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One year after the war: Gaza’s lost hopes

Dave Evans/Demotix. All rights reserved.

One year after we went through the third war on the Gaza Strip in
six years, I find myself still struggling with the idea of going back to
‘normal life’. I was fortunate enough not to have lost a relative or a friend
during the war, and my house is still intact. However, my family and I were
under fire and anything could have happened to us (two ‘random’ drone missiles
hit my grandparent’s house and they survived by a miracle).

Surviving the 51-day war was not easy; it’s hard to say for sure
whether we have entirely survived—every single person that lived through this
war was wounded in some way; some more than others. Hearing my family and
friends’ accounts of the war, gazing at the panoramic destruction of my
hometown, and realising that as a result we are socially and economically going
back in time, is not easy. Undergoing an internal struggle between refusing to
move on with life, stopping in time to absorb what happened, and somehow looking
forward is not easy.

Living the ‘aftermath of the war’—from
the first day of the 'ceasefire' to this day—is in many ways much worse
than living under the actual war. When the war was on, we, the people of Gaza,
were for once in our life certain of what tomorrow was bringing: more military
attacks with a maybe 50-50 chance of survival. The tension and fear was
endless, but the bare will to survive kept us busy. And the distant hope that
finally real change might result out of this disaster. However, now, a year
later, having survived the war physically but being eternally wounded in our
souls and minds, we are still awaiting a vague future. Reconstruction has not
even started and a political solution to the intolerable status quo is not on
the horizon. 

Throughout the past year, very few people were able to travel in
or out of Gaza. The reason is that for the past eight years, Gaza has been
under a tight military siege imposed by Israel, which means that Israel has
closed its border crossings with Gaza, with few exceptions. Gaza’s
only other border, the infamous Rafah Crossing with Egypt, opened for no more
than thirty days during the entire past year.

This leaves 1.8 million devastated
people landlocked together amid the sorrowful destruction of the Gaza Strip. Today’s
children have no idea about the basic right of freedom of movement. Young
people like myself completely depend on the goodwill of Israel or Egypt to grant
a travel permit. Contact with the outside world, including Jerusalem and the
West Bank, which are only a couple of kilometers away, is mostly virtual and
made via social media or Skype. Imagine the impact on tomorrow’s generations.

The siege and enclosure of the borders also means that only
Israeli-approved goods can enter Gaza. These goods are classified as
‘essential’; food, medicine, clothing, etc. However, basic construction
materials, which are essential for the rebuilding of Gaza, have barely been
allowed in, leaving the destruction of the Gaza Strip as an ever present,
non-escapable reality.

When this war started, we had not even recovered from the past
two wars (in 2008 and 2012). The destruction we are seeing today is a result of
three different wars, none of which was remedied. Worse, we are witnessing that
nothing has changed in Gaza after the 51-day hell of the last war. On the
contrary, the state of ‘permanent temporariness’ has only been exacerbated.

There is something that the world should remember: we are humans, and we are not able to suffer endlessly.

Many of those who lost everything have also lost hope. The mothers
who lost their children, sons who lost their parents and siblings, the
relatives of the sixty families who were completely annihilated in Israeli air
attacks, the factory owner who now feeds on donated food, the owners of the
18,000 houses which were destroyed or severely damaged.

Yes, some people praise our “strength” and “spirit” despite the
misery. But there is something that the world should remember: we are humans,
and we are not able to suffer endlessly. We urgently need to achieve our most
basic right: to live without fear, without war, without a blockade…to live
without the need to put all our strength together for pure day-to-day survival.

Unfortunately, it seems that this time, the world has completely
forgotten Gaza. It has become too familiar with the people of Gaza living in
misery, but somehow surviving. It has become too familiar with talking about “terrorists”
in Gaza, while collective punishment and terror against Gaza’s civilian
population goes unnoticed.

I cannot understand, that after this war, not even a credible
investigation of war crimes was possible. The UN Commission of Inquiry, which had
recently published its detailed report on the war, was prevented from entering Gaza by
the Israeli government. The report shows grave violations against civilians in
Gaza and makes allegations of severe war crimes. Yet governments around the
world continue to supply Israel with offensive weapon systems even after this horrific
war.

Stop thinking that we are happy with whatever the world gives us
and that we are be able to adapt to any conditions and circumstances imposed on
us. Stop admiring our strength and our ability to ‘teach you life’, and
concluding that we are able to adapt to any kind of life, which is probably a
life you cannot imagine living! Start thinking about how to end the blockade
and isolation of Gaza! Otherwise, with every war that Israel leads on us,
we are going to be kept busy for the next few years with the attempt to
‘rebuild’ Gaza, until the next Israeli government decides it is time to destroy
it again.

My mother tells us that she used to feel bad for her late
grandmother when she would tell her how she witnessed three wars in her
lifetime (1948, 1956, 1967, not mentioning the intifadas). Now my mother says
that she, like her grandmother, witnessed three wars that were probably much
worse than those of the last century. Most children in Gaza have now witnessed
three wars and have been living under siege their entire life, leaving them
deeply traumatised.

How the world claims to be working towards peace in the
region remains a mystery to me, when an entire generation has seen nothing but
war and siege. It is time to make a real change, before it is too late.