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.)
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