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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/10/what-is-next-for-palestinian-popular-resistance-in-gaza-speaking-to-journalist-wafaa-aludaini/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/10/what-is-next-for-palestinian-popular-resistance-in-gaza-speaking-to-journalist-wafaa-aludaini/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">What is Next for Palestinian Popular Resistance in Gaza? Speaking to Journalist Wafaa Aludaini</h1>
<span class="gmail-post_author_intro">by</span> <span class="gmail-post_author"><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/ramzy-baroud-romana-rubeo/" rel="nofollow">Ramzy Baroud - Romana Rubeo</a></span> - June 10, 2020<br></div>
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<p>Wafaa Aludaini is a witness to many of Gaza’s recent tragedies and
also never-ending resistance. She experienced the violent Israeli
occupation, the subsequent blockade on the impoverished Strip, and
several wars that resulted in the death and wounding of tens of
thousands of Palestinians.</p>
<p>But none of Israel’s wars impacted Aludaini’s life as much as the
2014 onslaught which Israel dubbed ‘Operation Protective Edge.’</p>
<p>Of the nearly <a href="https://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/20190303_13000_gazans_homelsess_since_2014_war">18,000 houses destroyed</a>, two homes, one belonging to Wafaa’s family and the other to her in-laws, were also destroyed by Israel’s bombs.</p>
<p>Gaza’s infrastructure, which was already dilapidated as a result of
previous wars and a protracted siege, took a massive beating during the <a href="https://books.google.it/books?id=SJg4DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT197&lpg=PT197&dq=2014+gaza+duration+days+51&source=bl&ots=ZdPQOlmLEA&sig=ACfU3U3HD8onnfeNlkOzvMz9F4FkmxZZmQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwipvYSuyNfpAhW7QUEAHRnVCpQQ6AEwCXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=2014%20gaza%20duration%20days%2051&f=false">51-day Israeli bombardment</a>.</p>
<p>The most irreplaceable of all of this <a href="https://imeu.org/article/50-days-of-death-destruction-israels-operation-protective-edge">tragic loss is human life</a>, as <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/key-figures-2014-hostilities">2,251</a> Palestinians were killed and over 11,000 wounded, many maimed for life.</p>
<p>War and siege, however, only strengthened Wafaa’s resolve as she
became more involved in covering news from Gaza, hoping to reveal
long-hidden truths and defy mainstream media narratives and popular
stereotypes.</p>
<p>During the ‘Great March of Return’, a <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190314-the-year-of-the-people-the-untold-story-of-gazas-march-of-return/">popular movement</a>
that began on March 30, 2018, Wafaa joined the protesters, reporting on
a daily basis on the killing and wounding of unarmed youth who flocked
to the fence that separates besieged Gaza from Israel, to demand their
freedom and basic human rights.</p>
<p>Enraged by the refugees’ daily chants of ‘End the siege’, ‘Free
Palestine’, and their adamant insistence on their ‘Right of Return’ to
their original villages in Palestine, which were <a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/how-we-became-refugees-the-day-my-grandfather-lost-his-village-in-palestine/">ethnically cleansed</a>
during Israel’s violent birth in 1948, Israeli snipers opened fire. In
the first two years of the March, over 300 Palestinians were reportedly
killed, and thousands wounded.</p>
<p>Aludaini was there during the entire ordeal, reporting on the dead
and the wounded, consoling bereaved families, and also taking part in an
historic moment when all of Gaza rose and united behind a single chant
of freedom.</p>
<p>Aludaini was not a typical journalist chasing after a story at the fence, as she was both the story and the storyteller.</p>
<p>“I am a journalist, but I am also a refugee. My parents were expelled
from their village in Palestine, which is now in Israel,” she said.</p>
<p>“Being a journalist in Gaza is not easy, because every single day,
you are subjected to (the possibility) of being killed, injured, or
arrested by the Israeli occupation forces. In fact, many journalists
were <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/reporters-without-borders-accepts-prize-journalist-killing-regime">murdered</a> by Israeli fire this way.”</p>
<p>On why she chose journalism as a career although she studied English
literature at a local Gaza University, Aludaini said that the more she
understood mainstream media’s reporting on Palestine, the more
frustrated she felt by the unfair depiction of Palestine and the
Palestinian struggle.</p>
<p>“Journalists who are (advancing) mainstream media (narratives on
Palestine) are, in a way, helping the Israeli occupation in killing more
innocent people in Palestine, in particular, in the Gaza Strip. (They)
are strengthening the people (Israelis) who expelled us in 1948,
encouraging them to violate international law,” Aludaini said.</p>
<p>“So I am asking them to come here, to Palestine, to see for
themselves, to see the Apartheid wall, to see the checkpoints, to see
what is happening in Israeli jails. Only after they see it with their
own eyes, can they tell the truth, because journalists should tell the
truth and stand for humanity, regardless of religion and regardless of
anything else.”</p>
