Goodbye, Gaza
Trip Start
May 22, 2009
1
7
11
Trip End
Jun 06, 2009
Gaza City,
Palestinian Territory
Sunday, May 31, 2009
So when I say our days are jam packed, I'm not exaggerating. We start between 8 and 9 a.m., congregating at Marna House, a hotel/conference hall. The setup is very press conference-like, with cameras in our faces 24-7. We've been meeting very influential and interesting figure heads, such as the Ministry of Health, Minister of Lifting the Siege (I am skeptical if this is his correct title), the founder of UNIFEM, a women's support group, the senior political advisor to Hamas, former female women prisoners jailed in Israeli prisons between the 1967 war and the 1st and 2nd intifidas, and most recently, John Ging, the head of the UN Relief Works Agency, a humanitarian organization founded to support the Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war.
We also heard from a professor from the Islamic University of Gaza, and had a presentation at the secular university as well. We visited the original American International University, but had no presentation as it was demolished by the Israeli army during the recent war. Why, no one really knows. Israel used the building after it was evacuated as a base, and after they left, they bombed it. So your tax dollars were used to rebuild it.
There's little free time, and the scarce open time we have we are usually stuck hanging around the group at this conference hall. A small group of us tried to escape the other day to the local "souk." Our group leaders absolutely did not agree with us going out on our own, they said it was "not safe." That morning, they took us to see a tunnel, which could have been blown up by the Israeli army at any moment. We also went on a fishing boat and rode out about 2 miles, toward Israeli navy boats who fire at Gazan fisherman daily and nightly. It was hard to take their caution seriously.
Our taxi driver dropped us at the souk and was nice enough to walk around with us (most people spoke good Arabic so we could manage). In the middle of nowhere we see one of the friends of our group leaders in the souk (the souk is very crowded and crazy, it's amazing he found us), and he wasn't alone. He brought a Hamas police with him!! Armed with a huge gun, he rounded us up, yelling and pushing us with his gun back to the taxi. It was really ridiculous, a bit scary, and totally unnecessary.
So these are some of the things I did in Gaza. There's just so much to tell and so much to discuss, like what the siege really means, how it's really affecting all classes, and what Palestine expects from us. The main, recurring theme among everyone we talk to is, where is the international community? Why hasn't anyone made more of a stand against the occupation using the arm of international law to make accountable those responsible? Palestine was once the most educated, and one of the most successful regions in the Middle East; the land was not poverty-stricken, underdeveloped or third world. The buildings continue to crumble, children run around dirty and sick with anemeia because of the occupation, which includes this siege.
Anyway, it's almost time to leave behind my beautiful house (it has a pool, a huge yard, I think 4 floors) and my wonderful host family (the mother just gave us jam to take to our own mothers). Although my trip is far from over, this journey is over. No matter how much I travel, I can never adjust to this part of the play, the last act, the farewell. You'd think I'd be ready to say goodbye to an extremely conservative Muslim environment, to tunnels and random echos of gunfire, to scenes of destroyed homes, hospitals, mosques. Well, I'm not.
Peace-salaam-shalom
P.S. anyone know who won the Barcelona-Manch U game? Also, one of my host sisters, Zain, wants me to say hello from her to everyone. So, "Hello" from Zain!
