FREE FREE PALESTINE

Why?

2011-04-16T04:51:00.000-07:00

My Interview with Aljazeera International

2011-02-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

2010-10-29T03:45:00.000-07:00

Despite the Pain:A Youthbank Initiative in Gaza

http://www.dalia.ps/despite-paina-youthbank-initiative-gaza

When we think of the Gaza Strip, where the buildings bombed over a year ago still lie in ruins and the ground – visibly or not – is still stained with blood, it’s easier to think of suffering than inspiration. It’s easier to think of wounds than life, easier to imagine dust than light. It’s painful to envision a place where children can draw images of carnage and loss more readily than flowers or cartoons. When Gaza has cried out, the world has so seldom answered. And Gaza has not only asked Where is our justice? but also Where are our paintings? Where is our cloth? Where are our handicrafts? What can we create?

A group of young people (click here to see a report about them) from Gaza has asked these questions, and they have also answered them. Youthbank, a youth-led group that helps young people decide how to use resources and strengthen their own communities, decided to work together and create a Bazaar where young people who make products by hand (jewelry, embroidery, graphics, woodwork, pottery, food) could market and display their creations at the University of Palestine. Their work is not only energetic and resourceful; it is also inspiring in the truest sense of the world, borne of a spirit and resilience that refuses to be limited by the blows dealt to their home.

We at Dalia Association were struck and moved by Youthbank, and we wanted to connect our work to theirs. Among our goals is to make grants that support inspirational and relevant civil society initiatives, especially grassroots efforts that are supplement local resources. Community-controlled grantmaking increases the transparency, accountability and professionalism of local initiatives. We were excited by Youthbank’s work in Gaza in large part because it shares these goals: it supports youth initiatives by calling young Palestinians to present proposals and then allotting small grants for projects that aim to create social change. Facilitating creativity and change in Gaza felt all the more urgent.

Inspired by their mission, we gave a grant of $1200 to Youthbank in order to fund their Bazaar. This isn’t a great deal of money, but it creates many opportunities: to secure resources, to organize, to support each other, to network and build contacts, to improve their projects, and to market them effectively. The Bazaar required extensive planning and coordination: administrative tasks, meetings and communication both with the participants and with the university that housed them, arrangements with community organizations, marketing, financing, and so on. And the young organizers rose to the occasion every step of the way, showing exactly the kind of commitment and creativity that Dalia Association so admires. (Since Dalia Association cannot physically enter the Gaza Strip, the American Friends Service Committee in Gaza offered its help to Youthbank in their planning and reporting.)

The Bazaar itself was held for two days in December 2009, and it was a spectacular success. Around 450 people attended, and at least 200 purchased something – that’s an impressive percentage! What this means, too, is that people felt moved and impressed by the young people’s initiative and skill, and that they were compelled to support them. It’s possible to buy mass-produced, cheaply-made handicrafts for much less money, but this Bazaar was about something very different: community, strategy, and solidarity.

While the success of the Bazaar is certainly reflected in the quantifiable outcome (the number of participants, the number of purchases, and so on), the less tangible results are even more inspiring to us. By this we mean the way in which the participants, the young people themselves, gained skills and confidence from their work. Maha Al-Qdwa, a young woman who contributed embroidered handicrafts to the Bazaar, told Youthbank that she wanted to start her own small business selling jewelry and crafts. Another participant, Ahmad Abu-Za’iter, sold all of his products in the Bazaar, and expressed reassurance and renewed energy about finding other venues and securing other initiatives to sell his artwork. Clearly, the community project had been inspiring – to their community, certainly, but also to the young people themselves.

We were excited to sponsor a project that supported youth initiatives – both creative and entrepreneurial – and showcased their abilities. And we were moved to see this project make our core philosophy come alive. The Bazaar helped its young organizers build their capacities, but also realize the capacities they already had. It gave them a practical opportunity to participate in a complicated social and professional process and to see that they were more than successful. The project not only fulfilled its stated goals, but also opened new horizons for its participants, new ways to think about what they could do – as individuals and as a community so often categorized as a place of crisis, not creativity.

We’re grateful for the chance to work with Youthbank in Gaza, and we’re eager to keep supporting such inspiring initiatives!

Gaza's only fisherwaoman

2010-10-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

I respect journalists who show the beautiful stereotype about Palestine. Even though Palestinians live under the Israeli Occupation, they have a beautiful life to share with others. They prove the love of life in spite of challenges.

“No or Bad Signal”

2010-10-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

This evening, I went with a friend of mine to watch the football game between Realmadrid and AcMilan. At first, we went to different coffee shops around in Gaza city but they all were already packed with football fans. Eventually, we found this coffee shop with enough room inside for both of us, we were happy at last although we didn’t get to be outside with the “crazy” fans. Jamil and I were excited just like all the people around us; and one could feel the spirit and the excitement around the place. A lot of young people in Gaza enjoy watching football and cheering for their favorite teams; I believe it is a way for them to let all the stress out and enjoy their time for a little. However, it started becoming more obvious that it is defiantly not our night. Thanks to the Israeli reconnaissance aircraft that buzzed overhead throughout the whole night, the T.V. signal was quite bad during almost the whole game. The signal starts fading out until the alert message “No or Bad Signal” came up on the screen. The Israeli army uses the reconnaissance aircrafts to monitor activities in the Gaza strip, they are also used for bombing and shelling targets in different places all over the Gaza strip. The aircraft affects negatively the satellite TV receivers by jamming the T.V. signals. The fact that does really matter at the end is that whether used for operations or for only monitoring, reconnaissance aircrafts are devastating Palestinians’ life.

Despite the terrible situations people have been living under the siege in Gaza since 2007 and despite the continuous Israeli invasions, airstrikes and land operations, some residents of Gaza are still trying to enjoy any moments of life they could live as a normal life; like going to the beach on the weekends or even just watching football games on the T.V. While Palestinians are trying to endure the painful life, political leaders feel rather disappointed at the failure of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations; however they are not disappointed with the sufferings of the innocent people. In fact, they are not even considering any movements towards improving the life of those people in any way. The question here is are these football fans, who are Palestinians living under the Israeli occupation, more concerned with the unproductive Palestinian-Israeli negotiations or with stopping the Israeli army attacks against them so that they can, at least, peacefully enjoy watching a football game?

What interested me the most is that in spite of the terrible signal, the fans of both teams stayed until the last minute of the game, they were one example of the Palestinian who never abandoned his land despite Israeli aggression and violations of international law and human rights? From Gaza, I would like to say congratulation for Realmadrid’s fan and hard luck Ac Milan’s!

Please watch the film of the Let's Learn English project, first phase ....

2010-08-19T01:10:00.000-07:00

Freedom Black Day

2010-05-31T08:32:00.001-07:00

Today morning I got up on the horrific news about the Freedom Flotilla cargo ships. I haven’t expected that Israeli terrorists will deal with the Peaceful activists in this bloody way, they attacked them without caring about law nor humanity. I used to know that Israeli soldiers can easily kill Palestinians but to kill International activists who come to support people under siege and break it ... I cannot believe that but it's the truth . The Israeli navy killed more than 15 activists, detained others and the freedom ships. It's much obviously that Israelis are terrorists and act against humanity and human rights. They don't care about International law or they don't find anyone to stop them.... Who can Stop Israeli massacres against Palestinians and International Activist? Who can end the siege of Gaza? Who can end the Israeli Occupation of Palestine? If the leaders of this world don't want to stop the Israeli Terrorists, We are the people of this world must stop them. Everyone must take action against those terrorists to make this world safe and peaceful.

Shining Lights from out of the Darkness

2010-05-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

Mohammed Al Majdalawi

This mother has three daughters and two sons. “When they ask me to teach them English and I cannot give it to them, they ask me why.” she exclaims. “I explain to them that it is because I spent my whole life under occupation but this does not explain things any further to them, they still ask me ‘Why?’ and I am shy that I have no answer for them.” For a myriad of reasons she had dropped out of her prep school aged 13. Her family hadn’t been able to support her studies, the transport restrictions with Israeli checkpoints, the curfews, the extra demands to help her family and community in these difficult times, not to mention the pressures around starting her own family. Now she is determined that her children can have the opportunities of which she was deprived.

“So I come here to learn English and I hope that this will be the last time that we live like this, forever”.

So our project is intent on teaching English to women and their children with Ajyal Association, called ‘Lets Learn English’ focusing on rural areas. This project is winner of Youth for Change project and implemented in Ajyal Association for Creativity and development in the east of Gaza city. The project is funded by Takingitglobal , Bibliotheca Alexandrina , Zaatar Organization , Ajyal Association for Creativity and Development , and Palestine Youth Committee

During my work as both an assistant coordinator for English language teaching and as a documentary film director, I saw the hopes in the faces of many women and their children who want to speak and learn English. In this project we aim to teach children and their mothers, exploring creative ways such as songs, videos and participation in group and partner activities. We work with volunteers like social workers and English students in universities, using simple materials like my laptop, even recording songs mixed in Arabic and English.

For example, the song ‘baba means father, and mama means mother’. This is part of the lyrics of a song about names of family members and the kind of tool used for children and their mothers to use and remember them. Our group of trainers work together to design these classes, such as the personal information in English segment. Again we didn’t have the entire material available, but that didn’t stop us from creating our own materials from simple equipment

It is a delight when we saw mothers challenging each other, one asking the other in arabic, “If you’re so good at speaking English, can you translate ‘I’m drinking tea’?”, to which the woman replied, yes, “I am drunking tea”

It was one of many funny incidents as the women show no fear in their attempts to speak English. Another woman said not only was she continuing the teaching of English at home to her children, she had even begun to teach her husband too.

Sarah, a coach in the ‘Let's Learn English’ projects spoke about how the teaching methods were sinking in:

“When we had a revision class on days and months, colors, body, and time, I wrote on the board the letters of the alphabet and told the women to write a word for every letter. Many women specifically remembered the words taught in the class.

The Children in the Project

Another coach Shahd, describes his experience with the children from the ‘Let's Learn English’ project:

“Amani Abdelal is a very cute girl. She was waiting for me in front of the Ajyal Association, the Creativity and Development building. When she saw me coming, she ran to me to give me this card with a very pure smile. I was surprised by her kindness and very impressed by the simple way she had designed my name. I thanked her and asked her why she had made this beautiful card for me. She answered me saying that she loves me and loves learning English in this project. They were very simple words full of innocence. However, she affected me very much and she let me feel the taste of success.”

