Category: Journals - Page 69 - International Solidarity Movement

Interviews with Palestinian women activists in honor of International Women’s Day

08 March 2011 | Ramona M. And Cicarre Parrhesia

Tuesday marks International Women’s Day, a global celebration of women. In Palestine, rallies and conferences were organized to celebrate this day. These provided a chance and space to reflect on the achievement of Palestinian women, and the many steps still needed to attain full equality with men.

To commemorate this special occasion, we have interviewed two Palestinian women representing different women’s organizations engaging in extraordinary work aimed at achieving gender equality.

The first interview is with Rania Khayyat, the head of public relations for the Rural Women’s Development Society (RWDS). RWDS, which was formed in 1987, aims at empowering Palestinian women in rural areas by supporting and creating local women’s clubs. The club’s purpose is to give women space to develop themselves in order to attain more representation in all aspects of Palestinian society, including social, political and economic spheres. According to RWDS, the clubs “are committeed to the principles of equality, equity and civil society values.” RWDS has established 65 women’s clubs, with more than 4,300 members. For more information, visit the RWDS website.

The second interview is with Hitam Saafin, the Chair of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), which was founded in 1980. UPWC’s aim is to empower Palestinian women, while contributing to the Palestinian national struggle against the Israeli occupation. According to its mission statement, UPWC “strives to build a civil democratic progressive community free of all forms of discrimination and respects women rights as part of human rights in general”. UPWC goal is to eradicate all forms of inequities including those between Palestinian women and men as well as those within social classes. For more information, visit UPWC’s website

First interview: Rania Khayyat (RWDS)

Ramona M.: Why was it necessary to create separate clubs for women?

Rania Khayyat: Actually women have a special situation because they are responsible for the family. They are the ones that [connect] the whole family, they are the ones that [are in charge of] the children, and the house and so on.

We found that they are suffering from being marginalized. They spend their whole time at home. When they do something, it’s not visible, nobody knows that they are doing anything.

Also they have a very good role in the Palestinian struggle and supporting their families, and…in agricultural farming, and so on, so they had a very good role. But nobody highlighted it.
So we said that we can form clubs for women where they can spend some time out of the home, to develop themselves and find themselves. To receive some projects, training, participate in some activities. And then to be empowered, so they can have a good and positive role in their communities.

Now our women’s clubs they have a very good role and impact in the local council. They have an opinion, and they support, participate in planning and so on. This was our objective.

R.M: Before the clubs were formed, did you not see women getting involved in local politics?

R.K: At the beginning no. At the beginning people were very against us, they used to throw stones sometimes because we would come and [start to] talk to their wives, and they did not want us to interfere with their lives. They wanted their wives to be at home and not go to the clubs. But after that the family found how their wives and women developed. They became better in educating their children, even in knowing nutrition facts about their food, and many things, even in farming. They did some economic projects where they contributed to the economic situation of the family. So it was a very positive impact. Now we don’t have any objections [to] women being in the women’s clubs. On the contrary, now they support us.

R.M: So forming the clubs is a way to empower women. What other steps does your organization take to empower women?

R.K: We work on political empowerment, economical empowerment, through grants and income generation projects. Vocational training and so on. Through cultural activities, something about health, about social activities and so on. So this way women can go out of their homes, get some information, participate in some activities so that they have better knowledge and better contribution in their families and they will have better decision making in their families and after that in their local councils.

Now we 26 local council members from our women clubs. And this is a very good sign that they are very well empowered, they were able to go and be in a decision making position in their communities and villages.

R.M: How does the situation for women living in rural Palestine differ from women living in urban areas?

R.K: Actually in our women clubs we try to target marginalized areas, where women never get any services. In the cities there are a lot of services, women can reach a lot of services and many activities they can join. On the contrary in the rural areas, they don’t have anything. So that’s why there was the idea to target rural areas.

About the difference, we found from our experience that rural women are really strong. Because in the cities sometimes they are a little bit, how to say, controlled maybe. They don’t have this leading role in their families like the rural women. Because in the rural areas, all the family has a role in the house, in all the activites. In the cities you find that the man [is leading], the man has more control than in the rural areas.

R.M: So in the rural areas the man is not as controlling?

R.K: He is but since it’s a rural area they depend on agriculture. If you go to the farm you find the father, mother and children working. So they all contribute in income generation. But if you go to the city, you will find that the man is going to his work, coming back finding everything done by his wife at home. So the [responsibility] inside the home is only for the woman, and the responsibility for income generation is only for men.

