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As conditions worsen in Gaza, residents ask: ‘Where have all the activists gone?’

I have always thought that those who resort to violence or those who go as far as exploding themselves are sick and inhuman. But now I know how it feels to have nothing to lose but your worthless life. I know how it feels to be so desperate that you literally cry from disappointment when you actually wake up in the morning, and to spend the night before asking God for a last favor … to take your life because you’re just too cowardly to take it yourself. #‎Gaza‬ is no longer a city or a territory. It is a disease. It is an unbearable pain, an un-treatable wound. Gaza is the opposite of life, but at the same time far beyond death.

This is the Facebook post to which I woke up yesterday, written by Maisam Morr, one of the few Gazans who typically serve as my “rocks” – resilient spirits who never give up, and keep my hope alive that we can beat back the grinding, dehumanizing force that is the Israeli occupation. She is the one who dreamed up the Rubble Bucket Challenge (the Palestinian response to the ALS ice bucket), and who – in the midst of the unremitting “gray” of the destruction that is Gaza – asked for a pink laptop for her birthday. And yet now, she was succumbing.

The breaking point for Maisam was the announcement Sunday that Israel had closed its two crossings into Gaza for all but the most critical humanitarian aid, in response to the firing of a single rocket fired.  No injuries or property damage resulted, and no groups in Gaza claimed responsibility or credit. According to Maisam, “almost all Gazans swear that it is some sort of a trick (a planned trap) to open another front with Israel.” F16s are now flying low over Gaza again, as if on cue.

According to news reports, Israel had not decided how long the crossing would be closed. “It will depend on the security situation.” There’s that code phrase…”security situation” – a cover for just about any action Israel chooses to take, and which no one in the international community (in the West at least) is courageous enough to challenge. (Update: the crossings re-opened today, and Palestinian officials said 330 truckloads of goods, as well as one of cement, would be allowed in. Seriously? ONE truckload of cement? In a way, I think that’s how Israel uses closures – as a device to make Gazans happy for crumbs when they come.)

Meanwhile, in the wake of the Oct. 24 attack on an army checkpoint in the northern Sinai that killed 31 soldiers, Egypt has emulated Israel. It declared a three-month lockdown in the area, including a dawn-to-dusk curfew, and indefinitely closed the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only non-Israeli-controlled bridge to the outside world. Meanwhile, Egypt is demolishing an estimated 800 homes housing 10,000 residents to set up its own buffer zone along the border with Gaza (546 yards wide, 8 miles long). As with the Israeli rocket, no group claimed responsibility, yet the Egyptian government has been quick to implicate Hamas and other Gaza-based “terror groups.” In addition to slamming its doors shut to thousands of Palestinians seeking medical treatment or opportunities to study abroad, the Egyptian government canceled indefinitely the indirect talks between Israelis and Hamas on a long-term truce.

“My dearest Egypt,” wrote Maisam on her blog. “You treat me like an infectious disease. You see me as a threat to your national security while all I ever wanted is to protect my life, my dignity and my very being. Forgive me for being so selfish and so blind for I simply cannot understand how come my call for freedom collides with your mighty security. Only few years ago, I thought we fought a shared enemy but it looks like that I AM the enemy.”

Abu Marzouk, deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau and a member of the Palestinian reconciliation delegation, describes the closures as collective punishment, in contradiction of all understandings, agreements and international law, and adds that it will be impossible to sit idly by. And can you blame him? Since the ceasefire was announced on Aug. 26, two Palestinian rockets were shot by unknown parties. Israel, however, has violated it 19 times by shooting at fishermen and farmers, and opened the crossings on an extremely limited basis – far less than implied by the spirit of the ceasefire terms. (It doesn’t help that Israel wants the “civilian nature” of every project to be verified by Israeli and U.N. officials.) See my blog post for a complete listing of ceasefire violations and an overall status report.

Yet, Nicole Ganz, spokeswoman for the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, says the Palestinian Authority has yet to file a complaint. And the international activist community? It sometimes seems it takes a war to mobilize us in mass numbers as well – which explains why we’re all focused on Syria and Iraq, with barely a mention or attempt to push back on the daily deteriorations in Gaza and the West Bank.

“During the war, I was getting messages all the time from foreigners who wanted to help, who promised to help me get out for a bit after it was over,” recalls Maisam. “But now..nothing. Even during the war, I never felt like I wanted to die. This is new to me. I guess we’ll just keep breathing until we stop.”

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i am so ashamed of the US.

i am so, so, so sorry for the misery/death/destruction that the US and its majority of willing/wilfully ignorant citizens have contributed to, and created for, the wondrous and suffering Palestinians.

Shame on supremacist “Jewish State” and on every person who and country that empowers it to continue with 60+ years campaign of theft, occupation and colonization of Palestinian land and oppression, torture and murder of Palestinians.

RE: “I know how it feels to be so desperate that you literally cry from disappointment when you actually wake up in the morning, and to spend the night before asking God for a last favor … to take your life because you’re just too cowardly to take it yourself.” ~ Maisam Morr

MY COMMENT: I’m so ashamed of the U.S.! ! !
It’s not much, but I did make a contribution to the Rebuilding Alliance to help them ship some emergency relief clothing to Gaza.

