This is the fourth in this series,
"Inside The Gaza Strip" in the occupied territories called Palestine.
It is about the culture, both Christian and Muslim.
This writer left the Gaza Strip on March
10th. During the preceding week over 100 Palestinians were killed and hundreds
were wounded and a number of Israelis died. I interviewed Muslims and
Christians Arabs, including evangelicals; a co-ed college English class; a PLO
officer and a United Nation aid worker--both off the record; the chairman of a
mental health organization treating traumatized children; a businessman
resident of a refugee camp; a young Muslim woman named Shireen who wanted to
talk to America on the record; a number of workers and numerous youths in
several Internet cafés and several Israeli travelers and businessmen. I also
witnessed and photographed from my rooftop an Apache helicopter raid that
killed four Palestinians and wounded 30 more. The edition(s) to come will lay
the blame for the 52-year slaughter and suggest a low-cost, no-lives-lost
solution to the problem and a humane course for Americans to follow.
Two friends accompanied me when I walked out
of Gaza, the same way I had walked in --through a 600-meter barricaded gauntlet
at Ares gate. As before, no one but me entered or left this crowded non-country
of more than a million persons during the half hour that it took to process
out. Consider this one incredible fact there is virtually no human traffic in
or out of Palestine. At the only border crossing where people are allowed to
pass through not one human soul went in or came out.
Imagine, if you can a million persons or
more with only one highway running in and out, and no one uses the road for 30
minutes; more than likely, this was not at all unusual. Gaza is a place of
continuously enforced isolation. How can such a city exist? What kind of
culture can exist in an enforced prison? This is the topic of Part IV.
Gaza is, in every sense, a jail. The
renowned Russian reformer, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, might have called it a
gulag of political prisoners. Its entire population is captive. The Israeli
Defense Force can and does cork this jug at will. It pulled that plug for just
a moment and allowed me to pass because I have an American passport, and it
jammed the cork backs in behind me to let no one else pass.
Where but in a prison do you find prisoners?
Consider it, a society has been completely deprived of its right to come and
go, and yet it has survived. Not only has Palestine survived for 52 years, but
also much of what goes on among its people is not only normal, but healthy. In
most respects, I found the lives of the captives more healthy and moral than
the lives of the captors.
My hosts, Americans citizens who are engaged
in relief work and education in Gaza, shared their several years of experiences
living with the Palestinians. I am not free to give their names, but I will
share their thoughts.
If a resident leaves Gaza, his property,
including his car, must stay behind. Palestinians are usually denied passes to
visit family in other gulags, such as in Bethlehem, Nazareth or Ramallah in the
West Bank--even for wedding and funerals. Men and women who are allowed to
leave even temporarily, often undergo strip searches that include body cavity
examinations, just as inmates in American prisons often do when they go into
the streets to work.
As an American citizen, I was spared all of
this indignity and insult. It is my country that supports Israel’s war effort,
and that makes me a special, though suspected, person at the crossing. I walked
out with scarcely a look and only a cursory x-ray of my belongings. No one
asked what I had photographed or what I will write. I felt shame at being
American. It weighed on me that I was not abused and strip-searched like the
Palestinian men and their women and children. I did not like being treated as
an ally by these captors.
The Palestinian culture sustains life in the
Israeli Gulag; it is a culture of family, prayer, and more family. Families are
large in Palestine, and the extended family is huge and never forgotten.
Unemployment is incalculable--maybe 20-25% or more. Survival seems to depend
upon a low-cost food supply and the extended family. Donkey carts are
prevalent. Aid workers tell me they know of families of ten that have been
without work for several years, yet continue to survive and raise their
children. The only explanation is the extended family; Palestinians worship the
family, and every child is a blessing.
This was brought to light in a discussion
with two Palestinian workmen, both fathers of large families. I stopped to
chat, and they made Turkish coffee. We talked about the family, and one man,
who spoke fair English, told me he had seven children and asked me if childbearing
was restricted in the USA. If so, he said, he could not live there, for he
desired a large family.
I assured him birth is not restricted, but I
admitted that the practice of abortion is widespread. Though both knew an
Arabic word for abortion, they lack any concept of abortion as it is practiced
on humans. It is apparent that abortion, as we Americans have come to know it,
does not exist in Palestine and had probably never been discussed before by
these two adult men. They may not even believe what I told them, and I
regretted mentioning it. Abortion is as alien to their way of life as is
stealing their children’s food.
