Despite the unprecedented media coverage and growing audience that the Palestinian cause, most specifically Gaza during the siege (2007 and ongoing) and the war (2008) have been given, there is still a lot that people do not know about Gaza. The media portrays Gaza the way it wants the world to see it- a tiny spot on the map, plagued with poverty and hunger, governed by yet another ‘Islamic’ group, and besieged by Israel. The image created by media agencies, regardless of how different their views are, is always the same: a bleak image of a city you would not want to spend more than a few days in, and also a city whose residents you should definitely feel sorry for.
Well, we cannot blame the media for the bleak image it has created of our city because frankly, and based on previous experiences, we have no reason to expect much from it. Subsequently, we, the residents of Gaza, should rely on our own ability to broadcast the true image of our beloved city and hope that people of the free world will help us in spreading that image.
This is no endeavor to paint a rosy picture of Gaza, featuring a blooming economy, a successful political system, and more importantly, a free population. This is, however, a genuine account given by one of Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinians, free from any political affiliations or influence, or an interest to portray Gaza in any way that it’s not.
So what is Gaza, for those who know it and for those who don’t? It is a city like any other, but its significance is due to several reasons. These include its strategic location between Asia and Africa, which for centuries and centuries made it a supreme crossroad for the civilizations of the world. Lying on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza, at least at one point in history, was one of the most important and most active Mediterranean cities. For example, it was home to one of Rome’s schools of rhetoric (led by sophist Choricius of Gaza) during the sixth century, and was also a major trade hub throughout history, having been a major exporter itself.
Living in a city that is so rich in history makes up for the city’s poverty in other things, such as the political system and the economy. True, our city does not offer job opportunities for every person in the labor force, nor does it guarantee us a life under the best political system possible, but at least, if we look carefully, we could find that our city, unlike many other cities, offers an alternative. If we wish to fill that vacuum, we could definitely fulfill our desire by walking around the Old City of Gaza, the beach, or reading one of the many history books about the city. This method, which could be described as some form of self therapy, is highly effective, as it teaches the person doing it to love the Gaza that exists in his/her mind if the Gaza he/she lives in fails to be up to standard.
Where else in the world can a person use history in such a beautiful way? Where else in the world does the present clash so ferociously with the past it’s almost surreal? Better yet, where else could the most perfect incarnation of modern day surrealism be found? Your peaceful observation of the blue waters of the sea, cordially combined with beautiful red roofed houses, could only be disturbed by noticing an ugly black hole in the roof, which was a result of some careless Israeli bomb. It could also be disturbed by hearing that bomb go off, or actually seeing it. But really, what difference does it make? We are so indulged in this life that things like bombing have become as cyclic and as repetitive as the dullest routine. There is no point in fretting because there is nothing we can do about it but go on.
In fact, there is no point in fretting over anything. This is more of a life lesson than a general statement, a life lesson that you can only learn in Gaza. Here, you learn that beauty lies in the simple joys of life: being around your family and your friends, and spending priceless time with them at your house, on the beach, or in any of Gaza’s many restaurants and cafes. Here, you understand why happiness can never be bought, and that certain lifestyles are not guaranteed to make you happy, but that you need to lead your own lifestyle into happiness. You do that by learning how to appreciate everything you have, from the people around you to your morning coffee. You learn that just the fact that your beloved ones are well and alive, and are around you, you have reason to be the happiest person on Earth. It doesn’t really matter where you are or what you do, as long as you are internally happy and satisfied.
Reaching that level of satisfaction and internal peace is a huge achievement that only the wise can achieve. In Gaza, you learn how to do that at a very early age. Bearing witness to bombings, incursions, wars, and death, leave a deep scar in the hearts of the eyewitnesses, but it also teaches them to appreciate what they have no matter how little or small. This, combined with internal happiness and self therapy provided by the rich history of the city, present priceless treasures that people elsewhere can only learn about in Self-Help books. And still, people wonder what makes us stick so firmly to Gaza.
Its not that we cannot leave, its that we do not want to leave. What guarantees do we have that life elsewhere, in a city not besieged by a brutal force, or in a highly advanced and developed city is going to be as fulfilling and rewarding as life in Gaza? That is a wrong materialistic presumption that we also learned how to refute by proving to the world that life in Gaza can be as beautiful as life anywhere else on the planet, only for those who wish to lead a beautiful life.
Yasmeen El Khoudary is a freelance writer and researcher based in Gaza City, Palestine. She blogs at http://yelkhoudary.blogspot.com.
Another view: Gaza in Winter: link to counterpunch.org
Citizen, afraid the Palestinian propaganda machine would be ignored for one post?
Why are you all so afraid to paint Gaza as something other than a concentration camp?