R.M: Do women take part in the agricultural activities in the village?

R.K: Yeah, women participate in all agricultural activities: cropping, harvesting, and all things. But the problem is that we don’t have any formal statistics about women’s contribution in agricultural activities. Because when you [ask], “who [works] the land?” the man or the head of the family says, “yes it’s me” while all the effort of the woman is not documented.

R.M: Does education in Palestinian schools play a role in creating gender stereotypes?

R.K: Yes in a way we have it. Maybe recently you can see an improvement in the curricula at school. But you still find it in the houses. Like the boy when he is 4 years, he’s (considered) a man, he should play different games than his sister. When they are 10 years, the sister has to wash up and clean the house and he’s not responsible because he’s the man. She has to bring him water when he wants because he’s the man and so on. This is house education, and [this leads to] a separation of roles.

R.M: How do you change these social norms?

R.K: We believe that this can be changed through economical empowerment. Because if you have the economy you have power. So when a woman has an income generation project and she’s generating money for the family, all the family has to help her so she has a good position. All has to have a role, okay so they will all work on the project and they will all work at home because they have to have the work all done.

And it starts with the husband because many of the men here in Palestine are unemployed so when their wife has a project they work with her in order to help the family. So [the children] find that their father is working just like their mother, so you can melt all the role separation in a way. But I don’t want to tell you its 100%, it’s not easy. I don’t want to tell you that when a woman has a project she’s the boss at home, no. Or she stops washing the dishes, no, it’s not this way.

Even in the cities, for me I work and I still clean [the] home. My husband, he helps me but it’s not his duty, he’s like an assistant.

R.M: Statistics show that a high percentage of married women suffer from psychological, physical and sexual violence. What is your organization doing to tackle this problem?

R.K: We are tackling it in different ways, we are having workshops in our women’s clubs in order to increase their awareness about that in order to get them protection techniques, repairing system, how to go to the specialized centers, legal, social when they feel abused.

We are working also with men. We have already targeted local council members, which are men and decision makers in their communities and we increased awareness about violence against women and domestic violence. We were really surprised by some of the results because in many workshops men admitted it was the first time they know that many of the actions they do daily are harmful for women, and are considered as violence and that they harm others when they do it. They said it’s good to know, maybe we don’t understand the [others perspectives], we are educated in a way.

We produced many leaflets and caricatures about violence against women, about some actions in our daily lives and in society. Also we produced a very good theatre performance, it was 25 minutes, it was very good it had a lot of success. It talked about the whole family, and how [violence] happens and how at the end the wife was very abused and she called a center in order to help her get rid of her problems at home.

R.M: What are the factors that lead to violence against women?

R.K: All bad conditions lead to violence. Occupation leads to violence, because you receive violence and you want to transfer this violence from yourself to others. When you are at a checkpoint and a soldier [mistreats you] you find that you are abused and you want to transfer this, you want to feel like a man again. So you give all this violence to your wife, family or children.

The unemployment leads to violence, bad economic situation leads to violence, land confiscation leads to violence. Many conditions. And in the Palestinian society we are really suffering from this. Political instability [causes] violence. And maybe the education, the home education. When you see your father abusing your mother then you will abuse your wife, you will learn it.

Second interview: Hitam Saafin (UPWC)

Ramona M: What does International Women’s Day mean for Palestinian women?

Hitam Saafin: International Women’s Day for Palestinian women this year means a lot of struggle, a lot of power that must be gained for Palestinian women because we are facing, as Palestinian women, two kinds of oppression.

First due to the occupation and its strategy and policies which affect all of our people in Palestine and in the diaspora, and in the second line we are facing the social oppression due [to] our traditional society.

Palestinian women [have] to struggle [against] two lines while most women around the world are struggling in their societies while they have their independent states.

R.M: What are the causes of Palestinian women’s oppression?

H.S: For us, as the UPWC, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, we believe that the main reason for the oppression against woman in the internal society is due [to] the traditional system in the Palestinian society and due to the financial situation that is based on the kind of capitalism which doesn’t give poor people, and the marginalized classes in the society, the same opportunity [as] the capitalists in the society.

