Thursday
June 3, 2009 - Dennis James Interviewed in Gaza by Phil Weiss
At the end of the trip, I was interviewed by my colleague Phil Weiss, co-founder and editor of the blog Mondoweiss - The War of Ideas in the Middle East
Saturday
Egypt
May 16 – 27, 2009
Prior to our Gaza mission, we travel in Egypt for eleven days visiting the Nile pharonic sites, Alexandria, and Cairo. Many pleasant and impressive images remain with us. But some not so pleasant as well. Millions of Egyptians are dependent on tourism and tourists are in short supply. So we are constantly importuned by guides, travel advisors, taxis, carriage drivers, boat operators everywhere we go. There is an edge of desperation to this, much more so than in other countries we have visited in the Middle East.
There are many other problems in Egypt. Since Sadat’s treaty with Israel the U.S. has pumped billions into the Egyptian economy (second only to Israel in U.S. foreign aid). But development seems to be limited to areas far from the old city of Cairo, e.g. to the west bank of the Nile and east into the Sinai. And the development consists mostly of the construction of residential and commercial enclaves for the Egyptian middle and upper classes. Nevertheless, Old Cairo scuffles on, loud, tattered and dirty, but with a certain threadbare grandeur.
Some Egyptians say that Mubarak is obsessed with his own security and with the succession to power of his son when he steps down. Various reasons are ventured for why he cooperates with the Israeli blockade of Gaza, foremost being because he wants U.S. money and because he hates and fears the Islamic Brotherhood which has ties to Hamas. However, there’s no question where the ordinary Cairene’s sympathies lie. Everyone we talk to who learns we’re going to Gaza breaks out in a big grin, thanks us, and wishes us luck.
Prior to our Gaza mission, we travel in Egypt for eleven days visiting the Nile pharonic sites, Alexandria, and Cairo. Many pleasant and impressive images remain with us. But some not so pleasant as well. Millions of Egyptians are dependent on tourism and tourists are in short supply. So we are constantly importuned by guides, travel advisors, taxis, carriage drivers, boat operators everywhere we go. There is an edge of desperation to this, much more so than in other countries we have visited in the Middle East.
There are many other problems in Egypt. Since Sadat’s treaty with Israel the U.S. has pumped billions into the Egyptian economy (second only to Israel in U.S. foreign aid). But development seems to be limited to areas far from the old city of Cairo, e.g. to the west bank of the Nile and east into the Sinai. And the development consists mostly of the construction of residential and commercial enclaves for the Egyptian middle and upper classes. Nevertheless, Old Cairo scuffles on, loud, tattered and dirty, but with a certain threadbare grandeur.
Some Egyptians say that Mubarak is obsessed with his own security and with the succession to power of his son when he steps down. Various reasons are ventured for why he cooperates with the Israeli blockade of Gaza, foremost being because he wants U.S. money and because he hates and fears the Islamic Brotherhood which has ties to Hamas. However, there’s no question where the ordinary Cairene’s sympathies lie. Everyone we talk to who learns we’re going to Gaza breaks out in a big grin, thanks us, and wishes us luck.
Cairo, Egypt
Thursday, May 28, 2009
We go to the Pension Roma at 7:00pm to meet for the first time with the Code Pink delegation leadership and our fellow delegates. We gather in a small conference room barely able to contain all 60+ of us squatting on the floor and sitting on the windowsills. Everyone is in great good humor. We eat mezze and fruit and go around the room introducing ourselves. While there is much laughter and badinage, the meeting is well controlled by the CP leadership, in particular Medea Benjamin and Anne Wright. We are briefed on logistics and our chances of actually getting into Gaza – about 50/50. We are going in two buses plus a truck load of playground equipment. If the Egyptians won’t let us in we’re to camp at the Rafah crossing and set up the play equipment there for the delectation of the international press. T-shirts, buttons and cups are passed around. Then, as we will often experience, the group breaks into song.
We go to the Pension Roma at 7:00pm to meet for the first time with the Code Pink delegation leadership and our fellow delegates. We gather in a small conference room barely able to contain all 60+ of us squatting on the floor and sitting on the windowsills. Everyone is in great good humor. We eat mezze and fruit and go around the room introducing ourselves. While there is much laughter and badinage, the meeting is well controlled by the CP leadership, in particular Medea Benjamin and Anne Wright. We are briefed on logistics and our chances of actually getting into Gaza – about 50/50. We are going in two buses plus a truck load of playground equipment. If the Egyptians won’t let us in we’re to camp at the Rafah crossing and set up the play equipment there for the delectation of the international press. T-shirts, buttons and cups are passed around. Then, as we will often experience, the group breaks into song.
Cairo, Sinai Desert, Al Arish, Egypt
Fri., May 29, 2009
We carry our backpack luggage from our hotel to a downtown parking lot where two big tour buses are parked, along with two carloads of Egyptian Internal Security Officers who stand silently, watching us and occasionally using their cellphones. We mill around for half an hour, waiting for stragglers. Tighe Berry, a Code Pink leader from California, who calls himself “the Propman” and is the one who is in charge of the playground equipment, is everywhere at once, climbing on top of the buses, lashing down the equipment, assuaging nervous bureaucrats on his cellphone and negotiating with the IS agents. We sing.
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Finally, we mount up and move out in a convoy with IS and Tourist Police officers with AK 47’s in pickups, and unmarked cars of higher officers, in front and behind us.
We eat lunch on the road from last night’s leftovers. As we cross the Suez Canal, Carl Scheiren, retired administrator from the American University in Cairo, speaks to us of the importance of the Canal to Egypt and the way it has changed hands. Monia Mazigh, a human rights activist from Canada, tells us of her two year struggle to free her husband Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, after he suffered “rendition” by the U.S. to Syria where he was tortured and imprisoned.
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Everybody on the trip is interesting. Most are some sort of political activist. Some are traditional pacifists, others radical leftists. Many are retirees, veterans of anti-war, civil rights, gay rights, feminist, environmental and other struggles. There are notables like Norm Finkelstein, the professor denied tenure at Hunter College and DePaul University because of his criticism of Israel and Roane Carey, Managing Editor of The Nation. Phil Weiss, of the blog Mondoweiss, joins us later.
In the late afternoon we arrive at Al Arish, an Egyptian coastal town close to the Gazan border. We will bed down here as there are no hotels in Rafah, and attempt entry tomorrow. A group of us wander through back alleys from one of the hotels to get to the beach. Trash swirls in the off shore breeze. Most of the hotels and beach homes are empty, victims of the downturn in tourism. I plunge into the Mediterranean in an uncrowded stretch of beach and discover why it’s uncrowded. I’m covered with seaweed. It’s like swimming in minestrone. I move down the beach where I join crowds of locals cavorting in clearer water.
That night, after a nice fish dinner near the sea, we repair to a mock Bedouin tent on the grounds of the restaurant where we sit on cushions and listen to Norm Finkelstein relate his thoughts on the illegalities of the Israeli/Egyptian blockade of Gaza.
Norm went over some “facts on the ground” about the Israeli attacks on Gaza of Dec., 2008 and Jan., 2009. 1400 Gazans, 60 % civilians, (120 women, 450 children) were killed. 6000 were injured. 80% of agriculture and industry was destroyed. 40 mosques were badly damaged. This is versus 13 Israeli dead, 8 by friendly fire. 3000 missions flown. No planes lost, no tanks lost. Hamas had only small arms. He says this was not war. It was a massacre.
Norm asks why Israel engaged in such a blatant crime. Not the Qassam rockets of Nov. 5, 2008. Israel admits it broke the cease fire with a bombing raid on Nov. 4, 2008 killing several Gazans. This was US election day and the raid received little or no coverage. Israel’s Defense Minister, Barak, admitted that Hamas fired rockets in response to Israel’s raid. Hamas agreed to restore the cease fire (the blockade itself was in violation of the cease fire agreements). Israel ignored the offer.
Nor was the reason just the Knesset election either, although, he says, killing Arabs is always good for votes in Israel. Norm believes it was for deterrence credibility, following Israel’s defeat by the Hezbollah in Lebanon. They want the Arabs and everyone else to fear them as one fears a mad dog, capable of attacking anywhere, anytime.
He points out that the illegality of Israeli action towards Palestinians in general and Gazans in particular, under International Law as set forth in decisions of the International Court of Justice, the Rules of War, the Charter of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention and the Resolutions of the United Nations, is one of the least contentious issues in modern Middle Eastern history. Israel is clearly guilty of massive violations of all of the above, e.g.. acquisition of territory by conquest, disproportionate violent reaction to minimal provocation, deliberate breach of cease-fire agreements, collective civilian punishment for Palestinian transgressions, use of banned or partially banned weapons such as white phosphorus, “DIME” projectiles, cluster bombs, deliberate or reckless attacks on civilians and civilian targets such as schools, hospitals, mosques, residential dwellings, ambulances etc. Every NGO agency that has studied this history has concluded that these violations are well established, e.g. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Dugard Commission.
