Gaza Unsilenced Read online

  “The editors of this remarkable collection ask, ‘After the smoke clears, who will remember the dead?’ Their answer, and that of their dozens of writers, poets, journalists, and analysts, is “We will.” We, they said, Palestinians of Gaza who survived the slaughter, we Palestinians from elsewhere in Palestine and refugees in far-flung exile, we allies and friends from around the world, we will not let the world forget. During the 50 days of Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza, Tel Aviv’s best efforts to keep the world in the dark and to keep the West believing the lie of self-defense, all failed. They failed because Palestinians did not all die, and those who lived were determined to tell their story in their own voices: their poetry, their memories, and their children. This extraordinary book joins the narrative of Palestine’s witness—of oppression, brutality, and death, but also of life reaffirmed and resistance reclaimed.”

  —PHYLLIS BENNIS

  Institute for Policy Studies

  “Readers will find this rich anthology highly informative, evocative, and inspirational. They will find in it culture, creativity, and commitment. And they will also find it painful, emotional, and overpowering, such is the unremitting cruelty with which Palestinians are treated. But read it they must.... It enables us to communicate, even more powerfully, why justice is needed and needed now, and why Israel must be brought to justice. If any book is a must-read by the Prosecutor and judges at the International Criminal Court, this book is it.”

  —NADIA HIJAB

  Executive Director, Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network

  “Gaza Unsilenced is an outstanding collection of short essays that discuss different aspects of Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza in the summer of 2014. Given the ability of Israel and its American defenders to propagandize and distort the historical record, it is imperative that books like this be published and widely read. Israel cannot be allowed to create a false history about the horrors it has inflicted on the people of Gaza and the Palestinians more generally.”

  —JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER

  R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

  “Israel takes the hammer to Gaza, but it cannot snuff out Palestinian voices. These continue to testify to the inhumanity of the Israeli occupation. There are also silences—the book ends with a list of the names of those killed in Israel’s 2014 bombing of Gaza, human beings who cannot tell us their stories. This book tries to fill that gap.”

  —VIJAY PRASHAD

  Editor, Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War and Occupation

  Just World Books exists to expand the discourse in the United States and worldwide on issues of vital international concern. We are committed to building a more just, equitable, and peaceable world. We uphold the equality of all human persons. We aim for our books to contribute to increasing understanding across national, religious, ethnic, and racial lines; to share more broadly the reflections, analyses, and policy prescriptions of pathbreaking activists for peace; and to help to prevent war.

  To learn about our existing and upcoming titles, to find our terms for bookstores or other bulk purchasers, or to buy our books, visit our website:

  www.justworldbooks.com

  Also, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

  Our recent titles include:

  Baddawi, by Leila Abdelrazaq

  Chaos and Counterrevolution: After the Arab Spring, by Richard Falk

  Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope, by Richard Falk

  Chief Complaint: A Country Doctor’s Tales of Life in Galilee, by Hatim Kanaaneh

  In Our Power: U.S. Students Organize for Justice in Palestine, by Nora Barrows-Friedman

  Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine, edited by Refaat Alareer

  The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey, by Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt

  On the Brink: Israel and Palestine on the Eve of the 2014 Gaza Invasion, by Alice Rothchild

  The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, by Miko Peled

  Just World Books is an imprint of Just World Publishing, LLC.

  Copyright © 2015 Refaat Alareer and Laila El-Haddad.

  “Collective Punishment in Gaza” by Rashid Khalidi/The New Yorker/© Conde Nast and used by permission.

  All other writers, photographers, and illustrators in this volume retain copyright to their work, which is used here with their permission and that of previous publishers, as identified in the text.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book, except brief passages for review purposes, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or exporting from any information storage system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Such permission may be requested via the email or physical address listed at www.justworldbooks.com/contact.

  Front cover photo by Mohammed Asad.

  Back cover photo by Alaa Shamaly.

  Cover design and typesetting by Diana Ghazzawi for Just World Publishing, LLC.