As a Palestinian in Gaza under a siege, a military occupation and still reconstructing our lives after the bombings in early 2009, I believe we must do what we can on the ground to bring a smile to people, giving them the benefits of the English language in a creative way. I also appeal to the international community and people who love peace and freedom to break the silence, take moral and legal action towards the people of Gaza, demanding the provision of basic needs, the minimum of international protection and work to support the rights of Palestinian people which for so long have been deprived, especially for children. Our children are our future, so we must work together so that we can make this future better than the present. The Universal declaration of Human Rights states that all children should have the right to education, and Palestinian children are as deserving as any others.

It’s Not Just Teaching English

2010-05-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

If you just read the project name, a normal class room with a teacher writing on the board will be the first thing comes to your mind. But no, for us it’s much more than that.

The targeted groups of Let’s Learn English project are the simple people who live in marginal area. The majority of them are poor. Families don’t own money to pay fees around 100$ to get English course in special institute. They don’t have computers in their houses. They also live sad situation as all Palestinians. Moreover, they live under the Israeli Siege on Gaza since 2006. They have lived under fire for 22 days in the last Israeli war on Gaza.

The main issue of Let’s Learn English project is Education. We work as a team to achieve other issues: Human Rights, they have the right of Education and Play. Besides, we try to facilitate Education by using technology and media in workshops. For example, we use the LCD, laptop, video, song and game in order to make Education process easy and interested.

In addition to peace and conflict issue, we deal with children, mothers and youth have been affected by Israeli Occupation in several and horrible ways. I have noticed through my experience in social work that people usually participate in psychosocial support projects and they asked them to talk about their suffering or they benefit from emergency and humanitarian aid programs. Honestly, they need that, but they also need projects that educate them about their needs and promote them to play a good role in the society.

In the Let’s Learn English project, we work with women to enable them finding the strength and power in themselves to help their children in studying. They need projects that tell them about the hope in the future not talking all the time about the sad memories. We are working to change the stereotype about the Palestinians that they are terrorists. We want to show the beautiful photos of our children when they are happy in learning about months by drawing on balloons not the usual bloody photos.

Palestinians must prove to the world that we are educated people and we deserve to live just like others. These women and children are real examples of Palestinian’s desire to create the better future, but the only thing standing in their way is ISRAEL.

Many thanks Tom

2010-05-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Adham Khalil is one of the great young advocates of nonviolent social change in Gaza today. Here is a brief clip from the forthcoming Joe Public Films documentary on Gaza. joepublicfilms.com

Adham Khalil, AFSC-Gaza from Joe Public Films on Vimeo.

Let's Learn English Project

2010-05-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

During our follow up to English teaching in Palestinian schools in the Gaza Strip, we have noticed that teachers use the old and normal teaching methods. As a result of that, students become uninterested in English language and they get low marks in English subject. In addition to the absence of families awareness of English language and teaching methods which affect negatively on their roles in helping their children to learn positively and do their home works.
Children are more interactive with games, music, and activities. So that, they will like to learn English if we use these methods through the process of education.

Objects of the project :
• Enhance the capacity of 7 English students in teaching English.
• Improve English language for 60 children .
• Improve English language for 60 women.
• Improve English language for 60 families.
• Improve English language for 30 youth.

This project is winner of Youth for Change project and implemented in Ajyal Association for Creativity and development in the east of Gaza city. The project is funded by Takingitglobal , Bibliotheca Alexandrina , Zaatar Association , Ajyal Association for Creativity and Development , and Palestine Youth Committee.

You can keep in touch with us at the Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114620808567169&v=wall&ref=mf

Nonviolent Response to the Gaza Incursion

2010-04-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

She was like An Angel

2010-04-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

She was like an angel when I saw her dancing with a group of classmates in Alassria Cultural Center in Jabalia Refugee Camp. I didn’t see her for three years. I asked my friend Abdallah Abuzaiter, the instructor “isn’t she the girl from Abulaish family who joined our summer camp in Alassria before three years, didn’t she die in the last war on Gaza ?”. Abdallah says: “No Adham, she is still alive, don’t you see here in front of your eyes? She is Esraa Abulaish, who joined the summer camp and was with you in the song corner”.

Honestly, I didn’t believe Abdallah and asked her to come, to check myself she is Esraa. Yes, she is Esraa, Thanks GOD. Sadly, I thought Esraa was killed during the war when Israeli missile targeted their house. I didn’t remember her name at the horrible time of the war. Now I realize the truth that she is not the daughter of Dr. Ezzaldeen Abulaish, He is her uncle and the four girls who were killed are her cousins, Besan 20, Mayar 15, Aya 14 and Noor 14 years old.

Esraa is 11 years old. She has a strong desire and continues her life despite of the massacre she witnessed during the war on Gaza.

She is still the lovely girl I met in the summer camp. I talked with her but didn’t mention to my previous thought that she was killed and the tragedy death of her cousins trying not to remind her of the horrific memories.

She went back to the activity with a shiny smile and keeps dancing with the group like a little angel.

I wish Esraa and the Palestinian children all the happiness and peace in their life.

Please kindly watch this report about the tragedy of Dr. Ezzaldeen Abulaish family. He is a messenger of peace and serves in Palestinian and Israeli Hospitals. He is nominated for Nobel Peace Prize and surely he deserves it.

Post Recovery after the War

2010-02-04T06:48:00.000-08:00

Rubble,

big holes in the wall, broken windows and doors; Moreover, the black room is burnt by phosphorous.

This is what we found in Mohamed Alareer's house when we visited him in Alshaaf area to the East of the Gaza City. Mohamed was nominated by local partner organization for the house repairing project . His family consists of 10 members, 6 of them are under the age 18. Mohamed has no work and depends on humanitarian aid to feed his children. During the last war on Gaza , his house has been targeted with phosphorous by the Israeli Army missiles and two departments were partially destroyed.

After the war, he lives with his family in the ground floor with his son who is married, the place is too small that the family cannot adapt living in. Mohammed Alareer is financially unable to repair his house and is waiting international organization to help in repairing the house. American Friends Service committee Quakers has decided to include his house in the House Repairing project as he deserves that besides his case meets the criteria of the project.

Alareer Family feels happy and welcomes us saying that it will be a good thing to make their life better and comfortable. After the field visits assessment, we decided to build the big holes and plaster them, painting the burnt black room and make a door and window and the finishing for the department.

Honestly, the money we have for each house does not cover the needs of repairing the house completely, but the house becomes suitable to live in and it protects the family from the cold of winter.

What surprised me when I visited him to put the poster of the project and to sign the implementation contract, that he decided to complete repairing the house saying, “ Quakers encourages me to make recovery and repair my house"

Here is another sad story, Akram Khader's family who lives in Beitlahia to the north of the Gaza Strip. The father was killed during the war when Israeli Army targeted his house by a missile. The family escaped from the house and the father refused to get out in order to take care of the house. The family came back and found their father dead. The missile partially destroyed the house. We, in the project build the big holes and make a door and a window enabling the family to live safely in the house.

All families live sad and horrible conditions during the war. Besides, all families are still affected as a result of the Israeli siege which is imposed since July2007. They are suffering from the lack of food, medicine and construction materials as a result of closing borders and preventing entry of basic materials by the Israeli occupation.

House repairing project is a joint project between AFSC and AFSC’s partner youth groups engaged in Youth Bank and funded by UUSC in August 2009.

The main goal of the project is to re-establish a sense of normalcy in the lives of people, especially young people, aftermath the recent war in Gaza, by engaging youth in the physical reconstruction of their communities.

RadioActive 1/14/10

2010-01-18T15:52:00.001-08:00

Tom Jackson , American film maker. He visited Gaza Strip and train youth about film making with American Friends Service Committee . He talks about me in this radio interview .

RadioActive 1/14/10

Posted using ShareThis

Erased Wiped off the map

2010-01-12T15:52:00.000-08:00

I was interviewed in this film by Alberto Acre

We Will NOT FORGET........................

2010-01-02T13:45:00.001-08:00

War and asbestos holes

2009-10-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Walking through the narrow streets in Jabalia Refugee camp in northern of the Gaza Strip, we arrived to Mr. Basher Abueata's house. He lives with his family consists of eleven persons in a small and simple house. It covers by asbestos which is full of holes happened during the last war on Gaza when Israeli F16 shelled a house closed to his house. Fragments fell on his house and have made holes in asbestos.

He usually suffers in winter when it rains as water comes through holes inside rooms, so he used to put buckets under holes to collect water inside them.

Mr.Abueta is unemployed since 2000, the beginning of Intifada . He and his son Hasan 21 years old are suffering from Asthma.

His house was nominated to benefit from the project Post-War Recovery and Psychosocial Support for Gaza Youth.

This project is a collaboration between AFSC and AFSC’s partner youth groups engaged in Youth Bank and funded by UUSC in August 2009.

The main goal of the project is to re-establish a sense of normalcy in the lives of people, especially young people, following the recent war in Gaza, by engaging youth in the mental and physical reconstruction of their communities.

This project helps this family in covering their house by iron sheets." What you have done, improve my life, now I can use the salon after it covers by Iron sheets. Yesterday I felt the benefits of this project when it rained", said Abueta.

But the dream is not completed. Mr.Abueta's house needs more services. The bathroom, kitchen and doors need maintenance, so that he wishes the project to continue and serve people like him.

Mr.Abueta's case is one of 20 families who have benefited of this project in different places in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza kids eye kite-flying world record - 30 July 09

2009-07-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

Solidarity With Gaza Fishermen

2009-05-23T07:02:00.000-07:00

Everyday I hear in the news about firing on the Palestinian fishermen in Gaza. Yesterday I was invited to attend a strike to support the fishermen in Gaza port which was organized by the International campaign to end the siege on Gaza. Gaza fishermen take a risk to feed their children.

More than 3500 fishermen and 2000 work in related jobs of fishing are affected by Israeli navy attacks. They usually fire on them. Furthermore, they only allow for fishermen to fish up to 8 miles. So that, fishermen cannot fish the best. The best fishing begins at 18 miles out . Israeli navy attacks are opposed with Oslo accords of 1993stippulated that Palestinian fishermen are entitled to fish up to 20 nautical miles out.

Palestinian believe that this unjust siege must be broken. They keep demonstrating peacefully to aware the international community about the dangerous factors resulted by Israeli siege. Palestinian come united to support the poor fishermen.
George , a Grecian , member of international solidarity movement . he has come to Gaza on the first free boat .he said that :" I come here to support the Palestinian fishermen who suffer from the Israeli navy. since the end of war, 5 fishermen were injured, 14 boats were seized and 32 fishermen were abducted. He also add : we want to raise the attention for international community to the issue of fishermen and to establish international campaign to support them."

