In Gaza

*’Eid decorations on Nasser street, the long-torn-up street serving a number of Gaza’s hospitals and clinics. Only now, after over one year (or more), small sections of it are slowly being repaved, using old interlocking blocks rather than pavement, building materials long-banned by the Israeli occupation authorities, despite the great need after Israel’s winter massacre of Gaza.

*the sad, torn-up street somehow mirrors the feelings this ‘Eid

I wake in the early hours of the morning, as the rush of Eid begins: prayers call out from mosques around Gaza, Palestine. post continues

Just as his leg was healing from a gaping bullet wound in his calf, Mohammed Musleh broke it, setting his healing back. Although the re-break happened in April, now in November his leg is still in metal braces.

Musleh was initially wounded early in the morning of 5 October 2008 when Israeli soldiers shot at him from a distance of 100 metres. post continues

It was a lovely story, that of a boy who caught birds in order to protect them.

He lives, the boy, but his hopes died in the massacre Israeli authorities and soldiers commited in Gaza last winter.

A friend, Abed, told me the story, as we discussed one of the latest victims of Israeli soldiers’ shooting in Gaza’s border regions with Israel. This one occurred near the northern border on the morning of 15 November. Abed, filming his young bird-catcher friend, saw the bloodied Amjad Hassanain, 27, being carried away by other bird-catchers. post continues

Three years after the murder of seventeen from the Athemna family –among them fourteen women and children, including an infant –and one from the Kaferna family, the pain has little receded for the Athamnah family survivors.

When Desmond Tutu visited the region a year and a half after the attack [coming from Rafah after being prevented entry by Israeli authorities], he aptly described the 8 November 2006 Israeli shelling of the family sleeping in their homes as a ‘massacre’ (one of many, many…seemingly endless Israeli massacres of Palestine). post continues

In East Beit Hanoun yesterday, still roughly 2 km from the eastern border with Israel, we are surveying the destruction of water wells and cisterns, along with their motors  –noting that new motors or parts are not available in Gaza, and that the rubble those wells within 1km of the border to Israel cannot be cleared due to a very real fear of Israeli shooting. post continues

East of Gaza city, on some of Gaza’s most fertile land, little to nothing is growing, and what had grown has been repeatedly mowed down over the years by Israeli military bulldozers and tanks.

I am re-visiting the region to record farmers’ words on a vital issue: water.  Their wells and cisterns have also been bulldozed, pumps and motors destroyed.  In some areas there is a complete lack of water; in another region east of Beit Hanoun there’s just one water source. post continues

published    By Eva Bartlett

At 8:30 on November 15, a number of young men went as usual to the land near Gaza’s northern border with Israel, intending to catch birds. Amjad Hassanain, 27, was among the bird-catchers hunting near the border fence when Israeli soldiers began shooting. post continues

In a Rafah-based grassroots community organization serving children, women and impoverished families, the consequences of the violent siege on Gaza, imposed shortly after Hamas was elected in early 2006, can be seen in the cracked furniture, shabby toys, tattered books, near-empty rooms, and small number of children participating in after-school homework sessions.

Najwa, the centre’s director, explains how prior to the siege, the centre not only provided extra-curricular school support and development for children, but also ran summer courses and games for hundreds of Rafah’s poorest, most oppressed youths. post continues

Embroidery lives on in Palestine, a tradition passed down through the generations.  While Palestine is as modern as a choking, all-encompassing 3 year siege (since soon after Hamas was elected in early 2006) and numerous Israeli wars and attacks will allow, the traditions from generations ago are not forgotten: songs, dabke (dance), food, farming and fishing techniques, clothing…and embroidery.

In recent years, the art has taken on a new role in occupied Palestine, re-affirming Palestinian identity post continues