  Publisher’s Cataloging in Publication

  (Provided by Quality Books, Inc.)

  Gaza unsilenced / Refaat Alareer & Laila El-Haddad, eds.

  pages cm

  Includes bibliographical references.

  LCCN 2015941455

  ISBN 978-1-935982-55-5

  ISBN 978-1-935982-57-9 (ebook)

  1. Gaza Strip--History--21st century.

  2. Arab-Israeli conflict--History--21st century.

  3. Palestinian Arabs--History--21st century. I. Alareer, Refaat, editor. II. El-Haddad, Laila M., editor.

  DS110.G3G398 2015

  953’.1056

  QBI15-600114

  To our shuhada, those departed souls who bear witness to the crimes against them and humanity in front of our Lord.

  To the living, who insist on existing, on being, beautifully, compassionately, where there is no compassion to be found.

  And to the unborn thorns of disquiet, flag bearers of freedom and tenacity.

  To the defiant.

  To the brave.

  To the human.

  Contents

  Map

  Note

  Introduction

  1. Everyone Is a Target: The Human Toll

  The Story of My Brother, Martyr Mohammed Alareer

  Refaat Alareer

  The Boy Who Clung to the Paramedic: The Story Behind the Photo

  Belal Dabour

  My Son Asks if We Are Going to Die Today

  Ghadeer al Omari

  “Wake Up, My Son!” None of Gaza’s Murdered Children Are Just Numbers

  Ali Abunimah

  Devastated Family Remembers Cheerful Boy Cut Down by Israeli Fire on Gaza Beach

  Rami Almeghari

  Gaza: Israel Puts Paramedics in Its Crosshairs

  Mohammed Suliman

  Losing a Good Friend

  Mu’taz Hilal Muhammad al-‘Azayzeh

  In Gaza’s al-Shuja‘iya: “I Just Survived a Massacre”

  Mohammed Suliman

  An Eyewitness to Genocide: A Night in Khuza‘a

  Sarah Algherbawi

  Israeli Army Uses Gaza Children as Human Shields

  Rania Khalek

  Psychological Damage of Gazan Children Will Have Long-term Consequences

  Lynda Franken

  A Gaza Mother amid the Airstrikes

  Eman Mohammed

  Gaza: A Human Tragedy

  Sarah Ali

  2. Destitute by Design: Making Gaza Unlivable

  “The Tank Shells Fell Like Rain”: Survivors of the Attack on UNRWA School Report Scenes of Carnage and Destruction

&nbs
p; Sharif Abdel Kouddous

  Poems of Mass Destruction at Gaza University

  Refaat Alareer

  Israel Destroys al-Wafa Hospital as Staff Evacuates All Patients

  Allison Deger

  Water Disaster Hits Every Single Person in Gaza

  Ali Abunimah

  Farming in Gaza near the Buffer Zone

  Rina Andolini

  Farming under Siege: Working the Land in Gaza

  Tom Anderson and Therezia Cooper

  Gaza Olive Harvest Hit Hard by War

  Rami Almeghari

  Farmers Forced to Stop Growing Strawberries in Gaza

  Rami Almeghari

  Destroyed Factories in Gaza: An Attempt to Rise Again

  Palestine Information Center

  Gaza Fishermen “in God’s Hands”

  Patrick O. Strickland and Ezz Al Zanoon

  Gaza’s Economy Shattered by Israeli Siege

  Rosa Schiano

  The Great Game in the Holy Land: How Gazan Natural Gas Became the Epicenter of an International Power Struggle

  Michael Schwartz

  The Ancient Mosques of Gaza in Ruins: How Israel’s War Endangered Palestine’s Cultural Heritage

  Ahmad Nafi

  3. Elsewhere in Palestine...

  Administrative Detainees on Hunger Strike Issue Their Will as They Stand “at the Edge of Death”

