Hello
all,
I wanted
to start out today with a description and quotes from a wonderful
woman, Hanadi, I met a few days ago doing amazing work here in
Rafah. Again, names are not actual.
Hanadi
has agreed to help the International Solidarity Movement coordinate
our work here in the southern area of the Gaza Strip. Her father
& 6 uncles were killed during the war in 1967. After this
she was raised in an orphanage in Gaza City. She is actually divorced
(really a quite rare thing in this society, particularly because
the divorce came because of her unhappiness with the situation).
She is an amazing painter, she has shown me paintings dealing
with the occupation, the political situation in Palestine and
the role of women within Islam. Before being made refugees by
the establishment of Israel in 1948 her family was from the village
Beshet (not sure of that spelling) now inside green line Israel
but close to Ramallah. We talked for several hours the other day
and I wanted to again give you some direct quotes from a Palestinian:
"I
hope to travel to Jerusalem just one time." (at most she
lives 3 hours from Jerusalem by car)
"We
live in a great prison"
"I
am from Fatah, but the fair & just part of Fatah, not the
corrupt part"
"George
Bush comes from the wealthy class. He looks down at people from
high up and we are the lowest. He does not want the lowest people
to live."
She is
just one of the amazing Palestinians I have met.
Yesterday,
7/24, the group spent a good portion of the day at an orphanage
in Rafah called SOS Village. There are SOS Villages all over the
world. They were started by an Austrian during World War II and
this model of orphanages has spread widely. There are 3 SOS villages
inside green line Israel (read: they know exactly what this orphanage
does, it is the same as the institutions in Israel, down to the
same logo on the sign).
About
60 orphans live there, there is a school for 100 and a Kindergarten
for 360. In meeting with the administration they were extremely
careful with us to continuously say they were not a political
organization, that they had nothing to say about politics, they
were just there to help children. They did not even want to be
interviewed by a journalist with us who's doing a story on the
mental health of Palestinian children. They didn't even tell us
that they had been attacked by the Israeli military, we only figured
it out when we saw the bullet holes ourselves. All this is to
say they in no way say anything critical of Israel nor do they
advocate anything at all on behalf of Palestinians.
After
talking with the administration we went outside to look around
the grounds. As I said, we began to notice bullet holes in the
buildings and asked questions about them. The orphanage had received
heavy gunfire the previous night. It wasn't the first night that
had happened. We found out the orphanage is located about 50 meters
from the Gush Kutif block of settlements. This is the block of
settlements that cuts off the southern part of the Gaza Strip
from the ocean. They receive gunfire periodically from the North,
the West and the South. Only the East is safe from gunfire. There
were bullet holes in the buildings where children live, where
they eat, in the classrooms(including several fresh bullet holes
from the night before which had left plaster splattered all over
the classrooms and we even found the bullet still in one of the
classrooms) and even in the tower, which says SOS Village and
also holds the water tanks (the water tanks had not actually been
shot the night before but they had been shot before and had already
been replaced). Once again, this exact same institution exists
in three places in Israel. Why would they shoot at it? Why would
they terrorize these children who have already been so traumatized?
What do they think? How do you condition a human being in such
a way that they could act like this? I thought
demolishing homes in refugee camps was the worst thing I could
think of, but shooting at orphanages and their supplies of water.
Once again my own beliefs of there not really being good and evil
in the world is sorely put to the test because if anything is
evil, this is it!
Today
we spent a few hours in the middle of the day at a protest organized
by the Children's Parliament in Rafah against the massacre in
Gaza City a few days ago. They had asked the three of us still
in Gaza to come and support them particularly because we were
US citizens and the F-16's and the missile(s) came from the US.
The demonstration was amazing. 200+ children chanting, holding
up pictures of martyrs, holding up statements denouncing the United
States and Israel and generally creating a ruckus for the media
that was present. We chanted with them, held our signs denouncing
the US and did a few interviews. When I say children I'm talking
about like 7-15 or so. Young children pissed off by the way they
are being treated by Israel and who understand the relationship
between Israel and the United States. Amazing. It was very inspiring.
Great
stuff! Keep up the fight! Good luck to the Jewish Group in LA
erecting a checkpoint outside the Israeli Consulate later today.
We need more of that all over.
Love
and Rage from Occupied Palestine,
Garrick