Further, he points out, Gaza has been attacked repeatedly in other IDF campaigns named variously “Summer Rain” and “Autumn Leaves” And, of course, there is the illegal blockade since March , 2006.
We carry our backpack luggage from our hotel to a downtown parking lot where two big tour buses are parked, along with two carloads of Egyptian Internal Security Officers who stand silently, watching us and occasionally using their cellphones. We mill around for half an hour, waiting for stragglers. Tighe Berry, a Code Pink leader from California, who calls himself “the Propman” and is the one who is in charge of the playground equipment, is everywhere at once, climbing on top of the buses, lashing down the equipment, assuaging nervous bureaucrats on his cellphone and negotiating with the IS agents. We sing.
+004%282%29.jpg)
Finally, we mount up and move out in a convoy with IS and Tourist Police officers with AK 47’s in pickups, and unmarked cars of higher officers, in front and behind us.
We eat lunch on the road from last night’s leftovers. As we cross the Suez Canal, Carl Scheiren, retired administrator from the American University in Cairo, speaks to us of the importance of the Canal to Egypt and the way it has changed hands. Monia Mazigh, a human rights activist from Canada, tells us of her two year struggle to free her husband Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, after he suffered “rendition” by the U.S. to Syria where he was tortured and imprisoned.
+013%282%29.jpg)
In the late afternoon we arrive at Al Arish, an Egyptian coastal town close to the Gazan border. We will bed down here as there are no hotels in Rafah, and attempt entry tomorrow. A group of us wander through back alleys from one of the hotels to get to the beach. Trash swirls in the off shore breeze. Most of the hotels and beach homes are empty, victims of the downturn in tourism. I plunge into the Mediterranean in an uncrowded stretch of beach and discover why it’s uncrowded. I’m covered with seaweed. It’s like swimming in minestrone. I move down the beach where I join crowds of locals cavorting in clearer water.
That night, after a nice fish dinner near the sea, we repair to a mock Bedouin tent on the grounds of the restaurant where we sit on cushions and listen to Norm Finkelstein relate his thoughts on the illegalities of the Israeli/Egyptian blockade of Gaza.
Norm went over some “facts on the ground” about the Israeli attacks on Gaza of Dec., 2008 and Jan., 2009. 1400 Gazans, 60 % civilians, (120 women, 450 children) were killed. 6000 were injured. 80% of agriculture and industry was destroyed. 40 mosques were badly damaged. This is versus 13 Israeli dead, 8 by friendly fire. 3000 missions flown. No planes lost, no tanks lost. Hamas had only small arms. He says this was not war. It was a massacre.
Norm asks why Israel engaged in such a blatant crime. Not the Qassam rockets of Nov. 5, 2008. Israel admits it broke the cease fire with a bombing raid on Nov. 4, 2008 killing several Gazans. This was US election day and the raid received little or no coverage. Israel’s Defense Minister, Barak, admitted that Hamas fired rockets in response to Israel’s raid. Hamas agreed to restore the cease fire (the blockade itself was in violation of the cease fire agreements). Israel ignored the offer.
Nor was the reason just the Knesset election either, although, he says, killing Arabs is always good for votes in Israel. Norm believes it was for deterrence credibility, following Israel’s defeat by the Hezbollah in Lebanon. They want the Arabs and everyone else to fear them as one fears a mad dog, capable of attacking anywhere, anytime.
He points out that the illegality of Israeli action towards Palestinians in general and Gazans in particular, under International Law as set forth in decisions of the International Court of Justice, the Rules of War, the Charter of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention and the Resolutions of the United Nations, is one of the least contentious issues in modern Middle Eastern history. Israel is clearly guilty of massive violations of all of the above, e.g.. acquisition of territory by conquest, disproportionate violent reaction to minimal provocation, deliberate breach of cease-fire agreements, collective civilian punishment for Palestinian transgressions, use of banned or partially banned weapons such as white phosphorus, “DIME” projectiles, cluster bombs, deliberate or reckless attacks on civilians and civilian targets such as schools, hospitals, mosques, residential dwellings, ambulances etc. Every NGO agency that has studied this history has concluded that these violations are well established, e.g. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Dugard Commission.
Further, he points out, Gaza has been attacked repeatedly in other IDF campaigns named variously “Summer Rain” and “Autumn Leaves” And, of course, there is the illegal blockade since March , 2006.
Rafah
Sat. May 30, 2009
We leave our budget hotel in Al Arish (complimentary cockroaches) about 9AM and board the buses for the short trip to the Rafah crossing, accompanied by an armada of uniformed Egyptians carrying guns. There are three checkpoints to clear and the first is supposed to be the toughest. Denial of entry has been quixotic and arbitrary for prior delegations who have spent days trying unsuccessfully to get in. The one successful prior CP delegation of about thirty waited two days and got in on the coattails of a British MP, George Galloway, with the assistance of Mme Mubarak on International Women’s Day.
We wait in the bus. Officers of various rank get on the bus and glower at us. They tell us to get off the bus. We get off the bus. Two Egyptian women who joined our delegation in Cairo and who have relatives in Gaza, are taken out of line for questioning. Medea and Tighe stay with them. They are to be excluded as are all Egyptians except officials. They knew they would probably be excluded. Medea and Tighe burn up their cell phones trying to get Foreign Ministry approval for the women’s entry but no go. Suddenly the rest of us are told to board the bus and we’re waved through, truck and all, to the second checkpoint for baggage and passport check. We cheer and sing.
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At the second checkpoint we wait four hours in a large indoor open area, lounging on chairs and the floor, and setting up a mess of mezze, passing out cookies and peanuts.
A few of the delegates complain that CP should show solidarity with the Egyptian women by having two of the leaders go back to Cairo with them to make sure there isn’t any retaliation. These delegates call a meeting of everyone to discuss and vote on this. Medea responds sharply, indicating that the Egyptian women knew their chances of being admitted to Gaza were near zero as is the case with all Egyptians; that they accepted that risk and are not worried about returning by taxi; and that our mission is in Gaza and we can’t afford to dispatch group leaders away from that. After some discussion the dissidents acquiesce and everything lightens up. A later report confirms the Egyptian women made it back to Cairo without incident.
By early afternoon we are passed through, lining up to pay our exit fee. We collect our passports and luggage, reload the buses and climb aboard for the final joyful leg of this odyssey – 100 meters to Gaza. As our buses and truck cross into Rafah/Gaza we are greeted by dozens of Gazans cheering, waving and taking pictures. We cheer and wave back. We disembark and are ushered into a reception hall where we are warmly welcomed by the Minister of Education Many security guards are present, this time not watching us but watching out for us. The Minister expresses his concern for our safety v/v extremists and Israeli agents. He urges us to see anything we want and to talk to anyone but to stay in groups for safety. Ann Wright (CP co-founder and former Lt.Col. and US diplomat who resigned over the Iraq war), thanks the Minister.
One of the Canadian delegates, Linda, who has corresponded eight years on-line with a Gazan Palestinian, meets him for the first time at the station and they announce they are going to be married. Naturally, we cheer and sing.
We reboard and travel to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency training facility at Khan Yunis, built on the site of a former Israeli settlement. Our presence in Gaza is officially per the invitation of the UNRWA. Much of our time on this mission will be spent visiting the various service facilities funded by the UN and staffed by Gazans.
The Agency, though technically restricted to assisting refugees (approximately one million of the one and one half million Gazan population) employs or provides some kind of support to 90% of the population.
We are welcomed by the UNRWA Director, John Ging, an Irishman, who delivers a passionate plea for us to help facilitate the end of the blockade. He describes the arbitrary and deliberate cruelty of the blockade. Only “essential” foodstuffs and medicine are allowed through, and even that sparingly. He fears that Gazans, in particular young Gazans, will lose hope and be recruited by extremists who use illegal violence. He says we must get the policymakers to come to Gaza. Gazans are maligned as bloodthirsty terrorists. They are educated, peace loving, industrious people who just want to live their normal lives like anyone else. Medea replies and promises we will tell the truth about Gaza in our home countries.
Outside, we mill around tables set with a buffet, under an awning shielding us from the mid-day sun. The UN Training facility is built on land that was an Israeli “settlement” until the 2005 withdrawal. When they left, the settlers and the IDF destroyed everything – crops, buildings, all structures. Except for the UN project, the land around us is barren, reclaimed by the desert. A housing project stands half completed and silent, abandoned for lack of building material.
