From Gaza, with Love

Gaza this morning

2011-08-19T11:23:00.000+03:00

Gaza this morning –19th of August 2011-8am
8am
Shattered glass , destroyed a big building (city library under construction) close to Rosy women beauty center, where I can see many broken windows, and people cleaning the rubble and the shattered glass, while I was on my way to check on the red crescent society, which is close to Arafat police headquarters building. It was not hit, as I have heard in the local radio news last night. I have received a phone call from a friend in the north (Beit Hanoun and Jabalia); he says there is continuous (artillery shelling) in the north and east of Gaza.
I do not know what is next! Is it an alarming attack? Is it a start of large scale operation against Gaza? I cannot predict or analyze but it is pretty obvious that the Israeli government intends to divert internal turmoil into Gaza civilians under the immoral pretense of security, they hit targets and terrify civilians, my main concern now is how to coordinate with other health providers, the emergency health services, while we lack basic medications and supplies in most of the health facilities
I could not sleep last night so many people in the city could not, I was thinking Israel will never be secure or safe by hitting Gaza or building more settlements or confiscate more land. Our Palestinian cause is a noble cause that is based on justice and rights as guaranteed by so many UN resolutions, unless the world really has been changed into a big jungle, where the most powerful controls, as the world seems so now. But this is not the end of the battle towards peaceful just world, the continued movements against injustice in many Arab countries will make the change, and inside Israel itself, too.
ps
Theresa I have mentiones in my previous release
Theresa, a master student in Public Health, has finished gathering data to implement family planning program. She will write a recommendation for the Red Crescent Society on how to implement joint husband-wife counseling.
.

Gaza under Israeli military attack

2011-08-19T04:32:00.000+03:00

Gaza -August 18th -1am
Dear Freinds
I am ok.
They have started shelling Gaza City and different parts of the Gaza Strip. The first attack was so close to my building, the F16 hit Almuntada; they have also attacked the north of the city. Already 6 people have been injured and one killed(6 were killed few hours earlier on ). I can hear and see the emergency vehicles on their way to the site of the shelling. My computer is not working so I am using Theresa’s laptop - bad timing. It is sad to see the families below the building in panicking and running outside of the sea resort. The second shelling was against the police building (Arafat police headquarters), so close to the Red Crescent building. The operation is expected to be accelerated and the UN has evacuated its employees. I am trying to calm down while receiving many calls from friends and family checking on me. I have asked Theresa to leave to the west bank tomorrow; she was due to leave on Sunday. I am relieved it is the end of her visit, and she has accomplished her practicum.
Netanyahu exports the internal Israeli political turmoil to an external situation.

With love and solidarity
Mona

Bello Ciao- The Vic I Know

2011-04-16T18:41:00.002+03:00

Bello Chio- the Vic i know -1975-2011

With deep sadness in my heart I write. I am sad and shocked that Vik has been taken from our world so soon and so tragically. I am appalled that such ignorant brutality and violence still exists in Palestinian society.
Vik you were dedicated, full of humanity, and fun. Your love for life, music and laughter meant that your presence always created a nice atmosphere, for our youth and children in different occasions. You shared our lives in Gaza for more than 2 years, you danced Dabbka , you would always reach out and shake hands with little boys and girls in the streets, you would play football with them. You were there in our funerals as well as our weddings. and more than that your daily protesting as member of the ISM alongside with Palestinians, on the borders against the buffer zone that was created by Israel, where Farmers were unable reach their land ,
Viktor you were always there with the ISM and Palestinian people, in peaceful protests against the occupation. Calling for justice, peace and a free Palestine,
I have known Viktor for more than 2 years. When he arrived to Gaza with the free Gaza movement Boats in August 2008, and since has stayed in Gaza during the siege and the ongoing different atrocities by the Israeli occupation. He was a radical real revolutionist comrade, on another occasion we met at al Aqsa hospital in the middle camps when Bianca, a member of the ISM, was shot by the Israelis in another peaceful protest against the buffer zone, he was so angry and showed his anger in a very open way. An angry young man, with smiling, beautiful, and peaceful eyes.
In my apartment in Gaza city, we had a light dinner with friends, and he was so happy and sang the nice famous Italian song Bella Ciao he translated it ,I felt empowered and inspired by him. We all sang it together.
Vik (VITTORI ) made thousands of children, youth and men happy , able to continue and steadfast against the occupation and siege , he will always be remembered by us in Palestine , he had a good time with us in Gaza, he was always smiling and happy, and above all worked according to his beliefs.
As a mother I am at loss for words. My thoughts and prayers go to his family.
My comrade, friend, and brother you will always be in my heart.

From Gaza with love
Mona Elfarra

i will reply in time

2011-03-14T14:46:00.002+02:00

hello Dear freinds, readers,comrades brothers , sisters and all of you who are following my blog
thanks for responding to my writing, unfortunetly i have not read it , till this morning (it is completely technical error), for sure i will respond to all , but at the moment, iam ill with this silly allergic bronchitis , it makes me feel imprisoned , with all those directions of bed rest , AB, diffrent home remedies, and the cough is so strong, persistent and annoying .
please give me some time to heal , as iam on sick leave , and for somebody who is up and about like me , it is simply killing to be in bed !
love
Mona

Happy International Women's Day

2011-03-14T13:43:00.001+02:00

The 100 hundred year anniversary comes this year, with the Motto of the duty of men and women, to work to end the violence against women and girls of the world. While Palestinian women still face all sorts of violence as the Israeli occupation continues to harass both men and women in Palestine, it is the women who bear the brunt of it. Women are facing increasing rules inside the family and the society as men’s mass unemployment in Gaza causes their proud role in the family to deteriorate. The burden is heavier when the husband is absent, a political prisoner inside Israeli jails or killed by the continuous military attacks. Besides the violence of the occupation, the harassment and constraints imposed by a very traditional society treat her as an unequal person, depriving her of her chances to be a free individual who can decide, achieve and contribute to the progress of the society and the world.
Despite this traditional and political backdrop, many women managed to get educated and find work, fighting daily for their rights. Education has played a great role, helping our women to recognize their rights and work to achieve them. This is no more evident than for those Palestinian women who have got jobs and achieved to some extent economic independence and above all to be better individuals for their own benefit and the society.
The different programmes run by Palestinian NGOS target women in a holistic approach, focusing on health, health education, legal aid, sports, nutrition, psychological support and counseling; but above all, awareness! With education, awareness is the other step towards enlightenment,
On International Women’s Day, I send a message of solidarity, love and appreciation to the women of Egypt and Tunisia, who were hand in hand with men to achieve the great change in their country, and I will them on to continue until they achieve all their political rights, towards a democratic, just and free society.
Happy International Women’s day from Gaza – Palestine.
Mona ElFarra
From Gaza With Love

be part of the change you want to make in the world

Gaza again and again

2011-01-23T09:00:00.000+02:00

Back to Gaza, Back to Walking
22-1-2011

Walking during the early hours of the morning this Friday, the town
has not awoken yet, but a few children are playing on the side of the
road. Some are young girls, smiling, who invite me to join them to
play hopscotch. These are girls that are happy playing with little
boys, yet soon in a few years they will be forced to be covered.
Mixing with boys is one of the great, great taboos. Whether it is
because of tradition or religion, it does not matter.

Quite simply, they cannot practice their right to choose what to wear-
all are asked to surrender to the rules of the tribe, like herds of
sheep. Voices of difference or dissent are asked to shut up when the
current is running so strongly in the other direction.
I was thinking deeply of the years when the grandmothers of these
children walked to schools uncovered, during the Sixties and the
secular era of Nasser- how Gaza has changed.

All of a sudden I could hear and see two Israeli gunboats on the
horizon, just like two ugly protruding eyes on a huge face. It
reminded me of Orwell’s 1984, where Big Brother controls and watches
over you at all times.

What do we expect next as Palestinian people? I thought deeply about
this. Where is the outlet, the solution to this big dilemma?
Politicians seems to insist on a constant deadlock, and in the West
Bank, Israel proves every day that she is not a partner in peace, as
she steals more and more land and continues building new settlements.
In Gaza, Hamas rules while Israel controls our borders and continue
their daily attacks. Military attacks that are unheard and unseen by
many in this world, yet we live under this siege daily. The worst is
the constructed division between Hamas and Fatah, and the lack of
Palestinian unity. This affects ordinary peoples’ daily lives, from
the food we consume to the medicine we need. The other aspect which
people feel is the lack of any promise or inspiration on the political
horizon.

As for me, I remember my friend’s inspiring words, “When things seems
so bad, try to focus on small successes.” I thought of the work of the
Middle East Children’s Alliance(MECA), the Maia projects(water purification system for children in gaza schools ), the psycho- social
support for children, with their love for art programs, and their
chance for self expression. I am determined to continue helping and
empowering people with steadfastness. There are thousands of women
and children, courageous people who are living under such harsh
conditions, who need these programs and the love and support they
offer.

With love I send my message, with great conviction that the remedy for
Palestine is unity. Unity is the first step towards a clear strategy
to determine for ourselves what we need next for our future. I
believe strongly that this unity exists in the growing global
solidarity movement that stands with Palestinians for peace and
justice and against oppression wherever it exists, including within my
own land.

With your solidarity and support, we in Gaza will continue. It is a
long term battle, but one day we will all prevail.

Gaza in 5 hours

2010-11-19T13:44:00.000+02:00

16th of November 2010, Gaza

Myrla and David from Medical Team International were thankfully two of the few foreigners who were allowed in to visit us in Gaza. After their 5 day stay in the West Bank they arrived through the Erez crossing in Beit Hanoun, Gaza’s Northern border checkpoint. It’s the only civilian entry point other than through the Rafah border in Egypt, barring some very rare exceptions through the other Israeli crossings.

I started my 5 hour journey around Gaza with my special guests - nearly all guests who enter Gaza are special, they open a new window of love and solidarity, and a message so clear that you are not alone and you are not forgotten.
Our first stop was the Al Asria Medical Centre in Jabalya refugee camp before visiting the Red Crescent Society of the Gaza Strip. The guests were very impressed by the facility and our success to get the MRI FOTR Gaza. I was pleased and proud to hear their comments, it also empowered me to continue working hard to improve and promote our health facilities for the most needy of patients in Gaza.

Everyday carries a hard struggle to meet the different needs of people and not only their health needs.
The occupation and siege contributes to the deteriorating of the already dire health situation. Each day hundreds of patients referred for treatment cannot receive it due to the borders siege and their financial situation.

UNRWA school
In one of the UNRWA schools at Shatia Refugee camp, the guests could feel and see the children’s happiness that they could now drink clean soft water. It was the result of a MECA project to install 25 water purification units in Gaza schools and kindergartens over the last 2 years

Dancing with Afaq children
In the south of Gaza the guests danced to Palestinian folklore with Afaq Jadeeda children, as part of the ‘Let the Children Play and Heal’ project, a psychological support project funded by MECA.

We finished the tour by meeting the Samouni children of the Zaytoun area, where we met Adie Mormech who was teaching them. Adie is an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, Boycott Divestment and Sanctions and has worked around Action Palestine and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Manchester in England.
The scene of Adie and the kids, in the English lesson, ‘Learning on the Rubble’, was so intimate and moving.
The children were happy learning and having fun too.

The situation in Gaza is not romantic, it is so unbearable especially for us who have to live one day after the other trying hard to remain steadfast and help the community to stay intact

Gaza the old city

Just before leaving Gaza we paid a visit to the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, the third oldest church in the world, built in the 5th century next to a mosque. The Archbishop who received us was so kind and very informative. We also visited the Omary mosque, not far away from the church, which was previously the Marnaas temple through history converted to a church and then to a mosque.

Gaza is history and civilization, the third largest city in Palestine - not only war, occupation and siege.
It has stood so proud against all the historic and environmental changes – even natural upheavals like earthquakes.
The odds have been against us.
It is my city I like despite all those odds.

Before he left, David said, ‘you deserve better life.’

Keeping Hope Alive in Gaza

2010-11-10T23:46:00.001+02:00

Keeping Hope Alive in Gaza
7th November 2010

Dr. Mona El-Farra
Children are everywhere here in Gaza. They make up more than 60% of the entire population because the average family size is 7.2 people. Crowded towns, refugee camps and cities cram over 1.5 million people into these 360 square kilometers, making Gaza one of the densely populated areas of the world.
Between the Israeli occupation, the siege of Gaza, and the internal Palestinian divisions, children in Gaza have been, and continue to be deprived of many of their basic rights. The right to play, to live in suitable homes, to live in a safe and healthy atmosphere, and to have access to food and clean water.
In short, children in Gaza are not living in safety. They are not living with the rights we are supposed to provide them.
In Gaza we know that our situation will not improve overnight so we look to our children as the future. All efforts to support our children are extremely needed and appreciated by the community. The accumulative work of everyone who cares in the local and international communities will affect the future of the hundreds of thousands of kids who experience poverty and the threat of military attacks on a daily basis . This creates an immediate need to make life easier and tolerable through entertaining activities and relief services. I don't expect we can make quick, dramatic changes given the complexity and deterioration of the situation in Gaza. But certainly I believe the effects of these efforts will prove to be important in the future, particularly in the lives of these children and their families.
In such complicated circumstances with endless needs for children, the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) is working hard to make life tolerable for children in Palestine. In my day-to-day life, I can see the effects of MECA's work. When I was at one of the UN schools where we implemented a water purification system, one of 15 systems we supplied so far this year, I was touched to hear the different stories and positive comments from the families, the teaching staff, and the children. We all know the importance of good clean water but many people take drinking clean water for granted. This is not the case for people who are deprived of it in Palestine, India, or countless other locations around the world. In the Gaza Strip, more than 90% of our water is not suitable for drinking.
The university scholarships project targets students and whose families would not be able to educate their children without MECA's support. I see the huge impact of the psychosocial program “Let the Children Play and Heal” that has already reached more than 110,000 children throughout all of Gaza, plus providing vital trainings to hundreds of mothers that empower them to take action to help their own families and communities. I went several times to the Zaytoun neighborhood this summer to observe “Learning on the Rubble,” a project that provided intensive educational and psychosocial support to children in a particularly impoverished and traumatized area of Gaza. None of these children can be completely healed while the occupation and siege continue but I believe our work meets the children's most urgent needs and contributes to their chances for a good future.
I feel privileged to see the successes of MECA projects and partnerships on the ground. I feel proud to be part of the team of MECA. I tell the children of Palestine more and more about MECA's work and about the committed people abroad who work hard to help the Palestinian people. I try to educate the entire community about the genuine great work in support of the Palestinian people's rights and the continuous work to expose the colonial racist nature of the Israeli occupation that is happening around the world. I understand that our freedom is not an easy task to be achieved but to be sure there are growing solidarity efforts to achieve peace and justice and MECA is an important part of them. MECA's work and the work of all the friends and solidarity activists around the world make me feel not alone and not forgotten and I convey this message everywhere in Gaza where my people live one day after another working hard to endure the most difficult situation.
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Hello from Gaza with Love

2010-11-10T23:36:00.004+02:00

Hello friends, supporters
Again I say I am sorry, I have been so involved with my field work, and not to mention the very many power-cuts, it really interrupted my writing and this year's summer has been so hot, it has felt endless. On the other hand I've been so lucky to have 2 great and lovely women stay with me during the summer. I organized their schedule in Gaza, they came in solidarity with us in Palestine, for me it was a very fullfilling time on both a personal and public level, it showed the true meaning of solidarity - that we are not alone and never forgotten. Norma Turner from Manchester PSC, and Wendy Foster from USA, all my love and respect to you, and to all those who believe in the Palestinian people's rights and who believe that solidarity is commitment to Palestine, where the injustice is so clear, I LOVE YOU ALL
Mona

Solidarity is the Way...

2010-11-10T23:30:00.001+02:00

ILWU Local 10
July 21st 2010

Dear ILWU Local 10 members

I am writing to you from Gaza, to thank you for your union action in refusing to unload an Israeli ship, and to tell you a little bit about our life here. Like everyone in Gaza, I have lived through the siege and military attacks from Israel. That is why your solidarity touches me.

Huda Ghaliya (aged 12 at the time) repeatedly shouted, heartbreakingly, “Daddy, Daddy, ” while searching for the rest of her family after Israeli forces shelled the beach in northern Gaza. It was 9 June 2006, while she was on a picnic with her mother, father, brothers and sisters. The entire family was wiped out, and dozens more were injured. The casualties were brought to Al Awda hospital, where I was working. Some of my colleagues, including seasoned emergency healthworkers, could not bear to go to the child’s room. Huda kept telling me “mum and dad did not pass away, they are in another hospital”. When the TV crew arrived, the cameraman collapsed at the scene. I burst into tears.

What happened to that child, which will follow her for the rest of her life, was to see all her family members disappear on a lovely sunny morning, meant to be a joyful day. It was not the first or the last time that Palestinian children, living under the occupation and the siege of Gaza, lost family members. Many parents lost their children, and many children lost one or two parents, or siblings.

The latest assault against Gaza on December 2008, was frankly an act against humanity, in a preplanned, systematic, destructive way. Israel should be held responsible for war crimes, and the UN report by Judge Goldstone proved that these were crimes against humanity.

What followed recently on board the flotilla was another act of terrorism and yet another proof that Israel does not abide by international laws . Even though this act recalled previous war crimes against the Palestinian population in Gaza, people were shocked and in disbelief that Israel could commit this aggression against internationals in international waters. It showed again that Israel is above the law as long as the people of the world stay silent.

This makes the genuine act of the Oakland dock workers who refused to handle the "Zim Shenzhen" ship so important for us in Gaza. We were so impressed by this act of solidarity, as well as many other acts that have been done continuously to support our struggle to reach our inalienable rights, we who live under the siege and continuous hardships. We feel that the majority of the world is silent. We appreciate this sort of activity, and we feel that there is hope, that we are not alone and forgotten. One day the people who act against all types of injustice will ring the bell, and injustice will come to an end. Alone we cannot reach our goal, but with your solidarity, we will.
This act of solidarity gives us hope, together we defeated South Africa’s apartheid regime and with your support we can defeat the Israeli apartheid and occupation.

At the moment, we are running a supportive, educational, and (for them) entertaining project, for the children of the Zaytoun neighborhood. We named our project LEARNING ON THE RUBBLE. Even 18 months since the attack against Gaza, Israel does not allow essential building materials to enter Gaza. They allow ketchup and fizzy drinks into Gaza, and tell the world that there is no siege!!!! They deny entry of many essential materials, including medications (chemotherapy ) for cancer patients, and spare parts for medical equipment, as well as a suitable amount of dairy products. The list is too long to mention. Unemployment has reached 60%, and 80% of the population is living on international aid.

When I visited the site of LEARNING ON THE RUBBLE, I could see the shadow of trauma on the kids’ faces, as well as the physical scars of their bodies, either directly caused by the Israeli soldiers, or from being trapped under the rubble when the bulldozers demolished their homes. They became homeless in a matter of minutes.

Some of these children were trapped next to the dead body of a family member. I met one woman who lost her husband and son. Tearfully, she told me that her son, aged 13, slowly and agonizingly bled to death in her lap over 12 hours.

The army did not allow health workers to enter the area to evacuate the casualities, and when the International Red Cross workers were first allowed into the area, they were shocked and horrified by the scene, especially those children who were trapped in the rubble, injured, hungry, cold, and terrified .

Israel’s violation of health human rights became a routine act. I witnessed dozens of such incidents during my work, which show how Israel has no respect for human rights, including health human rights, even though the 4th Geneva convention guarantees those rights. In the last assault against Gaza, more than a dozen health workers were killed while on duty.

We continue our life under the siege, which deprives us from freedom of movement outside and into Gaza, despite the partial lifting of the siege, which is not enough. What we need is a complete lifting of the siege.

Gaza’s population suffers many hardships. Electricity is frequently off, making it harder to write to you. Water is not suitable for drinking and is completely unavailable in some areas. This has a great impact on people’s health, as does the inadequate sewage system for such a densely populated area.

On this small piece of land and with the mentality of people who live under siege, we were so impressed and empowered to learn about the courageous act of the Oakland dock workers who refused to load or unload the "Zim Shenzhen". This act is an effective tool against Israel to pressure them to lift the siege and end the occupation.

We simply felt that these workers and your union expressed their membership of the international family, and refused to accept state aggression and injustice inflicted on other nations, even though we live far away on the other side of the globe.

The is the time for all of us shout and say, “enough!” to Israel’s brutal acts against humanity.

With love and solidarity,

Mona Elfarra

In Gaza I Live

2010-11-10T23:28:00.000+02:00

The story of the borders opening
MAY 20, 2010

My story today is not mine it is the story of the borders opening, the borders that are between Gaza and Egypt , and the trial of thousands of people struggling to get through to leave Gaza for different reasons, students , patients, etc… Do I have to give justification for the right of people to move freely in and out of their home, do I need to start using numbers and to mention the different international laws that guarantee this right? I don’t need to look academic and accurate while telling you one side of our way of living under occupation – academic analysis of such a situation is a fantasy. On the first day of the borders opening a few hundred, out of thousands who need to leave, left Gaza.
Many were turned back and one of them was a junior doctor (dr. Abed Qasim) who works at the Red Crescent Society. He has been granted a scholarship for specialization in radiology at Cairo University and on his finishing his degree he will join the radiology department, where we recently managed to get funds for an MRI machine. Dr. Abed has been trying to travel since February, he tried twice and was not lucky enough to cross the borders, it is frustrating for us working in the health field, and one of many frustrations we meet every day in a very challenging environment. We want to upgrade our services and promote our health teams, it is a high priority needed especially given the small and closed area we live in and with all manner of things deteriorating every day. We face the problem of continuous power cuts and a shortage of essential medication supplies, not to mention the need to transfer patients to outside Gaza for further treatment when movement in and out of Gaza represents a big ordeal, a nightmare.
Dr. Qasim could not make it outside Gaza, and maybe he will not make it out on time, to arrive for the beginning of his course. I felt depressed not being able to do anything to help and I felt helpless, but like all of us here in Gaza I have learned how to deal with the abnormal as a normal pattern of life.
And again this is odd and against the nature of things happening on the same day Mr Y. Jaro RCS chair could not make it outside Gaza for his son’s wedding! I am sure without the need to give examples that tens of other patients could not cross either.
Life continues in Gaza and people learn how to cope and adapt themselves, but for how long? I have no answer, but for sure it is one episode of our struggle for freedom and return, I see this in the eyes of people and hear it from them every day during my work and life in Gaza.

In Gaza I live

2010-02-28T10:14:00.000+02:00

In Gaza I live

Hello family, friends, and supporters,

I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've written. I'm sorry also that I've not yet responded to the wonderful emails of support so many of you have sent during my illness.

I returned to Gaza after a short visit with my children, who are studying in Manchester in the UK. I am on my own here in Gaza, so busy, and life takes me from one day to another with no hope for political change on the horizon. I am very busy with cultural and health programmes and women’s empowerment and rehabilitation programmes, with the great support of Sheffield Women PSC and Manchester and Liverpool Friends of Palestine in the UK, as well as MECA in the US, comrades who support our vision for women’s issues as well as our political views for a future Palestine that is a free country based on equal rights and justice for all.

I am trying to write on my blog, but I cannot access it. I do not have my children’s technical assistance any more, and need to be more independent and technologically acquainted!!!!!

I will keep trying to access my blog--it is the bridge of love between me and my friends outside of Gaza; it is my method of ventilation while living in such difficult circumstances, with closure, siege, and occupation.

In talking of friends in Gaza we find our ways of coping with our situation, one of the many ways our friends care and support while we do not stop dreaming together of a better future for all.

Sport is another way of coping, and the most convenient is walking by the seaside. While walking I meet some of the fishermen in the early hours of the day, around 5 am, while they are struggling hard to live and can see the Israeli gunboats patrolling the sea as they harass and shoot at Palestinian boats.

I meet small children walking for long distances to reach their schools, as many families cannot afford to pay for transportation!!!!!! Tiny smiling faces have to leave their homes so early in the morning to reach school on time.

Shops here are stuffed with all sorts of goods; we get them via the tunnels at the Egyptian border. But few people can afford them—all goods are very expensive! Only a small new class can afford them. This class emerged in the void of the now-displaced previous elite, and the majority of people still suffer.

Israeli attacks continue; as I am writing there are incursions into the Gaza border areas of Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun and Khan-Yunis, which you probably don’t hear in the news—Gaza is only remembered when a big disaster occurs !!!!!!!!

Last month we received the Viva Palestina convoy. I met activists from the UK, PSC York, Liverpool, Sheffield, Cambria, Birmingham, and Bristol. But they were only allowed to stay for such a short time, only 48 hours, a tremendous shame!! They did not have nearly enough time to see Gaza

Recently I helped in fundraising for the MRI machine at the Red Crescent Society for Gaza Strip. We reached our goal!

This highly sophisticated equipment is vital for Gaza’s patients who suffer daily because of the deteriorating health facilities, the lack of many essential medications, and the border closure that prevents people from crossing. Many patients need further treatment abroad, but the Rafah crossing has been closed for almost two months now. It will open next month, and when it is open it is very unpredictable and open only for three days, and the number of those who cross the border are much less than those who actually need to cross, including patients, students, families, etc…

Friends:

I continue to be empowered when thinking of you and your great support and nonstop solidarity.

I find my self-esteem when I meet daily with people I work for, when I see children happily painting, dancing, reading, and involved in the different cultural programmes even amidst a life that is so hard and unfair, when I meet with women who leave their homes to receive nutrition and dental care services and lectures in the courses I run, when I feel the satisfaction of the team that runs those courses under such a difficult atmosphere.

Love,

Mona

back to gaza 29th -December 2009 -with love

2010-02-28T10:10:00.000+02:00

Hello –my journey back home -29th 0f December 2009
From Manchester to Gaza via Cairo

Conflicting feelings roars inside me; while saying good bye to my children at the Manchester airport I am torn between the two most loveable things in my life—my children and home, where I am with friends and workmates, community and extended family. In the end I have to say goodbye and start my journey back to Gaza.

Fifteen hours’ delay in Istanbul as I lost my connection flight to Cairo due to the snow that hit Europe in unprecedented levels.

Passengers were complaining and restless due to the delay. I felt strange: This is nothing compared to what we face in Gaza when we try to leave and cross the border. It took me three days to be able to leave Gaza for Cairo last November and I was lucky to be able to leave at all (all things are relative in life). I started missing my kids, but also felt relief to start my journey home again.

As Palestinians living in Gaza we deal with the abnormal as normal; everything is relative.

Two hours after I arrived in Cairo I met friends from the Gaza Freedom March at the Sun Hotel, friends from different parts of the world. I met many of them through years of activism and solidarity with Palestine, people from France, Italy, Argentina, Australia, the US, the UK, etc.

Barbara, Gregg, Josie, and Norma

As part of the Gaza Freedom March, who were denied entry to Gaza, these friends decided to accompany me to Rafah and say goodbye on the border. On Saturday we all left on our way to the border, but soon we were stopped and were not allowed to continue to Rafah. We returned to the hotel.

I left C airo the next morning, carrying 8 suitcases of aid to Gaza. Norma joked, telling me “you are a camel!” I felt relieved to be able to carry the aid they hoped to carry to Gaza. I laughed at the idea of being a camel and felt sorry they could not enter Gaza. It is not just the aid, it is also the solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians in Gaza under siege and occupation.

On my way to Gaza

The distance between Cairo and Gaza is 500 km. As the car started, I was daydreaming of returning home, back to my apartment, workmates, friends, and community!

The car was ordered to stop at thirteen checkpoints!

The procedures at the Rafah crossing were too fast and easy! In less than seven hours since my journey’s start I was at my apartment.

Home sweet home

I wake up to the usual sounds of shelling against the Palestinian fishermen, and some heavy shelling further away at the northeast borders of Gaza.

Viva Palestina

Wednesday

At 2:30 am I heard a continuous sound of car horns under my window. I realized that the convoy was allowed to enter Gaza at last, and they are actually in Gaza! I rushed to the small airport to join the reception of the convoy, very excited to meet Heather of PSC York.

