By Sharon in Gaza
To view Sharon’s blog please click here
I’ve been asked to send some messages to a couple of the worldwide rallies on Saturday (yay!), and decided that I would much prefer to let Palestinians speak for themselves, especially some of the 50% of Gaza’s population who are under 18 years old. (If you can only remember one statistic, that’s the one you want.) I slept last night in a sea of blankets with the Kabariti girls, and thank goodness, there were less attacks on the port than the night before and they could get a little sleep. They have provided me with very neatly written messages to you, which I promised would be on this page before their bedtime. So here you go:
From Suzanne, 15 (in English):
“The life in Gaza is very difficult. Actually we can’t describe everything. We can’t sleep, we can’t go to school and study. We feel a lot of feelings, sometimes we feel afraid and worry because the planes and the ships, they hit 24 hours. Sometimes we feel bored because there is no electricity during the day, and in the night, it is coming just four hours and when it comes we are watching the news on TV. And we see kids and women who are injured and dead. So we live in the siege and war.”
From Fatma, 13 (in English):
“It was the hardest week in our life. In the first day we were in school, having the final exam of the first term, then the explosions started, many students were killed and injured, and the others surely lost a relative or a neighbour. There is no electricity, no food, no bread. What can we do – it’s the Israelis! All the people in the world celebrated the new year, we also celebrate but in a different way.”
From Sara, 11 (in Arabic, translated by Habeeb, 18):
“Gaza is living in a siege, like a big jail: no water, no electric power. People feel afraid, don’t sleep at night, and every day more people are killed. Until now, more than 400 are killed and more than 2000 injured. And students had their final first term exams, so Israel hit the Ministry of Education, and a lot of ministries. Every day people are asking when will it end, and they are waiting for more activist ships like the Dignity.”
From Darween, 8 (in English):
“I am a Palestinian kid
I won’t leave my country
so I will have lots of advantages
because I won’t leave my country
and I hear a sound of rockets
so I won’t leave my country.”
Meriam is four. Her siblings asked her, “what do you feel when you hear the rockets?” And she said, “I feel afraid!”