tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19884776195435659492024-03-19T06:10:12.832-07:00 Stories From GazaReporting on the ground from the Gaza StripStories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-30371683154552593492013-02-22T05:05:00.000-08:002013-02-22T05:31:44.260-08:00The One-Sided Ceasefire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>What a 'period of calm' looks like in the Occupied Territories</i><br /><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ben White for <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/02/2013220152044327694.html" target="_blank">Al Jazeera</a></span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Three months have passed since the ceasefire that brought an end to
Israel's eight-day attack on the Gaza Strip known as Operation "Pillar
of Defence". This infographic depicts the number of attacks on the Gaza
Strip by the Israeli military during this three-month period, as well as
the number of Palestinian attacks emanating from Gaza. Since late
November, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have averaged over one a
day, everyday. These include shootings by troops positioned along the
border fence, attacks on fishermen working off the Gaza coast, and
incursions by the Israeli army.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This data is important for three reasons. First, it is a response to
the Western media's failure to cover the vast majority of Israeli
attacks. This fits with a familiar and disturbing pattern, where a
regional "period of calm" is exclusively defined in terms of attacks on
Israelis. "Calm" from this perspective means security for Israelis - but
more dead and injured Palestinians.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Second, data of this nature lay bare the daily reality for
Palestinians and the power imbalance between the occupier and an
occupied, colonised people fighting for their basic rights. It is
instructive that the Israeli army refers to the entry of its forces into
the Gaza Strip as "routine activity". Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers
continue to snatch Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank,
enforce segregation, and protect settler land theft. We have included
numbers for Palestinians killed and wounded in the West Bank over this
same period because developments there and in Gaza ought not to be
viewed as isolated from one another.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Third, if or when there is another assault by Israel on the Gaza
Strip, the Israeli government and many in the West will seek to
emphasise the "rockets" narrative once again. So remember this data, and
note what the Israeli army has been doing when - in the <a class="internallink" href="http://azjewishpost.com/2013/21119/" target="_blank">words</a> of Israel's own consul general in Los Angeles - "for the last three months, there hasn't been a rocket fired from Gaza"."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Illustration and design - Rachele Richards</i></span></span></div>
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Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-52334175744360149702013-02-17T14:18:00.000-08:002013-02-22T05:29:31.834-08:00Between a Rock and a Hard Place<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Unemployment in Gaza is overwhelming so finding work is a huge challenge. Those with any kind of income are amongst the lucky ones. However, for some workers carving out a basic living, their attempts to feed their families can be life threatening if their work takes them into the proximity of the Israeli army - even when the Israeli authorities have granted authorisation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">On 14th February 2013, Kamil Al-Kafarna (20) was working as a labourer scavenging
construction materials near the Erez crossing in the very north of the Gaza Strip. He
and his cousin Hosam Al-Kafarna, both from Beit Hanoun, were working in the area with
permission from the Israeli authorities when they were shot by an
Israeli sniper. A bullet entered through the right side of Kamil's abdomen, causing tears in his stomach, diaphragm and liver. The doctors believe that
due to the damage inflicted upon his internal organs, he will never
fully recover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Hosam
Al-Kafarna (21) was wounded along with Kamil as they were working near Erez. He was hit by two bullets. The first hit his right hand and the second one went through his left arm and then hit Kamil. Hosam will need to undergo surgery
due to the bone damage in his arm caused by the bullet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Kamil and Hosam happen to be cousins of <a href="http://gazastories.blogspot.co.il/2013/02/a-day-in-life-of-gazan-farmer.html" target="_blank">Mamdouh Al-Kafarna </a>who was shot in the leg by Israeli forces on 29th January, 2013 while he was farming in the east of Beit Hanoun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Photos courtesy of <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.co.il/" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a></span></div>
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Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-13558237723970757232013-02-14T15:26:00.002-08:002013-02-14T15:31:48.771-08:00Free All Palestinian Detainees - Save the Hunger Strikers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Supporters holding posters of Samer Issawi on his 205th day of hunger strike in an Israeli jail</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: small;">A letter delivered to the United Nations today at the UNDP office in Gaza City:</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We request an immediate end to Israel's policies of detention of Palestinians in Israeli jails. Endless United Nations resolutions describe Israel's occupation of Palestine, the longest-running military occupation in modern history, as a violation of international law. The General Assembly has also affirmed and re-affirmed "the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, particularly armed struggle" in Palestine. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Yet the same United Nations continues to allow Israel's colonial domination and occupation of Palestinian land, as well as Israel's incarceration of anyone resisting against it. For many Palestinians forced from homes taken by Jewish Israeli families, merely existing as Palestinian Arabs in their native land was deemed a crime by Israeli forces. In reality, the crime would be to not resist such acts of ethnic cleansing, clearly defined in past precedents where the United Nations has intervened.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Most recently the United Nations Human Rights Council called for sanctions, detailing Israel's denial of the Palestinian right to "self-determination, non-discrimination, freedom of movement, equality, due process, fair trial, not to be arbitrarily detained, liberty and security of person, freedom of expression, freedom to access places of worship, education, water, housing, adequate standard of living, property, access to natural resources and effective remedy," as well as its continued "dispossession, evictions, demolitions and displacement" of Palestinians.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Samer Issawi, Jafar Azzidine, Tariq Qa’adan and Yousef Yassin are four Palestinians detained by Israel whose only option to win dignity and justice is to refuse food. Arrested and held without charges, they have hunger struck for as many as 205 days and are reportedly "close to death." 4,700 more political prisoners abducted from the West Bank and Gaza Strip face a harsh and discriminatory Israeli military judicial system, which frequently jails people for years for throwing rocks at tanks of an occupying military force. The laws of an illegal occupier are themselves illegal.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">ADDAMEER, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented Palestinian detainees' routine subjection to torture and ill-treatment, isolation, denial of family visits, and medical negligence, among other violations of international norms.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Samer Issawi is on his 205th day of hunger strike. His family in Issawiyeh has been attacked by the Israeli army for his resistance to unjust imprisonment. Doctors have said his condition is now critical. He represents the struggle of all Palestinian prisoners, incarcerated for resisting an illegal occupation, the colonial conquest of the land of an entire people.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Our meetings with families of detainees from the Gaza Strip inform us of ordeals too hard and heart-breaking for words to describe. No children have been allowed to visit their incarcerated relatives for nearly six years, while a blanket five-year ban on visits by spouses and parents only recently ended. Akram Rikhawi, released on 7 February after a 102-day hunger strike, couldn't recognize his ten-year-old son, whom he had not seen in nine years. He was allowed only two visits during his incarceration, and learned of his mother's death on the radio a month after it happened.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We demand the immediate release of Samer Issawi, Jafar Azzidine, Tariq Qa'adan and Yousef Yassin. We demand that the United Nations pressure Israel to release all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails and call for an immediate end to the abominable treatment of Palestinian detainees. Resistance to a brutal military occupation is not a crime, but a duty.</span><br /><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Akram Al-Rikhawy, former political prisoner and hunger striker addressing a press conference in front of the UNDP building in Gaza City</span></i> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>All photos courtesy of Desde Palestina</i></span></span></div>
