One Year After 'Disengagement' from Gaza, Israelis are Gone but their Ghosts Remain

Bloodshed, destruction and fear are the remnants of the Israeli occupation army across the Gaza Strip since the Israeli settlers were evacuated on September 12, 2005 army. A year has passed since the Israeli 'disengagement' from Gaza, and since then there remains only the Israeli occupation's ghost, moving from one place to another throughout the Gaza Strip -- home to 1.3 million Palestinians, one of the most crowded places on earth.

In myths we learned that a ghost can never kill, but instead sabotages one's life by haunting its victims - causing panic, leaving no room for peaceful sleep. The role of ghosts in mythology has become the reality of the Gaza Strip.

Israel's ghost for the past year of 'no-occupation' is still casting fear, panic and destruction everywhere in Gaza, starting from the northernmost city of Beit Hanoun down to Beit Lahia, from eastern Gaza City to the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Maghazi, and from Khez'a town to Rafah in the south.

The ghost, which lies on the borders of this most-densely populated part of the world, has been causing a great deal of devastation to Gaza's human beings, infrastructure and economy, since September 12, 2005.

The populated parts of Gaza are empty of a single Israeli soldier; they have all disappeared from the sight of ordinary Gazans, yet these Gazans are still being victimized by these soldiers' ghosts.

Right after the disengagement, Israeli jetfighters hovered in the Gaza sky, as an apparent reminder that they indication that they still existed. They spread panic every day and night by their 'sonic booms', that sound like bombs, on a daily and nightly basis.

In addition, the Israeli army created a one-kilometer deep buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip, under the pretext of preventing Palestinian resistance groups from firing homemade rockets at nearby Israeli towns.

Israeli warplanes and drones committed a series of extra-judicial assassinations -- targeted killings, claiming the lives of dozens of Palestinians, including dozens of innocent women, men and children.

Also, throughout the past year, the Israeli occupation's ghost kept control over the main Gaza border crossing points, such as the Rafah crossing terminal (which is now observed by European observers), and the Karni and Sofa commercial crossings, thus having complete control over the movement of people and goods alike, and turning the Gazans into puppets controlled by this invisible hand.

This ghost also interfered in Palestinian politics, by rejecting the outcome of the Palestinian elections -- elections which were judged to be the most democratic in the Middle East, which brought to power the Hamas movement on January 25, 2006 -- just four months after disengagement.

So tax money due to the newly-elected Palestinian government has been withheld by Israel since January. The ghost's finger has gestured to others to take the same stand, and international aid has been cut to the entire population, in an attempt to undermine the Palestinian political system as well.

Israel's rejection of the electoral outcome has pushed the Palestinian economy to the brink of collapse, with crossings closed and 160,000 Palestinian government employees having received no salaries since March.

Shortly before mid 2006, after 8 months of disengagement, the ghost's intrusion into Palestinian life in Gaza has reached a climax, as the Israeli occupation army stepped up its attacks on all parts of Gaza areas including Gaza's shore, where a 7-member family, including women and children, were killed in cold blood by Israeli fire.

In June 2006, the Israeli undercover units abducted two Palestinian brothers inside the Palestinian borders in Rafah city, instigating some Palestinian resistance groups to retaliate by infiltrating into Israeli borders and killing two Israeli soldiers while abducting a third.

This unprecedented attack on an Israeli army base inside Israeli borders to the south of Rafah has led to the apex of Israeli army attacks on the Gaza Strip, known as 'Summer Rain' (the codename for the current Israeli military operation in various parts of the Gaza Strip). With 'Summer Rain', the ghost has materialized as a physical apparition -- and unlike the ghosts of mythology, this apparition can kill, with complete impunity.

From June 27 until this very moment, Israeli soldiers are killing humans, destroying homes and uprooting trees throughout Gaza. The Israeli occupation army has killed more than 250 Palestinian men, women and children, wounded more than 1000 others, devastated Gaza's power plant, bridges, ministerial buildings, farms and houses, thus leaving the population of 1.4 million people without electricity. It is as if the people of Gaza are living in the stone age -- a time when people actually believed in such things as ghosts.

Electricity in Gaza: Another Victim of Israeli 'Summer Rains'

As I walked into one of the largest food processing plants in the central Gaza Strip, the first thing I noticed were two workers sitting idle in the ice-cream production area of the plant. I arrived during working hours, but all the machines were completely stopped. The factory was silent, the silence was overwhelming.

The workers, Ibrahim and Hassan, were sitting idle in a corner - not because there is no desire in Gaza for ice cream, but because the Al-Awda factory, for which both workers work, is no longer able to produce ice cream, due to the electricity outages in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Awda's owner, businessman Mohammad Altelbani, from Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, says that shops and groceries this summer have stopped purchasing ice-cream products due to their inability to maintain refrigeration necessary for frozen products. With frequent electricity outages, keeping ice cream frozen is virtually impossible.

At any rate, Palestinians in Gaza, who have become used to seeing blood and destruction in the streets over the past two months, can certainly live without ice-cream for the rest of such a "rainy summer" (referring the name of the ongoing Israeli military invasion of Gaza is known as "Operation Summer Rains").

"We lose $1000 every day. You know why? Because of the power outage, we're depending on benzene gas-powered electrdy jovenes and adultos groups up and running and I am going to contiune on with that. That want me to also give some talks about micro enterprise and during my site visit they formed a group of ninos, mostly girls, that want to learn how to read and dance, a good start for a group when they start tot get a little older. I think my first job with them is goign to take a census and there is also a divide in the neighborhood that they want to fix.

Overall I will have a lot of work and am looking forward to doing it all. That said there is more work than can be done by one person. Manos Unidas is looking to export some of their artisan products and I am going to help them out with a website, so it may be the case that anyone can offer a little support through the purchase of a trinket or two made by hand by youth in need, not by a factory and then pawned on the side of the road. Hope all is well, keep in touch. Sorry for any spelling errors, I don´t have spell check and forgot how to do it myself....
pelling errors, I don´t have spell check and forgot how to do it myself....

Electricity in Gaza: Another Victim of Israeli 'Summer Rains'

As I walked into one of the largest food processing plants in the central Gaza Strip, the first thing I noticed were two workers sitting idle in the ice-cream production area of the plant. I arrived during working hours, but all the machines were completely stopped. The factory was silent, the silence was overwhelming.

The workers, Ibrahim and Hassan, were sitting idle in a corner - not because there is no desire in Gaza for ice cream, but because the Al-Awda factory, for which both workers work, is no longer able to produce ice cream, due to the electricity outages in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Awda's owner, businessman Mohammad Altelbani, from Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, says that shops and groceries this summer have stopped purchasing ice-cream products due to their inability to maintain refrigeration necessary for frozen products. With frequent electricity outages, keeping ice cream frozen is virtually impossible.