In OCHA report March 2009, Fishing is still restricted to three nautical miles from the coast, which prevents sufficient catches and limits profit. The damage inflicted on Rafah’s fishing stores during the hostilities has nearly halted fishing activities in Rafah. Fishing nets, rope, tiding twine, gas mantles and floats are in short supply

Don’t be selfish , think about Gaza Fishermen who have only two choices : to be poor or to work in dangerous conditions.
Now is the time to save the souls of victims.
Take action to break the siege
Make a pressure on your governments which keep silent on Gaza siege.
I wish world to move seriously using all ways towards breaking the siege on Gaza strip.

Rubble Can Be An Art !

2009-04-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

Life will not stop, I will challenge the Israeli occupation and rise up despite of the hurts, said : Shireen Shamia, 26 years old, a Palestinian art teacher. Shireen lives in Jabalia Camp in northern of Gaza Strip. She has lost Two of her brothers . Israeli Occupation army shelled her house around ten o'clock in the morning on 19 January 2009 by F16 warplanes where she lives with 20 of her family.

Before the war, she sent a letter to the ministry of culture asked to make exhibition for the olive tree, she would like to use the destroyed olive tree in order to change it from a rubble to a beautiful masterpieces.
What a pity, Israeli warplanes pilot has killed her dreams when targeted her house and damaged her art masterpieces and paintings .
How much strong is Shireen, despite all of sad situation she lives, the dream has become as a challenge. She has taken a decision to go on and make an exhibition on the rubble of her house titled "we will rise up despite of the hurts".

She presents this an exhibition to her two martyr brothers Zaher and Mohamed, all Palestinian martyrs, Palestinian prisoners, her family and relatives, Palestinian people live under siege and to whom support her in his artistic life .

On her brochure , I find her desired words, Shireen said : we will rise up despite of the hurts, the difficulties, the destruction, and the siege. The land embraces the olive tree for long time till destiny set them apart, their screaming penetrated my ears to the extent that my heart aches me. But I never give up and I didn’t stand the arms folded.
Therefore, I put the olive tree among my tools to start a dialogue in between, they decide to scratch the wood of the sad olive tree to turn it into an artistic masterpieces and immortal one. This true would witness the coward Israeli attack and to express the civilization and heritage of Palestinian and the strong well of patience and struggling people .

Shireen participated in many of exhibitions , one of them was titled The Sand of Palestine, she wanted through that to change the fragile sand into a rigid material in order to express the patience and the strong desire of continuity.

At the end, Shireen asks : for how long we live under siege , but she insists on that we will stay patience on this land .

2009-03-20T03:06:00.000-07:00

2009-01-16T01:14:00.001-08:00

Pachelbels Canon in D (My Favorite Version) - Lorie Line

Every second there is a bomb

2009-01-14T04:52:00.000-08:00

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10180.shtml

Adham Khalil writing from Jabaliya refugee camp, the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 13 January 2009

It is very horrible here. Today was the worst. There were lots of F-16s above us and white phosphorous falling from the sky.

I didn't sleep last night. The sound of shelling in the north and east kept us all awake.

Most of the time we don't have any electricity in my house. So when the power comes for an hour or two the whole family is busy. We charge our mobiles, pump water, bake bread. But I have seen so many horrible things on TV that sometimes I wish we could stay without power.

So far, my own family is okay but I feel shy to speak about my family. I don't think like that. Everyone in Gaza is my family. We are suffering collectively as we are being punished and forgotten collectively, and we are dying.

It is very dangerous here and everywhere in Gaza. By 5pm the streets are empty. Not even one person goes out of their homes in my area. But even in our homes, we are not safe. I swear sometimes I can smell death around us.

It is not true to say this is a war between Hamas and Israel. I am an eyewitness in Gaza and though you may think that Gaza is a country and Hamas is a great and powerful army, these are lies. The Palestinian factions do not own tanks, warplanes, or warships. They have homemade rockets, simple weapons. They cannot do anything against Israel's great and powerful army.

We are living under complete siege with daily killings and our houses destroyed. Hamas and other Palestinian factions are trying to defend Palestinians from the continuing massacres, invasions and air strikes. The Israeli occupation and actions in Gaza are terrorist actions, as are many of their actions and policies dating back to their ethnic cleansing campaign in 1948.

But I think this, right now, is the worst catastrophe I will see in my life.

I don't have any guns or weapons. I struggle by simply telling the truth. Many people have asked me if there is a way to send money or food. But what we really need is our freedom and an end to the fire.

Don't keep silent about the Israeli massacres and Holocaust against Palestinians. The demand for an end to this siege must be louder than the bombs that rain down upon us.

Adham Khalil is a resident of Jabaliya refugee camp and a youth leader at the al-Assria Children's Library. His blog, Free Free Palestine, is at http://nagyelali.blogspot.com.

This report was compiled from Adham's text messages and phone calls, and was adapted for publication by staff at Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) due to the difficulties imposed on Gazans to communicate freely with the outside world. To help MECA send more medical aid to Gaza for thousands of sick and injured people living under siege, visit www.mecaforpeace.org.

“We could hear their bodies burning” Gazans' testimonies raise fears over chemical weapons

2009-01-13T07:11:00.000-08:00

Date: 13 / 01 / 2009 Time: 12:23

Gaza – Ma’an – Everything was on fire; houses, sheds, trees.

Bombs, too, were everywhere, and with them came the white clouds. White phosphorous, the doctors are now saying, but that's disputed in Israel.

But for sure it was a night of terror. We were terrified. We thought we were going to burn to death.

Bombs were everywhere. That's what 27-year-old Fadia Al-Najjar kept saying. She's from Khaza'a; she was telling us what kind of horrific night she and her family had just gone through.

While explaining what had happened, Fadia stood next to her paramedic husband Ghanem, now surrounded by other medics, desperately struggling to save his life after he was caught in an airstrike unlike he had ever seen before.

Ghanem was incapacitated while on duty trying to bring injured Palestinians to the hospital. There had been calls reporting mysterious white smoke in the latest airstrike, and Ghanem was dispatched to attend to the wounded. He was on duty when he inhaled some of the smoke.

"The shelling with phosphorous bombs started in Khaza'a. Two of the bombs hit the area around our house,” Fadia explained. She recalled how the fire spread quickly throughout the home, and white smoke billowed out the windows.

"Neighbors were screaming, asking for help; the fire was changing," she remembers. "I woke up my kids, got them to my parents’ house, hoping to find a safer place."

"But the real catastrophe was two hours after we had moved to my parents’ house; bombs hit their home too and the fire spread everywhere. The top floor was burnt completely.”

It's not just her husband Fadia keeps watch over. In fact, the young mother has to split her time among the hospital's many wards. Her children have also been hospitalized.

"They wanted to burn us alive inside the house. There were 40 of us in there. Men, women, children,” she recalls of the second bombing. "We could hear their bodies burning."

"We didn't know where to go. Our house, my parents' house, my in-laws' house? All were burnt, damaged, destroyed. But where can we go in this weather? It's very cold."

Zakaya

Another relative, 51-year-old Zakaya, said she struggled to make sense of the chaos and confusion of trying to find her injured family members at Naser Hospital in the northwest of Gaza City.

Zakaya told Ma'an that she barely remembers what happened, "but at about 10:00pm we heard explosions in several areas of Khaza'a, coming closer and closer."

"We live so close to the border wall (targeted by Israel), so we were just so afraid; our fear reached a maximum level."

"The children were asleep, so I tried to wake some of them because I felt our home was no longer safe," she says. "And all of the sudden bombs fell all over our two-story house."

"White smoke filled the house, and suddenly fires were spreading inside," Zakaya explained while checking on her children at the hospital's intensive care unit.

"We started screaming; we were so scared. I started to get the kids outside but the bombing went on and six more bombs fell on our house."

After the sixth bomb hit the home Zakaya and those her family was able to get out of the home were forced to abandon those left in the building. The fire was too hot and the smoke too intense and no one could get back inside.

"The smoke was spreading so fast; we couldn't see through it. We couldn't see, but we could hear.” From the windows of the burning home the cries of her children and cousins filled the streets. “The cries were not just from my home, but from the neighbors' house too."

Paramedics arrived and evacuated some of the last who were rescued from the building. They braved the smoke and were able to rescue a few others before the entire building was engulfed in flames.

Adel

According to 48-year-old Adel Kdeih, the night was calm before the bombs hit. Now that he knows what it was, that it was phosphorous, "it just makes the situation that more horrible."

Kdeih came hurrying to the hospital to check up on his children injured by the phosphorous, but he also remembers how tired he was. He was in great shock, numb, when he told Ma'an how the "dozens of incendiary bombs fell on civilian houses."

"We could hear women and children screaming in fear," he says.

Many of the bombs fell on the courtyard of his house. "I hurried inside the house to wake up my twelve children. I was able to evacuate the house with the help of paramedics and others from the [Hamas-run] civil-defense team."

"When I was evacuating the house I saw a lot of houses and fields being burnt, too,” he recalls.

The doctor

Dr Yousef Abu Ar-Reesh, the medical director at Nasser Medical Center, said more than 90 patients were brought in for burn treatments Sunday night.

"Most of them were skin burns, lacerations and deep wounds. A lot of them came in choking, unable to breathe," he explains.

He explained that as far as he can tell the Israeli army is using two kinds of bombs,"The first causes severe skin burns and leads to death, as with 41-year-old Hanan Al-Najjar here, and others."

"The second kind leads to suffocation, congestion, the inability to breathe.”

Dr Ar-Reesh said that he cannot confirm that the bombs are white phosphorus, since there are no specialized laboratories in Gaza. The eyewitness reports and the type of injuries he has seen in the hospital, however, worry him.

"What is certain” he said, “is that the Israeli government is using a new kind of bomb and explosives that Palestinian medics have never even heard of."

"Not even the Arab medical teams who just arrived can give us any support," he says.

The doctor pointed out that the wounds and burns are "terrible and horrific."

"And they can lead to death, as with Hanan Al-Najjar, who burned to death when a shell directly hit her body.”

When asked if Israel is deliberately using weapons that are illegal under international law for use against civilians, Dr Ar-Reesh chooses his words carefully: "I can't rule that out."

