This map of the Gaza Strip includes refugee camps, border crossings, major cities, and towns. Latest update: April 4, 2013.
Need to go somewhere in Palestine? Here’s how
March 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Guest contribution by Deena Kishawi
Need to go somewhere?
Here’s how.
Walk into the street, about a third of the way in,
Put your arm out.
Within moments, taxis will swarm around you,
Honking to you.
The window is down so you tell the driver where you need to go.
Sheikh Ridwaan.
He tells you he’s going in the opposite direction.
You say thank you and exchange a final salaam.
You repeat the process.
This time, the taxi is going in your direction.
You get in, squish yourself next to the lady with a little boy sitting on her lap.
You take out a shekel and tell the driver “Itfadal“
He extends his hand.
“Enjoy the ride” he says.
You have a long ride to Sheikh Ridwaan.
You open the window a bit to let the Gaza breeze in.
The smell of the beach,
The sand,
The charcoal and burning wood from the grilled corn on the side of the road,
The smoke from the driver’s cigarette,
All penetrate the cab’s cabin. [Read more...]
Photo from Gaza wins 2013 World Press Photo Contest
February 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The winners of the 2013 World Press Photo Contest were announced on February 15. An international jury of established photojournalists selected Swedish photographer Paul Hansen’s photograph from Gaza to bear the title Photo of the Year 2012.
The photograph shows a group of men rallying in Gaza City carry the bodies of two children killed during Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip last November. On the left is three-year-old Muhammad Hijazi and on the right is his younger brother, two-year-old Suhaib. The two were killed after an Israeli missile tore through their home. [Read more...]
Gaza still under siege despite rising imports
February 8, 2013 By 5 Comments
One of the greatest misconceptions of Israel’s siege on Gaza is that it has been eased, that Gazans can import, export, buy, sell, and trade whatever and whenever they please. But the seemingly packed supermarket shelves are nothing more than a “façade of normalcy”, says journalist Rana Baker in her latest for Al-Monitor — a façade Gazans are not falling for, as evidenced by the latest calls for boycott.
The siege and blockade on Gaza began in 2006 as a set of rigid sanctions that were hardened during Israel’s 2008-2009 invasion of the Gaza Strip to prevent Palestinians from maintaining or even rebuilding the territory’s infrastructure. Multiple attempts by international activists to break the siege by boat brought widespread pressure against Israel (and Egypt) to open Gaza’s borders. Israel eased the blockade in 2010, but fundamental necessities such as construction materials and various foods were still arbitrarily prevented from entering.
It was later discovered that top Israeli officials had actually calculated the minimum number of food calories necessary to keep Gazans above malnourishment. [Read more...]
The sand
January 29, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Guest contribution by Deena Kishawi
Beaches of Gaza.
The sunset looks different than the one in Chicago.
Pink,
Yellow,
Orange.
Violet,
Plum,
Black.
Then the blue of the ocean.
But the stark contrast of the white sand against the colored sunset and horizon makes the beach seem beyond this world.
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”
Soda cans, plastic bags, chicken bones.
But the sand is still white.
Pure.
Peaceful.
The sand has been through it all,
The struggle of those who walk across it, those who leave their footprints in it by the water’s edge.
The sand has heard the stories of those who’ve walked from village to evicted village.
The sand has absorbed the blood from Operation Cast Lead.
The sand witnessed the deaths of entire families.
The sand is a home to some —
It carries the weight of its people. [Read more...]
Fatah in Gaza: Surprised?
January 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Hundreds of thousands of Fatah supporters gathered in Gaza City on Friday to mark the political faction’s 48th anniversary. Years of back and forth political repression meant that Fatah supporters weren’t so outspoken in Gaza and, until recently, Hamas supporters kept low profiles in the West Bank. But the real surprise, which I think many people aren’t openly admitting, has to do with the sheer size of the Fatah rally. As one colleague asked me, “since when are there that many Fatah supporters in the Strip?”
When I traveled to the Gaza Strip in 2011, I arrived under the impression that anyone with allegiance to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority would have already left to the West Bank or even to Egypt. But little did I know, just months before my arrival, as part of what I suspect to be a package deal from a previous reconciliation attempt, Hamas eased up on its limitations and allowed Gaza residents to display support for Fatah where the yellow flags and Fatah shields had previously been banned. [Read more...]
Fatah rallies in Gaza to mark faction’s 48th anniversary
January 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Hundreds of thousands of Fatah supporters gathered in Gaza City’s Saraya Square on Friday for a mass rally to commemorate the faction’s 48th anniversary. This is the first Fatah rally at this scale to be held in Gaza since infighting between Hamas and Fatah toned down in mid-2007.