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Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-63607857762454912612013-02-09T14:27:00.000-08:002013-02-10T07:48:45.241-08:00Palestinian Farmers Call for International Boycott<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>The International Day of Action for the Boycott of Israeli Agricultural Products - Day of Action in Zaytoun, Gaza and Madama, West Bank</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b> </b><br />On Saturday 9th of February in the Zaytoun district on the outskirts of Gaza City, hundreds of local farmers and fishermen were joined by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and activists from International Action for Palestine as they participated in the International Day of Action for the Boycott of Israeli Agricultural Products. They marched to Palestinian farmland in the 'buffer zone' near the eastern border of the Gaza Strip and planted olive trees on razed farmland which had previously contained vast numbers of olive and citrus trees until they were bulldozed by the Israeli army in recent years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">P</span>lanting olive trees in the ´buffer zone´ in Zaytoun, Gaza </span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Photo courtesy of <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a></i></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Palestinian farmers attempting to work on their land in border areas such as Zaytoun, all the way down the eastern length of the Gaza Strip, endure Israeli military aggression on a daily basis. A similar situation is faced by Palestinian fishermen trying to earn a living in Gazan waters, where Israeli naval gunboats open fire on them and abduct them and their fishing boats. Many farmers and fishermen have been injured and some have even been killed whilst going about their daily work. Since </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">the </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">ceasefire that was announced on 21st November, 4 Palestinians have been killed and over 80 have been injured in Gaza. The vast majority of these violations have taken place in the 'buffer zone'.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Demonstrators in Zaytoun, Gaza, calling for the boycott of Israeli agricultural products</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the West Bank, the villagers of Madama near Nablus, along with supporters from the Billal Najar Centre in nearby Burin and activists from the International Solidarity Movement marched from Madama to land belonging to the village. They planted olive trees where illegal settlers had destroyed hundreds of olive trees.<br /><br />The village of Madama faces frequent collaborated attacks between Israeli settlers and soldiers. Settlers from Yitzhar settlement are notoriously violent, regularly attacking Palestinian farmers and shepherds from Madama and surrounding villages whose land they want to take. When Palestinians try to defend themselves from these attacks Israeli occupation forces take over, attack the Palestinians and kill, injure or arrest them to keep them off their own land.<br /><br />Today's demonstrations in Occupied Palestine affirmed the call by Palestinian agricultural organisations and the Palestinian BDS National Committee for worldwide campaigns to boycott Israeli agricultural products and Israeli agricultural export corporations.<span style="color: #0000ee;"> </span>These companies are deeply complicit in Israel’s ongoing violations of international law and Palestinian human rights. Whilst they profit from stolen Palestinian land, Palestinian farmers are unable to export their own produce, thereby crippling the Palestinian agricultural sector. The demonstrators called on the thousands of people simultaneously demonstrating in over 30 countries around the world to strengthen international BDS campaigns against the Israeli apartheid regime.<br /><br />Mustafa Arafat, a farmer from Zaytoun, Gaza:<br /><i>"The daily aggression suffered by us the Palestinian farmers every day must be highlighted to the world, so people can understand the reality of the attacks and the suffering that has continued throughout the recent ‘ceasefire’. The boycotts of Israeli companies in agriculture are so important as the Israeli occupation has destroyed our farming production and denied us the possibility of exporting our own products. International pressure on Israel is the only way our own economy will be allowed to develop and for us to live normal lives."</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i> </i><br />Zakaria Bakr, a fisherman from Gaza City:<br /><i>"As some of the remaining Palestinian fishermen still able to fish, we urge all those around the world to launch campaigns to boycott Israeli Agricultural products and companies. Negotiations have for years only been a cover for making our lives worse. Boycotts are a peaceful activity and something that everyone can participate in. We have called for the boycotts because while our fishing industry, our communities and livelihoods have been destroyed by Israeli aggression, all of their industries have benefited from destroying and confiscating our land and violently denying our access to the sea."</i><br /><br />Mamun Nassar, a shepherd from Madama, Nablus:<br /><i>"I have been attacked, injured and beaten by settlers many times while tending my flock. I was just imprisoned for six weeks because I was attacked by settlers on our land. The settlers hit my face so hard they broke most of my teeth. My brother was shot and then arrested for trying to help me. All we want is to tend to our sheep."</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Facebook event: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/106728616164534/?fref=ts">https://www.facebook.com/events/106728616164534/?fref=ts</a><br /> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/2013/farming-injustice-feb9-call-10352">http://www.bdsmovement.net/2013/farming-injustice-feb9-call-10352</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.uawc-pal.org/">http://www.uawc-pal.org/</a><br /> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.actionforpalestine.org/">http://www.actionforpalestine.org</a></span></span></div>
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Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-2623651560727944032013-02-06T14:22:00.003-08:002013-02-06T16:03:54.421-08:00Press Conference in Gaza Port<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Today´s press conference in support of Palestinian farmers and fishermen held in the port of Gaza City launched several days of activities leading up to the International Day of Action for the Boycott of Israeli Agricultural Products on Saturday 9th February. Speakers were from the Boycott National Committee, the student boycott movement in Gaza, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, PNGO and International Action for Palestine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"The boycott of Israeli agricultural exports will remain an essential strategy as long as Palestinian farmers cannot export their produce due to closure and blockade. It must continue as long as Palestinian farmers cannot access their own land and work on it in safety, whilst Israeli corporations profit from stolen Palestinian land." <i>- International Action for Palestine</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Photos courtesy of <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.co.il/" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a></span><a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.co.il/" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-25358074871165973332013-02-05T08:08:00.001-08:002013-02-09T15:20:30.609-08:00Presenting the International Day of Action for the Boycott of Israeli Agricultural Products<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13pt;">A Day of Solidarity with