Rachel and Paul Quakers from Cambria

Thank you all for your great solidarity
Mona

Gaza today

2010-02-28T10:06:00.001+02:00

Gaza Today
26th of February

Raining, raining, very cold; it seems that we’ve been struck by a storm from Europe.

I sit in my 10th floor apartment by the seaside, dark and cold (very cold), thinking of thousands of families that do not have electricity at the moment. Many have the opportunity to buy small electrical generators that we import via the tunnels, but the majority cannot afford them! As for me, for many reasons, including environmental reasons, I rejected the idea—those generators are very noisy, costly, and a nuisance.

Lack of electricity in the home for long periods not only affects routine household activities (which are extremely vital), it affects ones mood, too, and communication with the outside world and even inside Gaza, as all telecommunications are affected by power cuts.

The small piece of land that is Gaza is surrounded by electrical wires and closed borders, where 1.6 million live from one day to another with all sorts of hardships and no political outlet, exacerbated not only by the occupation but also the internal division.

Clean water is big problem—the purchase of water adds an additional burden on families small budgets.

It is raining heavily outside and getting colder and colder. It is dark, gloomy, so depressing. This is my Gaza today.

i could not travel -borders still closed

2009-10-17T07:58:00.002+02:00

this is my talk for the Arab Women Association -in London , i couldnot deliver the speech in person , as the borders are still closed and i could not travel ,
i send you my love from Gaza , and sorry for not writing regularly , iam very busy here and soon i will announce , very good news for all of you who supported my efforts to get the MRI for Gaza patients!
from gaza with love
Mona

Dear all
Thank you for your presence today ,thank you for the great support you show for the Palestinian people and specially for Gaza .
While addressing you from a distance, and being unable to cross the borders, like many of us here in Gaza ,who try everyday and fail, I feel strongly of the injustice that has been imposed on the Palestinian people since Israel was founded 1948, where big ethnic cleansing process took place and Palestinian people were made refugees ,
it is not only Gaza and the siege , it is the occupation with its practices against all the Palestinian people in Gaza in the west bank and the Diaspora.
The injustice continues and the resistance and steadfastness will also continue
Life in the Gaza Strip continues. It must. But the continuing effects of the closure,
And the visible reminders of trauma (15%of Palestinian children suffers from the severe post traumatic stress disorder ) and devastation make normality – even by
The standards of the Gaza Strip – an illusion; the reminders of tragedy are ever
Present, and all too real. , over 9 months after Israel’s
Declaration of a unilateral ceasefire on 18 January, the Gaza Strip is locked in
Stasis: the situation in Gaza remains exactly as it was on the day the offensive
Ended. The visible scars of the offensive remain, rubble continues to litter the
Streets of Gaza, thousands are homeless; families are forced to live in houses
With scorched interiors, blood stained floors, and bullet riddled walls. In some
Instances, victims are forced to look at the discriminatory and offensive graffiti
Scratched into their walls by Israeli soldiers.

The siege has directly contributed
To a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Today, nearly 10 months
after Israel’s declaration of a unilateral ceasefire, the Gaza Strip remains in limbo;
although the offensive has ended, the occupation continues.
The closure, which includes a blockade on goods and materials, makes
reconstruction and recovery impossible. Civilians cannot rebuild their homes;
families are forced to remain in camps, with relatives, or in rented accommodation,
for as long as the closure remains in place. The 600,000 tonnes of rubble littering
the Gaza Strip cannot be cleared. There is not even the concrete with which
to construct a tombstone. Palestinians cannot enter or leave the Gaza Strip.
Patients continue to die because they are denied access to medical treatment The economy continues to contract. Today, there are ever-increasing levels unemployment, poverty, destitution, and despair; unemployment now stands at
60%, while approximately 80% of the population now lives in poverty.

The emergency health services in the Gaza Strip are in a state of imminent
collapse due to shortages of electricity, medicine and other vital, life-saving
Equipment. Due to a lack of available services in Gaza, many patients are forced
to seek medical treatment abroad. However, the closure makes accessing external
Treatment a near impossible task.
,
to date, at least 391 patients have died as a direct or indirect result of the closure. In addition
much of Gaza’s population does not have adequate access to safe drinking water,
as the pumps which supply water are unable to run due to the electricity cuts. every day the power cut off at least 8 hours .
Even basic foodstuffs and goods are in short supply; mainly families are forced to
Rely on food aid supplies by the Unrwa and othe raid organizations.

I address you while feeling and living the daily pain , Grieve and deprivation of 1.5 million, people living under the siege and the occupation , women, men and children and specially women, who has to cope every day with a abnormal life in a big open prison called Gaza ,
And shows everyday a great deal of steadfastness and resilience, all sorts of Palestinian women , working class , teachers doctors nurses farmers etc.. those women work at home and outside with no sense of economical , social or personal security ,

in Gaza everybody has a tale of profound greive to tell but people also determined to overcome pain and rebuild their lives , it is an extraordinary way of determination to continue with their lives despite of all the odds

Your help your humanitarian support will enables us to continue and never lose hope of the future , your support let us feel that we are not alone we are not forgotten we are not abandoned , while the governments are silent and there is no real progress on the political level .

In the name of my colleagues at the board of Red crescent society for Gaza strip I thank you for organizing this event I thank you for your generous donation and support , I thank you for your continuous support for the red crescent society , your support that enables us to continue and improve our health and social services and programmers for thousands of beneficiaries every year ..

Our daily struggle against the occupation , and despite of the siege in Gaza and the wall in the west bank ,this daily resistance and struggle , cannot be separated from international struggle against injustice and towards a better world for its citizens free from all sorts of injustices and exploitations , built on equal rights for all,

Together we can make it Thank you

Homeward Bound

2009-07-24T10:08:00.002+03:00

Homeward Bound: Gaza in 24 hours

As soon as I arrived home I felt a great relief, if that is the right word. I had been unable to return home to Gaza since before the 23 days of bombing of Gaza earlier this year, because of the ongoing siege. I am not sure that the word relief summarizes my intense and conflicting emotions. Mixed feelings of relief, happiness, but also disorientation continued to overwhelm me. Gaza my beautiful home, yes my beautiful home, my beautiful people, who are trying so hard to live. To continue from one day to another. Despite the odds, the hardships, the deaf ears of the world.

The same day of my arrival home, July 9th 2009, I could see from my balcony the rubble of what had been at one time Arafat's headquarters, The whole building was completely demolished , leveled to the ground, blowing out the windows on one side of my apartment building. It is the same place where one my cousins was killed in the first day of the attack assault against Gaza last December -January.

I now see a different Gaza, and it is not the Gaza I have known, it is like a city after an earthquake.
Many of the historically important buildings were leveled to the ground. I decided to postpone my field visits to the different areas where the assaults were the most savage and brutal. I thought it might be a good idea to wait for the arrival of the delegation of US citizens who were due to cross the border.

In the meantime, I met some dear friends and workmates who came to say hello. All of them were loaded with war stories and the panic they faced during the attacks against Gaza. One friend who was a political prisoner, who spent 15 years in the Israeli jails said to me, "I never felt afraid of anything there like the fear I felt this time." I find it strange to even write this sentence, but while we Palestinians are determined to continue our struggle, the reality is that this assault against Gaza was severe and fierce, and cannot be forgotten- we will feel its effects as a people for a long time.

Our friends from the US were only granted visas to visit Gaza for 24 hours. As I waited, I pondered 'How can we condense or begin to understand what children, women and men went through during 23 days of the assault in a 24 hours visit?'

Upon the arrival of the VIVA PALESTINA USA delegation, I sat at the borders to receive the delegation with some colleagues from PNGO ( Palestinian Non Governmental Organizations' Network). It was a touching and affectionate moment for me, to see American, British and French activists of different ages and ethnicities united under one goal, voicing to the world "Gaza you are not alone, you are not forgotten, despite the shameful stand of the governments of the world, we stand with you, the people of Gaza!"

We had to get immediately to work, and were fortunate to have a solid team of colleagues. I was accompanied by Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) Director, Reem Salhi, an activist lawyer and human rights advocate, Danny Muller, a MECA volunteer, Travis Wilkerson, a filmmaker and professor, Jaiel Kayed, a computer expert and Palestinian American, Talal Abu Shaweesh,, director of New Horizons,Ehab Musalaam a trainer and meca voulnteer, and Mohammed Magdalawi, a Gazan student and MECA volunteer.

In Nussierat refugee camp, we were invited by New Horizons to see the activities of their project, loosely translated as 'Let them Play and Heal,' a program treating childhood trauma sponsored by the Middle East Children's Alliance. We had the chance to see hundreds of children's happy little faces, singing along with the debka performance, which was one of many activities working to help the children recover after the war trauma. There were around 500 kids ,6-12 years old boys and girls with their mothers, as the project targets mothers and their children,

We then visited Albureeg School, where MECA has implemented water purification and desalinization systems to provide clean drinking water for schoolchildren. This is one of three water treatment projects MECA has recently implemented in the refugee camps, and we aim to build many more with the help of our friends and allies. We then moved to the north and while the van was going on, we could clearly see many demolished homes everywhere, and tent cities around the homes where families now lived. The tents

We could not miss the Zaytoun area, where one of the many tragic events of the war occurred at the home of the Samoni family. The van went through neighborhood after neighborhood, through areas of vast destruction. How can I convey to you what I have seen in the little faces, eyes of sadness mixed with hope and excitement? On top of that some of the kids who had broken or missing arms and legs, post operative scars, who are living in the rubble of their former homes, and with their little voices they tried to tell us their stories.

I listened to their stories. I stopped writing about the rest of our activities, the rest of our day, the rest of my return home. At that moment I felt, and still feel, 'I don't want to hear or listen, I just want to cuddle these children and help them to forget.' But I want the world to remember what was done here in Gaza, and that those of who are picking up the pieces, as hard as we try, we cannot forget.

Gaza From a Distance, But on the Horizon

2009-07-07T19:33:00.000+03:00

July 7, 2009

By Dr Mona El Farra

It has been too long since I have been in contact with all of you. During this time, I have been incredibly busy and my situation has been constantly changing. Traveling between England, where my children live, and Cairo, where I have been fundraising for an urgently needed MRI machine, leaves me watching Gaza from a distance. However, I have had daily contact with my friends and colleagues in Gaza, and have also been visiting Palestinian patients from Gaza in Cairo. Listening to their stories and firsthand accounts reminds of the tragic reality for my people.

It is hard to believe that the cardiovascular and cancer patients in Cairo from Gaza are the lucky ones. I have to stop for a moment to recognize what it means to be Gazan: that we refer to some who are terminally ill as the lucky ones. Very few succeed to cross the border of a siege imposed with the help of Egypt, but dictated by Israel and the US, while the vast majority must stay behind the bars in the prison that is Gaza.

With broken heart, I watch the sluggish dialogue between Palestinian factions. We live and suffer under the occupation, and the lack of unity makes the problem of living under occupation more complex. By staying divided, we are giving to Israel a golden gift-we know they are no partner in peace, and their first rule as colonizers is to celebrate any divisions, and then conquer

Today however, I am inspired to meet with 198 activists of all ages, ethnicities and political backgrounds, many from the United States, united in one idea – Viva Palestina, Live Palestine! United to pass a message of solidarity – that you, Palestine are not alone, you are not forgotten. Justice will prevail. We, a humanitarian convoy of medical aid, will cross the borders in the coming days, on a 2nd humanitarian mission to share in the struggle of the men, women, and children who live under this unjust siege and embargo.

I will continue to challenge myself to write more frequently, and I challenge you to support our work by becoming involved and making a donation to humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. Visit www.mecaforpeace.org. Viva Palestina!

Dr. Mona El Farra is a Palestinian physician who lives in Gaza and is a Project Director for Middle East Children's Alliance. She cam ne reached for mona4gaza@yahoo.com.

MRI Appeal for Gaza

2009-07-07T18:18:00.000+03:00

June 29, 2009

Dear all

The already deprived health services in Gaza have deteriorated to unprecedented levels. The strictly imposed Israeli/Egyptian siege on the population creates a severe lack of proper health facilities, especially on the secondary and tertiary levels; and the recent Israeli assault against Gaza has made it extremely difficult for the health providers. Medical care providers in Gaza are forced to try to make the balance between emergency services and routine health care services but without the necessary equipment and capacity.

The rate of malnourishment among children is steadily increasing in Gaza, as is the psychological trauma and its ongoing impact on women and children. These are just two of the many dire outcomes of the siege and the military attacks which have caused rising inflation at the same time as unemployment soars.

The number of patients who have died because they were not allowed the basic right to seek medical care outside of Gaza has surpassed 400. Gaza, including its health care system, has been isolated from the rest of the world.

As a response to this isolation, economic hardships, and the deteriorating health situation, the Red Crescent Society for the Gaza Strip recognizes the importance of adding an MRI machine to its diagnostic center in Gaza. This additional quality service will be the second one in all of Gaza. And the Red Crescent is committed to making MRIs available to patients at a very low cost and at no cost for patients who cannot afford any fee.

Around 2000 people per month will benefit from this highly sophisticated and needed diagnostic procedure. Many of those patients will get the right diagnosis at the right time, as timely medical diagnosis is the first step in effective health management.

This diagnostic procedure will be able to diagnose different kinds of health problems, which are too many to list, but include early stages of cancer, neurosurgical cardiovascular ,and orthopedic diseases.

The cost of an MRI machine is $1.2 million, which includes staff salaries and site preparation. The Red Crescent Society has secured $650,000—more than half the total cost—through generous donations from individuals who have continually supported our services and trusted our role in the society through the years.

We appeal to you to help us to reach our goal and to make this strategic and developmental project a reality for our Gaza patients.

Yours sincerely

Dr. Mona Elfarra

Red Crescent Society for Gaza Strip

PS: For more information please contact us to provide you with the detailed proposal of the project .

letter from my friend , S. Robins, constructive plastic suegeon inside gaza

2009-01-30T13:07:00.002+02:00

GAZA - 28th of january
NO COMMENT

hi, what to say? the aftermath of the massacre leaves destroyed families and buildings, no sign of cement coming in, rafah still intermittently closed, many patients transferred to egypt and lost into black hole of buearocracy and families cannot trace. medical staff and people still shellshocked although cars and people on the streets again but all people have the memories of the events of 20 days bombardment, charred bodies and probably no family is intact. we visited a number of homes where people often children sit with legs in plaster, dressings on multiple wounds not sure what happened and what is going to happen as the medical services probably did break under the strain and now only with all the visitors is there an ongoing care. medical staff here need time off but still sit in clinics trying to cope. Money will no doubt pour into the system now but unless there is some justice over the use of unconventional weapons on a civilian popultation so the extent that almost every street had bits of phosphurus mixture that kids play with to make it ignite 20 days later in some cases. That also needs clearing up safely particularly as rain water or heat of the summer could reignite these remnants. children are already getting fingers and faces burnt as they play with remnants in the streets. reports will come out but all effort must be made to bring some justice to the palestinian people.Phosphorus and possible other materials used may also have a later carcinogenic effect. I am ok and being accompanied by Greek and Uk colleagues some of the time which is good when seeing and hearing about these events. such weapons should not even be produced for any use. there are also very disturbing reports of executions by il ground personnel. no wonder il has done its best to keep all journalists and foreigners out as long as they could and for most of the war and still making it very difficult for entry with egyptian beaurocratic help even to deciding that a psychiatrist was not 'medical enough - not needed' in thi situation and therefore not allowed in. knowing when to leave will be difficult as it will take many years and perhaps never for all the physical scars and rebuilding to be done as well as the unseen psychological ones. but much will be healed and helped if there is some justice here. without that the physical scars on the bodies and buildings here may be patched up but the deeper psychological ones will remain without the healing salve of some restorative justice.the picture is as it says - the american school in gaza targetted by il probably with munitions from usa. what an education we are giving here.

ps there is a photo of the detroyed American school building , i couldnot send i will try later on with some othe rphotos from friends in Gaza
love
mona

Gaza needs many years to heal

2009-01-23T22:48:00.001+02:00

Hello friends

I am still in Cairo. With a sad heart I am watching home from a distance. The hardest days were when I went to the Rafah Crossing point. I was only one kilometer away from Gaza, but could not enter. I was told that as a Palestinian with dual nationality, I can get in but not out.

While at the border I was greatly touched by the expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people. I met doctors from Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Greece, Turkey and many other countries who came to help the people of Gaza in defiance of Israel’s savage attacks on children, women, and men. We must all work on continuing and expanding these solidarity efforts on different levels. We cannot let Israel get away with its crimes against humanity in Gaza.

I want to thank you all for your solidarity as well as for your practical support. Whether you donated one pound or thousands of pounds, your support and your continuous protests let the people of Gaza feel that they are not alone and will never be forgotten.

I am still in daily contact with friends, relatives, and fellow doctors back home. And I conveyed to them your messages of support and solidarity. I also visited dozens of the injured who were transferred to Egyptian hospitals. They are in great need of rehabilitation after their wounds heal.

I want to share the results of your concrete support for Gaza:
3 ambulances
20 tons of medicine
30 tons of powdered milk and fortified baby cereal
50 wheelchairs
Thousands of coloring books and crayons for kids
Thousands of meals handed-delivered daily to displaced families taking shelter at UN schools

I thank you all, with a special thank you for the teams of volunteers in different areas of Gaza who worked under fire to meet the needs of our community, and for the emergency workers who worked tirelessly to reach the injured and dead. Time is gold in saving lives but Israel deliberately delayed and shot at emergency vehicles leading to the death of 15 emergency workers and countless Gazans.

The 22 days of Israeli attacks on Gaza was just one episode in a long line of catastrophes for Palestinians. Our struggle for justice and freedom continues.

Gaza Update

2009-01-08T08:15:00.002+02:00

8th of January -13th day of the Israeli Tttack against Gaza

720 are killed
including :-
215 children
89 women
12 1st aid health workers

more than 3000 are injured many with serious injuries

11 ambulances were attacked and destroyed while on duty

health workers are not allowed to evacute many of the injured ,in many occasions
the medical teams face new sort of burns , thier is a possibility that israel uses white phosphorus against civilians ,INVESTIGATION IS NEEDED AT ONCE .
health teams in Gaza need to be assisted , as they are overwhelmed with the increasing numbe rof the casualities and lack of supplies and electricity ,
new born babies inside the hospitals are under great threat , due to power flactuation in the special care baby units SCBU

43 were killed inside one of the UN schools , were those fleed to the school ,as thier homes were under heavy shelling or destroyed ,the Un asked for immediate investigation and denied Israeli claim of the presenc eof armed men inside the school

no electricity in Gaz a
80%of areas have no water , due to the destroyment of the infra structure , due to the heavy shelling
70%of tleecommuniucations are destroyed too

yestreday Israeli army allowed 3 hours of ceasfire , so the civilians can go to get thier supplies
,but there were no enough bread , vegetables , meat , grosseries and no cash with the population , and thousands are homeless!

thousands of Rafah citizens at the moment are homelss, have been evacuated , and thie rhomes were demolished at the southern part of rafah on the borders ,.

iam indirect contact with my fellow doctors in gaz a, but may be i will lose this contact soon ,as the communications is getting less , and this will lead to real catastrophy on the level of evacauting of the injured

PRAY FOR US this is usual messege i recive from friends , neibghors and relatives in Gaza

thank you all for your solidarity , friendship , and humanatarian concern

Gaza Updates

2009-01-04T23:15:00.002+02:00

Dear Friends
I have no words
No comments, as you know iam not in Gaz aat the momet , but all what i hear, from friends and relatives are ,Horrible news

here is Sameh habeeb Blogging from Gaza

Day 9 of Israeli War On GazaNews Report Ground Military OperationBy: Sameh A. HabeebBreaking News: Five Palestinians killed in a bombing targeted Mus'abBin Umair mosque northern Gaza Strip.Breaking News: Five Palestinians from one family "Bakr" killed west ofGaza City. The mother was killed along with her 4 children in F16rocket.Breaking News: Around 17 peoples killed in Al atatra family in Baitlahia town north of Gaza. Amongest them several children, twobrothers, 20-year-old and many old men who were all killed by onerocket. Israeli tanks prevents ambulances from reaching wounded peoplein the same place. Among the recognized victims; Osama sliman, MueenAbu aljdya, Ahmed Abu sltan, Hamaoda Abu sultan, Ali Al sous,Muhammad Al atar, Ahmed Tantish and one from Al shalfooh family.Breaking News: Three paramedics and ambulance staff killed by anartillery shell and F16 rocket near Shikh Ejlin area. The paramedicswere in a mission of rescuing a family hit near Al mahrosa hall. Thefamily still bleeding and no news coming up about them till thismoment.Day 9 of Israeli War On GazaNew Israeli weapons are used, death toll up, ground operation to startDear Editors, Journalists and Friends,The ground military operation started 24 hours ago. Below is a newreport for the 9th day of Gaza War and the outcomes of Israeliinvasion. For more reporting, breaking news, interviews and accountsin Gaza, you could reach me on my contact info below. Please try bothnumbers below because there is a big problem in communication resultedin Israeli power cuts.I'm available 24 hours for media coverage in occupied Gaza. You couldreach me any time in my house. welcome to call me on this number in the night:: 0097282802825blogging from Gaza
may be will keep you updated as iam not there at the moment

messege from Mohammed in Gaza

2009-01-04T14:12:00.002+02:00

Events in Gaza. Add By:Mohammed Fares El Majdalawi
this is the messege i have recived from mohammed magdalawi, he live sin Jablia In Gaza, There are holocaust and killing Four hundred martyrs and about two thousandinjured by Israeli air raids.I want to write about suffering of my people and my family in these days In my house we can't get basic needs such as, No foods, No bread ,and Natural gasYesterday , my father went to bakery from 5 AM he waited 5 hours even get one Abundle of bread.This bread not can't enough for my family because consist of 11 members .But today Igo to all bakeries. I can't find any loaf of bread due to be closed. We and my family cannot communicate with our relatives and friends because of thelack of the connecting network also every hour we have a martyr or even more becauseof the raining missiles on our homes , mosques and even hospitals ,There is no safeplace we can go to.In the day our life concentrated in burial of the martyrs who were thousands inhospitals after a short farewell or even without a final look because of the timeshortage those martyrs are graved in groups imagine that a group of martyrs gravedin one grave.At night our camp like ghosts city no sound but the sound of the various militaryaircrafts in every attack our heats and the children hearts is shaking. There is a horror in every minute and it is clear especially on the children, forexample, there was four sisters in one family killed from the Israeli occupation,when stay in their home, and there is children in the south of Rafah.Also, A woman was going to the bakery to buy bread for her family when she waswalking in the street killed the Israeli occupation.I have two message to the world.My message to the lovers of peace and freedom in the world.The First message:Imagine your life is no electricity ,destroyed homes , voice missiles of the day andnight , and no food. Imagine your children and your family tell you we are afraid of the missiles cannot sleep from the Voice of the aircraft. Imagine you and keep the commentary.The second message:Make to end the siege and stop the killings and demolition of houses for ourchildren and to provide assistance to the people through rallies, sit-ins.Finally, I invite you to come to Gaza and see the Holocaust. With Best Regards :Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi Film Maker and Social WorkerGaza strip _ Palestine mobile :00972599497897_________________________________________________________________Show

if you want to donate now for the Plestinian women and children

2009-01-01T20:51:00.000+02:00

another shipment of medical aid toGaza.

Please makea contribution now (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001mTGlDM90pyTOSf2hSx55wBl4Ddwwmc1HcUteZRAUK1R1oGDO3m5ckUB3i0QbVtvqj3EtV7rD9tyLrdTKuWRHrRlh563nNI1gZUf2VGpqtQAbvXu-4QioVIVbaew-kDkSV3SGUijE5gxFKlES-3YWcrHjmuSlNlN2) for the children ofGaza whose health and lives are at stake.

While we watch in horror as Israel's bombskill and maim children in their homes andtheir schools, we can do somethingthat will truly make a difference.

Dr. El-Farra, all the people she works within Gaza, and the thousands of families theyserve, join me in asking for your support atthis terrible time to help save thelives and health of thousands ofchildren.
Sincerely,BarbaraLubinMECA Founder and Director
DONATENOW (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001mTGlDM90pyTOSf2hSx55wBl4Ddwwmc1HcUteZRAUK1R1oGDO3m5ckUB3i0QbVtvqj3EtV7rD9tyLrdTKuWRHrRlh563nNI1gZUf2VGpqtQAbvXu-4QioVIVbaew-kDkSV3SGUijE5gxFKlES-3YWcrHjmuSlNlN2)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~For the Children in GazaMore about what you can do - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001mTGlDM90pySH48wa7BJoyiBEDjV0u6JQzq47MExYymIMxpvWQ6u4c7J42NtfoaZ9q3QiCRwt2hMB3MyZC3eMT11qvUAze0hEBwEBiTpR7UnutWCthwUA2Q==
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PLEASEGIVE NOW! (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001mTGlDM90pyTOSf2hSx55wBl4Ddwwmc1HcUteZRAUK1R1oGDO3m5ckUB3i0QbVtvqj3EtV7rD9tyLrdTKuWRHrRlh563nNI1gZUf2VGpqtQAbvXu-4QioVIVbaew-kDkSV3SGUijE5gxFKlES-3YWcrHjmuSlNlN2)Together we can bringlife-savinghelp to the children!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I know you may have already given to MECAthis year. You may have even given more thanonce.
But, please, I ask you to giveagain now.
Whatever amount you canafford will help save the lives ofchildren who are sick, wounded, and hiding interror from Israeli bombs at this moment.

Makea secure online contribution. (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001mTGlDM90pyTOSf2hSx55wBl4Ddwwmc1HcUteZRAUK1R1oGDO3m5ckUB3i0QbVtvqj3EtV7rD9tyLrdTKuWRHrRlh563nNI1gZUf2VGpqtQAbvXu-4QioVIVbaew-kDkSV3SGUijE5gxFKlES-3YWcrHjmuSlNlN2)
Thank you!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Barbara LubinMiddle East Children's Alliance
------------------------------------------------------------email: meca@mecaforpeace.orgweb: http://www.mecaforpeace.org------------------------------------------------------------
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Emergency for Gaza -contact MECA IMMEDIATELY

2009-01-01T11:18:00.002+02:00

Dr.Mona El-Farra is flying to Cairo on Saturday to oversee the transportation from Egypt to Gaza of 5 tonnes
of essential medical relief . The consignment was to be taken by boats of the Free Gaza campaign, which can take
up to one tonne per boat. But after an Israeli gunboat rammed and damaged one such relief boat in international waters
earlier this week alternative means had to be found. The World Health Organisation is helping to organise this emergency relief.

The consignment is taking anaesthetic, orthopaedic surgery equipment for adults and children, pain killers as well as milk powder
and general medication. These will be distributed through the Red Crescent Society to hospitals and medical centres. The consignment
is funded by Middle East Children’s Alliance and by a variety of organisations in US, Europe and Britain, including the Liverpool
Friends of Palestine.

Once the emergency is over, Dr.El-Farra hopes to continue a project to introduce water purification into Gaza schools,
to provide drinking water for children. This has the support of Middle East Children's Alliance but has had to be suspended
due to the Israeli bombing of Gaza.
if you like to help please contact mecafropeace.org
mecaforpeace.org

IN Jabalia refujee camp -usual Isreali Army practise

2008-12-31T10:09:00.004+02:00

Dear Friends
Today in the early morning hours , and while the health emergency teams on duty in Jabalia were trying to evacuate the injured and dead , they were targeted by the Israeli army. One of the paramedics was killed, and another injured. (I will provide more details when I have the names and time of the incident )

I warned in a previous entry in my blog , and several times in my writing while reporting from Gaza since 2000, of the targeting of health teams while on duty and in clear uniform .
Who is violating human rights? And, talking of terrorism - what about state terrorism!
In Gaza we have much evidence of daily human rights violations. We do not need the world to say they did not know, when this genocide is such a prominent fact.

