[News] Respite in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

January 19, 2009


"They Don't Want Us to Wake Up Safe"


Respite in Gaza

By KATHY KELLY

Rafah, Gaza.

Late last night, a text message notified us that 
the Israeli government was very close to 
declaring that they would stop attacking Gaza for 
one day. Shortly before midnight, we heard huge 
explosions, four in a row.  Till now, that was 
the last attack.  Israeli drones flew overhead 
all night long, but residents of Rafah were 
finally able to get eight hours of sleep 
uninterrupted by F16s and Apache helicopters attacking them.

Audrey Stewart and I stayed with Abu Yusif and 
his family, all of whom had fled their home 
closer to the border and were staying in that Abu 
Yusif's brother-in-law, who is out of the country, loaned to him.

The family arose this morning after a 
comparatively restful slumber.  For the first 
time in three weeks, they weren't attacked by 
bombs throughout the night.   This morning, while 
his wife prepared breakfast, he and the children 
nestled together, on a mat, lining the wall.  Abu 
Yusif had a son under each arm, while the 
youngest son playfully circled his siblings and 
then fell into his father's lap. Umm Yusif 
prepared a mixture of date preserves and pine 
nuts, served with warm bread, cheese and spices. 
Her daughter smiled in contentment, while her 
nephew, her husband and a close family friend talked about the news.

The family isn't confident that Israel's attacks 
will end, nor can they know what Hamas will 
choose to do, but today residents of Rafah were 
able to at least begin assessing the damage.  Abu 
Yusif and his son took us to their home very 
close to the border.  The house is still 
standing, --he'll need to repair broken windows 
and doors, but he is better off than many of his 
neighbors whose houses are now piles of rubble.

Very near his home are the remnants of tunnels 
that are now unusable. A few dozen people picked 
through the rubble, salvaging wood for fuel.

Young boys carried pieces of wood in remnants of 
plastic formerly used to cover tomato 
plants.   An older man told me he is afraid to 
carry even a piece of wood.  Pointing upward, he 
explained that the unmanned surveillance planes 
circle the skies all day.  If it appeared that he 
was carrying a rocket instead of a piece of wood, 
he might be targeted for assassination.

Sitting around an ashcan fire, people who had 
maintained the tunnels tell us that they dream of 
freedom: freedom of movement and basic human 
rights.  Every person can dream, but human beings 
in Palestine can't dream of anything else but 
freedom, to sleep without bombing and to live 
without suffering from extreme stress.  Fida, who 
translates for us, tells me she has a terrible 
headache very day, from the stress.  She feels 
worse at night.  Her little sister is so 
terrified that she can't walk a step without help from her mother and sister.

She says that if Israel opens the border there 
won't be any need to open the tunnels.  If 
borders don't open, people will rebuild the tunnels.

Hussein tells us about a doctor who worked in an 
Israeli hospital.  The doctor is a Palestinian 
who lived in Rafah.  The Israeli hospital where 
he works is about 100 meters from where we 
sat.  Last week, the Israelis destroyed his home 
and killed his children. "Why do you destroy my 
house?" he asks.  He lost his children and his 
home, but he still works in the Israeli 
hospital.  “Israel is experimenting with us, 
using white phosphorous and other new kinds of bombs.”

One man, a teacher, says he hasn't had one day 
without sorrow.  He listens to the children he 
teaches tell many stories about how their homes 
were destroyed.  He hopes his own child and other 
children like him can live like other children in 
the world.  He hopes his son, his only child, will have a better life.

“Show the world we are friendly and we don't love 
war,” he tells us.  “Israel forces us to live 
under these forces.  The war is not only against 
Palestinians in Gaza.  It is against all 
Palestinians.  They want us to leave this land, 
but we can't leave it. They don’t want us to wake up safe.”

All of the men speaking with us had to leave 
their homes and find other places to live.

The drones still fly overhead, promising the 
possibility of further attack.  If Hamas is 
accused of breaking the cease fire, the people 
will pay.  Many of these residents who live near 
the border also fear that if they are spotted 
anything – even carrying even a stick, the drones 
overhead will spot them and mistake them for 
someone carrying a rocket and they will be attacked again.

Abu Yusif examines the damage done to his 
house.  He tries to fix a broken water 
heater.  His sons collect a bag of clothing so 
that everyone in the family can change clothes 
for the first time in three weeks.  Maybe, just 
maybe, they'll have another night of sleep.  And, 
an even more distant dream, perhaps they'll return to their homes in peace.

Kathy Kelly, a co-coordinator of Voices for 
Creative Nonviolence, is writing from Arish, a 
town near the Rafah border between Egypt and 
Gaza. Bill Quigley, a human rights lawyer and law 
professor at Loyola New Orleans and Audrey 
Stewart are also in Egypt and contributed to this 
article. Kathy Kelly is the author of 
<http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html>Other 
Lands Have Dreams (published by CounterPunch/AK 
Press). Her email is <mailto:kathy at vcnv.org>kathy at vcnv.org




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