Palestinian Farmers and Fishermen</span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIw_XziC9_vHNegakMqnYt22C7K89uNECZqDz_AmHhQ_aC1hvk3WDh1KKD6PQNu8nX2Xq6HSDj7BFrl0AN3kUcjaWnXQp1vh94tbCW6d7_eowaILs5UTxJdfssCfwSwthJCMTRpr3_o0M/s1600/boycott-postcard-design_Page_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIw_XziC9_vHNegakMqnYt22C7K89uNECZqDz_AmHhQ_aC1hvk3WDh1KKD6PQNu8nX2Xq6HSDj7BFrl0AN3kUcjaWnXQp1vh94tbCW6d7_eowaILs5UTxJdfssCfwSwthJCMTRpr3_o0M/s400/boycott-postcard-design_Page_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/402542059838944/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-GB"> http://www.facebook.com/events/402542059838944/</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span lang="EN-GB">On Wednesday 6th of February at 10 a.m. in the Gaza</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"> <b>port,</b> the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and
International Action for Palestine, invite you to a press conference announcing
the International Day of Action in solidarity with Palestinian farmers and
fishermen on Saturday 9th February. The Day of Action, called </span><span lang="EN-US">by Palestinian agricultural organisations and the Palestinian BDS
National Committee,</span><span lang="EN-GB"> will launch </span><span lang="EN-US">worldwide boycott
campaigns of Israeli agricultural products and corporations, </span><span lang="EN-GB">in light of their deep complicity in Israel’s </span><span lang="EN-US">ongoing</span><span lang="EN-GB"> violations of international law and Palestinian human rights. Thousands
of people around the world in dozens of countries will participate on the </span><span lang="EN-US">9th February and Gaza will host events to support the campaigns throughout
the week.</span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">At the press conference several organisations, fishermen and farmers will
speak first-hand on the impact of the incessant aggression and
blockade on the livelihoods of Gazan farmers and fishermen, and ask people of
conscience in Gaza and beyond to boycott, divest and sanction from Israeli
agricultural products. We´ll also present the events that will be organized in
the following days, prior to the <b>International Day of Action</b> on
Saturday. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US">The conference will also include the public presentation of <b>International
Action for Palestine</b>, a group formed by international volunteers that works
closely with Palestinian organizations and individuals to support the rights of
farmers, fishermen and ordinary citizens in the face of Israeli occupation. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US">After the press conference fishermen and activists will participate in an
action in the port. Fishermen and farmers will be also available for interviews
after the event is finished.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US">Wednesday 6th February: Press
conference in Gaza´s Port. Presentation of International Action for Palestine
group to the public, and action with fishermen. <br />
Thursday 7th February: Rally/march through Gaza City.<br />
Friday 8th February: Interviews with local media (radio, TV).</span><i><span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></i><span lang="EN-US">Saturday 9th February: March with
farmers near the buffer zone, planting of olive trees.</span></span></div>
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Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-14514097644890370632013-02-01T14:50:00.000-08:002013-02-22T05:28:57.574-08:00A Day in the Life of a Gazan Farmer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip<br />29th January, 2013</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the far north of the Gaza Strip, in the rural border area to the east of Beit Hanoun, farmers continued their daily struggle to work on their land. International volunteers from Spain, Germany, France and the UK accompanied farmers and Palestinian activists from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative as they harvested cabbages in the light drizzle, whilst singing Palestinian folk songs. It would have been an idyllic pastoral scene if it weren't for the military jeeps and watchtowers on the border 400 metres away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipcg-Sz0t7ot4p7iEnCpSImJvhh_RlxoAOSf2UEFfvpQC9U9VRFYzFewGKKEKbgsrL8QMD7QWcmScmkdUygqi8wnesfAh5c90vUW_z57Akk7OnqArfT8811Sj-t4fqWTApyr1en-QXqAQ/s1600/_MG_1177.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipcg-Sz0t7ot4p7iEnCpSImJvhh_RlxoAOSf2UEFfvpQC9U9VRFYzFewGKKEKbgsrL8QMD7QWcmScmkdUygqi8wnesfAh5c90vUW_z57Akk7OnqArfT8811Sj-t4fqWTApyr1en-QXqAQ/s1600/_MG_1177.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.co.il/2013/01/cabbages-in-buffer-zone-beit-hanun.html" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a></span><a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><br /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">At about 11.00 a.m. we heard shots fired from the border. Unknown to us at the time, a small group of farm labourers had been tending olive and lemon trees about 300 metres away from the cabbage patch. 21 year-old Mamdouh Al-Kafarna had been shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The farm labourers said they saw two Israeli military jeeps stop at the border fence so they left their work fearing that the soldiers in the jeeps may begin shooting. After the jeeps drove away the labourers thought it would be safe to return and continue their work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">However, on their return they realised that the jeeps had left two soldiers on the ground between the trees near the border fence. Apparently they were wearing foliage as camouflage. The soldiers began shooting towards the labourers and Mamdouh was injured in both legs by the same bullet. It brushed his right leg then entered and exited his left leg.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As he fell, Mamdouh saw the soldiers cross to the Palestinian side of the fence and enter the Gaza Strip a short distance. At the sight of them running towards him, Mamdouh was afraid they might abduct or even kill him. He desperately tried to get away even though moving must have been incredibly difficult due to his injuries and by this stage he had become separated from his fellow workers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Amazingly, he managed to escape to safety and was evacuated from the area by donkey cart. He was eventually transferred to Beit Hanoun Hospital. Mamdouh is the eldest son in his family and only he and his father have work, supporting 20 people at home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: small;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.co.il/2013/01/mamdouh-mhana-mansour-al-kafarna.html" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a></span><a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"> </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The farmers explained that last year it had been too dangerous for them to access this land but they had attempted it now believing it to be safe due to the ceasefire. Unfortunately this is not the case. According to staff at Beit Hanoun Hospital, nearly 30 civilians have been injured in the northern border areas since last November. </span></div>
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Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-18402986725434373182013-01-29T15:37:00.000-08:002013-02-22T05:28:15.501-08:00One neighbour to another - From Syria to Gaza<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This week we met a family who had fled their home and sought refuge with
relatives. Not an unusual story in Gaza, perhaps. However this was a
Palestinian family from Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus. The mother of
the family is originally from Gaza. Her three sons have never been here
before in their lives. Their father is still trapped in Syria.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
eldest son, 17 year-old Ahmed is bright, sincere and softly spoken.
Listening to his accounts of the situation in Syria was staggering.