+049.jpg)
The food is good. Of course there is no alcohol. But the Gazans don’t need it to have a good time. Someone puts on Arabic music on the PA and soon everybody is dancing, including the UN support staff, the security guards, the CP delegates and the administrators. And me. This goes on for over an hour.
+043.jpg)
Tired and slaphappy over our initial success we board the buses for the Hotel Commodore in Gaza City, passing, on the way, several buildings destroyed by the IDF planes and gunboats.
John Ging
We leave our budget hotel in Al Arish (complimentary cockroaches) about 9AM and board the buses for the short trip to the Rafah crossing, accompanied by an armada of uniformed Egyptians carrying guns. There are three checkpoints to clear and the first is supposed to be the toughest. Denial of entry has been quixotic and arbitrary for prior delegations who have spent days trying unsuccessfully to get in. The one successful prior CP delegation of about thirty waited two days and got in on the coattails of a British MP, George Galloway, with the assistance of Mme Mubarak on International Women’s Day.
We wait in the bus. Officers of various rank get on the bus and glower at us. They tell us to get off the bus. We get off the bus. Two Egyptian women who joined our delegation in Cairo and who have relatives in Gaza, are taken out of line for questioning. Medea and Tighe stay with them. They are to be excluded as are all Egyptians except officials. They knew they would probably be excluded. Medea and Tighe burn up their cell phones trying to get Foreign Ministry approval for the women’s entry but no go. Suddenly the rest of us are told to board the bus and we’re waved through, truck and all, to the second checkpoint for baggage and passport check. We cheer and sing.
+015%282%29.jpg)
First Checkpoint, Rafah, Egypt
At the second checkpoint we wait four hours in a large indoor open area, lounging on chairs and the floor, and setting up a mess of mezze, passing out cookies and peanuts.
A few of the delegates complain that CP should show solidarity with the Egyptian women by having two of the leaders go back to Cairo with them to make sure there isn’t any retaliation. These delegates call a meeting of everyone to discuss and vote on this. Medea responds sharply, indicating that the Egyptian women knew their chances of being admitted to Gaza were near zero as is the case with all Egyptians; that they accepted that risk and are not worried about returning by taxi; and that our mission is in Gaza and we can’t afford to dispatch group leaders away from that. After some discussion the dissidents acquiesce and everything lightens up. A later report confirms the Egyptian women made it back to Cairo without incident.
By early afternoon we are passed through, lining up to pay our exit fee. We collect our passports and luggage, reload the buses and climb aboard for the final joyful leg of this odyssey – 100 meters to Gaza. As our buses and truck cross into Rafah/Gaza we are greeted by dozens of Gazans cheering, waving and taking pictures. We cheer and wave back. We disembark and are ushered into a reception hall where we are warmly welcomed by the Minister of Education Many security guards are present, this time not watching us but watching out for us. The Minister expresses his concern for our safety v/v extremists and Israeli agents. He urges us to see anything we want and to talk to anyone but to stay in groups for safety. Ann Wright (CP co-founder and former Lt.Col. and US diplomat who resigned over the Iraq war), thanks the Minister.
One of the Canadian delegates, Linda, who has corresponded eight years on-line with a Gazan Palestinian, meets him for the first time at the station and they announce they are going to be married. Naturally, we cheer and sing.
We reboard and travel to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency training facility at Khan Yunis, built on the site of a former Israeli settlement. Our presence in Gaza is officially per the invitation of the UNRWA. Much of our time on this mission will be spent visiting the various service facilities funded by the UN and staffed by Gazans.
The Agency, though technically restricted to assisting refugees (approximately one million of the one and one half million Gazan population) employs or provides some kind of support to 90% of the population.
We are welcomed by the UNRWA Director, John Ging, an Irishman, who delivers a passionate plea for us to help facilitate the end of the blockade. He describes the arbitrary and deliberate cruelty of the blockade. Only “essential” foodstuffs and medicine are allowed through, and even that sparingly. He fears that Gazans, in particular young Gazans, will lose hope and be recruited by extremists who use illegal violence. He says we must get the policymakers to come to Gaza. Gazans are maligned as bloodthirsty terrorists. They are educated, peace loving, industrious people who just want to live their normal lives like anyone else. Medea replies and promises we will tell the truth about Gaza in our home countries.
Outside, we mill around tables set with a buffet, under an awning shielding us from the mid-day sun. The UN Training facility is built on land that was an Israeli “settlement” until the 2005 withdrawal. When they left, the settlers and the IDF destroyed everything – crops, buildings, all structures. Except for the UN project, the land around us is barren, reclaimed by the desert. A housing project stands half completed and silent, abandoned for lack of building material.
+049.jpg)
The food is good. Of course there is no alcohol. But the Gazans don’t need it to have a good time. Someone puts on Arabic music on the PA and soon everybody is dancing, including the UN support staff, the security guards, the CP delegates and the administrators. And me. This goes on for over an hour.+043.jpg)
UNWRA Director of Security
Tired and slaphappy over our initial success we board the buses for the Hotel Commodore in Gaza City, passing, on the way, several buildings destroyed by the IDF planes and gunboats.
John Ging
Northern Gaza
Sun., May 31, 2009
We divide into A, B and C groups for our tours. Barbara and I split up so that we can cover more locations.
This is the area north of Gaza City, bordering Israel, dominated demographically by the Jabaliya Refugee Camp. During the Dec/Jan IDF onslaught, termed by the IDF “Operation Cast Lead,” the area was attacked by tanks and planes. In all, 1400 residences were totally destroyed, 14,000 damaged and 50,000 people displaced. Factories and flour mills, schools and hospitals were destroyed.
+037.jpg)
In a macabre twist, one of the most advanced secondary schools targeted and the most completely destroyed was The American International School – a multi story, modern, reinforced concrete structure paid for with US dollars, that now looks like someone stepped on it. Ceilings and floors are pancaked into each other. It was hit by 3 missiles at night. A watchman was killed. The night before, the watchman had asked an assistant director if he could bring his family to stay overnight in the school with him as they had been terrified by the bombing in their neighborhood. The assistant director declined saying he would have to get permission from the director whom he could not reach. The next night, his family at home, the watchman died alone in the attack.
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The IDF says the school was used to store munitions. This is vehemently denied by the directors and the staff. No evidence has ever been produced to support the Israeli claim. Ironically, Palestinian extremists distrusted the school’s staff because of the American connection and frequently harassed them. The school lost all of its equipment and books but has re-opened in rented quarters in Gaza City. Only 18 of its 230 students have dropped out.
We visit Al Wafaa Hospital which services the Jabaliya Refugee Camp in North Gaza. The camp holds 150,000 Palestinian refugees from the Nakba.- the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in Israel and the West bank by Israeli gunmen in 1948. The doctors are occupied treating patients so we are taken on tour by a para-medic. He indicates the hospital has treated over 500 white phosphorus burn cases. 14 ambulances, including his own were hit during the IDF offensive. In the first hour of the raid, they took on 200 ICU cases with 100 waiting. They are in great need of emergency room supplies, like lidocaine, a topical anesthetic, which has been deemed unessential by the Israelis.
At the Jabaliya Rehabilitation Society we meet Gazans who have lost limbs and we hear their stories: Firemen who were attacked while trying to rescue families; Gazans who can’t obtain operations outside of the borders; lack of prosthetic devices and wheelchairs. We visit a community center in the camp. Children are treated for PTSD. They have nightmares, insecurity, fear for the future. They are encouraged to tell their stories, paint pictures, sing and dance. There is a rhythm class for deaf children. They are all proud and happy to perform for us. The teachers say we give them hope.
The hospital at Kamal Edwan is next. A new wing had just been built with foreign contributions and was about to open at the time of Operation Cast Lead. New diagnostic and treatment equipment was installed and ready for use. Israeli tanks ground to within 20 meters of the hospital and opened fire on the new wing. Shell holes, a meter wide and shrapnel gouges pockmark the exterior. Every window is blown out. Inside, a doctor takes us on a floor by floor tour. I’m glad I wore heavy shoes. We clamber over twisted metal and slabs of fallen plaster and concrete. Depleted uranium shrapnel litters the floors. He says the Israelis knew exactly where to shoot to knock out the most important systems, which now cannot be replaced. Everywhere broken glass crunches underfoot, bringing to mind Kristallnacht. in Germany, 1938.
We visit a village in northern Gaza, Beit Hanoun, near Jabaliya Camp, that was completely leveled for several square kilometers. The area was first bombed and then bulldozed. The remains of an ambulance lie in the ruins.