At any rate, Palestinians in Gaza, who have become used to seeing blood and destruction in the streets over the past two months, can certainly live without ice-cream for the rest of such a "rainy summer" (referring the name of the ongoing Israeli military invasion of Gaza is known as "Operation Summer Rains").

"We lose $1000 every day. You know why? Because of the power outage, we're depending on benzene gas-powered electricity generators. That, in addition to the breaking down of electronic components of the factory when the power surges or goes out, have made manufacturing impossible", Mr. Altelbani, the factory owner, points out.

"You see, the price of each pack of such products [cookies], has increased by 1.5 shekels [$.30], at a time when people are facing very harsh economic conditions. But we can't lower the prices, because the cost of production has increased so much due to the electricity cuts throughout Gaza", Altelbani explains.

In hospitals, another casualty of the electricity cuts can be seen: patients in need of surgery are lying in wait, unable to be treated, in rooms that have reached extreme summer temperatures with no air conditioning and in many cases, not even fans. Surgery has been decreased to a minimum due to the electricity cuts, says Dr. Jom'a Alsaqa, spokesman of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip.

"We have been forced to cancel 200 surgeries daily. We are currently conducting only emergency surgeries. The temperature in the hospital's rooms and departments is very high, also due to electricity cuts", Alsaqa indicates.

In the Gaza Strip Electricity Distribution Company, Jamal Aldardasawi, the company's media officer, tells me, "Prior to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza's main power plant on June 26th, the plant used to provide about 50 percent of Gaza's electricity. Currently, we are having to rely on the Israeli side's electricity supply, which is extremely sporadic and limited".

"The electricity problem is still persistent; therefore, we have contacted our brothers in Egypt, to achieve past and current dreams to connect Gaza's power network with the Egyptian one", he says.

"As part of this plan, the company is attempting to at least connect the most-damaged area of Rafah in southern Gaza with the Egyptian power network. Rafah is much more traumatized than other areas as far as the electricity is concerned. However, nothing has been achieved so far", Aldardasawi maintains.

"We appeal to all parties concerned, including the United Nations, the Quartet Committee for Middle East peace (United Nations, United States, European Union, Russia), to intervene to solve this problem, as our current power network continues to be targeted daily by the Israeli army in different areas of the Gaza Strip like Rafah, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia", he concluded.

Regarding the attempts to network electricity with Egypt, Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghazi Hammad said, "We have made good contacts with the Egyptian side to import power transformers, but the main obstacle that prevents this is the Israeli control over our borders".

According to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights, more than 200,000 Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip have been suffering from power outages for 16 hours a day, while 88,000 others, who live in high rises, are deprived of potable water, which is power-pumped.

On the eve of its massive military attack on the Gaza Strip on June 26th, Israeli warplanes bombed the power transformers of Gaza's main power plant in central Gaza. The attack was an apparent 'punishment' for all Palestinians in Gaza for the capture of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian resistance factions after an unprecedented resistance attack on an army base on June 25th.

Electricity in Gaza: Another Victim of Israeli 'Summer Rains'

As I walked into one of the largest food processing plants in the central Gaza Strip, the first thing I noticed were two workers sitting idle in the ice-cream production area of the plant. I arrived during working hours, but all the machines were completely stopped. The factory was silent, the silence was overwhelming.

The workers, Ibrahim and Hassan, were sitting idle in a corner - not because there is no desire in Gaza for ice cream, but because the Al-Awda factory, for which both workers work, is no longer able to produce ice cream, due to the electricity outages in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Awda's owner, businessman Mohammad Altelbani, from Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, says that shops and groceries this summer have stopped purchasing ice-cream products due to their inability to maintain refrigeration necessary for frozen products. With frequent electricity outages, keeping ice cream frozen is virtually impossible.

At any rate, Palestinians in Gaza, who have become used to seeing blood and destruction in the streets over the past two months, can certainly live without ice-cream for the rest of such a "rainy summer" (referring the name of the ongoing Israeli military invasion of Gaza is known as "Operation Summer Rains").

"We lose $1000 every day. You know why? Because of the power outage, we're depending on benzene gas-powered electricity generators. That, in addition to the breaking down of electronic components of the factory when the power surges or goes out, have made manufacturing impossible", Mr. Altelbani, the factory owner, points out.

"You see, the price of each pack of such products [cookies], has increased by 1.5 shekels [$.30], at a time when people are facing very harsh economic conditions. But we can't lower the prices, because the cost of production has increased so much due to the electricity cuts throughout Gaza", Altelbani explains.

In hospitals, another casualty of the electricity cuts can be seen: patients in need of surgery are lying in wait, unable to be treated, in rooms that have reached extreme summer temperatures with no air conditioning and in many cases, not even fans. Surgery has been decreased to a minimum due to the electricity cuts, says Dr. Jom'a Alsaqa, spokesman of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip.

"We have been forced to cancel 200 surgeries daily. We are currently conducting only emergency surgeries. The temperature in the hospital's rooms and departments is very high, also due to electricity cuts", Alsaqa indicates.

In the Gaza Strip Electricity Distribution Company, Jamal Aldardasawi, the company's media officer, tells me, "Prior to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza's main power plant on June 26th, the plant used to provide about 50 percent of Gaza's electricity. Currently, we are having to rely on the Israeli side's electricity supply, which is extremely sporadic and limited".

"The electricity problem is still persistent; therefore, we have contacted our brothers in Egypt, to achieve past and current dreams to connect Gaza's power network with the Egyptian one", he says.

"As part of this plan, the company is attempting to at least connect the most-damaged area of Rafah in southern Gaza with the Egyptian power network. Rafah is much more traumatized than other areas as far as the electricity is concerned. However, nothing has been achieved so far", Aldardasawi maintains.

"We appeal to all parties concerned, including the United Nations, the Quartet Committee for Middle East peace (United Nations, United States, European Union, Russia), to intervene to solve this problem, as our current power network continues to be targeted daily by the Israeli army in different areas of the Gaza Strip like Rafah, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia", he concluded.

Regarding the attempts to network electricity with Egypt, Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghazi Hammad said, "We have made good contacts with the Egyptian side to import power transformers, but the main obstacle that prevents this is the Israeli control over our borders".

According to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights, more than 200,000 Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip have been suffering from power outages for 16 hours a day, while 88,000 others, who live in high rises, are deprived of potable water, which is power-pumped.

On the eve of its massive military attack on the Gaza Strip on June 26th, Israeli warplanes bombed the power transformers of Gaza's main power plant in central Gaza. The attack was an apparent 'punishment' for all Palestinians in Gaza for the capture of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian resistance factions after an unprecedented resistance attack on an army base on June 25th.

