gaza aftermath, day 39

Robert Fisk: A fair point: Everyone is equal in their suffering in war
(Robert Fisk, Independent)

Palestinian olive oil bucks UK recession
(Guardian)

Israel and Hamas reject global call for arms embargo
(video, Guardian)

Jerusalem: no plans yet to raze Arab homes in area designated for park
(Haaretz)

"They killed me three times"
(Eva Bartlett, EI)

gaza aftermath, day 27

Gaza 2009: Culture of resistance vs. defeat
(Dr. Haider Eid, EI--very interesting piece about the Palestinian activist movement, give a read, and opinions/reactions if you have them...am interested to hear what people involved, or not involved, think..)

Hamas 'close to truce' with Israel
(al Jazeera english)

Hampshire College first in US to divest from Israel
(Friends of Sabeel)

No Peace for Israel
(Ali Abunimah, Guardian)

Two is better than one
(Shimon Peres, Guardian)

Jimmy Carter: Include Hamas in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks
(Haaretz)

Go to Durban II
(Claude Kandiyoti, Haaretz)

PHILIP HAS BEEN RELEASED!!
"I was accused of being everything from an Israeli spy to a Hamas militant."
(Haaretz)

A 14 year old in Gaza asks, Why?

Dr. Eyad El Sarraj is a psychiatrist in the Gaza Strip, and a founder of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, and is, in my eyes, a saint. A few weeks ago he wrote in the Boston Globe about his daughter's lack of understanding why this war happened. The work ahead of him, his staff, and the teams of community members they are training is tremendous and overwhelming.

On January 26, 2008, Dr. Sarraj wrote an Op-Ed in the Boston Globe asking why the stranglehold on Gaza was acceptable...why it was ok for Livni to spell out that it was "inconceivable that life in Gaza continues to be normal." And now, a year later, we are asking why Israel's attack on Gaza was "acceptable" and wonder that it is inconceivable that life in Gaza continues today.

Amidst the reports of trauma and death, people speak constantly in bewilderment of Palestinians' resilience. In my studies of mental health I have learned that two of the major sources of resilience are feeling you have control over your future-- that is actively resisting your stressful surroundings--and strong social networks. Palestine is a collectivist society, and much strength is drawn from large, closely knit family structures. Studies have found that one of the most frequently mentioned ways Palestinian children identify to contribute to the Palestinian resistance, is to attend school, educate themselves, and become professionals. I wonder where Noor, Sarraj's stepdaughter, will go to school now that Israel bombed hers.

Palestinians are indeed a incomprehensibly strong and resilient people. But resilience implies that there are difficult circumstances/environments against which to struggle and overcome. Palestinians don't want to be resilient...they want to live.

gaza aftermath, day 23

Inside the Gaza tunnels
(Rory McCarthy, Guardian)

Gaza: Living in the rubble
(Chasey, Tait, Khalil, Bennett, Guardian-- video)

Israeli Arabs fear a Gaza backlash as far right prepares for power role
(Peter Beaumont, Guardian)

Israel's forgotten Palestinians
(al Jazeera english)

Church of England divests from Bulldozer Biz
(al Arabiya)

UN to resume Gaza aid operations
(al Jazeera english)

Dining with terrorists
(video, al Jazeera English-- visits the often ignored questions of what constitutes a terrorist? what is terrorism?)

gaza aftermath, day 19

Out of the rubble
(Mouin Rabbani, The National)

Amnesty International Gaza resources

Maltese Civil Society: Suspend EU-Israel agreement
(press release, EI)

Israeli navy intercepts Lebanese boat on its way to Gaza
(Guardian)

IDF: No arms and little found aboared seized Gaza-bound ship
(Haaretz)

Israel's lies
(Henry Siegman, London Books Review)

Buried Alive
(Eva Bartlett, EI)

Israeli army says shelling of house where girls died 'reasonable'
(Guardian-- to see the video of Dr. Abu Eish, click here)

Gaza burn victims exhibit possible signs of white phosphorous wounds
(Amira Hass, Haaretz)

I didn't know the word for "siege" when I was 5.

gaza aftermath, day 17

Israel and the politics of friendship
(Joseph Massad, Columbia professor, EI--good read)

Ghosts of 1948 haunt Gaza crisis
(BBC)

Palestinians make ICC overture
(BBC)

UN backtracks on claim that deadly IDF mortar hit Gaza school
(Haaretz)

From Gaza to Jerusalem: the impact of war on the Israeli elections
(Peter Beaumont, Guardian)

Abbas promotes Gaza plan in France
(al Jazeera english)

Waltz with Bashir, Gaza, and the post moral world
(Bradley Burston, Haaretz)

Arab talk focuses on Palestinians
(al Jazeera english)

Aid worker: Gaza an apocalypse
(Mel Frykberg, EI)

Welcome to Gaza

This piece is written by a journalist friend of mine about his first two days in Gaza. Please go to JustImage.wordpress.com for more of his writings and personal accounts of Gaza today, as well as the photos that accompany this piece.