During this conflict I have found it difficult to comprehend the brutal
reality faced by the Syrian people. It still is, but meeting Ahmed has
brought it home to a much greater extent. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He showed us a video
clip he'd filmed in the immediate aftermath of a government missile
strike on a mosque in a residential neighbourhood. Over 200 people had
been killed, some of his friends amongst them. He hadn't posted the
video online while he was still in Syria for fear of reprisal.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Meanwhile,
a friend from Germany whose trip to Gaza had been delayed, instead went
to the refugee camps on the Turkish-Syrian border. From there she went
into north-western Syria, to the region around the city of Idlib. What follows is her eyewitness account.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Freedom spray – Our days within Syria </span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US">21-23/1/2013</span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: small;">Art<span style="font-size: small;">icle and photography courtesy of <span style="font-size: small;">Julia</span></span></span> </span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg30nibwJOz-VQ9Ac5Z6STpjOU_h5mMQdLDEMgJ5D5TfqSmjN3QxJsezfabf789ML0_Uc5N7Hryedpr8K85pGVFXhsD70Jw4LjX6aSjtQlXXEU17jMu68-TEe5p8aw-tDeNYnv0kP0k97U/s1600/_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg30nibwJOz-VQ9Ac5Z6STpjOU_h5mMQdLDEMgJ5D5TfqSmjN3QxJsezfabf789ML0_Uc5N7Hryedpr8K85pGVFXhsD70Jw4LjX6aSjtQlXXEU17jMu68-TEe5p8aw-tDeNYnv0kP0k97U/s1600/_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">While i search to find my way through the dark into a
borrowed pyjama in the sleeping room of a family I don't get to know because
they fled the bombing i stumble over a left behind bottle of deodorant. "Freedom
spray" it says. Quickly i spray a little puff onto me and offer the others
too.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We laugh.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We are in Maarrat Al-Numan, a city in Syria in the
close range of Idlib. The city used to have about 120.000 inhabitants, now the
people remaining –we will never get the exact number. The estimations vary from
2000 to about ten thousand. People keep leaving in fear and keep coming back
when there is hope that it has become safer.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The city is now split in two halves. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The ‘free side’ we get to know is that of a constant
hide out. But freedom is there, since the people lost the fears of the regime,
they tell us. The frontline of fighting between the army of Assad and the
‘dshesh horr’, the free army runs through it. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">You need to know which streets to walk, you don’t just
take a chat at the wrong corner. Snipers can shoot very far. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We get asked if we want to visit the ‘Jabbha’, the
front and we reject. The question feels strange, because we are already close
to about one kilometer to it, the constant barrage of bombs and shooting
becomes our usual surrounding very fast. We reject as we don’t see the need to
go. Neither are we journalists hunting a story, nor do we feel can we achieve
any ease to the situation by going there. We are not on an adventure trip and even
if our feelings with the resistance grow day by day, sharing the ditches men in
arms lye in is not our mission. But we understand the need of the people
wanting us to know all of their story. And that of the resistance at the front
understandingly is part of it. We stubbornly stick to our decision that we will
not go further and this is respected by all we meet.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The shelling that has been inflicted on this city is
so intense and the destruction we witness so massive, that searching a comparison
i can only find comparisons in the images and stories I know of German cities
in 1945. But the massive difference here is this society did not start or lead
a war.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The life, that is crawling through the cracks is also
similar to the stories I've heard of those times. You'll see a little chimney
popping out of the ground somewhere, the only sign that there is people
underneath. Windows of half crushed houses covered to not let the little bit of
light through that those inside have managed to organize for themselves.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Mainly what we see is just dead and silent. The only
sounds we hear is those of the continuity of bombs dropping. It's become a
ghost city. We walk streets and corners of destruction, never knowing when the
next bomb drops close or far. </span></span></div>
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> When you do meet people, everybody greets each other
intensely and also the good byes are of a kind that has a different depth than
when you usually meet at a street corner. One day we will be passing a building
and returning a few hours later find it crushed completely. Two of the young
men we had met there in the morning were hit by the crush and were now
evacuated with heavy injuries to Turkey.</span></span></div>
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There is quite a lot of cats around and the people
remaining have built a strong relationship with them. One will tell us that he
has now 27 cats he is feeding –because it makes him sad that they too have
nothing left to eat. Another who is a photographer collecting the images of his
city being killed has a little collection of happiness in his photo files that
he shows me: the cats of his city in various moments and places. People tell us
about the story of a cat hit by the Assad army and that they gave surgery for
her in one of their field hospitals.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We have come here with a group called “hopeful smile”.
They have always been here, also before the revolution started. They are just a
group of people of this city who have always tried to do nice stuff. They show
us pictures of their activities of before –pictures where we can also see the
city of before and the life there used to be. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Street cleaning actions within the neighborhood, like
giving aid, toys or times of fun to families in need, maybe a little summer
camp or such. At least this way we get to remember them not only as
survivors of the horror, but also as the other people they are. Through their
eyes and stories we can know this city has once been different. This ‘before
the revolution’ and ‘after it succeeds’ is the all surrounding frame of the
stories of now.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">When the things developed as they did, from the first
demonstrations to the complete destruction we are finding now the people of
“the hopeful smile” decided to stay.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They still don’t carry guns. They know their people,
they know the area and they know what they need to do. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They are finding the families in hiding, they search
them everywhere in every crack and every cellar, in the holes in the mountains
and under the ruins of ancient cities built 4000 years ago. They find the needs
and try to cover them. İt’s an almost impossible task, they themselves have to organize
the aid from an outside that is hard to reach and feed the hundreds of people
they find in the various shelters. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">İt is everything people need: food, water, blankets,
clothes, plastic sheets to protect from the rain, a doctor and a smile. “the hopeful
smile” are a group of young men who are also everybody from this city of
before: a doctor, a student, an engineer, a teacher, a teenager who used to go
to school or somebody who used to have a little shop.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We go out with them to deliver and we are very
impressed by the correctness of their work in this big mess. When the search
crew has located a family they will first take the exact data. Who are they,
how many, which age and as such, what is their need and what can their ration
of the few things there are consist of. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There are ready packed bags of food, that can feed a
family for a few days. There are big packs made of a big plastik sheet serving
as a make shift roof, in it wrapped you will find a matrass, a few rubber
boots, socks and two or three blankets. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They carry with them a few bags stuffed with clothes
they collected and search the exact fit out of these bags when they find people
too poorly dressed to withstand the cold. All of it is documented and when things
are unclear they are solved first before the aid goes anywhere. İt is hand
delivery only, this sole correctness hard to keep up when the rules of need and
greed take over in the isolation this society has found itself in. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">From people we hear that whole truck loads of aid are
stolen by thieves. But then it is hard to understand again. In many cases of
course there is a main criminal intent behind the robbery, but in some it might
be the decision to steal from the big agencies who are neglecting the people
inside and take care that the aid reaches there. A logical understanding tells
me that the resistance of course wants to feed it fighters. The other logical
understanding in me knows that this situation creates powers, where only the
strong ones have the methods to decide.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The “hopeful smile” stick to their methods of
correctness and sit over long exel files, countless photos and videos they make
to prove this. The aid they receive is paid by themselves or by few donors like
friends of theirs in exile.</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ZKGnLpJtIh-s_ybKgU4mSOp-6zB8sxL7Sd39FJ1w3T_6NcRLa4VqmyRF9MgFvx5-96SZ_GPJD4L3t7YcEvVYC2UpdTWC7xzbwVqQWnFyZG4j3oix0wkZwZNNV4bem-Hd9mwswRpAIek/s1600/_web2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ZKGnLpJtIh-s_ybKgU4mSOp-6zB8sxL7Sd39FJ1w3T_6NcRLa4VqmyRF9MgFvx5-96SZ_GPJD4L3t7YcEvVYC2UpdTWC7xzbwVqQWnFyZG4j3oix0wkZwZNNV4bem-Hd9mwswRpAIek/s1600/_web2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">With them we crawl into little caves in the hillsides.