From City to Town to Village, Israeli 'Summer Rains' Continue to fall on Gaza

Sunday, 13 August 2006, 04:21

In the furthest reaches of eastern Rafah City, in the southernmost part of Gaza Strip, the village of Shouka , population 14,000, is located. Reaching the village at night time is difficult for strangers, as taxi drivers decline to take people there.

It was almost night time, when the driver took me to the nearest place, the Salah Eldin Road, eastern Rafah. I got out of his taxi, looking for another driver: Awni, a local Shouka resident and driver, who is aware of every single corner in Shouka, and we began our drive through dusty roads and trees.

Torn water pipes of green houses, scattered bricks and cut trees were lying everywhere en route to the Village's mayor, Mansour Braika. But we managed to reach the mayor's house, and asked him about the Israeli occupation army invasion of Shouka that lasted over a month, until the army finally pulled out of Shouka on August 2.

"Silence, mixed with battered farms and destroyed houses, have been the main features of our small village since the Israeli forces left 10 days ago".

Mayor Mansour pointed out that "For more than 40 days, the Shouka rural area has been under Israeli attack, as the Israeli tanks have been firing, by day and night, on the people's houses and farms.”

"The damages are immense; 129 green houses have been destroyed, 58 houses were torn down, while many of our village's inhabitants have been evacuated to safe shelters at local UNRWA(United Nations Refugee and Works Agency)'s schools. The water networks in the village have been totally destroyed. Shouka is a traumatized village", Mayor Mansour confirmed.

The Mayor refuted Israeli allegations that the village is used for launching home-made rockets on Israeli territories:



"This is a rural area, where families are bound by tribal connections; no strangers can enter at night time, therefore, we are refuting the Israeli side's allegations that the area is used for launching rockets. The farmers here are protecting their livelihoods. We don't have any strangers in the village -- resistance forces, thieves, or anyone.".

26 year-old local farmer Toufic Albraikat, described the destruction he has suffered: "2000 square meters of green houses plus 4000 square meters of electronically-irrigated garlic crops plus 9 sheep and 2000 bricks as well as a barbed-wire fence around my land, all have been destroyed by the Israeli tanks ".

We drove back from the village on our way to the main local Rafah hospital of Abu Yousef Alnajjar, where Dr. Ali Mousa, the hospital's director was waiting to talk of the human losses the Shouka village has suffered in the latest Israeli attack.

"The last invasion of Shouka by the Israeli military forces resulted in a total of 17 dead, 50 injured. Around 25 of the dead and injured are children under the age of 15. We found that in this attack that the Israeli forces used a new weapon, as most or even all of the dead received by the hospital had been shot by missiles and tank bombs. The bodies of the victims had been torn apart, covered with burns. Fifteen of the wounded are in critical condition, having each had at least one limb amputated."

"We have never seen these types of injuries before in the past six years of open conflict. Here we are unable to diagnose the nature of these injuries due to the severe lack of specialized medical centers, but we are sure that this is an illegal weapon. Therefore, we call on all international institutions and the United Nations to examine this type of weapon, which is being used for the first time in Palestine".

In Gaza City, the next day, Silvia Pevetti, of the Gaza-based Office of World Health Organization, said that her organization is gathering information on the issue of banned weaponry, after having received an official request from the Palestinian government, but has not issued a report as of yet.

Graciela Lopez, Acting Head of Gaza Sub-delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross said: "In general, we are here to remind the warring parties of their obligations under International Humanitarian Law to respect the civilian populations at all times and to make all possible distinctions between persons directly involved in the hostilities and the civilian population."

Asked about possible Israeli use of illegal weapons against the Palestinian population in Gaza, Lopez maintained: "We are in contact with hospitals and with the Palestinian Red Crescent Societies, working in the medical field, and it is our concern to follow up on these allegations of the use of a new type of weapons. At this moment, we cannot confirm the use of any particular type of new weapon. We are following the situation and take these allegations seriously".

According to the latest Palestinian Health Ministry reports, since the June 26 military attack codenamed 'Summer Rains' has begun, the Israeli occupation army has killed 203 Palestinians, including 58 children and 25 women, and wounded 783 others, including 281 children, and 86 women. 72 of the injured have had limbs amputated.

Yousef is No Longer There!!!

Tuesday, 01 August 2006, 13:23


"The Israelis at the Ekhelof hospital appeared ashamed and disappointed of their government's horrible actions in Gaza, due to the deadly injuries it has been inflicting on Palestinians."

“Yousef, Yousef, Yousef!!!!”, Aziza Mughari of the Alburaij refugee camp, first reacted when news of her son's death spread in her local community. A son who was being treated in the Israeli hospital of Ekhelof in Tel-Aviv (a hospital where, because it is inside Israel, his mother was not allowed to go to see her dying son) for critical wounds he sustained during an Israeli army invasion into the nearby refugee camp of Maghazi almost 10 days ago.

"Who will bring me my medicine, who will do errands for me?? Son, where are you? , I don’t believe you are dead, they are liars", Aziza, a sick mother, called again on Yousef...but Yousef is no longer there!!!

This was in the early hours of Monday July 31, 2006, when Yousef Sa'dy Mughari, 20, was announced dead after battling with his deadly wounds for ten days in that Israeli hospital, with only his uncle Najeeb Mughari, allowed to be by his side as he died.

Crying, crying and more crying – this was the reaction among Yousef's brothers, sisters, father, uncles and friends, when they all heard about his death that morning.

The 20 years-old dead young Palestinian, was a lovely, good-looking guy, with a smile always imprinted on his cute face. "Yousef has been loved not only by his close associates, but also by everybody", a number of his friends recalled, with tears falling from their eyes.

His 49 year-old father, an ordinary poor Palestinian refugee, who used to work as a tailor at Karni crossing before it was closed by the Israeli authorities, said only a few words in reaction to his beloved dear son's death, "I ask God's mercy on him, wishing him to rest in peace. May God take revenge on those who shot him dead".

From the early morning up till the evening hours, dozens of relatives, neighbors and friends were awaiting his arrival in a special condolence ceremony. When his coffin finally arrived, the waiting relatives could wait no longer... As the body was taken to a local hospital for routine checks, they all rushed to the hospital, with loudspeakers playing national folk songs, praising the young man's 'martyrdom' on the path of freedom.

At the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, where Yousef's dead body was being checked by doctors, Najeeb, 53, Yousef's uncle (the one relative who had been allowed to accompany him to Ekhelof hospital in Israel), expressed bitterness for the loss of his nephew, saying the Israeli doctors and medical workers at the Ekhelof hospital appeared ashamed and disappointed of their government's horrible actions in Gaza, due to the deadly injuries it has been inflicting on Palestinians.

