In Gaza I Live
Hello family, friends, and supporters,
I'm so sorry it's been a long time since I wrote. I'm sorry also that I've not yet responded to the wonderful emails of support so many of you sent during my illness.
I returned back to Gaza after a short visit with my children , who are studying in Manchester UK. I am on my own here in Gaza now, and so busy. Life takes me from one day to another under the shadow of no openings on the horizon for political change. I am working on several cultural and health programmes, as well as with women’s empowerment and rehabilitation programmes, all with great support from women in Sheffield PSC, and Manchester and Liverpool friends of Palestine in the UK, as well as MECA in the USA.These comrades support our vision on women’s issues, as well as our political views for a future Palestine as a free country based on equal rights and justice for all.
I am trying to write my blog, but i could not open it, and I dont now have my children’s technical assistance any more. Anyway, I need to be independent and more technologically skilled!
I will keep trying to access my blog, it is the bridge of love between me and my friends outside Gaza, and it is my way of letting off steam while living in such difficult circumstances of closure, siege and occupation .
Talking of friends , in Gaza we find our ways of coping with the situation, and one of those ways is through friends who care and support. 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 sea side. While walking I meet some of the fishermen in the early hours of the day, around 5 am. I see them struggling hard to live, and I can see the Israeli gunboats patrolling the sea and shooting and harassing Palestinian boats.
I meet small children walking for long distances to reach their schools, when families cannot afford to pay for transport money. Small tiny smiling faces have to leave their homes so early in the morning to reach school in time.
Shops here are stuffed with all sorts of goods; we get supplies via the tunnels at the Egyptian borders, but few people can afford them, all the goods are very expensive. A new class can afford these things, a class which emerged instead of the displaced previous one. Meanwhile the majority of people suffers .
Israeli attacks continue, and while I am writing there are incursions into Gaza borders areas: Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun and Khan-yunis. You don’t hear that in the news, Gaza only is remembered when a big disaster occurs.
Last month we received the Viva Palestina convoy, and I met activists from the UK, PSC York, Liverpool,Sheffield, Cumbria, Birmingham and Bristol. But they were allowed in for such a short time , only 48 hours, a big shame. They did not have the time to see Gaza.
Recently I helped in fundraising for the MRI machine at the Red Crescent Society for the Gaza strip, and we reached our goal.
This highly sophisticated equipment is vital for Gaza patients who suffer daily because of the deteriorating health facilities , lack of many essential medications, and borders’ closure. Although many patients need further treatment abroad, the Rafah crossing has been closed for almost 2 months now, it will open next month, but it is opened it is very unpredictable and open only for 3 days. The number of those who cross the borders are much less than those who actually need to cross, including patients, students, families etc..
Friends, I am always empowered when thinking of you and your great support and nonstop solidarity.
I get my self-esteem from my daily meetings with the people I work for, as when I see children happily painting, dancing, reading, and involved in the different cultural programmes, amidst this hard and unfair life. It is the same when I meet with women who get out of their homes to receive nutrition and dental care services and attend lectures in the courses I run. I feel a lot of the satisfaction with the team that run those courses under such difficult conditions.
love
Mona