We stop at a craft fair. Dozens of Palestinian women display the things that many of them learned to make at UN sponsored support centers – embroidery, knitting, patchwork, weaving, carving, etc. Surrounding shops carry exquisite traditional embroidered clothes and accessories. Everybody buys something. These artists are prohibited from exporting their wares. A spirited and seemingly inexhaustible folk-dance company performs in the heat for an hour straight, no breaks. They cannot perform outside Gaza.
We are invited to meet with the Palestinian Legislative Council (Hamas). They are the duly elected representatives who were denied power in the West Bank by a U.S./ Fatah /Israeli coup and who had to forcibly oust Fatah fighters from Gaza in March 2006. Most of the Hamas elected leadership is in Israeli and PLO prisons. We meet with the speaker of their parliament. The meeting takes place in a large tent on the grounds of the parliament building. The parliament building is a gutted shell – one of the first victims of Operation Cast Lead.
The Speaker of the Council welcomes us and proceeds to enumerate the many wrongs suffered by his people that he hopes we can convey to our elected U.S. policy makers.. He then makes the significant statement that Hamas is agreeable to separate states within the pre 1967 borders with provision for right of return and an extended truce, without preconditions. This statement is later cited in the US press.
The Council has been informed that Norm Finkelstein is in our delegation. Norm is highly regarded and has been asked to address the meeting. He makes a short but astonishing three point statement and proposal:
Norm believes that the Israelis dare not fire on this assemblage and the blockade would be broken. The proposal is breathtaking, whatever objections one might have.
I expect the Council to be offended by his presumption, but their reply is polite and diplomatic. They say they will give the proposal serious consideration
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We tour the bombed out parliament building, have pictures taken with the Council reps. Medea is given a plaque by the Council and we are all given commemorative scarves.
Some later complain that this was too close an identification with Hamas, an Islamic party who some believe would impose Sharia on its constituency. But they are the people’s elected representatives, they reached out to us and they appear receptive to constructive suggestions.
We make it back to the Marna Hotel and have dinner with Shelley Fudge from DC and Pat Chafee, an activist nun from Madison, Wis. A collateral benefit to the mission is the chance to meet serious political activists from all over, each with unique stories to tell about their struggles, defeats and victories – like Rich Moniak, a civil engineer with the Coast Guard in Juneau, Alaska who writes a monthly column for the Juneau Empire. He’s a quiet, thoughtful guy who seeks the common thread of humanity in everyone he deals with. One can imagine the grief he must get on the job for his activism . He is a veteran and has a son with the Army in Iraq. Yet he is totally dedicated to the cause of justice for the Palestinians, already at his computer sending dispatches when Barbara and I get up for our early morning walk.
We divide into A, B and C groups for our tours. Barbara and I split up so that we can cover more locations.
This is the area north of Gaza City, bordering Israel, dominated demographically by the Jabaliya Refugee Camp. During the Dec/Jan IDF onslaught, termed by the IDF “Operation Cast Lead,” the area was attacked by tanks and planes. In all, 1400 residences were totally destroyed, 14,000 damaged and 50,000 people displaced. Factories and flour mills, schools and hospitals were destroyed.
+037.jpg)
In a macabre twist, one of the most advanced secondary schools targeted and the most completely destroyed was The American International School – a multi story, modern, reinforced concrete structure paid for with US dollars, that now looks like someone stepped on it. Ceilings and floors are pancaked into each other. It was hit by 3 missiles at night. A watchman was killed. The night before, the watchman had asked an assistant director if he could bring his family to stay overnight in the school with him as they had been terrified by the bombing in their neighborhood. The assistant director declined saying he would have to get permission from the director whom he could not reach. The next night, his family at home, the watchman died alone in the attack.
+095.jpg)
The IDF says the school was used to store munitions. This is vehemently denied by the directors and the staff. No evidence has ever been produced to support the Israeli claim. Ironically, Palestinian extremists distrusted the school’s staff because of the American connection and frequently harassed them. The school lost all of its equipment and books but has re-opened in rented quarters in Gaza City. Only 18 of its 230 students have dropped out.
We visit Al Wafaa Hospital which services the Jabaliya Refugee Camp in North Gaza. The camp holds 150,000 Palestinian refugees from the Nakba.- the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in Israel and the West bank by Israeli gunmen in 1948. The doctors are occupied treating patients so we are taken on tour by a para-medic. He indicates the hospital has treated over 500 white phosphorus burn cases. 14 ambulances, including his own were hit during the IDF offensive. In the first hour of the raid, they took on 200 ICU cases with 100 waiting. They are in great need of emergency room supplies, like lidocaine, a topical anesthetic, which has been deemed unessential by the Israelis.
At the Jabaliya Rehabilitation Society we meet Gazans who have lost limbs and we hear their stories: Firemen who were attacked while trying to rescue families; Gazans who can’t obtain operations outside of the borders; lack of prosthetic devices and wheelchairs. We visit a community center in the camp. Children are treated for PTSD. They have nightmares, insecurity, fear for the future. They are encouraged to tell their stories, paint pictures, sing and dance. There is a rhythm class for deaf children. They are all proud and happy to perform for us. The teachers say we give them hope.
The hospital at Kamal Edwan is next. A new wing had just been built with foreign contributions and was about to open at the time of Operation Cast Lead. New diagnostic and treatment equipment was installed and ready for use. Israeli tanks ground to within 20 meters of the hospital and opened fire on the new wing. Shell holes, a meter wide and shrapnel gouges pockmark the exterior. Every window is blown out. Inside, a doctor takes us on a floor by floor tour. I’m glad I wore heavy shoes. We clamber over twisted metal and slabs of fallen plaster and concrete. Depleted uranium shrapnel litters the floors. He says the Israelis knew exactly where to shoot to knock out the most important systems, which now cannot be replaced. Everywhere broken glass crunches underfoot, bringing to mind Kristallnacht. in Germany, 1938.
Kamal Edwan Hospital
We visit a village in northern Gaza, Beit Hanoun, near Jabaliya Camp, that was completely leveled for several square kilometers. The area was first bombed and then bulldozed. The remains of an ambulance lie in the ruins.
Destroyed Home and Factory in Beit Hanoun
We stop at a craft fair. Dozens of Palestinian women display the things that many of them learned to make at UN sponsored support centers – embroidery, knitting, patchwork, weaving, carving, etc. Surrounding shops carry exquisite traditional embroidered clothes and accessories. Everybody buys something. These artists are prohibited from exporting their wares. A spirited and seemingly inexhaustible folk-dance company performs in the heat for an hour straight, no breaks. They cannot perform outside Gaza.
We are invited to meet with the Palestinian Legislative Council (Hamas). They are the duly elected representatives who were denied power in the West Bank by a U.S./ Fatah /Israeli coup and who had to forcibly oust Fatah fighters from Gaza in March 2006. Most of the Hamas elected leadership is in Israeli and PLO prisons. We meet with the speaker of their parliament. The meeting takes place in a large tent on the grounds of the parliament building. The parliament building is a gutted shell – one of the first victims of Operation Cast Lead.
The Speaker of the Council welcomes us and proceeds to enumerate the many wrongs suffered by his people that he hopes we can convey to our elected U.S. policy makers.. He then makes the significant statement that Hamas is agreeable to separate states within the pre 1967 borders with provision for right of return and an extended truce, without preconditions. This statement is later cited in the US press.
The Council has been informed that Norm Finkelstein is in our delegation. Norm is highly regarded and has been asked to address the meeting. He makes a short but astonishing three point statement and proposal:
1. That Israel is in massive violation of international law in its treatment of Gaza and in particular in its blockade. These have been the findings of every international body that has investigated the matter.
2. That Palestinians, including, but not led by, Hamas, should organize 500,000 Gazans for a non-violent, Satyagraha march across the border.
3. In the vanguard of the march should be Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson, Desmmond Tutu, Norm, Code Pink, other supportive luminaries, and students from every college in the US and EU.
Norm believes that the Israelis dare not fire on this assemblage and the blockade would be broken. The proposal is breathtaking, whatever objections one might have.
I expect the Council to be offended by his presumption, but their reply is polite and diplomatic. They say they will give the proposal serious consideration
Old Parliament Building
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We tour the bombed out parliament building, have pictures taken with the Council reps. Medea is given a plaque by the Council and we are all given commemorative scarves.
Some later complain that this was too close an identification with Hamas, an Islamic party who some believe would impose Sharia on its constituency. But they are the people’s elected representatives, they reached out to us and they appear receptive to constructive suggestions.