Doctor Habes Alwehaidi, chief surgeon of Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, who first treated Yousef on the scene last week, testified that the characteristics of the wounds that Yousef and his alike have sustained, are new to him and to Gaza doctors.

"We took multiple x-rays of the wounds of these people, five times we took x-rays, looking for any shrapnel, but we found nothing. We have never seen such wounds during the current or the first Intifada of 1987 or even just six months ago", Dr. Alwehaidi maintained.

"No doubt, the weapons the Israelis are currently using are illegal under international law", Dr. Alwehaidi confirmed.

Yousef along with four other wounded from the Maghazi refugee camp, have been treated at the Israeli hospital, due to Gaza's hospitals' inability to deal with such injuries – for while the doctors in Gaza are extremely competent, they lack equipment and even electricity due to the ongoing Israeli attack and closure. Scores of Palestinians have had to have limbs amputated, after having been shot and wounded by Israeli drones and tank shells in the Maghazi refugee camp.

Israeli occupation forces invaded Maghazi last week, killing 17, no 18, no , maybe 20 or 21 or 22, who knows?, and wounded more than 130 others in a massive military action that also brought a great deal of destruction to this approximately 2 square-kilometer camp, all under the pretext of liberating a soldier of their own, who has been held by Palestinian resistance fighters since June 25, captured during an unprecedented Palestinian resistance attack on an Israeli military base to the south of Gaza Strip....an action for which all Palestinians in Gaza are being punished.

Killing For the Sake of Killing

Friday, 21 July 2006, 19:13


Since the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip started on June 27th, Israeli ground forces and warplanes have been killing Palestinian men, women and children, destroying the Palestinian economy and devastating the infrastructure, all under a single pretext: liberating Gil'ad Shalit, a soldier who is being held by Palestinian resistance groups.

More than 150 Palestinians including women and children in their homes, most recently in the Shija'ya neighborhood of Gaza City, early on Friday, have been so far slaughtered at Gil'ad's butchery. Hundreds of others have been wounded, many of them lost their body parts, because of Israel's use of deadly weapons believed to be illegal under what used to be called 'international law'.

The mass killing and injuries amongst the Palestinian refugees in different parts of the Gaza Strip have, in the last several days, been brought to the central Gaza camp of Maghazi, where 14 people including women and children, have been killed and more than 130 others injured, mostly under the age of 18, according to medics, within a couple of days. The number of deaths and extent of the injuries in the ongoing invasion into various parts of Gaza indicate without a doubt that Israel's declared objective is false.

This is further confirmed by the widespread destruction wrought by Israeli tank shells and warplanes to major infrastructure in Gaza, including Gaza's sole power plant, ministerial buildings, bridges, homes and even barns and greenhouses, with the apparent aim of 'collective punishment' of the entire Palestinian population -- something which is also supposedly a violation of what used to be 'international law'.

But now 'international law' has died, its body nowhere to be found, another victim of Israel's fearless aggression carried out in the name of Gil'ad Shalit.

Israeli actions throughout Gaza are not the first of their type since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, following Israel's refusal to give back territories it occupied in 1967, including a sovereign Jerusalem, to allow the return of Palestinian refugees to historical Palestine, to accept a Palestinian statehood on 1967 borders and to halt settlement activities on occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, during 'Camp David' peace talks.

The now-comatose former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who promised his people, when he came to power in 2001, to crack down on the Intifada in 100 days. Although he tried with all his might, he wasn't able to keep his word; the Intifada is still going on, with more resistance, while the entire Palestinian people have reached a common agenda of their struggle for their legitimate rights to statehood and freedom, accepting a Palestinian state on 1967 borders.

What is going on in the occupied territories is manslaughter, killing just for the sake of killing, as Israeli forces storm refugee populations on a daily basis. All for the sake of one person, one soldier, captured in what would be considered, in any other time and place, a legitimate military operation, in an ambush on a tank in southern Gaza on June 25th.

So now, for the sake of Gil'ad, an entire nation of a people called Palestinians is being killed and laid to rest, as what is happening right now in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, where about 300 thousand residents are trying to hold funerals to bid farewell to their beloved ones, after Israeli forces pulled out today.

It seems that Israel wants such a nation to vanish, as the late Israeli Prime Minister Itsaq Rabin, maker of peace with the Palestinians, dreamed once "I hope one day to wake up and see that Gaza's shore has swallowed Gaza". His counterpart, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, once said, "You cannot kill Palestine. You may bomb us to pieces, but like a phoenix, Palestinians will rise once again from the ashes."

A story from Maghazi Refugee Camp, central Gaza

Wednesday, 19 July 2006, 08:40


Less than one hour after the Washington-based Pacifica network had phoned me about a live interview about Maghazi camp, where I live, I laid down my head on the pillow, under darkness because of the electricity cut, in order to have some peace of mind before the live interview the next day.


It was just after one am when the Israeli army, backed by war planes, invaded Maghazi, telling the story of Palestinian refugees anew -- not only to Pacifica Radio, but to all of us who live in Maghazi and know this story already, having seen it repeated again and again.

War planes began shooting heavily overhead. Abruptly, i rushed to my children, waking them up and taking them downstairs in case of any stray bullet hitting from above.

My mother was crying, my father was worried, my sister listening to newscasts.

In the darkness, everybody has been anxious, with kerosene lamps showing their wary faces and hushed voices.

My six year old son asked me, "Dad, will i be able to be in the second grade at school?", as we got the news that Israeli war planes had dropped a missile on his school.

My eight year old daughter sat on the sofa, awake all night looking at me with frightened eyes, her face yellow and pale.

I was worried about my brother and his children (like many refugee families, we all live together in one house), so i went upstairs to wake them up. I found my brother sleeping on the roof, due to the hot weather under darkness.

Unfortunately, I was sorry to break his rest, because the sky was raining in the way it often does on such a summer night, but tonight was an Israeli-made 'Summer Rain' [The Israeli military code-name for their ongoing Israeli invasion in the Gaza Strip is 'Operation Summer Rain'].

Now, the whole family has been crowded in one small, much safer room, listening quietly to the summer rains and to my mother's tears, which I tried to dry, but tried in vain. Because she was so worried, lest her other son, who was out with friends, seeking summer breeze and summer air, get wet by the 'summer rains' that have started to fall on Maghazi.

From 1 am to 9:30 am as I write this, the 'summer rains' have been falling, making a flow that has swept away six lives, wounded several others, devastated the camp's transformer, hit a wall of my son's elementary school, and inflicted damage to many homes and buildings.

My fear, as well as my family's, is the same as that of thousands of Palestinian refugee families throughout the past six decades since 1948, 1956, 1967, and ending with 2006's latest invasion of Maghazi and other refugee camps from June 27th.

