[News] In Gaza, the dead bury the dead

[News at freedomarchives.org]

September 15, 2004
In Gaza, the dead bury the dead
by Yasser Abu Moailek

ON SEPTEMBER 10, after an Israeli incursion into the northern Gaza
Strip that had left at least five dead and dozens wounded, I went to a Gaza
City cemetery to look for a young gravedigger.

I had met Mossab, a slim 18-year-old boy from Gaza City, a week
earlier. He had long ago dropped out of school to pursue a profession
that appeals to very few people, but which is catering to more and more
youngsters in Gaza.

In the city's Sheikh Radwan cemetery, Mossab, along with several other
boys, was employed to dig, guard and take care of the graves of the men,
  women and children that pack the graveyard.

The cemetery covers a white sandy hill surrounded by a low
graffiti-covered wall that was once white but has now turned yellowish
after years of exposure to car fumes. Prickly pear cactus plants dot
most of the cemetery.

Mossab was a veteran among the boys. He had worked at the graveyard
for seven years during which time he had even had to bury some of his
own friends. Leaning on one of the tombstones, Mossab had pointed out
two graves on the other side of the cemetery.

"They were my classmates. I buried them last year."

The two, 16 and 17 years old, were shot dead when, armed with only a
knife, they had attempted to infiltrate a heavily fortified Jewish
settlement in the northern Gaza Strip. They had not been affiliated with any
faction. As we walked towards their graves, Mossab, carrying a shovel on
his shoulder, remembered his shock when he had learnt of their deaths.
They were the hardest graves he had ever had to dig, he said.

Most people think of grave digging as a gloomy profession. But the
young gravediggers at Sheikh Radwan considered their work honorable,
especially since, in the words of Mossab, they have "the honor of burying
the martyrs the Israelis kill." The older boys will dig the graves and the
younger ones help pile up the sand to cover it after the body has been laid
to rest. The boys also help spray water on the graves and replace dead
flowers, as well as chasing the herds of sheep and goats away that are
attracted to the flora at the cemetery.

"I know that someday I'm going to die, and that's why I want the
cemetery I'm buried in to be clean and tidy," said Sameer Ghaben, 12,
that day as he hurled some stones at two trespassing goats to chase
them away.

Ghaben said he comes to the cemetery several times a week, "because
my grandfather and uncles are buried here." In a quiet whisper he
confided that he always leaves before sunset because he's afraid of
snakes. The snakes are a problem, acknowledged Mossab, who was
bitten once in the cemetery, but while it was painful, the snakes are
not poisonous, he reassured the younger boy.

Nor was Mossab bothered by the company of the dead. "Ghosts are old
stories our mothers and grandmothers used to make up to frighten us,"
he grinned when asked.

For Mossab, grave digging had become his life. He had, he said, dug
over 400 graves, and earned a reputation as a seasoned grave digger
who was sometimes even specifically requested by relatives of the dead.

Mossab took up grave digging after repeatedly failing to pass his
school exams. It soon became his main source of livelihood. He earned
less than $10 a day but had more experience than the many boys who
come to the cemetery during their summer vacations. Many youngsters
choose the job, because they are almost guaranteed employment at
any time.

Experienced gravediggers often live with their families in small tin
shacks inside the cemetery itself, rather than in the nearby residential
neighborhoods. Mossab was still too young for that.

"I'm staying at my parents' house at the moment, but I might think
about building a shack here, since I spend most of the day and parts of the
night here," he said, as he bent down to remove some weeds from one of
the graves. "I think after seven years I have developed a connection with
the cemetery. I would prefer to be buried here," he added.

He was confident of his employment at the cemetery for as long as it
was open, though he didn't believe that would be too long. Since the
outbreak of the Intifada in September 2000, the Sheikh Radwan cemetery
has witnessed a steadily increasing flow of bodies, officially becoming the
Gaza Martyrs' Cemetery. Over 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in the
past four years, and over 1,000 of those were from the Gaza Strip. The
cemetery is filling. "We have already started burying bodies on top of
  old graves. This place will close soon because of the Israeli attacks."
At one corner of the cemetery, Mossab led me to a few cracked
tombstones. "They didn't spare even the dead," he said, referring to a
recent Israeli air strike on a building near the cemetery, which led to the
damages.

Having interviewed Mossab at length about his work, I returned on
September 10 to see him. But when I asked for him I was met by silence.
A tiny dark-skinned boy in his early teens led me instead to a grave, its soil
still wet with sprayed water and too recently dug to have a tombstone.

"This is Mossab," said the young gravedigger, almost spitting out the words.
"The Israelis killed him last night when he was at his uncle's house in 
Beit Lahiya."


Published at 
<http://www.palestinereport.org/>http://www.palestinereport.org on 
September 15, 2004.

END
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The following photos are from Yahoo News sources

<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040905/ids_photos_wl/r3824913852.jpg>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040905/ids_photos_wl/r3824913852.jpg


1a11d4.jpg

Sun Sep 5, 8:04 AM ET
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/reuters/brand/SIG=pd7i95/*http://www.reuters.com>
1a1260.jpg


Mahmoud Sharaf, 18, a Palestinian uses a spade as he digs graves in the 
Sheikh Radwan cemetery in Gaza City August 7, 2004. The Sheikh Radwan 
cemetery in Gaza City, where a sea of white stone tombs stretches up a 
sandy hill, is nearly full packed with the graves of men, women and 
children who died fighting the Jewish state or were caught in its 
crossfire. A lot of Palestinian boys spend their summer vacations in the 
cemetery digging graves and tending tombs. Palestinian boys who shoveled 
graves for less than $10 for the day. Picture taken August 7, 2004. 
REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040905/ids_photos_wl/r3907918789.jpg>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040905/ids_photos_wl/r3907918789.jpg


1a12be.jpg

Sun Sep 5, 8:10 AM ET
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/reuters/brand/SIG=pd7i95/*http://www.reuters.com>
1a1260.jpg


Youssef (R), a 19-year-old a Palestinian takes a rest as his friend Mahmoud 
Sharaf, 18, digs graves in the Sheikh Radwan cemetery in Gaza City August 
7, 2004.The Sheikh Radwan cemetery in Gaza City, where a sea of white stone 
tombs stretches up a sandy hill, is nearly full packed with the graves of 
men, women and children who died fighting the Jewish state or were caught 
in its crossfire. A lot of Palestinian boys spend their summer vacations in 
the cemetery digging graves and tending tombs. Palestinian boys who 
shoveled graves for less than $10 for the day. August 7, 2004. 
REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah


<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040905/ids_photos_wl/r1290279186.jpg>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040905/ids_photos_wl/r1290279186.jpg
  .

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040905/ids_photos_wl/r2810993073.jpg

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