New Parliament Building
We make it back to the Marna Hotel and have dinner with Shelley Fudge from DC and Pat Chafee, an activist nun from Madison, Wis. A collateral benefit to the mission is the chance to meet serious political activists from all over, each with unique stories to tell about their struggles, defeats and victories – like Rich Moniak, a civil engineer with the Coast Guard in Juneau, Alaska who writes a monthly column for the Juneau Empire. He’s a quiet, thoughtful guy who seeks the common thread of humanity in everyone he deals with. One can imagine the grief he must get on the job for his activism . He is a veteran and has a son with the Army in Iraq. Yet he is totally dedicated to the cause of justice for the Palestinians, already at his computer sending dispatches when Barbara and I get up for our early morning walk.
Gaza - Beach Refugee Camp
Mon., June 1, 2009, Gaza
We go to Al Rahma Benevolent Society in the Beach Refugee Camp. The Mercy Children’s Centre for Orphans there addresses medical, psychological and physical therapy needs of all refugee children in the camp and placement needs for orphans. They try to find qualified childless couples. (Norm Finkelstein, to his delight, holds a contented baby girl for about ten minutes. He says, “At last, no rejection.”)
The National Centre for Community Rehabilitation has four branches in Gaza. They treat disabled children and adults and work with the families of the disabled. They have s spinal injuries program that is unique in the Middle East. They have treated 3000 people since Operation Cast Lead, 2200 as a direct result of the attack, 120 of them spinal injuries. Two of their facilities were hit. Because of the blockade they cannot use their MRI equipment for lack of parts. They need medication and prostheses. Teachers and trainers specializing in PT cannot come into Gaza to help.
Gaza City. We drive past what’s left of the Government Ministry buildings. They are gutted, hit by land, sea, and air shelling.
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Tent City Near Beach
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Remains of a Mosque
Throughout Gaza City we see tent communities where there were once residential blocks. We see destroyed mosques and the rubble of entire neighborhoods. But there are enough boulevards, beaches and intact apartment buildings to remind one what a lovely seaside city this was and could be.
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Residential Block
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Apartments by the Harbor
The Islamic University of Gaza, founded in 1972, is the largest university in Gaza. It is privately funded by tuition and contributions from individuals and NGO’, including the World Bank Development Fund. While most students are Moslem, there are no mandatory religious courses for non-Moslem students. There is no government subsidy. It currently has 22,000 students and 30 post graduate programs.
During Operation Cast Lead, two of its largest buildings, housing 70 laboratories of the Engineering Department and the Physical Sciences Department (including Medicine) were hit by five Israeli rockets from F-16’s and totally destroyed. The University has cleared the rubble and there is nothing left but empty basements and a drained swimming pool. The Israelis claimed, without supporting evidence, that the Palestinians were manufacturing explosives in these buildings. This is flatly denied by the President of the University. The Physical Science building had the only gene sequencing apparatus in the Middle East. Other lab equipment, painstakingly accumulated over 30 years, is lost. Construction on a second campus has halted for lack of materials. Prior exchange programs with schools in Europe and Egypt have been suspended.
The President says the real reason for the destruction of these buildings was to show Israel’s willingness to attack any aspect of life in Gaza. But he says if we can lift the siege, they will re-build.
We talk to some female students who are sitting around the tree shaded quadrangle of the campus. They are giggly and shy but enjoy practicing their English. Classes were not in session at the time of the attack but two of them were nearby in the University library. The explosions were enormous, they say They thought they were going to die. Now they laugh and poke each other.
Next is the modern, well endowed Qattan Centre for Children in Gaza City. It is a model facility, architecturally and functionally. It was built and funded by the Qattan Foundation, an NGO set up by a wealthy Palestinian from London. It provides after school educational services to 500 – 800 children under 10 every day. 12,000 use the 100,000 piece library every year. It has computer and art classes. It uses the latter to treat children with PTSD residual to the Israeli attacks. We see their paintings crowded with explosions, destruction, and mayhem.
During the Israeli Operation Cast Lead, the Municipality building next door was attacked 17 times and chunks of shrapnel from the explosions landed on the Centre’s roof. Despite the danger, the Centre’s guards refused to leave the premises. We look at the beautiful structure and wonder whether its turn will come next time. Because there always has been a next time.
The Director, a woman named Reem Abu Jaber, takes us into a conference room. We drink tea and soda while she speaks of the siege and her own history. The siege affects every aspect of daily life. It wears people down. It wears her down. She says, “I just want a normal summer.” She relates how a few years ago she went on sabbatical from her work with the Qattan Foundation. She studied the teaching of languages at Wales University but was not happy living in the consumer culture of England. She realized her true happiness lay in helping others. So she returned to Gaza.
She relates the daily humiliations she and other Gazans suffered at IDF checkpoints before the Israeli pullout from Gaza in 2005. She says they need outsiders to volunteer to work for months at a time.
She shows us paintings executed by children in the Centre as part of their therapy for PTSD. The paintings depict helicopters, bombs, tanks, dead bodies, bursting white phosphorus shells, with homes and schools in flames.
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A Child’s View
She sounds discouraged, but she pulls it together and proudly takes us on a spirited tour of the facility.
Al Shifa Hospital, 60 years old is the largest hospital in Gaza. The most serious cases are sent here. The Director shows us around, his white shirt stained with perspiration. There is insufficient electricity allotted by the Israelis to air condition the hospital except in the surgical operating rooms. It is only early June but the heat in the emergency and waiting rooms is stifling. He states that the power is arbitrarily turned off for periods of four to twenty-four hours during which time they must depend on diesel run generators, meant to operate for much shorter intervals. Fresh fuel for the generators is banned by the blockade, forcing them to use old fuel, endangering the generators, which cannot be replaced.
During Operation Cast Lead, and for twenty days before, the current was shut off altogether. For fifty days before, even essential medicine and food was cut off. The conclusion he draws is that the attack was planned long in advance of the alleged provocation by Hamas.
He states that patients whose cases cannot be handled at al-Shifa are taken to the border crossings in hopes of their being allowed to treat in Israel, Egypt or other countries suitably equipped.
An Israeli Human Rights group has documented that some patients, or, in the case of children, their parents, are told that to be allowed to cross for treatment they must collaborate with the IDF or Mossad and name names of militants or political activists. Some of those who have refused have been denied transfer and have died days later. All of those who have been granted permission to cross are suspect by their neighbors.
The Hospital Director provides other grim facts:
- 70% of the children of Gaza are malnourished. There are 50 to 60 children per classroom, where there are classrooms. They go to school in two shifts because so many schools were destroyed. Nevertheless literacy is at 95% or better.
As we go from room to sweltering room the muffled drums of this dirge grow louder.
Finally he says that the purpose of the attack was not defense against Qassan rockets but to destroy the will of the Palestinian people. There is silence. CP leader Ann Wright thanks him and promises our support. He thanks us. We leave, appalled and angry, but grateful for the sanctuary of our air conditioned buses.
That evening we meet with the Minister of Health, a spokesman for the Government and a representative of Hamas. The litany of suffering continues. He speaks not just of Gaza but all of Palestine.
- Pregnant women about to deliver are routinely delayed at the 171 Israeli checkpoints. There have been 350 deliveries at the checkpoints, with 69 deaths in childbirth
- 20% of Palestinians are cut off from any medical services.
- 23 in one family were killed by air attack based upon an Israeli allegation that there was one militant in the building.
A Q & A follows regarding the Hamas position on one-state, two state.
They represent that they have always taken the two state position based on the 1967 borders. Israel and the US insist on recognition of the Jewish State of Israel as a pre-condition to negotiations. But which Israel? What borders? Even the 1967 border concedes all but 22% of historic Palestine, contra to UN resolution in 1947 which said Palestine should get 47%.
Hamas also insists on a viable state, some form of right to return or compensation, Jerusalem as the capital, if necessary as an International city, a 10-15 year truce retaining the right to resist attacks in breach of the truce. The next generation could then consider a single state format. He says Hamas opposes attacks on civilians but, as a people in occupied territory Gazans have the right to resist the occupation. Fatah/Abbas/PLO is a corrupt collaborationist police state which has agreed to the Israeli destruction of Gaza and a Bantustan Palestinian state, in order to retain patronage and power. He states there must be some solution for the refugees pursuant to international law provisions regarding the right of return. He claims that Hamas does not believe in a religious state like the Zionists but in a democratic state for all its citizens.
Gaza - Deir El Beilah Refugee Camp
Tue. June 2, 2009
Deir El Beilah Refugee Camp Community Clinic, funded by the UNRWA serves 60,000 people. There is a Women’s Centre in the Clinic. This is a traditional male-dominated society and the high unemployment resulting from the attacks and blockade has caused marital disruption and family stress. The Centre provides a refuge. It deals with issues of spouse abuse, PTSD, election awareness, craft and job training, counseling in birth control and abortion. There are English classes and a women’s poetry circle, that meets to read their own poetry to each other. But the Centre lacks materials excluded by the blockade. There is a computer lab with no power and a gym with no equipment.