I am often asked if Palestinians train
children to be suicide bombers. We asked many Palestinians this question,
including Shireen, who wanted to be recorded. Not one could even conceive of
throwing away a child, which is how they viewed it. Muslims, Christians and
Muslim converts to Christianity--men and women--all gave the same answer.
We asked students about the schools and
whether hatred for Christians or for Americans was taught there, and I talked
to a number of youths in the Internet cafes. No one had any experience or
knowledge of hate being taught in any school. One woman said in a taped
interview, "Why would we want to scare our little children by training
them for war before they have to know? They are already frightened that they
will be killed in their beds." "We try to make our children happy,
not fearful." I saw the children, and I believe her, rather than CBS news.
Palestinian children suffer psychosocially
from being on the receiving end of extended, explosive terror. The ordeal of
constant bombing threats and reminders weighs on them. Even a visitor for a
week cannot hear a jet go overhead without wondering if a bomb is on its way.
According to Eyad Es Sarroj, Chairman of the
Palestinian Mental Health Program, every child who has committed a suicide raid
during the intifada has a history of seeing his family abused and humiliated,
particularly the father. Children grow up with a sort of death wish to avenge
the degradation of the father in the Gulag. Mr. El Sarroj told of an epidemic
of Palestinian children in the bombed refugee camps suffer from bed-wetting, a
classic symptom of fear syndrome. This turns to hatred fired by a death wish,
he said. The child needs no training.
A United Nations employee, whom I will call
Imad, confirmed what Mr. Sarroj told us in a taped interview. Imad was born in
Beach refugee camp, and his children were born there also--a third generation
family of refugees. He told me his four-year-old son has now asked for the
"real news." He wants to know "who is killing the people."
Imad’s eyes brim with tears when he talks of his frightened child; he has done
his best to isolate him from the reality of the gulag, to no avail.
Later I visited the Beach Camp and
interviewed a businessman there. I can understand Imad’s closing words to me
"My children live in a place not fit for animals." He knows the
Israelis consider him and his family "animals." Imad is bitter.
We Hold These Truths published the story and
photo of Kamal Ali As'idah--the Captive Boy--a 10-year-old photographed
drenching his blue jeans in terror while being arrested by seven grim-faced
Israeli Defense Force soldiers. He knew who to fear… they later tortured him and
broke his arm.
Prayer is also a way of life in Islamic
Palestine. Five times a day, everyone in Gaza City hears a rhythmic Islamic chant,
starting a half hour before sunup. Some Christians complain that it wakes up
the roosters. Prayer is as much a way of life as is the extended family. My
hosts attend the lone Baptist Church in Gaza. Christians openly attend their
churches in Gaza; some are very old orthodox churches. No Christian I met
complained of personal persecution, though all know they are a minority and
majority favors exist. It seems to be a fact that some Muslim families have
ostracized and abandoned members who became Christians, --a great embarrassment
to the family, especially when "Christian America" is talking about
war on Islam.
In rare instances, some converts are thought
to have been executed by members of their own families for converting to
Christianity, but no one could remember an incident to this happening. Two
Baptists who are former Muslims both said it was not easy to leave Islam in
Palestine, because to do so cuts off much of the extended family that each
Palestinian comes to depend upon.
One possible explanation for the shrinking
Christian population is that it lacks the incentive to stay at any cost, which
Muslims have. Christians often lack the large extended family influence. It
should also be pointed out that Muslims can be and are ostracized by their families
for brutality or criminal acts, infidelity, drinking and, worst of all,
corroborating with the Israeli enemy, which is a capital crime. The stigma of
these crimes carries through to the entire family. The acts of one member
reflect on all.
Christians are associated with America, and
America is in turn associated with Apache gun-ships, F-16s, "smart
bombs" and sniper rifles. It is not easy to be an American in Gaza with
people being killed every day by American ordinance. When I told people in the
Internet cafes and businesses I was an American, I usually prefaced my
statement by telling them I have always opposed the massive military aid given
to Israel, as do many other Americans, and I have come to hear their side. Some
still asked me, "Why do you let your government get away with killing
Palestinians; are you not the big democracy?" It is a hard question to
answer.
