I wanted
to start today with what I learned about the colors of the Palestinian
flag. Then talk about last night and then go on to other things.
Hopefully
everyone has seen the flag, from the top a stripe of black, a
stripe of white, a stripe of green with a red triangle cutting
through them all from the left. The red symbolizes the revolutionary
nature of the struggle, the green stripe represents the peaceful
time before occupation, the white stripe represents the desire
for peace and the black stripe above the rest represents the darkness
that has covered all of Palestine since the Israelis came. Powerful
stuff. I had never heard the symbolism before.
Last
night was a mess all over as people may have heard. But I'll start
out with what was closest to home for me. Last night the International
Solidarity Movement group here in Gaza was meeting in the building
we have been sleeping in. By 10:00 pm we had been meeting for
about two hours. Suddenly we heard fighters streak by overhead.
They were most likely F-16's (provided by the United States of
course). We've heard fighters overhead a lot since we've been
here but these were the lowest flying we'd yet heard. It was really
loud. They passed almost directly over us at least 3 or 4 times.
On one of the passes we heard a soft pop and I thought I felt
the building shake a little bit, though that may have been my
imagination. Within 5 minutes Palestinians came up to us and told
us that a factory had been bombed very near to us. The Israeli's
apparently used something
called a silent bomb which doesn't make a loud noise. I'd never
heard of this delightful weapon before.
Several
of us walked to the area that had been bombed. It was less than
a 10-minute walk from where we sleep most nights, maybe 300 meters
from us. Some of us were at the site less than 25 minutes after
the bombing happened. As we walked up, we could see that
the two buildings that had been hit were just torn apart. It was
two factories which shared one wall. One was a factory which cut
slate and tile for flooring. The other was a machine repair shop
for farming equipment and other machinery. There was machinery
spread out over a huge distance blasted there by the bomb, along
with pieces of the buildings and still warm clods of dirt from
the blast. I've never seen anything like it. When we got inside
the
buildings the scene was one of complete destruction. Stacks of
tile and slate, piles of damaged pieces of the stuff, partially
and totally destroyed machinery spread out all over. The roof
was torn through and metal beams were hanging down to the floor.
The actual crater was huge. At least 5 meters across and at least
that deep. The place was shattered. Luckily no one had been there
when it happened so there were no deaths or injuries.
As I
said we arrived less than 25 minutes from when it happened. I
believe the Israelis are claiming they hit a bomb making factory.
I can personally attest we saw no guns, no bombs, nothing that
looked remotely like it could be used to make bombs, and there
had
been no secondary explosions to suggest that any type of munitions
might have been present. There were simply two civilian facilities
totally destroyed.
We were
immediately on the phone to other people from the ISM in the West
Bank. The person we contacted to report to said he couldn't talk
then because he had just seen a kid get his head blown off. We
later found out that at least two children had been killed by
an explosion in the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah which
was what he was referring to. Rumors soon began to circulate amongst
the crowds at the bombsite about a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
I'm sure this is what is being played up in the US but it actually
happened after the bombing in Gaza. We also heard reports that
Israelis were beating Palestinians near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in
the Old City of Jerusalem. Last night was a mess.
I just
wanted to comment a little bit on Palestinian culture because
I don't think I've done much of that up to this point and last
night’s horrors really highlight how amazing it is to me
in contrast to the forces of repression and occupation. What amazes
me is that so many Palestinians do not turn to violence given
all the horrors that are seen here on a daily
basis. Palestinians are amazingly friendly, warm and welcoming.
It is amazing how I am constantly asked into people's homes, given
tea or coffee or other drinks, given huge amounts of really good
food, asked to just sit and talk with complete strangers just
because they want to get to know me, etc. etc. I have learned
not to admire things because anything you admire you are sure
to be given. Just one example, yesterday I admired a key chain
medallion of a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
supporter. He immediately attempted to pull the medallion off
his key chain and give it to me. Luckily it was stuck so he couldn't
get it off. It sounds like he is going to give me a few of the
PFLP
medallions later today though. I feel bad taking these gifts because
people are so poor here but people get upset when you refuse their
gifts so it’s easiest not to admire things out loud. People
here maintain this amazing culture in spite of the way they are
treated every day. It blows me away.
So, I have two more months in this beautiful land which suffers
from so many hardships. I am looking forward to it.
I want
to write something more broadly about the water situation here
in Gaza and the whole story about what we have been doing around
it. I don't think I will have time today but hopefully I will
find time soon. But I wanted to report on one of our meetings
over the last two days.
Yesterday
we met with a representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine (PFLP) here in Gaza. The PFLP is the second biggest
faction within
the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), is a Marxist-Leninist
party (to some degree though its policies have shifted in unclear
ways over the years) and along with Fatah and Hamas is one of
the three major players in Palestinian politics. I'm by no means
a Marxist but as far as the big factions go it’s probably
the one I find myself most closely aligned with on a personal
level. Just to be clear, I try not to let my own personal politics
get in the way of my solidarity work and I try never to tell Palestinians
the correct way to resist or try to shape a society. I figure
they have a lot better shot at that that some dolt from half way
around the world and a citizen of the power responsible for their
suffering to boot.
The former
leader of the Popular Front, Ali Abu Mustafah, was assassinated
last year by a missile from an Israeli Apache helicopter. In response
the PFLP assassinated the Israeli minister of tourism, one of
the most right wing members of the Israeli parliament and one
who consistently referred to Palestinians as insects and cockroaches.
Their response was labeled terrorism but not the Israeli assassination
which caused it. Then their elected leader Ahmed Sadat was placed
in prison earlier this year in Jericho under British and US military
guard. Just a little bit of recent history.
That
said I wanted to write some quotes from that conversation. (These
are all translated from Arabic)
"We
in the Popular Front support the peace process but with an honest
3rd party such as the U.N., not the U.S."
"Suicide
bombings are the right of Palestinians to defend themselves. The
real terrorism is the occupation. When occupation ends all suicide
bombings will end."
"We
are not looking for blood and killing or for ourselves to be killed.
We are looking for liberation."
"It
is our right to fight against Israel until we get rid of the occupation."
Lots
of other stuff has been going on but that's enough for now. I'll
try to write again soon.
Love
and Rage from Occupied Palestine,
Garrick