İn a cave we will find 10, 20, sometimes thirty people hiding from the bombs
that drop on their cities. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We travel to the ancient ruins of a byzantine city,
once a tourist attraction or a place to have a picnic, the ruins and the
aqueducts underneath have now become a shelter for many more families. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">These are families from a farming community called
Faruma that has been hit by the shelling of the regime. As people they have
already lost their homes and quite some family members, but as farmers they are
determined to at least keep what is left of their live stock. So the byzantine
times have become alive again, with simple shepherds filling the scene of a
movie like atmosphere in the midst of a surrounding so beautiful it’s hard to
grasp while the sound of bombs shake the air. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">While the animals are still a little savior and
luckily the old aqueducts continue to carry some water, these people too lack
whatever else there is. The plastic sheets help cover some of the shelters,
blankets and clothes protect from the cold. Wheat, rice and lentils delivered
will cover some few days, if portioned in small rations.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">On the way to the families already on the delivery
list we will find more families. More to add to the list the “hopeful smile” is
trying to feed. When we return to our own hideout, we are greeted by the
laughing chief cook, a man with a face of a boats captain. We crowd ourselves
around a laptop that has made itself a path into the world wide web and discuss
why this world is not reacting.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In front of the oldest mosque of the city, just in the
city center completely destroyed we find two public phones. The blasts that has
his them has modernized them, they are now wireless and we joke while we try to
call the UN.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The news of the 50 million dollars for humanitarian
aid that have now been decided on by the U.S. leaves everyone speechless, when
we understand they have decided to deliver it to the people through the regime.
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This kind of news become terrifyingly gruesome when
you go to visit the only make shift hospital in the city. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">When you think that meeting the first children of this
city and learning that they all have infected themselves with hepatitis is bad news,
well the hospital conditions we find just make them feel worse.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">İt is in a cellar and I have no clue if a public
report should mention it’s location. İ don’t know how things go here, but when
i know that all hospitals the city used to have were bombed, i feel the need
this place not known. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The creativity of the last five doctors and the rest
of the medical staff has no borders. They have been able to retrieve some basic
equipment from the destroyed hospitals and built wooden rooms in the cellar as
operation stages. The hygienic surrounding is a disaster, as is that of
electricity for light or heating that a place like this would need. A basic
x-ray is possible, but that’s just about it. The doctor we are travelling with
most of the times had just finished his studies and specialized on cardiology. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Now,” he says “I need to do everything, but surgery
most of the time. We learn quickly, but we do many mistakes too.” </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Above the operation stage you will notice the
professional kind of lamp setting needed to light the surgery. İt’s shape is
just as it is in every operation room, but when they point us at it we
understand they built it by themselves. İt is a big satellite disc, in which
they have fixed halogen lamps. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">One bigger room is filled with patients. We are
supposed to document, but I am too shy to point my camera at them. One is lying
in bed like a shadow of life. He is completely paralyzed from top to bottom. He
is so thin and so grey that it chokes whatever there is in me. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He had surgery in Turkey, but as the care centers
there are full he has been returned and now grows thinner and greyer day by day
in this cellar, while the bombs around make the building rumble. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We meet a patient whose toes were removed due to
diabetes. There is no treatments left also for the sick or old, in a place
where you men get their legs and arms cut off, due to the lack of any other
medical choice.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The people working here in these conditions are the
heroes I can easily side with and claim as such.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">While we walk the streets again we receive a recount
of the revolution and how things developed here since then. Back at the hide
out center the stories told to us are underlined with the many videos and
pictures collected throughout these last two years in exactly these streets. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We pass more buildings and streets. ‘This was
the street of the first demonstration, tens of thousands were peacefully
chanting for freedom and change of regime. They shot two of us. We returned
with their bodies the day later to demonstrate and filled even this street too
-they killed more. There were snipers everywhere. Then there were helicopters,
then they dropped two bombs on a demonstration. People were presenting their
naked breast and shouting that they could just shoot all of them’</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> –and the shots fell. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It was after the helicopters and the bombs they
dropped on the people, that the first arms were taken up by the citizens of the
city.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They show us the locations Assads army used to hold:
the museum filled with ancient mosaics for example, that this city is famous
for. From here about 200 people were shot by snipers. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">‘you want to die? Just visit the museum,” they used to
say. “We had no chance than to defend ourselves” they say. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It took almost half a year and many dead in Maarat,
before the armed resistance took its go. It has achieved a lot: nobody is being
shot from the museum any more. This part of the city is free.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">People are desperate to prove their peaceful intent.
Again and again they demand us seeing the videos, where we can see the proof:
the same buildings, the same streets and the people being killed within. There
is no way around the facts, this is how it happened.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The question where the weapons of the resistance came
from in the first place and who delivered them with which intent is another.
But the understanding why people decided to take them is easily fulfilled.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Some people tell us, where the weapons came from. They
say it was the regime of Assad himself who facilitated or at least let gaps
open for weapons to flow. They are aware that even if at some point they
decided to take up arms there is also the side to the story that it was
convenient for the regime to have this change of picture. It supports him, they
say “to portrait us as violent and terrorists. But we have to defend ourselves
too.” </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the same time many weapons came from the Gulf
countries. The explanation people give us is that the regimes in those
countries fear uprising themselves. They too like the image broadcasted which
is that of Syria now of violence, destruction and fear. The message it sends is
clear: “you dare a revolution, you receive a civil war.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Then of course there is weapons and logistics from the
West and various groups with religious narrative.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We meet the fighters of the Free Syrian Army. Of
course we meet them. They sit at the sides of the road and come to greet us on
our ways. They are grandfathers, fathers and sons. They are cousins and uncles.
They too are students, or workers, or shop owners, or teachers or engineers. At
least within this city. They are the ordinary citizens of Maarat.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They too are very upset about the image of them being
some sort of Al Qaida. “Where is Al Qaida?” they ask. Joking they add that
maybe Al Qaida could actually help them out with the fight at the front only
two kilometers away. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They, just as people before grab us by the shoulders
and intensely demand us hearing that they are not fighting an ethnic or
religious war. “We have Alewites with us! No Problem! Christians, Sunni, Shia!
