Archive for February 2010
walla narr
It’s a rainy day and I’m remembering roasted eggplant dip made by friends. Palestinian food is so diverse, rich, tasty, using simple, local ingredients.
Choose a rainy day to make this; everything tastes better over the fire, with the rain (assuming you have a place where you can make a fire).
First, make a fire. post continues
charisma and hospitality
*fish restaurant made of mud-brick
Taxis in Palestine are of two sorts: shared and private. The shared are of many sorts: functioning well, handles missing, windshields cracked, windshields missing, filled with exhaust, filled with diesel exhaust, 5 seats, 8 seats, slightly dented, slightly not-dented…
The shared, services, are cheap and work beautifully, unless in a hurry and unable to wait for passengers to fill up the cab. While you’d expect they run from set point to set point, they in fact cater to one’s destination, so keen are drivers here for fares. post continues
from the farmers themselves
testimonies of farmers’ losses under Israeli aggressions and Zionist policies of land and water annexation.
how Israeli policies and attacks have ravaged Gaza’s agricultural sector
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| One of many destroyed water wells in Gaza’s border regions. |
The Electronic Intifada [blog version longer and slightly modified from that published on E.I.]
“If we didn’t get the wheat planted today, we would not have had crops this year,” says Abu Saleh Abu Taima, eyeing the two Israeli military jeeps parked along the border fence east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Although his land is more than 300 meters away, technically outside of the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone,” Abu Taima has reason to be wary.
“They shot at us yesterday. I was here with my wife and nephews.”
Like many farmers along Gaza’s eastern and northern borders, Abu Taima has been delayed planting by the absence of water and the threat from Israeli soldiers along the border.
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reclaiming Gaza’s land
*photo: Rada Daniell
Local Initiative has been leading demonstrations in the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone” –[a 300 m stretch of land flanking Gaza's border with Israel from north to south, but in reality extending up to 2 km in some area. Israeli authorities say anyone within 300 m of the border fence risk being shot.]
In the tradition of Bil’in and Ni’lin, in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian and international protesters march non-violently on Palestinian land, in protest of Israel’s unilateral annexation of this land.
Last Monday’s demonstration saw us reach roughly 50m near the border fence. Standing on their land, Beit Hanoun demonstrators said this was the first time in roughly 10 years that they had been back on the land. Ten years of an illegally-imposed ban on working and living on their land. post continues
the invisible maladies
not for the first time, yesterday i meet a father whose child needs treatment outside of Gaza. he mentions it to me, not because i appear to be a medical expert, but because he is desperate.
“my son was hit by a car 2 years ago and had severe damage to his head. he’s had operations in gaza and in israel, but is still very bad off now.”
he explains that moayyed has a build-up of fluid in his head putting pressure on his brain, causing extreme pain and disorientation. post continues
Abu Taima’s land
It’s like spring and we’re visiting the Abu Taima region. The different Abu Taima brothers and cousins speak of their land, all in or near the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone” (officially 300m in which Palestinians cannot enter without fear of being shot, killed; but in reality a land-annexation which extends even up to nearly 2 km, driving farmers off their land and rendering land un-used…a waste of space in a Strip that has no space to waste).
Mohammed, the 14 year old son of one of the discouraged men, knows the land and its history. He tours us around, points out vacant plots where almond, fruit and olive trees once stood, and refers to Balfour and the days of the British occupation of Palestine.
He’s astute, and comes to the point of the buffer zone: “they want to drive us off the land, by any means possible,” he says of the long-held Zionist policies.
post continues
escaping in Gaza
Many in Gaza ask me, ‘which is better, the (occupied) West Bank or Gaza?’
Not giving in to the devisive efforts of external forces and politicians, I answer that both are Palestine –it’s all Palestine– and both have their beauties and intense hardships.
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