hospital and now is returning home to be with his family. The shifa hospital where he works is desperately calling for people to donate blood. The area surrounding my friend Abu Ghassan’s house in Jabalya has been declared a Hamas territory; the block I love on is a Fatah stronghold.

Today, on the 59th memorial day of the Palestinian Nakba, catastrophe is being added to catastrophe.

Arundhati Roy on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

This is a 9 minute clip from the film "We." featuring Arundhati Roy. The title seeks to counter the western world war-cry of 'There is no you, there is only me'.

Watch the full length film.

What are you going to to do with this information?

Gaza, Calm before the Storm

This must be what they call the calm before the storm.

By 7pm all the main street intersections in Gaza city were filled with guards wearing face masks. It seems every time a new security plan is declared in Gaza the situation gets worse. This morning my friend Jamal greeted his neighbor Baha' Abu Jarad as he left his home for a days work, ten minutes later Baha’ was dead. Jamal, shaken up, informed me of the incident over the phone, while trying to hold back tears.


This morning I spent with the Sisters of Charity at their shelter for disabled children in downtown Gaza City. One boy, Abbas, can’t stop smiling, always active and excited about something unknown to me.


When I first started going to the shelter a boy called Na’el, with a consistent look of fear in his eyes, would hold on to me not wanting to let me go. Sister Delphina told me that was the first time since he had arrived at the home that he had allowed a male to hold him. Na’el is deaf and she assumed he had been abused by his father before he was dropped off at their shelter. Na’el can walk but he has to be holding on to something, either a person’s hand or a table, door or his little wheeled chair. So today sister Dolphina and I tried to get him to walk on his own because I am sure he can, he just doesn’t trust himself. As soon as I would try to let go of his hand to let him walk alone his face would fill with an immense expression of fear.

Today Gaza is filled fear. A fear that the economic crisis that affects everyone might overtake them. A fear that one day this seemingly unending hunt for a donation, for charity might leave one empty-handed. And a fear of the looming internal chaos in light of this shaky economic state of being.

The different atmosphere one senses in the Gaza Strip compared to the sister's home must have something to do with either place's warden. The Sisters of Charity live out an undying love and concern for the children in their care; Israel, legally responsible for a people they occupy, has thrown away the keys to a piece of land they would rather forget about.

One day soon Na’el will walk on his own.

I trust that one day Gazans will live the life of peace they so long to live, free of the closure, the embargo and the prison walls surrounding them today.

Photo Exhibition: 40 Years of Occupation

An exhibition curated by Israeli activists ActiveStills. In their own words:
"The territories occupied by Israel in 1967 multiplied its territory by three and was seen as the greatest success Israel could hope for. Is it truly a victory ? who are those who still pay the price for it? As victory celebrations are held in Israel the only narrative is that of the greatness and heroism of the state. While in fact settlements continue to expand on Palestinian land who's owners have been expelled, millions of people live in a reality of imprisonment, oppression, dispossession humiliation and denial of basic human rights. That reality is a mirror to Israeli society, an image it refuses to see. Those are the achievements of the war."

Go directly to Gaza: Hostages

Gaza, Robbed Love

Today I moved around Gaza City from meeting to meeting. On the streets movement was limited, as it is Thursday and at least for schools and government institutions the Hamas government has added Thursday to Friday to make for an unprecedented two-day weekend in the Gaza Strip.

This morning once again a new security plan was reportedly taking effect. One taxi driver told me the success of the plan would be seen only after 10pm tonight. I caught a hint of cynicism in his voice. If the lawlessness can be retained after dark then there might be some truth to this new “plan,” or else it would prove to be talk like the last one. Another driver told me, “I see no change, what security plan?” And yet another explained to me that the real issue was an economic one, as long as there are no jobs, there are no opportunities for the future, nothing, no matter what sort of plan is developed, would ever change anything.

The streets once again are littered with garbage as the municipality employees are on strike. Just two weeks ago the same garbage piles were littering the street, just higher, but I was told, since the workers never received what they were promised. They are now striking again. The stench of burnt waste fills the air.


Every taxi I entered today was old and worn, and somehow represented something of the state of the soul of this place and its people. One car had a metal bar welded behind the two front seats, I imagine, to keep them up. The owner of a car, which had the steering wheel held together with tape told me at night cars older than his were being stolen and still they say they are implementing security. Hopelessness could be heard in every word spoken to me; someone pointed out that still no one really knew where the British journalist was, is this the way we treat guests, he asked. In one vehicle there was talk about the owner of a shoe shop being kidnapped, when ransom was paid for him, the perpetrators took his brother and demanded further ransom.

In Gaza, these stories are told like the weather or sports is discussed in other places.

And the sense one gets is that it is inevitable that this society will implode like it did early on this year. How to reduce the hate for the murderer of your brother, how to suppress the anger one feel towards one’s government, towards the perpetrators of crimes, towards one’s occupiers? Israel’s policy of conquer and divide is succeeding. And the world is not listening and the misery, the frustration, the unemployment, the endless cycle of despair and the search for an ordinary life goes on. I have to confess that somehow all this is beginning to rob me of my love for this place.

Demands for Alan Johnston reported

It seems there is word about Alan Johnston.

The BBC is testing the tape that was sent to Aljazeera in Gaza. In the video demands are made for the release of Abu Qatana, a Palestinian held in a UK prison. It shows Johnston's BBC ID and pictures of Abu Qatana. This is the first demand of such a political nature made for a foreigner kidnapped in Gaza.

Let us hope that Alan's release is near.