Some Israeli soldiers choosing jail over Gaza operation

2009-01-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

Date: 12 / 01 / 2009 Time: 21:30

Bethlehem – Ma’an – For the first time since Israel launched its massive air, sea and ground assault on the Gaza Strip, at least ten soldiers have opted for prison terms rather than going through with their deployment.

On "conscience’s grounds," the Israeli troops refused orders to head to the Gaza Strip, preferring a 14-day prison stint and rounding criticism from fellow soldiers and society at large.

At least ten are awaiting trial for violations of orders, saying they cannot go through with them.

No'em Levna, a first lieutenant in Israel's army, refused to serve in Gaza, saying, "We killed 900 Palestinians in 17 days, including hundreds of children."

"If violence must be used, it should be used minimally, and that isn't what’s happening," he added. "Killing innocent civilians cannot be justified. Nothing justifies this kind of killing. It’s devilish."

"It is Israeli arrogance based on logic. It’s saying, 'if we hit more, everything will be okay,'" he said. "But the hatred and anger we are planting in Gaza will rebound on us."

Red Cross: Israel blocked ambulances from wounded

2009-01-09T01:23:00.000-08:00

Date: 08 / 01 / 2009 Time: 14:16

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) discovered “shocking” scenes, including four small children next to their dead mothers, when rescue workers gained access to the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza on Wendesday.

The Zaytoun area has been heavily shelled by the Israeli military since Saturday. Until Wednesday the Israeli military had made it impossible for medics to reach the area, ICRC said.

The ICRC, in an unusually harsh statement, is accusing the Israeli army of failing to fulfill its obligations to protect civilians in war.

When they finally gained access to the Zaytoun neighborhood, ICRC found another man alive, too weak to stand up. In all there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.

In another house, the ICRC rescue teams found 15 other survivors of this attack including several wounded. In yet another house, they found an additional three corpses. Israeli soldiers posted at a military position some 80 meters away from this house ordered the rescue team to leave the area which they refused to do. There were several other positions of Israeli soldiers nearby as well as two tanks.

"This is a shocking incident," said Pierre Wettach, the ICRC's head of delegation for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded."

Large earth walls erected by the Israeli army had made it impossible to bring ambulances into the neighborhood. Therefore, the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart. In total, the ICRC rescue team evacuated 18 wounded and 12 others who were extremely exhausted. Two corpses were also evacuated.

The ICRC was informed that there are more wounded sheltering in other destroyed houses in this neighborhood The ICRC said it would recover the remaining corpses on Thursday.

We will not go down by Mikhael Heart

2009-01-09T01:16:00.000-08:00

Israeli Terrorist propaganda is UNTRUTHFULL

2009-01-02T15:52:00.000-08:00

Dear all ,

It is not true to say " war between Hamas and Israel , It is Israeli terrorist occupation that have invaded and occupied Palestine since 1948 . I am eyewitness from Gaza , you may think that Hamas is a country has powerfull and great army , It is lies , Hamas and othere factions are trying to defend palestinians from the continuing masacres ,invasions,airstrikes.... Hey , Palestinian factions do not own tanks,warplanes ,warships and rockets ... They have homemade missiles , minds and simple weapons , they cannot do anything against Israeli great powerfull army , I think it is away to act our reaction to Israeli agressions and masacres against Palestinian civilians.

What are u waiting from Palestinians who live under complete siege , dailly killed and their houses destroyed .Are you waiting them to smile and thank Israelis ?!

Human who keeps sillent of Israeli masacres and Holocaust against Palestinian is main part of it .

UN: Israel committing "wanton aggression" in the Gaza Strip

New York - Ma'an/UN - The behavior by Israel in bombarding Gaza is simply the commission of wanton aggression by a very powerful state against a territory that it illegally occupies.

Time has come to take firm action if the United Nations does not want to be rightly accused of complicity by omission.

The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war.

Those violations include:

Collective punishment - The entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants.

Targeting civilians - The airstrikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely populated area of the Middle East.

Disproportionate military response - The airstrikes have not only destroyed every police and security office of Gaza's elected government, but have killed and injured hundreds of civilians; at least one strike reportedly hit groups of students attempting to find transportation home from a university.

I remind all member states of the United Nations that the UN continues to be bound to an independent obligation to protect any civilian population facing massive violations of international humanitarian law - regardless of what country may be responsible for those violations.

I call on all member states, as well as officials and every relevant organ of the United Nations system, to move expeditiously not only to condemn Israel's serious violations, but to develop new approaches to providing real protection for the Palestinian people.

***H.E. Mr. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann is president of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. He issued this statement at UN Headquarters in New York on 27 December 2008.

Happy New Year Gaza

2008-12-31T12:42:00.000-08:00

Ibrahim a friend sent me a massege on my mobile said : look outside .. F16 warplanes are smilling for you, missiles are dancing for you, "Zanannaa" the discovery planes are singing for you, because I have requested them all wishing you" Happy New Year"

Barak wants to win the Election by the Palestinian blood

2008-12-30T15:55:00.000-08:00

The Israeli terrorist gavernment is going on committing a holocust against palestinian , since the black Saturday more than 380 were killed 1600 injured , they are lieng on israeli as they are making this war to bring safety for israeli, they use palestinian blood to win the israeli election .

SIEGE IS STILL KILLING US

2008-12-08T05:29:00.000-08:00

HI .... SORRY TO TAKE LONG TIME TO POST , IT IS OUT OF MY HAND , MOST OF DAY POWER CUT , I AM WRITTING U ON LABTOP BATTERY ..
IN FACT BEFORE A WEEK , WE DEMONOSTRATED BESIDE IREZ CROSS BORDER , AGAINST THE SIEGE WHICH IMPOSED ON GAZA STRIP BY ISRAELI OCCUPATION .. THERE WAS A PRESS CONFERANCE IN WHICH QUIEVA , MEMBER OF FREE GAZA MOVEMENT FOR BREAK SIEGE , I WAS TRANSLATOR AND MEMBER OF PALESTINIAN NATIONAL INITIATIVE WHICH RESPONSIBLE OF THE DEMO ...
SHE SAID : THANKS ALOT , TIME OF POSTERS AND BANNERS ARE OVER , IT IS THE TIME OF REAL SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIAN . THE ISRAELI SIEGE IS A SHAME ON WESTERN AND ARAB COMUNITIES . YOU MUST BREAK THIS INJUST SIEGE , PEOPLE HERE ARE WITHOUT FOOD , COOKING GAZ , POWER .... AS ISRAELI MAKE COMPLETELY CLOSE OF THE BORDERS .
I THINK THIS PHOTO EXPRESS MY LIFE HERE ...

Beauty is still in Gaza

2008-09-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

Photos from Gaza

2008-08-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

Israeli soldier filmed shooting Palestinian

2008-08-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

An Israeli human rights group has released graphic video footage obtained during clashes between Israeli troops and demonstrators protesting against the separation barrier on the West Bank.

The video has sparked outrage, as it shows what appears to be an Israeli soldier shooting a Palestinian at close range.

Youth Undrer Occupation

2008-07-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT WITH FISHERMEN IN GAZA

2008-06-18T11:59:00.001-07:00

I participated in this event as i refuse the injust siege which imposed on Gaza strip by Israeli occupation .

Statistics about the impact of Israeli siege on Gaza Strip :

March 2008:Israel kills 140 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, one third of them children

Siege victims in Gaza over 185 in less than a year of blockade,

1562 patients in need of treatment outside Gaza Strip

322 patients are in serious danger and in need of urgent treatment

22 money holistic are suspended from work due to the siege

107 class of basic medicines are depleted from Gaza Strip

97 sorts of medicines on the verge of depletion

136 medical instrument are stopped or our of order

6 months, Gaza with closed crossings and borders

160 thousand workers are out of work

3000 fishermen become out of work due to siege

$370 millions are the costs of stalled construction projects ,

$14 million are the wastage of strawberry and flowers season

44500 strawberry farmers become out of work
470 cancer patients are likely to die
Gaza is out of fuel but oil cooking for cars
$120 million are the wastage of the industrial sector
$55 million are the wastage of the agricultural sector
65% of stores works are decreased
650$ is the rate of annual income per capita
85% of citizens are under poverty line
20-30 food lorries inter Gaza Strip instead of 300 in the past
570 thousand of wooden industries workshop are closed
$58 million are the losses of wooden industries
100% of textile factories are closed
25 thousand of textile workers became jobless
67 thousand factories employee become out of work
96% of factories are closed
$370 millions are the costs of stalled construction projects

Houses From Gaza

2008-06-13T06:49:00.000-07:00

Step for peace , Hamas accepts six-month ceasefire in Gaza

2008-04-25T04:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday , i felt happy when i saw Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said that Hamas is prepared to accept a temporary ceasefire with Israel lasting six months, to begin in the Gaza Strip. The deal would then extend to the West Bank under Egyptian mediation . but i felt Angry this morning when i hear the israeli official response positivly to hamas offer .
in fact , it is hapitual thing that israeli refuse any seeks for stopping voilence and make peace ,
when Olmert meets Abbas ,he tells him u have to stop palestinian resistance militants groups and after that we talk about peace . In Nablus , Fayyad Government collected palestinian fighters weapons as a first step to imose the security plan . on contrary , israeli replied after one day by invading Nablus ?!
israeli accused hamas by terrorist and exremist faction , hamas now offer cease fire , why this world and israeli not use this time that hamas will accept two countrys silutions , cease fire , 1967 lines . it is like what Abbas wants and he cannot give up more .
i hope israeli to think again about hamas offer , because we want to finish this bleeding . it is enough ...

Take The Siege Away- A call from Gaza

2008-04-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

Israeli Holocaust

2008-03-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

Two Stories from the Israeli Holocaust to Palestinians

Two weeks ago , Hassan Abu Safi , aged 20 , one of my relatives visited my house to invite us to his wedding party . I asked him to have a drink , he replied :" I am busy , I have to invite other people" . I went with my Family to his party and it was wonderful in which he was so happy , dancing with people . One week later of his Party , Israeli occupation army had invaded the eastern Part of Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip where Hassan lives with his family . His neighbors' house had been bombed earlier that day, and Hassan had been shuttling the neighbors to the nearest medical care. When Hassan returned home, he went to his bedroom and was talking on the mobile phone on the balcony when an Israeli soldier aimed and shot him in the head. The ambulance faced difficulties to take him from the house .
Even the Israeli tanks surrounded the house , Hassan's mother with her sons put themselves in danger and went to the hospital , they found Hassan in Death freezer .
Hassan's family cannot bury him, because they were sequestered in one room in their house. The Israeli army has taken over the rest of the house to use as a sniper base.
Finally Hassan's father called his wife and sons : " wait until tomorrow afternoon , If I cannot come , go and burry him " . What a pity , the Israeli still took over the house and they couldn't participate in his funeral . Hassan was buried and his wife , Father were still sequestered in one room .

