May 2012
1 post
After my last post I fell silent for the rest of the time I was in Libya. This is because I started doing prison visits, interviewing current torture victims, and what I was seeing and hearing was so upsetting, so widespread, that I did not know how best to disseminate the information, and whether it was really appropriate for me to do so. But this article came out yesterday in the New York Times,...
April 2012
7 posts
Politics
Everyone has talked about the issues of tribal differences in Libya. The mentality of tribal culture here in Libya seems to be that each group believes in its importance over others, and fights to constantly maintain ownership of a particular area/industry/etc (this is the view of locals when they talk about roots of the tension between different cities, which ultimately break down on tribal...
Here they love spicy food, today I ordered couscous and asked that it not be too spicy. The waiter replied, “We call that European couscous, if you order at a restaurant any dish, just say European, that means not spicy”. I found that amusing.
SIM cards, what has happened to them? Someone somewhere is eating them. It is impossible to get hold of a SIM card for less that 100 USD, and even if you are willing to pay that price, it’s tough to get your hands on one. No one seems to have an explanation as to why this is the case. Contrast this with Mali, where you can buy a SIM card for about 1 USD, and it comes with about 1 USD credit on it....
Below are pictures of cars where the owner covered the word ‘the republic’ as a sign of Libya’s newfound freedom. This is the case with almost every car on the road here.
Back to Blogging
Apologies… my last post was in 2009, as I left Gaza. Just to catch everyone up to speed, I then spent three months in Beirut, working at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and had every intention of blogging from there, but after my experience in Gaza, had a hard time finding things as new and interesting to write about. Then came two years in London, and a year in Geneva. But...
June 2009
1 post
Goodbye Gaza
I apologize for not posting anything for the last month and a half. I was working in Gaza up until the beginning of May, and was extremely busy wrapping up all of my work and distributing more funds that I received. I then left and have been on the road for the last month with minimal computer access. The situation in Gaza has not improved at all, in fact it has taken a turn for the worse. From...
April 2009
12 posts
Hamas.
I want to preface this post by saying how much it bothers me that people think that if they are anti-Israel they must be pro-Hamas. In addition I cannot stand the misconception that by being critical of Hamas; one is automatically condoning the international rejection of its legitimacy, and Israel’s desire to remove it from power. There are many governments that one can accept as legitimate...
The Batran Family
In the last major attack in Al Boreij refugee camp, on January 16th, six members of the Batran family were killed. The father is a Hamas official, and happened to be in the living room while his wife and five of his children were in the dining room and this is where the bomb hit. The youngest son (1.5 yrs) survived, as did his father, who ran with one daughter to the hospital, though she died soon...
The Israeli Military's Artistic Talents →
Pictures I took of the graffiti that Israeli soldiers did in a house that they lived in for two weeks during the Offensive
The Writing on the Wall
I visited one home were a battalion of the Israeli army had lived for two weeks. They trashed the kitchen and bathroom, and knocked holes through the walls in each room to make snipper portals. And they also decided to decorate the walls of their new home; there were little drawings of faces, Jewish symbols, phrases in Hebrew which I cannot read unfortunately. But they were kind enough to leave...
40 years of work…gone
At the remains of one house there was a man just pacing around the heap of rubble, he looked completely lost. He has no idea what to do now with his life. He spent 20 years saving up money to by the machinery for a wood chopping factory. He eventually set it up in his basement and over the next two decades was able to support his extended family and make sure that his children lived comfortably....
“They don’t want us to live… we have to die to find peace.”
– A man who lost his sister, mother, and most of his aunts and uncles when his house was bombed in January
Middle Gaza's Destruction →
Pictures of the areas in the middle area of the Gaza Strip that were destroyed the most during the Offensive
Aid Distribution
To give an idea of the families that I have distributed aid to:
A father who is blind in his left eye, he and his wife have eight children, the youngest of which was born on the first day of the Israeli Offensive. His eldest son is blind, deaf and mentally handicapped. When his father or mother leaves his side he starts screaming and crying. As we sat together he stayed crouched between his...
Trauma
Most children are suffering from traumas of different kinds. My friend, who lives next to the central police station, which is now gone. During the war the whole family stayed in one room in the house which they thought was the safest, because it was the furthest away from any windows. Now the daughters refuse to go back into that room. I have heard other children refuse to go to bed because they...
Only two years and nine months.
My boss received an invitation today postmarked 18 November 2008 to take part in a conference in December 2008. This is proof that mail does eventually make it to Gaza, even if it does takean average of 4-5 months.