I am travelling from Manchester to Cairo this week to send medication, emergency supplies, and very important orthopaedic equipment, for Al Awda hospital and the Red Crescent society. Also, some very important children's medication, and medications for chronic diseases. While the hospitals are overwhelmed with the injured, it is important to secure the rest of the patients - a very difficult balance for us in such crisis, with the health services at the point of collapse.

PS
I highly recommend this website for more information about Palestine
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

Gaza Under The Attack -No Place is Safe -

2008-12-29T23:09:00.001+02:00

It is extremely difficult for me to be here in the UK watching events unfold on the ground in Gaza from this very far distance. With a broken heart I watch the news from this unprecedented and savage Israeli attack on my friends, family, and colleagues in Gaza. In the last two days around 300 Israeli air strikes have hit dozens of locations in the overcrowded Gaza Strip. Their “military targets” are mixed in with homes, schools, hospitals, and universities. As of this writing, 294 people are dead and more than 600 injured.

Unnecessary deaths

I am distraught thinking about the fate of these injured people. I know the situation of hospitals in Gaza well through my health and humanitarian work. The siege of Gaza has left our hospitals without one hundred basic medications and many important diagnostic and laboratory equipment is not working because spare parts aren’t available and the fluctuation of current from our irregular power supply has left some equipment beyond repair. In this period of crisis, Gaza hospitals are also lacking crucial medications and supplies for their operation rooms.

I’ve watched the chaotic scenes inside Gaza hospitals as staff struggle to find space for all of the injured and dead. The unprecedented numbers of casualties come in from ambulances and cars in a near-constant stream. But emergency situations are nothing new in Gaza; it is the impact of the siege that has changed the odds. I know that we would be facing a different situation if the 18 months of siege hadn’t drained our supplies of medicines and food, making it difficult to treat and feed patients.

I’ve spoken to several of my fellow doctors in Gaza and each one of them is overwhelmed and demoralized. Even with all of their training, the material conditions in Gaza are preventing them from doing what they are capable of. They could have saved many more lives.

I remember how ambulance drivers were not allowed to reach the injured in previous military attacks on Gaza. Many lives could have been saved then too if the ambulances reached the injured at the right time. A few minutes can be the difference between life and death. I wonder whether we will hear reports like this again once the emergency situation is over and there is time for truth and reflection.

No place is safe in Gaza

The first military air strikes struck at the exact time that school children make their way home. W here I live in Gaza City, several primary schools are very close to the police headquarters which were among the first targets. These horrifying facts explain the high number of women and children amongst the dead. Thirty children and nine women have been reported dead and another 130 children and 38 women injured.

I’ve spoken with friends and family in Gaza and my heart sunk further with their first-hand accounts of the death and destruction. On a personal level I am mourning the loss of one of my cousins, Ibrahim Mahmoud El-Farra, age 22. He was killed in the first attack on the presidential palace. F16 fighter planes fired three big missiles at the building. Neighbors tell me the ground shook and that the blast broke all the windows of my nearby apartment building.

My cousin, and an unknown number of other victims, is still under the rubble. The scale of destruction is too large for Gaza’s small number of rescue workers. They are slowly pulling body parts out of the rubble as Israeli air strikes make more and more piles of rubble and people.

The number of reported deaths will increase in the next few days as more bodies are recovered and more of the seriously injured cases die because their serious but treatable wounds cannot be treated in Gaza.

No justification

As a mother, I believe that all children are precious and deserve love and protection. If Israeli children are terrified and confined to the shelters because of the Palestinian rockets, this is wrong. But it is no justification to kill Gaza’s children and innocent civilians, who make up the majority of victims. Israel’s actions are creating more and more hatred. While families in Gaza cower in their homes, ready for death to strike, how can Israel talk of peace? Neither building the wall in the West Bank nor attacking Gaza so savagely will bring peace to Israel. Only peace that is based on justice and respects the rights of us all will work in the end. We are humans too.

With an aching heart I continue to watch Gaza from a distance. I cannot turn the TV off, cannot detach myself from what is going on there. Not while my medical colleagues work hard under such extraordinarily circumstances. Not while my friends, my family, and the whole population of Gaza face such horrible atrocities and constant fear. The nightmare isn’t over.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year

2008-12-24T18:07:00.005+02:00

Land , Peace and Bread
Dear friends, comrades,brothers, sisters all over the world

While the whole world celebrates the Christmas and the New year, I am sure that Palestinian children inside Gaza are not forgotten by you. But they need to know that you are there and you care, and they are not abandoned by the world, while they have to suffer daily different sorts of inhumane practices that have been imposed on them by USA , Europe and Israel as part of cruel siege and economical embargo.

While I am here in the UK I watch different TV advertisements, to encourage people to be kind to each other specially at Christmas time…to be kind to the abused children, the homeless people, to be kind to donkeys in the developing countries, to help children to have access to clean water in Africa…I felt proud of all those advertisements, that encourage the population here to feel their existence as part of the international family.

I wish I have seen an advert describing the living conditions of the Palestinian children in Gaza, where children have no clean water, no bread, no safe homes, no safe schools, no safe playgrounds, no safe environment, no proper housing conditions, not enough medications, no electricity, no cooking gas and no entertainment facilities…while all the borders are strictly closed and nobody can get out no matter how great their need or wish.

While you are celebrating the Christmas and the New Year, think of Gaza children, think of the world as one family looking for peace and justice, looking for stability and happiness for all
I love you all
And again merry Xmas and happy New Year

Mona ElFarra

from Gaza to Larnaka and then Manchester -Uk

2008-12-19T14:08:00.002+02:00

Manchester, 15 November - a few days after my arrival in the UK
My email to my friend , Mona Bsieso , palestinan from Gaza ,lives abroad.
Dear Mona,
It has been very difficult for me to leave Gaza. I tried to leave several times to reach my youngest daughter who was not allowed re-entry to Gaza. She is now at one of the British schools trying hard to adjust to the educational, cultural, and social system here.
I am very busy trying to support my daughter, but at the same time I am anxious to go back home to continue my work. I cannot rest knowing of the difficulties and ordeals people face daily. I know exactly how inhumane life can be without electricity, gas, petrol, or a way out. And on top of that the daily military operations against Gaza.
With a torn heart, I sailed last week on board of one of the Free Gaza Movement boats and watched Gaza's beach slowly disappear. On the way to Larnaka I sobbed a lot. It was hard for me to be on board a small boat in the midst of a dangerous hostile sea and harder still was to think about the unpredictable future. Even though I was on my way to see my children I did not feel the normal, natural human feelings. You see, everything in Palestinian psychology is mixed with sadness, uncertainty, and great suffering.
When the captain announced that we had reached international waters, I threw fifteen bouquets of wild flowers from my garden in loving memory of the 15 fishermen who were killed by the Israeli naval forces in last five years. Their only crime was accidentally fishing farther out than the Israeli army permits, though they were still within Gazan waters according to international treaties. They were killed while trying to secure some sort of living for their families amidst the cruel, unjustified occupation and collective punishment that are imposed on all of us under the slogan of security. Their executions go against all humanitarian values.
I am looking forward to hearing from you. Please pass my warm regards to all the friends who support us in Gaza. It is with their solidarity that we can continue and show resilience during the most difficult times, while we face the occupation and the world's shameful silence.

Yours sincerely,
Mona El Farra

The siege -closure- and my personal story

2008-12-19T13:10:00.002+02:00

This time I’m writing my own very personal story. But it is also the story of 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza who are living under the siege and the hurtful cruel occupation and collective punishment.

Last June, I decided to send my 16-year-old daughter for a vacation in the UK. We had to go through a very complicated procedure for her to leave Gaza. The borders opened twice but she, like many students and patients, was not able to leave. My daughter holds a British passport so the British Consulate put a lot of efforts towards getting a permit from Israel for my daughter to leave Gaza with some other British citizens via the Jordan River.

Six weeks after the start of the summer holidays, my daughter was issued the permit to leave Gaza. She traveled north through the Erez crossing then to the West Bank and over the bridge to Jordan. From there she flew from Amman to Manchester. After a short visit she flew back to Amman. She was on her way back to the Jordan River crossing when we were informed that there are new regulations and we would need a new permit for my daughter to enter Gaza again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I applied for this permit from the Israeli army via the Palestinian coordination office in Gaza several times but received no reply. For six long weeks my child stayed in Amman with relatives, unsure what will happen next. We waited and waited but meanwhile her school in Gaza opened and she was very much concerned, as were we all, about her education.

I tried contacting human rights organizations in Israel to ask for assistance but everybody said it might take months to get her a permit to return home!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just one small piece of paper was preventing my child from coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!! Though she is privileged to hold a British passport this still did not secure her return home. In the eyes of the Israeli occupation she is treated as any Palestinian, because she holds a Palestinian ID card as well.

Our family decided that Sondos should return to the UK and enroll in one of the colleges there. But it was not easy for a 16-year-old girl to adapt to different educational and social systems, new surroundings, and late school entry. All these pressures besides being 16!!!!!!

Back in Gaza I decided to travel to the UK to help my daughter settle in to her new environment. For three continuous months I tried to find a way out of Gaza. The Rafah border was only opened once for 3 days in all that time. I waited among a throng of people at the border but I, like so many others, was turned back when they closed the border again on the third day. After this experience I took a decision to leave Gaza on one of the Free Gaza Movement boats to Larnaka. From there I flew to UK where I am now staying with my daughter. She still finds it very difficult to cope with the educational system, but it is even more difficult for her to adjust to the new social framework or structure.

As for me, I was invited by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, Liverpool Friends of Palestine, and others to give talks about my life in Gaza. So I tell audiences about the Gazans who died because they weren’t allowed to travel abroad for treatment and we didn’t have the necessary medicines or equipment to treat them in Gaza. I explain what it’s like to live in the dark because the power supply is cut off most of the days and nights. I give voice to the hundreds of newborn andpremature babies in our hospitals who are dying slowly , because we cannot accurately measure the gas system in their tiny bodies due to the interrupted power supply.

The numbers are staggering. Eighteen percent of children under the age of 15 in Gaza have stunted growth and forty-five percent have iron deficiency anemia due to lack of proper nutrition. Eighty percent of the population is now living in poverty and two thirds are refugees that were ethnically cleansed from their villages 60 years ago. More than 650,000 children under the age of 16 suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

But the stories are worse. I explain what it PTSD means for these children, how they suffer from all sorts of nightmares, anxiety, and inability to focus at school, phobias, bedwetting, stress, and depression.

But the worst feeling of all is our feeling of abandonment. Enduring the hardships of daily life in Gaza under the siege and occupation is less harmful than having to live day after day without hope. We are losing of faith in the outside world for not taking serious actions against Israel’s crimes against humanity in Gaza.

I'm determined to go back to Gaza, to continue my responsibilities, in the Red Crescent Society ,as well as my responsibilities as MECA Projects director, where I coordinate cultural and health projects , for children community centers and the relief work I coordinate for hundreds of families ,
. My life will be torn between the two things I love most: my children and my work for my people in Gaza.

the closure- the siege -and my personal experience

2008-12-19T11:26:00.001+02:00

On Life Support--Guardian Editorial

2008-12-18T20:56:00.002+02:00

Guardian, Friday 12 December 2008
This is surely the result of Mona's meeting with the Guardian editor and a handful of others. good for her.
Victoria Britain
On Fri, 12/12/08, Ray Dolphin wrote: Editorial The Guardian, Friday 12 December 2008 On life support
Anyone who thinks that the status quo in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is acceptable should talk to a doctor fromGaza . There is an acute shortage of all drugsand a complete lack of all cancer and cystic fibrosis medication. The hospitals have generators, but often no fuel, and switching from mains to an emergency> supply wrecks the equipment. One of the strip's three CT scanners is bust because of fluctuations in current. This also makes the temperature control of incubators for newborn babies unreliable. According to one source, more than 230 patients died last year waiting for a permit to leave The list goes on: the majority of Gaza 's children present the symptoms of mild or severe post traumatic stress disorder. About 45% of children under five have iron deficiency from lack of fruit, and meat and 18% of children have stunted growth. There is one other statistic: 71% of children interviewed at a school recently said they wanted to be a "martyr" A six-month ceasefire, or a period of "quiet" between Israel and Hamas, exists in name only. The current volley of raids and rockets started on November 4 when Israel said it uncovered a tunnel Hamas was planningto use to capture soldiers. Israeli forces have killed at least 10 Hamas gunmen, and as the rockets rained down on Sderot and Ashkelon, the gates of Gaza were locked. They were opened on Tuesday when 45 trucks of food, medical supplies cooking gas and fuel were let through. Israel says it will stop its blockade the moment the rockets cease and defends itself from the charge that its actions amount to collective punishment by drawing comparisons with other sanctions regimes. But Israel is not the only player. Conditions in Gaza are daily news in the Arab media and Egypt is coming under pressure to open its border with Gaza . British ministers may protest about the border closures, but the whole world community is complicit with the policy of punishing Palestinians for having elected Hamas. There is no defence for Hamas' use of rockets against Israeli civilian targets. Making Israeli children cower in concrete shelters is not "resistance". But nor can one justify the policy of keeping 1.5 million Palestinians on life support and then turning the ventilator off from time to time. Even less should it be tolerated by the incoming Obama administration. One cannot point, as Dennis Ross has done, to the dangers of Gaza becoming a failed state, while supporting policies which ensure the state continues to fail. Keeping Gaza perched on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe should not appeal to a US president who intends to use his middle name to reach out to the Arab world.

THis is how Palestinan patients are treated

2008-09-05T23:50:00.000+03:00

Erez Crossing, by Donna Wallach:

"I along with others from Free Gaza Movement decided not to return withthe SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty to Cyprus and instead to remain in GazaStrip for a while to continue the work of breaking the siege. Throughoutthe time I am staying here I will participate with the others in variousactions in Rafah, Gaza City, and other areas throughout the Gaza Strip,including going out in fishing boats to challenge the Israeli Navypreventing the Palestinian fishermen from fishing more than 6 miles out.In addition, we are re-organizing ISM Rafah, to do Palestinian ledsolidarity work here."This past Friday a 64 year-old Palestinian woman from Beit Hanoun, GazaStrip arrived to the Erez crossing accompanied by all of the remainingmembers of the Free Gaza Movement. She has been suffering for sevenmonths with a tumor on her spine. Without the necessary surgery grantedher by St. Joseph Hospital in Jerusalem, she will become paralyzed andwill live in constant pain, from what I understand. We, FGM members,walked in front of her as a protection for her to not be shot by theIsraeli soldiers guarding their border. She was being pushed in awheelchair. Slowly we approached the Israeli side, holding our arms inthe air and many of us clutching our passports."A Palestinian man was the liaison between Dr. Mona El-Farra and theIsraeli "authorities". Dr. Mona El-Farra was the main organizer for thisaction of bringing this 64 year-old woman to cross the Erez checkpoint.The Palestinian man kept on telling us that we needed to stop becausethe Israelis told him they were going to shoot us. We decided it wasmore important to challenge the Crime Against Humanity of Israel notpermitting this woman to receive the urgent medical treatment sheneeded, so we continued to walk towards the Israeli gate with our armsup in the air. We finally reached the Israeli gate without a shot beingfired, not a bullet not a tear gas canister or a sound bomb. In the endthough, the Israelis heartlessly told the woman she had to go back home,but could return an 8th time."On Sunday 31st August, we from FGM arrived at about 9:00am from Rafah,the southernmost area in Gaza Strip, to Erez crossing, the northernmostarea in Gaza Strip. We came to continue standing in solidarity with thewoman from the village of Beit Hanoun. We arrived late and she and Dr.Mona El-Farra had already left for the border. We gathered inside thecrude fenced in area where all Palestinians and others wait forpermission to cross the dirt pathway to arrive to the Israeli gate. Wewaited hours, then we heard that the woman was turned back again, withridiculous excuse that a member of her family must accompany her intoIsrael to the hospital. This woman came back, yet was not defeated.Almost all the members of her family have been wrongfully blacklistedby Israel, meaning that they cannot enter the Apartheid State of Israel.Finally the woman's 75 year-old husband was granted permission to enterIsrael with her. After he arrived to Erez and the paper work for him wasfilled out, they went off to the Israeli side. We continued to wait inthe heat to hear that she had crossed and was inside the Israeliambulance that would take her to the hospital and to her surgery whichwas supposed to have started on Sunday. Dr. Mona El-Farra told us thatshe continued to tell the Israeli authorities that members of the FreeGaza Movement were waiting at Erez to ensure that the woman would enterthis time and that we were willing to die, we would walk again to theborder even if the soldiers would shoot and kill us, we would do what ittakes so that the Israelis would allow her to enter, which they finallydid. The 8th time was the charm for this very brave and courageous womansitting in a wheelchair who defied the Israelis with all of theirgunpower."31 August 2008Donna Wallach, Free Gaza Movementhttp://www.FreeGaza.org

hello all iam alive and active , will never give up

2008-09-05T09:36:00.005+03:00

Dear all
friends , sisters, brothers , comrades all over the world , all of you who have supported me while writing my blog , just a quick words to let you know:

I am fine , but the whole situation in Gaza is so frustrating and not easy to handle day after day. It is is not easy living under such circumstances , while the borders are closed, and 1.5 million live under collective punishment.

The success of the Free Gaza Movement gave us some hope for the future , it was a small act , but great and courageous too , a few determined , strong activists did the miracle. In an unprecented voyage, the first boats to arrive from international waters to Gaza shores in 41 years. A lot of work can be done to make the change , to ring the bell , to wake up the deaf , silent and blind international community goverments. What is happening in Gaza under the siege and the occupation is not only a human rights violation, it is a war crime.

I was with the Free Gaza movment and the re-constituted Gaza International Solidarity Movement at Erez crossing last Sunday (the northern border between Gaza and Israel ) to make pressure and let one of the patients out for treatment. We succeeded in the end (see the statement below ) but the hard question is, why should it take all these extravagant efforts to let one patient in great need for emergency surgery out of Gaza ?????????????

It is a fundemental basic need , it is the right of each individual to get health care !!!!!!!!!BUT IN PALESTINE UNDER OCCUPATION THE STORY IS DIFFERENT.

238 patients died last year while waiting to be issued a permit to leave Gaza for treatment ,via the borders . Hundreds are waiting, including many children.
We are not talking about Hamas or Fatah, or who is controlling Gaza , it is a basic humanitarian and human rights issue .

from Gaza with love
Mona

a taste of palestinian patients suffering at the Borders

2008-09-04T20:16:00.002+03:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ISRAEL FINALLY BOWS DOWN TO PRESSURE FROM 64-YEAR OLD PATIENT AND INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS.
The FREE GAZA MOVEMENT announces the entry of Magdia Abushaweesh at 13:30, Sunday 31st, 2008 through the Erez crossing to Israel.
64-year old Palestinian woman with a tumor on her spine in need of an operation to save her from paralysis, finally accesses Israel after 7 months of rejection. Originally having received an appointment and permission to travel to the St. Joseph hospital in Jerusalem she has since then continuously been denied entry by the Israeli Occupation Forces.
After the seventh attempt on Friday the 29th of August accompanied by a group of 11 international activists attempting to escort magdia Abushaweesh through the Erez crossing, Israel gave permission. The 11 internationals from the Free Gaza Movement followed by a large group of press secured heavy media coverage that eventually put pressure on the Israeli government and achieved the entry permission. The internationals and Magdia walked towards the Israeli gate with the border guards threatening to shoot them. They advanced slowly with their arms raised, holding their passports up high. They finally managed to reach the gate, but the Israeli guards refused to open it.Magdia entry follows in the wake of the forty-five international human rights workers from the Free Gaza Movement arriving to Gaza on two boats sailing through international waters. The 23rd of August was the frist time in 41 years that an international ship has landed in the Gaza port, consequently breaking the Israeli siege. The mission of exposing the illegality of Israel's actions and expressing solidarity with the suffering people of the Gaza-strip (and of the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole) continues with the continuous presence of several members of the Free Gaza Movement in the Gaza-strip. They will be doing many simular activities during the next few months throughout Gaza

ISM and fishermen of Gaza

2008-09-04T20:12:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, 1st September 2008, the first day of Ramadan, several volunteers with the Free Gaza Movement and the International Solidarity Movement accompanied a small fleet of seven fishing vessels from Gaza City port. The fishermen exercised their right to fish in Gazan territorial waters, providing them with a livelihood and food for the besieged people of Gaza. The fishing fleet reached approximately nine miles offshore and began trawling along the Gazan coast, well within international limits. Usually the Israeli Navy prevents Gazan fishing vessels from accessing beyond six miles and in many cases only three miles by attacking the boats, sometimes lethally, or by arresting the fishermen. However, this day’s fishing resulted in a highly successful catch due to the ability to access richer fishing grounds further offshore.

Two Israeli Naval gunboats approached the fleet soon after leaving port and began firing “warning shots” shortly afterwards. They were aware that internationals were on some of the boats. The Israeli Navy continued shooting multiple times at the fishing vessels, one of which was fired upon at least seven times. They also deployed explosive charges in the water and attempted to de-stabilise some of the boats by creating a strong wake. Communication was established with the Israeli Navy via VHF radio, informing them that everyone onboard were unarmed civilians and requesting that the Israeli Navy stop shooting.

The volunteers will continue to join Gazan fishing expeditions on a regular basis and will monitor Israeli aggressions towards the fishermen. Video and written documentation will be posted publicly and made available to journalists. The Israeli Navy will not be informed as to when the volunteers will join the fishermen, nor the ports they will sail from, since this is not within their jurisdiction. Also no indication will be made as to which vessels have internationals onboard.

A Quest for Freedom

2008-06-14T09:42:00.004+03:00

Gaza those days
no fuel -no power-no gas
it was not nice of me, not to update my blog, and to keep you informed about my life in Gaza, but iam sure you can understand me very well, specially that you all know by now that writing for me is a state of truth, and deep feelings, I write because I want you to know the truth about my life in Gaza, and also to feel that I am still alive and I have not been converted ,to an object or number!
I write to keep the link between myself and the outside world , the normal natural world ,with a deep feeling that I am like all of us in Gaza , we don’t belong to this world any more .
we don’t belong to this silent impotent world , when we have been converted to a piece of news , small pieces of news, that attract the world attention and sympathy , for short while , and the siege continues and different crimes against humanity are daily committed by the occupation collective punishment , and by us as Palestinians , when we fail to over bridge the gap between Fath and hamas(the two largest parties in Palestine ) in order to reach an agreement , so we can confront the occupation , and focus on non violent resistance, to reach our national goals of freedom and self-determination , when peace that is based on justice prevail.
Hearing about Gaza is much different than living in Gaza

So please allow me to accompany t you in a tour, during one of my days in Gaza
WEDNSDAY 11th of June 2008
Today I felt so pleased , I felt that I own the whole world in my hands , when I managed to fill my car with 10 litres of petrol!!!!!!!!!!, oh my god how our goals has been minimised to satisfy such a basic need in this modern world , bearing in mind that , I did not fill my car with petrol since 6th of April 2008, so am sure that you can imagine my childhood happiness , but my next problem followed soon !what shall I do with this fortune of petrol ?shall I go to see my sister in Khan-yunis ?oh it is far away, (22 klm away) I thought ! I will waste the petrol)
Shall I go to the New Horizon centre in Nussierat ?
Shall I go to jabalia ?Assria centre
Alawda hospital ?
Red crescent society in Gaza
In the end I decided not to use my car , and keep it for emergencies.
And I continued walking to the red crescent society , I also kept my mask on my nose , so I don’t smell the cooking oil smell that is filling the streets of Gaza those days …………
Back to my apartment
I walked back to my apartment , walking supposed to be nice blessing , but not in a very hot summer day!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t have cooking gas at my flat, and don’t know how long it will take when I can manage to get one cylinder of this gas
I am lucky I have electrical cooker too!!!!!!!!!!!
I returned home to find the electricity cut off!!!!!!!!!

While it is getting dark and I am ,Feeling bored, hot tired, frustrated I decided, not to lit the candles and went to sleep very early.

, and hoped that ,I will have nice dreams not night mares ,How come I don’t know ??How can I have nice dreams when all the circumstances say that I shouldn’t!!!!!!!!!

In the morning
As I walked up in the morning

I told myself: they will never succeed to break up my will and stamina; they will never be able to crush my soul and determination to be part of the change I want to see in the whole world, not only Palestine

With this positive feeling I went to the Red Crescent Society, to follow up the arrival of medications to Gaza, from MECA, with the kind donation from the American people, who dream of peace and justice, and work hard till this day come true.
Yours for
Freedom
Return
Peace –
Justice
–truth
Mona

A Quest for Freedom "Fishermen Action Day"

2008-06-12T12:10:00.000+03:00

Last April's report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs identified a growing crisis. Titled "Polluting the Sea in the Gaza Strip,” the report indicated that "between 50 and 60 million litres of partially treated and untreated sewage have been flowing daily into the Mediterranean Sea since 24 January". It also warned of the contamination of sea waters which is posing health risks for bathers and consumers of seafood.

In response to this crisis, a public event-Quest for Freedom- will be held at the Gaza port on Monday, June 16th 2008, from 9:00 to 11:00. The event will include opportunities to join fisherman on their boats for a firsthand exposure to the conditions that threaten their own livelihoods, the health of Gazan citizens, and the vitality of the natural environment.

On the same day, groups in other countries will carry out demonstrations of solidarity. This is part of a growing international movement in which people around the world join together to protest the collective punishment being inflicted on Gaza.

On behalf of "the Palestinian International Campaign to End Siege on Gaza", we would like to invite you to attend. We look forward to your participation.

Sincerely.