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At a community rehab center extensive programs are available for nominal fee – physical therapy, sign language, drama therapy. There is a radio station. Brooklyn delegate Ted Auerbach is interviewed on the air. In the basement is a bakery where 300 rolls a day are baked for the community.
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Approximately 65% of the Gazan population are refugees (or their descendants or families). The camps are named for the areas of Palestine from which they were driven.. Residence is, however, not limited to the camps. Camp housing is free but the residents do not own their houses.
We ride the buses to the village of Joheh el Deak, in mid-Gaza on the Eastern border. It was attacked and occupied by the IDF on Jan.4, 2009. The village was used as an IDF base. After 17 days, just before the IDF pulled out, the entire village of 320 buildings was leveled by shell, dynamite and bulldozer. Two persons were killed. 1000 were displaced. The school and community center were shelled. Crops, wells and trees were destroyed. The residences were not mud huts, but reinforced concrete structures, some two and three stories housing extended families. The larger houses were dynamited, the smaller ones bulldozed. All were demolished except for five houses where the IDF lived during the demolition..
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In the district called Tel El Hawa we see what is left of the Ministry of Education and Justice after the IDF tanks got through with it.
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We meet with the Deputy Minister of Prisoners and with the families of some of the 11,700 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israel. They hold pictures of their imprisoned fathers, brothers, sons. husbands, wives, sisters, daughters. They tell their stories:
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That evening we meet with International Solidarity Movement cadre. They show videos of Israeli harassment of fishermen and farmers. Israel originally agreed to a six mile limit on fishing but have shortened it to three miles making it almost impossible for the fishermen to make a living. Now they attack the fishing boats anywhere, sometimes just one hundred meters from shore, and even once on the beach.
We see videos showing fishing boats, mostly twenty foot outboards with just a canopy on them, as they approach the three mile limit. High speed IDF gunboats close in, trying to swamp them with their wake, training water cannon on them or firing 50 caliber machineguns at their net cables. Sometimes they abduct the fishermen and confiscate the boat. It happens everyday. ISM cadre, wearing identifying vests have it all on video, despite getting knocked around a lot. The fishermen keep going out because they have to. Some of our group who were housed near the beach heard the gunfire near dawn on several occasions. .
Farmers, whose land is near the border, while tending their fields, are regularly fired upon by Israeli border guards. The “green zone” (no-go) was originally set by the IDF at 100 meters. They raised it to one mile cutting off many farmers from their land and pre-empting cultivation of about 30% of arable land in Gaza. Again, ISM cadre, with clearly marked observer vests, went into the fields with the farmers. They carried video cameras and megaphones. They announced their presence. The IDF opened fire anyway. In one recorded episode, a farmer was hit in the leg. Recently three farmers were killed in their own fields.
Around 10pm, a group of us meet with Omar, a Palestinian businessman and intellectual and clearly not of Hamas. My guess is he was active with Fatah until the Oslo Accords.
He relates a history of the conflict in Gaza, where he remained, while Arafat and his Fatah entourage went into exile in Tunisia and elsewhere. After Oslo, the PLO leadership (referred to by those who remained as “the Tourists”) returned to Gaza and the West Bank announcing they had “recognized Israel” and embraced non-violence. But they essentially had nothing to offer Palestinians except vague promises by the Israelis to engage in peace talks. The settlements in the West Bank continued to expand, as did the web of highways, barred to Palestinians, connecting them.. The Palestinian putative state was entirely dependent on Israeli whim regarding access to water, electricity, travel, security, and employment. Hundreds of checkpoints, at which thousands of Palestinians were arbitrarily denied passage or delayed for hours, suffocated life in the compressed enclaves of Palestinian towns.
Omar indicates Palestinian employment, per capita income and GNP went down. In the meantime, large villas for Arafat favorites went up. Vast sums from the U.S. and the E.U. lined Fatah pockets. Arafat had forsworn armed struggle, recognized Israel and accepted apartheid in order to retain his power and patronage. Omar speaks of the Fatah “breakdown of civil society,” i.e. how the corrupt bribe-and-kickback based Fatah/ PLO eroded the community service based system of Palestinian culture.
Hamas, in contrast, gained credibility because of their community services and the fact that they fight the IDF. They are very local and parochial in their outlook but are learning. He says the leadership could all use six weeks in New York.
Deir El Beilah Refugee Camp Community Clinic, funded by the UNRWA serves 60,000 people. There is a Women’s Centre in the Clinic. This is a traditional male-dominated society and the high unemployment resulting from the attacks and blockade has caused marital disruption and family stress. The Centre provides a refuge. It deals with issues of spouse abuse, PTSD, election awareness, craft and job training, counseling in birth control and abortion. There are English classes and a women’s poetry circle, that meets to read their own poetry to each other. But the Centre lacks materials excluded by the blockade. There is a computer lab with no power and a gym with no equipment.
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Poetry Circile
At a community rehab center extensive programs are available for nominal fee – physical therapy, sign language, drama therapy. There is a radio station. Brooklyn delegate Ted Auerbach is interviewed on the air. In the basement is a bakery where 300 rolls a day are baked for the community.
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Computer class during blackout
Approximately 65% of the Gazan population are refugees (or their descendants or families). The camps are named for the areas of Palestine from which they were driven.. Residence is, however, not limited to the camps. Camp housing is free but the residents do not own their houses.
We ride the buses to the village of Joheh el Deak, in mid-Gaza on the Eastern border. It was attacked and occupied by the IDF on Jan.4, 2009. The village was used as an IDF base. After 17 days, just before the IDF pulled out, the entire village of 320 buildings was leveled by shell, dynamite and bulldozer. Two persons were killed. 1000 were displaced. The school and community center were shelled. Crops, wells and trees were destroyed. The residences were not mud huts, but reinforced concrete structures, some two and three stories housing extended families. The larger houses were dynamited, the smaller ones bulldozed. All were demolished except for five houses where the IDF lived during the demolition..
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Joheh el Deak
These are original Gazan Bedouins, not refugees. They are not eligible for UN aid, yet they get a few tents. Otherwise they improvise dwellings with sheets of corrugated metal, carpets and blankets. They live in the rubble of their former homes. There are no materials available for reconstruction. The government (Hamas) provides food and a few necessities. The mayor conducts the tour. He asks why? Why destroy their homes , their livelihood, their wells, their beloved trees? But he says they will never leave this place. They will never give up. The Palestinian flag flies from the tallest pile of rubble and from the roof of their shell pocked schoolIn the district called Tel El Hawa we see what is left of the Ministry of Education and Justice after the IDF tanks got through with it.
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The children of the village and their School.
People are so happy to see us. They feel they are alone in the world, that no one cares, that they are disposable. The UNRWA under John Ging does all it can. It is the lifeline for two-thirds of the population of Gaza. Yet it is limited to refugee assistance by its Charter. And it is regularly attacked in the U.S. Congress as anti-Israel
We meet with the Deputy Minister of Prisoners and with the families of some of the 11,700 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israel. They hold pictures of their imprisoned fathers, brothers, sons. husbands, wives, sisters, daughters. They tell their stories:
- A mother hasn’t seen her son in seven years because she is considered a terrorist. She is old, bent and walks with a cane.
- A wife hasn’t been allowed to see her husband in five years.
- A son, 21, has never seen his father who was arrested when the son was 14 days old.
- A mother whose imprisoned son has cancer. They only give him pain pills, no treatment. She has been forbidden to see him for nine years.
- A father whose son was sentenced to 100 years, hasn’t seen the son for four years.
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Prisoners and their Relatives
We see videos showing fishing boats, mostly twenty foot outboards with just a canopy on them, as they approach the three mile limit. High speed IDF gunboats close in, trying to swamp them with their wake, training water cannon on them or firing 50 caliber machineguns at their net cables. Sometimes they abduct the fishermen and confiscate the boat. It happens everyday. ISM cadre, wearing identifying vests have it all on video, despite getting knocked around a lot. The fishermen keep going out because they have to. Some of our group who were housed near the beach heard the gunfire near dawn on several occasions. .
Farmers, whose land is near the border, while tending their fields, are regularly fired upon by Israeli border guards. The “green zone” (no-go) was originally set by the IDF at 100 meters. They raised it to one mile cutting off many farmers from their land and pre-empting cultivation of about 30% of arable land in Gaza. Again, ISM cadre, with clearly marked observer vests, went into the fields with the farmers. They carried video cameras and megaphones. They announced their presence. The IDF opened fire anyway. In one recorded episode, a farmer was hit in the leg. Recently three farmers were killed in their own fields.