Mohammed Al Borie , 5 months , he was born after 5 years of his parents got married . He was killed when Israeli aircraft shelled the area where he was with his parents , their house is a simple one that cannot carry out the fragments of Israeli rockets . Mohammed , the alone son was killed in Israeli Holocaust .
Hassan and Mohammed are two of 118 were killed , One third of the victims were children , 320 were injured in this militant operation .

Eid-Al-Adha under the Israeli siege on Gaza Strip

2007-12-19T16:49:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day of Eid-Al-Adha in which all Muslims in the whole world celebrate: Men, women, and children are expected t o dre ss in their fine st clothing to perform Eid prayer in any mosque . Muslims who can afford to do so s acrifice their best domestic animals (usually sheep, but also camels, cows, and goats) as a symbol of Ibrahim's (Abraham's) sacrifice. According to the Quran a large portion of the meat has to be given towards the poor and hungry people so they can all join in the feast which is held on Eid-Al-Adha. The regular charitable practices of the Muslim community are demonstrated du ring Eid-Al-Adha by the concerted effort to see that no impoverished Muslim is left without sacrificial food during these days. People in these days are expected to visit their relations, starting with their parents, then their families and friends.
Since I was born on this occupied land, I have heard people around me saying, “We hope that the next Eid-Al-Adha will be come and to celebrate at same time that Palestine will be liberated from the Israeli occupation, establishing our independent state and Jerusalem as a capital of it and refugees return to their native homes.”
In fact, the situation here has deteriorated. Israeli occupation has continued it's policy against Palestinian civilians, killing Palestinian civilians, imposing siege, poverty and unemployment range is increasing, destroying Palestinian houses and also increasing of prisoners and settlements numbers... Every Palestinian family celebrates Eid with big pain because all of them have had the sad experience of losing someone, have been injured or prisoners or they have are homeless .
Today, the 43rd patient died as a result of imposing siege on Gaza Strip. Yesterday, 13 Palestinians were killed by Israelis through assassination operations, targeting them by Israeli helicopters and discovery planes.

Gaza celebrates Eid except the suffering:
The United Nations office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs made a report about the economical situation in Gaza strip in which they said:
- More Gazans than ever need food and direct assistance;
- Fuel shortages have threatened essential services and water supply;
- Life-saving treatments are not available in Gaza’s hospitals;
- 17 per cent of patients with referrals were refused exit for treatment in Israel, East Jerusalem or overseas;
- The on-going isolation of Gaza threatens the local economy;
- Baby milk, medicines, and cooking oil are increasingly scarce;
- Hundreds of businesses have gone bankrupt due to ban on imports/exports;
- Thousands of laborers have lost their jobs due to the collapse of the building industry;
- Building projects worth US$370 million are on hold indefinitely.
People are starving here while the international community is keeping silent. I, a Palestinian who is one of them, blame the United Nations, security council and everyone who witnesses our suffering .
Are you happy and proud of what happens here? Do not forget that you are a human as us: so where is the humanity? Is this the world that you are looking to live in?

Who is the terrorist ?

2007-09-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

I was checking Internet website in which I found a funny video clip about Osama Ben Laden who is considered a terrorist .

I think it is not important to discuss this issue by laughing or by saying bad things about Ben Laden ....every body should know that many of people follow Ben Laden and get convinced of his ideas ... West says that Bin Laden is a terrorist and East say that Bush is the terrorist ...i think it is complicated problem .... the problem that is defining the terrorism and who is the terrorist ? what is the difference between military resistance and terrorism ? and also we have to ask ourselves especially governmental and politics why they become terrorist s ?I think we have to say it frankly that they become like this because there are injustice in this world , there is a country who controls world ? there is no real democracy and equally in this world ?

I will give u an example of Palestinian case , all militants wings of Palestinian parties are considered terrorist wings ? simply because they fight Israel who has occupied their land , on the other hand Israeli who commits massacres in Palestine and Lebanon is considered as a peaceful state because America wants that ...........This is not justice world who keeps silent on American massacres in Iraq ,Afghanistan , Vietnam , ........So it is simple to finish terrorism from this world and make it safe if we give people their rights ....

Besides , i think West and USA must change their policy because in this time Extremist people will win finally and control every thing in Arab and Islamic world because they have strong ways to convince others , simply they will say to us ,look to American Army who has killed l people in Iraq and USA allows for Israeli to kill Palestinian and Lebanese , we must fight them ..... what u want us to say for them ...........
So Who is the terrorist ?????????

Gilad Shalit is not better than Palestinian prisoners

2007-06-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

Since one year , Gilad Shalit has been kidnapped by Palestinian strugglers in military operation from his military camp which settled on Palestinian land .
Gilad Shalit says On broadcast audiotape : I am sick, I miss my family and my friends; respond to the demands of the mujahideen; don’t leave me in captivity!" With these words, Shalit opened the first recording of him since his capture in Gaza a year ago.
All the world stands especially Israeli community interested to listen to this audio type making solidarity with him asking the Palestinian strugglers to release him , otherwise all the world still keep silent about more than 10000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli Jails , everyday , Israeli army occupation kidnap Palestinian political leaders , civilians without any accuse and put them in jails .
On the other hand ,the Palestinian strugglers who have kidnapped the Israeli soldier want to release him because they kidnapped him to exchange him with Palestinian prisoners whose number more than 10000 prisoners . The kidnappers requested the release of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners to be released for Shalit, including children, women, the elderly and the unwell.
Israeli Prime Minister Olmert said during the Sharm Al Sheikh summit that he would suggest to his government to release 250 prisoners from the Fatah movement who do not have blood on their hands .
Israeli policy try to divide Palestinian by releasing Fateh prisoners , so what about others M. Olmert aren't they Palestinian ? Besides, He said that he will not release prisoners who do not have blood on their hands , M. Olmert and Israeli forgetten that those prisoners love life and also their families but they sacrifice themselves towards Palestine , they choose to be strugglers against Israeli racist occupation . I think who must be in jails are the Israeli leaders and soldiers who have Palestinian blood on their hands as Gilad Shalit who was captured in a tank that was used to killed Palestinians ,destroyed many of agricultural land and houses , Isn't he one of killers who deserve to be in Jail .
Noam Shalit, the father of kidnapped Israel occupation Forces soldier Gilad Shalit said in the open letter to his son that he published in the Palestinian daily Al Quds is " We in the family, your mother, your father, Hadas and Yoel, hope you feel well and are managing despite the tough conditions, the winter and the difficult situation you have been in for over six months. My Gilad, we miss you very, very much and want to see you with us and hug you tight, and so does the whole family and all your friends from school. We hope it will be very soon."
Palestinian child asking to release her father from Israeli jails :
Oh my father! Why they deprive me from you.
They had arrested you
before I kiss you, only one kiss.
Even before to wipe my mother’s tears.
Oh, my occupied childhood!!
I am a flower of Palestine.
Number of my identity is seventy thousand.
I have not seen you since rising the sun.
Feast follows other feast.
And you still standing behind iron bars .
Oh,Hey. ..you kissing your sons every morning.
I want my father back, I want my father back.
The question is how can Gilad be released while more than 10000 Palestinians still in Israeli jails ? I think the Israeli government must think about others , Gilad is a human and Palestinian prisoners are also humans , so Israeli u have to understand this method that Gilad Shalit is not better than Palestinian prisoners .

Palestine and Italy ,Sport Under The Siege

2007-04-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Always travelling means that visiting safe and beautiful places to interest the beauty of nature spending fantastic time, palying , swimming , drinking and dancing .
44 Italian youth left their country to visit Occupied Palestine , they visited Jerausalem , Jericho and Gaza Strip which Potentially will be identified as the Fifth dangerous place in the world through the project " Sport Under The Siege " to share Palestinian their suffering simply trying to broken the siege which has been imposed on Palestine Yelling " Palestina Libera " .
In fact , i was with them all days they were in Gaza , we organized for them a schedule in which they visited many of cultural centers , played with Palestinian football teams , interesting places . i like thier faces which is full of hope and solidarity with Palestinian . I talked with all of them trying to know every things make them Palestinian's supporters , i hold interview with three Of them Sarah and Corrien asking them a few questions :

