Like a dead body
Like a dead body
That is how my friends are describing their lives now in Gaza.How they are describing Gaza.
One friend of mine, who recently moved to Gaza (in June, just before the borders closed up) to start an NGO called “Save Gaza”, says it is the feeling of hopelessness and abandonment that are most overwhelming of all. Her group's first project is helping Palestinians establish sustainable home gardens in Rafah’s refugee camps.
Yasmin has some riveting posts, like this one about a woman’s attempt to get pregnant in Gaza.
My neighbour Heba, in her fantastic blog Contemplating from Gaza, has marked a year since beginning her blog, and happily, has decided to continue doing it. As I too have found, it provides a much needed outlet, in a place where there are literally none.
Heba says the Palestinian people’s will to survive never ceases to amaze her.
The question is, do they even have a choice anymore? They take the cards they are dealt and go on with their lives. I can’t help but sigh when I’m asked to gauge people’s expectations or opinions regarding the latest peace deal, treaty, meeting, or forum. Like Annapolis for example (Yassine jokingly asked today whether another $1.75 million-the amount spent on Arafat's tomb- would be spent to feed those in attendence crabs).
The situation leaves no room for something as luxurious as opinions. It’s adapt or die.
My cousin says meat is scarce and very expensive now. Butchers are not working all hours as they used to. And people only buy what they can afford. A kilo of stewing beef has shot up to 52 shekels ($13) in a place where the average daily income is less than $2 a day for the overwhelming majority.
Meanwhile, Rafah remains closed. Gaza remains neglected. And the merry makers of it all are smiling, waiting for it to all fall apart. I say it because people’s lives already have. But in the end, success is calculated not in human terms, not in the sheer numbers of hopes crushed, souls suffocated, eyes and hearts and chances lost, or futures destroyed, but whether or not Gaza has fallen; and things can go back to "normal".
posted by Laila @ Tuesday, November 13, 2007
7 Comments:
Oh no, don't cut the Fro!
He's a super looking kid and has grown so much since I first began reading your blog nearly a year ago.
You must be very proud of him.
I left Gaza in late June after spending three years there and I can't recall it as bleak as it is today. I've been to Gaza numerous times, but this period of history is very different. I just don't know how long Gaza can function. You have brother fighting brother! Never in my wildest dreams I thought this would happen. Society is being destroyed from the core and I don't know if it can ever be patched up.
Is there a way to send Fida money without paying through the nose for Western Union fees? Does Lifemakers have a way to take online donations?
God bless and help you and your children of Palestine, to get back the holy land soon Insha'Allah.
I tend to think that this romantic notion of the "heroism" of oppressed people just helps to distract the rest of us from the truth of the situation.
There is nothing heroic about having to pay a full weeks wage for a kilo of stewing beef.
Sharing this truth is important, for us as well as for you. Thanks for keeping up this blog amidst all that is going on in your life.
Thank you for the link to "Save Gaza" though - I'm going to check it out now.
Screaming things are there. Gaza really needs to be in safe. Lot's of children diying. It's фwfullyю
Nice blog sister. Have faith in the Almighty Allah, for all the sufferings people of Gaza are going through patiently, Allah has prepared for them gardens of Paradise in the Hereafter. The promise of Allah is true, he rewards those strive patiently seeking his help and his bounties. This world is just a passing phase, its just a matter of time before all those Gazan's who have tears today are smiling in the highest level of Jannah, insha Allah. Truth stands clear from falsehood and falsehood is bound to perish.
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