When we are talking about the Palestinian population we are talking about many kinds of oppression that may raise in some areas, but not other areas due to the differences in the financial and social societies that the Palestinians live in.

For example, [we] see that some problems occur in Gaza, they are weaker in the West Bank and some problems may occur in the refugee camps that we don’t have in the villages, but in general the traditional society gives the woman the [secondary role] in the society, [so] she must follow the males mainly in the society.

In this item, we try to raise our power within our population and to be active in the whole of our population so we can gain power through our struggle for the general. In the second step, we are asking for our equality within every area [of] our population for free laws for women, for equal chances for women, and for laws that prevent any kind of oppression or discrimination against us as women.

R.M: Are there currently any Palestinian laws that protect women from discrimination?

H.S: For the Palestinian society we have the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) and the Palestinian Authority. In the PLO there was no discussion for the social items. It is related to the national struggle, which is right, as the PLO is a liberation movement. [Secondly], we are talking about the situation of women in the PA. We tried to make certain changes in some laws but [currently] the legislative council is not working due to the internal division and due to the occupation itself.

We are preparing [laws] and we are participating with other branches of women’s movements in preparing proposals for [changing laws] and mostly we are waiting for an active legislative council.

We are talking about the family law, the punishment law, and labor law. In the family law, we are talking about the rights of women to be equal in many decisions. For example, the divorce right is mainly for the male. The multi-marriage for the men, the polygamy, we are trying to make it more hard for men. We are trying to raise the age of marriage because it is, in the West Bank, 15 years [old], and in the Gaza Strip it is under 15. We are trying [to make] the age of marriage 18 [years old].

We are talking about the right of women to marry themselves, because in the Palestinian law the woman must have the decision [made by] a male in her family. Her father, her brother, or [an] uncle, if they are not there. These are the main [changes] in the family law that we are asking for.

For the punishment law, we have a very big problem [with regards to] the honour killings, which gives [a] small sentence [to] the male who kills the female under the honor excuse. That makes many crimes against women go on through the society under the honor killing excuse.

R.M: Are there any laws on the books at the moment that protect women from discrimination?

H.S: No, until now no because we don’t have an active legislative council to discuss these issues. And you know the percentage of Hamas in the last legislative council was very high, so from the beginning they claim that they are not talking about extreme civil laws, they are trying to make it only sharia laws.

Because of that we are looking for new elections in the Palestinian population that give us more opportunity to make anti-discrimination laws.

R.M: Since Hamas was elected in Gaza, has the situation for women deteriorated?

H.S: Yes, what they are practicing on the ground they are making more and more problems for the women in their daily lives and they are working through the community itself to make the woman not able to work in some jobs, to be free to chose [what to wear] and many things like that.

R.S: Does religion play a role in oppressing women?

H.S: We are not against religion but [at] the same time we are talking about religion and individual choice and [religion] mustn’t be the only base of laws for the Palestinian society. We are looking for a secular community.

R.M: Besides implementing new laws that protect women what is your organization doing to improve women’s situation in Palestine?

H.S: We believe in collective empowerment, through working in committees, etc. We believe that women can support each other in their groups. They can work as groups more than individual work. You know, [the] movement for change needs individual work. The empowerment for women is through participating in collective work that they can plan, evaluate and achieve their goals.

R.M: Statistics show that violence against married Palestinian women is quite prevalent. 61.7% report that they experience psychological violence from their husband, while 23.3% report physical violence and 10.9% experience sexual violence. What is your organization doing to counteract this problem?

H.S: We are, of course, aware about these high percentages and we are following up, and we are cooperating with specialized centers and organizations for this. We are working [at] the mass based level. And we are tackling this item by many things.

First how to work to [raise] polices and to avoid these problems and to reduce the percentage of violence against women, and that means lobbying and media activities.

The second thing is how to [put] pressure on the decision makers to change the system which deals with these problems because we have another problematic issue in the law that in some cases the woman can’t go to the police [herself] and claim against the violence especially if it is within the family and this is a very big problem for us.

[With] certain problems we face daily we may deal with it if the woman has this problem or the family or turn it to a more specialized institute to deal with it in the real way.

R.M: How has the role of Palestinian women changed since the founding of UPWC?

H.S: In the Palestinian society there were some changes in the interests of women. For example some jobs they were prevented for women but now they are working [in them]. The percentage of women who are educated are now more than the beginning of our organization. [It is more acceptable] that a woman is a leader, or a parliament member, or a legislative council member. So there are some changes towards the interests of women but they aren’t enough. And we have to make these changes permanent.

