Gaza No Exit

Dear freinds , brothers , sisters comrades , all of you who read my blog
i hope you understand why i do disappear sometimes ,in Gaza Nothing is certain,and life is so difficullt and needs a lot of energy to continue from one day toanother , i love you all
Mona

Today I was supposed to be in London, addressing the Rally organized by
PSC and other organizations to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the
Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. It was the “Enough!”
Coalition rally, calling for an end to Occupation and freedom for
Palestine.

I could not make it to London. The Gaza borders are closed for an
indefinite period. Before the closure was announced I was hoping to cross
to travel to London, as it had been announced several times on local TV
that the borders would open for one continuous week.

I postponed all my work, my plans and appointments and also my community
work, and went to the borders several times hoping for the opening. It was
so cold and the situation so uncertain, and I saw crowds of people waiting
on the Palestinian side in inhuman circumstances. I was told that at least
200 patients were waiting to leave to Egypt for treatment not available in
Gaza, e. g. cancer patients.

Even when you are lucky enough to leave Gaza for Egypt via this one and
only exit, the Rafah crossing, you are always uncertain of your return to
Gaza.

We in Gaza do not travel and are deprived of one basic right, the right of
movement. We also have various restrictions on our movement inside Gaza
and on travel to the West Bank. The majority of us cannot use the Eretz
checkpoint to leave Gaza for the West Bank. All of us are barred from
using the Israeli Lod airport. I personally did not travel to the West
Bank for 12 years. During this time I missed many important and more
routine meetings related to my work as a physician. My youngest daughter
dreams of visiting Jerusalem, Ramallah or Nablus, like all her mates in
Gaza.

Living in Gaza and under such tough and cruel circumstances, the entire
community suffers from the economical sanctions imposed by the Americans
and the rest of the West, sanctions against the Hamas government, those
sanctions that contributed heavily to the severe deterioration of the
political, economical, social and psychological situation inside Gaza.

While living in Gaza and experiencing the situation on the ground, and
living in the midst of the Palestinian-Palestinian clashes between Fatah
and Hamas, I blame both parties for the Palestinian bloodshed and do not
give any excuse whatsoever for any of them, nevertheless I blame the West
for its economical sanctions against Palestine and the Israeli occupation
which on its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip it converted to a big boiling
pressure cooker.

That Israeli disengagement plan from Gaza was a new form of Occupation,
because Israel still controls Gaza from outside. It controls the borders
and the economy, and has a free hand to carry out various incursions.
Israel’s disengagement from Gaza was a step towards making an independent
Palestinian state impossible. Its consequence was to turn the Palestinian
cause into a charitable not a national issue. By making the Palestinian
people go hungry and lose all aspects of a dignified life, it is a step
towards demoralising them and making them in the end accept whatever
solution, however small and inadequate.

What do you expect of people living inside this pressure cooker, but all
sorts of aggression, despair, demoralization, and frictions against each
other? More than 60 people were killed, 30 in 3 days, and more than 70
were injured in different parts of Gaza. Most people stayed inside their
homes, one man was killed inside his home, many buildings in the Remal
area where I live were hit by random shooting, many residents left their
homes seeking safer areas, but where are those safe areas, when no place
is safer than any other?

It is mid-term holidays for the children of Gaza, 2 weeks holiday, no
regular electricity, no safe streets to run in, no proper places to play,
no safe homes to stay in, and no proper food to eat. Life continues and
the most dangerous time is when people start to lose faith and hope, and
have no vision for the future.

With your solidarity, with the solidarity of all those good people
worldwide who hate to see injustice and aggression, and continue to work
for a better world, I can keep my hope and vision for a better future, and
try to transmit those feelings to the others here to keep them strong.

I still count on you for a better future for the Palestinian people, the
women, the children who deserve better lives.

From Gaza with love

Mona

occupation is the secret recipe for suffering

5th of january
there are violent palestinian plalestinian interclashes between fateh and hamas in the north and south of Gaza, and inside Gaza city as well , the clashes continued throug hthre night 6 people were kilede and tens injured ,





Dear All
happy new year , hoping that 2007 will bring the best possible for al lof us , sorry it is belated wish , but late is better than never
with love and solidarity

Mona eLFarra




GAZA

Gaza at the end of 2006

My life in Gaza

Throughout December, I was very busy organizing relief work for hundreds
of families living in different sorts of poverty. Working with colleagues
and tens of volunteers, we managed to distribute food parcels – meat,
blankets, money vouchers, milk, medications for sick children and cancer
patients, university fees for needy students.