Why do you support Palestinians?
Sarah : Because they have been oppressed since 1948. I am against every kind of restriction to human freedom, that’s why I support Palestinian people. And more, in recent years, since the beginning of the second Intifada, the restriction to freedom has become more and more strong, with the construction of the wall.
Corrine : The Palestinian issue has always been something carried out in the structure I come from which is a social center called Corto Circuito. We always felt the injustice that you had to face since 1948. We always talked about the political situation both by demonstrating in support of you and against the Israelis government. When I read about Palestine I think about your sufferings, the lack of freedom and also about the miss treatments, the unjust killings, the unharmed civil society..the poverty you were pushed to, the unemployment
Why do you participate in “sport under the siege”?
Sarah : For the same reasons, more or less. I think the “sport under the siege” project is a good way to keep in touch with palestinian people, as a demostration of our soliarity towards them.We know how difficult it is for you to travel out of Palestine, so meeting foreign people, especially in Gaza, it is important for you.
Corrine : Sport Under the Siege was an idea that brought together two of the things we carry out in our social center, the need to yell out the truth of what is happening in palestine and our love for sports, football in particular. In the social center we have a gym and a football field. The gym's activities started almost 10 years ago when we tried to give an alternative to the kids and teenagers who lived in the streets most of their times in a borough, in the periphery of Rome, lacking of infrastructures and places where to hangout. It was a high bet, but we succeeded in giving them this alternative, adding to the simple practice of sports the instruments to become critical towards a society that wants us without ideas and things to fight for...against who wants us to be numb. After several years we understood the potentials that the practice of sport has. So we thought, why don't we try to use it also as a means for cooperating with someone who we already support politically? The practice of sport means living, living means resisting. We thought that sport could have given you a little bit more freedom, the possibility to move, to share some time with someone you could not see otherwise, to meet different cultures and spend some time together sharing ideas and views. I play football but not at a professional level, it is most of the time an excuse for me to meet with my friends and spend some time together .
What did you feel when you played football with Palestinians feminine ?
Sarah : It was great.For me, as a woman, it was really good to see that young girls keep on living also thanks to the fact they play football. I’m not a real football player but I had fun. More than this, the feminine teams we played against, in Gaza and in Jericho, were really good.
Corrine : This time playing football was an excuse to meet Palestinian people and see with my eyes what is happening in all the territories. It was a great experience, no matter who won or who lost. The girls we played against with had never met another girls team, or if they did it was not an easy issue. There is no other team in the GAza strip which plays football; we gave them the chance to confront themselves with someone else, and this is really important when you practice sports. The day ended with the promise that we will meet again..it is important to have something to look towards to.
What are you going to tell your people about Palestine?
Sarah : I’m going to tell simply what I’ve seen. Tell Italian people that the things Europeans journalists write about Palesatine are not completely the truth. I’m going to tell te good times we spent with you, triyng to forget that you are still living under occupation. The time we spent in the Erez checkpoint, while plaestinians were left waiting for hours and hours.
I’ll try to describe the city of Jerusalem, were Palestinians have a Jordan passport.
I’ll try to explain the faults that Europe and the International Community have in your story.
Corrine : I'll tell my friend no more than what I have seen, a friendly nation. People that have the will and the strength to go on. No matter what, you keep on going on. You are strong, and your identity makes you stronger. I will talk about your suffering and also about the nice way you have treated me.
What is your mission after visiting Palestine?
Sarah : I think our “mission” is to talk about Palestine in our country, so that your story could not be forgotten.
Corrine: I am attending a master course in "human development and food security". I would love to come back and help also through my experience and studies, although the situation is not the safest. As you know we were looked after 24 hours a day by the police. But this would not prevent people from coming and helping you. Now that I know the way you behave I am sure that if any one would like to come and visit you he/she will face no problem if she or he is looked after as I was .
Did you feel safe in Palestine?
Sarah :I felt safe, but in our case we were always sourrounded by police. I can say that the situation in Gaza was much more less dangerous than what I expected. When in Europe you hear news about Gaza, it is always bad news.
Corrine : We were looked after 24 hours a day by the police,
so yes I did feel safe. Plus I had many friends (who I met in the previous editions of Sport Under the Siege) who stayed with me making me feel protected. The situation is different when you move in the West Bank.

Finally , I hope that all the people in the whole world make like those Italian youth who believe in humanity and human rights . No one force them to support Palestinian , they are convinced in our justice lasting peace and our rights to establish our country Palestine and Jerusalem as a capital . we need your support to broke this injustice siege which has been imposed by Israel and United States Of America , we need u voice to tell people the truth . I promise you
, I will not forget u vioces while yelling Palestina Libera , Palestina russa , Free Free Palestine .

Israeli has broken the cease fire agreement

2006-11-28T05:06:00.000-08:00

There is no different between West bank and Gaza strip , both of them are parts of Palestine land .... so if Israeli attacks Gaza or west bank , it is attack against Palestine .... Israeli hasn't stop attacking west bank since they announce on media that they make cease fire . They kill and arrested and invade places in West Bank .
Palestinians carry the body of Abdel-Razek Bakr, a militant from the Popular Resistance Committees, killed yesterday by Israeli Special Forces, during his funeral in Qabatiya near the West Bank city of Jenin, November 27, 2006.
Nazareth - Israel's war minister Amir Peretz has affirmed that killing of Palestinian citizens at the hands of the IOF troops in the West Bank was a legitimate action that would continue further.
Peretz affirmation came hours after IOF troops killed two Palestinian citizens in the West Bank town of Kabatya, south of Jenin city, in an obvious breach to the declared truce that went into effect Sunday morning.
He alleged that the truce applies only to Gaza Strip, and that military activities of the IOF troops in the West Bank will continue .
I think Palestinian have the right to resist occupation in any time which based on united nation resolutions but we do not at this time , because we obligated in cease fire which broken by Israeli while they still attacking West Bank ...... So world have to stop them before Palestinian react as a result of cease fire broken and Israeli violations to the truce .

Israeli occupation Army has committed a new massacre in Beit Hanoun

2006-11-08T02:25:00.000-08:00

Today morning , I got up on my mobile massage alert , I opened the massage in which I found breaking news from Ma'an Agency saying that 15 Palestinians are killed at least in Beit Hanoun and many innocent people are injured . I thought that was news from yesterday , so I open T.V to be sure and I found that is new massacre which committed today morning by Israeli Occupation Army.
before i forget i want to thank u Again for keeping silent , besides i want to ask u what is benifits from writting and make people in the world aware of what happen in Palestine , is writting stopping Israeli occupation army from killing Palestinians ? If not , how we can stop Israeli killing for Palestinian ..................................... ????????????!!!!

Israeli artillery bombardment of Beit Hanoun kills at least 18
injures over 35, many are women and children
Date: 08 / 11 / 2006 Time: 09:28
Gaza - Ma'an - Israel has renewed its assault on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 18 Palestinians on Wednesday morning.
Palestinian medical sources reported that dozens of Palestinian citizens had been killed or injured in an Israeli artillery bombardment of Beit Hanoun in the north of Gaza Strip. A large number of women and children were also injured in the shelling.
The sources said the preliminary number of the citizens killed is 18, but rising. In addition, more than 35 were injured. Many of the dead arrived at the hospital fragmented in pieces.
The bombing targeted the house of two brothers, Sa'ed and Sa'di Al-'Athamneh from Al-Kafarneh district in the town of Beit Hanoun.
Eleven members of the Al-'Athamneh family were killed, including a one-year old girl. The killed are:
Ne'meh Al-'Athamneh
Mohammed Al-'Athamneh
Mahmoud Al-'Athamneh
Mahdi Al-'Athamneh
Sa'ed Al-'Athamneh
Moha,med Al-'Athamneh
Fatmeh Al-'Athamneh
Nihad Al-'Athamneh
Arafat Al-'Athamneh
Dima Al-'Athamneh (1 year old girl)
Another young girl Ala' Al-'Athamneh
The medical services are identifying the rest of the dead but it is proving difficult to identify them due to their fragmented bodies and the critical condition in which they arrived at the Kamal 'Udwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya. In Kamal 'Udwan Hospital, there are 12 dead and in Kamal Naser Hospital there are 4 dead. The number of people killed is raising by the minute.
Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli artillery bombed the houses while the residents were sleeping, resulting in the large number of casualties. Palestinians are comparing this massacre to the Qana massacre by the Israeli army in south Lebanon 3 months ago.
The government spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, appealed to the international community on the Al-Jazeera satellite channel to mobilize and stop Israel carrying out such massacres against unarmed Palestinians.

50 Palestinians were killed ,Thank u for keeping silent

2006-11-05T10:28:00.000-08:00

Thank you International Community ….
Thank you United Nations ….
Thank you U.S.A ….
Thank you Europe….
Thank you Arab's world ….
Thanks for all people in the world ….
Actually u work hard to make world more safety , equally , democracy and human rights . . All of u agree unanimously on fighting terrorists and violence , and u have invaded many of countries as Iraq and Afghanistan in excuse to eradicate terrorists , dictators seeking to spread democracy and safety . But I do not know if u have heard about Palestine which have been occupied by Israeli illegal , racist occupation who killing them by several weapons including forbidden weapons in cold blood , imposing complete siege on them , divided their land for big jails ,imprisoning more than ten thousands including children and women ...........Besides , I am sure that u know well about the Palestinian resistance and struggle which called in your propaganda which is full of lies as the Palestinian terrorism and Israeli victims who kill and live in un safety situation because of Palestinian terrorists .
Any way ,Palestinian will continue their struggle and resistance what ever you call them instead of liberation of Palestine with Jerusalem as capital and get their rights …
Finally , …. Palestinians will not lose anything , you who will lose . Time is left and u have to revise yourselves , stop supporting Israeli terrorism and crimes against humanity ………
Date: 05 / 11 / 2006 Time: 10:56
Gaza - Ma'an - The death toll of the Israeli Operation: Autumn Clouds has raised to 50, after nine Palestinians were killed on Saturday. So far, in repeated incursions and aerial attacks, 250 have been injured, including 38 in a critical condition.
Security sources said that Mazin Shabat, 38, was killed when an Israeli sniper shot him near the Erez crossing point, north of Beit Hanoun. Shabat had been arrested by the Israeli forces in the area, but was released a short time afterwards, only to be shot by a sniper, just minutes after his release. His relative, Zahir Shabat, was also critically injured.
Isra-a Talal Nasser, 15, was shot in the head by Israeli forces yesterday
In Al-Awda hospital, north of Jabalia refugee camp, Ammar Riziq died of wounds sustained when Israeli jets first attacked the Beit Hanoun area.
Earlier on Saturday, two brothers were reported to have been killed by Israeli forces in Beit Hanoun. Ali and Issa Naouq, 23 and 18, were killed in the Abd Rabbo area, east of Beit Hanoun. According to Palestinian security sources, the brothers were activists of the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the nebula of militant groups affiliated with Hamas.
Also on Saturday, Raed Siyam, 22, was killed, and three others injured, one critically. It has been alleged that the four men were also al-Qassam Brigades activists. They were also attacked in the Abd Rabbo area, east of Beit Hanoun.
Adwan hospital sources said that many injured Palestinians were transported to the hospital with their limbs amputated by a new type of weaponry, previously unseen in the Gaza Strip.
On Saturday morning, Loay Bournou was killed by Israeli forces while traveling in his car. Ibrahim Basiouni was also killed in the east of Beit Hanoun.

