In Gaza

*Amal Nassir, Local Initiative volunteer, harvests olives in the Beit Hanoun border region.

1st published: (IPS) **- By Eva Bartlett -On a quiet October morning, Fida Zaneen, 19, sings a traditional love song as she pulls olives from trees in Beit Hanoun’s border region during the annual olive harvest.

“My grandmother taught me the folk songs. They were popular all over Palestine many decades ago.”

Saber Zaneen, 44, and Khalil Nassir, 45, alternately belt out traditional harvest songs as they, too, strip the limbs of the green and black fruit in the northern Gaza region.

Keeping Palestinian culture alive is one of the mandates of Local Initiative, a Beit Hanoun-based volunteer group comprising many youths and women, and of which Fida Zaneen is a member. At group events, participants often sport traditional robes and Palestinian kuffiyehs, and dance dabke to hand-drums and singing from the group.
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Electronic Intifada: 28 October 2009  By Eva Bartlett

Ashraf Abu Suleiman (Eva Bartlett)

On 4 October, Ashraf Abu Suleiman, a 16-year-old from Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp, went to the northwest coast town of Sudaniya to visit an ill school friend. The teen then went to the sea, where he rolled up the legs of his pants, waded into the water and enjoyed the late summer morning. He took some photos of the sea and of the area around him, intending to play with the photos later on Photoshop, a hobby he and his father share.

Minutes later, Ashraf was running in blind terror as Israeli soldiers in a gunboat off the coast began shooting at Palestinian fishermen. He was hit by an Israeli soldier’s bullet which bore through his neck and grazed his vertebrae, fracturing C-4 and C-5, leaving him bleeding on the ground and unable to stand up. post continues

source: The Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (CPCCA)and Canada’s Israel representatives are waging a propaganda and legal battle to silence the expanding number of people and organizations who support Palestinian rights or are critical of Israel for its illegal occupation, invasions and siege of Palestine.

The CPCCA is joining the Conservative government, the B’nai Brith, and the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), in an ambitious plan to censor civil dialogue by deliberately confusing criticism of Israel and Zionism with anti-Semitism.

In rejection and response, The Independent Jewish Voices of Canada wrote this petition.

And I ask:

Because we recognize the Zionists brutally displaced Palestinians from their land and razed Palestinian villages in the process, and have never recognized Palestinian refugees right of return (although the UN has)…

Because we recognize Israel is brutally occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem and militarily controlling Gaza… post continues

*Mahmoud Musleh: “I’ve had three main things destroyed by Israeli forces: a tile factory on Sikka street (northern Beit Hanoun), another tile factory on Salah el Din street (Beit Hanoun), and the water well on my land. My olive trees have been bulldozed many times by Israeli forces. I’m 70 years old and now I have nothing, like when I was 16.” post continues

A lust for birdsongs drew me to the park. post continues

“Please, have some coffee,” Mahmoud insisted, though I told him I’d just drank an entire pot at home. Water wasn’t good enough for him to serve me. I relented. post continues

My friend J writes about another youth killed by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank:

“Mehdi Abu Ayyesh, a 17 year old boy from Beit Ommar, succumbed to hiswounds yesterday morning after being critically injured 7 months ago. He was shot on March 4th when me and X were in the village filming the army shooting at groups of youth in the streets. I know many have been lost,and there will no doubt be many more martyrs, but it still knocks me downeach time.” post continues

It started with a sheep. It had roamed between the walls of Ahmed’s home and the home behind them. Ahmed wanted to show me the sheep, the Hola sheep. post continues

SHEIKH ZAYED, Gaza, Oct 13 (IPS)  By Eva Bartlett- On a searing summer morning, workers are adding layers to the mud-brick police station being constructed in Sheikh Zayed, northern Gaza. post continues

scenes from everyday life in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.