We walked through an area of Jabaliya today that was completely destroyed by Israel. How, F-16? No. Tanks? No. Apache? No. Unmanned drones? No. So then how were dozens of homes destroyed and thousands made homeless in one area?

Dynamite.

This is a country that world leaders have the audacity to say is acting in "self-defense" and goes and puts bombs inside civilian homes and blows them up.

Why? Who really cares? How can such an act ever be justified? As one boy responded when I asked him, "They didn't destroy this because there was resistance here, and not because they want the land. They destroyed it because we are Palestinian!"

So true. Why even ask for the logic behind what Israel does? They do it and get away with it, and they don't have to explain themselves to anyone.

I was walking with my friend when I saw a young girl sitting atop her flattened home. The home was three floors before it was destroyed, now its height was probably equal to that of one of the floors. The rubble provided a perfect inclined surface for climbing up on top of the building.

I approached the young smiley girl and shouted out, "how can I come up into your home?"

She pointed to the staircase lying parallel with the earth and said, "the stairs!"

As I laughed at her my friend followed and asked her, "What are you doing sitting here on top of the rubble, aren't you scared there might be explosives left and you could be hurt?"

I was expecting an answer that had something to do with her feeling sad about what happened and wanting to be close to where she had lived her entire life.

Instead she replied, "I wanted him to take my picture." I couldn't believe it. This girl, 7 maybe, knew I would stop and go take her picture if she was sitting on top of her destroyed home.

By now, Palestinians in Gaza are used to the routine. Israel destroys. Journalists come. Nothing changes, in fact it seems to only get worse.

Every older person who I've talked to has made it a point to tell me that these latest attacks by Israel have by far been the worst they've ever witnessed. Some of them have lived for more than six decades of war. Never have Palestinians seen or heard a non-stop Israeli bombardment like the one that lasted for three weeks just last month.

It's quite incredible, the amount of destruction in the aftermath of these attacks. And it's even more incredible that a population -- that is already mostly refugees of countless Israeli wars -- has the will to keep living their lives, resisting the massive force that is trying so hard to keep them down.

I don't like to generalize, but a broad statement can be made for the 1.5 million people across the Gaza Strip. Regardless of their class or where they come from, their religious or political affiliation, all are living in the open-air prison that is Gaza. And all are subject to Israel's indiscriminate attacks across the territory. There is nowhere to go, nowhere to run.

Even now Israeli planes continue to fly overhead bombing targets across Gaza. Each time a jet is heard everyone stops ... and listens, closely, quietly, shhhh ... as it passes with no sounds of earth rattling explosions you can finally exhale, relax. No one died that time, thank God. But it will return again and again, and if not next time then the time after, or the time after
that the sound of the jet will not fade in and out with no interruptions in between.

So, you wait. You sit knowing that you are alone. You, sitting in your home watching television are the "terrorist" committing the wrong in the eyes of the world.

What was that? Shhhh... listen.... is it? No, it's nothing. A car off in the distance, thank God. Sit back, relax... and smile to yourself when you realize how silly you were to think that doing so might actually be possible. There is no chance to relax when you're constantly waiting for something to happen.

Like I've heard many times in English from the hundreds of people who I've met in the past two days, "Welcome to Gaza."

gaza aftermath, day 16

Gaza: The death and life of my father
(Fares Akram, Independent-- personal account)

Can Mitchell turn Jerusalem into Belfast?
(Ali Abu Nimah, EI)

A context for Gaza
(Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Crimson)

Sewage may contaminate Gaza drinking water
(EI)

States of confusion
(Khaled Diab, Guardian)

Gaza is no Warsaw Ghetto
(Mark LeVine, al Jazeera english)

Palestinian men bear trauma of war
(al Jazeera English)

gaza aftermath, day 13

Every family has a story, here are some of them
(Eva Bartlett, EI)

Recep Erdogan storms out of Davos after clash with Israeli president over Gaza
(Guardian, includes video)

Spain investigates claims of Israeli crimes against humanity in Gaza
(Guardian)

Israel must investigate Gaza war crimes: US
(al Arabiya)

Gaza residents launch legal fight to make BBC broadcast aid appeal
(Guardian)

Gaza survivor describes day 48 members of family were killed in attack
(video, Guardian)

Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of Israeli settlement
(Haaretz)