Border crossing
Trip Start
May 22, 2009
1
6
11
Trip End
Jun 06, 2009
Gaza City,
Palestinian Territory
Friday, May 29, 2009
One of the women who entered with us, Salena, is a freelance journalist/blogger who is working on a grassroots project with Paul, a documentary film maker. Their focus is how the siege on Gaza is affecting the local fisherman. Salena wrote a brief blog about our experience crossing over from Egypt to Gaza that was posted on the Huffington Post which you can view here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/salena-tramel/egypt-gaza-border-crossin_b_208247.html
The trip route was Cairo to Al Arish to Rafah to Gaza
Rafah border sign
. Al Arish is a small town about 45 mintues from Rafah, both of which are east of the Sinai and south of Gaza. We had to stop at a hotel in Al Arish to switch buses to help evade the Egyptian authorities. The hotel even doctored false reservation papers for us, which turned out to be useless since the secret police discovered our plans anyway.We left Cairo at 3:00 a.m. Having gotten about 8 hours of sleep over the past 36 hours, I was feeling totally detached from and aggravated by everything, the bus ride, the young students in my group, the heat. Everything affected me, except the political circus we were smack in the middle of.
We arrived at Rafah around 10 am, entertaining ourselves with the Egyptian police who were escorting us from Arish to Rafah, and the children of the nut and fruit vendors. When it was clear we were not going to be let in, it was decided not to camp out in front of the border gate as planned so as to minimize any negative message or image to the Egyptian authorities. All I could think about was having a hot shower back at the hotel in Arish, and going to bed.
The next day my attitude totally changed, for the better
Rafah border - Egyptian side
. I felt guilty for my attitude the previous day, and felt myself feeding off of the energy of the students. I remember thinking how impressive they are, particularly the 5 organizers, most under 21, how passionate they are about the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and wondered how they got to be such activists. They all traveled to Gaza in March with CodePink, so it was understandable that they would feel some solidarity, but to go again with twice the fire in their eyes, I just couldn't get it.Until now. When the Egyptian authorities told us we could not leave Egypt to enter Gaza, had the secret police follow us and threaten the family members of our Palestinian friends from another delegation, when they delayed and delayed and delayed our entry even after they were told multiple times by UNRWA and the Ministry of the Interior that we had every permission to enter Gaza, I felt the rage. When I saw the young Palestinian boy with his arm in a cast and his limp and his old grandfather pleading with the guards to let them BACK into their homeland, only to be turned away, I felt the rage. And when, after hours and hours of waiting in the hot sun, dirty roadway in front of the gate, then the cockroach-infested border control waiting hall in Egypt, when we finally crossed the invisible line into Gaza and were totally and completely embraced by the Gazans with smiles, hugs, cold water, and media attention, I felt the rage
Inside the border
. Not only were the Egyptian authorities telling me, a foreign humanitarian activist, that I couldn't go, they were punishing the Gazans for no good reason. Nothing made sense. Nothing.****
I realize that my stating that Gaza is the most wonderful place can be construed as insulting to the Gazan people because the reality is, it is not; it is hell. But there are many physically beautiful areas here and the geography is astounding, not to mention the people being one of the most hospitable and kind and high-spirited I've met. One reason I wanted to come here was to see real life, to remind myself that Gazans are human beings who also dream, and laugh, and love, as we do. They are not just the war-torn face we see on CNN.
So my intent in describing Gaza as wonderful place was to tell you all that Gaza is so much more than the representation on the news, that in fact only 30% of the population truly believe in Hamas (I haven't met anyone who likes them), that in fact they still make jokes and laugh (one of my host "sisters" I dubbed "Little Joker" on the first day), that in fact they are not anti-Semitic or against all of the people of Israel. They just want their right to live as free human beings.
Peace-salaam-shalom