We were neighbors, friends and sometimes mixed within one family. Jews! We have
Jews in Syria, there is no problem, no problem. Al Nizar (-the gouvernments)
that’s the problems. Assad, Iran, U.S.A., Israel, that’s the problem. No
problem Alewites or Jewish. No problem people.” </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They explain us how the ethnic divisions are
systematically produced. They know about villages of poor Alewites, first
besieged and starved, then pressed into fighting on the side of the regime. A
big amount of the free soldiers we meet have been police or soldiers in Assads
forces themselves. They know how terrifyingly difficult it can be to defect. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They tell us that it’s not even the soldiers in that
army they consider as their enemy. But the reality of this fighting knows no
pity. They tell us that as well.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And they know that the media reproduces these fears
and divisions. They fear that the ethnic and religious war will become the
truth, when only the powers push long enough for it. They fear this imposed on
them, more than they fear death itself. And the way they move and talk and act
I strongly believe them: they have lost the fear of death. Religion and belief
surely is part of gaining this strength. But the fear of their society becoming
one they never wanted is still alive.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I have come here and I am moving around as a single
woman also in the nights that have become the streets of men. It is these men
who easily are produced to a picture of the extreme and hateful. I did decide
to wear a veil in these days to not make things more complicated and as we have
no experience anyhow in how things can develop in these circumstances. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We too were frightened before entering. And it was not
just the bombs we were frightened of. It was also the fierceful image of militias
we see as the image of Syria nowadays. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But even though my veil keeps sliding off, as I have
no practice in tying it, even though i smoke, talk and move as a woman in a
conservative surrounding here wouldn’t I receive respect and protection in all
the days and places we travel.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">On our ways to the city and to the villages we see
other faces of fighters than from the city. More grim behind some weapons, more
strict in the look, more controlling. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The fighters from Jabbah al Nusra who freed Taftanaz
Airbase surely are not the chatty kind of guys we can easily become friends
with.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They obviously did an amazing job: seeing the huge
space and tens of now burnt helicopters they freed is impressive. From this
place the wrath of the regime was brought upon the Syrian people. But we feel
this wrath has been returned. What happened to those injured or captured and
the many bodies of the dead of the Assad army is a question nobody we dare to
ask can answer.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We discuss the intentions of religious groups coming
to fight in Syria. People don’t deny, also the men we get to know from FSA
don’t deny that there is those who come with a vision of there own. That there
is those who are criminal and low in moral. People tell us how they are
struggling to set up courts to trial those who use the power their guns give
them wrongly. İt becomes obvious that things are a mess. A very big and a very
sad mess. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But this mess is a mix more complex than a division
between the good and the bad. The secular or the religious. The peaceful or the
violent. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Even if the vision of some of the very religious is
not shared by all, this does not mean that all the very religious fighters are
low in moral, are acting with crimes against the people or are trying to impose
their visions. İt is a whole mess of a people fighting to save themselves and
others, of trying to keep up the ideas and demands of a revolution, keeping up
the popular committees while drowning in the isolation the world has set upon
them and the interfering interests of states and secret services, of groups
intending to import sharia, all of them acting through the channels of support
and neglect, money, weapons or aid. But all of the wrong in the territories
freed by the FSA does not make right what is on Assads side. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The paths to solidarity with the Syrian people have
become quite stumbly. It is hard to find them and also not when you want to
find. While we move around we have to question every story we hear again and again,
we learn to look at it from all sides and have still understood much too little
and much too much.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It is very obvious that the things happening here are
a big heap of a crime, committed by many. But these have many colors, and they
many seem to agree in one thing: that they all have the need to instrumentalize
the crumbling of the Syrian society for the benefit of theirs. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The only reason this is happening and all parties are
participating in doing the best possible actions and inactions leading to this
total chaos, is the power struggles in which each part thinks they can win
their strategies, when only the Syrian society has at last lost its’ soul.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As a European citizen I feel my main objective in
demanding our governments to play a role in breaking the isolation people are
trapped in, at least on the level of making humanitarian aid possible. People
we are talking to are very aware of foreign intervention and they don’t wish
it. But as the world acts as if it weren’t happening, the mess here is a whole
collection of foreign intervention already. Only that it solely seems to be the
ugly side of it reaching and not that of simple aid. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The activists on the ground are having to fill this
gap, their political struggle for freedom and equality is being pushed aside
while they are pressed to do what aid agencies should do in a much bigger
scale. The starvation of the people and massive displacement is the fertile
ground for corruption and violence to have its’ go, while the societies popular
movements are systematically destructed. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The complete refusal of our governments, or the
International Community to launch their capacities for aid can only mean that
there is a great interest in this society breaking and extremist forces taking
over.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As an anti-imperialist I feel my main objective in
tossing the debate of the traditional left into a new analysis and this very
fast, as our traditional debate has already lost track of the fast developments
in the area. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In my opinion the useless try of our voices being
heard and our positions being set within the debate of siding or opposing whole
states strategies as such have always been wrong. İn the case of Syria they are
more wrong than ever. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There can be no romanticized position next to a
regime, just because this regime opposes some of the other regimes or states we
also oppose. Assads regime is not the anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist secular
dream, or the partner of a humanitarian libertarian left. And many of the
rebels on the other side are obviously not as well. But for now they are not an
entity or have the power of a state. For now they are the direct result of a
people being slaughtered and starved. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxyiv2077799596ecxmsonormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">If we live up to our so called ideologies of freedom,
equality and justice we must continue –no we must at last start to walk in
Syria, we must be creative and loving in the solidarity we have to offer, we
must not let the sole aid be that of liberals or extremists, we must not let
the people drown into dependence on partners that are none.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">At the moment it is not the right to determine
political aims of ours within Syria, at the moment people just need support to