Dr. Mona El-Farra
Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege

My InterviewWith The Guardian Weekly -UK-Love and Resistance In Gaza Strip

2008-04-25T01:01:00.001+03:00

Love and resistance in Gaza Strip
-Tuesday April22nd2008

In an apparent softening of its position, Hamas has said it will accept a partial truce covering the Gaza Strip. But the lack of water, fuel and medicine has taken its toll and Palestinians continue to die of malnutrition and lack of medical resources. Mona el-Farra is a doctor and human rights activist working with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. She is also the author of From Gaza With Love, a blog through which she keeps the world abreast of conditions under the Israeli occupation
Tuesday April 22nd 2008

Doctor Mona el-Farra, top left, poses with a group of children in the Gaza StripI started writing in 2000 when my parents’ home was demolished by the Israeli occupation army at the beginning of this intifada. I felt strongly that I should tell people abroad about my personal experience and about what’s happening in Gaza under occupation. As a doctor working in the field and living in Gaza I witnessed so many human rights violations and I wanted people to know about it. About two years ago some friends and supporters of the Palestinian cause in Britain encouraged me to start a blog because they thought that my message was strong, but I didn’t expect the reaction – the response was overwhelming. So I continued.Gaza at the moment is a big prison, a very dire situation. Like all the community, most of the time I feel isolated, but by writing I feel that I am not alone. Other people in the world react to my writing, and I can see I am not alone – it is a sort of therapy for me.Let me describe this morning for you. For more than four weeks now we haven’t had fuel in Gaza. I have completely run out and I walk to work. I walk about 6km – or more than that because I don’t only walk to work, I have other meetings and activities that I get to by walking. I have to wake up much earlier to get there on time. While walking to work today I saw many children, women and students. Everyone was walking and there were few cars on the street. It reminded me of the curfew. The Israelis are not inside Gaza now, they are outside, but they are still controlling us. The streets are quiet, just people walking silently with grim faces. My walk is not safe or pleasant because the drones and fighters are in the sky and I can hear bombing and shelling. I don’t enjoy the walk – I feel danger. I feel for the patients who cannot reach the hospital. Many doctors, nurses and health workers come from areas outside the city – to them 6km is nothing. They cannot get to work and it is paralysing our life.Gaza is a traumatised community. Of course there is hope for peace, but people cannot see any horizon. Most people are not working. In such situations, peace becomes more valuable to people. We hope that we can live with dignity and have normal lives like other people in the world, but we are exhausted and frustrated, and spend one day to the next not knowing what will happen. But we know very realistically that our life is difficult, that we are leading a very difficult life in Gaza.Power is regular at the moment and Israel has announced it will allow fuel into the area, to the power station. But it is not enough. We are always under the threat that the power will cut off, and the generator is not enough to meet the needs of our regular routine work. Power cuts affect the patients, like those on renal dialysis, as well as our daily routine in the operating room. Much of our high-tech equipment is out of order before its time, the CT machine has been ruined and the laboratory equipment’s results are not reliable. This is the case for all the health systems in Gaza. You cannot depend on them because of lack of resources and power cuts. Because we don’t have a functioning health system we have to refer patients to other hospitals outside Gaza – children who need surgery, for example, or cancer patients who need chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The process of their referral is terribly difficult. Most of them don’t get permission to leave. Even if the hospital accepts my patient the army says: "No, this patient is allowed, that one is not allowed."It makes me angry and frustrated, but it doesn't stop my enthusiasm to keep working. I’m not allowed to collapse: I’m an activist and I should continue supporting my people, my community, my patients, so it puts an extra burden on me. I feel the burden and sometimes I am tired – but not collapsed. I believe it is my duty to do it. What keeps me going is that I feel all the time that people need me, or need my efforts. For example, I am trying to arrange for a new paediatric general surgeon to come to Gaza to carry out operations on children who cannot leave but are in urgent need of surgical intervention. If I succeed, many patients’ lives will be saved. It is the cause, the health cause, the humanitarian cause, that keeps me going. I also coordinate work in cultural centres for children in refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. I believe very strongly that these centres are important because they support children’s psychology through entertainment. Playing, dancing, painting, reading – these are important needs. OK, people are hungry in Gaza, but their psychology has collapsed; we need to help the minds of children through these activities. At least 65% of Palestinian children suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome from living in war conditions.Support from other parts of the world is very important – some people give, but it is not enough. However, if it comes directly to the children of Gaza, to the patients of Gaza, it is going to do a lot. On another level, it would help if people wrote to their members of parliament because nothing will change dramatically unless the politics are changed.• Mona el-Farra is still looking for a paediatric surgeon. She can be contacted through her blog, fromgaza.blogspot.com. She was interviewed by Charlotte Baxter.

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Riad Hamad 1952-2008

2008-04-24T08:06:00.001+03:00

Riad Hamad

Under very suspicious and tragic circumstances, Riad passed away, leaving all of us who have known him shocked and traumatized. For those of us who worked closely with him to support the Palestinian children and keep the right of return alive in the world conscience,
Riad will be always remembered. His memory will stay inside us providing a great source of inspiration to continue working for Palestine and the Palestinian children.

I want share with YOU what I wrote as soon as I heard the tragic news of Riad's death.

I also would like to let you all know that the New Horizon Center For Children in Nussierat Refugee Camp has decided to name the English and Computer Room that was funded via Riad and Palestinian Children's Welfare Fund efforts in loving memory of RIAD HAMAD .

I am speechless, shocked and do not know what to write. How can I pass this piece of sad news to thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza that he supported and opened a window of hope and love to them and their families?

Riad, you are not allowed to die. Please rest in peace. Sure, you need to rest, but you will stay alive inside all of us who have known you and share the same vision, working hard to change the world and give the less privileged a chance for a dignified life. Your kindness, your big
heart, your strong will and your determination will stay alive in us. We will never surrender to oppression, injustice and occupation. We will never give up our right of return. And one day peace and justice will prevail.

Riad Elsolh Hamad wrote:
27 Aug 2007

Dear Mona,
Marhaba,
I wish that you could have the luxury of taking a month vacation where you do not have to worry about the innocent children, women and families who depend on you and your talents to connect them with the outside world...It would be great for you to leave for few months if that did not mean that hundreds and thousands of children in Gaza would go hungry, go to sleep
cold or be deprived of medicine or school supplies..It would be great if you can go to the Greek Isles..provided no fires are there to consume one of the most dedicated and compassionate people on earth..Mona, I hate to break it to you..but you do not belong to Basma or Sundos...you do not belong to your family...you belong to the people of Gaza and Rafah who
look up to you as a sister..a mother, a doctor..an organizer and a friend....yes, you may say I am tired all you want..and you can say that you are exhausted a million times a day and I will save you the trouble and record it with your voice so you do not even have to say it..BUT....you CANNOT give up..you CANNOT give in...YOU MAY NOT stop what you have started...a fire of compassion and love for the children of Gaza from all us who know you and know your sincerity and dedication for the children in Gaza...please do take a couple of pills , and I will pay for them...BUT Dr. Hamad says..listen young woman... get a good nap...drink a strong cup of Arabic coffee in the morning and look into the sea of Gaza..when the sun comes up...and look carefully..because you will see another sun...the sun of freedom for Sundos and Basma to travel from Gaza to anywhere they want..the sun of freedom which will allow ALL the children of Gaza to enjoy their lives without fear, hunger or bombings that would take their innocents lives away....I wish I can be there in Gaza to tell you a joke or two to get you to smile...or to remind you that yes, it could be worse....The Israelis could have won the war last summer and Lebanon could have been suffering from more settlements and more settlers...we are with you..we are next to you...be loving..be compasstionate..be strong..just be yourself..BE MONA....
Salamat
Riad Hamad

mona El-farra wrote:
marhaba Riad
salamat
do i have the right to say that i am tired exhausted , drained and very sad?
no i do not have this right , while watching my people dying of hunger,stress , lack of clear future , cruel closure and sanctions ,my people suffer ,of this longlasting occupation , ongoing atrocities ,diffrent sorts and kinds of agressions and deprivitions, this population is hold hostage, in small place called Gaza ,how can i say that i am so tired , while i need to stay strong and meet thedaily needs of people , specialy children .
Dear friend
Do you have any special suggestions
salamat
Mona ElFarra

That is how Riad Hamad showed his solidarity, supported me when things were so unbearable and I needed a friend to listen and support while living in Gaza under the cruel siege, sanctions and occupation.

from Nazareth to Gaza with love and hope

2008-04-03T10:23:00.002+03:00

REEM ALBANA SINGS FOR US IN GAZA
from Nasareth came her voice , passinate strong and with special messege of solidarity , and real act asgainst the seige , hundreds of us in the YMCA hall , in Gaza sang with Reem beatiful songs against the seige as well as many beatiful Palestinian foloklor esongs , i felt so refreshed empowered and most important not alone , while everybody was singing with the beatifull palestinian woman from Naareth , i thought how the seige and living in such small closed area of land , has affected all of us , when the normal pattern of life and talk became the suffering , the shooting, the petrol shortages , number of killed and injured , patients referala, food shortage , psychological proplems etc.........
now i felt iam in direct contact with the real world , and i strongly sensed how my world became real prison , suffocating prison , i could see it in the eyes of the teenagers who were in the hall the children who were happy singing ,
thanks Reem for your voice that chalenged the seige , crossed the false borders and made all of us ,who attended the cultural night , that was organised by Ramatan , realy empowered and refreshed and feel that we are still alive and we can enjoy normal pleasures of life as music , feel that we are humans .

Occupation: the siege and health in Palestine

2008-03-26T20:39:00.003+02:00

The Israeli occupation's closure policy began in the early 90s. Thousands of Palestinians were denied work in Israel and much of the Palestinian population of Gaza and the West Bank were denied permits, impeding their ability to move freely between Gaza and the West Bank. The Oslo peace process did nothing to prevent Israel from imposing collective punishment against the whole population of Gaza strip, as long as these measurements serve some "security" need.

The severe and harsh siege against the Gaza Strip started in January 2006. The physical siege was accompanied by a devastating economic embargo which was imposed as a collective punishment against the Palestinian people for their democratic choice. In the January 2006 elections, the Hamas party won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council in a transparent and democratic election. The West--led by the US--imposed economic and political sanctions against the new Hamas government and 1.5 million people living in the Gaza Strip were put under collective punishment. This external siege was followed by severe Palestinian interclashes between the 2 major parties--Hamas and Fateh. Rhose interclashes were temporarily stopped many times and the political parties attempted to formulate a national unity government and bring about reconciliation between the 2 major parties. But the clear intervention of the US via supporting one party against another , ended with Hamas winning against Fateh and taking over the Gaza Strip in a bloody operation in June 2007. Another chapter of severe siege and closures were imposed against Gaza.

This siege and economic embargo affected the entire population. It affected each and every aspects of our lives. The isolation continues as well as the daily Israeli military operations against the Gaza Strip, which are a desperate attempt by Israel to stop the rockets attacks. But
while trying to stop these rockets attacks, Israel launched disproportional war and used excessive power against Gaza's population. The Israeli military didn't discriminate between civilians and guerrillas.

The power cut off was another type of punishment. The cut off of the fuel supplies, the complete sealing of the borders, and shortages of different commodities have become the norm in Gaza. The poverty of Gaza residents has reached unprecedented levels. 80% are living under the poverty line and they mainly dependent on international aid agencies. 35%of the population are severely impoverished.

I would like to explain for you the effect of the siege on the health of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Electricity shortage and its effect on health
All hospitals and health facilities have no power at least 8 hours per day. Alternative electrical generators are used during these power cuts but this change in power source has caused many serious problems and many high tech, sophisticated equipment has gone out of order because of the unreliable power supply, e.g. CT machines, laboratory equipments and life saving machines etc. The Red Crescent Society's CT is one of many examples of expensive and crucial equipment that has been ruined by the change in current.

The electrical generators are not a substitute for normal power. They need fuel that is not readily available in Gaza. For example, I have 10 liters of fuel for my car that needs to last several weeks and I was able to get these 10 liters with great difficulty, after waiting in line for hours and hours.

The shortage of standard power and the use of electrical generators adds another burden to the health facilities' general expenditures. It also requires that they suspend many surgical operations in order to ensure emergency services like what happened in January 2008.

The shortage of electricity subsequently affects the water pumping systems, especially in high buildings and in the rural areas. During January 2008 half of the Gaza’s population had no access to clean drinking water. The sewage pumping system has also been affected, according to the UNRWA 22% of Gaza households don’t have proper sewage system, and sewage is released untreated into the sea. These combined problems will contribute to increasing health problems related to contaminated water amongst children who make up to 56% of Gaza population.

A limited and decreasing supply of electricity to Gaza strip has made the delivery of even basic services related to health, water and sanitation very difficult. The border restrictions on the supply of fuel and the banning on imports of health spare parts and machinery exacerbates an already overwhelmed health system. It will lead to further decline in the standard of living for the residents--especially health services standards--of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Man-made poverty and its effects on health
Poverty has a direct impact on nutrition--especially children's nutrition--and that clearly explains clearly the prevalence of anemia amongst Palestinian children under the age of 5 which has reached as high as 63.4% of under 5 children in January 2008, compared to 57.5% in 2007.

The international aid organizations offer food staples but this is not adequate. Children need well balanced diets to grow in a healthy way. Additionally, whenever there is cash to purchase food, food prices are extremely high and some products are in shortage so families still can't get proper food items. Due to the difficulty of importing food into Gaza milk, cooking oil, and many other items are in shortage in the markets.

The psychological effect on the community
The continuous closure, economic siege, power cuts, and the ongoing military operations against Gaza's population are coupled with poverty and a complete lack of sources of entertainment. It is not strange that 64% of Palestinian kids suffer from post traumatic stress disorders. They exhibit signs such as nightmares, phobias, clinging to the mother, inability to focus, bed wetting and irritability.

The Palestinian community as a whole in the Gaza Strip is suffering from different sorts of psychological symptoms. Depression, anxiety, nightmares, insomnia, irritability and aggression amongst the families has increased remarkably.

Restrictions on movement
The population's right to health has been violated by the Israeli occupation. It is very difficult if not impossible for patients to access to medical care outside the Gaza Strip. There are hundreds of patients who need further treatment and referral to hospitals outside Gaza--especially cancer patients, neurosurgical operations, cardiovascular surgeries etc. These patients are routinely denied permits to leave Gaza for their medical emergencies. Many were even issued a referral and then prohibited from crossing the borders. The rate of referral was 67% in 2006 but it decreased to just 25% in 2008.

In some cases children were allowed to travel but the parents were denied permits to accompany their children. Since June 2007, 117 patients have died while waiting to be referred for treatment outside Gaza. Last October, 20 patients died. 5 of them were children.

Border closures are also impacting the quality of health available in Gaza. Our hospitals are lacking many essential medications and supplies such as anesthetics, x-ray films, laboratory kits, chronic diseases medications, spare parts for hospital beds, etc.

Emergency medical teams--while on duty and in uniform--were often prevented from doing their work during the military operations against Gaza Strip. Several human rights organizations, as well as eyewitnesses accounts by different hospitals staff, have documented these violations of the right to health. On many occasions ambulances were directly targeted by the Israeli army while trying to rescue the injured or were not allowed to reach the injured and the medical teams watched the injured bleed to death. There are countless lives that could have been saved. A few minutes or even a few seconds can make a difference for saving the lives of injured people.

The latest example is the Jabalia incursion when the Israeli army did not allow the ambulance to reach one of the injured children. The child, a girl aged 8, was heavily bleeding and when the ambulance was allowed to evacuate the child it was too late. This practice of the Israeli army during its military operations is a frank violation of human rights and of the fourth Geneva Convention regarding the protection of medical teams while on duty in war and peace. Since December 2000, 17 Palestinian health workers have been killed while on duty and 206 injured.

We are facing an impossible challenge. Gaza's health facilities have to cope with these extraordinary emergency needs with limited medical resources while at the same time trying hard to meet the routine health care needs of the population with scarce resources.

The siege of Gaza must end.

Mona El-Farra
Palestinian Red Crescent Society of the Gaza Strip
Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege

Women International Day -Gaza style

2008-03-08T09:14:00.001+02:00

With all my love and respect to all the women of the world , i send my special messege from Gaza ,
In few hours at 11am local time , many palestinian women and children of Gaza will gather at the annomynous soldier square (Jundi Majhoul), to commemerate this special day ,
and to ask the international community and specialy the women of the world on this special day , not to be silent while real crimes are daily committed towards the children and women of Palestine ,we want to tell the whole world : ,it is not the seige or the wall , it is not the continous military brutalities against us , that will bring security to Israel , what will bring security to all is PEACE BASED ON JUSTICE ,and justice means palestinian people right to live in degnity and eqaulity , based on acheiving our national analeinable goals .
from Gaza , i call upon you all to show your soliderity and support for us . call upon your goverments to stop the seige against Gaza NOW ,
in Gaza we have so beatifull flowers to send you ,but the borders are closed so we cannot export our flowers to you !!!!!!!!!!!!in the meantime people have become so sad and frustrated and most important very impoverished , to think of roumantic flowers
but candles are so popular in Gaza , because we donot have power supply and our children lack clean drinking water ,as well as many food important items to grow up healthier and stronger .

with all my love and happy women day

animals need to be fed before slaughtering

2008-03-05T18:45:00.000+02:00

Dear All
i cannot write , but will try my best to keep you updated if i have power .

, please forgive me , what shall i tell you , shelling , shooting , Apachi heliocapters are in the skies of diffrent parts of Gaza , borders were opened today , to let in food and medications into Gaza !!!! feed us before killing !!!!

Israeli cabinet stated : the army should have the free hand ,to decide how to attack Gaza .

on personal level , i prepared my safty bag again , next to the apartment front door !!and i go to bed wearing my track suit (my domestic little precaustions)

my friend Yohannes in Germany asked in his nice email :Mona are you still alive ? , iam alive and will try to tell you all the truth as i used to do , i will keep fighting for peace and justice

love

mona

the after math -Gaza today 3rd of march 2008

2008-03-03T08:31:00.001+02:00

Here is the outcome of the Israeli military operation against Gaza , 117 killed 350 and more injured. These numbers are preliminary, as the emergency teams were only allowed to evacuate tens of injured and some dead this morning. Some who were lying in the citrus orchards of Jabalia town , east of Gaza city. The majority of the dead and injured are civilians, many suffered serious injuries. In some cases the casualties were of the same family and many children were killed .

2nd of March -Al-Awda Hospital -Jabalia Refugee Camp

69 injured arrived at the hospital , in one day (saturday 1-3 2008 ). These mass casualties are more than the capacity of the hospital's beds and two operating theatres. Many of the injured were laid on the floor because there weren't enough beds. Many had to be referred to the Shifa hospital (Gaza's central and largest hospital). The injuries were varied: abdomen , chest, head injuries, many children , and mutilated bodies !!!!!!!!!
the Palestinian Red crescent (PRC) ambulances used Al-Awda as a temporary base (makeshift point ). The Israeli forces ordered the PRC to LEAVE ITS HEADQUARTERS IN JABALIA , because it was close to the operation !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While i was at Al-Awda hospital , the Apache helicopter gunships were in the sky firing and shooting against the resistance men. I heard the sound of many shellings and bombings, it was all too loud.

Many volunteers arrived at the hospital , to give a hand to the stretched hospital staff. The ambulance drivers were extremely exhausted , everyone was worried about the shortage of fuel. The hospital director was very busy in the operation theater. I met many injured children on the hospital beds.

Dr. Mahmoud my friend and his family -Salah Eddin street -Jabalia town

In the past three days of the military operation against Jabalia Mahmoud and his family were unable to leave home, which is in an area that had become a battlefield.
Two of his grandchildren were ill and in need of medications. Mahmoud himself suffers from kidney problems and has had a kidney transplant. He was in need of treatment and medications at the hospital. I tried several times to coordinate with the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) to evacuate the family to safer place , and could not. I felt helpless while I was in contact with them by phone. Later on when the shooting was so severe i lost contact, they were all on the floor, seeking refuge in the safest place of the home. The power was off and the mobiles were not charged , Mahmoud has three granchildren and four children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know if I am conveying the ordeal we face while living in Gaza under occupation (despite appearances Gaza is still occupied, Israel controls all the borders and the seas and does what it pleases in Gaza). This is one of many stories , i thought i would like to share it with you.

I share with you how our children suffer: first because of the seige, second because of the direct attacks and thirdly because of the poverty and lack of normal life, lack of better chances of living.

A total of 117 Palestinians were killed
17 children
19 women
36 men
47 resistance men

The total number of injured were 350.

It is a disproportional open war , and excessive use of military power by Israel. Our civilians pay the price .but just to remind you wherever there is occupation , this colonial racist occupation
the resistance will continue , my share is civil resistance , but I do not blame others of their choice of resistance IT IS THE OCCUPATION THAT SHOULD BE BLAMMED

from Gaza i send all my love

Israel Intensify its attacks against Gaza

2008-02-28T09:45:00.000+02:00

27th of februray
my sleep was lagely interuppted , last night so my daughter , the shooting was so heavy against diffrent areas of the city , as well as diffrent parts of the gaza strip , the jet fighters sound was too loud as well as the heliocapters sound ,
this morning 28th of february
it is dispropotional open war , civilians pay the price , 15 people were killed , as an outcome of last night attack , including 3 months old baby !!!!!!!!!(1000 children were killed in the last 5 years alone )
on my way walking to the Red Crescent Society , (i donot have fuel in my car ), it is only 25 mintues , while walking , i can cleary hear successive explosions, from diffrent parts of the city , and the drune on the sky , and also can clearly see the security forces soldiers, outside thier headquarters , as it is under threat of bombing by the israeli military forces , i had to walk very fast , expecting the worse ,
arriving my work to find out that we donot have enough fuel for the ambulance and the other work vehicles.
no fuel entered Gaza since 17 days , our storage has been exhausted , oh my god this situation will have its desasterous impact on diffrent health facilities .
Medical workers as always work under great pessure , and while iam trying to arrange for medical shipment entry to Gaza , donated by MECA , i endure living in such dangerous situation , and lack of electricity , we have scarce power 6- 8 hours daily at the moment ,fresh and clean pumped water is big proplem for most residents of Gaza,
i feel fedup , exhausted and drained of talking about the same topics again and again , and things get worse and worse , so please understand me when i donot write ,
safty is my big concern at the moment as well as meeting medical facilities medications and medical supplies needs
justice and peace is my great goal , please spread the word

QUEING FOR 3 HOURS TO GET 2 GALLONS OF FUEL FOR MY CAR

2008-02-12T11:21:00.000+02:00

12th of february 2008

one of my days under the seige

it is so stressfull not to be able to drive my car , as iam like everybody in Gaza ,we are controlled by the lack of petrol that enters Gaza via Isarel ,i hurried up to one of the few stations that got petrol today , to my big surprise i found my self in a long que of cars waiting to get petrol , and i had to wait long 3 hours , before i managed to get 2 gallons of fuel , enough to keep me going for another 2 days , if i rationalised using my car , and that means i will be only driving my car inside gaza city , or park it and walk in a limited areas , SO HERE IAM AGAIN PRISONER IN GAZA iam unable to visit my sister in Khanunis i can go to the Red Crescent clinic but not to the hospital , many people parked thier cars and walk , or use public cars if they can find one !!!!!easily !!!!!!, basic routine practises became so difficult and time consuming ,leave alone the effect of that shortage of fuel ,on our hospitals in particular and public services in general , electricity still big proplem , patchy power is the role !!!continous blackouts makes me feel very low and in a very cold winter it is a curse .

life continues from one day to another , despite of my mind pisimism i still have the optimism of detremination (Gramchi), and in that context a lot of positive activities are going on in Gaza ,to empower the community and to stand by poor and margenalised , as a sign of resistance and refusal of injustice , and searching for peace that is based on justice

very tired and exhausted , drained and thinking of the world silence ,i send my love to you all who think of us as freedom and noble cause fighters NOT VICTIMS

Mona

Before my laptop batteries are empty

2008-02-03T21:11:00.000+02:00

4th of february 2008-Gaza

it is 2 weeks since we did not have power in Gaza , it was back for short period , now we have patchy power in all areas of Gaza strip , in my flat i have the electricity for 2 - 4 hours if i am lucky , sometimes i do not have it all day , i thought of writing something to change your mood while you are following our stories in Gaza , while i am the one who is in big need to lift my morale , it is my candles' night , unfortunately not a very romantic candle lit night , it is very difficult for me to write whenever i have the urge and desire to do so , and i need to hurry up before my laptop batteries are dead , but any way, i was trying to be charming and persuade my teenager girl of the advantages of having candles a and quiet evening without tv or new sophisticated technology , the answer came back quickly ,with a grim face , "OK, but if it was our choice !!!!!!!!!!!!!!" simple few words from my child who , like all her mates, leads an unusual and cruel life in Gaza while the occupation continues these harsh measurements of cutting off fuel and electricity against gaza population.

we resist the occupation :

by enduring this difficult unbearable life ,and still not being crushed by our occupier's foot ,continue to live and even to create new ideas to educate and entertain our children , today i was in Nussierat Refugee camp(one of Gaza middle camps ) , where i witnessed the opening of the English Club for the Kids of Afaq Jadida center(New Horizon ), 30 kids age 15-17 will have the chance of learning computer and english language ,

it is amazing, it is inspiring to see the kids sitting to learn while the center had little day light and it was dim, there were candles too , in another corner of the center , the library i could clearly see some kids reading books using candle lights , the librarian on her wheelchair, with smiling face, watching and encouraging .It was good chance for John Harvey , from Olimbia Rafah sister city foundation(USA) , to take some photos and to show his solidarity and support .

the center is in great need for electrical generator , well, another task for me ,and a great necessity for this little paradise , where the kids can enjoy whatever's possible in this gloomy atmosphere , i believe that it is so important to support the kids' psychology via entertaining activities , this is what we do in Afaq jadida and other children centers in Gaza , those are in partnership with the Middle East Children Alliances ,

before the battery is empty , with all my love i say goodbye

Great news thanks to my occupier electricity is back !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-01-21T23:50:00.000+02:00

thanks to the Israeli occupation
now after 36 hours of cut of the electricity in my flat,i will be able
to wash my cloths
to have my shower
to use the electrical elevator
to buy bread
my daughter can do her home work ,
i can watch television and loudly shout :
long live Mr. Bush and israel for this big blessing electricity , in Gaza
and i donot need to worry about 1.5 million population , who live under this cruel seige , wher ewe donot have cement to build our homes or our graves , wher emy patients die daily due to lack of proper treatment in Gaza and donot have accesability to furthur treatment abroad bcse of borders closure .
no need to worry about lack of diffrent sorts of medications inside our hospitals
no need to worry about increasing number of children , who suffer of malnutrition
due to lack of proper food , as an outcome of poverty
no need to worry about increasing number of women and children who suffer of postraumatic stress disorders,
no need to feel of insecurity, inside or outside my home , as the isreali raids continue against
Gaza.
no need to worry about my restriction of movement , and inability to travel , even to the west bank (last week one of my fiends in the WB ,passed away , and i could not go to pay my last look and say goodbye )
i am too greedy person and nagging too , i should be happy and content ,in my beatiful big cage , and welcome electricity and be very gratfull to my occupier

with lots of love , from Mona who lives in the 21st century and under occupation !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In 2 hours all of the Gaza Strip will sink into darkness completely

2008-01-20T18:50:00.000+02:00

Sunday 20 January 2008
I am writing to let you know that in less than 2 hours the last turbine of the Gaza Strip's only power plant will stop working. The fuel for the power plant fuel will run out in 2 hours.

I hurried to recharge my laptop and my mobile and to wash the clothes. I checked my candles and rechargeable lights !!!!!! I telephoned Al-Awda hospital and was really panicked to learn that we have only have enough fuel for 4 days for the electrical generator!!!!! What more details shall I give?

No electricity leads to no pumped fresh water and no proper sewage system which in turn leads to more diseases and more needs for different surgical operations. But after 4 days no emergency operations can be conducted in our hospitals.

Israel sealed the Gaza Strip completely and strictly on Friday. Even the UN food supplies are not allowed to enter Gaza. 80% of the population at the moment depends on the UN aid and different international aid agencies. The UN staff are also not allowed to leave or enter Gaza. And while Israel is sealing the Gaza Strip it is at the same time intensifying air raids and military ground operations against Gaza. In the last few days 37 people were killed and 120 were injured. Most of them are civilians. It is a desperate attempt to stop the rockets from Gaza against the Israeli villages where the Israeli citizens are complaining of panic attacks. This response with such overreacted operations against Gaza is unjustified. The cutting off of power and fuel is frank collective punishment.

I AM WRITING TO TELL YOU PLEASE DO SOMETHING FOR US IN GAZA
1.5 million of Gaza are dying slowly. They need your help and support. Tell the world that Israel's search for peace and security will not be achieved by this collective punishment against us.

Happy Eid Adha from Gaza with love

2007-12-20T15:13:00.000+02:00

Dear All
while iam writing this entry , volunteers distribute meat for approximately 1500 families in diffrent parts of Gaza Strip , jabalia , Gaza City , beit hanoun ,Magazi camp , shatie , nusierat ,khan yunis ,in some areas, volunteers are distributing the Eid meat while under real danger , because of the israeli military operation against Gaza in (almagazi camp )
we managed to reach the most needy families ,and at the moment more than 75%of gaza families in Gaza live under poverty line ,
thanks to all who were keen to work this project with us in Gaza ,thanks to Sima , Khairia , tayseer , sherief and his son , naela and abumhammed and many of you who took part in this campaign , i thank all the volunteers youth and old who played great rule to make the work go smooth , accurate and fast .
ur concern and committment to support us in palestine ,play great rule inallivating poverty and strengthen our steadfastness against occupation
form my heart i thank you all and pass great feelings of love and grattitude from each family who recived ur kind gift
KOL AMM WAANTOM BEIKHIR
MONA

ps we also distributed money vouchers for 552 families before Eid

Merry Christmas and Happy New year -Happy Eid Adha

2007-12-20T00:10:00.000+02:00

20th of December 2007–Gaza
It is Eid ALADHA Eve; Xmas is so close , Happy Eid , Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

, I decided to go for hair cut , and as I passed by the Omar Elmokhtar street in Remal area of Gaza city , this street is usually very crowded on the eid eve , but today it it was not , some window shoppers are hanging around , and I could see many children aged nearly , five to 10 , trying to sell some chewing gum.
There are not enough goods in the shops, and not enough cash for people to purchase
It was so heartbreaking , to see one man who is trying to sell, , tens of boxes of lovely fresh strawberries, well packed with very low prices , it was obvious that it was for exportation , and without any questions, I realised that the borders have been closed , after it was opened for short period to let the strawberry product out of Gaza , it is not difficult for u to imagine the size of financial loss for farmers , when the product is ready then could not be exported
It bcse of the borders closure.