Around 10pm, a group of us meet with Omar, a Palestinian businessman and intellectual and clearly not of Hamas. My guess is he was active with Fatah until the Oslo Accords.
He relates a history of the conflict in Gaza, where he remained, while Arafat and his Fatah entourage went into exile in Tunisia and elsewhere. After Oslo, the PLO leadership (referred to by those who remained as “the Tourists”) returned to Gaza and the West Bank announcing they had “recognized Israel” and embraced non-violence. But they essentially had nothing to offer Palestinians except vague promises by the Israelis to engage in peace talks. The settlements in the West Bank continued to expand, as did the web of highways, barred to Palestinians, connecting them.. The Palestinian putative state was entirely dependent on Israeli whim regarding access to water, electricity, travel, security, and employment. Hundreds of checkpoints, at which thousands of Palestinians were arbitrarily denied passage or delayed for hours, suffocated life in the compressed enclaves of Palestinian towns.
Omar indicates Palestinian employment, per capita income and GNP went down. In the meantime, large villas for Arafat favorites went up. Vast sums from the U.S. and the E.U. lined Fatah pockets. Arafat had forsworn armed struggle, recognized Israel and accepted apartheid in order to retain his power and patronage. Omar speaks of the Fatah “breakdown of civil society,” i.e. how the corrupt bribe-and-kickback based Fatah/ PLO eroded the community service based system of Palestinian culture.
Hamas, in contrast, gained credibility because of their community services and the fact that they fight the IDF. They are very local and parochial in their outlook but are learning. He says the leadership could all use six weeks in New York.
Khan Younis city and Refugee Camp + Al Aqsa University
Wed., June 3, 2009
Up at 7am for a speed walk (knees won’t take running anymore) much to the alarm of the UN and Hamas security guards. They are concerned about our possible abduction by “extremists” or Mossad agents. A guard with an AK-47 tries to keep up but can’t. We tell him not to worry and finish our walk. The streets are clean but there are few cars as compared to Egyptian cities. Many donkey carts driven by middle class people. A water truck goes by. The driver waves.
Back at the Hotel Marna, Phil Weiss of the excellent blog “Mondoweiss” takes me aside for a short interview. He wanted to interview me the night before but I was too emotionally wrenched after seeing the ISM videos of the fishermen and the farmers. He asks about the significance of the trip to me. I respond that it has intensified my motivation to work on behalf of the Palestinian cause. It also has strengthened my perception that this is a moment in history like 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive and the My Lai massacre in the Viet Nam War when the wall of media-induced public ignorance cracks and the truth begins to get through.
On the road again. We pass Al Quds hospital in the Tal El Hawa district., targeted in Operation Cast Lead by air and sea fire, and heavily damaged. We also pass through the site of the former Nisraene Israeli settlement, which bisected Gaza. When abandoned by Israel all buildings and crops were destroyed.
We come to Khan Younis city and Refugee Camp. Extensive selective bombing eliminated many factories. The factories spared are nevertheless non-functional for lack of materials and parts.
At the NGO Khan Younis Club, boys and girls under 12 learn dance, gymnastics and music. We sit outside under a shade tree in a circle to talk with the Director. Her anger is barely contained. She says she has seen other delegations but nothing is done. The children have nightmares since the IDF raids. They paint pictures of war, become violent. The Israelis should be tried as war criminals. Palestinians have the right to resist. The Israelis destroy life in many ways. Before they pulled out the settlements, Khan Younis was an IDF military base. Gazans could not go to their own beach for 15 years.
We learn that her brother, an ambulance driver, was killed in the Israeli raids. We tell her our group leaders are going to Cairo to try to persuade Obama to come to Gaza or to send a representative. She nods without expression, looking down at the ground between us.
All during this time, on a short matted track, a few meters away, a dozen young boys are doing running front somersaults under the supervision of a bearded coach. They run, flip and land on their feet. Over and over, until the least of them can do it.
Our next to last official tour is of Al Aqsa University, a public institution founded in 2000. The Dean addresses us. This is the only government funded university in Gaza with 15,000 students, 328 faculty, 287 administrators. He speaks of the same harassment and persecution by the Israelis. They cannot obtain books. Faculty cannot go to conferences. They cannot finish construction projects. They cannot visit the West Bank. He has a sister in Bethlehem he has not seen in 20 years. It is a thudding repetition of the thousand ways the Israeli bombing and blockade makes life desperate in Gaza.
A student body leader speaks to us. Many students cannot afford even minimal tuition. There is massive unemployment and poverty. Gaza is an open air prison, she says. They try to model their resistance on South Africa. US, Israel media blame the victim, calling them dangerous when Israel has 200 nuclear warheads. They have heard only rhetoric from the Arab League and the EU, so they appeal to the masses to boycott Israeli products and divest of Israeli investments. They urge a boycott of Israeli academics. They demand observance of International Law. They are aware of U.S. student demonstrations and are appreciative.
The Dean reminds us of Nelson Mandela’s admonition: In situations of oppression one cannot remain neutral. To do so is to side with the oppressor.
At the UN sponsored Khan Yunis Training Center 170 young Gazans with Refugee status (65% women) are trained in trades such as automotive repair. The program is handicapped by lack of materials, electricity, phone hook-ups, training manuals, books.
A group of about 12 students have built an automobile from the ground up in hopes of entering international competition with this project. They have used parts cannibalized from junked Fiats. They pose smiling around the welded skeleton of their efforts. The judging is done someplace in Europe. Their dream has little chance of fulfillment as they will never be allowed to leave Gaza. And their chances of employment are slim. Yet they smile and are proud. They have done this to show they can do it.
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That evening we hear that the chair of the UN Human Rights Commission inquiry into allegations of human rights and war crime violations in Gaza, Judge Richard Goldstone of South Africa (respected for his role in the Reconciliation process) will meet with us at a hotel in Gaza where he is staying. After a long walk, we gather, packed in a small room. He indicates he has been given only three weeks to complete hearings and investigation into the matter and to issue a report.
Norm Finkelstein speaks directly to Judge Goldstone as a fellow Jew. He says that as a Jew, the judge will be under a lot of pressure from the Zionists. That the people of Gaza have heard a lot about the Rule of Law that all nations claim to believe in. That they want to believe in it too and to have everybody live by it. Norm says this means “Be fair. No special treatment for anybody.”
Goldstone indicates that Hamas has offered its full cooperation. He confirms that Israel refuses to cooperate. He looks very tired and his work has just begun. We thank him and disperse into the night.
(Note: One activity Barb and I regretfully miss out on is the erection of the playground equipment the delegation brought along. Delegates who participated said the Gazan reaction was warm and enthusiastic. The structures are located near the tent cities of those displaced by the bombings. The builders were swarmed by the children and had to organize games so the kids would stay off the swings and slides until the structures were completed and the cemented posts hardened in. This was probably the only construction in those parts of Gaza since January.)
Up at 7am for a speed walk (knees won’t take running anymore) much to the alarm of the UN and Hamas security guards. They are concerned about our possible abduction by “extremists” or Mossad agents. A guard with an AK-47 tries to keep up but can’t. We tell him not to worry and finish our walk. The streets are clean but there are few cars as compared to Egyptian cities. Many donkey carts driven by middle class people. A water truck goes by. The driver waves.
Back at the Hotel Marna, Phil Weiss of the excellent blog “Mondoweiss” takes me aside for a short interview. He wanted to interview me the night before but I was too emotionally wrenched after seeing the ISM videos of the fishermen and the farmers. He asks about the significance of the trip to me. I respond that it has intensified my motivation to work on behalf of the Palestinian cause. It also has strengthened my perception that this is a moment in history like 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive and the My Lai massacre in the Viet Nam War when the wall of media-induced public ignorance cracks and the truth begins to get through.
On the road again. We pass Al Quds hospital in the Tal El Hawa district., targeted in Operation Cast Lead by air and sea fire, and heavily damaged. We also pass through the site of the former Nisraene Israeli settlement, which bisected Gaza. When abandoned by Israel all buildings and crops were destroyed.
We come to Khan Younis city and Refugee Camp. Extensive selective bombing eliminated many factories. The factories spared are nevertheless non-functional for lack of materials and parts.
At the NGO Khan Younis Club, boys and girls under 12 learn dance, gymnastics and music. We sit outside under a shade tree in a circle to talk with the Director. Her anger is barely contained. She says she has seen other delegations but nothing is done. The children have nightmares since the IDF raids. They paint pictures of war, become violent. The Israelis should be tried as war criminals. Palestinians have the right to resist. The Israelis destroy life in many ways. Before they pulled out the settlements, Khan Younis was an IDF military base. Gazans could not go to their own beach for 15 years.