Every day as yesterday in Palestine

2006-11-01T06:52:00.000-08:00

Every day as yesterday , there is no change , Israeli occupation is still imposing a complete siege on Palestine . yesterday Israeli occupying army has invaded Khuzaa in southern Gaza strip , killed three Palestinian , injured many of people and bulldoze agricultural and Palestinian houses ….Today they do the usual things , but they change the place , it is in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza strip .
Gaza - Ma'an - At least seven Palestinians were killed and approximately 50 injured during a major Israeli offensive on the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning. Israeli military sources have admitted that one Israeli soldier was killed during the incursion into Beit Hanoun .
Israeli forces and tanks also invaded the area of Beit Hanoun on Wednesday morning amidst heavy and intense gunfire. The Israeli Special Forces also took part in the incursion. The Israeli forces attempted to occupy many houses in the town, including the house of the minister of refugees' affairs, Atif Adwan. Several houses were occupied by the Israeli forces and converted into Israeli military lookouts. Five Palestinian houses were demolished.
During the incursion, Israeli war planes flew overhead and launched a number of rockets at Palestinian targets.
Residents of the area of Beit Hanoun called on the humanitarian agencies to intervene and stop the Israeli attack. They also appealed for help in allowing the medical crews to reach the injured people so that they could be transferred to hospital .
Recently, the Israeli government submitted scenarios and plans to expand the incursion and the military operations against the Gaza Strip. Peretz has declared that the Israeli army will not occupy the Strip, but will carry out specific operations in the area.

the first day of Eid Al_fitr Israeli forces kill seven Palestinians

2006-10-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

Date: 23 / 10 / 2006 Time: 13:49
Gaza - Ma'an - The number of Palestinians killed in Beit Hanoun in the north of the Gaza Strip on Monday, the first day of Eid al-Fitr, has risen to seven after an Israeli commando force attacked a family home, reportedly belonging to a leader in the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).
An Israeli commando unit of "must'a'ribeen" disguised in Arab clothes opened fire at the house of the Al-Shinbari family in the area of Bayarat Zamo in Beit Hanoun, who were in mourning for one of their family members.
'Atta Fuad al-Shinbari, reportedly a PRC leader, and his brothers Muhammad and Ibrahim were killed in the attack. So were Kamal Adnan Al-Shinbari and his brothers Riyad and Khalid Al-Shinbari. A seventh man, Rami Musa Hamdan, was also killed in the Israeli attack.
Another twenty Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunshots. The Israeli artillery then began bombing the area, causing confusion and enabling the commando unit of killers to withdraw.
The injured were transferred to hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli forces also broke into the Farahin area of 'Abasan, east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday morning. One Palestinian belonging to the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was killed in this incursion.
The Israeli occupation forces also bombarded the car of a former Palestinian minister, Sufian Abu Ziyadeh, which led to the injury of his brother who was admitted to hospital.
This operation is part of Israel's ongoing and daily aggression on the Gaza Strip that has continued for months. Israel is waging a battle against Gaza that no doubt leaves international observers confused: on one hand Ehud Olmert telephones the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to pass on best wishes for Eid Al-Fitr, and on the other hand, Israel sends in a commando unit to execute this deadly operation, thereby spoiling any remaining joy of the feast.

There is no change , the same celebration of Eid Al_fitr

2006-10-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

Since I was born on this occupied land , I have heard people around me saying we hope that the next Eid El_ fiter will be come and we will celebrate at same time that Palestine will be liberated from the Israeli occupation , establishing our independent state and Jerusalem as a capital of it and refugees return to their native homes ……
But in fact this situation haven't been changed , in addition to continuing of killing Palestinian civilians , imposing siege , increasing of poverty and unemployment range , destroying Palestinian houses and also increasing of prisoners and settlements numbers …. Every Palestinian family celebrate Eid with big pain because all of them have sad experience as losing someone, have injured or prisoners or they have not home to stay .
I think we have the right to celebrate Eid without hearing the bomb sounds , seeing the views of destroyed houses and agricultural land ..
Finally , I will say as my people have said that I hope that next Eid and we celebrate in our independent state and also getting our rights ….
Happy Eid for all

CHE GEVARA

2006-10-18T05:34:00.000-07:00

If Americans Knew: Captured Prisoners

2006-10-09T13:21:00.000-07:00


If Americans Knew ( http://ifamericansknew.org ) has produced a video on Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners captured by Israel that provides a powerful context to the current crises.

I can travel to British , but I cannot travel to West Bank

2006-09-26T02:12:00.002-07:00

Last year , a friend works with faculty for Israeli _ Palestinian peace called me asking me to participate in a forum with academic people
inside Palestine occupied land 1948 . .
I rapidly agreed because It was important to participate in a forum discussed the Palestinian issue to tell them about our suffering under an illegal Israeli occupation and through that I can see my occupied land 1948 and also the WestBank .
Unfortunately , she called after a week told me that Israeli occupation army didn't give me a permission to pass Beit_Hanoon border . On the other hand , I was lucky to pass Rafah border for traveling to British … I think it is less difficult to travel out of Palestine more than traveling from Gaza Strip to West Bank .
In fact , I have seen West Bank and Palestinian occupied Land while watching T.V or photos , but
I haven't traveled there yet .
I wish one day to travel there to breathe our nation fresh air . I would like to visit our cities in West Bank , to visit Jerusalem for praying in Al_ Aqsa mosque , Nablus to eat delicious sweet " Nabulsiya " , Hebron to pray in Al_Ibrahimi mosque , Jericho to drink fresh water , Jennin to see the hero's of Jennin battle ,
Rammallah to watch films in Al_Qasaba famous cinema , Tulkarm ,Bayt Jala , Bayt Sahor , , Salfit , Tobas , Qalkilya ……
Besides , I want to visit Haifa to see it's port , Acre to see the castle and the wall , Tiberias to swim in the lake , Baysan , Beersheba , Jaffa ,Nazareth , al-Ramla , Safad , Askalan , Al _Led , Am_ Alfahim , Isdud ..

Really , I cannot understand this Issue in which
I can travel to British and move from Shefield to
Liverbool to London , but I cannot move from Gaza to Jerusalem even I am in my nation ….. OOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhh , I forget that
I live under the racist and illegal Israeli occupation …

Thank you Skip

2006-09-19T02:49:00.000-07:00

We have a digital camera in our center which used mostly for documentation our work . Frankly , I was photographing without using the right technical way , I was using flash all
the time .But all that have been changed when I received an invitation by Quaker Palestine youth program to
participate in a workshop in basic photography On 18 of May .

I took my camera and went to the workshop in which I met Skip Schiel _ An American photographer who taught us about camera principles . I have still remembered his words about steps to making a photo—notice, think, try, and try again .. He wrote on the board three main principles that we have to follow while taking a photo —follow the light, choose the position and time, design the photo … After that all of we moved to take photos and I took many photos and also he shown us photos taking by him in several positions ……. After this workshop I can call myself as I have an experience in photography, but not a photographer yet . Now when there is any activity in our center , they prefer me to take photos .
Skip … I have to thank u about that and also to certificate that u are one of people who supports Palestinians in their struggle ,because Palestinians not only have to fight Israeli occupation
, they also have to take good photos to show the world our suffering and also our skills and abilities …
Skip …. You don't give us camera's , you do better than that as this proverb " you can serve the people by giving them fish, but we perform a greater service when we teach them how to fish .
Skip …. We are very pride of American like you and please tell u people that we love American like you who believes in justice , human rights, dignity and equally between all kinds of people .

** You can see more about him on his homepage
http://teeksaphoto.org/

I AM A REFUGEE IN MY OCCUPIED COUNTRY

2006-09-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

I live in Jabalia refugee camp which is not my original place of my family … my original village is Hulayqat which has occupied by Israeli occupation in 18th of October 1948 . It is 20.5 (km) North East of Gaza and it 's Elevation from the sea is 100 (meters) ..
Land ownership before occupation :7,063 Dunums which belongs to Arab 6,902 and for Public 161 Dunums , 6,751 Dunums are cultivable .
Number of houses : In (1931) was 61 .
Archeological site : Hulayqat had many khirbats which contained cisterns, a pool, and fragments of marble and pottery .
Town Today :
According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the village remaining structures on the village land are:
"The site is partially forested. There are sycalllore and Christ's-thorn trees and cactuses growing on the site. One of the old roads has been covered by a modern street.
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Gaza/Hulayqat/index.html a t/index.html .
Everyone in this world have to know that Palestinians have the right of return which based on United Nations adopted Resolution 194 on December 11, 1948. I am sure that I will go to Hulayqat to run up our Palestinian flag , re_ built the destryed houses , plant the farm and build schools and foundations to educate our people . I will teach generations Dabka to reserve our Palestinian heritage .

my friend

2006-09-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

Who can release Palestinian prisoners ?

2006-08-31T07:13:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been stayed in a small room for long time ?!
Have u ever heard that there are people kidnapped from their nation and have been put in very dark and small places in illegal prisons , they are Palestinians who imprisonment in accuse of any thing that Israeli occupation want to accuse them ….. Palestinian prisoners in illegal Israeli prisons have became more than 10100 prisoners including 104 females and also 335 children and there are prisoners are sentenced more than 25 years …..
I think that how much I talk , it will not be sufficient as the prisoner's child words in which she says :
Oh my father! Why they deprive me from you.
They had arrested you
before I kiss you, only one kiss.
Even before to wipe my mother’s tears.
Oh, my occupied childhood!!
I am a flower of Palestine.
Number of my identity is seventy thousand.
I have not seen you since rising the sun.
Feast follows other feast.
And you still standing behind iron bars .
Oh,Hey. ..you kissing your sons every morning.
I want my father back, I want my father back.

The question we must answer that who can release them ?
I think that there are only two ways : Inernational Community asks Israeli occupation to release them by peacefull way or Palestinians have to imitate Hizbollah in it's way of releasing their prisoners by kidnapping Israeli soldiers !!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally , I would like to say prisons for criminals not for people who are defending thier natioins ...

If u wnat to download video the palestinian child go here http://www.hemenpaylas.com/download/1464403/freedom.wmv.html

Pride for Palestinians who die to liberate their nation

2006-08-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

"The Martyr Adham Khalil"

Your sky is full of birds, but ours is full of army planes and rockets…
Your sea is full of ships and fish, but ours is full of warships…
Your land is full of trees and rivers,but ours is full of tanks, checkpoints,
separation walls, and the rubble of destroyed

houses and agricultural land…
You breathe fresh air, but we breathe air mixed with rocket smoke…
You travel everywhere free, but we cannot travel from villageto village...
You and you and you and you and you,
but we not and not and not…

What I and my people have faced forces me to imagine that I will be killed by Israeli army occupation, but I don't know where and when it will happen. After this picture formed in my mind, I started imagining myself as a Palestinian martyr in which I see my family and my friends carrying my corpse in my funeral shouting “God is great, God is the greatest,” mixed with Palestinian national songs and also carrying my photos written on them:
the Martyr Adham Khalil.

I have told my family that if I am killed by the Israeli army of occupation to not put my corpse in a death freezer and to make only one day for consolation.

This is not only my feeling; this is the feeling of everyone who lives under

the illegal Israeli occupation.

I'm very proud that I'm Palestinian and I thank God every moment. This struggle and potential martyrdom is simply our destiny. We do not love death but in fact we are often killed when defending our nation and resisting the Israeli occupation.