The siege against Gaza has completed its six months 1.5 million of population are not allowed to travel outside Gaza ,many essential medications are not on the local pharmacies shelves as well as the hospital drug stores , tens of necessary goods are lacking only 15 kinds of goods are allowed to enter Gaza regularly , severe shortage of detergents, no cars spare parts , irregular electrical power ,most of local small industries has closed down due to lack of raw materials hundreds of local employees were made redundant , 39 patients have died before getting permit to leave Gaza for treatment in Israel , at least 2000 patients with different urgent health needs, including children with heart diseases and cancer patients , are waiting to be referred for further treatment outside the Gaza strip
In Gaza today our stories are the stories of loss of hope lack of just realistic political solution , poverty , despair ,unsafe streets irregular power , lack of clean water ,all sorts of frustrations .increasing %of children who suffer of posttraumatic disorders , desperate women and men increasing of domestic violence ,hungry kids in the streets , increasing number of children labours ,increasing number of school leavers ,lack of proper environment for children upbringing etc……..
in the middle of all that Israeli military operations are continous ongoing practise , 20 palestinians at least were killed last week , many were injured in military incursions and air rides in diffrent areas of the gaza Strip.

.
Xmas time is so close, from Gaza I send my love, and best wishes for merry xmas and happy new year, I ask you while celebrating and rejoicing ,not to forget us in Gaza,to remeber the thousands of men , women and children who takes the worst brunt of continous unjust war , to spread the word of truth, to shake the world consciousness against the big war crimes that is happening in Gaza, the harsh inhuman collective punishment against my people, the occupation crimes that is committed under the pretence of Israel security and fighting terrorism!!
When it is late, it is not acceptable for the world to say: WE DID NOT KNOW WHAT WA SHAPPENING IN GAZA

what was going inside thier tiny heads ?i wander

2007-11-12T17:19:00.000+02:00

Bilal and Nihad Nabaheen
Age 14 and 15years old
Date 10th of November
East of Beirige refugee camp -Gaza Strip

I don’t know exactly, what was going, inside the little heads, of the kids who were preparatory school children, of Al Buriege boys preparatory school
But the two tiny bodies were shot ,with many bullets, as I was told by my colleagues of the ER at the AlAqsa hospital.
Life of kids in Gaza is very intolerable, poverty, violence. Lack of security no entertainments, in simple one sentence, LACK OF NORMAL LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION AND INSIDE THE REFUGEE CAMP, populatiion of Gaza is 1.4 million 60%are children under 17 years old , two thirds are refugees .
On that day,when the dreams of two tiny kids has stoped forever ,
The two boys were very close to the fence that separate Gaza from Israel , they were very close, and for sure , they were very obvious to the soldiers, inside the Israeli supervising military tower , those soldiers are equipped with highly sophisticated binoculars and high tec ways ,that enables them to see 2 boys playing by the fence , in a green meadow , I don’t know aim not sure if they were playing, or trying to cross the border to the other world outside the big prison
.I don’t know what was going inside the tiny heads of 2 skinny dreaming .Palestinian boys by the borders,
Their sad adventure turned into tragic death, by soldiers who know for sure very well how to distinguish, between militia men and kids,
The soldiers as well as the boys are victims of occupation, the occupation that deprives the soldiers of their humanity, when under the false pretence of Israel security; daily crimes are committed in my country. And against my people.

w

on the 3rd anniversary of Aarafat death

2007-11-12T15:59:00.000+02:00

Gaza 12th of November
3rd anniversary of Mr. Arafat
what happened in Gaza today was very sad and shameful
the police opened fire against the crowd,thousands of women , men and children , who were gathering to commomerate ,the 3rd annivesary of Mr. Arfat death
at least 100 were injured 7 were killed , tens were arrested .
on my way home i saw many armed masked men

the firing is sporadic ,the roads next to my home were covered with scattered stones,
it was not easy for me to reach home , I was not allowed to use many roads , in the end I managed to reach home .
I will stop here as words cannot flow , I feel so sad

While the siege continues and the world watches with disbelief

2007-11-11T15:00:00.000+02:00

While the siege continues and the world watches with disbelief

From Gaza I write to let you know that , , at least 7 patients reported to die while waiting permit to leave Gaza ,for treatment inside Israeli hospital , many patients die slowly while waiting for referral for further treatment outside Gaza , we don’t have good reporting system to report the actual number of patients , who eventually will die due to lack of their treatment in Gaza ,if we have this proper reporting facilities ,the patients will die , good reporting will not end the cruel siege against Gaza .
The referral process of patient indeed for treatment is long, time consuming, demoralising and distressing for the patients and their families, many died while waiting for referral, I remember the death of my friend MrMansour. Thabet ,who was helped by Physicians for human rights Israel, to get the referral to one of the Israeli hospitals, mansour suffered of cancer , he waited long 59 days before he was allowed to enter Israel for treatment , on his second trial to enter Israel to continue his treatment , his health condition deteriorated, he has passed away, before getting the permit, to travel for treatment inside one of the Israeli hospitals , the list is too long , to count ,at the moment the health situation inside Gaza is disastrous .. Especially after Israel declared Gaza hostile territory, tens of essential medications are lacking, few weeks ago

On 21 of October 2007

Hospitals throughout Gaza Strip have shut down their operating
Rooms due to a lack of essential anaesthetic drugs, lives of thousands of patient’s inneed for emergency operations were threatened.

we live inside our home ,while unsafe ,under home arrest lack most of our basic needs ,
from Gaza with love
Mona

Palestinian International Campaign-End Gaza Seige

2007-11-07T07:03:00.000+02:00

Palestinian International Campaign -End Gaza Siege

For contact info : end.gaza.siege@gmail.com

On 25 October, a Palestinian patient died at Erez crossing while awaiting being allowed to cross to Israeli hospital. A week ago, a woman died in Gaza hospital with her newly born baby, while awaiting permit to be transferred to Israel for medical treatment.

These are not the first victims, and will certainly not be the last should the current situation continue to prevail.

Last week, the operations rooms in Gaza's main hospital were shut down due to the lack of medical gases, which was not allowed by the Israelis. Today Israel does not allow except 12 basic items to enter Gaza, out of over 9,000 commodities. From soap to coffee, from water to soft drinks, from fuel to gas, from computers to spare parts, from cement to raw materials for industry, all and hundred other items are not allowed into Gaza today.

The Israeli cabinet declared Gaza as hostile entity, and has declared its intentions to further intensify the collective punishment by cutting the electricity power and fuel products. Banks in Israel are also threatening to cut off all financial cooperation with Palestinian banks in Gaza.

Given all this, we have adopted the initiative of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme to launch the Palestinian-International campaign for breaking the siege on Gaza, which has been intensified lately by the strict siege imposed on the Gaza Strip since June 2007.

The aim of this humanitarian, non-partisan campaign is to put pressure on the Israeli government in order to lift the siege imposed on the population of Gaza. By raising the awareness of the international community on the deteriorating living conditions resulting from the siege, we aim at mobilizing the efforts of the various international community organizations and governments to stop the boycott of Gaza. We call for the implementation of the recent European Parliament resolution calling on the Israeli government to end the siege.

It is important to declare that "End the Siege" is a non- partisan campaign, initiated and managed by representatives of the civil society, business community, intellectuals, academics, women activists, and advocates for human rights and peace from the West Bank and Gaza. We are all guided by our commitment to peace and our respect to human dignity.

We believe that it is a moral and ethical duty to rescue the lives of human souls living under bitter circumstances that sabotage their right to exist. People in Gaza are deprived of the simplest requirements for a decent life. We are determined to move hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder with all people who believe in freedom, human dignity and peace.

We need the support of all people who believe in justice all over the world, to contribute to the success of this campaign. We also call upon all Palestinians, whether in Gaza, West Bank, inside the green-line, or anywhere else in the Diaspora to support our efforts and join our activities. It is a genuine call to rescue people not governments or political parties. It is time to put aside any partisan conflicts and unite people in the pursuit of freedom, justice, and peace. We particularly call upon Jews whose history of trauma, discrimination and suffering should guide them to stand up today against the suffering of others.

Planned activities of the campaign:

The campaign is planned to take place from November 2007 until the siege is broken.
We will hold a press conference to announce the launching of the campaign.

Media and information technology methods will be our main tools to lobby supporters and contributors from around the world.

The first major event of the campaign will be organizing an international symposium entitled "Breaking the Siege on Gaza: Together for a United Front for Peace" in Gaza.

The campaign will also include inviting friends from around the world for an on-going individual or group visits to Gaza. The visitors will have first hand information on the Palestinian life in order to disseminate such information in their own country. Visitors will be hosted in Palestinian homes in order to closely get acquainted with the Palestinian hardship realities and their living conditions. Media coverage of the activities in Gaza will be documented.

We will rely on our Israeli friends to host and help our friends from abroad who, if not allowed to enter Gaza, are expected to stage non-violent protests.

We will arrange for a peaceful march to Erez checkpoint from both the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the checkpoint. It will include peace activists from all over the world.

Throughout the campaign, solidarity meetings, cultural activities, and discussion will take place not only in Gaza, but in Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and different cities in the world.

The campaign will include a major event in May, which is the arrival of 120 human rights activists including Noble Prize winners to Gaza on a boat coming from Cyprus. This event will be titled "Free Gaza Movement Day" and is planned by the "Free Gaza" solidarity group in USA.

The campaign will have special posters as well as a website where all relevant materials will be published. The site will give opportunity for people to exchange information, ask questions, and have their comments.

Throughout the campaign, close contact with the media will be maintained with regular feeding of information and news update.

The Impacts of the Siege on Gaza:

The Gaza Strip has two main crossings that connect it to the whole world, i.e. Rafah in the south (To Egypt) and Erez in the north (to Israel) . There are three other crossings that are used to exchange goods and bring in food to the Gaza Strip; Today all are closed partially or completely.
Since the winning of Hamas in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in 2006, the Israeli government, with the support of the US administration, has imposed a siege on all the Palestinian occupied Territories, declared its boycott on the new Palestinian government, and refused to transfer customs revenues to the Palestinian government. After taking these measures, several donor countries including major donors like Europe have severely cut off their development assistance offered to the Palestinian people. The result of that form of collective punishment was a gradual deterioration of life in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

Following Hamas military take-over of Gaza strip in June 2007, the siege imposed by Israel was tightened to an unprecedented level. Citing the continuing home-made rockets from inside Gaza, the Israeli government has recently declared Gaza as a hostile entity and threatened to cut electrical power, fuel supply to Gaza and to substantially decrease the number of people allowed in and out; as well as, the amounts of goods and food supplies, and money needed for the daily life of people of Gaza.

The Israeli policy of unlawful collective punishment has always had its serious impact on the lives of the Palestinian civilians. Collective punishment is expressly forbidden under international humanitarian law. According to this principle, persons cannot be punished for offenses that they have not personally committed. In its authoritative commentary on Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the International Committee of the Red Cross has clarified that the prohibition on collective punishment does not just refer to criminal penalties, "but penalties of any kind inflicted on persons or entire groups of persons, in defiance of the most elementary principles of humanity, for acts that these persons have not committed."

The siege that was imposed on the Gaza Strip has created excessive loss and damage in the different aspects of Palestinian life. The Gaza Strip has turned into a huge prison with no access to the outside world.

The health sector has been dramatically affected by the siege. According to the latest Humanitarian Situation Report of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released on October 9th, 2007, fewer than five patients crossed into Israel/West Bank each day for medical treatment compared to an average of 40 patients per day in July . World Health Organization has indicated, though, that an average of 1000 patients used to leave Gaza for treatment each month prior to the mid-June closures.

As a result of the continuous closures, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has reported significant increases in the costs of some food items. The price of 1 KG of fresh meat has increased form NIS 32 to NIS 40 (20%) while the price of chicken rose from NIS 8 to NIS 12 (33%). According to OCHA's report of October, 9th, during the month of September, a total of 1,508 truckloads of goods crossed into Gaza. This compares to 2,468 truckloads in the month of August and 3,190 in July. There are no food stocks anymore and that contributes to the rising of prices.

The educational system in Gaza has also been affected by the siege. With the start of the new school year, there has been a serious lack of books and a shortage of the raw materials needed for printing. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), one third of the students started the school year without the needed text books. The closures also deprived thousands of students from reaching their universities outside the Gaza Strip. Thousands of students are not allowed to join their universities in the West Bank or abroad due to the siege.

On the industrial level, preventing the import of raw materials essential for Gaza businesses and industry, and the export of final goods, resulted in the shut down of many manufacturing businesses. According to Paltrade's assessment on 12 September 2007, over 75,000 private sector employees (around 60% of the total private sector workforce) have been laid off in the latest three months, bearing in mind that private sector employees represent around 36% of the total work force in Gaza. According to the Palestinian Private Sector Coordination Council (PSCC), the current restrictions have led to the suspension of 90% of Gaza's industrial operations.

The agricultural sector is also at risk. According to OCHA's report, the export season for Gaza's cash crops (strawberries, carnation flowers and cherry tomatoes) is expected to begin in mid-November. This year, 2,500 dunums of strawberries have been planted with an expected production of approximately 6,250 tons of strawberries including 2,500 destined for European markets. 490 tons of cherry tomatoes are also expected to be produced. If exports are not allowed by this time, farmers will be exposed to tremendous losses in terms of production cost and potential sales.

According to the World Bank, 67% of the Gaza population live under poverty line which is estimated by World bank to be $2.per day. Since human beings are the products of the environment in which they live, the Palestinian environment today is a combination of deprivation, poverty, anger, feelings of powerlessness and despair. Such feelings will inevitably lead to simmering anger which will eventually brew into more violence and defiance.

Palestinians have gone through repeated traumas of death and destruction of home and life over the past few decades. The current siege provokes the previous traumas making people re-experience the negative feelings that they have previously encountered and passed through.
It is only to be expected that in such an environment extremist ideologies will flourish. This will impact on the Palestinian society internally as well as the political environment in the whole region, destroying the possibilities of peace and security.

Putting all in a nutshell, with this immoral siege, Gaza is meant to be the city of death where everything is destroyed. It is our duty to rescue life.

Who Are We
Dr. Eyad Sarraj, President, Board of Directors of the American International School in Gaza
Mr. Abdel Karim Ashour, Director, Agricultural Development Association
Mr. Hashem Shawwa, President, Administrative Council, Bank of Palestine
Mr. Ma'moun Abu Shahla, Vice-President, Administrative Council, Bank of Palestine
Mr. Issam Younis, Director, Al Mizan Center for Human Rights
Mr. Constantine Dabbagh, Executive Secretary, Near East Council of Churches
Mr. Mohsen Abu Ramadan, Director, Arab Center for Agricultural Development
Dr. Jawad Wadi, President, Al Azhar University
Dr. Kamalein Shaath, President, Islamic University
Mr. Raji Sourani, Director, Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Mr. Khaled Abdelshafi, Director, UNDP
Mr. Jawdat Khoudari, Businessman, Businessmen Association
Dr. Riyad Za'noun, Former President of Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
Dr. Ali Abu Zuhri, President, Al Aqsa University
Ms. Rania Kharma
Mr. Nader Shurafa, Administrative Director, Ramattan Media Agency
Mr. Omar Shaban, President, PalThink for Strategic Studies
Dr. Fawaz Abu Sitta, Lecturer, Al Azhar University
Mr. Tala Okal, Writer and Political Analyst
Me. Mustafa Mas'oud, External Affairs Officer, Businessmen Association
Ms. Nebras Bseiso, Director, Palestinian Banking Association in Gaza Strip
Ms. Hanan Taha, Director, PalTrade
Mr. Ibrahim Khashan
Ms. Mona El Farra
Dr. Mamdouh Aker, Commissioner General, Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights - PICCR
Mr. Hasib Nashashibi, Ensan Center, Jerusalem
Dr. Laila Atshan, Psychosocial Consultant

one of my days in Gaza

2007-11-01T21:35:00.000+02:00

One of my days in Gaza
Thursday 1st of November 2007-11-01
I woke up 5.30am. looked at the extending beautiful Mediterranean from my window , what a lovely day !,I felt the nice autumn Mediterranean breeze , all of a sudden I saw the Israeli gunboat patrolling the sea , may be 1 km away from my apartment , I heard sound of shelling coming from the north part of the town ,heard the local radio announcing the killing of one child a woman and many injured ,I am not to provide you with statistics, but in October alone ,65 Palestinians were killed and tens more injure din Gaza strip
Everyday there are different sorts of military operations and assaults , in different parts of the Gaza Strip, last week and not far from my home, the drone launched a rocket against one of its targets while driving his car, the man was killed in a savage way .
While watching the gunboat patrolling the sea , it was strong message for me ,:wake up YOU LIVE IN Gaza ,where there is no place for any romantic feelings, no place for saying simple thing, like , what a nice day, no place for planning any thing ahead of you , no place for you to enjoy what has been left of the nature , birds stopped singing , the war sound is louder than what left of nature , how can u feel normal when u are surrounded with poverty , unemployment ,crowd , ruins of buildings , destroyed land lack of entertainment ,lack of freedom of movement ,daily violence, lack of safety and the most heartbreaking is living with no vision or hope for future change in the political situation ,
In Gaza we all feel strangulated ,and at the moment there is mass feeling of despair . .
I drank my coffee , and hurried up to my meeting at the Red Crescent Society For Gaza Strip, with the director of the jabalia women centre , we run this centre in Jabalia refugee camp since 2000, it offers holistic care services for women , health , psychological support , health education , legal aid consultations and , keep fit classes ,
in Gaza, when poverty is the rule , unemployment is high , and violence and war atmosphere is the normal ,it is not surprising to find increasing level of domestic violence as an outcome of all the mentioned contributing factors ,35%of Palestinian women in Gaza suffer from Post traumatic stress syndrome , 45% of Gaza children too , at war times it is children and women who takes the brunt of it and pay big price of it ..
On my way to jabalia refugee camp, as I was invited by the AlASRIA youth forum Shababeek or windows, it is a cultural platform or forum, it was founded as youth initiative in Jabalia, the tilte of my lecture is the role of the ISM, inside Palestine,
I have little car accident, my foot was twisted, I changed my direction to AlAwda hospital ER room, the lecture was cancelled, iam fine it was just simple accident

When I write from Gaza , it is not only because I insist to tell you the truth , to spread the word , I also write because I feel it is my way of ventilation, I ventilate by writing to you , it is more like psychological healing and support, everyday I try like others to survive and not to get crushed under the occupation big army foot ,one of my different ways is writing .

I love you all
Mona ElFarra

Gaza Update

2007-10-31T20:38:00.000+02:00

hello friends
thanks alot for encourging me to write again , iam realy sorry ,that i let u down by not writing regularly , i have not written since 10th of september 2007thanks for your encourging comments
during Ramadan month (fasting month of moslems of Palestine )i was very busy coordinating relief fund , i managed as head of local committee ,to distribute money vouchers for 1000 families ,in diffrent prts of Gaza strip , i have wonderful collegues who help me to reach those families ,a sa team i think we have succeeded , to reach the most poor and needy , in less than a week all the work was done , but the people needs are larger than our capacity , so our work coplement other orgs and groups who works in this field .
it is realy sad to tell you that poverty level has increased in Gaza to unprecented levels ,with the embargo and economical seige , food staples prices has increased , this is the talk of people at the moment ,beside that Israel announced its implementation of the more strict seige and cutt off basic supplies and fuel , medications and medical supplies are big problem, many essential medications are lacking in the pharmacies , detergents too , patients who need to be refered for treatment abroad are denied permit to leave the country ,
according to international law we are occupied by Israel , and this put responsibility on Israel to Guarantee the supplies for the civilians of Gaza , but what Israel is doing is COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT which again is big crime according to international law .THE WORLD IS SILENT I KNOW WE ALL FEEL THAT IN GAZA, we try to survive to help eachothe rto continue living and not to collapse the burden is big the responsibility of us , who work in huminatarian field is large , we should not give up ,we canot afford to give up .
a national committee to break the siege has been formulated in Gaza , iam member of that comittee , it includes many civil society organisations and some aactive public figures, we r working hard to let the world hear our vioces , with the help of great ntworking of groups and organisations world wide , people who believe in our rights and who work in serious way to tell the whole world ,that what is happening in Palestine at the moment , has gone too far in human rights violation
IT IS PROFOUND WAR CRIMES

i told u about the seige and the ebargo and economical sanctions ,but i need to remind u all that Israeli military operations are continous

i love u all
and again thanks for encourging me to write , it makes me feel that iam human , it makes me feel iam alive and in real contact with the real world

fromgaza with love
Mona ElFarra

Gaza Today

2007-09-10T23:48:00.001+03:00

Gaza today

Since my return from the USA and my mother’s death I have not felt a
strong desire to write.

At the moment I am passing deeply through my grief. Every morning I think
that the telephone will ring and it will be her regular morning call. I
feel that an important pillar of my humanitarian structure has collapsed.
I know I need some time to restore my balance to be able to cope with her
absence; she was always my great inspiration and support with her endless
tender loving care.

It was too hard for me not to be able to say goodbye. It was hard to know
that I was not allowed to reach her because of some tiny lousy scrap of
paper, another fragment in the saga of closed borders, occupation and the
long history of Palestinian suffering - one generation after another since
the foundation of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948,
and later on in 1967 the occupation of what was left of historic Palestine
- Gaza and the West Bank.

I decided today to resume my walks inside Gaza by the seaside, my favorite
sport. I woke up very early and started my 45 minute walk at 6 a.m.

I could hear the sounds of artillery shelling coming from the east side of
Gaza City. The Israeli military operation inside the Gaza Strip continued,
10 were killed yesterday (Thurs 6 Sep) 17 were injured in AlMagazi refugee
camp as well as Alqarara village, sanctions and borders closure have
continued, along with restrictions of movement.

Only a few hundred students were allowed to leave Gaza, the majority were
turned back at the Egyptian borders. I was denied a permit to leave Gaza
for the Women’s World Forum in Seoul (12-15 September)

Every day patients are prevented from leaving Gaza for further treatment
abroad. Some cross the borders but the majority do not. Dozens of
essential medications are missing from hospital shelves, poverty is
severely prevalent, 85% of the population depend on international aid
agencies’ food distribution. Essential foods for a balanced diet, like
meat, vegetables, fruit, milk are missing from the domestic basket -
either because people cannot afford to buy them, or because they are not
even in the market.

Most of the time we do not have regular power supply or sufficient water.
The occupation decides what we should eat and what we should not, what we
should wear and what we should not, they interfere in the very tiny
details of our daily life, by imposing so many rules and regulation (under
the security pretense), they decide your children’s eye colors in case you
enjoy peace of mind with healthy intimate personal relationships. The
Palestinian situation in Gaza is economical and political strangulation.

We have become a small piece of news, not enough to disturb the world’s
sleeping conscience.

While walking back home I noticed the excessive presence of Hamas security
soldiers. It is Friday, and Fatah called people for a Jomae prayers
protest in the streets of Gaza. Later on thousands were in the streets,
but they were dispersed by Hamas, some were injured and some of the
leaders were under arrest. There is intense friction between the 2 parties
which adds more and more levels of suffering for ordinary Palestinian
people. We don’t know the way out of this situation where Hamas controls
Gaza and Fatah controls the West Bank. And now people’s daily talk is of
salaries, closure and sanctions, whereas the main Palestinian issues --
self-determination, end of the occupation, right of return – are off the
agenda. No-one shows concern or even speaks of them at the moment. The
occupation has achieved its long-term goal, hungry fighting people can’t
think straight.

This is the strategy of the occupation supported by the Western powers. As
a national liberation movement, we fell into the trap of authority so
foolishly; it is time for both parties to get on the right track towards
our liberation and independence. While returning home after my 45 minute
walk, I could not help but feel very bad about the heaps of garbage strewn
along my way and the deterioration of green areas after the continuous
razing of land and uprooting of trees throughout the 7 years of this
intifada.

I remembered my young daughter saying to me as we crossed the borders to
Gaza “it is a sharp demarcation between 2 worlds - Israel and Gaza – a
very sharp demarcation between the world of the occupied and the
occupier.” I nodded my head and made no comment, but said to myself that
one day things will change. We should all work hard until that dream comes
true, when the land of Palestine is shared between both the Israelis and
the Palestinians in one Democratic state for all its citizens living and
enjoying equal rights and when the Palestinian refugees can experience
their right of return according to UN Resolution 194 and enjoy the justice
they have not had for decades.

For myself, I continue working for the children and women of Palestine,
via different community projects, bearing in mind how to make the balance
between relief and development projects, remembering the difficulty of
development under occupation and a collapsed economy, but also not
forgetting that patients, women and children are usually the soft targets
in such circumstances - they need all our efforts to keep them safe and
sound whenever possible.

--

with love and solidarity

Mona ElFarra

Gaza sinks into darkness

2007-08-18T11:49:00.000+03:00

Gaza today
iam extremely worried about the power cut off . more than 50%of Gaza elecrtricity is paralysed.at AlAwda hospital , we have enough of fuel to run our alternative electrical generators for one week . all hospital are threatened to stop of its surgical operations and diffrent medical services .if the situation will continue .
many essential medications are lacking on the hospital shelves,
i expect the poverty level to increase to unprecented level.
Ordinary Palestinian people pay the price of the occupation , thier democratic choice and bwilderement of thier leaders.
i promise u that i shall work hard with my team to help people . with your support and solidarity we can do alot

Mona elfarra

Outrage over Gaza power cut
GAZA CITY: A Palestinian company cut off power to parts of the central Gaza Strip yesterday after Israel closed a crossing through which fuel is brought into the Palestinian area.

Several neighbourhoods of Gaza City were blanketed in darkness a few hours after the Gaza Generating Company, which supplies the strip with about 25 per cent of its electricity, said it would turn off three of its four generators.

The remainder of Gaza's electricity needs is supplied by Israel, Egypt and private electricity generators.

"For two days we have not received fuel," said chairman of the Gaza Generating Company Rafik Malikha.

"The Israeli side is preventing vehicles from approaching the crossing."

He warned that if fuel was not delivered into the impoverished territory before tomorrow morning, "electricity production will stop entirely."

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that deliveries of fuel had been stopped "for security reasons."

"More than 1.4 million litres of fuel crossed from Israel into the Gaza Strip through Nahal Oz" between Sunday and Wednesday, the spokesman said.

Malikha urged "the European Union and the Palestinian Authority to intervene as this will have negative consequences for Gaza, especially for hospitals."

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lectures in children centers

2007-08-17T09:20:00.000+03:00

just would like to let you know , that i visited all our children projectsin Gaza
Alasria center -jabalia
raechel Chorie -Rafah
Afaq Jadida-Nussierat camp
Never stop dreaming -Khanyunis

i met tens of children , , different ages ,6-15 years old , i saw them reading , writing ,painting , dancing playing...etc....
i gathered them all in the diffrent centers i visited, and the staff too, and i simply talked about my visit to the USA , my reflections, my future hopes , i talked to them about the wonderfull people i met in the state , and how much thier solidarity means to us here in the occupied isolated Gaza .
i transfred a messege of peace love and solidarity from you all
the children were so excited and showered me with questions , the meetings went all well
i think it was so important educational meeting too to our Palestinian children , who feel lonely isolated and forgotten
i said no you are not alone, and one day people will make the change in thier goverment policies
when we all work together justice will prevail, peace based on justice is our Goal.

