Cinnamon Zone: Palestine

Friday, April 18, 2008

On April 18...

On 18 April 1996, during Operation Grapes of Wrath, a Fijian UNIFIL compound in the village of Qana was shelled by Israeli artillery, killing 106 civilians and injuring around 116 others who had taken refuge there to escape the fighting. Now, 12 years later, Qana Massacre is to be remembered. 10 years later, it became known as the First Qana Massacre, after being encored on July 30th. Truely, history doesn't repeat itself, it just rhymes. The same village, the same atrocity, the same criminals, the same silence by the international community, only different, new more victims.

This is a video with facts and pictures from both massacres...

posted by Ola Eliwat, in Palestine @ 1:46 PM, Email this post to friend

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Saturday, March 01, 2008

Eye Witness...

I had a long day, an awful day, taking photos and writing from on the ground in Gaza City and northern Gaza. I met with two children who survived Wednesday’s Jabalyia soccer bombing: the other 4 kids were, as you likely know, killed. One of the children I saw had no flesh on their legs, had burns all over their bodies from the tank’s shelling. This was one of the scariest things I have seen yet, and I have seen a lot more than that.

I asked one boy to give me details of what happened that Thursday afternoon. The 9 year old boy cried while he told that he’d seen the decapitated head of his cousin strewn far from his body, arms and legs, far away from where they were all playing soccer. His mother added that there wasn’t any electricity when her son was admitted to the hospital.

He was crying as he told the story, his tears hurting him even more than his psychological pain, as he has burns in his eyes. His mother uncovered his wounded leg where I could only see bones without flesh in places. I could not understand how he managed to lay down conscious, but knew it was a consciousness full of pain and anguish. I felt this pain in my own heart and head.

As I talked this child’s mother, she said that she’d had to evacuate her children, as it's no longer safe to be in that area where the children had been playing. The kids ranged from 6 to 14 years old. The two ones who survived said they had all been playing soccer in front of the door of their house in Jabalyia when the Israeli missile hit them.

I finally came back home some hours ago, after waiting a long time to find transportation. But, eventually managing to make it back to Rafah, I collapsed for a nap for an hour. My sleep was disrupted: I awoke scared by the bombing of F-16s (I learned later on). I ran from my bed through our dark house, and seeing no one from my family inside, I ran without shoes into the street. People were out in the street, young men running. I didn't understand, didn't know what I was doing other than that I was running but didn’t know to where. Most people's windows were down, shutters closed, as it is freezing cold at moment.

I was glad not to be injured by shattered glass and debris on the streets. I made it back home to write this on my laptop. But I’ve decided going back to sleep is not a good idea, no matter how exhausted I am. If I have to die (not my wish) , I want to be awake, so I know I’m dying, and by whom. Not asleep.

Mohammed

posted by Ola Eliwat, in Arab World, Palestine @ 11:17 PM, Email this post to friend

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Saturday, March 01, 2008

To Gaza, With Apology

Because you're a small city of a big Arab world, and a bigger Islamic world, who are both watching you burn from afar. Sorry because your kids are being slaughtered by weapons they've never heard of, their dreams are being nipped in the bud. Sorry for the elderly who are being humiliated, all in front of our eyes, for the women and men who are being mercilessly crushed to death under the heavy artillery, their homes demolished over them in their sleep…

Sorry because you've become nothing to us but a daily report on the news. Sorry because we're helpless, sorry before we watch you burn and do nothing but cry, and forget even to pray. Sorry because we've grown so numb, so senseless and so blunt. Sorry because in your suffering, we see our disgrace. Sorry because in your humiliation we see our own humiliation and bow our heads in shame. Sorry because we're too many powerless millions, standing with our hands behind our backs. Sorry because we turn a blind eye, sorry because we can't stand the sight of a little boy, face stained by blood and body wrapped with a green sheets, flowers scattered all over him as he's sound a sleep.

Sorry before we are what we are and you are what you are. Sorry because you have to burn before something inside us explodes. Sorry because you need to be destroyed before we wake up. Sorry because you need to be ruined before we learn the true meaning of bravery. Sorry because in you, the victim, we see the hero and the miracle.

Sorry, because we know you can’t accept this apology, and yet we offer nothing else.