From: Rebuilding Alliance
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 12:14 PM
To: dickersonXXX@XXX.net
Subject: Thank You All who gave to Clothe Gaza’s Children

Dear Friend,

Thank you to all who gave. Your generosity help us raise $3435 in matching funds for a total of $22,251 to ‘Clothe Gaza’s Children’. – http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RebuildingAlliance/51b3234a0c/a08bc6da39/a18ec83e4a We came in 3rd place with 121 ‘unique donors’. Clothe Gaza’s Children reached 2nd place in ‘total donations’.

Thank you for your patience, time, and compassion during our fundraiser. We are heartened by the results and could not have done it without you!

We’ll get our first container moving in the week ahead and keep you posted on our progress. We look forward to working with youth groups nationwide to help them organize their ‘Clothe Gaza’s Children’ drives and open the blockade with compassion.

Thank you again for your support!

Sincerely,

Donna, Thai, Monica, Brenna, Sandhya, and Deepa
Rebuilding Alliance’s Team

P.S. To see the final results on the GlobalGiving Leaderboard, click here. – http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RebuildingAlliance/51b3234a0c/a08bc6da39/4eb59c01dd/d-1342871-p=1&d-1342871-s=4&d-1342871-o=1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: Rebuilding Alliance
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 11:46 AM
To: dickersonxxx@xxx.net
Subject: Hi John, Clothe Gaza’s Children – Give Now

Dear Friend,

If you can, please give now to ‘Clothe Gaza’s Children’. – http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RebuildingAlliance/2446f34fb0/a08bc6da39/3e2bf2aa57 Our project is currently in 6th place in the GlobalGiving Bonus Day competition with $37,000 in matching funds still available. We just need another 210 donors to win. We need you.

What will it mean to win? Gaza’s families lost everything – over 104,000 are homeless and there’s no way reconstruction will be finished before winter. With your help, we’ll send 6 more shipping containers to Palestinian children in need, inviting universities and youth groups nationwide to gather the clothes and backpacks into containers and getting them in too.

Our goal is simple: Open the Blockade with Compassion — please Give Now – http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RebuildingAlliance/2446f34fb0/a08bc6da39/d5b7cd258e

Please ask your friends to give too. Questions? Suggestions? Please call me at 650 325-4663. Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,

Donna
Founder & Executive Director, Rebuilding Alliance

P.S. To see ‘Clothe Gaza’s Children’ progress on the GlobalGiving Leaderboard, click here. -http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RebuildingAlliance/2446f34fb0/a08bc6da39/a582ee17d8/d-1342871-p=1&d-1342871-s=4&d-1342871-o=1

Israel opened 2 of the crossings this afternoon, which of course doesn’t mean much. They must need the business in Israel for having done so. Still no construction materials being allowed-in and still, fishermen being shot at if they stray offshore.

The cease-fire brokered by Egypt was bogus.

From al-Akhbar yesterday:

“… First rains soak victims of war-torn Gaza Strip

Israel also agreed to allow construction material into Gaza.

But two months after the war ended, no building material has entered Gaza due to Israel’s ongoing blockade.

With the first winter rains, fears of Gaza citizens whose homes were destroyed by Israel came true Friday and Saturday, especially in Khuzaa neighborhood in the southeast, where displaced citizens live in movable houses supplied by donor countries.

“Rainwater leaked into the caravan from the roof and from the sides just as winter has begun,” says Osama al-Najjar who lives with his wife and daughter in a 30-square-meter caravan after his house was completely destroyed.

He said that some of the caravans in the area moved from their places by floods of rain water which sweep away sewage water and earth.

Disappointed with her new living conditions, al-Najjar’s wife said that her family used to live in a 250-square-meter house before the war.

“After we have been living in a big house not paying the least attention to rainwater, we are now spending our time and effort trying to repair the caravan we live in so it can stand in the face of storms and floods.”

The summer aggression led to widespread destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, reaching levels of devastation that UN chief Ban Ki Moon called “beyond description” in a visit to the Strip on October 14.

According to estimates based on preliminary information, as many as 80,000 Palestinians homes were damaged or destroyed during the days of hostilities, a higher figure than was previously thought. UNRWA estimates that at least 20,000 of these are uninhabitable.

Over 106,000 of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents have been displaced to UN shelters and host families, the UN says.

The majority of Gaza’s homeless people are children.

According to Palestinian Authority, rebuilding Gaza will cost $7.8 billion.

Commenting on the situation after the first rains, the mayor of Khuzaa warned of a possible disaster which could be more difficult than the one caused by the war itself.

The municipality, he told Ma’an, has very little equipment for relief work.

“As winter approaches, there will be a humanitarian disaster in Khuzaa because we can’t control the route of floods after the war has changed the structure of the landscape and destroyed all constituents of life in the town including water, electricity and telecommunication networks and infrastructure.”

Israel routinely bars the entry of building materials into the embattled coastal enclave on grounds that Palestinian resistance faction Hamas could use them to build underground tunnels or fortifications.

For years, the Gaza Strip has depended on construction materials smuggled into the territory through a network of tunnels linking it to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

However, the recent crackdown on the tunnels by the Egyptian army has effectively neutralized hundreds of tunnels, severely affecting Gaza’s construction sector.”

(Anadolu, Al-Akhbar, Ma’an)