Gaza economical crisis-UN report

2007-08-17T09:17:00.000+03:00

UN says Gaza Strip facing economic collapse

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Archive Oct. 2001 - 2007 editions 2007 Editions Aug. 18, 2007
Author: Dan Margolis

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 08/16/07 13:34

UNITED NATIONS — The Gaza Strip is in danger of a general economic collapse, said a high level UN official, unless Karni crossing, the main point of entry for commercial goods into the territory, is reopened soon.

The warning was issued by Filippo Grandi, deputy commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Aug. 9. Grandi had just completed a tour of the territory.

“Gaza risks becoming a virtually 100 percent aid-dependent, closed-down and isolated community within a matter of months or even weeks,” Grandi said. “The window of opportunity in which we can address this most urgent situation is small and fast closing.”

Israel closed the crossing to all commercial goods June 12, after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. The Jerusalem Post reported as far back as July 16 that, as a result, 80 percent of all businesses in Gaza were temporarily shuttered. Of the establishments that remained open, they were operating at only 60 percent capacity.

The Israeli clampdown is choking Gaza. Grandi noted that in the territory the UNRWA had been forced to halt all construction projects, which amount to $93 million, because the agency was unable to import the necessary materials.

“We urgently need to get these into Gaza if we are to avoid a significant worsening of the living conditions of those who have waited months, and even years to have their own homes,” he said.

All classes of the population, from farmers to businessmen, are at risk, said Grandi. An average of half a million dollars per day, $23 million since June, has been lost in Gaza industry, according to a report given him by the Palestinian Association of Businessmen.

“If this continues,” Grandi said, “the PAB predicts that at least 120,000 workers in Gaza will lose their jobs. In the construction sector alone, about $160 million worth of projects have been halted.”

Grandi added that farmers are in a crisis. They have no way of knowing whether or not they should spend money preparing fields and paying workers, because they cannot know whether their goods will be able to be exported. They also have no way of knowing whether they will even be able to obtain such simple necessities as fertilizer.

“If the agricultural sector is allowed to fail,” said Grandi, “Gaza will pay a huge price. More than 13 percent of the workforce is engaged in agriculture.”

The United Nations has been demanding that Karni crossing be opened. On July 13, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded that the Karni crossing be reopened for commercial goods. Already at that time, his spokesperson said, “3,190 businesses have closed down, forcing over 65,000 people into unemployment.”

Grandi reiterated the call to open the crossing.

“Only this,” he said, “will allow the little that remains of Gaza’s economy to survive.”

dmargolis @pww.org

palestinian doctor paints picture of Gazaunder seige

2007-08-06T21:22:00.000+03:00

Palestinian doctor paints picture of Gaza under siege

By Mark Almberg

CHICAGO — Sometimes it’s the little things that reveal the horror of
oppression most vividly.

Dr. Mona El-Farra, speaking here recently as part of a 17-city U.S.
tour, related how recently a Palestinian woman in the Occupied
Territories had gone into labor and was heading to a hospital.

“She was about to give birth, but she was detained at an Israeli
checkpoint for three hours,” El-Farra said. “Amazingly, she eventually
got through and was able to deliver her child.”

“But it was only after she left the hospital and returned home with her
baby that she saw that her house had been demolished by Israeli
bulldozers while she was away.”

El-Farra, a Palestinian physician in the northern Gaza Strip, noted that
over the past three years, 59 Palestinian women have given birth while
waiting to cross an Israeli military checkpoint.

“It’s not just the numbers,” she said. “It’s a matter of human rights.
Just one case would be bad enough.”

El-Farra certainly knows her numbers, however. As vice president of the
Gaza Red Crescent Society, the equivalent of the U.S. Red Cross, she has
a firm command the grim statistics that define Gaza today: 140 square
miles, 1.4 million people — one of most densely populated areas on earth.

Sixty-one percent of the population is age 19 or younger. Nearly 1
million are officially registered as refugees. About 75 percent are
unemployed and nearly half suffer from hunger.

The situation facing Palestinians in Gaza only grew worse with the
so-called Israeli disengagement from the territory.

“It wasn’t a withdrawal,” El-Farra said. “It was a redeployment. Israel
pulled its troops out of Gaza but it still controls it. Gaza is still
under occupation. It is like a big, open-air prison” — a prison that has
only become more unbearable with the U.S.-Israeli blockade of Gaza after
the election victory of Hamas.

Although she was trained as a dermatologist, El-Farra’s medical work
today is wide-ranging. In addition to her leadership in the Red Crescent
Society, she directs the Rachel Corrie Children’s Center in Gaza and
works out of several clinics, ministering to Palestinians with both
physical and psychological injuries.

It was at one of the hospitals that she works at, Al-Awda Hospital,
where she helped receive Huda Ghaliya, 7, the only surviving member of a
family of eight who were victims of an Israeli bombardment of a Gaza
beach in June 2006. The shelling incident provoked worldwide outrage,
but it was not an isolated case.

“Our emergency rooms are overflowing because of the continuous
assaults,” she said. It’s not an easy task for us to offer emergency
treatment or major operations. We are constantly working under fire.”

Aside from direct injuries sustained by Palestinians in Gaza, El-Farra
pointed to the enormous human suffering caused by the destruction of the
area’s infrastructure. “Bridges, buildings and other structures have
been destroyed by the Israelis in a form of collective punishment,” she
said.

“Take, for example, the Israeli bombing of the largest electrical power
plant in Gaza last summer. Without electricity, there is no
refrigeration. Food and medicines spoiled in countless households,
including my own. With no electricity, there are no water pumps
operating — so there is an acute water shortage.”

The U.S. government bears a heavy responsibility for the situation, she
said.

“We are being attacked by American weapons. The Israelis couldn’t attack
us in this way without U.S. aid, money and arms,” she said. “At the same
time, we clearly understand that there is a difference between the U.S.
government and the U.S. people.”

The health and psychological well-being of children have been a major
focus of El-Farra’s work.

“Children in Gaza today have no safe homes, no safe streets, no safe
atmosphere and no safe schools,” she said. “My youngest son is 15 years
old, and for the last three years, on each morning he leaves for school,
I wonder if I will ever see him again — if either he or I will be killed.”

The Rachel Corrie Children’s Center, named after the 23-year-old U.S.
activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer while she was trying to
protect a Palestinian home from demolition in 2003, provides
psychological counseling and therapy to traumatized children.

El-Farra said the center serves as a safe haven for some of Gaza’s most
troubled children. “We encourage the children to do painting, drama,
story writing and other artistic activities,” she said. “We promote
education through play, and give them a place of their own. You can’t
imagine how much they appreciate this. It’s like heaven to them.”

Noting the help of international volunteers, including from Australia
and Sweden, in her work, El-Farra said global solidarity with the
Palestinians “is an important part of our ability to keep on living.”

“Solidarity gives us strength; it empowers us and it inspires us to work
harder.” She said the Palestinian cause “is not a charity case, but a
movement to claim our inalienable rights to peace and security and the
right of return. Support to us from abroad means a lot.”

She expressed dismay over the recent events in Gaza. “Hamas won the
election; they were clearly the Palestinian people’s choice. The
Israelis and the West immediately imposed an embargo and sanctions, and
taxes collected by Israel that were owed to the Palestinians were
withheld. The situation in Gaza changed from worse to worse, and one
could only expect there to be clashes.”

“Certain factions were supported by the American administration,” she
said, alluding to some of the leaders of Fatah. “But I blame both sides
for the strife, even as I understand the underlying reason for it is
U.S. interference in our internal affairs.”

Upon completion of her 45-day tour of U.S. cities, El-Farra traveled to
Egypt with the aim of returning to Gaza by way of the Rafah crossing.
But like approximately 6,000 other Palestinians, she was trapped on the
Egyptian side because of the crossing’s closure, now nearly two months old.

While waiting, she learned that her mother was deathly ill in Gaza, but
she was unable to come to her bedside. “I cannot cross the borders, I
cannot cross the Rafah crossing,” she wrote on her blog, “From Gaza,
with Love.”

“In her last hours I cannot be there; my hands are tied,” she wrote. “My
throat is dry, my eyes are full of tears. This is unjust, inhuman. This
is the occupation. … Goodbye, mum. I hope you rest in peace, a peace we
do not enjoy in Gaza.”

Her mother died on July 23.

malmberg@pww.org

//Dr. Mona El-Farra’s June 23 appearance in Chicago was co-sponsored by
Arab American Action Network and Not in My Name, a predominantly Jewish
peace group. Her tour was facilitated by the American Friends Service
Committee. For more information about El-Farra’s work with children,
visit the Middle East Children’s Alliance, www.mecaforpeace.org.//

my lecture in Berekly covered by JenniferTaylor

2007-08-06T12:06:00.000+03:00

As I entered the building, the faded sounds of an Arabic accent defending his race for an unsympathetic American media and audience brushed my ear. "Not all Muslim's are terrorists," the voice firmly stated. My sense of fairness chided listening to this man defend himself. Of course, after the reporter got what he wanted, he did not bother to listen to or report on the keynote speaker Palestinian physician and human rights activist, Dr. Mona El Farra, or her message of peace, solidarity, and social justice.

Fortunately for me, I did.

Dignified and powerful, Dr. Mona entered the room. The musty smelling church was filled with faces, wanting to hear her message – just like me. Except for the shades of darkness added to their eyes, skin, and hair, it was difficult to find differentiating characteristics from the Westerners in the room. None of this mattered, because we were unified in our desire to hear her warm message of love and solidarity, and to relate back to the Palestinian people they were neither alone nor forgotten.

Touring the world with her message, Dr. Mona's journey will move through European countries, ending in Egypt, where she will wait to return to her 365 square kilometer prison. How long she must wait is uncertain. In the previous year the boarder from Gaza into Egypt has been open a mere 65 times.

Gaza, a land stripped of faith, hopeless that the US will persuade Israel to honor its commitments in the "peace process," lurks below a cloud of darkness. A place where Dr. Mona claims, "The occupation deprives all who are exposed. The Occupied lose their dignity, and the Occupier loses their humanity." Since the redeployment of Israeli forces in 2005 close to 5,000 homes in Gaza have been destroyed by Israeli bulldozers, unemployment has reached record highs, and over 70% of the entire population lives under the international poverty line.

Children are growing up with what Dr. Mona calls, "disfigured psychology," with over 45% exhibiting signs of severe PTSD and no resources to help cope, the strain of daily life, is taking its toll. With limited access to food, 42% of Palestinian children are now malnourished. And as travel to school is barred daily by roadblocks and curfews, the level of education has slipped and illiteracy rates have risen.

"The burden is heavy." She says of living in an occupied land. She expressed deep concern for the people who have lost all hope. Common to the Arab culture, security, sustenance, and guidance, is the responsibility of the father and husband. When he looses hope, is arrested or worse yet, killed, the impacts on the family are haunting. As in most war and violence it is the woman and children who suffer most. Last year alone 59 pregnant women gave birth waiting at blockades on their way to the hospital. Out of the 59 births, 31 of those babies perished. As Dr. Mona points out, "The numbers of women who have lost babies does not matter, for even one woman to lose her baby in this manner is a crime against humanity."

Her concerns do not end here, as a physician; she struggles to perform her basic daily tasks. She is faced with power interruptions during surgery, inadequate medical supplies, and the spoilage of medications needing refrigeration. As vaccinations run out and Palestinians have less access to health care, she is deeply troubled by the potential reemergence of previously eradicated infectious diseases.

Yet, in spite of these hardships, Dr. Mona will vigilantly attempt to cross the border from Egypt into Gaza. And I wondered why…

Dr. Mona lives with the threat of death everyday, yet remains diplomatic. She is witness to the destruction of her friends, family, and community, yet continues to speak of hope through nonviolent action.

As she speaks, a photo appears of a Palestinian man with his arm wrapped round his wife atop a heap of rubble that used to be their home. He tells Dr. Mona as she takes the photo, "This is all I have now; I have my wife and she is enough."

While I listen and stare at the photo behind her, I begin to comprehend her desire to return. There on the man's face and in her voice is humanity. There is no nationalism, no religious claim to land, just a simple desire for peace. She advocates a one-state solution and the right of return, where the laws of the land protect justice, equality, and the rights of all residents.

The humanity in her voice – no military force will ever be able to extinguish.

2007-08-06T11:52:00.000+03:00

From Gaza with Love and Words Sharper Than a Two-Edged Sword

by eileen fleming

http://www.opednews.com

One of the most modest yet accomplished women I have ever met is Dr. Mona El Farra. Among the many accomplishments of this selfless dermatologist who lives in Gaza is her position as the Director of Gaza Projects with Middle East Children's Alliance [www.mecaforpeace.org], Board Director of Red Crescent [Cross] Society of Gaza, and Health Development Consultant of Union Health Workers Committee of Gaza and the blogger of "From Gaza With Love" http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/.

This reporter spoke with her over dinner the night before she addressed over 5,000 activists at the historic D.C. March to End the Occupation of Palestine March on June 10, 2007.

Dr. El Farra informed me, "The children's psychology is damaged by the aggression of Israeli forces and the U.S. MECA[Middle East Children's Alliance] is dedicated to rebuild and repair it. Despite the fact that children and women and the whole population of my country has been damaged, we know that the world is not any government...The issue is the problem of the refugees and their right to return to their homeland. Israel has made the facts on the ground impossible for a two-state solution. This land should be about equal human rights for all people. Israel must take the moral responsibility for what they did in 1948!

"If we have a two state solution as things are, we are left with one strong state and one very weak one. Americans should know that their tax dollars go to support human rights abuses and occupation. This deprives both sides of dignity and humanity. Israel talks about security and safety, but their exaggerated actions damage children and civilians.

"I was 15 years old during the first year of occupation. Young kids in Khan Younis got together to say NO to occupation. We threw stones at the Israeli tanks and the IDF hit me and many others with sticks [billy clubs]. I was on the ground and the soldier beat me, but I returned to demonstrate again and again. My father wanted me to stop, but I did not. I also wrote pamphlets-a very dangerous activity!

"I went to medical school for dermatology and returned home and found myself naturally in the refugee camps. I have always been a community worker for preventive medicine and nonviolent...I strongly believe it is impossible for Palestine to have a viable state when humanitarian and inalienable rights are denied and what happened in 1948 is ignored."

On June 7, 2007, Dr. El Farrar addressed the United Nations, "First, let me say that 2007 is the 40th anniversary of 59 years of the brutal occupation of the Palestinian people.

"As we called for an end to apartheid in South Africa and the right of all people to live together and have equal rights, we must now, before it is too late, call for true justice for the Palestinians.

"Today, we heard about the economic plight of the Palestinian people. We heard about Palestinians in Israeli prisons which number close to 8,000 men and women, including approximately 350 children under the age of 14, most of whom have been tortured.

"How many UN resolutions must be passed by the UN? How many years of calling for 2 States before there is an understanding that Israel continues its aggression on the ground against women, children and men, the demolition of thousands of homes and the continued building of the apartheid wall?

"Let us not just speak of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza. We must never forget those who live as second-class citizens inside Israel and most of all, those who were forced from their homes and lands in 1948.

"Now is the time to call for a real peace, with justice for all the children in the region. This can only be accomplished by supporting the right of return of all Palestinians.

"Now is the time to acknowledge that the two-State solution is not the answer.

"From Gaza I came, where the children of my country have no safe homes, no safe streets, no proper and adequate health facilities, no proper food, clean water, or regular electrical power, no recreational activities and no good education. The list of deprivation of their basic needs is too long to count.

"I lived this occupation as a child, and am still living it as an adult. I can see it in the eyes of my daughter when she is afraid, tired, restless and exhausted because of the unsafe and unpredictable quality of life in Gaza under occupation. I saw it as soon as we crossed the borders on our way to Egypt, where she sensed something new and different: freedom, safety and space. Gaza is like a big, unsafe prison. And it is a very small place for 1.4 million people, half of whom are children.

"I face the occupation every day during my work when hundreds of Palestinian patients are denied permits and accessibility to proper medical treatment, outside Gaza. There are a few lucky patients who get a referral and permit for treatment outside Gaza. The majority, however, have to wait and wait. Many die while waiting.

http://www.wearewideawake.org

Eileen is the Reporter and Editor of

thank you for your kind support

2007-08-06T11:25:00.000+03:00

Dear All
my friends everywhere many of you i have not met in person , your comforting encourging emails and comments in my blog , helped me great deal while grieving my late dear mother . the most difficult part of this grieve was that i couldnot see her while she was calling for me .it was only little piece of paper called permitt , a permitt to allow me to enter my country , and in such extraordinary huminatarian situation .i told you before it is occupation, it is racist occupation it is injustice as well , it is my cause and your cause to unifiy our efforts and fight with all our mighty against injustice to fight .all other sorts of injustices small or large.we are not weak , together we are not weak, we are stronger than thier weapons and mad wars , expolitation wealth and occupation , justice is on our side and it is a lot .
when i was in my 1st speaking tour in the USA i met wonderfull people , many of them work hard to achieve peace . peace that is based on justice , i felt strong i was empowered and inspired , being at home now i have a messege of solidarity to transfer to my people , to tell them that the world is not silent , and our solidarity , unity and networking is great power .it is not only the messege that i have, i have also a practical support too that will help to make the chanhge in the lives of many poor families in Gaza, occupation and political instabilty made them poor and poorer ,
the ppaletinian cause is not a case for charity , we are apeople with inlainable rights , no peace without justice and justice means RIGHT OF RETURN

My mother is in her last moments and I cannot cross the borders

2007-07-15T20:37:00.000+03:00

My mother is in the hospital at the moment. She is severely ill. She was admitted to hospital 3 days ago. I cannot reach her.

I finished my 45 day speaking tour in the USA. All across the USA and in every lecture I told the audience about our suffering, living in this big prison called Gaza. I told them about the borders closure and about the patients who passed away while waiting to cross the borders.

The borders have been closed for more than 5 weeks, 28 patients died while waiting to cross the Rafah crossing, the only crossing between Gaza and Egypt. All other exits are completely sealed by the Israeli army. The border was opened 70 times in one year.

Now it is my personal story, like the daily stories of 1.4 million people in GAZA under siege and occupation, poverty, lack of resources, killing, shooting, violence etc....

I cannot cross the borders, I cannot cross the Rafah crossing. I badly need to be next to my mother. I badly need to be there with her to help her, to do whatever I can for her. To say good bye mum.

I was always there for my patients and many people, to help and try to alleviate their suffering. In her last hours I cannot be there, my hands are tied. I am helpless, I can do nothing, I just have to wait and wait and wait. My throat is dry, my eyes are full of tears.

This is unjust, inhuman. It is the occupation. How can it come to be just and fair, when it is mainly based on injustice, aggression and cruelty?

Can somebody help me to go home? I badly need to be at home next to my mother in her last moments.

Good bye mum, I hope you rest in peace, a peace we do not enjoy in Gaza.

with love and solidarity

Mona ElFarra

Sunday 15 July 2007

2007-06-28T18:13:00.000+03:00

my oped in the Austin statement paper -USA

2007-06-22T00:58:00.000+03:00

Palestinians Must Have Hope to Move Forward
by Mona El-Farra / June 21st, 2007

As a physician from Gaza, I have treated far too many Palestinians wounded by Israeli troops. Now a day has come that I thought I would never see.

Throughout our 59-year struggle to obtain our freedom, we Palestinians debated strategy and tactics. Political factions competed for popular support. But never would I have believed that we would turn guns against each other. What brought us to this point?

In 2006, Hamas won free and fair elections on a platform that promised clean and efficient government. But Israel and the West meddled with our democratically elected choice by imposing devastating economic sanctions. How would Americans feel if a foreign power expressed its dissatisfaction with your elected government in this way? Our economy and our livelihoods have been destroyed, reducing many of us to poverty.

At last, we exploded with a desperation born of decades of oppression, lack of opportunity and loss of hope. We brutalized each other over the crumbs of power. The shame is ours — but the responsibility is shared between reckless Palestinians and external powers that turned the screws on our people.

Israel might have removed its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in September 2005, but it still controls Gaza from the sea, air and land. The borders are mostly closed according to the whim of Israel, transforming Gaza into an enormous open-air prison for its 1.4 million people, half of whom are children. Too many of these youngsters suffer from the stifling effects of violence and hunger. Their future is dangerously circumscribed by the chaos and uncertainty that envelops us.

To thrive, Palestinians need access to the sea and to commerce. Most importantly, our people must be imbued with a sense of hope.

Sanctions imposed after the election of Hamas made hard lives harder, but we must not forget that even under the “moderate” leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas we did not control trade in and out of Gaza.

“There is a seeming reflex,” United Nations peace envoy Alvaro de Soto said in a report, “in any given situation where the UN is to take a position, to ask first how Israel or Washington will react rather than what is the right position to take.”

Washington’s bias toward Israel is significantly responsible for the appalling situation in which we find ourselves.

Yes, we Palestinians must accept blame for our perilous situation. However, Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr has correctly declared, “If you have two brothers, put them in a cage and deprive them of basic and essential needs for life, they will fight.” The fact that we would sink to this level is perhaps the surest sign of the terrible damage meted out to us over the years by dispossession and occupation.

When one is in a hole, it is imperative to stop digging. If we are to win our freedom, surely it will not be done with one brother digging the grave of another. The violence, therefore, must stop. That is our first responsibility as Palestinians and we must meet it immediately. And the United States and the international community must end the sanctions that deprive us of our basic needs and our hope for a better future.

The Israeli leadership brandishes our plight as evidence that we cannot govern ourselves nor be trusted as “peace partners.” White South Africans similarly claimed that black South Africans were incapable of self-governance. In the last years of apartheid, more than 250 blacks were killed in black-on-black violence each month. Yet decency and equality eventually prevailed in South Africa. Apartheid was vanquished and the world learned that black-on-black violence was an outgrowth of apartheid — not an indication that black South Africans were incapable of self-rule and undeserving of rights.

We, too, have the right to be free. But we must first free ourselves from fighting over the scraps of power.

Like oppressed people everywhere, we yearn for our rights. Out of this ugly period, we must promote a new vision of equality for all peoples living on this land, regardless of race or religion.

El-Farra is a physician in the Gaza Strip. She is slate to speak tonight at 7 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3208 Exposition Blvd.

Mona El-Farra is a doctor living and working in Gaza. Read other articles by Mona.
This article was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 4:59 am and is filed under Israel/Palestine and Middle East. Send to a friend.

on the 40th anniversary of occupation my statement in the UN

2007-06-09T13:40:00.000+03:00

SPECIAL MEETING TO MARK 40 YEARS OF OCCUPATION
BY ISRAEL OF THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORY,
INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM

UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
7 June 2007

STATEMENT BY

DR. MONA EL FARRA
PROJECTS DIRECTOR
MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN’S ALLIANCE

Red Crescent Society For Gaza Strip
GAZA

Your Excellency Mr. Paul Badji, Chairman of the Committee,
Distinguished guests and Excellencies,

It is my honour to be amongst you today, despite the gravity of the occasion being commemorated, on this 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

First, let me say that 2007 is the 40th anniversary of 59 years of the brutal occupation of the Palestinian people.

As we called for an end to apartheid in South Africa and the right of all people to live together and have equal rights, we must now, before it is too late, call for true justice for the Palestinians.

Today, we heard about the economic plight of the Palestinian people. We heard about Palestinians in Israeli prisons which number close to 8,000 men and women, including approximately 350 children under the age of 14, most of whom have been tortured.

How many UN resolutions must be passed by the UN? How many years of calling for 2 States before there is an understanding that Israel continues its aggression on the ground against women, children and men, the demolition of thousands of homes and the continued building of the apartheid wall?

Let us not just speak of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza. We must never forget those who live as second-class citizens inside Israel and most of all, those who were forced from their homes and lands in 1948.

Now is the time to call for a real peace, with justice for all the children in the region. This can only be accomplished by supporting the right of return of all Palestinians.

Now is the time to acknowledge that the two-State solution is not the answer.

From Gaza I came, where the children of my country have no safe homes, no safe streets, no proper and adequate health facilities, no proper food, clean water, or regular electrical power, no recreational activities and no good education. The list of deprivation of their basic needs is too long to count.

I lived this occupation as a child, and am still living it as an adult. I can see it in the eyes of my daughter when she is afraid, tired, restless and exhausted because of the unsafe and unpredictable quality of life in Gaza under occupation. I saw it as soon as we crossed the borders on our way to Egypt, where she sensed something new and different: freedom, safety and space. Gaza is like a big, unsafe prison. And it is a very small place for 1.4 million people, half of whom are children.

I face the occupation every day during my work when hundreds of Palestinian patients are denied permits and accessibility to proper medical treatment, outside Gaza. There are a few lucky patients who get a referral and permit for treatment outside Gaza. The majority, however, have to wait and wait. Many die while waiting.

What is more heart-breaking than children who do not have adequate food and a healthy atmosphere to grow up to be well rounded adults? According to the Health Work Committees Organization, 42 per cent of children in Gaza under the age of 5 suffer from iron deficiency anemia and 45 per cent suffer from some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, due to the experiences that they are subjected to as a result of the non-stop military actions of the Israeli Occupation Forces, which almost always affect civilians in one way or another.

I will never forget the story of a woman in labor, who had to wait several hours at a checkpoint last November, during one of many Israeli military operations in the north of Gaza. Eventually she arrived at the Al Awda hospital in Jabalia refugee camp where she gave birth to her baby. When she left the hospital with the baby to go to home in the village of Beit Hanoun, there was no home; her home had been demolished by the Israeli occupying army. There are many cases and many stories, but I believe it is not the numbers that really matter, even one incident such as the above is one enough human rights violation.

I remember a 4-year old child in the same village who was forced to stay in one room with all members of his family for 48 hours while the Israeli Army commandeered their home. The child was thirsty and the soldier was there with his bottle of water, the occupied and the occupier in the same space. The soldier offered water to the thirsty child. The child said “no, no, no”. The child’s natural reaction was a combination of fear of what the soldier represents and the steadfastness in the face of the occupation. This is what characterizes the Palestinian people: steadfastness and resistance in the face of all adversity; even small children can express it with their natural reactions more than any words or speeches. The soldier on the other hand is a human being that has been forced by the Israeli occupation machine to lose his humanity.

Whenever I think of Palestinian children and their lives under occupation, I always think of the Israeli children. As adults, we have a commitment to both sets of children to provide a safe environment for them to live peacefully. It is not the occupation or the wall or the ongoing aggression against my people that will bring safety or security for Israeli children, only peace that is based on justice will do so. Justice means that the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people must be considered. Israel must recognize its moral responsibility towards the Palestinian refugees.

While Israel is physically outside Gaza, it still completely controls our lives, all aspects of our lives: health, education, economy and freedom of movement.

Life under occupation is degrading to human dignity. It has deprived us of our freedom, and only free people can make peace. It is most peculiar that we are forced to deal with the patterns of life under occupation as normal, well-established facts and when people lost hope and faith in the world or any future chances for change, and when the world turns its head away.

On the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, it is fitting to call once again on the international community to put pressure on Israel to fulfil its obligations by abiding by the UN resolutions related to Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israeli occupation should be ended now and the right of return must not be forgotten.

Thank you.

***

my trip in the states

2007-06-08T12:40:00.000+03:00

Dear all
iam at the moment in the USA ,for a speaking tour , arranged by the middleast children alliences, please visit www. mecafor peace .org for more informations
yesterday i gave a speech in the UN commemarating thee 40th anniversary of the Isareli occupation to Gaza WB and East Jeruaslaem,i shall post it soon

i shall be back on the 4th of august , as on my way back i shall stay for one week in britain , to attend my son university graduation , and meet with the shefield women group ,
i love you all

ps
it is strange , i canot adapt myself to space and freedom , and i feel that iam carrying home with me , and flinch on hearing any loud noise
i had to leave Gaza 6 days in advance ,to make sure i donot miss my flight , the borders have closed for one week after i left,

Gaza today -lawless embargo , sanctions and occupation dreadfull consequences

2007-05-23T16:58:00.000+03:00

WEDNESDAY
23rd of may

few days ago, Cease-fire has been signed again between the two Palestinian fighting
parties, Fattah and hamas. And children are back at school. My
daughter's started her end of the year exams early. All the schools
had to squeeze the schedule of the examination, so they end as soon as
possible before new violence erupts.