However, Palestinians in the past century have found safe shelters to which they have fled. It now seems we have only one choice -- staying in our homes under candlelight. This is the story of Palestinian refugees. Now, in the 21st century, I ask Israel -- where else do you want us to go? It seems that you just want us all to die, and no one in the world seems to care.

I am writing this by pencil, on used paper, I can no longer type on my computer. The electricity is fully gone, the backup systems have all been hit. I have to dictate my writing by cell phone to a friend in the West Bank who can type it up - but soon, most likely, my cell phone reception will be gone as well. Now I have heard that two of my relatives were killed in the ongoing attack.....I'll have to attend their funerals this afternoon. Will Israeli forces attack the funeral? Lately every time there is a funeral, their warplanes buzz overhead, dropping bombs on the attendees and making more funerals necessary. I just hope the next one will not be my own, or that of my dear, dear children.

Gaza Under Darkness ,

Monday, 17 July 2006, 22:52


"I have lost a total of $1000 US dollars since the power supply has been cut, the number of my customers has decreased to minimum, I stay idle at my shop for long hours, what shall I do?" asked Alaa' Salahat, a local seller of frozen foods from the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Maghazi, as he spoke to me about his experience, sitting in the darkness, with only a kerosene lamp shining off the worried lines in his face. Why such darkness? Because three weeks ago, Israeli aircrafts bombarded the sole Gaza power plant.

"This is really a very terrible situation, we are civilians, what does Israel want, this is really a collective punishment against an entire people", said Alaa', 31.

"When I get back home each day having earned only a few Shekels (Israeli currency - ~5 shekels = $1 US) in my pocket, I rush to find candles to light the house for my wife. We stay idle, until our turn for electricity current comes. This 'luxury' happens no more than three nights a week", he continued.

"This is a really unbearable situation, that no body on this earth can tolerate. What do the Israelis want us to do, to die, to give up or what? However, we are steadfast. You know why we are steadfast?", Alaa' asked earnestly, looking past the candle into my eyes, "Because we know we have the same right to exist as the Israelis. These are our ancestors' lands, and we will remain living here - even if it is difficult, even if we don't want to stay. Because this. is. our. land." At this last sentence, Alaa' emphasized each word, to make sure I understood what he meant.

In the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, where the same problem exists, a Palestinian mother, Taraji Qdaih, 32, said, "For a very long time, we have been calling on the world to help us get rid of the Israeli occupation, but all our appeals fall on deaf ears. The Israelis are committing massacres; from the girl Huda Ghalia's family massacred on Beit Lahia beach a few weeks ago, to the missiles fired at us from the air by night and day. And there is no any condemnation from the world at all, yet when an Israeli soldier has been held, all the countries want to intervene to free him without any concessions. We are always the ones blamed, we are always the ones blamed."

Visiting the ruins of what used to be the sole Gaza power plant brings to light the reality of Israeli shelling. Dr. Derar Abu Sasi, the plant's Operations Director said to me, as I visited him in his wrecked office at the base of the plant, "We only have one power plant in Gaza. Now that Israel has destroyed it, we can't produce a single Megawatt, or even a Kilowatt for our customers. The Israeli bombs destroyed all four main transformers, the only transformers that feed Gaza residents with electricity."

Israeli warplanes have been bombarding and destroying major infrastructure in the Gaza Strip such as governmental buildings for three weeks straight - the latest was the foreign affairs ministry, hit early in the morning of Monday, July 17, for the second time in a week. Water treatment plants and greenhouses, bridges and homes, have also been the major targets of Israeli bombs in 'Operation Summer Rains', the code name for the Israeli military invasion of Gaza that began June 27.

Israeli leaders claim that their actions across Gaza are intended at freeing an Israeli soldier, who has been held by some Palestinian resistance groups there, for the past three weeks, after he was captured in an unprecedented resistance attack on an Israeli army base south of Gaza Strip.

The United States, Israel's strategic ally, has considered Israel's ongoing attacks on Gaza Strip as 'self defense', while the death toll amongst Palestinians since then has risen to nearly 100, with over 300 others wounded, some of them are very critical, some of them having lost limbs or having been paralyzed for life. In contrast, one Israeli soldier died in the Gaza invasion, and although Israeli forces at first blamed Palestinian resistance fighters, they later determined that the soldier had been shot by 'friendly fire'.

Gaza Under Darkness ,

"Summer Rains Are a Good Blessing"

"Summer rains are a good blessing" -- this is the title for a lesson in the second-grade grammar book of Palestinian children in Gaza. And while it is true that rains are a good blessing, the current "Operation Summer Rains" being carried out by Israel is anything but a blessing. Now, with summer rains being dropped artificially by humans from war planes and tanks, these school children have learned the hard lesson that 'summer rains' are neither good, nor a blessing.

For the twelfth consecutive day, such summer rains, which fall unexpectedly and at any moment could hit from above, have already killed more than 40 Gazans including children and women, wounded over one hundred others and destroyed Gaza's infrastructure, rendering a population of 1.3 million in the dark and with no potable water.

2006's unique summer rains in Gaza have shown themselves to be a curse, not a blessing -- not because they have fallen in summer, but rather because they are human-made. This odd kind of rain is made of shells, bombs and bullets belonging to the most sophisticated army in the Middle East region, namely, the army of Israel.

'Summer Rains', the code name for the Israeli government's current unprecedented military aggression on Gaza -- the first such invasion since September 2005, have been hitting northern, southern and eastern Gaza so far, and Palestinians fear the worst is yet to come. This operation by the Israeli state is apparently to liberate a soldier of its own who has been held by Palestinian resistance after an unprecedented resistance attack on an Israeli military base in southern Gaza two weeks ago.

The lives of scores of Palestinians, mostly civilians, the latest of whom is the Hajjaj family, killed in eastern Gaza on Saturday, are apparently, in the eyes of Israel, worth less than that of one single soldier 'Gil'ad Sahalit', as if Gil'ad's blood were unique.

Up until the writing of this article, the Palestinian resistance as well as government, represented by Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, have repeatedly voiced their intention to end the ongoing soldier crisis peacefully, yet so far such Palestinian good intentions have apparently fallen on deaf ears, as Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has refused such calls.

Those who hold the soldier proposed a prisoners swap; once Israel releases about 320 women and child prisoners, the soldier will return back home safe and intact.

Despite that offer, and despite international mediation efforts and even a call by Gil'ad's own father call for his government to end the crisis diplomatically, the Israeli leaders, namely Prime Minister Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz have opted for the military solution that has further heightened an already hot summer in Gaza. Now the victims of the invasion are falling by the hour, by the minute and even by the second.

