Fragments of Gaza life
Reageer (0)by Flora Nicoletta
"I'm not afraid to go to hell because hell cannot be worse than Gaza." George, a Gaza citizen.
21-8-2010
Jamila is worth ten men, affirm her friends. She is 55. Her husband died 15 years ago. Afterwards she sent her only two sons to study abroad. They got married and remained there.
Jamila is generous and hospitable. She always smiles despite the difficulties. She lives alone like a number of women in Gaza. She suffers from some ailments and the table of her kitchen seems a mini pharmacy.
"Have you written about the daily power cuts? Why you don't write about it? You should write that we are without electricity in Gaza!
"Since this morning we have no electricity. It will return maybe in the afternoon. No electricity and no water because the water pump doesn't work!
"Here we are in Jala'a Street [in Gaza City]. The power is not cut in all the neighborhoods at the same time. I'm lucky because I live on the second floor. Thirty-nine families live in this apartment block. Imagine those who live on the 10th floor here or those who live on the top floor of a tower... They have to climb the long flight of stairs and when it is night they have to light with their mobile phones! And how to carry upstairs the cooking gas canisters and the drinking water jerricans? For using the elevator the people have to calculate when the power will be restored!
"In these days we are suffering from an intense heat wave. It's like fire... Moreover, we are fasting because it's the month of Ramadan... and most of the time we cannot use the ventilators because we are without electricity!
"When I have no oil for my lamps I have to light candles... You should write about this problem! I cannot use the washing machine now because I'm without water and without electricity. I 'll perhaps wash tonight. I don't bake anymore bread at home because no electricity!... and how to bring a 50 kilo bag of flour here without elevator!
"No radio... no TV... no news since this morning!... As you know I'm diabetic... Every day I need two injections of insulin. I keep the insulin in the freezer. When the power cut lasts for too long what happens to the insulin and other medicines I keep in the freezer? Every morning I need to put a bag of ice on my left knee. However, it happens that I don't find ice in the freezer... I find cold water!
"Sometimes the power is restored at night, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon... It's like a shift-work. This morning there was no electricity but there was water. Sometimes I have electricity but no water. Sometimes I have water but no electricity. Ah! Now the water is coming! Look!...
"Nevertheless, there is something I don't understand... why the electricity bills have increased? If we have no electricity why to pay more than before? And Abu Mazen [the Palestinian President] didn't promise in the past to pay the water and the electricity of Gaza? I saw him on TV... He said in the past he will help Gaza! Perhaps he has forgotten because it was a few years ago.
"This is happening in normal time, if I can say. During the last war?... What to tell you? I was having coffee with my neighbor in her home. All of a sudden boom! boom! boom! darubu! darabu! darabu! What was happening! It was after 11:00 [On Saturday 27 December 2008]. Why all these explosions? We were used to the Israeli bombardments in Gaza City but not like this!! What was happening? I couldn't understand!
"We went to the balconies of my neighbor Um Salim. We saw only black smoke on the horizon. We saw fire and smoke in all the city from the balconies. What was happening? We had no answers.
"I came here and from my veranda I saw columns of black smoke ... and I heard the sirens of the ambulances. We were like in a pan of popcorn. Explosions here and explosions there... explosions everywhere! And the ambulances running under my windows! And in the sky helicopters... F16... drones...
"After perhaps an hour and a half my son called me from Ankara. 'Mother, what is happening in Gaza?' he asked me. I told my son I didn't know what was happening in Gaza because the electricity had been cut and the mobile network stopped working. No radio, no Tv, no news! I told my son I didn't understand what was going on. My son gave me the latest news: 'All the Gaza Strip is under heavy bombardment from the Israeli Air Force!'... He was following the news on the TV networks in Turkey. All the Gaza Strip was subjected to Israeli bombings!... I knew it from my son Emad in Ankara!!
"Later my other son called me from Canada. He wanted to know what was taking place in Gaza! I didn't know what was taking place in Gaza! We were cut from the rest of the world! I told me son in Canada: 'We hear bombings, explosions, buildings and towers collapsing, the sirens of the ambulances. We are like mice in a mousetrap.'