I believe it is fragile ceasefire. The armed men are still in the
streets of Gaza, some of them occupy the roofs of some the multi-story
buildings. Israel has intensified its air strike attacks against
Gaza, north east and some areas in the south. Many people have been
killed. Eight members of one family were killed, when aeroplanes
launched an air strike against the home of a hamas leaders in Gaza. He
wasn't at home, he escaped the attack.
hospitals including AlAwda , are overwhelmed with increasing number of casualities , with inadequate medical supplies and medications .

We all fear a large Israeli attack against Gaza.

From my apartment by the seaside, I can clearly hear and see the
Israeli gunboats patrolling the sea of Gaza, and the Palestinian
authority armed men in their new base. It used to be a family resort.
It is not any more, it is military place for security guards of the
president. The smell of the death is strong, stronger than watching
the lovely sea, or listening to the singing birds if there are any,
shooting sounds is prevalent, poverty too and lawless

My friend Mansour, whom I mentioned in one of my previous entries, and
who needs urgent cytotoxic treatment , in Israel or abroad, after 45 of
long waiting days, he got the referral to one of the hospitals inside
Israel, but the Gaza borders are closed both north and south, and he
has to wait again for its unpredictable opening. His story is the same
daily story of many patients in Gaza, who are dying slowly because of
the closure,

Where are we going, I don't know, but I know very well, that the whole
population suffers of the dreadful consequences of the Israeli
Occupation, which is fully supported by the USA, I know also very
well that women and children suffer the most. And that me and my
colleagues, who work in different fields of the Palestinian civil
society different fields, work hard to alleviate this suffering.

double standard democracy -and where the media goes wrong and fooled

2007-05-23T08:06:00.000+03:00

my friend Allan in LA -USA ,telephoned in the heat of the violent incidents in Gaza , asking about the hamas farfour , and i hope that this article will answer his question , and many qustions in your minds , if you need to know more about children in Gaza (Palestinian children), please visit MECA website mecafor peace .org, it can tell you many beatifull stories about Gazan children, thier determination to enjoy what the occupation and injustice has left for them to enjoy !!!!!!while the rest of the world keeps silent
spread the word say no to the injustice no to racist occupation .
mona

Hamas, Mickey Mouse And
Other Horror Stories:
Those Violent Palestinians Again

By Agustin Velloso

22 May, 2007
Countercurrents.org

The same thing applies to Palestinian violence as to
United States democracy: all the news media talk
frequently about it but none of them has ever seen it
as it really is. The abundance of news aimed at
reporting the intrinsic evil of the Palestinians is
impressive. Last week one could see at peak viewing
time Palestinian pre-school teachers using Mickey
Mouse to teach kids they must wipe out Jews, make
martyrs of themselves, fight to take over the world
and so on.

What a headline! What depth of Middle East conflict
analysis! Those children and their parents before them
have been subjected to constant Israeli bombing for
years - attacks that cause dead and wounded by the
thousand - and yet, to the leading lights of
journalism, what matters, or rather what they are
interested in broadcasting, is that the children of
these victims are taught from infancy to turn into
Islamist terrorists.

Would not the contrary be news, according to a golden
rule of the profession? To their tormentors,
Palestinian children write poems of love - orphaned by
Israeli bombs that have killed their parents, starving
hungry thanks to a criminal blockade by Israel and its
allies, with no hope of leaving that hell since the
United Nations is in no hurry to oblige Israel to
abandon the Occupied Territories (after 40 years of
illegal occupation now) as it was to force Iraq to
abandon Kuwait (after 6 months).

In that same week an Israeli soldier, in a punishment
operation in Nablus, killed an unborn Palestinian
whose mother is still lying wounded in hospital. Maha
Katouri, a 30 year old Palestinian mother lost the
child in her womb, seven months into the pregnancy, to
a bullet that perforated her abdomen and destroyed her
unborn baby's head.

Non-news is that the Israeli soldier who fired the
shot is in Occupied Palestinian territory illegally:
non-news also are his orders to shoot to kill
Palestinians, including women and children in their
houses, not because Israel faces non-existent Arab
aggression, but rather to contribute, death by death,
captive by captive, eviction by eviction, to the
genocide of the Palestinians. For the international
community the latest anniversary of the final solution
of the Jewish Question which ended with the complete
defeat of the Nazi regime is news. Non-news is the
continuing final solution of the Palestinian Question,
begun with the establishment of Israel and which every
Israeli government since 1948 has continued with the
blessing of that same international community.

Just-barely-news is that the same week a dozen
Palestinians have died and many more have been wounded
at Israel's hands. Non-news is that the remainder
suffers the effects of an international economic
blockade applied to a population under military
occupation by a member country of the United Nations.
Also non-news is that every last bullet has been paid
for by the United States which subsidises Israel's
army of occupation with US$3 billion a year.

News is the falsehood that Condi Rice travels to
Jerusalem to promote peace. Non-news is that the
European Union approves Israel's genocidal policy,
since it does nothing to make Israel respect UN
resolutions and international humanitarian law. News
is that the European Union does not talk with the
Hamas government, which has not occupied Israel and
has not broken international law, because purportedly
it includes extremists.

Non-news is that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian
children receive daily from the Israeli Mickey Mouse
throughout their lives an education far more effective
than one that even the most intelligent Palestinian
teacher could not devise: Occupier education. This
teaches them the Occupier is much stronger than the
occupied and thus to abandon the land the Occupier
covets or take the consequences, which are non-news or
old news: a wall that condemns them to live in a
prison, demolition house by house to make way for
colonies exclusively for Jews, the loss of means to
make a living so that they emigrate and, above all,
prison (Israeli prisons hold 11,000 Palestinian
captives) and death (5000 Palestinian dead since 2000)
for resisting all the foregoing.

Non-news is that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian
children grow up traumatized by the extreme violence
to which they are subjected by the fourth most
powerful army in the world, equipped with F-16 fighter
bombers, Merkava tanks and snipers whom Israel daily
sends into the Occupied Territories to fire on the
unarmed civilian population. News, on the other hand,
is that Israeli children in Sderot suffer
psychological stress from Qassam rockets, whose
minimal destructive capacity, however, is non-news: a
total of seven people in Israel have died from 4500
launches since 2001. Non-news too is that between ten
and twenty Palestinians regularly die from a single
Israeli missile.

It is unreasonable for these journalists and editors
to report stress suffered by children in Sderot but
not that of Palestinian children. Nor is it credible
that these reporters and opinion-formers cannot work
out that the ambience of extreme violence in which
Palestinian children live not only explains why they
sing songs that help them endure the terror they live
through, but also that it is the inevitable result of
Israel's criminal policies. It is impossible to
understand that the news is not the friendly Mickey
Mouse as a teaching aid for Palestinian kids, but
rather the terrifying Israeli soldier that shoots them
point blank.

So why then do they publish news as they do?Because
they are supporters of Israel, racist towards
Palestinians and anti-Islamic or all these at once.
Except to those unwilling to see, this is so obvious
that its demonstration has not even needed the mention
in this article of what some might say is fundamental:
that the Mickey Mouse news item is a fake. Its falsity
parallels the fraud used years ago to justify the
first attack on Iraq: that Iraqis were killing
newborns by tearing them from incubators. The daughter
of the Kuwaiti ambassador in the United States enjoyed
a universal audience to watch her weep as she related
this event, which existed entirely in her imagination.
The correction of her false witness was much more
discreet.

The Palestinian Mickey Mouse story is yet one more of
the numerous lies disseminated by Israel and taken as
it stood by Western journalists. The translation of
the Mickey Mouse words, again, as happens with
statements about Israel attributed to Ahmedinejad and
in other cases too, is corrupt. But which news outlet
is going to ask for an explanation from the people who
distributed it? Which TV presenter is going to
publicly admit they were fooled? Which chief editor is
going to confess that they failed to check the -
obviously Israeli - source?

Gaza update 2

2007-05-17T19:11:00.000+03:00

wednesday 16th of May 2007 4pm
The interfighting continued today, Hamas hit 3 rocket propelled grenades
(RPGs) against the presidential guard's headquarters opposite my building. 3
RPGs landed in front of the main entrance to my building, it was so loud and I was terrified, but
pretended to be strong in front of my daughter Sondos (I noticed that she
was not very well ),we had to stay again in one room away from the windows,
and I started to think of moving to a safer place in another part of the
town, but where is this safe place in Gaza? No place is safe in Gaza!

8 pm

To my great relief but disbelief and great mistrust, I heard that truce has
been announced between the 2 fighting parties

11 pm
I went to my bed struggling to sleep, emotionally distracted, unsettled
unhappy and traumatized, all sort of feelings, I could not sleep without
being interrupted by the sporadic shooting, which continued if not as
strongly and continuously as the last few days. I was however glad to see
that Sondos was fast asleep.

17th of May 2007 -10am

I have decided to go out to my work, and to drop my daughter off to her
friend's house on the other side of the town , where I thought it was
somewhat safer and where she could get a change of scenery.

2.20pm

The Israeli army intensifies its attacks against Gaza, another element to be
added to the already collapsing situation. Fighter jets hit a building
housing a Hamas office. This was very close to my daughter's friend's house.
I called Sondos and could hear her voice on the other line, terrified,
shouting, "all the windows here have been broken, my friend is slightly
injured, it is too loud it is too loud, mum please pick me up quickly mum".
Shattered, in disbelief and greatly worried, I hurried to pick her up, Gaza
streets are deserted, like a phantom town, especially where I live, the taxi
driver (I do not use my car in such circumstances)had to take many side
roads , and while the car was moving I could see many armed masked men, and
crossed many military barriers, on the arrival I could see the bombed
building, and hear the shattered glass being swept away by the residents of
the area, 2 were killed, 32 people were injured, some were women and
children .
Israel intensifies its attacks against Gaza, to add another element to the
deteriorating situation. 6 attacks against cars and buildings in the last 2
hours, and just now I got news that army tanks are bombarding the north of
Gaza. All over civilians are strained, drained and exhausted, streets are
dangerous, most shops are closed, schools and universities are closed , patients donot have safe accesability to medical facilities, the hospitals are overwhelmed with casualities , and called upon gaza residents several times for blood donation , it is not safe to reach hospitals.

this is Gaza and my life in Gaza , one episode after another , long chain of non stop tragic incidents,
with all my love

Gaza-situation update

2007-05-16T13:27:00.000+03:00

In the last four days the situation has deteriorated in Gaza. The
clashes between Fatta and Hamas restarted. My daughter can't go to
school and with great difficulty I had to leave home for an urgent
medical appointment.

While on my way from the east to the west of town, I could see
ambulances taking the bodies of 2 men, killed just a few minutes ago.

I regretted going out. The streets were deserted. I arrived at the
clinic and found no patients there. Just me. I

hurried back home, crossing the military barriers, and saw masked armed
young men, very young. I think of the Israeli soldiers, also so young.
I remember Rachel Corrie once said

"we are all kids curious about other kids. Palestinian kids shot from
the tanks when they peak out from behind walls to see what's going on.
International kids standing in front of tanks with banners. Israeli kids
in the tanks anonymously ."

I can hear shooting coming from everywhere. I arrived at my apartment
and heard noise outside the next door flat, and found 8 masked men
storming out the flat with the father of the family. I tried to
intervene, but one of the masked men pointed his gun at me. He was very
tense, shouting at me to leave at once. I left shocked. I've learned
that they killed the man - sometime in the next 15 minutes.

Israeli helicopters are in the skies of Gaza, south , north and east,
One of my friends who lives in Jabalia refugee camps says they hear
artillery shelling.

I can't go to work. I have patchy power and some food in my fridge,
enough for both me and my daughter.

Thinking deeply of the ongoing interclashes in Gaza, I can see it as natural outcome of many factors, since the so called infamous Oslo peace process took place, as peace treaty that served the Israelis interests and security, not taking in consideration, long lasting peace based on justice, followed by creating daily obstacles against the ongoing negotiation process, the disengagement plan from Gaza, while controlling and suffocating Gaza, no opened borders, no proper economy, deteriorating humanitarian situation , followed by the election , and the west embargo and the ongoing sanctions against the national unity government,, the ever-present all levels of the Israeli collaborators
, all those circumstances gave good grounds for the Palestinian Palestinian fight ,between the 2 groups with 2 different agendas , whatever those agendas are both serve the Israeli occupation agenda

Giving this analysis I don’t whatever forgive both parties Fattah and hamas from their criminal act against the Palestinian people present past and future

women in my country -gender and development

2007-05-15T12:51:00.000+03:00

Like the entire Palestinian nation, Palestinian women have to face the Israeli occupation and its wide range of effects on our daily life. However, women are also subjected to the constraints of a strong traditional society – a society which puts a tremendous amount of pressure on women.

Any process of development in a developing country like Palestine cannot be effective if it excludes half the population (ie. women). When social, political and economic factors have contributed to the decline of the development process and when resources are scarce, the most vital resources are well invested human resources.

I believe that women in my country need to be empowered in various ways. What is most important is that women are aware of their social, legal, economic, health and political rights and have the tools to fully implement those rights. While education for women about these rights is important, knowledge and enlightening alone is not enough. Practical projects and programmes that help to alleviate poverty for women and strengthen their economic independence are essential. Having this economic independence means they can play a much greater and important role, both inside the family and in the community as a whole.

Women and gender equality

It is recognised that gender equality is a strategic long term goal, where both women and men can enjoy equal rights. To achieve this goal it is important to help and support the more vulnerable party and women are usually this party. The message that we all live under occupation in my country, both men and women, that all human rights are violated and that it’s a battle for everyone must be promoted.

Due to the unique situation in Palestine, new pressures are being faced by women. Not only has the whole community suffered because of the occupation, but the number of
families headed by women have increased. Even when the woman’s partner is present, women play a greater role inside the family. Women are not only trying to help their families through the daily hazards of living under occupation and the associated social, psychological, and health problems but they themselves are also victims of
these problems. It is no surprise, therefore, to find that post-traumatic stress syndrome amongst women and children is higher than among men.

Programmes aimed at increasing womens empowerment have been adopted in the union
of health work committees and Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza in special womens welfare centers. This drive to empower women has always been a part of the mission statements of both organisations. It is an essential goal in the fight for womens development and gender equality. In these programmes awareness and enlightenment are the main focus alongside support and practical elements including social and
psychological support, legal aid support, health services and job opportunities. All of these elements are underpinned by gender equality.

I do believe that progress is being made. Despite both the occupation and the traditional social constraints, every day through my work in different womens programmes I can clearly see the change. It is not fast but it is there. For example, the average age at which girls are marrying has slightly increased, more girls seem to be embarking on getting a university education, marriages between relatives are not as high as they used
to be and so on. One of the golden rules for us as community activists and workers is to ensure that the right of education for girls is guaranteed. Despite the economic hardship and humanitarian crises, these slight changes are a positive outcome and reflection of the cumulative effect of the ongoing awareness-raising programmes of different NGO’S in Palestine.

I am convinced women can play a very positive role in change in my country given the right atmosphere and circumstances. Palestinian women can contribute a lot and in order for them to have the opportunity to do so, the enlightenment and education of men is essential especially young men. At the same time we must continue working with women on an international basis in order to achieve the promotion of womens rights and empowerment. Solidarity is great weapon in achieving this goal. It is important to work as part of a global movement that is fighting injustice and exploitation instigated by capital, imperial and colonial world powers.

In the end gender equality is not an intangible concept but a demand for liberation and justice for both females and males.

Good bye my friends

2007-05-09T00:28:00.000+03:00

Good bye my friends

Heart to Heart

After 11 years of working for Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank, Heart to Heart, the family international foundation, could not renew

Their permit to stay in Palestine.

I will not bother you with the daily violation of human rights, or rules and regulations imposed by the Israeli occupation against our freedom of
Movement and the denials (rejection) of permits to enter Gaza. Those Friends of Palestine who want to work here or visit us in solidarity against occupation, face continual obstacles to prevent them from even entering Gaza. Such people are not only eyewitnesses, when they visit Gaza they are a window in our dark sky, helping us to look out from this small piece of land, this big prison and pressure cooker.

Saying goodbye to John and Akimi was not an easy task. I tried to be strong and to look strong, but I couldn’t, and after they left I burst
into tears while I recalled and remembered all the good work we did together, all the good times (despite the circumstances) we had together.

We tried hard and worked hard to give the children better lives and situations, and to make the change in their lives.
Using the few basic resources available, a great work was done. Activities, English teaching,theatre, painting, reading, dancing, singing, computer classes and above all giving children the chance to grow in a democratic atmosphere with respect for their rights, guiding them to play a greater role in their community, and to make the change in this community, including helping to look after the younger children.

I still remember with love and nostalgia the health environmental entertainment day in Jabalia camp. All of us were there to clean the camp streets(with Nora from the Norwegian people aid ) and plant trees, with messages of health education and steadfastness against
occupation. While helicopters circle in the skies of Gaza, and bulldozers raze the agricultural land and carry out home demolitions, we try hard to implement love of the land and steadfastness despite all the circumstances surrounding us.

I cannot forget that day in 31 January 2003 when the Israelis intensified their military attacks against the north of Gaza.
Flechette shells (anti-personnel weapons which explode to fire thousands of darts, invariably hitting non-combatants in violation of international
humanitarian law) were fired, targetting small kids as they played football not far from Al-Awda hospital where the kids were received for treatment.

Later, sitting on their recovery beds, I asked friends worldwide to write kind and supportive letters to the children.
With John and Akimi of Heart to Heart, we visited the children after they left the hospital.
Akimi made nice cakes and I handed the kids some money from an old university friend Naela in Bahrain. As we went from house to house to say hello, read the
letters and support and laugh with the kids, a drone was in the sky and 2 Apache helicopters were over the neighbourhood. It was too dark and scary.

Going back to Gaza I asked myself, I am a Palestinian and this is home, but what makes the always smiling John and Akimi take this risk?

I could only reply that it is their humanity, dedication and commitment to making the world a better place for all its citizens.

Good bye my friends

This is the piece I wrote about the kids and the incident on 31 st of January 2003

Game of Darts on football pitch
Gaza 2 pm Friday Jan. 31 2003

Islam a six year old boy from Telezaater in Jabalia refugee camp was on his grandmother's roof, watching the neighbourhood children playing street football, on a beautiful sunny day (at least that’s how it seemed for a short while). Tamer aged 16 was kicking the ball to Bilal also 16,Abedlhalim aged 13 hurried up to kick the ball back, the rest of the team were busy with the game.

They were trying hard to have some fun in the big prison called Gaza,where all day long the kids hear and experience only shooting and killing,army tanks, Apache helicopters, and ever present F16 Fighting Falcons.Incursions, checkpoints and curfews are always the order of the day. This all amounts to no food, no fun, no proper education, no clean water no safe homes , and no normal life for the children of Palestine.

At 2 pm on that sunny winter afternoon an Israeli Merkava battle tank fired two shells that landed in the middle of the boys' makeshift football field while they were playing. It was GAME OVER on the pitch and for some other people who were injured inside their homes.

Nine of the cheerful footballers are now lying wounded on the Al-Awda hospital beds, 3 are in critical condition. The total number of wounded
was 15. The shells fired were flechette rounds that contain thousands of small metal darts, each four centimeters in length. Having been shot from
a tank, the round explodes in the air and tiny darts scatter over a 300 by 100 meter area. Needless to say these rounds are illegal under international law, and so is the occupation by the way.
While visiting the kids at Al-Awda hospital, I asked one of the boys does it hurt? He
answered "only when I laugh".

in solidarity,

Mona ElFarra

Nakba 59th anniversary- a day to rembember before it is due

2007-05-08T12:13:00.000+03:00

15th anniversary of Al-Asria project – Jabalia refugee camp

59 years of Nakba

On the 15th anniversary of the founding of Al-Asria center in Jabalia
refugee camp, the older kids – some of whom were age 6 when they joined
the project and are now university students – founded a cultural forum
named ir shababeek, literally "windows", which means a lot in a place like
the Gaza strip. When all of us suffer the daily hardships of life in a big
prison, we need to find our own different windows, to help us ventilate to
survive and continue trying to improve our lives with the few resources we
have, and the great obstacles we face.

The center was founded to give the children of Jabalia a place of their
own, away from the refugee camp alleys and violence of the occupation. It
was also created to give chances for boys and girls to be together, and to
assist the kids to have important roles inside their communities, and let
them help each other with love and care. With internet services and
meeting solidarity groups from abroad, they can realize that there is
another side to the world, with people who love and care and fight against
injustice and for peace.

Shababeek invited me as a guest speaker, the title of the lecture is early
marriage and its health, psychological and economical consequences for the
family and community and development. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian
children, like those in Jabalia, were born inside refugee camps along with
their parents, grandparents and even great grandparents.

Here life is so cruel, harsh and inhuman. You wake up every day with the
dream of going home (return), and home is only a few kilometers away. The
whole world is not silent but impotent when dealing with the Palestinian
refugees case, and the situation gets more complicated day after day. Most
of the world feels that its responsibility is confined to charitable acts
to help relieve the refugees.

But this is not the story, you can learn more about the real story from
the children themselves, who were not born in Palestine and still dream of
Palestine. It is the 59th anniversary of the Nakba.

I try hard with others to help and make life easier, and this cultural
center I founded, like many others are a haven for the kids, but this is
not enough. The children know their rights and know a lot about the right
of return. They have learned many local stories as an important part of
their heritage and history. They listened to their grandparents' stories
of the cruel ethnic cleansing of Palestine 1948, they recite humanitarian
stories that are not mentioned in the traditional history books.

Those kids like all Palestinian people are willing to live in peace,
willing to share the land of Palestine in one democratic state based on
respect for human rights, based on justice. Any peace which is not based
on justice is a vulnerable peace. The right of return is the pacemaker of
this justice.

On the 59th anniversary of the Nakba and the foundation of Israel, my
message is a message of peace and love, that only by adopting a just
solution can the conflict be resolved.

In solidarity, trust ,love , truth , hustice and peace

Mona ElFarra

welcome new blogger from Gaza refujees camps

2007-04-29T21:43:00.000+03:00

Dear all
iam glad to introduce the new blogger, from Annusierat refugee camp in the middle of the gaza strip , he is the New horizon organisation vice president , he dedicates all his time, with the other members of the organisation , for the promotion and develpoment of the children of the camp via different educational , entertainment ,activities ,painting , writing , reading dancing , and above all keeping the land cause so deep inside thier hearts and souls, when you visit the place ,as i usualy do, you can meet smiling little faces amongst the misery and unsuitable circumstances , where immoral occupation and 5 decades of living outside homeland ,didnot succeed to let them, forget the great injustice of the colonial isarel foundation on the ruins of Palestine , you feel the warmth of the place , and the love and dedication for huminatarian causes

welcome mr. Abushawish to the palestinian bloggers board , being a novelist , iam sure he will be regular and interesting writer .
from gaza with love
mona

love and warfare

2007-04-23T18:48:00.000+03:00

last November when i visited bet ha noun village north of Gaza Strip , straight away after the Israeli army withdrawal , i met families next to their demolished homes , i have met a very interesting 70 years old man , he is a poet ,and was wearing traditional Palestinian costume ,
in front all of us , and unusual to our traditions and on top of their home rubble , he hugged his wife and started reciting some of his love poetry , i felt speechless, his poetry was about land , love home and resistance
Palestinian people does not have the spirit of victims , they have the freedom fighters spirits , we fight for noble , just cause ,life will continue , and one day justice and peace will prevail , i can then tell you alot of humans steadfastness stories , ordinary people stories, whom i have met during my work and they made the Palestinian people struggle against occupation legendary

occupation did not defeat Mansour -cancer will not

2007-04-20T00:03:00.000+03:00

Occupation did not defeat Mansour - neither will cancer

My friend Mansour Thabet, Abu Ghassan, is a political prisoner. He spent
19 years in Israeli jails. His big "error" was to say "no" to the
Israeli occupation, just like all the Palestinian people who have always
said "no" to the occupation, each in his or her own way.

Now he is out of prison, but suffering from colon cancer and its
aftermath. His right leg was amputated due to a rare complication of
chemotherapy, deep venous thrombosis. Mansour was its victim.

But in Gaza there is always more to the story.

In Gaza hospitals lack proper and adequate chemotherapy, because of the
embargo and sanctions and closure of border crossings. Mansour was denied
a permit to enter Israel for treatment because of his jail record. Leaving
Gaza via the Palestinian Egyptian border is a big ordeal and an uncertain
route, but he might succeed in taking this option for further treatment
abroad.

Mansour is a father, with one son and 5 daughters.

I visited him in the hospital. He was frail but smiling, and I was
inspired by his full determination and strong will. He was very
enthusiastic in pursuing his very successful important project (new
horizons for the children) in the Nusseirat refugee camp. There you can
meet dozens of young smiling Palestinian kids dancing, singing, painting,
reading and dreaming of a better future. They can tell you their great
grandparents' stories of their villages and life in Palestine before 1948,
when Palestinians were forced out by a big Zionist colonial plan to compel
indigenous people to leave their homes.

In less than 3 weeks Israel will celebrate its independence day.
Palestinians will commorate what happened in 1948, they will tell their
children again and again about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Is it just that Palestinian patients have had to suffer twice, from their
own illness and then from the Occupation whose rules and regulations
deprive
people of their humanity and dignity?

posted by Mona_Elfarra at 12:03 AM | 0 comments

Garbage again in Gaza

2007-04-19T23:05:00.000+03:00

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Garbage again in Gaza

In July last year I posted something with the same title. Today, once
again I can see garbage while looking outside my window. The streets next
to my office are full of heaps of garbage because Gaza municipal workers
who did not receive their wages for over 4 months, are now on strike. It
is a direct outcome of the West's embargo and sanctions imposed on us here
in Palestine.

Ironically, the donkey carts business is flourishing as people hire carts
to collect the garbage. Last summer the candles and kerosene gas lamps
business took off after the Israeli occupying air forces bombed and
destroyed Gaza's only power plant during the infamous "Summer Rain"
military operation, an unprecented collective punishment against 1.4
million people in the Gaza Strip.

On my way to work I can smell smoke, as people are desperate to get rid of
the garbage. I can also see hundreds of workers protesting in front of the
Palestinian Legislative Council. I come across Palestinian journalists who
are protesting against the kidnapping of Mr. Alan Johnston, the BBC
reporter who has been abducted for one month and is still missing.