We learn that her brother, an ambulance driver, was killed in the Israeli raids. We tell her our group leaders are going to Cairo to try to persuade Obama to come to Gaza or to send a representative. She nods without expression, looking down at the ground between us.
All during this time, on a short matted track, a few meters away, a dozen young boys are doing running front somersaults under the supervision of a bearded coach. They run, flip and land on their feet. Over and over, until the least of them can do it.
Our next to last official tour is of Al Aqsa University, a public institution founded in 2000. The Dean addresses us. This is the only government funded university in Gaza with 15,000 students, 328 faculty, 287 administrators. He speaks of the same harassment and persecution by the Israelis. They cannot obtain books. Faculty cannot go to conferences. They cannot finish construction projects. They cannot visit the West Bank. He has a sister in Bethlehem he has not seen in 20 years. It is a thudding repetition of the thousand ways the Israeli bombing and blockade makes life desperate in Gaza.
A student body leader speaks to us. Many students cannot afford even minimal tuition. There is massive unemployment and poverty. Gaza is an open air prison, she says. They try to model their resistance on South Africa. US, Israel media blame the victim, calling them dangerous when Israel has 200 nuclear warheads. They have heard only rhetoric from the Arab League and the EU, so they appeal to the masses to boycott Israeli products and divest of Israeli investments. They urge a boycott of Israeli academics. They demand observance of International Law. They are aware of U.S. student demonstrations and are appreciative.
The Dean reminds us of Nelson Mandela’s admonition: In situations of oppression one cannot remain neutral. To do so is to side with the oppressor.
At the UN sponsored Khan Yunis Training Center 170 young Gazans with Refugee status (65% women) are trained in trades such as automotive repair. The program is handicapped by lack of materials, electricity, phone hook-ups, training manuals, books.
A group of about 12 students have built an automobile from the ground up in hopes of entering international competition with this project. They have used parts cannibalized from junked Fiats. They pose smiling around the welded skeleton of their efforts. The judging is done someplace in Europe. Their dream has little chance of fulfillment as they will never be allowed to leave Gaza. And their chances of employment are slim. Yet they smile and are proud. They have done this to show they can do it.
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That evening we hear that the chair of the UN Human Rights Commission inquiry into allegations of human rights and war crime violations in Gaza, Judge Richard Goldstone of South Africa (respected for his role in the Reconciliation process) will meet with us at a hotel in Gaza where he is staying. After a long walk, we gather, packed in a small room. He indicates he has been given only three weeks to complete hearings and investigation into the matter and to issue a report.
Norm Finkelstein speaks directly to Judge Goldstone as a fellow Jew. He says that as a Jew, the judge will be under a lot of pressure from the Zionists. That the people of Gaza have heard a lot about the Rule of Law that all nations claim to believe in. That they want to believe in it too and to have everybody live by it. Norm says this means “Be fair. No special treatment for anybody.”
Goldstone indicates that Hamas has offered its full cooperation. He confirms that Israel refuses to cooperate. He looks very tired and his work has just begun. We thank him and disperse into the night.
(Note: One activity Barb and I regretfully miss out on is the erection of the playground equipment the delegation brought along. Delegates who participated said the Gazan reaction was warm and enthusiastic. The structures are located near the tent cities of those displaced by the bombings. The builders were swarmed by the children and had to organize games so the kids would stay off the swings and slides until the structures were completed and the cemented posts hardened in. This was probably the only construction in those parts of Gaza since January.)
Gaza, Saini, Cairo
June 4, 2009 (my birthday)
We board buses and drive to the Rafah crossing. Some of the Code Pink leaders, including Medea and Tighe left last night to attend Obama’s speech in Cairo, to demonstrate on behalf of Gaza and to deliver to Obama a letter from Hamas.
At the crossing there is a farewell demonstration We unfurl banners that Barb and I and others worked on the day before in a hotel room – calling on Obama to visit Gaza – lettered in English and Arabic. The Mayor of Rafah/Gaza is there to thank us profusely. Many pictures taken and speeches all around.
The most touching remarks are made by the family from Rafah/Gaza that housed Rachel Corrie, from Washington State, when she lived and worked in Gaza. She was killed by an Israeli bulldozer when she stood in front of it as it demolished the homes of Gazans suspected of having a family member sympathetic to Hamas. The father says “She died defending our home. I saw them take her tiny body out of the rubble. We will never forget her.”
Their home was demolished despite Rachel’s sacrifice.
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We say goodbye and board the buses again, driving a short way to the Egyptian border checkpoint. The hours go by while they check our passports and luggage. There’s not much to check. We figure they want to make sure that Obama and entourage are safely out of Cairo before they send two busloads of crazies there. Finally, late afternoon, the Egyptians get the word. In a big hurry now, they distribute our passports, load our luggage, collect some sort of entrance fee, and practically push us through the gates. Again, we are escorted by security vehicles with teen age soldiers holding the ever-present AK 47’s, sitting in the back of pickups. We hold banners out the windows and wave at people who smile and give the V sign. We sing.
During the bus ride, Norm and Roane Carey talk about a book on the Rosenbergs There are raucus stories about characters on the American Left – Max Lewis, Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Carl Ogelsby, Bob Avakian, Lyndon LaRouche, Mike Klonsky, Peter Camejo, Clark Kissinger, Weatherman, SDS, SWP, PLP. Off-key renditions of 60’s songs erupt.
We drive through the Sinai and watch the sunset on the barren but beautiful landscape.
Norm points to it and says to me, “That’s your birthday card.”
We stop at a highway kebab shop and everybody loads up. Back on the bus there are spirited discussions about what constitutes a war crime by someone resisting illegal occupation; whether we should have spent so much time with Hamas officials; what comes next in the struggle to lift the blockade of Gaza. Every now and then, a black Benzie pulls along side the bus and a security honcho admonishes the bus driver to go faster.
Finally we stop in front of the Pension Roma, where it all began. Baggage is dropped from the top of the bus. We collect it and disperse. We are incredibly tired but indelibly changed, and irrevocably committed.
Dennis James
July, 2009June 4, 2009 (my birthday)
We board buses and drive to the Rafah crossing. Some of the Code Pink leaders, including Medea and Tighe left last night to attend Obama’s speech in Cairo, to demonstrate on behalf of Gaza and to deliver to Obama a letter from Hamas.
At the crossing there is a farewell demonstration We unfurl banners that Barb and I and others worked on the day before in a hotel room – calling on Obama to visit Gaza – lettered in English and Arabic. The Mayor of Rafah/Gaza is there to thank us profusely. Many pictures taken and speeches all around.
The most touching remarks are made by the family from Rafah/Gaza that housed Rachel Corrie, from Washington State, when she lived and worked in Gaza. She was killed by an Israeli bulldozer when she stood in front of it as it demolished the homes of Gazans suspected of having a family member sympathetic to Hamas. The father says “She died defending our home. I saw them take her tiny body out of the rubble. We will never forget her.”
Their home was demolished despite Rachel’s sacrifice.
+034.jpg)
Mayor of Rafah/Gaza and Rachel Corrie’s Gaza Family
We say goodbye and board the buses again, driving a short way to the Egyptian border checkpoint. The hours go by while they check our passports and luggage. There’s not much to check. We figure they want to make sure that Obama and entourage are safely out of Cairo before they send two busloads of crazies there. Finally, late afternoon, the Egyptians get the word. In a big hurry now, they distribute our passports, load our luggage, collect some sort of entrance fee, and practically push us through the gates. Again, we are escorted by security vehicles with teen age soldiers holding the ever-present AK 47’s, sitting in the back of pickups. We hold banners out the windows and wave at people who smile and give the V sign. We sing.
During the bus ride, Norm and Roane Carey talk about a book on the Rosenbergs There are raucus stories about characters on the American Left – Max Lewis, Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Carl Ogelsby, Bob Avakian, Lyndon LaRouche, Mike Klonsky, Peter Camejo, Clark Kissinger, Weatherman, SDS, SWP, PLP. Off-key renditions of 60’s songs erupt.
We drive through the Sinai and watch the sunset on the barren but beautiful landscape.
Norm points to it and says to me, “That’s your birthday card.”
We stop at a highway kebab shop and everybody loads up. Back on the bus there are spirited discussions about what constitutes a war crime by someone resisting illegal occupation; whether we should have spent so much time with Hamas officials; what comes next in the struggle to lift the blockade of Gaza. Every now and then, a black Benzie pulls along side the bus and a security honcho admonishes the bus driver to go faster.
Finally we stop in front of the Pension Roma, where it all began. Baggage is dropped from the top of the bus. We collect it and disperse. We are incredibly tired but indelibly changed, and irrevocably committed.
Dennis James
July, 2009June 4, 2009 (my birthday)
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