Now, many other would-be victims are huddled in darkened homes awaiting their fate indefinitely, as the Israeli leaders have announced that their operation in Gaza has no time limit, expecting that it could take weeks or months. Until then, hundreds or maybe thousands of Palestinians might face their death on Gaza streets.

How long will the international community and peace lovers around the globe remain silent towards the killing of an entire nation, for the sake one person, who is being held, by all accounts, safe and intact???

Is this the 'summer rain' that these schoolchildren will come to know as a reality, instead of the 'good blessing' promised by their schoolbooks? Will they begin to associate 'summer rains' with bombs and missiles dropping on their homes from above?

The games children play in Gaza

Most areas of the Gaza Strip are currently experiencing an extremely difficult period -- Israeli warplanes and tanks never stop, day or night, firing heavy artillery against every target possible.

Homes, institutions and infrastructure never escape the Israeli shelling; power and water plants have been severely hit so far, main roads have been damaged, buildings and homes have been shelled.

Moreover, civilians along with resistance fighters have been killed and wounded due to such non-stop Israeli aggression, while the lives of Gaza Strip residents have reverted to the way things were in 1967, when Israeli occupation forces occupied the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In one of the Strip's many refugee camps, a camp called Maghazi in the central part of the Gaza Strip, two Palestinian children laid down on top of sand bags, which had been placed on the entrance of their alley. “Why are you lying there?”, I asked the boys – Ibrahim, 9, and Ahmad, 14.

"We are lying here with our 'rifles' to defend our camp from the Israeli forces, we will kill them if they enter the camp"

In the main street in Maghazi, which is about 300 meters long, many sand bags have been placed by resistance fighters, apparently as a sort of defense against a likely Israeli attack on the camp. Sand bags, dirt piles, rocks blocking roads are being placed in various areas in light of Israeli military announcement that they will reinvade the 'liberated' Gaza Strip, to release an Israeli soldier who is being held by Palestinian resistance fighters.

Ibrahim and Ahmad, the two school children, have found no enjoyment in the fact that they are off school, and on summer holiday. Instead, they find themselves without food, without potable water, lying on top of sand bags and holding wood rifles, instead of enjoying the holiday as other children around the world are able to.

Senior Palestinian residents say that this situation resembles, to a great extent, the first days of the Israeli-Arab war of 1967, when the Gaza Strip fell into the hands of the Israeli occupation forces.

Munir Abdullah 60, of Maghazi refugee camp, says, "In June 1967, the Israeli forces waged a sweeping war in which they occupied the Gaza Strip including Maghazi. On that day, the people fled their homes, seeking refuge, while many others including resistance men placed the sand bags in every corner of the camp as you see here today."

"My brother Fathi, who was then 17 years old was defending the camp, like many others, behind sand bags, and he was shot and killed by the Israeli forces", Munir says.

"What the Israelis are doing is reversing the wheel of history four decades back; they are destroying everything, they are killing people in streets, I feel I have never grown up, I feel I am re-living 1967, when Israel first occupied the Gaza Strip as they are now about to reoccupy it."

The Israeli government has recently decided to gradually launch a military attack on the Gaza Strip, intending to reoccupy it, under the pretext of releasing a soldier, who was captured by some resistance fighters in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah a few days ago.

Because of the latest Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, about 1.3 million Palestinians have been forced to live primitively; with candlelights at night, small radios in their hands and with sand bags on streets; all are worried about imminent Israeli invasions of their areas.

The Israeli occupation has closed all border crossings and commercial outlets, preventing the entry of any single person, food or even a single tank of gas. An entire population, already suffering from international aid cuts due to their democratic choice of a Hamas government in January 2006 elections, are now huddled in the darkness, behind sandbags, watching the thousands of Israeli tanks lined up on the border, and fearing for the worst.

In the footsteps of his father

8 April 2006--Last Saturday, crowds estimated at tens of thousands marched in the funeral procession of Eyad Abulineen, a Palestinian resistance fighter of Rafah, his 7-year old son Belal and four other people, who were all killed by Israeli missiles on Friday.

Prior to heading to the Rafah cemetery east of the city, the crowd said a last farewell to their martyrs in a local mosque. The mosque did not have the capacity for so many mourners, forcing hundreds of them to perform the funeral rituals at a nearby UNRWA school.

Chanting angry slogans, with resistance fighters firing into the air, the crowd marched toward the cemetery, where the martyrs were laid to rest.

In the city today, the sadness is overwhelming in the city streets; bystanders appear to be angry, shopkeepers stand in front of their stores and women speak in hushed voices full of the loss of these friends and countrymen.

Despite relatively hot weather and the crowded streets, the marchers kept walking to the cemetery, where some thoughtful locals provided water. In the cemetery itself, other mourners waiting at different spots around the cemetery to bury the six martyrs joined the marchers.

One of these spots is the joint tombstone for Eyad and his son Belal, as many of their relatives and friends, looked on sadly as their coffins were laid to rest.

Sighing twice before speaking, Eyad’s uncle, Mohammad Abdelqader Abulineen, 48, said: “Eyad was an extraordinary man; he was very kind, very gentle and helpful. He used to be loved by everybody who knows him. He was really more than a human. But he had to meet his destiny and that’s Allah’s (God) will which we should accept.”

Abulineen told the grieving crowd: “After 6:00pm on Friday, Eyad went with his family, his wife and mother, and two kids, to visit a relative. On their way back home from that visit, Eyad dropped his wife and mother, while his two kids Mohammad, 14, and Belal, 7, stayed in the car.

“While driving along the road, someone on the street shouted at Eyad that Israeli warplanes were hovering in the sky. Abruptly, an Israeli missile hit the car, and as 14-year old Mohammad rushed to escape, the car burst into flames, killing Eyad and his 7-year old son.”

A close friend of Eyad’s, calling himself “KHK”, voiced great appreciation of Eyad’s traits, describing him as a lovely person, non-extremist and good-hearted. “Everybody in the neighborhood loved Eyad. We all lost him”, KH.K said.

Eyad’s brother-in-law, who accompanied the group to the house and service of Eyad and Belal, expressed the same sentiments. He says that “Eyad had no foes at all, everybody respected him”.

Eyad’s brother-in-law expected Eyad’s other son, Mohammad, who was injured due to the Israeli air shelling of Eyad’s car, to be at home within a few hours of the funeral, after he was brought from hospital.


A long row of locals offered condolences to the family of Abulineen, who was forced out by the Israeli occupation forces from the Palestinian town of Bashit in ‘historical Palestine’ [now Israel] in 1948; Mohammad, the wounded child, sat in the front, receiving the condolences, as he was the eldest of Eyad’s three children.

“We led our father to his destiny; Belal and myself insisted that we turn to the site to have a look, after we joined our father, mother and grandmother for a family visit,” Mohammad, holding a stick beside his injured right leg, says bitterly.