R.M: Does education in Palestinian schools play a role in enforcing gender stereotypes and if so what is your organization doing to change the situation?

H.S: Our educational awareness work [is] targeting the whole society especially the young ages and especially we are trying to make a kind of democratic learning besides the official education in Palestine, and you know the official education in Palestine first was under the military occupation and now under the Oslo Agreement conditions. And that raises many problems especially in the national situation. In our public educational work programs we try to make a kind of learning outside of the schools about the reality of Palestinian history and the reality of women’s rights. And that makes us, working as a movement, change the stereotypes [about] Palestinian women.

Inspired by Egypt, young Palestinians lead movement to end division

Vittorio Arrigoni

Translation by Daniela Loffreda.

The mighty flow of blood and hope from Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrein, Algeria and Lybia has also washed over young Palestinian minds in Gaza. What started as a stream has become a torrent and will soon spill its banks. Palestine’s 25 January will be 15 March. Palestinians are working hard to mobilize thousands of people to the squares of Ramallah and Gaza on the day which has been named “The Day of Reconciliation” rather than “The Day of Anger”.

The lessons learned from the Egyptian Revolution have refreshed the pride of young Gazawi as Muslims and Christians from various social classes were able to drive out a powerful dictator who seemed to be nailed to his throne. They are ready to explode into a strong and rational demand for the “End of Division,” ie the end of the division between Fatah and Hamas.

“We chose the 15 March because for us Palestinians, it is a day without political significance or special celebrations. The basis for our popular initiative is absolutely non political and independent from all political factions. We do not accept groups that even remotely identify with any party”, says 22 year old Assad.

When I met up with Assad Saftawy, Shamallakh Mohammed, and Mohammed Al Sheikh at the Coffee Gallery in downtown Gaza City, the tension was so high, one could cut it with a knife. Shortly before I had arrived, the boys got an unwelcome visit from undercover Hamas police who seized their computers and cell phones.

“Why are Hamas so afraid of you?” I ask them.

“Although we have been clear from the very beginning that our intentions are for a call to heal the fracture between Ramallah and Gaza due to so much suffering, apparently they suspect that there is someone among us who is connected to “The Revolution of Honor”, Fatah’s day of anger initiated a few weeks ago but deserted by people in droves. Besides this, all Arab leaders fear the spontaneous demonstrations of young people. “The funny thing is that senior government officials here, such as the deputy of Hamas’ Ahmed Yousef, declared publicly that he was in support of our initiative”, said 22 year old Mohammed Al Sheikh.

Anyone wishing to join the initiative for the movement on 15 March may have to contend with explicit threats from either the mukabarat in their dark uniforms or maybe a raid in a crowded coffee house by undercover Hamas security forces like the one today. The politics of double games wear two kinds of suits.

“Do you think they have the same problems even in Ramallah?” I ask.

24 year old Mohammed Shamallakh responds: “Of course. And like us, they too are willing to go to jail. We will not hide. Feel free to write our real names. In front of the tv cameras politicians pay lip service to all their good intentions regarding a possible reconciliation, but we know that in reality, they are enjoying many privileges in this stalemate. Young people are tired of being at their windows, watching life pass before their very eyes. Because of the feud between Hamas and Fatah, I have lost three scholarships, the opportunity to travel, work and create a family. Every day that passes is like a year and I do not want to begin living at 40 or 50 years of age. If our leaders are so short-sighted as to not have control of the situation, understand the needs of the people, then on 15 March we will show them that it’s time to put aside internal disagreements and work together in order to end the siege and occupation “.

Not only are large numbers of youths expected to mobilize from the center of Gaza City and Manara Square in Ramallah, but also Palestinians in Israel, various European cities and the world are ready to hit the streets.

“We need all the international support we can get so that it doesn’t get repressed by police violence and we can accomplish our goals to have an event as significant as we want it to be, for the good of all Palestinians”, continues Mohammed. “The difference between us and our Tunisian and Egyptians brothers is that we don’t want to break a system, but rather sew it back together. Then new elections can take place and the PLO could be reconstructed with the presence of Hamas. In this way there could be better salaries, improved living conditions and less unemployment. We will be able to get back that freedom of expression and civil rights which are now being smothered by both Fatah and Hamas.”

