[News] The overwhelming silence of Gaza’s streets

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  The overwhelming silence of Gaza’s streets

Rami Almeghari <http://electronicintifada.net/people/rami-almeghari>
The Electronic Intifada 
<http://electronicintifada.net/people/electronic-intifada>
*http://electronicintifada.net/content/overwhelming-silence-gazas-streets/13573*

14 July 2014

Mahmoud Darwish <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mahmoud-darwish>, 
the great Palestinian poet, once called 
<http://mondoweiss.net/2012/11/mahmoud-darwish-silence-for-gaza.html> 
Gaza <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-strip> “an incomparable 
moral treasure for Arabs.” No matter what our enemies do, Gaza will “not 
repeat lies and say ‘yes’ to invaders,” he wrote.

Here is the truth about what our Israeli invaders have done to us in 
recent days. They have killed 
<http://www.mezan.org/en/details.php?id=19229&ddname=IOF&id2=9&id_dept=9&p=center> 
more than 170 people. More than thirty of them are children.

They have injured more than one thousand. Most of our victims are 
civilians 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10484:ongoing-israeli-offensive-on-gaza-162-palestinians-killed-of-whom-137-are-civilians-including-34-children-and-28-women-and-1058-others-wounded-mostly-civilians-including-332-children-and-212-women&catid=145:in-focus>.

Everyone in Gaza is a potential target for Israel’s warplanes. We can 
all be killed — whether we stay at home, go to work, go to a marketplace 
or pray in a mosque.


    No ambition for martyrdom

In Gaza, we call our victims “martyrs,” whether they intended to die or 
not. Some people in the West find this puzzling. We make no apology for 
doing so. We have always believed that those who are killed by the 
Israeli occupation will be rewarded by God in paradise.

I have not been trying to become a martyr. I am a journalist trying to 
do my job.

Last week, I was trying to ensure that the voices of Gaza are heard in 
the outside world, something I do all the time.

While I was taking a taxi home after conducting some interviews, I 
narrowly missed 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/eis-gaza-correspondent-witnesses-israeli-drone-attack> 
an Israeli drone <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/drones> attack on a 
motorcycle. Two martyrs died instantly in that attack.

Protecting my children is not easy.

Each day I go to a market near where I live, so that I can buy some food 
for my family. Munir, my fifteen-year-old son, accompanied me on one of 
these recent visits. We had to race home. Munir started running first, 
as we heard the thunderous roar of an Israeli airstrike. I felt 
compelled to run, too.

When we got back home, I started thinking about what could have 
happened. What if the Israelis had bombed us?


    Too much suffering

Too many people have already lost loved ones. Too many families are 
suffering.

Muhammad Hamad’s <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/muhammad-hamad> 
wife, three of his sons and his sixteen-year-old granddaughter were all 
killed 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/why-did-they-kill-my-entire-family-asks-gaza-bombing-survivor> 
in a bomb attack on Beit Hanoun 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/beit-hanoun> in northern Gaza.

Eighteen people were wiped out 
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/viewdetails.aspx?id=712486> when Israel hit 
a house and mosque in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-city>.

Mohammed Khalaf Awad al-Nawasara was just two years old. His brother, 
Nidal, was four. They were among a family of four killed 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10465:israeli-offensive-on-gaza-continues-69-palestinians-killed-of-whom-60-are-civilians-including-22-children-and-13-women-and-469-others-wounded-mostly-civilians-including-166-children-and-85-women-driver-of-press-vehicle-killed-70-houses-destroyed&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194> 
when Israel bombed al-Meghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.


    Risking their lives

Ambulance drivers are risking their lives to bring victims to hospitals. 
At least two ambulance crew members have been wounded 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/number-keeps-rising-dr-mona-el-farra-gaza-assault#Mona%20El-Farra> 
in eastern Gaza City. There are few other vehicles on the road.

It is Ramadan <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ramadan>. Usually 
during this blessed month, we hear vendors calling out to us from their 
market stalls. They plead with us to buy treats for the /iftar/, the 
meal that ends a day of fasting.

Over the past few days, the marketplaces have been silent.

The silence is overwhelming. People on the street look as if they are 
attending a funeral, as if they are about to bury their dead. Many faces 
look pale.

This is the third time in less than six years that Israel has subjected 
us to an all-out attack.

We are traumatized. We are terrorized.

But we are still here. All 1.8 million of us.

Mahmoud Darwish was right. We will never say “yes” to our invaders. They 
will never defeat us.

/Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the 
Gaza Strip./

-- 
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863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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