Why am I not surprised that your reading comprehension is marred by your prejudices, yonira? Or did you only read the headline and not the piece itself. The acknowledgment of the severe hardship, the poverty, the destruction is all there in El Khoudary’s writing. You seem to think that what she is saying is that materially life is just wonderful in Gaza, because that is what YOU want to believe. But that is not what she is saying. She’s talking about the human spirit and its ability to appreciate what one does have, even if it is little.
My response was to Citizen, not to the article. I am well aware of the situation in Gaza. It isn’t pretty, it is a siege.
Whenever someone writes something about Gaza which doesn’t compare it to a concentration camp, other commenters on here feel the need to make sure EVERYONE knows just how awful it is there.
The problem is your logic is faulty again. El Khoudary’s piece shows how awful it is. You are just either too lazy to have read it, or too dense to understand it. Or, alternatively, your knee jerked so hard you couldn’t help yourself. Either way you are guilty of exactly the kind of knee-jerk behavior that you claim to be criticizing.
Still trying to cover up and discount as fakes those photos of dead children from Operation Cast Lead? You know, the reason death camps ever existed at all in Europe was because people were willfully covering them up, not merely turning a blind eye.
I really should just quit this place, it’s pointless considering people like you are allowed to make awful, nasty comments and generally, people like me aren’t allowed to answer. But even my pride has to give way when I see you stomping on the Palestinians this intensely in your hatred. Apparently “it’s a siege” has fallen back to “Pallywood lies!” again very quickly.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re so disingenuous.
Yonira, you seem to have ignored this: “Bearing witness to bombings, incursions, wars, and death, leave a deep scar in the hearts of the eyewitnesses, but it also teaches them to appreciate what they have no matter how little or small.”
No please don’t ask Yonira and eee and Witty to leave! They are our greatest allies. They provide the mindless Zionist propaganda, the legalistic niceties that belie the facts, the Israeli exceptionalism, the anti-Palestinian/Arab bias, and (occasionally) the rampant racism, that we need to sharpen our arguments. The intelligent reader will quickly understand where the truth lies. It is usually not hard to counter their arguments – we just need to make sure we do so. As Annie says they keep on giving.
From Yasmeen’s blog:
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I went to high school in the same city that issued my passport, in the Palestinian city of Gaza. The name of my school was, however, the American International School in Gaza. Despite the fact that the school today is nothing but a huge pile of rubble and dust because the Israelis bombed it last year, it was once a beautiful school that stood overlooking the Mediterranean.
From the year 2000 until 2006, I was one of its 170 students, who were taught by 25 teachers, a group of Palestinians, Canadians, and a majority of Americans. The school was based on an American system, and we were taught using American textbooks. We learned American history as much as we learned Palestinian history; we memorized the capitals of the 50 states while memorizing verses from the Quran; we celebrated American Thanksgiving a week after celebrating Palestine’s independence day. We organized donation campaigns for Mukhayyam Jenin after the Israeli massacre in 2003, and our school was an all time favorite target for the Israeli army, giving us countless days off school.
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Bad enough that the Israelis destroyed an American educational and cultural center in their gratuitous attack on Gaza. But as Yasmeen indicates, evidently they had resented it and targeted it for a long time.
What kind of ‘ally’ displays such bare-fanged contempt for a benefactor that gives it three billion dollars a year? I’d answer, one which is humiliated to keep taking money it doesn’t deserve, having joined the OECD rich country club. Israel is like a fashionably-dressed 32-year-old man who still lets his dad pay his cell phone bill and his mom wash his underwear.
Professional intervention is needed for both parties in the unhealthy, pathological US-Israeli relationship … starting with arms-length distance.
This post makes me think of a minor thing that happened a few years ago. In my business, sometimes I deal with old photographs and photo albums. One time I got a collection of photographs which included pictures of a vacation to Gaza around 1960. Imagine: a vacation in Gaza! maybe someday soon it won’t seem so crazy. I showed the pictures to a college student who was working for me and said, “Can you believe this is the Gaza Strip?” She looked at me blankly, never having heard of it. I started to explain about how the people living there were pushed out of their homes when Israel was formed, and she said, “All I know about Israel is that it’s a place.” Just something to think about. I think if most Americans were honest they would say the same thing.
hey Joer.. are these photographs you mentioned published anywhere? I would love to see them!
It’s easy to gloss over an essay like this as “superficial”, as trying to paint a rosy picture that all is not “that bad”, justifying the status quo, but I’d warn against it.
Another way to dehumanize Palestinians (and specifically Gazans here) is to constantly paint them as victims, and to deny them their rights as artists, doctors, professors, parents, lawyers, etc. and forfeiting them the right to take any pleasure in life at all.