At face value, this is a good indicator that both Hamas and Fatah are scaling back on their efforts to limit or even force public opinion. It is no secret that the very notion of political dissidence in the occupied Palestinian territories is regularly met with hesitancy and competing territory-wide bans. But in the wake of Israel’s latest invasion on Gaza, Fatah — currently in control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) — and Hamas appear to have put much of the past five years aside. Another unity attempt is reportedly in the works.
I suspect there is slightly more at play here. For one thing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it very clear that he wouldn’t be calling off his Pillar of Defense invasion if Gaza-based factions resist. But in just a few days he turned his reservists around and signed onto a ceasefire deal. Gaza celebrated its victory, Netanyahu’s election campaign hit a rough patch, and the PA network faced immediate humiliation for its collaboration with Israel. [Read more...]
Subsistence: Gaza children and a horse make TIME’s 2012 list of most surprising photos
December 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Yesterday I wrote about AFP photojournalist Marco Longari whose photographs from Syria, Palestine, and Egypt propelled him to be TIME’s pick for news photographer of the year. Today I write about TIME’s list of most surprising photographs of the year 2012.
Number 27 on the list comes straight to you from Gaza City. It is a photograph of three Palestinian children leaning against a concrete wall in a poor neighborhood in the central Gaza Strip. Spilled blood surrounds them and a horse’s head lies toward the center of the frame. Every three weeks, horses are slaughtered and their meat is distributed to Gaza’s poor, the caption reads.
The surprise factor likely has to do with the three children standing so near to the grisly scene. But so is the reality of some of Gaza’s family-run slaughterhouses. It is possible that the children belong to the butcher and are watching their father do work. Or, these children might have been sent by their families to pick up some meat for dinner. Or maybe the surprise comes from the idea of eating horse which is legally prohibited in Gaza and is still a rare thing to see. [Read more...]
Coming to grips just weeks before the Second Intifada
December 20, 2012 By 2 Comments
I spent the summer of 2000 in Gaza City, far from my air conditioned privileges back home in Chicago. I was only nine-years-old at the time and although I didn’t know what humidity was all about, I wasn’t immune to the heat, the sweat, or the mosquitos. I sat on my hands whenever I could to keep from scratching puffy mosquito bites and I knew better than to walk barefoot on the blisteringly hot sands of the beach.
My immediate concerns were weather-related but the more time I spent in Gaza the more I became attuned to the militarized reality of my immediate surroundings. I think my parents, specifically my mother, made a good decision in letting me think for myself on this one. Growing up, she had instilled in me a very cultural pride in Palestine. She’d talk politics to me, sure, but not in a way that confined me to a specific set of political beliefs. I was fortunate enough to develop my opinions on my own, and part of the reason I was spending my summer vacation in the occupied Gaza Strip was to give me direct access to the tools and the proof I’d need to make a conclusion.
At the time, I was allowed to travel to Gaza via Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airpot even though it meant dealing with long and unfriendly stares, something I clearly remember complaining about to mama. I was processed through the Erez Crossing and made to maneuver between foreign soldiers monitoring my every move. Tanks blocked passage through roads which, I assume, led to Israeli settlements. The cab driver who drove my family to our destination was made to flash an identification card at checkpoint stops. There were watchtowers and guards sitting on chairs and green jeeps driving to and fro. [Read more...]
Irony and dilemma concerning Newseum’s decision to reverse plan to commemorate slain Palestinian journalists
The Newseum, a Washington, DC news museum, announced plans last week to memorialize 84 journalists killed in the line of duty in 2012. Included among the list of honored journalists were Mahmoud Al-Kumi and Hussam Salama who worked for Al-Aqsa TV when an Israeli air strike on November 20, 2012, killed them and at least four others. Al-Kumi and Salama were covering the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip when a missile hit their vehicle.
Al-Aqsa TV is the state television network for the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
The Newseum’s announcement drew harsh criticism from conservative and pro-Israel groups including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which issued a nasty statement belittling the lives of these journalists by calling their employer “not a legitimate news organization”.
On Monday, the Newseum unveiled the memorial. Instead of 84 names, it included only 82. The Newseum caved to the pressure and Al-Kumi and Salama’s names had been removed.
In a shoddy attempt at balanced news coverage of the Newseum controversy, a concept seemingly unfamiliar to Fox News, Fox decided to make its own judgment call by labeling the two Palestinian journalists as “operatives” working for Hamas. Ironically, the article headline begins with the question, “Terrorists or journalists?” as if Fox was actually going to approach the issue appropriately, tactfully, accurately, and intelligently. [Read more...]