Thursday, December 4, 2008

Amira Hass, Again !

Again, about Amira.
The bellow letter is from her. It was circulated through e - mails; I did not recieve it directly from her personally. We do not know each other. I have seen her once in Gaza in the ninties, and have checked hands with her 2-3 weeks ago.
For me the most impressive is her judgement that she will not be allowed to be in Gaza for " Many many years" , " Many many years " means that Hamas is here to stay; I think that the current status quo in gaza will last for decades ; at least for a generation.

Bellow, is the notes of Amira.

Dear all
I was ordered to leave Gaza . The Hamas security - the branch which insisted in "escorting" me 24 hours a day for almost 3 weeks, ordered me today, (Sunday) at noon, to leave immediately. The great efforts of my friends yielded only one gesture: i was allowed to extend my stay by some 20 hours, at
most, and leave tomorrow (Monday).
the reason, needless to say is "security". "The circumstances have changed, it is dangerous and we have received specific information that there is a danger to your life. specific my foot. just the same things I heard from Arafat's security back in 1995 and in 1999, only that that ancient regime had some kind
of flexibility and disorder - that enabled my (other friends and acquaintances) to reverse the order.
I see no chance for this to happen now.
i am professionally frustrated and personally sad, so sad: I took farewell of some of my friends today - and almost know for sure that we would not be able to see each other for many many years. I was planning to stay till end of January - so many more things to investigate: to learn. I even toyed with the idea of writing a book...
Never mind me. I was allowed a rare visit in prison. Met my friends and was reminded again, more closely, how people, all caged in, are accommodating their life to electricity cuts and threats of imminent israeli incursions, and to the ever-more-loud discourse of istishaad (martyrdom).
amira

Monday, December 1, 2008

Surviving in Gaza


The Israeli journalist has left Gaza just today, she was told by Hmas police that her life is in danger. She has written a remarkable piece about the life here in this animal pen. Writing about Gaza remarkably is not unusual for Amira, who spent years here during the early nineties; but what about us who are surviving the Gazan miseries. We are getting away from realities to repeat slogans, to speak about the effects of unprecedented siege, to argue about the effects of internal schism and to blame Hamas or to defend it, to articulate partial facts, to exaggerate realities or to generate fabricated lies, to do everything but not telling our real story.

Who can tell the real story of Gaza?
I am only trying to survive the life of Gaza!