I bring to Mohammed’s attention the problem of external interference in the choice of Palestinian leadership and the recent scandals brought to light by the publishing of the cables by Al Jazeera which show the close collaboration of PLO leasdership and Israel.

“If we can be as smart as the guys who taught us how to move in Tahrir square, whoever governs us will have no choice. And this is our intention, nail Hamas and Fatah into a corner and force them to have real dialogue, to work for the people and against the Israeli occupation. The 6 million refugees outside of Palestine implore them as well.”

I asked them what they recalled from 14 June, 2007, the bloody day in Gaza when Palestinians slaughtered Palestinians without any mercy at all.

Their enthusiastic faces suddenly became bleak. Even though through the years, each of these three boys had lost friends and relatives at the hands of the Israelis, they all agreed in saying that day was the saddest day in recent Palestinian history.

“There were snipers and gunfire everywhere throughout the Gaza Strip. It was impossible to distinguish who was killing whom. Since then, our future has certainly been dead” says Assad Saftawy anguishly.

Before offering them a shisha, I ask them about how their parents took to the initiative.

Mohammed Shamallakh: “My father advised me to give up on the idea. You must know that I suffer from a particular situation: in Ramallah they are convinced that I am a militant from Hamas. In Gaza, that I belong to Fatah. But I do not side with one or the other and the initiative of 15 March will not be manipulated by anyone. We are only asking in a loud and strong voice for the end of the divisions”.

Assad: “I’m slowly convincing my father, in the meantime my brothers and my sisters have already sided with me”.

Mohammed Al Sheikh: “My father is already with us and has promised to attend the event. And he will not be alone, my mother will also come. The problem is that I suspect they want to participate so that they can defend me! ”

As the smoke rises from the arghile and begins to brood over our heads, I get the distinct feeling that Mohammed’s parents are probably not wrong.

Vittorio Arrigoni has lived in Gaza City since 2008. A freelance journalist, peace activist and Italian member of the ISM (International Solidarity Movement), He writes predominately for the newspaper Il Manifesto. He is the author of Gaza Stay Human (Gaza. Restiamo umani) and blogs at: http://guerrillaradio.iobloggo.com.

Three killed in Gaza buffer zone

22 February 2011 | ISM Gaza

Ashraf Abdellatif Iqtifan was born in Gaza City in 1980. He grew up surrounded by five brothers, two sisters, and everyday violence. When Ashraf was eleven years old, his 14-year-old brother Rami, who on his slightly yellowed photo smiles cheekily and brightly into the camera, threw a stone at an Israeli soldier whilst Gaza was occupied by Israel. A soldier standing next to them saw this, he took his gun and shot Rami between the eyes, the bullet got stuck in the brain. The brain-dead boy was brought to Israel, the family got him back cut open, all organs – even his eyes – were missing. The parents went to court and won. The soldier who had shot Rami, was sentenced for manslaughter of a child to 15 days of prison. Yes, days. He was also demoted two ranks.

But in spite of everything, Ashraf dreamed of a better life in Israel. When he was 19 years old and Gaza was not yet a jail, he managed to escape. He went to Tel Aviv and began to work as a dishwasher. His salary may not have been high, but it was enough to feed his entire family in Gaza; after the blockade none of them have work anymore. For 12 years Ashraf lived and worked in Tel Aviv.

But five months ago, the horror from which he had escaped all those years came back to him. He was stopped by the police, and when looking into his passport, they noted that he was from Gaza. Shortly afterwards Ashraf was back in his hometown. But the joy of reunion lasted only very briefly. Ashraf found his family in poor living conditions, and now absolutely no money came from outside, no one had work anymore. He began to accompany two young men from the extended family, Fathi Jihad Khalaf, 21, and Ar-Tal’at Ruwagh, 25, by collecting stones, so that at least some money came in. They went every day into the area of a former Israeli settlement in northern Gaza, near the border with Israel.

But the missing money and the related concern of no longer being able to care for his family was not the only thing that made Ashraf so desperate. Every day he looked across to the country that had been his home for many years, where his work was, his flat, his friends, his life. “No, Ashraf was not married,” says his father, “that wouldn’t have been possible. I have to approve the marriage, and the whole family must be present at the celebration”. He had begun to plan a marriage for his son, he suggested possible partners. But each time Ashraf refused with some excuse or changed the subject. Maybe after so many years, he deviated a bit from his tradition. Perhaps contrary to father’s firm conviction a girlfriend did wait for him in Israel, who knows, maybe he even had a family there.