  Shahd Abusalama

  Merciless Israeli Mobs Are Hunting Palestinians

  Rania Khalek

  As Israel Bombs Gaza, It Kills Palestinians in the West Bank Too

  Maureen Clare Murphy

  The Constant Presence of Death in the Lives of Palestinian Children

  Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

  Palestinian Civil Society in Israel Demands Urgent Action on Gaza

  The Arab Association for Human Rights

  Israel Arrests Activist for Hosting Skype Chat with Resistance Icon Leila Khaled

  Patrick O. Strickland

  Arrabeh’s Eid in Gaza’s Shadow

  Hatim Kanaaneh

  Why Palestinian Citizens of Israel Are No Longer Safe

  Ron Gerlitz

  4. Gaza Burns, the World Responds: Analysis and Commentary

  Something Rotten in the Operations Manual

  Sharif S. Elmusa

  Institutionalised Disregard for Palestinian Life

  Mouin Rabbani

  International Solidarity with Palestine Grows with Israeli Assault

  Beth Staton

  Gaza Traces

  Kim Jensen

  Controversial, Illegal, and Documented: Israeli Military Strategies in Gaza

  Sami Kishawi

  Why Gaza Fought Back

  Ramzy Baroud

  Blaming the Victims

  Diana Buttu

  The Palestinians’ Right to Self-Defense

  Chris Hedges

  No Exit from Gaza: A New War Crime?

  Richard Falk

  Egypt’s Propagandists and the Gaza Massacre

  Joseph Massad

  Collective Punishment in Gaza

  Rashid Khalidi

  5. The Pen, the Keyboard, and the F-16: Creative Resistance in the Digital Age

  War on Gaza, Social Media and Efficacy of Protest

  Hatem Bazian

  Social Media: The Weapon of Choice in the Gaza-Israel Conflict

  Yousef al-Helou

  In Asymmetric Twitter War over Gaza, Palestinians Are Winning

  Belal Dabour

  Selection of Tweets, July 5–August 26

  Farah Baker

  Tweets from a Doctor in Gaza, July 26

  Belal Dabour

  Palestine Unbound (Excerpt)

  Steven Salaita

  Palestinian Artists Illustrate the Deadly Realities in Gaza

  Mariam Elba

  Three Poems for Gaza

  Nathalie Handal

  Palestine, Summer 2014

  Kim Jensen

  The UN Counted the Number of Our Dead

  Samah Sabawi

  Ferguson and Gaza

  Zeina Azzam

  From Dawn to Dusk

  Lina H. Al-Sharif

  An Unjust World

  Nour ElBorno

  Seafaring Nocturne

  Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

  This Miraculous Terrorism

  Omar J. Sakr

  6. 51 Days Later, and Counting: The Untenable Status Quo

  How Israel Is Turning Gaza into a Super-Max Prison

  Jonathan Cook

  Under Siege: Remembering Leningrad, Surviving Gaza

  Ayah Bashir and Esther Rappaport

  Investigators: Israel Fired on Civilians Carrying White Flags

  Charlotte Silver

  Revealed: Gaza Orphans Israel Trip Was Government-Backed PR Stunt

  Ali Abunimah

  Uncovering the Truth in Khuza’a

  Ruairi Henchy

  A Call from Gaza: Make Israel Accountable for Its Crimes in Gaza—Intensify BDS!

  Gaza Civil Society Organizations

  One Thing They Can’t Bomb

  Ned Rosch

  We Shall Live to Tell the Stories of War Crimes in Gaza

  Hana Baalousha

  Who Benefits from Billions Pledged for Gaza Reconstruction?

  Maureen Clare Murphy

  Editors’ Afterwords

  Re-humanizing Gaza

  Laila El-Haddad

  When Will We Go Back Home?

  Refaat Alareer

  Names of the Dead

  Notes

  Bibliography

  About the Contributors

  Acknowledgments

  About the Editors

  Map by Lewis Rector. Copyright © Just World Books

  Editors’ Note

  Essays and articles that previously appeared elsewhere are followed by their original source and are published here with the kind permission of their publishers.