Because Israel limits the amount of money coming into Gaza, Hamas smuggles money in through the tunnels to pay the government civil servants. Last month everyone in Gaza was running...
March 2009
24 posts
Raising hope: A funding drive for families in Gaza
I did a fundraising drive before coming to Gaza and made over $7000, and when I arrived I worked with local organizations to identify the families that lost the most during the war, and have given a stipend of around $200 to each family. Since they lost their homes, this money is helping them buy new clothing, furniture, food, mediine, and other necessities.
I would like to continue raising money...
Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF... →
Tunnel-A-Bride
A friend of mine was very jolly when he came to see me last week, and told me that we must celebrate because the day before his wife had arrived. I asked him where she was coming from, to which he answered that she had crawled 800 meters from Egypt to join him here in Gaza. He explained that the dowry for Egyptian brides is much lower, in fact 20 times cheaper, and so he procured a wife through a...
No Books in Gaza
Recently a friend of mine was saying to me how much he missed reading literature, novels. I assuming that he had not been reading anything because of the war and because he had been so busy with work. But suddenly it dawned on me that in my entire time here I have not seen a single book store or library. The only books available are for university and school students. Because the tunnels are...
Gaza War Crimes Investigations →
Three videos documenting war crimes committed in Gaza: targeting of civilians, using human shields, and targeting medical staff
Israeli Siege Kills Yet Another Child Patient in... →
This is an article I wrote on access to health care in Gaza. It was published on Electronic Intifada.
Gaza's Lifeline
It is amazing to think that 1.5 million people have been living under siege since 2006 and yet people are still surviving, having children and not suffering mass famine for the most part. This is where the tunnels fit in.
The tunnels connect Gaza to the rest of the world, via Egypt. There are tens of them in Rafah, a town just north of the border, they are around 600 meters long, and new ones...
The Tunnels- Gaza's Lifeline →
I was not able to take pictures of the tunnels from a closer point because I was asked not to in the name of state security.
Accounts from Israeli soldiers in Gaza →
My Humanitarian Project
I have given a few small donations to local women’s groups that are working as a support unit for women who lost their husbands, their homes, etc.
I am currently gathering a list of the families that need the most help and will be starting to give grants to them within the next week.
The Willful Destruction of Homes and Roads not for...
On Thursday evening my boss took me to Northern Gaza, to the most devastated areas. The Israeli army engaged in an operation to raze to the ground all of the houses close to the border that were blocking the view from the Israeli security watchtowers. Hundreds of houses that were not Hamas targets were bombed. One case is particularly disturbing; a family was gathered in one house, and the Israeli...
The Destruction of Northern Gaza →
Pictures of the destruction in Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Gaza City as a result of the 2008/09 war on Gaza
No Bank Notes in Gaza
The financial situation here is dire. The national currency used is the Israeli Shekel. However, Israel refuses to bring in money at the moment, and therefore banks have no way of receiving any new bank notes; no new money is coming into Gaza. The problem is that merchants buying items from Egypt and Israel go to the border and pay in cash to collect their goods, so lots of bank notes are leaving....
Pictures of Gaza
Finally I can add pictures- I had to wait for my laptop to be sent to Ramallah and fixed there, and then brought back, as there are no mac repair parts in Gaza.
Gaza Becomes Darker
I have not posted for a few days because there were several electricity cuts, and with no electricity there is no internet.
A big problem in Gaza is the lack of spare parts. If the neon sign outside a shop breaks, the lights simply remain off- there are no spare parts to fix it. The light in the elevator of an office building that I was in broke and now one has to ride up 10 stories in the pitch...
Further reflections on Gaza
Though one sees bombed buildings on every street, what one sees even more is half built buildings- thousands of them. The result of waves of funding that pour in and then suddenly disappear. Everywhere you look you see big gaping holes between walls, where windows and doors should be. At the moment, with all the money pouring in for the reconstruction of Gaza, Israel is not letting any cement in.
...
My first impressions of Gaza
After a harrowing experience at the checkpoint where I was verbally abused by several Israeli officers, I finally made it into Gaza. I find it ridiculous that I had to beg the Israeli soldiers to let me in to an area that their Supreme Court time and time again has claimed is independent unoccupied foreign land.
The people I have met here over the last two days have been some of the kindest and...
My first post
After multiple friends over the years have enouraged me to create a blog, I have finally caved in. I was concerned because I have alway had an aversion to blogs, and would hate to be yet another person standing on a soapbox. However, due to the amount of requests I have recieved, I realize that I have had some experiences that are interesting to others and therefore want to share them in the hope...