"What were they doing to us? My two sons were keeping me informed on the situation from Turkey and from Canada! The electricity was cut! I didn't know the news! And when later I could watch the TV it was jammed by the Israeli airplanes!
"It lasted for 23 days. Emad was calling me from Ankara... my sons were calling me. What was happening? I could see only smoke... Bombings, explosions, bombings... every day, for 22 days, 23 days... The children were calling me every day... three or four times a day.
"The first three days I had enough food. After a certain time there was a truce. For a few hours we could go out. I was going to buy food. If I had in my refrigerator a kilo of meat or a chicken or some vegetables... I would share what I had with my neighbors and my neighbors would give me what they had. One was helping the other. There was solidarity... Um Salim was coming here and other neighbors were coming here and I was going to visit them in our building.
"The phosphorus, I saw it... I didn't know it was phosphorus... no TV, no radio for most of the time... the white phosphorus in the sky... I thought it was a Jewish festival or an Arab festival... or a festival I don't know from whom! One time... then another time I saw it from my balcony. It was like a wedding party. Who was holding such a feast? The Arabs or the Jews? The first time... the phosphorus in the sky... it was like a firework... it was far from my home. The second time it was in the municipal dump area, in El-Yarmouk district, not too far from here. It seemed a festival!! The sky was splendid!! I asked myself: the Jews? the Arabs?
"In this building across the street came maybe 300 refugees... They came from the north of the Strip. The men stayed in empty stores on the ground floor and the women and children in four flats on the two other floors.
"The men asked me from the street some bread for the small children. I didn't have too much bread with me. So I call the Red Cross. I had taken the telephone numbers written on their front door during the war. The Red Cross is not far from here. I called an acquaintance working there: 'There are here 300 or 400 or 350 refugees, I don't know how much. They are in need of food, water, mattresses... quickly, immediately. They have no bread, nothing.' The Red Cross came rapidly with canned meat, olive oil, beans... I was watching from my balcony... blankets, mattresses, pillows, water... drinking water too.
"At five in the morning we were hearing them shouting, crying, weeping... What was happening? One was shouting: 'My son has been killed in the north'... another one: 'The husband of my daughter is dead.' On their mobile phones the refugees were receiving the latest news from their area.
"They arrived here three days after the beginning of the war. They remained for more or less ten days on this empty building, then they took shelter in Unrwa schools. Afterwards they returned to live to the north in tents, near they destroyed homes.
"All of us kept the front door of our home a little bit open during the night in case some bombing would target our building. It was winter, it was cold. I was fallen asleep like this on the sofa... and all of a sudden a missile! Nobody closed the front door in the night during the war...
"I want to tell you now a couple of old anecdotes. In the past I had a sewing shop. A group of foreigners were always passing in front of my shop. They never greeted me, they never told me hello or good morning or shalom... no one word!
"Once one of the men wished me a good day. I replied and invited him to enter my shop. He refused. 'Why?' 'Because of the Arabs! They will slaughter you and me.' he said. "Look... in my shop men and women are working together and I don't cover my head and I wear short sleeves. There is no problem at all.' I told him. I invited him and his mates to come at 18:00 and to have tea and cake in my garden.
"We became good friends. 'Who told you if you speak with a woman here you will be slaughter?' 'In my country they say this.' he replied. They were six, three men and three women with a little child; I think they were working for an international organization. I have forgotten where they came from... but they were speaking English.
"They had a small photograph album. On the cover was represented the map of Palestine and it was written Israel on it. And near the Gaza Strip there was the desert. It was written Rafah, El-Arish, Sinai and in the desert were drawn tents, camels, donkeys and sheep and palm trees. The foreigners told me they had bought the photograph album in Jerusalem. The Israelis wanted to show we are a backward people in this region with the tents and the camels!
"I told the foreigners: 'This map is the map of Palestine, not the map of Israel. The British gave Palestine to the Jews as a gift and slowly slowly the Jews took all the country and beyond. What they call Israel is our country. What is called Israel actually is Palestine!'"
- Flora Nicoletta is an independent French journalist living in Gaza. She is currently working on her fourth book on the Palestinian question.
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