  Due to variations among writers and publishers in transliterating Arabic into English, certain names and words may appear in this volume with more than one English spelling.

  Introduction

  On July 7, 2014, Israel launched a colossal ground, air, and naval assault on the Gaza Strip, the tiny Palestinian coastal enclave Israel controls. This was the third, and to date the worst, such assault waged by Israel against Gaza since 2008. It was an outrageous act of premeditated aggression to which the Israeli government gave the Orwellian name “Operation Protective Edge.”

  In the course of fifty-one dark days, nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed; about a quarter of them were children, many of whom were deliberately targeted.1 One hundred and forty-two families lost three or more members. About 11,000 Gaza Palestinians were injured, maimed, or permanently disfigured. Israeli bombardment also destroyed or severely damaged 18,000 housing units, displacing nearly 20,000 Palestinian families comprised of about 108,000 men, women, and children. It also flattened about 17,000 hectares of crops, and decimated the agricultural infrastructure that sustains life: irrigations systems, animal farms, and greenhouses.2

  This relentless pummeling was directed at a population still recovering from the two preceding Israeli attacks—Operation “Cast Lead” in 2008–2009, and Operation “Pillar of Cloud” in 2012—and reeling from an illegal and debilitating seven-year-long siege and blockade that shattered livelihoods and deliberately impoverished the residents (“put them on a diet,” in Israeli parlance3). Seventy-two percent of Gaza’s residents were described by UN bodies as food insecure or vulnerable—that is, lacking access to sufficient and nutritious food to feed their families—and nearly half unemployed.4 This same population, along with their brethren in the rest of Palestine and abroad in diaspora, had already endured sixty-six years of displacement and dispossession, almost a half century of Israeli military occupation involving continuing settler colonialism, and decades of closures and movement restrictions.

  And yet, if we are to believe the popular discourse in the mainstream W
estern media, Gaza “had it coming,” and by some perverse and morally vacuous logic, its residents “were to blame” for their own suffering. How do we make sense of all of this? Why would Israel see fit to pound Gaza over and over again, and more to the point, how can they get away with it? How can we truly understand the situation in Gaza, as a means to understanding the situation in Palestine more broadly? How can we understand a place that is encircled from every angle, continuously and systematically assailed to rally voters (in Israel), or to “teach a lesson,” or, in another obscene Israeli expression, to “mow the lawn”5—to trim those unruly, defiant hedges? Whenever Gaza is hit, it is thrust anew into the media limelight, and its residents are recast into the double roles of both victim and villain. Gaza, we fear, has been reduced to an allegory and an abstraction. We are inundated with figures and numbers attempting to depict for us what life is like in this tiniest of places. How can words convey that which numbers and images and characters and online posts cannot, no matter how valiantly? How do you provide an accurate and humanistic—a real narration—of the Palestinian story that is Gaza?

  In Gaza Unsilenced, we attempt to do just this. We set out to compile a compelling collection of some of the best writing, photography, tweets, art, and poems from that harrowing time and the year that followed, to depict as truthfully and inclusively as possible what was done to Gaza, what the impact has been on both the people and the land, and how they are coping under a still existent siege.

  As Palestinians from Gaza who were watching the horror unfold from abroad, we were driven by a sense of urgency, despair, and obligation to curate and edit this book, to be a conduit for voices writing from and about Gaza, as a means for changing the narrative and thereby changing public opinions, which we hope can help push the long-standing U.S. policy of blind alliance with Israel in a different direction, and ultimately, let Gaza live.

  Laila, an author, activist and mother of three, originally from Gaza City, was in the United States during the assault, where she makes her home along with her Palestinian husband, who is forbidden from returning to his native land, as are millions of other refugees. Refaat, a professor of English literature, was in the middle of his PhD program in Malaysia, where he had been obliged to travel alone because the remainder of his family was unable to leave Gaza as a result of its near hermetic closure. We first met during an early 2014 book tour of the United States for Gaza Writes Back, a volume of short stories written by Refaat’s students in Gaza.