And so he developed a plan that was so stupid and naive that you have the urge to shake him and his two friends with whom he was collecting stones, when they hadn’t already paid for this stupidity with their lives.

One can imagine Ashraf raving to his friends about the better life in Israel, about the opportunities they would have there, about the freedom. And these two guys who should have known it better, who were confronted with the violence of the Israeli military in the buffer zone on a daily basis, suddenly believed they knew the area well enough to see an opportunity. These two young men should have known better. They all should have known better.

“Maybe he thought that the soldiers at the border were just as the people with whom he used to work in Tel Aviv, maybe he thought that they wouldn’t immediately shoot him”, his father said quietly.

Whatever Ashraf thought, he wanted to return at any rate. On the night to the 17th of February he and his two new friends set up to their way to the border.

Did they really believe that this would work out? Ashraf perhaps hadn’t realized yet that Gaza had become a high security prison during the long years of his absence. They hadn’t even reached the border when they were fired at – by a nearby gunboat on the water, by a drone from the air and a tank at the border. Half of Arafat’s head was missing when the three bodies could finally be rescued four hours later, around six clock in the morning. No weapons were found, neither on the bodies, nor in the close surroundings.

“I don’t know if he told anyone of his friends in Israel about his plan,” said his father. “He didn’t even tell me that he would try it that night.” The declaration of the Israeli military stated that they “thwarted a terrorist attack”, the men would have been caught, “deploying explosives at the border”. And that’s how the story was probably in the Israeli media. Did Ashraf tell his friends about his plan? Have they read the news? Do they know that he is dead, that Israeli soldiers didn’t prevent a terrorist attack, but killed their friend, who wanted to go back? Ashraf, does that name ring a bell to you, you inhabitants of Tel Aviv? Was he your employee, or the man who washed your dishes in your favorite restaurant, perhaps you’ve seen him on the way out? Was he your friend, partner, perhaps even father? The man who was sitting next to you on the bus, the guy with whom you started a conversation in the long queue at the supermarket? He’s dead. Have you thought of him as you read the news about the last thwarted attack from the terrorists? About three more deaths on the long road to adequate safety? Ashraf was on his way home.

“I only have you to count on.”

24 February 2011 | Vera Macht, ISM Gaza

“I only have you to count on. From now on, my children depend on you.”
This was the desperate call of a man who sees no way out for himself and his children, and we ISM members who came to his phone call, received it in helpless silence. It is not the first time that we have visited this family, and every time we go home more horrified.

The last time we were there was on the 14th July 2010, a day after his wife died; was murdered, there is no other way to say it. Nasser Jabr Abu Said lives in Johr al-Dik, 350 meters away from the border with Israel. On the evening of the 13th July, Nasser’s wife was in the garden with two other women from the family when they were fired at with artillery shells from a nearby tank. They used flechette shells, which explode in the air so that five- to eight-thousand nails shoot out of them, piercing everyone and everything in a cone of 300 by 100 meters. They are also illegal under international law.

Nasser’s wife was not injured, but the Nasser’s sister was wounded in the shoulder, and a third woman, Sanaa Ahmed Abu Said, 26, was wounded in the leg. The family took shelter in the house and called an ambulance, which was unable to approach because it was stopped by machine gun fire from the nearby Israeli soldiers. At this point, the 33 year old wife of Nasser, Nema Abu Said, realized that the youngest of her children, Jaber, was asleep in the garden. As Nema ran outside to bring him to safety, she and her brother-in-law were pierced by the nails of another flechette shell. It took four endless hours before the ambulance finally got the permission to help the family, but by then Nema had died.

When we first visited the family, no one had yet had the heart to explain to Jaber that his mother had died. He kept asking for her while we were there, but how do you explain something like that to a three year old child?

When we went this time, all the children knew only too well what had happened. Nasser explained that he could no longer live in the house because of the almost daily incursions; bombs and shootings have destroyed their damaged psyche and now they wake up every night, screaming from nightmares and having wet the bed. UNRWA rented a tiny apartment for the family – right next to the cemetery where the mother is buried. “I couldn’t get my children away from their mother’s grave. It happened more and more that I suddenly noticed at night that one of the children had gone, and I found them crying in the cemetery, I knew I couldn’t stay there any longer”, Nasser told us.

