As Israel continues its bombing of Gaza for the 15th night in a row, while our sole power plant is forced to shut due to Israel’s decision to ban fuel from entering the Strip, and amid the spread of the coronavirus outside quarantine facilities, artists in Gaza have produced a new video clip. It comes as part of a creative project produced in besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine, where a group of activists and artists came together in order to highlight:
1. The Palestine that every refugee is dreaming to return to;
2. Resistance to Israeli occupation and apartheid; and
3. The links with progressive Arab forces and the Arab Spring.
It is an established fact that:
Two million Gazans are trapped in the world’s largest prison.
Thirteen years of Israel’s brutal siege by land, sea and air has devastated every aspect of life in the Strip.
97% of Gaza’s aquifer water is undrinkable, 52% of our essential drugs are at zero stock, and over 50% of the population is unemployed.
Gazans suffer chronic water, medicine, fuel and food shortages.
Add to this the latest COVID-19 cases that have been reported with only 66 ventilators for the 2 million residents of the strip. Unlike the pandemic all over the world, in Gaza it is allowed to spread simply because apartheid Israel has decided to tighten the medieval siege.
The UN already predicted that by 2020 Gaza would be uninhabitable. And we are already there!
Despite our situation, we, in Gaza have never stopped fighting for freedom and justice. Hence, the video clip. As activists and artists, we cannot stand by while Gaza’s entire population is slowly dying the hands of one of the most sadistic colonial powers.
This is why we wanted to highlight not only the suffering of our people, but their resilience and resistance. Students, children, elderly, shopkeepers, women, girls, worshippers, stone throwers, GFM protesters, fishermen, mothers, fathers…
In addition to being a celebration of Palestinian life and resistance, the clip is a tribute to the late Egyptian singer, Abdulhalim Hafez who was the first to sing these songs during the progressive decades of the 1950’s and 1960’s.
From the 16th to the 19th century Europe knew a lot of Jewish ghetto’s. Gaza’s present situation reminds me of them. Zionism has changed the roles: now it’s Jews driving “The Other” into a ghetto. This should not happen in a world that values equal rights for all people!
Some people still don’t want to call Gaza an “open air prison”, maybe because Egypt also plays a part in restricting Gazans freedom of movement. Yes, Egypt colludes, but Egypt doesn’t shoot at Gaza fisherment.
“Gaza fishing industry declines 50% due to Israel attacks on fishermen”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200610-gaza-fishing-industry-declines-50-due-to-israel-attacks-on-fishermen/
“Gaza: The world’s largest open-air prison” – from the Norwegian Refugee Council (2018)
https://www.nrc.no/news/2018/april/gaza-the-worlds-largest-open-air-prison/
More than 50 years of occupation and 10 years of blockade have made the lives of 1,9 million Palestinians living inside the Gaza Strip unbearable. That is why they now are protesting and risking their lives….
Palestinians, including their ancestors, have lived continuously between the River and the Sea for about 15,000 years** They have known many invaders, including the “Christian” Crusaders who occupied Palestine for about 200 years. The indigenous Palestinians will still be there and thriving long after racist, expansionist, foreign based Ashkenazi Zionism has inevitably been relegated to history’s dust bin. Zionists’ greatest weakness is that they are utterly dependent on the U.S., a fading near bankrupt power experiencing accelerating internal turmoil.
** https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2017.00087/full