All over Palestine, everyone I met talked
politics, including Muslim women. It is politically incorrect NOT to talk about
it, just the opposite of the U.S. where you can get shunned at most polite
dinner parties for simply mentioning some issues. Many in Gaza told me they
loved Americans and want to visit us. Then they would politely state they did
not like the American Government and explain why.
Another question we asked was about
oppression of women in Palestine. I interviewed several younger Islamic women
and found them quite comfortable with their role. If they were oppressed by
men, they did not seem to know it. One told us she was not afraid to lose her
life, but she did not want to lose her dreams. These centered on her hopes for
a family.
Several amenities we are used to in the West
and Israel are completely absent in Gaza, starting with abortion clinics. I did
not see a bar, pub, saloon or disco, though there are bound to be some
underground. I did not hear of a single case of wife beating or child abuse, in
fact, there was not a single mention of any crime in those five days. No drunk
driving, drug abuse, car thefts or murders of other Palestinians came to my
attention, though I am sure there is some minimum level of crime. Family
structure in Gaza discourages these acts, and I felt safe walking any street at
any time of the day or night. I only feared the possibility of being bombed by
the Israelis, or being lost in the pitch black if they suddenly decided to kill
the electricity, as they do.
When I passed out of Gaza to Israel, the
cork was slammed back in the bottle behind me. All the Western practices I have
mentioned were immediately available in Israel. For example, abortion is common
and accepted. Most abortions are publicly financed, and in the military, where
men and women serve together, abortion appears to be a daily solution to
over-familiarity.
Unemployment is high in Israel--10%
plus--and hotel attendance is down 83% from 1999, when it peaked. Business
statistics are the worst since 1953. Israel stands in great contrast to
Palestine in terms of wealth and abundance, yet is sinking into deep recession
itself. No donkey carts are found on Israelis streets. It is also a land of
cheap booze, small families, few marriages, secularism, abundant divorce, a big
army and public welfare. Is Israel is on the dole from the USA. Israelis are on
the dole from the government.
All the Israeli businessmen I asked told me
the war must be stopped, but how? To the question, "Why does Israel have a
right to the Arab’s land?" every Israeli I spoke to answered, "God
gave it to us." But not one of these people claimed to attend Synagogue or
considers himself "religious" or "Orthodox." Israelis tend
to use God as a convenient Clerk and Recorder who gives them title to the land
they occupy.
The war with the Palestinians has brought
Israel to the brink of economic ruin, in spite of receiving billions from the
USA each year. In 1987 Andrew Hurly wrote a book entitled Saving Israel From
Suicide. Mr. Hurley forecast this exact situation and described Israel as a
nation of the brink of self-destruction, resulting from its inability to
recognize the Palestinians as fellow humans. The book is sold today as One Nation Under Israel.
Even Israeli businessmen admitted to me that
no peace could be achieved without total removal of the "settlers"
(squatters), but this is not the American plan, which leaves the squatters in
place and the Israelis in charge of the bottleneck entrances. This means the
Palestinians will continue to be tenants of the gulag, prisoners of the
Israelis. The plan allows Israel time to recover its lost trade and failing
economy while reemploying Palestinian day labor. Meantime the Palestinians
continue to be worn down by the grinding poverty of the ghetto. The youth know
it; they have seen it all before.
The peace process proposed by the U.S. is
well understood by the Palestine youths who grew up in the Gulag. They know it
is not intended to give them freedom or self-government. It does not remove the
gulags, and it leaves Gaza a Swiss cheese country surrounded by a controlling
enemy and perforated with settlements that control all of the strategic ground.
It does not remove the so-called "settlements" which should be better
described as armed squatter villages on Palestinian land supported and protected
by army units.
The younger generation of
Palestinians--those who have grown up in fear of night raids and sudden death
and who have seen their friends shot in the eyes while throwing rocks --will
not easily settle for more stalling. By killing their hopes an stealing their
childhood, the Israelis have made warriors of them. They have nowhere to go and
nothing to hope for, so they are fierce fighters. They do not fear death as
their opponents do. That is why the Israeli boy soldiers clearly fear them; it
is in their eyes and their silent stares when one asks them about their job.
For the Palestinian who has already conceded their future to hopelessness,
death is not a great threat. Over 1,000 Israeli Defense Force reserve officers
have signed a public oath that they will no longer enter the Occupied
territories. The Israelis call the Palestinians "animals," but they
fear them.
Final issue America’s Role and Hidden Cost;
why there is hope for Palestine from an unexpected source.