survive. They are very well capable of keeping up their society of differences,
of creating a free and equal Syria for all, if we only meet face to face with
them and give the isolation and stigmatization they are confronted with a
united blow.</span></span></div>
</div>
Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-30013102542386595722013-01-27T14:29:00.000-08:002013-02-22T05:27:28.127-08:00Mohammad Al-Simri, Bakr Al-Fayoumi and Adham Al-Dabaji<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmSpgU9j3Ulb-ug1kx_ePo4iJdw6ksZGLtl4swYC2GE0I1c4c7JF7P85l2jf9iw6snFcHxxNmglDiqStTfdeIipGSV1gKu1qdeF3kCmJ37phNHA9-eahVxXrCiFRGITUhrgXDZ1MhV8GM/s1600/_MG_0825.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmSpgU9j3Ulb-ug1kx_ePo4iJdw6ksZGLtl4swYC2GE0I1c4c7JF7P85l2jf9iw6snFcHxxNmglDiqStTfdeIipGSV1gKu1qdeF3kCmJ37phNHA9-eahVxXrCiFRGITUhrgXDZ1MhV8GM/s400/_MG_0825.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Mohammad
Al-Simri (17) was visiting a cemetery in East Jabalia on 25th of
January, when he heard shooting coming from the border fence. He saw a
group of people confronting Israeli soldiers in their jeeps and decided
to join them. Two soldiers got out of their jeep and lay on the ground
to take aim at the demonstrators. Mohammad was throwing stones at around
30 meters from the fence when he was deafened by a bullet whistling
past his ears. At first he did not notice any pain, but when he touched
his face he realized he was bleeding profusely. He ran away from the
site and was taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital for treatment. A bullet
brushed his face leaving a wound that needed 14 stitches, 4 of them
inside his mouth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNcvzt3PAhVuHkjNuAMrUmYkJCvjTpI5r_hbRF-c7V9ewsRg2KEGCBL2_M_F_78SOd6FE4qW8hK7IIVUGzIxpiut1k8KNTH4D8R7g9eIivSPOxds71pWEerPLfHwHjg_xTYMXaKEcas4w/s1600/_MG_0840.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNcvzt3PAhVuHkjNuAMrUmYkJCvjTpI5r_hbRF-c7V9ewsRg2KEGCBL2_M_F_78SOd6FE4qW8hK7IIVUGzIxpiut1k8KNTH4D8R7g9eIivSPOxds71pWEerPLfHwHjg_xTYMXaKEcas4w/s400/_MG_0840.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Bakr
Al-Fayoumi (20) was participating in a demonstration against the
Israeli Army near Jabalia when soldiers opened fire. He was running away
form the site
when he was injuried in the neck and the leg by shrapnel from a
hollow-point
bullet that hit the arm of a fellow demonstrator. He has pieces of
shrapnel embedded in his leg that will require surgery for its removal. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_-7wb06_k-P_NVQ4lnbMDZJJ4K0pRqEPaNTHfHrJyUsGweTxCJ0iM-TpR2xI9jq94fWz8qXfzVIBzLAhm9fkbcVPNIflK7LJ94VppCUlPXRbwUi2Lo2D99rUDD4H4AxgxZrnDEl7BGhY/s1600/_MG_0801.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_-7wb06_k-P_NVQ4lnbMDZJJ4K0pRqEPaNTHfHrJyUsGweTxCJ0iM-TpR2xI9jq94fWz8qXfzVIBzLAhm9fkbcVPNIflK7LJ94VppCUlPXRbwUi2Lo2D99rUDD4H4AxgxZrnDEl7BGhY/s400/_MG_0801.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Adham
Al-Dabaji (20) was catching birds with a net near the "buffer zone"
east of Jabalia, at around 500 metres from the border fence; when the
Israeli Army began shooting at a group of people that where near-by. He
received a direct impact of a high-speed tear gas canister in the face
that caused him injuries in the mouth.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Photos courtesy of <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a></span> </div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-16628717117237365452013-01-23T02:32:00.002-08:002013-02-22T05:27:04.508-08:00The Broken Truce<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Monday 21st January, 2013</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A ceasefire
was announced on 21st November, ending eight days of horrific bloodshed
in Gaza. Has the delicate truce held over the past two months? It
depends who you ask. Israelis or Gazans, each going about their daily
lives on opposite sides of a border fence.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There has not been a
single report of a rocket fired out of Gaza since 21st November. In
contrast, four Palestinians have lost their lives and over 80 have been
injured by Israeli forces since then. Yet these violations have received
little or no coverage in the mainstream media. Palestinian civilians,
whose only crime is to live in the border areas, are terrorized on a
daily basis by the Israeli army. This is what everyday life under the
ceasefire has meant for them. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Beit Lahiya, in the far north of
the Gaza Strip is one such place. A week ago it saw the brutal murder of
20 year-old Mustafa Abu Jarad. Today, it was the site of another
Israeli violation. Abdullah Marouf, 18, was in the west of Beit Lahiya,
near the coast, when he was shot in the right leg by Israeli forces,
fracturing both his tibia and fibula.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">At about 9.00 on the
morning of 21st January, Abdullah was in an area approximately 250
metres from the border fence, collecting scrap metal with his two brothers. A
group of five or six Palestinians they were unaquainted with were also
in the vicinity, closer to the fence than they were. Abdullah had been
under the impression that he would be safe, however he noticed an
Israeli soldier in a watchtower on the border and others on the ground.
The soldiers began firing live ammunition towards them and Abdullah was
shot.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Two local farmers brought him to Kamal Adwan hospital where
surgeons performed percutaneous pinning of his lower leg which had
sustained damage from an entry wound and a significantly larger exit
wound. He requires subsequent surgery in a couple of months to fit
internal wires. His recovery is estimated to take at least 12 months.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFLsr4To2s_NNwRFmbfEoKXpmetNmID0P9_KxFxjprfxpaNY7JQv1zKZPmdW6cG7FwttdPuvBfvP4JY0NtKEoxw_J7_YKAuLBtGRXrXU-Sv1N5qaqCO98iSlLLQbvvi42QujI1J8G9aWo/s1600/_MG_0461.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFLsr4To2s_NNwRFmbfEoKXpmetNmID0P9_KxFxjprfxpaNY7JQv1zKZPmdW6cG7FwttdPuvBfvP4JY0NtKEoxw_J7_YKAuLBtGRXrXU-Sv1N5qaqCO98iSlLLQbvvi42QujI1J8G9aWo/s1600/_MG_0461.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Photo courtesy of <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.co.il/2013/01/abdallah-mohammad-marouf.html" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Abdullah,
who is engaged to be married, had been working with his two brothers
selling scrap metal. Now they will have to support a family of nine
without his help. It is unsurprising that he expressed a lack of faith
in the ceasefire agreement. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">One can only expect that the
Palestinian resistance has also lost faith and is fast losing patience.
If a response is provoked it will appear to be in a vacuum - despite
this being far from the case - due to the shameful silence maintained by
the international community throughout the ongoing Israeli atrocities.
It is for people of conscience to protest this injustice and prevent a
further escalation of Israel's attacks on Gaza.</span></div>
</div>
Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-45393348280764892722013-01-21T16:01:00.002-08:002013-02-10T07:37:16.525-08:00Bulldozing the Ceasefire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Khuza'a,
Gaza Strip<br />
15th - 17th January, 2013<br />
<br />
At about 8.30pm on Tuesday 15th January, Israeli tanks and military bulldozers
breached the border adjacent to the village of Khuza'a, east of Khan Younis and
intruded inside the Gaza Strip. The incursion into Palestinian farmland
continued through the night and added to the long list of Israeli ceasefire
violations.<br />
<br />
Heavy shooting was reported during the assault but fortunately there were no
injuries on this occasion. Also, explosions were heard but no homes were
damaged. Terrified locals contacted the International Committee of the Red
Cross but were told that the Israeli military wouldn't listen to anyone.<br />
<br />
The raid continued on the night of Wednesday 16th January, when Apache
helicopters were reported to have also been deployed. Then, on Thursday 17th
January, the Israeli military aggression continued in the area for a third
consecutive night.<br />
<br />
A large swathe of agricultural land was damaged, about eight kilometres along
the border fence and about 250 metres back from it. Within this area about 300
dumuns were razed, including wheat crops planted in December. Fields belonging
to about 500 different farmers were affected, according to local officials.
