Welcome to Gaza
The EAPPI-part of my blog is over, but I will share with you my visit to Gaza, where I try to get an overview of the life under the siege and the impact of the latest war. And in English as a response to request of those who cannot read Finnish. (The small minority in the world)
Yesterday I arrived in Gaza. First thing I smelled, saw and heard when arriving through Erez crossing were the sheep. I thought I heard them while getting my passport stamped by Israeli officials at the beginning of Erez terminal, but convinced myself I’m just hallucinating, my mind still halfway in the northern plains of the West Bank. After the Israelis were through with me I proceeded to a long open air cage corridor. There I saw them: fluffy brown sheep with their shepards about fifty meters from me, on the other side of the iron fence. The shepards wandered after their flocks in the lush green grass whistling at the animals just like their colleagues did in Yanoun. It was a bizarre sight. The concrete-iron military stucture i was walking in just didn’t match the idyllic landscape right next to it.
”Wow, the rumors about Israel easing its restrictions on Gazans seem to be true,” I thought. For years the first 500 meters of Gaza’s land from Israeli border was completely inaccessible for the Palestinian farmers as a ”no-go-zone”, still at 1500 meters people received warning shots. Since the cease fire between Israel and Hamas after the latest exchange of drones and rockets there was an oral agreement that Gazan shepards would be allowed to approach their land close to the border. I continued walking happily surprised by the unusual sight. Then I heard gunshots from behind me and saw shepards hurrying away. Later I heard that international volunteers based in Gaza try to help enforcing the new policy by going to the fields with the farmers and standing between them and the soldiers wearing bright attention vests. Now is the time for sowing wheat and if it won’t be done in the coming days the future crops will be lost. The warnig shots are told to be significantly less when internationals are present. Any loss of crops is serious in Gaza, where 38% live in poverty and, 54% are food insecure and over 75% of the population receive aid.
The drive from Erez to Gaza City is not a long one. As we made our way under the blue skies and bright sunshine Gaza didn’t look to me much different form any other city in the West Bank. Small shops, pastel coloured iron doors, kids running around, men sitting with their teas and coffees. Then I saw the ruins. Entire block buildings smashed like dollhouses. Floors of houses missing, holes in the roofs. ”This was a police station,” the driver said as we passed by. ”And this one is already from Cast Lead”. ”Dont worry,” she consoled me when I failed to snap a decent picture of the ruins, ”You will see plenty more of these.”
Next thing to shake me up was a bazooka. And then a second and a third one. Approaching the city centre masked men dressed in black head to toe lined the streets. They were the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas soldiers. Some with a green band tied around their heads, each armed heavier than the other. We certainly were not in West Bank anymore. To my relief it came out the brigades hadn’t lined up because of me. An important Hamas leader Khemal Mashaal was also coming to town, after 45 years of exile, and the combatants were paying tribute to their leader. Today Gaza celebrated the 25th anniversary of Hamas, held on the day when the first intifada, Palestinian uprising started in the eighties. Around 250 000 people were expected to show up in the centre of Gaza City to celebrate the anniversary and the end of the latest bombing, which is considered among the people as kind of a victory over Israel. (I’ll write more about the anniversary in the next post) The party speeches started early: Today I woke up with the loudspeakers boasting in passionate Arabic outside our building. After the last short war there seems to be some hope and revolutionary energy in the air of Gaza. Talks about building unity between Hamas and other parties are everywhere.
But as I hear the powerful speeches of the politicians, I also see the struggle the Gazan’s face in their everyday life. Brushing my teeth with the salty tap water proved it completely undrinkable. The food in the fridge is never cold due to continuous cuts in electricity. Cuts stop also internet connections and laptops, make charging mobile phones and calling your friends complicated, writing and receiving emails and updating your blogposts impossible. Unless of course you have expensive back up energy from a generator, which most houses don’t have. The nights of Gaza city are mostly dark, because keeping street lights on is not an option. When it rains, the streets flood. According to UN only a minority of projects aimed at improving the houses and vital services in Gaza have been approved by the Israeli authorities. Limitations on NGO’s and import restrictions make them impossible.
Under such conditions people’s friendliness is striking. ”Where from?” ”What’s your name?” are staple small talk questions also here, just like in the West Bank. ”Welcome to Gaza!” followed by a wide smile for the camera. Maybe living tight makes you nice. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world: 1,6 million pepople live in 365 square kilometers. Kids are many: according to the UN over 50% of the population of Gaza is under 18 years old. By today I have shared my name, age and marital status with dozens of people. If that is enough to put a smile on a person’s face, I’ll do it a hundred times more.
Click here for a beautiful photoblog about Gaza and the West Bank. The text is in Spanish, but the pictures speak their own language.