“After we spent about 15 minutes drinking some tea, I got out of the car, waiting for my father to take me, while Belal was sticking to my father’s arms, moving the steering wheel. Suddenly, I saw the car on fire and felt as if my leg was destroyed. My brother Belal’s little body was torn apart; it’s a horrible scene I could not stand.”

“My father is a martyr of freedom, I feel I didn’t lose him actually, and one like me should follow in the footsteps of his (or) her father, until freedom is attained and Palestine is returned.”

With these words Mohammad ended his witness’s testimonial to the latest Israeli extrajudicial assassination of six Palestinians including a child, and which wounded about 16 others in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.

According to the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (B’tselem), the principle of proportionality constitutes one of the central pillars of international humanitarian law.

This principle stipulates that such an extrajudicial attack is forbidden, even when directed against a legitimate military target, if it is known that the attack is liable to result in injury to civilians disproportionate to the military benefit anticipated from the attack.

Sleeping in Gaza under roaring Israeli jets

Israeli jetfighters, mainly F-16s, continue to air-strike many areas in the 'recently-evacuated' Gaza Strip, in which several Palestinians have been killed, dozens others wounded, severe damages inflicted to buildings and a great deal of panic caused to men, women and children.

"Suddenly, at 2:30am, in the early hours of Saturday 24, 2005, I woke up suddenly from my sleep, finding my three little kids, Ghadir (9), Rewan (6) and Fadi (4) , crying fearfully in my room, calling "Dad, Dad".

Israeli jetfighters were making a sonic booms in the Gazan skies, terrifying tens of thousands of Palestinians living in the area. Abu Ghadir 30, from Maghazi refugee camp, talked about his 'new-old' experience with the Israeli raids.

Ghadir, his eldest daughter, spoke in a hushed voice about her shock at that night. "I was sleeping in my room along with my sister and brother when I heard a very terrifying sound. I thought it was a bomb.

Myself, Rewan and Fadi got up together and rushed fearfully to our parents' bedroom." "I wonder why the Israeli planes do this to us! Haven't they gone? My teacher in school told us that the Israelis have gone from our lands, so we were very happy. Haven't they gone from our land?", Ghadir asked.
"I was very frightened when the bomb sound roared," Rewan added, "so I stuck to my mother and father.""The planes, the planes," Fadi whispered, "I was frightened".

"Let me ask a question," their father Abu Ghadir asked. "Suppose the Israeli settlers were not evacuated. Would Israeli warplanes rip through the Gazan airspace so repeatedly and at the most sensitive times, when every man, women and child happens to be sleeping deeply?" "When

Israeli settlers surrounded Palestinian areas in Gaza," he explained, "such heavy Israeli raids were much fewer than today because Gaza is free of settlers now."

"It is racism that Israel is practicing against us. I wonder as to the way Israel is punishing the Palestinian people's children, women, and men.

What have children got to do with such bombs? Are they terrorists that need to be terrified?" "For how long our children will remain obsessed by the roaring of Israeli fighters which continue to fly in the Palestinian sky?" Abu Ghadir asked after the latest Israeli raids died down.

A Tale of Palestinian Sovereignty

The Palestinian people have been longing for freedom and sovereignty since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

In 1917, the British colonial power at the time dominated historical Palestine, where the Jewish state was merely a dream in Jews’ minds around the globe and the Ottoman Empire was drawing to an end, the factors that made the Palestinians hope they would eventually have their own sovereignty on their own soil.

Yet, amid such great expectations by the Palestinians, the British colonial government had promised the Jews , for free, a ‘national Jewish homeland’ in another people’s land, making the Jewish immigrants also hope of practicing some kind of sovereignty.

Both Jews in Palestine and Palestinians started to combine their dreams with actions on the ground; the Palestinians went through several stops in their fight against the British occupation, such as the 1936 revolution, which was followed by several proposals that attempted to make the Jews share the indigenous Palestinians sovereignty over the Palestinian soil.

The Palestinians in their turn resisted all such plans, given their unequivocal right to the homeland of Palestine, until the 1947 United Nations partition plan, which allocated 56% of the Palestinian homeland for the Israelis and turned the Arab city of Jerusalem into an international area.

Even the partition plan, which was approved by the International community and rejected by the Arab parties including the Palestinians, had allowed the Palestinians to practice a partial sovereignty over their newly-partitioned homeland.

The Palestinian people then determined to fight again for their sovereignty, as the 1948 war broke out following the departure of the British troops, yet because of many factors, especially the weak Arab armies and the much organized Israeli Jewish militias, the Palestinians failed again to see their dream (sovereignty) coming into reality.

From 1948 to 1967, the Jordanians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and the Egyptians in the Gaza Strip, ruled hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, some Arab neighboring states like Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, hosted other hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled to during and following the 1948 war.

The remaining Palestinians chose to stick to their lands but with no sovereignty, as the Israeli troops were deployed in every single part of the rest of Palestinian territories.

On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a sweeping war on the Palestinian people, Jordan, Egypt, and Syria completing the occupation of the remaining parts of Palestine, and expanding the boundaries of the Israeli ‘thorny’ state into the Syrian Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley and the Egyptian Peninsula of Sinai

Therefore, the Palestinians have lost hope of sovereignty over their national soil, as the Israelis imposed a very strict military rule and started to construct many illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian-owned lands in different parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Yet, the Palestinians have never given up; they continued their fight on the path of independence and sovereignty, particularly their popular uprising (Intifada) in 1987, which compelled the late Israeli Prime

Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, to admit the Palestinians’ right to sovereignty by signing the Oslo peace accord with Palestine Liberation Organization’s chairman, late Yasser Arafat in 1993, that helped establish the first sign of sovereignty on parts of the Palestinians’ soil.

Since the creation of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 1994, until now, the Israeli state has not allowed the Palestinian People to practice their sovereignty freely and widely, mainly in 2000 Camp David peace talks between the late PNA President Yasser Arafat and the then Israeli Prime Minster Yehud Barak. These negotiations failed simply when it came to Palestinian sovereignty over the occupied East Jerusalem and return of Palestinian refugees.

The 2000 Camp David failed talks brought the second Intifada in September of that year; a matter that turned over the rules of the game, as the Palestinians, given the intransigent Israeli policies throughout the Oslo period, had to fight again for the sake of sovereignty.

Now, the Israelis had left physically an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories (Gaza), nevertheless, they insist on not giving the Palestinians their legitimate right to sovereignty over their national soil, by keeping up control on Gaza’s border crossings, sea lanes and airspace, and even by not reaching an agreement with the PNA on movement of the Palestinians and goods.