I am organizing and coordinating this work for MECA and some other donors,
with the help of 3 doctors, friends and colleagues. A group of volunteers,
mainly women, help as well. We work hard to reach people in different
parts of the crowded Gaza Strip, where we are imprisoned in this small
area of land whose borders are still mainly closed – they opened just 14
times in 6 months.

The Palestinian Egyptian border crossing is very crowded with hundreds of
people waiting to travel on both sides. You can only leave Gaza in very
difficult and inhuman circumstances, and you cannot be sure of coming
back. Passengers wait on the Egyptian side, not knowing when the borders
will open – is it a matter of hours, days, weeks or months? Some have no
choice but to go through this traumatic experience. Students did not reach
their universities on time, and some patients died while waiting to cross
the border for treatment.

I am invited by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in London to to attend a
conference.(Enough ) I do not think it will be easy for me to travel, and it may be
impossible in such uncertain circumstances. It is important for me to be
able to go to London and I wish I could go, but this is a luxurious wish
when we all live under very severe circumstances. All of us feel unsafe
and cannot guarantee the safety of our children.

I am surrounded by thousands of people who depend on different sources of
local and international humanitarian aid for their daily basic needs, and
to continue living and resisting these circumstances. They resist
occupation by continuing to live here at all, in such horrific, inhuman
miserable conditions.

IN Gaza YOU CANNOT PLAN SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS LUNCH WITH FREINDS

IN GAZA YOU CANNOT PLAN SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS VISITING YOUR OLD MOTHER ONLY 20 MINTUES DRIVE


Sunday 17 th December

The Palestinian-on-Palestinian internal clashes have re-started. Dozens
are killed or injured, schools are closed. I cannot reach the Red Crescent
Society or the Al﷓Awda hospital or get out to buy some milk. I am
confined to my flat, and it is very unsafe for me and Sondos, especially
because we live very close to the presidential headquarters.

From my window I can see armed men, many of them masked, tense and on
alert. I hear the shooting too close, not knowing where it comes from, and
the sounds of big explosions. I've witnessed this scene before but now it
is a Palestinian-Palestinian fight. last month during november , it was Israeli Apache
helicopters and F16's, army tanks frogmen and gunboats.
The outcome is the same. We
are not safe, no place in Gaza is safe.


25th December

It has been raining, heavy showers of rain non stop for the last 3 days.
There is no electricity and it is very cold. I have heard that there are
some problems with the power plant, though we had regular power last month
after 5 months of living with only a few hours of electricity (patchy
power). I cannot watch television, I feel isolated from the world and
abandoned by the world. I do not have the desire to write or go out, I
feel so low.


27th December

The Israelis have opened the dam on the east of Gaza to relieve the
overflow of rainwater on the eve of AlAdha Eid (the Muslim ceremony of Eid
when Abraham promised God to give his son as a sacrifice). I decide to
visit my mother in Khan Yunis 20 km south of Gaza City where I live.

I reach as far as the Gaza bridge which links the south and north of the
Gaza Strip. But the road under the destroyed bridge is closed, flooded by
excessive rain. The alternative road is also flooded while the bridge
above has been completely destroyed by Israeli jet fighters last June. On
the other side of the Gaza valley Israel has opened the dam and let water
gush into Gaza to avoid floods into Israeli land (historical Palestine),
so on both sides of the valley inside Gaza there are great floods of rain
and sewage water. I cannot visit my aged mother (84), and the road remains
closed during the feast days.

I need somebody to tell me how we in the Occupied Territories can tolerate
or accept or coexist with Israel and its racist acts and continuous
insistence on treating us in the OT as 10th class citizens, on the borders
and everywhere in our own country. Occupation, occupation, occupation is
inhuman and makes life like a hell for us in our own country. Occupation
is illegal and it only exists in Palestine and Iraq, imposed by Israel and
America, the so-called most democratic nation in the new world.

Without a clear comprehensive and just solution for the Palestinian
Israeli conflict, a solution that is based on self-determination for
Palestinians and the right of return, ending the occupation and stopping
the American government's biased intervention in the region, I can see
clearly that the situation in Palestine and the whole region will go from
bad to worse, and then where...

I do not have the answer. If somebody knows can he/she let me know.

With love and solidarity from Gaza