Go on Palestinians—as you fight to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation you might be killed. Hell and shame for the Israeli soldiers and officers as they kill civilians and occupy the lands of others.

we must give Israeli thank certificate

2006-07-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

Hello , Israeli occupation army talking . You have only thirty minutes to move out your home because we will shell it .This is the new policy which Israeli occupation has followed against Palestinian civilians in which they call house holder asking them to move out claming that it is used to store weapons . Before a few days , they had shelled a house belongs to Hesham Alkahloot in Tal Alzaatar in north Gaza by F 16 in which the house was destroyed completely and also the around houses partially ..
Really , Palestinian ,the united nations and the International Community must give Israel thank certificate about the politeness way that they have used to destroy Palestinian civilians houses .
Palestinian spent all his life working in order to build his house in this bad economic situation through preventing his family from buying high prices
things and reducing in eating fruits , meat
and clothes …. Unfortunately , his house is destroyed in a moment by Israeli occupier soldier in cold blood without any kind of humanity .
How much it is difficult when you see the house you live in become a rubble …

Please , do not forget the people who have been
killed every moment in Lebanon and Palestine ..

look ! what do they teach their children ?

2006-07-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

I know that i can send
a massage as a letter , mobile massage or email but I have'nt seen such this
Israeli way in sending
massage by missiles ...

ADVICE :

DO NOT RECIEVE

ISRAELI MASSAGES

BECAUSE THE RESULT IS

LIKE PALESTINIAN AND LEBANESE VICTIMS ...

WHY DID THEY KILL HIM WITH THIRTY BULLETS?!

2006-07-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

If I ask anyone about this photo, he or she will answer by saying “Um, it’s a photo of a youth, male, wearing a blouse.” But if you ask me, it's different because he is my brother with whom
I lived for a long time. I remember him when I was young, when he, my older brother, gave me sweets, asked me to wash my hands before eating, played with me, and helped me in my lessons. Unfortunately I lost him on December 15, 1993. On that day, I was with my family listening to the news in which the reporter said that a Palestinian youth had been killed by the Israeli occupation army. The youth’s name was Asharaf Khalil, my brother.
We didn't believe the news. We looked everywhere for him, asking people if they had seen Asharaf?
The Israeli occupation army had told my family that they killed my brother and had his corpse with them. They killed him with thirty bullets in cold blood, stealing parts of his body. The Israeli occupation army prevented me from a last viewing seeing of him because they allowed only a few of my family to retrieve his corpse, late at night and only with coordination of the United Nations. Adding to the horror of the story, my family told me that the army fired at them when they arrived at the tomb to bury my brother.

I 'm very surprised about the number of bullets. Since one bullet can kill a person, why did the soldier kill my brother Asharaf with thirty bullets?

I want all of you, especially Israelis, to remember that Palestinians have tried to forget that Israel has committed massacres against us when we call for peace. Israel replies with more killing of our people, destroying our homes, and imposing a siege through closures. And saying always that we Palestinians are the terrorists and they are the victims. They forget that they are occupiers of our land.

Finally, I am very sad because I lost my brother but at the same time I am very proud because my brother is a martyr, one of thousands of Palestinians who die regularly. Their blood will bring justice and the liberation of Palestine.

The Palestinian myrter Naji Al Ali

2006-07-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

Naji Salim al-Ali (c. 1937 - 29 August 1987) was a Palestinian cartoonist, noted for the sharp political criticism in his work. He drew over 40,000 cartoons, often expressing opposition to Palestinian and Arab leaders, and is perhaps best known as creator of the character Handala who has since become an icon of Palestinian defiance. He was assassinated by unknown persons in 1987.
Early life :
Naji al-Ali was born in 1938 or thereabouts in the northern Palestinian village of Shajra, located between Tiberias and Nazareth. He went into exile in the south of Lebanon with his family in 1948 during the Nakba and lived in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon, where he attended the Union of Christian Churches school. After gaining his Certificat he worked in the orchards of Sidon, then moved to Tripoli where he attended the White Friars' vocational school for two years.
Naji al-Ali then moved to Beirut, where he lived in a tent in Chatila camp and worked in various industrial jobs. In 1957, after qualifying as a car mechanic, he travelled to Saudi Arabia, where he worked for two years.

Career as a cartoonist and journalist :
In 1959 Naji al-Ali returned to Lebanon, and that year he joined the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), but was expelled four times in the space of a year for lack of party discipline. Between 1960 and 1961, along with comrades from the ANM, he published a handwritten political journal entitled Al-Sarkha ('the cry').
In 1960, he entered the Art Academy of Lebanon, but was unable to continue his studies there as he was imprisoned for political reasons soon afterwards. After his release he moved to Tyre, where he worked as a drawing instructor in the Ja'fariya College.
The writer and political activist Ghassan Kanafani saw some of Naji al-Ali's cartoons on a visit to Ain al-Hilweh and printed the artist's first published drawings along with an accompanying article in Al-Hurriya no. 88 on 25 September 1961.
In 1963 Naji al-Ali moved to Kuwait, hoping to save money so as to be able to study art in Cairo or Rome. There he worked as an editor, cartoonist, designer and newspaper producer on the Arab nationalist Al-Tali'a newspaper. From 1968 on he worked for Al-Siyasa. In the course of these years he returned to Lebanon several times. In 1974 he started working for the Lebanese newspaper Al-Safir, which permitted him to return to Lebanon for a longer period. During the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he was briefly detained by the occupying forces along with other residents of Ain al-Hilweh. In 1983 he once more moved to Kuwait to work for Al-Qabas and in 1985 moved to London where he worked for its international edition until his death.

Handala :

Handala is the most famous of Naji al-Ali's characters. He is depicted as a ten-year old boy, and appeared for the first time in Al-Siyasa in Kuwait in 1969. The figure turned his back to the viewer from the year 1973, and clasped his hands behind his back. The artist explained that the ten-year old represented his age when forced to leave Palestine and would not grow up until he could return to his homeland; his turned back and clasped hands symbolised the character's rejection of "outside solutions". Handala wears ragged clothes and is barefoot, symbolising his allegiance to the poor. In later cartoons, he sometimes appears throwing stones or writing graffiti.
Handala became the signature of Naji al-Ali's cartoons and remains an iconic symbol of Palestinian identity and defiance; the artist remarked that "this being that I have invented will certainly not cease to exist after me, and perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that I will live on with him after my death".

Aren't they human as the Israeli kidnapped soldier ?!!!!

2006-07-14T02:52:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ,all of u have watched and heard the Palestinian child Huda Ghalia crying asking u what are u going to do against Israeli occupying army who killed her family and leave her alone?!!!! There were a few shy answers from the international community except the great answers from the Israeli occupation through committing additional massacres killing more Palestinian children , invaded the south of Gaza strip and kidnapped two Palestinian in that military operation with supporting of the U.S.A without caring of the international community …but the Palestinian legal resistance answers Huda's crying attacking Israeli occupying army camp which establish on Palestinian land kidnapping Israeli soldier …..After that all the world stand asking Palestinian to release him ; besides, Israeli occupation has imposed completely siege on Palestine shelling every where because of the Palestinian reacting of Huda's family assassination ….. unfortunately the world pretend to have forgotten more 10000 ten thousands of Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli prisons including women and children …. Aren't they human as the Israeli kidnapped soldier …. Is this the justice and the human rights that world believe …..finally I would like to say free free Palestine

what are u going to do against israeli ocupation who killed Huda's family and leave her alone ?

2006-07-14T02:45:00.000-07:00

hiiiiiiiiiii , i hope u will not live under israeli occupation oneday ... In this massage i will write by red colour which runs every day from palestinian by Israeli occupation .Besides all kinds of suffering ,Palestinians in gaza strip have only two places for interesting , the beach and the big park .....when palestinians go to the beach , they dont feel safety because as all of u have seen the masacres which committ by israeli army and the last one when they shelled Huda's family on gaza beach in which she lost her family .... i want from all of u to imagine that Huda is israeli , and palestinian killed her family .... please ask yourself every moment about what have u done to those who killed in cold blood in all the places in the world , what are u going to do against israeli ocupation who killed Huda's family and leave her alone ?!!!!!!!!!!... finally i hope that god bless Huda's family ...

A story written about me By Skip Schiel

2006-07-14T02:39:00.000-07:00

Two stories from Gaza
By Skip Schiel
At the urging of Amal Sabawi, director of the American Friends Service Committee's youth program in Gaza, I interviewed two coaches with the Popular Achievement program. After as much consultation as was feasible, I'm posting their stories.
How can I best use my skills to work with youth? asked Adham Khalil, a young man now serving as a coordinator for Popular Achievement in Al-Assria Cultural Center for Children and Youth organized by the Union of Health Work Committees.....

http://teeksaphoto.org/Levant2006/Writing/2GazaStories.html

We should talk about these moments ..

2006-07-14T02:13:00.000-07:00

While walking to the mosque , admiring the sky with all its mixed colors and counting my steps , I arrived and stood out the mosque as it was full of prayers . I looked around ,I found some listening deeply to the Friday sermon and others were absent minded and closing eye , opening the second .
Suddenly , I heard a child calling " Yasean's photo for a shekel " . How contracting was the phrase. The first view is that it shows the Palestinian economic suffering,
children have to work, to sell photo and other things
to earn their living and to help their families. It's the reality.
The other harmful view is that our situation to which we end, in which all members of the Palestinian society in general, and our leaders in particular merely numbers and photos to be sold and fixed here or there cheaply to help the families.
Oh God, when will such age of villains end and a time in which our living is earned by selling our leaders photos.

Palestinian's suffering

2006-07-14T00:58:00.000-07:00

S .u .f .f .e .r .i .n .g are letters which produce a word caries all kinds of sadness and distress , its suffering .
Palestinians know and practice it very well . Palestinians suffer in traveling , interesting and living . first, they face a big suffering when they travel from place to place , they have to wait for long time on checkpoints such as , Bait Hanon , Rafah border , Qalandia , Ein Ereek … etc .
Second , there aren’t places for interesting except two places which are the sea and Gaza park and they become boring from visiting it , They often don’t interest watching TV because of the effect of the discovery plane on TV channels signal . Third , they also face killing every time , destruction of houses and agricultural lands . On the other hand , the economical situation is so bad and there are high increasing in unemployment . Finally , how much I talk , you cannot know the feeling of who suffers until you live the same situation .