<p>In a similar tone, Aludaini challenged “defenders of the Israeli
occupation” to come to Palestine and to “listen to the people who had
their children killed; to those who got expelled from their homes. In
every home in Palestine, there is a story of misery, but you will never
find (these stories) in mainstream media.”</p>
<p>Regarding the Great March of Return, Aludaini said that the March was
“a popular protest where the people of Gaza collectively gathered at
the separation fence between Gaza and Israel,” to exhibit various forms
of resistance that focused mostly on cultural resistance.</p>
<p>Protesters carried out various forms of “traditional activities, like
dancing dabka, singing old songs, cooking Palestinian dishes,” Aludaini
said, noting that the most touching of these scenes were those of
“elderly Palestinians holding the keys of their homes from which they
were forcibly expelled in 1948 during the Nakba,” or the Great
Catastrophe.</p>
<p>“This kind of popular resistance is not new for Palestinians (as
they) have always used all their means to fight for their rights, to
fight (against Israeli military) occupation, like the weekly protests
(at the Gaza fence), or (the symbolic acts of) stone-throwing. Even when
Gazans resort to armed resistance, people never stop displaying popular
(forms) of resistance as well.”</p>
<p>But is this the end of the March of Return?</p>
<p>Aludaini said that the March is not over, however, the strategy will be reformulated to minimize the number of casualties.</p>
<p>“After almost three years of the protests, the High Committee of the
Great March of Return decided to change the approach of the protests.
>From now on, the marches are only going to be held on national occasions
instead of being held on a weekly basis because Israel uses lethal
force against peaceful and unarmed protesters.”</p>
<p>According to Aludaini, the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is already
overwhelmed by the lack of hospital equipment, electricity, and clean
water, can no longer handle the pressures of daily deaths and injuries.</p>
<p>Aludaini herself spent many hours in Gaza’s hospitals, interviewing
and comforting the wounded. She told us of a Gazan mother of four who
participated in the March every Friday without fail. “One day, she was
shot in the leg, and it was hard for her to walk. But the following
Friday, she returned to the fence. When I asked her why is she back
despite her injury, she told me: ‘I will never allow the Israelis to
steal my land. This is my land; these are my rights and I will come back
(to defend them) again and again.’”</p>
<p>For Aludaini, it is the resilience of these seemingly ordinary people that inspires her and gives her hope.</p>
<p>Another story is of a 19-year-old girl who implored her parents
repeatedly to join the protests. When they finally relented, the young
girl was shot in the eye by an Israeli sniper. Aludaini and her comrades
rushed to the hospital to show support for the protester who lost her
eye, only to find her in high spirits, stronger and more determined than
ever.</p>
<p>“She told us that as soon as she leaves the hospital, she plans to go back to the fence.”</p>
<p>Aludaini challenges “Israeli propaganda” that claims that its wars
and ongoing violence in Gaza are motivated by self-defense. If that is
the case, “why is Israel targeting the West Bank which is also subjected
to annexation and apartheid?” she asks.</p>
<p>“(Currently) There is no armed resistance (in the West Bank), but
(the Israeli occupation army) still kills people every single day.”</p>
<p>Aludaini, who is frustrated by the lack of emphasis on media studies
in Gazan universities, is determined to continue with her work as a
journalist and as an activist, because when the media fails at exposing
Israeli crimes in Gaza, it is the likes of Wafa Aludaini who make all
the difference.</p>
<p><img src="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2020/06/1-GMR.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="454" height="302"> <img src="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2020/06/1-mother-of-four-GMR.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="454" height="356"> <img src="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2020/06/1-Wafaas-parents.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="454" height="448"> <img src="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2020/06/2-GMR.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="454" height="302"> <img src="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2020/06/2-with-woman.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="454" height="341">
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<em>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “</em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><em>These Chains Will Be Broken</em></a><em>:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons”
(Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research
Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim
University (IZU). His website is </em><a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><em>www.ramzybaroud.net</em></a><em> </em>
<em>Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The
Palestine Chronicle. Her articles appeared in many online newspapers and
academic journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and
Literature, and specializes in audio-visual and journalism
translation. </em>
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