Farmers have attempted to approach their lands since the attack but haven't
been able to reach land closer than 100 metres from the fence.</span></span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSiFpQK5oxaMmNVg8w7m2oFMtWJp6V6M2QmVj3gLDUOclPnbE8cFY7TTRyMH3wQChYbajSplRWvTEaDeJ8PTjhZHGfA1oUPfwp_QgVGnlIAwKDAejyPDLQ38tXLT0FXQyW2HSsRiFgT3o/s1600/DSCN0351.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSiFpQK5oxaMmNVg8w7m2oFMtWJp6V6M2QmVj3gLDUOclPnbE8cFY7TTRyMH3wQChYbajSplRWvTEaDeJ8PTjhZHGfA1oUPfwp_QgVGnlIAwKDAejyPDLQ38tXLT0FXQyW2HSsRiFgT3o/s400/DSCN0351.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The mayor of Khuza'a, Kamal Al-Najar, explained that 800 of the 2,000 dunums of agricultural land in Khuza'a is close to the border fence and wasn't accessible prior to Israel's eight-day offensive on Gaza in November. At that time, farmers in Khuza'a had only been able to access their lands which lay half a kilometre or more from the border fence.</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /> Since the ceasefire announcement, they have accessed land 300 metres from the fence and had managed to cultivate about 400 dunums within that area for the first time in ten years. However, most of this has now been destroyed in last week's attack. Over the course of the last ten years, the Israeli military has destroyed olive and citrus groves, greenhouses and water pumping facilities in the border areas.<br /><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
<br />
For additional photos please see <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.com/2013/01/bulldozed-farmland-in-khuzaa.html?m=1" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a><br />
</span></span></div>
</div>
Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-80328074994227276862013-01-14T14:55:00.000-08:002013-02-22T05:26:24.300-08:00Israel's Definition of a Ceasefire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span lang="">
<i>Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip<br />Monday 14th January</i></span><br />
<br />
Just three days after the fatal shooting of Anwar Al-Malouk near Jabalia, the Israeli military has murdered another Palestinian civilian despite a supposed ceasefire being in place. Mustafa Abu Jarad, 20, was one of a group of bird hunters working on a plot of land in an area north of Beit Lahiya in the very north of the Gaza Strip, over a kilometre away from the border fence.<br />
<br />
From the border, the Israeli army began firing heavily in their direction and immediately targeted Mustafa directly in the forehead. The group had thrown themselves onto the ground and when the situation calmed enough for them to move they realised that Mustafa had been hit. <br />
<br />
The bullet went straight through Mustafa's head leaving a massive exit wound. He was rushed to Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip but was finally transferred to Al Shifa, Gaza's main hospital, due to the severity of his injuries. He arrived in a critical condition and underwent emergency surgery to remove bone fragments from the remaining part of his brain and to relieve internal bleeding. Unfortunately, he had sustained a massive brain trauma and his prognosis was bleak. He died in the ICU a few hours after the operation as his family anxiously waited for news.<br />
<br />
Mustafa's older brother, Loay, was killed two and a half months ago whilst active with the Palestinian resistance. Mustafa had no involvement with the resistance himself. He was trying to earn a little extra income for his family whilst he completed his studies. The latest attacks increase the number of Palestinian casualties since the ceasefire announcement to nearly 80. <br />
<br />
To further flout the ceasefire agreement, several Israeli military vehicles were reported to have breached the border with Gaza this morning in an agricultural area east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip (Ma'an News Agency). After continual violations of the November ceasefire, committed by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians, the question remains:<br />
<br />
When will the international community take notice - and furthermore take action - to prevent an escalation of bloodshed?<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPsOvThbbyzMt-v6kxz4JpQyTvrUOwUYiDd5ubY1gJiBvlT36UDBjFu4gOKZvELnSsYVKV8pOxOrbUV_7KpoocfeshtpHQrHJdCqW0luHdViwtU9rrjDPupmgTJgH-S1li9lq91JiYt40/s1600/_MG_9899.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPsOvThbbyzMt-v6kxz4JpQyTvrUOwUYiDd5ubY1gJiBvlT36UDBjFu4gOKZvELnSsYVKV8pOxOrbUV_7KpoocfeshtpHQrHJdCqW0luHdViwtU9rrjDPupmgTJgH-S1li9lq91JiYt40/s1600/_MG_9899.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span lang=""><br />Photo courtesy of <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.com/2013/01/mustafa-abu-jarad-was-murdered-today-by.html?m=1" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a></span></div>
Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988477619543565949.post-47915512525062734812013-01-14T09:44:00.001-08:002013-02-22T05:23:19.544-08:00Fatal attack east of Jabalia - a further violation of the ceasefire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
Jabalia, Gaza Strip<br />
Friday 11th January, 2013<br />
<br />
The fragile ceasefire announced on 21st November, following Israel's eight-day offensive on Gaza, was yet again violated by the Israeli military today after a fatal attack on a group of Palestinian civilians east of Jabalia. 19 year-old Anwar Al-Malouk, a law student from the Shajaia district of Gaza City was shot dead and 21 year-old Omar Wadi from the Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza City, was injured as he came to Anwar's aid.<br />
<br />
At about 2.30pm on 11th January, Omar was in a local cemetary visiting the graves of friends killed under the occupation. He noticed a group of around 30 Palestinians a few hundred metres away to the east, between the cemetary and the fence marking the eastern border of the Gaza Strip.<br />
<br />
From the cemetary, which was over half a kilometre from the border fence, Omar approached the group to investigate the situation. Four Israeli military jeeps were positioned on the other side of the fence and around 12 Israeli soldiers were present, firing tear-gas canisters towards the group of Palestinians.<br />
<br />
At this point, the group was at a distance of approximately 100 metres from the fence but then fled a further 100 metres back, amid the tear-gas attack. By around 4pm, Anwar had been separated from the group and remained alone about 40 metres from the fence, when he was shot by the soldiers and fell.<br />
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Three of the group, including Omar, went back to assist Anwar. Omar says he acted instinctively at the sight of a fellow Palestinian in danger and didn't consider his own safety - despite not having previously known Anwar. As he arrived to where Anwar lay, he was hit in both legs by shrapnel from a hollow-tip bullet which exploded on impact with the ground nearby and showered metal fragments in his direction.<br />
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The two others managed to evacuate Omar and Anwar from the scene to safety but Anwar had sustained a serious gunshot wound to his abdomen and died en route to hospital. Anwar had to be driven from the area to the main road in a toc-toc, where he was then transferred to an ambulance. Unfortunately, by this time he had already passed away in the toc-toc.<br />
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At Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia, Omar was treated for ankle injuries. He has since been released but the shrapnel remains embedded in his bones. As an outpatient of the osteological department, he must return next week for assessment regarding the possibility of surgery to remove the shrapnel. It is understandable that Omar was terrified during the attack. He has been traumatised by the experience and has not been able to sleep due to reliving the memory of it.<br />
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Omar has two brothers and six sisters. His 18 year-old brother, Mohammed, was seriously injured during an Israeli incursion in the east of Jabalia five years ago when he was only 13 years old. Mohammed underwent treatment in Egypt for four months and is still receiving treatment in Gaza to this day. <br />
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The young mens' father expressed concern about Omar ever visiting the cemetary again, whilst their mother said she feared one day all her sons would be killed. The Wadi family yearn for a genuine ceasefire yet anticipated from the outset that Israel would never respect it. Omar's principal hope is that Israel's crimes against Palestinians will end.<br />
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Anwar was the youngest son of the Al-Malouk family and the only one still living at home due to his older brothers being married. His 55 year-old mother hopes he is now at peace. <br />
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The first Palestinian killed after the ceasefire announcement was also named Anwar. On 23rd November, just two days into the agreement, Anwar Qudieh was shot dead, this time in the rural area of Abassan, east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip. <br />
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There have been numerous Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians in Gaza during the ceasefire. One can only imagine the response had it been the other way around.<br />
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Photos courtesy of <a href="http://desde-palestina.blogspot.com/2013/01/omar-wadi.html?m=1" target="_blank">Desde Palestina</a></div>
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Stories From Gazahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03616460015332359956noreply@blogger.com0