His alternative is disconcerting. He has pitched a tent, funded by the Red Cross, a few hundred meters away from his old house. The Red Cross also brought three blankets. When Nasser requested more aid he was told that he had already been helped. UNRWA told him that they could not finance a new house. Although they also recognized that the danger was too great to stay in the old house, they said that the old house would first have to be destroyed. Until the house is destroyed, they won’t act.

In this tent, amid the rain of the winter, Nasser now sleeps with his four sons and his daughter, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 10-years-old. They sleep on only two mattresses because he has to burn the old mattresses every few weeks, as every night they are wetted by the children. There is not enough money for new mattresses, for a sufficient amount of blankets, clothes and school uniforms for the children, or for their transportation to school. He doesn’t dare to send them to school before it’s light, which means that they miss two hours of lessons every day. “They urgently need psychological care,” says Nasser quietly; he didn’t know where to start when we asked him what he needed the most. They received psychological care for a short while, and the psychologist diagnosed that they remained mentally in the state which they were in when their mother died. When a few days ago the bombs fell – one of them near the house – the children’s screams woke up their father.

They need the continuous care of their father, but that is not the only thing that prevents him from earning money. Nasser can’t farm his land any more: it was too often flattened; it is situated mainly in the inaccessible buffer zone; and he lacks the resources to be able to start farming the rest of his land. He doesn’t have the money for seeds to plant something. “I would love to plant eggplants again, cabbage and watermelons. Also, sheep would be a big help. But my water system is completely destroyed from the bombs, and I lack the money to rebuild it.”

“I am an old man,” Nasser Abu Said says, 37 years old, “to me it is no longer important, but what about my children? Don’t they have the right to life, the right to grow up in safety and with some joy?”

“From now on, my children depend on you,” this sentence stays in your mind. And so I do what is in my power. I write about it. Nasser’s misery concerns all of us. This wasn’t fate, that wasn’t a natural disaster. A few years ago, Nema and Nasser Abu Said were a happy and content family.

Daily life in Gaza

4 February 2011 | Nathan Stuckey, International Solidarity Movement Gaza

After spending six weeks waiting in Cairo I entered Gaza two weeks ago. I never would have guessed that Egypt would explode so soon after I left. Congratulations to the people of Egypt. The trip from Cairo to the border at Rafah was uneventful; we weren’t stopped at a single military checkpoint. The border was easy, no questions from the Egyptians and the Palestinians only wanted to know where I would be staying, what I would be doing, and how long I would be here. They were very friendly.

Life in Gaza has been a bit surreal so far. On the day I arrived the ISM moved to the new apartments by the harbor. I share a nice two bedroom with a great sun porch with Adie, a British ISMer. The women live upstairs in a rather nicer three bedroom. It is a little strange to live on my own in Palestine, in the past I had always lived with local families. It is in an area with a lot of foreigners. The local stores are relatively well stocked, but everything is quite expensive, so most people really can’t afford to buy anything.

Drones and F16’s can often be heard in the air overhead. Thankfully, since I arrived, there haven’t been any strikes that I know of. Gaza is densely populated but the streets are very quiet. Unemployment is brutally high because of the siege, few imports, and exports are impossible, so you don’t see many cars or people on the street. They don’t have jobs to go to, and they don’t have any money to shop with.

The apartment has a generator, so it took me a few days to realize just how often there is no electricity in Gaza. If you don’t have a generator there is electricity for less than half the day, and you never know when you will have it. As part of the siege on Gaza, Israel limits the amount of electricity supplied to the region, they also bombed Gaza’s power plant during Cast Lead, Israel’s last major assault on Gaza, which further restricts residents from producing their own electricity. Not having electricity when you want it is a real pain; it definitely lowers productivity. Today our landlord came by and said that because the tunnels from Egypt were closed supplies of gas for the generator will be quite limited. No more hot water or refrigerator when the generator is running.

My first task in Gaza was going with Adie to teach the Samouni children English. Many of you have probably heard the story of the Samouni family. During Cast Lead the Israeli army herded the family into a house, and then shelled the house. Ambulances were not permitted to help the wounded. Twenty six members of the Samouni family were killed. You can read a longer account of their story here. The children are really cute and really eager to learn. It really wasn’t until my second visit that I began to notice all that was wrong with the picture. So many of them have missing limbs, disabilities, and massive scars which you don’t immediately notice. Amal, whose name means hope, has recently started failing her classes. She used to be a very good student, but after the massacre she can’t concentrate, she still has shrapnel inside her head. The missing fathers aren’t just away at work, not all of the brothers and sisters you see in family pictures are with us today.

