Sami Abu Diak’s dying request in Israeli prison: “To all people of conscience, I live my last days and hours, and I want to spend them with my mother and beloved family,” he wrote. “I don’t want to leave life with my hands and legs handcuffed in front of jailers who love death and delight in our pain and suffering.”
Gaza has always been the exception throughout history. Starting from mighty Samson, to the Intifadas, Gaza was always there, regardless of the challenges, leaving its own mark on history and reminding everyone it in no way could be bypassed.
In Gaza, failing to pay a personal or bank loan is punishable by a maximum 91-day prison sentence. With the economy plummeting, more and more Palestinians are winding up in prison for loans taken out to cover household expenses and modest rents– 90,000 last year, by one report.
Amid growing financial strain, Palestinians in Gaza who are unable to pay rent are now living in tents. Most were tradesmen who lost their jobs in recent years. Some were once part of Gaza’s slim middle-class. After a decade of siege on Gaza’s crumbling economy, even once reliable work is scarce.
Anti-slavery, women’s suffrage, anti-Apartheid and, alas, Zionism needed a clear and inspiring end-vision in order to succeed. So does the One Democratic State agenda in Palestine. We believe in a standard liberal democracy, with separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers. We disagree with the view that collectives should have constitutional rights.
Refaat Alareer and Laila Al-Haddad lately addressed an audience in Gaza about their new collection, Gaza Unsilenced, which features dozens of writers and authors, including Ali Abunimah, Ramzi Baroud, Diana Buttu, Jonathan Cook, Belal Dabour, Richard Falk, Chris Hedges, Hatim Kanaaneh, Rashid Khalidi, Eman Mohammed
Refaat Alareer and Lina Alsharif are among contributors to a special issue of the journal Biography on Life in Occupied Palestine, published by the University of Hawaii Press. Editor Cynthia Franklin says The quelling of free speech in the United States works in tandem with Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians.
The Center for Political Development Studies [CPDS] Gaza, Palestine The Center for Political Development Studies…