Gaza Child Victim

posted by Ola Eliwat, in Arab World, Jordan, Palestine @ 12:15 PM, Email this post to friend

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Thursday, February 21, 2008

في القدس من في القدس إلا أنت

Amazing, A masterpiece, especially the last part...

والقدس صارت خلفنا, والعينُ تبصرُها بمرآةِ اليمين

تَغَيَّرَتْ ألوانُها في الشمسِ، مِنْ قبلِ الغيابْ
إذ فاجَأَتْني بسمةٌ لم أدْرِ كيفَ تَسَلَّلَتْ للوَجْهِ
قالت لي وقد أَمْعَنْتُ ما أَمْعنْتْ
يا أيها الباكي وراءَ السورِ، أحمقُ أَنْتْ؟
أَجُنِنْتْ؟
لا تبكِ عينُكَ أيها المنسيُّ من متنِ الكتابْ
لا تبكِ عينُكَ أيها العَرَبِيُّ واعلمْ أنَّهُ
في القدسِ من في القدسِ لكنْ
لا أَرَى في القدسِ إلا أَنْتْ

posted by Ola Eliwat, in Palestine, Poetry @ 10:12 PM, Email this post to friend

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

MIDEAST: No Lovers Got These Flowers

By Mohammed Omer

Where the flowers are going

Credit:Mohammed Omer

RAFAH, Gaza Strip, Feb 14 (IPS) - After generations of occupation, Valentine's Day has meant little in the Gaza Strip. But the flowers that lovers presented in Europe have.

Majed Hadaeid, 43, knows that better than most, as he watches livestock make a meal of the flowers he had hoped to export to Europe.

"I have 130 dunams (32 acres)," he says. "All carnations, in 30 different colours, and varieties yielding 16-17 million blossoms per year."

In all, about 480 dunams of plantation produce on average 60 million flowers a year in Gaza between mid-November and mid-May. The seasonal export brings five million dollars in revenue, and means 4,000 jobs.

Hadaeid's nursery is one of the largest. Farmers like him usually sell to the European floral exchange in the Netherlands for distribution. Valentine's Day on Feb. 14 brings the largest sales.

This year, it did not.

Once Israel closed the border crossings, it also ended access to markets outside of Gaza. Israel requires all of Gaza's produce to go through Israel first.

Gaza is permitted to export 75 million flowers to the EU duty free. "This year we managed to export only five million flowers to the Netherlands," says Mahmoud Khlaiel, chairman of the Flowers Producers Benevolent Association in Gaza.

Hadaeid has had to lay off all 200 of his workers. Now his millions of blossoms serve as feed for goats, donkeys, camels and sheep. He says Israel's collective punishment will cost him more than a million dollars this season.

Hadaeid, one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the area, has now taken to day labour to feed his 13 children, aged six months to 20 years. The land on which he grows his flowers is on lease, and he risks losing his entire business. The profits he would normally use to pay for fertilizer, seeds, back wages and supplies are simply not there.

In Gaza, people unable to pay their debts often end up in debtor's prison, as in feudal era Europe. Hadaeid's future appears precarious. "I am not with Hamas or Fatah," he said. "I didn't vote for any party. Israel is to blame for this collective punishment for us all."

As with Hadaeid, so with others. Ayman Okal, a veteran of the industry for 14 years, stands feeding red carnations to a goat at a nearby nursery. "Every season I produce 8-9 million carnations for Christmas and Mothers Day," he says. "But Valentine's is the biggest." Except of course, this year.

Okal says the blockade has cost him around 600,000 dollars. He too has laid off his entire staff, and faces a dark future with six children to feed and a debt to pay off. Fortunately for him, he owns his land.

Producers have been asked to sign papers at the borders saying the flowers are not being exported "because Palestinian producers have decided not to continue shipping."

"This is not true," says Khlaiel. "Israel returns the flowers to Gaza after they are destroyed waiting at the crossings. It costs each grower four dollars to send each bouquet's pots, in addition to the cost of the flowers. Once destroyed through the delays, the grower still must pay the costs."

Flowers from Gaza are marketed in Europe under the brand name Coral. With Valentine's Day past, Mothers Day (May 11) is the last opportunity for growers to recoup a portion of their costs, regain their businesses -- and feed their families.

Farmers are appealing to the EU and to the Netherlands to pressure Israel to open the crossings.

posted by Ola Eliwat, in Palestine @ 4:05 PM, Email this post to friend

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