Moreover, the Israeli government, has recently threatened that it would return the situation back to prior 1967, under its security obsession, which has created an ocean of blood over the past four decades.

Instead of reversing the wheel of history four decades back, Israel should speed up another wheel at least one decade forward, by restarting genuine peace negotiations with the PNA and withdrawing from the Palestinian land, sea, and air completely, submitting to the international law and the logic of peace rather than that of war, which resulted in nothing but more hatred between peoples.

Empty Pockets, Growling Stomachs in Gaza

Food for everybody in the world is a means to survive, to stay alive and maintain a normal, healthy life. But in Palestine, food has become increasingly hard to buy, as groceries and supermarkets have been unable to sustain the debts owed by their local customers.

Because of a forced delay of more than 140,000 government employees’ salaries in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the customers have been unable to pay their supermarket tabs. In the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Nuseirat, which shelters a population of about 80,000 men, women and children, both grocers and customers began to complain out of an increasing financial crisis due to such a delay.

At ‘Happy Land Center’, one of the two largest supermarkets in Nusairat, which is owned by Mr. Abu Amer Abu Yousef, 47 years old, the conditions speak for themselves; “ Prior to the ongoing delay of employees’ salaries, business was relatively good, but now it has become much worse”, Abu Amer said.

“The majority of customers have tightened their belts, purchasing only necessities like sugar, tea, oil and beans, and foregoing other less important things like cookies”.

“Since my customers have been buying so little over the past two weeks, I have been hesitant to bring in new shipments of products. I have been allowing my customers some leeway, and not forcing them to pay, because I know they don't have money right now.

But now, with the sellers demanding payment, I don't know what to do. I am ashamed to tell them I can't pay them, because I have been selling products on credit at my store, and haven't been paid by my customers.”

Abu Amer added that he had already had to dismiss three of his six employees because he couldn't afford to keep them on. “ Some people have asked me for cash loans, because they have no money to meet their basic needs, mainly transportation, and I feel obliged to lend them the cash, for they are my customers, who were always very reliable about paying me and helping me maintain my business.

But that was when they were able to receive their salaries.” In one hour, during the evening hours, usually a big rush time for shopping, only two customers came in the supermarket; one bought a box of cigarettes, while the other bought a Pepsi can and sat down to talk, as he was a friend of Abu Amer.

Asked about his reaction to the current situation, a third customer, who works for the Nusairat Municipality, said he would stop going to work, as he can not afford to remain without money.

He is indebted to Abu Amer 300 New Israeli Shekels (NIS), about $70 dollars. At the largest Nusairat-based supermarket (Abu Dalal Brothers’ Supermarket), owned by Hatem Abu Dalal, 35 years old, the number of customers was more than the Happy Land Center’s, however, sitting beside Hatem gives a person the true picture: out of ten customers who entered in the hour, only three paid cash.

“Debts have increased and we have increasingly become unable to pay the sellers; our sales have decreased to half what they were before this crisis – a matter that has embarrassed us in front of both customers and merchants alike.” The goods featured in the front window of the shop – imported European chocolate and other luxury items, have not sold at all during this time.

“I have 9 employees”, said Hatem, “Only 3 of them are now actually working, while the others are not working, as I'm not able to pay them. If conditions continue like this, I'll have to close my shop and go bankrupt within two months time.” While Hatem was speaking, his worker Ahmad Awad, 22, was playing with his cellular phone at one of the supermarket’s corners, just wasting his time.

Hatem confirmed that he used to give his workers an average monthly salary of NIS1000 (about $200), however, he is now considering decreasing his staff to half. Hussam Nafez, a 30 year-old local policeman, came in the the supermarket to buy some goods on credit.

He said, “ my expenditures have been reduced to a bare minimum: no family visits, no extraneous goods, only basic needs -- with no salary in the horizon, what choice do I have?”.

“Those who are responsible for our salary delay are the Americans, the Europeans and the Arabs. Isn't it [referring to January's election of Hamas] the democracy they wanted from us, why do they then punish the whole people for their choice?” With this question, both Hatem Abudalal and his customer Hussam concluded their discussion.

The major international donors of aid to the Palestinian people, such as the United States and the European Union, have cut off aid to the Palestinians recently, demanding the newly-elected Palestinian Hamas-led government to recognize Israel’s right to exist and renounce violence against Israel.

Karen Koning AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, known as UNRWA, was quoted as saying “donor countries who decided to cut aid to the Hamas-led government should be aware of the consequences of their decision on the humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the West Bank, where a total of 3.8 million Palestinians live”.

A Double-standard Policy Towards Palestine

By Rami Almeghari
Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 17:20

The international community double-standard policy towards the Middle East region, particularly, Palestine, has been steadily apparent since the formation of a Hamas-led Palestinian government in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Such a biased stance has been represented by cutting off financial aids to the Palestinian people, despite the fact that the

Palestinian democratic experience of January25, 2006, was one of the rare in the Middle East.Starvation and poverty would probably prevail within few weeks unless such aids reach hundreds of thousands of people, including more than 140.000 governmental employees, who have not received their salaries over the past couple of months.

The aids have been cut because of ‘violence’ and non-recognition of Israel, the Hamas movement has been advocating since years, yet such a violence might resume not by Hamas, but rather by the entire Palestinian people, who are being forced into a state of ‘uncontrollable’ anarchy due to lack of money.
The situation over here in the occupied Palestinian territories is very alarming for those concerned with peace in the region, therefore, such parties should have the courage to meet the new reality in Palestine, rather than facing the Palestinian people, who have not realized over the past decade , neither real peace nor genuine economy.

In late 1999, when the Israeli Labor Party, headed by the then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, the international community, headed ‘always’ by the United States, rushed to save the Palestinian-Israeli peace, but failed, you know why, because of the Ehud Barak’s NOs; No for return of Palestinian refugees, No for Palestinian Sovereignty over Jerusalem, No for Return to the 1967 borders.

The question here, what a double standard policy, the International Community continues to adopt towards the Palestinian people, who acted within the ‘democracy’ that has ever been demanded by such a community, mainly the United States of America, ‘mother of democracy’ in the world???.

To conclude, let me quote a local Palestinian owner of one of the largest supermarkets in the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Nusiarat: “I have 9 employees”, said Hatem, “Only 3 of them are now actually working, while the others are not working, as I'm not able to pay them. If conditions continue like this, I'll have to close my shop and go bankrupt within two months time.”

In this regard, Karen Koning AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, known as UNRWA, was quoted as saying “donor countries who decided to cut aid to the Hamas-led government should be aware of the consequences of their decision on the humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the West Bank, where a total of 3.8 million Palestinians live.”Source:

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4657.shtml

Rami Al-Meghari can be reached at rami_almeghari@hotmail.com