That is how I start one of my days; in my office I try to listen to some
relaxing music while dealing with some work pending issues. But in Gaza it
is difficult to relax. If you feed the details of daily life into any
computer, it will crash.

writing within the storm

2007-04-18T20:34:00.000+03:00

Dear All
i would like to share this with you , it was written last autumn , but it still reflect my feelings , while writing from Gaza

with love , truth , justice and solidariy
Mona

Gaza - writing within the storm
Mona Elfarra and Hilary Nelson
Mona Elfarra is a doctor at the Al-Awda hospital in Jabalia Refugee
Camp,
>> in northern Gaza. Hilary Nelson is active in the Palestine Solidarity
>> Campaign in Sheffield. They wrote to each other last autumn as Israel
>> escalated its military assault on Beit Hanoun, next door to Jabalia.
>>
>> Mona Elfarra
>>
>> hello Hilary
>>
>> hello
>>
>> While life goes from one day to another, worsening everyday for all of
>> us
>> living in this big prison named Gaza, I try to keep myself together. The
>> community is suffering and needs all my efforts so that we all do not
>> collapse but continue struggling against this ugly occupation.
>>
>> Last month I could not write. I have two different feelings. When I
>> write
>> I feel it is important to spread the word and to satisfy the eagerness
>> of
>> all my friends abroad to know the truth of what is happening inside
>> Gaza,
>> which the mainstream media do not cover fairly.
>>
>> On the other hand I feel it is a luxury to write while others are
>> suffering everyday from hunger, illnesses that could be cured easily if
>> there were no closures or sanctions imposed on us. Others are dying
>> because they did have not the right treatment at the right time. Many
>> cancer patients died.
>>
>> I also felt that I report and write about the same things, the same
>> suffering again and again, but the world is silent and Israel goes ahead
>> with its pre-planned agenda against the Palestinian people.
>>
>> I felt helpless, so I focused on my people and how I could assist their
>> daily needs in practical ways.
>>
>> I know very well that writing is extremely important, especially since
>> our
>> news is not covered in the mainstream media. I also know very well that
>> this is a phase I am going through. I feel guilty too because of those
>> feelings, and that I should stay strong and not lose hope and faith.
>>
>> I will never lose it, my life under occupation and my resistance will
>> continue until this occupation is over. My cause is not only to resist
>> this occupation, it is fighting against imperialism and its new
>> globalisation of injustice all over the world.
>>
>> There is a big scale operation in the north, 14 were killed and at least
>> 100 were injured. Many were women and children, the village of Beit
>> Hanoun
>> is under siege. Nobody is allowed in or out of the village, children
>> cannot get milk, any moving body is shot, all the men over 16 were
>> forced
>> to gather inside one of the village schools and we do not know their
>> fate.
>>
>> Health teams are not allowed inside Beit Hanoun, one woman (Maysoon
>> Hweehy) was shot dead while trying to defend her family from the
>> soldiers.
>>
>> Hilary please write to me, I miss you. How are Paul and Mischca?
>>
>> Love to all of you
>>
>> p. s. The 4 girls received their scholarship for their tuition. I wish
>> you
>> were there to see the happiness on their young faces. There are some
>> photos. They all came from poor socioeconomic backgrounds in Rafah camp,
>> Khan Yunis, Nusseirat, Jabalia – and have a good promising future with
>> this scholarship and our support in general.
>>
>> love
>>
>> mona
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Hilary Nelson
>>
>> Dearest Mona
>>
>> How are you? We are really missing you and would love to see you. I was
>> hoping you were coming early in the New Year, but now I am wondering if
>> you have changed your plans.
>>
>> It was lovely to hear from you and to hear your thoughts and feelings
>> about writing / not writing. How different times make you feel
>> differently. Sometimes the writing is therapeutic and sometimes it makes
>> you feel worse when you realise that writing isn't defeating the
>> occupation. It feels futile, or worse - indulgent.
>>
>> I know what you mean. You have to do what you feel you can at the time.
>> Sometimes you want to be there doing practical things with the people,
>> maybe other times you need the writing as an outlet for your own
>> frustrations or grief.
>>
>> All I can say is that what you are doing is very important for us.
>> Writing
>> or not writing, we feel whatever communication we get from you is good
>> for
>> us and good for Palestine. But we also understand when you feel too
>> weary
>> to satisfy our hunger. Just keep on being you and doing what you can.
>> Only
>> don't ever feel that your efforts are useless. You are a star to us, and
>> I
>> am sure a star for so many others who are suffering.
>>
>> I am sure the people also give you your own reason for surviving and
>> continuing with your unending fight. They give you a reason to be there,
>> and you should take what courage you can from them, and what they can
>> give
>> to you.
>>
>> How are the girls? I hope they are OK. Give them my love.
>>
>> We are having a women's social evening to raise money for the women's
>> scholarship fund this Saturday. I have attached the flyer so you can see
>> what we are doing. We had a big debate about whether to cancel it or not
>> because of the awful killings of women and children last week. We didn't
>> feel it was appropriate to do any partying after such a dreadful
>> tragedy.
>>
>> However, we decided to go ahead with it because people seem so
>> enthusiastic about this women's project. We have had quite a lot of
>> positive response.
>>
>> Catherine Gaze gave me a cheque for £240 (almost $500) yesterday for the
>> fund. She said it was to celebrate her 60th birthday. She wrote a little
>> note stating that she would have had a very different life without free
>> education. It made me realise how important this project is, and how it
>> has captured a spirit of support and hope for many women here.
>>
>> We wondered if you would be able to send a message to the social
>> evening,
>> just telling us something about the women or the project or just about
>> life in Gaza and explaining what it means for women there to have an
>> education.
>>
>> We thought if we could read something out to the party about life in
>> Gaza
>> it would be good to put things in context. We don't want women to be sad
>> all night, but to remember why we are doing it, and to realise that
>> singing and dancing is also part of life which goes on in the face of
>> horrible tragedies - just like in Gaza and Iraq. I hope you can
>> understand
>> our decision, and you will be able to send us a message by Saturday
>> which
>> we can read out.
>>
>> We all think about you a lot. Your presence in March has made a
>> difference
>> to so many women here in Sheffield who would have thought so differently
>> about events in Palestine if they hadn't met and heard you speak.
>>
>> We had a visitor from Al Haq yesterday. An Irish man called Gareth Gleed
>> and a young woman called Mays. She is an amazingly confident young
>> woman,
>> and spoke very well at the meeting about Human Rights in Palestine,
>> about
>> international law and Gaza. It made me start dreaming again about
>> another
>> women's conference. I would love to get you and her together with some
>> other women and organise another women's workshop. What do you think?
>>
>> Lots of love to you and your family. Don't forget to visit us soon.
>>
>> Love Hilary

>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

from gaza with love belated one year anniversary

2007-04-15T13:27:00.001+03:00

fromgaza with lovebelated , one year anniversary
it has been one year last march 2006 , when i started this blog , it was new experience for me , i gained alot i learned alot , and was able to say alot about my country and to give 1st hand vivid experience about , my life and my people lives under occupation

poverty and occupation

2007-03-31T23:24:00.000+03:00

The beduin village –north of jabalia refugees camp
Thursday 30th of March 31, 2007
Today I visited the camp of the displaced families of the village , accamppanied by the RC Society crisis intervention team , the team consist of , , 2 community health educators , a psychologist and a social worker , the aim of the visit is to evaluate the social , health and psychological different needs of the displaced families, and to plan the right intervention programme later on ,to support the families and to show solidarity with the community.
I met tens of children , as well as some huminatarian aid organizations , I visited the mobile clinic of the union of health work committees , where tens of children received medical check up,for mainly gastroentritis , upper respiratoty infections as well as cut wounds and trauma symptoms
A lot of work need to be done for this community of 5000 population , where poverty , is prevelant , and the population suffers as well as most residents of Gaza , when the local councils budgets are scarce ( half of the PA budget comes from Palestinian government tax revenue, that is hold by Israel ,) and while the westren embargo continues the local councils warned of anticiptated environmental disasters few days prior to the swege system collapse ,this swege blant that shouldnot be so close to this residential area,those people poverty forced them to be in such slum area , they did not have other choice

Life continues in my country , occupation, westren sanctions , no law order , interclasshes, ,paralysed national unity government and cruel poverty that affects the whole population , but is too harsh on women and children

the beduin vilage umnaser disaster

2007-03-31T23:20:00.000+03:00

The beduin village –north of jabalia refugees camp
Thursday 30th of March 31, 2007
Today I revisited the camp of the displaced families of the village , with the crisis intervention team of the Red crescent society for Gaza strip , a team consist of , , 2 community health educators , and a psychologist , the aim of the visit is to evaluate the social , health and psychological different needs of the displaced families, and to plan the right intervention programme later on ,to support the families and to show solidarity with the community.
I met tens of children , as well as some huminatarian aid organizations , I visited the mobile clinics of union of health work committees as well as the medical relief committees ,
A lot of work need to be done for this community of 5000 population , where poverty , is prevelant , and the population suffers as well as most residents of Gaza , when the local councils budgets are scarce ( half of the PA budget comes from Palestinian government tax revenue, that is hold by Israel ,) and while the westren embargo continues the local councils warned of anticiptated environmental disasters few days prior to the swege system collapse ,this swege blant that shouldnot be so close to this residential area,those people poverty forced them to be in such slum area , they did not have other choice
Life continues in my country , occupation, no law order , poverty , interclashes ,paralysed national unity government

Devastating Sewage flood hits Umnasr Village -North of Jabalia

2007-03-29T08:52:00.000+02:00

This morning, and due to technical defaults, the sewage system of
north area of Gaza has sudenlly collapsed. Sewage water flooded and
gushed into the next lowest level place, a Bedouin community. As an
outcome, 8 at least were killed including mother and 2 children , 60 or more were injured,school children paniced inside their schools , 3000 residents were
evacuated and became homeless, and 400 residential homes were
either destroyed or unsuitable for living due to the unsanitary
sewage water.

This will need urgent relief intervention from all of us, working in the health and huminatarian relief services. I shall be able
to identify the list of needs by tommorrow morning , which will be
complementry to other relief work agencies.

It is usually the poorest of the poor who suffer, living in such a
slum area next to the sewage system treatment reservoir. It is not
choice, it is poverty that forced them to live there, adding more
and more to their daily suffering under the occupation.

In Arabic we have a saying: "the catastrophies do not not come
alone." This incident was the last we need while living under
occupation and facing the daily hardships of the humanitarian
crisis in Gaza.

In solidarity,
Mona ElFarra

Tanya Reinhart by Victoria Britain

2007-03-25T15:49:00.000+02:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2038868,00.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tanya Reinhart

A versatile Israeli academic, she spoke out against
the conflict with Palestine

Victoria Brittain
Wednesday March 21, 2007
The Guardian

The distinguished Israeli professor of linguistics
Tanya Reinhart, who has died suddenly aged 63, was
even better known for her prolific writing on the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict, her searing criticism of
her own country, and her role as an activist,
including her support for an academic boycott of
Israel. She was a woman of immense bravery, and
believed that fierce criticism of Israel "is the best
act of solidarity and compassion with the Jews that
one can have".
She was born in Israel, and brought up in Haifa by her
mother, a communist and single parent. At the Hebrew
University, Jerusalem, she gained a BA in philosophy
and Hebrew literature in 1967 followed by an MA in
philosophy and comparative literature. She was
politically active with both the Communist party and
the Young Communist league.

She went to study in the US, and in 1976 gained a PhD
in linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), where her supervisor was Noam
Chomsky. On hearing of her death, he described her as
an "old and cherished friend" and paid tribute both to
her academic work and the political writing on her own
society, which "drew away the veil that concealed
criminal and outrageous actions and shone a searing
light on the reality that was obscured".

Reinhart taught at Tel Aviv University for more than
20 years, and held a chair as professor of linguistics
and cultural studies. She was a multi-disciplinarian
and also taught and published on art, literature and
media studies. Those who attended her media studies
lectures remember how, amid fierce debate, students'
mindsets and lives were changed by her analysis,
encouraging them to read between the lines of their
country's writers. Her moral indignation flared
quickly, but she was also given to long and patient
discussions with her students.

She taught too at MIT; Columbia University, New York;
the University of Paris; and for 15 years was linked
to the University of Utrecht. Her contribution to
linguistic theory lay in the connection between
meaning and context and the interface between syntax
and systems of sound. Her most recent academic book,
Interface Strategies, was published last year, and she
was on the editorial board of several academic
journals in various linguistic disciplines.

Reaching to other audiences, she was a columnist for
the Israeli paper Yediot Aharnot and for the radical
online magazine, Counterpunch. Her most recent
political book, The Roadmap to Nowhere, was also
published last year.

She came to see parallels with apartheid South Africa,
writing in 2003: "What Israel is doing under Ariel
Sharon far exceeds the crimes of the South Africa's
white regime. It has been taking the form of
systematic ethnic cleansing, which South Africa never
attempted." It was the analogy between Israel and
South Africa's apartheid that she used in justifying
the academic boycott movement of recent years.

With great understatement she commented, also in 2003:
"It is not easy for an Israeli academic to support the
calls for boycott of Israeli academic institutions
these days. Like any other segment of the Israeli
society, the universities are paying the price of
Israel's war against the Palestinians, with severe
budget cuts and deteriorating research conditions. A
freeze of the EU funds would, no doubt, make things
even tougher. It is therefore understandable that the
Israeli academia is mobilising its forces to attack
any such boycott attempt. Understandable, but not
just."

Reinhart's passionate calls for justice for the
Palestinians made her a sought-after speaker
internationally, and last October she gave the Edward
Said Memorial lecture at Adelaide University in
Australia. In her memorable final speech in France,
last December at the Résistances bookshop in Paris,
she roundly denounced the embargo imposed on the
Palestinians since the election of a Hamas government
in January 2006. European countries, including France,
she said, had no right to cut off food supplies to the
Palestinians. "It was not an act of generosity which
Europe could either carry on or not - Europe chose not
to force Israel to respect its obligations under
international law."

She was not only a writer, but also a frontline
activist. Over the years she organised solidarity
campaigns with Palestinian academics at Birzeit
University on the West Bank, and against the Israeli
occupation of Lebanon. Many friends and colleagues
described countless visits with her to the occupied
Palestinian territories, and the demonstrations and
detentions which were part of them. Her like-minded
academic colleagues, Avraham Oz and Ilan Pappe, are
feeling "orphaned" by her sudden death.

Most recently she was active in protests against the
building of the long partition wall and the annexing
of Palestinian land for it. She never tired of taking
visitors to see the reality of lost livelihoods and
unviable lives the wall has created for tens of
thousands of Palestinians literally immured in
villages without land in the latest Israeli scheme to
create facts on the ground and prevent the emergence
of a Palestinian state.

Reinhart was an optimist however, and last October
wrote that "persistent struggle can have an effect,
and can lead governments to act. Such struggle begins
with the Palestinian people, who have withstood years
of brutal oppression, and who, through their spirit of
zumud - sticking to their land - and daily endurance,
organising and resistance, have managed to keep the
Palestinian cause alive, something that not all
oppressed nations have managed to do."

She also believed in the modest role of international
solidarity movements, "that send their people to the
occupied territories and stand in vigils at home,
professors signing boycott petitions, subjecting
themselves to daily harassment, a few courageous
journalists that insist on covering the truth, against
the pressure of acquiescent media and pro-Israel
lobbies. Often this struggle for justice seems futile.
Nevertheless, it has penetrated global consciousness."

In 2006 she was ousted by what she felt to be
bureaucratic harassment from her post at Tel Aviv
University, and with great regret decided to leave
Israel. She died in her sleep in New York, where she
had immediately been offered a teaching post at New
York University. She is survived by her husband, the
Hebrew language poet Aharon Shabtai

· Tanya Reinhart, academic and human rights
campaigner, born 1944; died March 17 2007

_

the ethnic cleansing of Palestine -ILAN PAPPE

2007-03-20T17:45:00.000+02:00

Dear all
i just come back from Ireland , promise to come back to you as soon as i finish important work pending issues , till then i highly recommend to you to read Ilan Pappe most interesting book the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine , we need more and more of couregious people to tell the truth and not to keep repeating the zionist media spin STPRIES , about what happened in Palestine 1948,

salam , peAce based on justice for all

Living with uncertainty - thank you Mr. Olmert for making my life difficult and different

2007-03-03T17:16:00.000+02:00

Living with uncertainty - thank you Mr. Olmert

Sunday 24th of February
Two months ago I was invited by Trocaire in Ireland to lecture in some places, about the situation for women in conflict areas, and the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which relates to womens safety and security. With the Trocaire invitation letter, and through efforts by (Hemocade) Defence of Individuals Rights in Israel, I was promised a travel permit, via Eritz checkpoint, North of Gaza.
10am
Permit was not approved by the Israelis so I unpacked my suitcase. Sondos was let down but not surprised because in Gaza we always expect the worst and we are always forced to accept the abnormalities as the normal pattern of life under occupation.

Monday 25th of February
Sondos went back to school this morning.
9am
I received a call from the Irish embassy telling me to be ready as the permit will be issued any minute.
I was really pleased and hurried up from my work to my apartment, to pack up my suitcase again, and wait for a call from the Irish embassy. I didn’t collect Sondos from school as I didn’t want to let her down if we did not get the permit.

2pm
Sondos is back from school and is happy and excited to know that we may make it to Ireland via the Allenby Bridge crossing on the River Jordan.

4pm
The embassy phoned asking us to hurry up to the border at the Eritz checkpoint.

4.15pm
We arrived at the borders where we are waiting with a few others including international staff, diplomats and patients.
During a very long 4 hours we have been told by the Israelis on the other side of the borders, and through the Palestinian security guards, several times to ‘go home’, ‘you cannot cross today’, ‘come back tomorrow’. In the meantime I received around ten calls from Hamocade and the embassy telling me ‘hold on you will cross today’.
In the end at 7.30 pm, we were allowed to cross from the Palestinian side (Gaza) to Israel.

On my way to the Israeli checkpoint I walked with my daughter and ten sick people, who are in desperate need for further treatment in Israel. We walked through a long cement tube, with cameras looking down on top of our heads and sound from hidden mics giving us instructions. At that moment I recalled the big brother from the ‘1984’ novel and felt in an unrealistic world. I kept walking and before reaching the end of that tube I met tens of Palestinian people of all sorts of ages (children, babies, old women and men) tired exhausted and very sad. I stopped one very old woman limping with her walking sticks and asked her who she was. She said that they had been visiting their sons and daughters in the Israeli jails. I burst loudly into tears. I felt speechless and helpless.
Arriving at the end of this tunnel, one door after another kept opening with red then green lights and we kept receiving instruction from unseen voices. Sondos explained later on to her sister that it is like a riddle or a maze. On arriving at the desk the officer checked our papers and said ‘you cannot cross - it is an expired permit’. I again called the embassy and different calls were made. I eventually passed through
to find a taxi waiting.

On the taxi to Allenby Bridge 8.30pm
Sondos cried with joy, disbelief and surprise to see Occupied Palestine/Israel for the 1st time in her 15 years. It is another world yet only 15 minutes drive from Gaza - two different worlds. Thanks to Trocaire and Hamocade and the embassy.
The car continued to drive, and I tried to reply my daughter showering me with questions. We passed by the sites of the Palestinian villages and towns, that used to be there once upon a time but were ruined and destroyed, and their original inhabitants were forced to leave and made refugees. This was when Israel was founded on the ruins of Palestine with the pretence of land with no people for people with no land (Ben Gurion) - a big myth of the Zionist ideology.
It was also surprising for me to see the size of the Israeli settlements around Jerusalem.

Solution - in one country with two nationalities, when the privileged can give up some of their privileges on behalf of the original Palestinians refugees and the land can be shared by both Palestinians and Israelis in one democratic state - this is the long term strategic solution for the areas stability. When the time comes that Israel realises the immorality of its existence at the expense of others then that is the time when the Palestinians can enjoy the political stability, and law and order, to prove to the world their ability to contribute to the prosperity of the area .

10pm
We arrived in Jericho to find the borders closed so we stayed there overnight.

Tuesday 26th of February
7 am
We left the hotel and went to the Allenby Bridge crossing point. At the Israeli desk I was told by the officer again that my permit had expired as it covered only one day. After more telephone calls by the Irish embassy my papers were stamped.
I found a VIP car waiting for me and, surprised and relieved, I got in. I remembered Mr. Steig Collin from Sweden who stayed with us and worked voluntarily for three weeks at AlAwda hospital. While I was showing him around in Gaza 1999, we were stopped by the soldiers at one of the Israeli military checkpoints. The soldiers asked if we were VIP’s.
Mr. Collin replied, ‘Every human being is a VIP’. So I entered the car and in 5 minutes I was in Jordan. I missed my flight and now I am writing on board the next days flight on my way to Ireland.

Thanks to Mr. Eihud Olmert’s office who organised my permit and let my daughter see the land of Palestine for the first time in her life, this land where her fathers family used to live and work until 1948 - after that they lived in Egypt as refugees .

Seeing Isareli soldiers so close for the first time, my daughters comment was ‘some of them are nice’.
Yes that is true, and they will be even nicer when they stop occupying us and peace and justice prevail.

Tired and exhausted but pleased to be on my way to Ireland - Mona

messege to Herman and Shanon

2007-02-23T16:31:00.000+02:00

i tried to email you several times , the email kept bouncing back
regards
Mona

photos from Jabalia

2007-02-22T18:14:00.000+02:00

photos from jabalia

2007-02-22T18:03:00.000+02:00

From Ausralia to jabalia in Gaza with love

2007-02-22T12:06:00.000+02:00

Dear all
My post will be today about AL-AWDA hospital, rather than boring you with the political situation in Palestine, at the moment, and the new national unity government, and which political party will join or not. Or Mrs. C. Rice and her visit and the obstacles that faces the peace process, or the Israelis crafty way of putting more obstacles towards the peace process, and the Palestinian tax money that Israel holds , to contribute more and more in the poverty in Gaza and WB, and making the humanitarian situation worse and worse.

AlAwda hospital
Jabalia camp for refugees
Largest refugees camp population 120.000
AlAwda Hospital catchement area is north of Gaza , population 250,000
the Austarlian humanitarian mission targets all children of Gaza via AlAwda hospital
februry Tuesday 20 th 2007

I had the pleasure to meet Professor Pady Dewan and his team, during their 2nd humanitarian visit to Palestine
This mission staring from 13th of February to 24th of February, it is the 3rd Australian humanitarian mission to Gaza, continuity of the children 1st project
, Professor Dewan is a prominent Australian pediatric Urosurgeon, from the kind cuts for kids foundation in Melbourne this surgical team traveled all the way from Australia to Jabalia, to conduct highly sophisticated urosurgical operations and procedures for kids aged 1month to 15 years of age
, Those operations are not available in Gaza, for several reasons, most important one is that we lack the right highly qualified surgeons for such specialty,
And those kids and their families, cannot cross the borders, for further treatment abroad (this sort of operations cost fortune), leave alone the families financial hardship, where 70%of Gaza’s population depends on outside aid, and when poverty is prevalent in any society, it severely affects health and nutrition in the 1st place
the children will get it with nominal fees , and middleast children alliences ,contributed with part of the hospital subsidised fees .
.

This humanitarian mission is an outcome of 3 years of relationship between the hospital with the marvelous Moira Kelly from children’s 1st foundation in Melbourne
Philip Sakka Beit Jala community association
Sonia Kara women group
And many others who contributed by their time, efforts and money, to make those missions to Gaza a great success, and to put big smile on the children faces.

I still remember the determination of Moira, and Philip Sakka on their 1st visit to Gaza in April 3 years ago, and the difficulties they faced, when they arrived the Eritz Checkpoint, and there was confrontation between the Israeli occupation army and Palestinian resistance, they stayed in the barracks for one hour, I was with Raid AlAdssi, on the other side inside the ambulance , hiding behind a cement wall

In the end we all succeeded to reach the hospital
And the mission will continue helping the Gaza children, and prove for others that we can change the world into one big family, that enjoy peace and justice
children of Palestine like all the world children , deserve better life full of peace , supple and security.

Please read below
Prof .pady Dewan email regarding this mission

p.s Riad is Al-Awda hospital head of emergency department , he played big rule in the coordination of this mission inside the hosopital and he loves the children and cares for them great deal, I told him several times , he works from his heart , and that what makes the difference

Dear All,

Congratulations to Riyad for his untiring work.

A feature of this visit is the sense of ongoing care to patients with difficult
Problems, thanks to the participation of David Croaker and Erroll Simpson in coming
Here in November. Also, there is an increasing involvement of Gaza Pediatric
Surgical and Urological staff who are very eager to help care for the children,
Learn from the visitors and improve the care through their challenging questions -
Not to mention that they are great fun to work with. The Kind cuts for Kids
Foundation is particularly focused on sustainable assistance, thus the training
Aspect is vital, and in the Gaza mission is vibrant.

Thanks to all who have provided support and assistance?

Kind regards

Paddy Dewan
Kind cuts for Kids Foundation

Gaza today after few days of palestinian fight

2007-02-14T08:45:00.001+02:00

It is a nice sunny warm morning. I thought it would be a good idea to let you know a little bit about the general mood here in Gaza.

Yes, it is calm in the streets of Gaza, but Israeli F-16s are back flying too low in the sky as well as some helicopters to the east of the town of Gaza.

After the tough days of the Palestinian inter-fighting in the streets of Gaza, people feel relieved but not sure of the future. We had a rough time during the clashes. I feel relieved but also really sad about the 76 people who lost their lives and the 400 more who were injured. It is awuful when you think how politics and power struggles can use people ordinary poor people. Many people and youth were part of the fight just because they are paid in the end of the month; a secure job to be in the so called "army" or Hamas forces.

And then with a political agreement all of a sudden there is no fighting in the streets. OK, it is great that the fighting has stopped. But why did it start in the first place?

Mecca is the sacred place. Where was all that one week ago when there was bloodshed in the streets of Gaza and when the HOLY ambulances, hospitals, mosques, and universities were attacked?

Life continues in Gaza and another chapter has started. The new national unity goverment has formed but with great polarization between the 2 largest factions and at the exclusion of the mainstream of different factions, the independent people, and civil society figures. So when power in the streets is the judge and when the place of negotiation is Mecca whose leaders glorify the US's agenda, especially in the Middle East, I can only expect the worst for the Palestinian national agenda. I cannot help thinking that we would not need to go to Mecca to agree if there was a real national agenda.

I shall continue my work in Gaza, my struggle against the occupation, and keep reminding myself and the world that the peacemaker of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the Right of Return and peace that is based on justice.

In solidarity and love
Mona

Situation Update

2007-02-02T10:11:00.000+02:00

The situation over the past few days has been very bad, we have no electricity now and I have dictated this post to my son in the UK for distribution.

The infighting has escalated and shattered the truce. Hamas ambushed a fatah convoy bringing some sort of supplies to the Presidential guard (either logistical supplies or arms?? no one can know for sure), they have also been attacking the presidential compound overnight with a variety of weapons (including mortars and rockets) This is just outside my flat and has caused me great distress (, Some of the explosives have been falling a few feet from my doorstep. Presidential forces on the other hand stormed the Islamic University in an alleged search for arms and they claim to have arrested seven Iranian "military experts".

It looks very bleak. I am worried that the western powers want to support a coup This can only take Palestine back to a peace process similar to Oslo that serves Isreal and the west more than it serves Palestinian liberation.

On a personal level, the past 24 hours have been disturbing because I have been separated from my daughter Sondos by the fighting. She was visiting her sister half a mile away and I have no way of reaching her safely. I am stuck in my flat with my sister, a friend of mine and her 10 year old niece. We were coming back from Khanyounis where we were visiting my mother for her 85th birthday.

From Gaza with love

Academic and Medical Boycott

2007-02-02T10:03:00.000+02:00

I have put a link about my aborted visit to the UK where I was supposed to speak about Palestine at the launch of the ENOUGH coalition. The article is written in The Guardian, in the Comment is Free online section, by Victoria Brittain. Here is the link, and here it is again in case it is not showing http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/victoria_brittain/2007/01/a_doctors_call.html

Gaza No Exit

2007-01-31T07:42:00.000+02:00

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

2007-01-05T07:47:00.000+02:00

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

iam sad and not proud

2006-12-17T20:47:00.000+02:00

18th of december gaza 10 am sunday -7pm

iam sad , angry , and not proud of what is going on in Gaza streets at the moment , Palestinian Palestinian fight and , Israeli occupation watching us with the famous old policy of occupation , divide and rule ,what a waste of energy and efforts toward acheiving our national goals , towards free and independent Palestine, towards acheivment of peace that is based on justice ,
i couldnot go to my work , i was confined to my home , i live too close to the presedent home and office actualy i could see the presedent guards from my window ,it was not safe for me to have a quick look the shooting between the fatah and hamas, the two fighting parties was too feirce ,
iam hoping that this unnecessary fight will end soon and will not lead to a civil war
the only exit out of this dielema is a national unity goverment , with the participation and input of the different parties , a goverment that have the power, the determination and wisdom to lift the sanctions , and force the world to support the Palestinian anlianable national rights ,