Later that week I visited a family in Khuzzaa. Our guide was a 21 year old university student named Shathem. Her father was recently kidnapped by Israel during an incursion. She lives at home with her mother and sisters. One of her sisters is getting married soon, so the house is a whirl of activity. Khuzzaa is right next to the buffer zone, and Shathem’s family lives on the edge of the village closest to the buffer zone. Israel has declared that no one is allowed to come within 300 meters of the border, this is the buffer zone, violating the buffer zone is likely to get you shot. Of course, the buffer zone is on Palestinian land, not Israeli land, similar to the wall in the West Bank-annexing Palestinian land for “security.”

Unfortunately for the villagers, not only has Israel banned them from going to much of their land, the soldiers are not really a very good judge of distance. 300 meters, 500 meters, one kilometer, apparently all of it looks about the same when you’re looking through the sights of your M16. In Khuzzaa, the school is on the edge of the newly declared buffer zone. The soldiers shoot at the school. We met a young woman who had been shot in the knee on her way to school one morning. Her neighbors have been forced to put giant stone shutters on their windows to stop the soldiers’ bullets from coming into their living room. The town has erected 20 foot tall concrete blocks on the streets that face the border to stop the soldier’s bullets from killing even more people.

Over the weekend we went down to Faraheen to help a farmer who lives by the buffer zone. Most of his land has been lost to the buffer zone. We joined Jabur, his wife Leila, their son, their five daughters, and assorted cousins in planting onions in a field next to the buffer zone. It is easy to forget just how much work farming can be, a full day of crouching while I transplanted onions left me with two very sore legs. All day long the IDF wandered up and down the border with their bulldozers, and giant armored trucks, thankfully they never crossed the border. We had lunch at the house by the onion field that Jabur had to abandon because it was too close to the buffer zone. He has since moved into town, too much shooting at his old house.

Jabur’s wife Leila walks with a pronounced limp. As is far too common, at first I didn’t really notice, then, I assumed that maybe she has arthritis or something. It wasn’t until the second day that I noticed just how severe it was. It turns out that during the first intifada she had come upon some Israeli soldiers beating local children for throwing stones. She tried to intervene to help the children and one of the soldiers shot her in the hip. Hearing Leila’s story I was reminded me of a recent article on one of the first videos to shock people with the brutality of the occupation, you can read the article at Ha’aretz, or watch the video below. I am in constant shock at the number of scars and wounds from the occupation you see here. Often, at first, I don’t notice, then someone moves, or some skin exposed, and the endemic violence of the occupation is in front of you again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36r8eSmpGx4

The next day it was raining in the morning, so instead of planting more onions I taught two of Jabur’s daughters English. They were very competitive; they kept trying to distract each other as soon as I asked a question so that they could be the first one to answer it. They study English in school, but there are 43 students in each class, so learning a language is rather difficult, they obviously do not get much time to speak. Their vocabulary and reading skills are quite good though. About noon, the rain stopped, so back to the fields to plant more onions. That evening we came back to Gaza City and home sweet home. Going home was probably a very good idea, because I spend the next couple of days sick.

The buffer zone might not seem like such a big deal, after all 300 meters isn’t very far is it? But 300 meters isn’t really 300 meters, farmers complain that the soldiers shoot at them from even a kilometer away, and anything closer than 500 is quite dangerous, because who knows were exactly 300 meters start, not you, and not the soldier doing the shooting. Gaza is only about 8 kilometers wide, so 500 meters is a significant chunk of land. It is a total disaster for farmers whose land is in the buffer zone. God help those whose homes are next to the buffer zone, or even worse in it.

I think the most surprising thing about Gaza so far has been how liberal it is. The levels of gender-based segregation are much lower than I expected. I am meeting, and talking to young women. This did not happen in the West Bank, and it did not happen much in Syria. I’m sure that part of this is that the families we are in contact with are more liberal than average, but the whole society seems much less conservative than I expected. You see women in the streets, in the stores, working, and in cafes smoking shisha.