(To friends on my clearness-support committee, January 10, 2005)
I’m in Gaza for three days, photographing for two Palestinian organizations, one about youth training called Public Achievement thru the American Friends Service Committee, the other about treating trauma and other mental health problems at the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP). People are overwhelming hospitable--and talkative, with strong views of the occupation, recent elections, leadership, and hopes for future justice and peace. Hard to believe my eyes when I view the juxtaposition of pristine Mediterranean seascape with the devastated homes in the camps.
One small sign of the Gaza reality: nearing the Gaza checkpoint at Arez, we phoned for a taxi to meet us on the Gaza side. After about one hour of mild checkpoint interrogation--while viewing new holding pens, turnstiles, barriers, and the damage from a recent Palestinian rocket attack on the checkpoint--we entered Gaza. No taxi. We learned that as the driver had approached, he'd been shot by an army sniper. Hit in the stomach. Condition unclear. Much confusion and discussion among another taxi driver and our Arab speaking NGO official about an armored personnel carrier that was stationed on the road into Gaza. Safe to pass?
We passed without incident, making arrival all the sweeter.
Why was the driver shot? No one knows. No warning, no clear policy, no justification, no accountability, Israel acts with sheer impunity. Life in Gaza, plus much of the occupied territories.
More later, if you'd like to see and hear. Thanks so much for any prayers and meditations you send our way, our being me and my compatriots in Gaza.
Fondly, with deep appreciation,
(to a friend, January 11, 2005)
Oh, turns out coming to Gaza means pursuing the water issue anyway [another planned photographic project].
How? Gaza is coastal, and the contradiction between open expanse of water and tight restrictions is powerful.
Yes, I’m here in the Gaza Strip. As one Gazan put it so profoundly: this is not a prison, it is much worse, it is a graveyard. In Gaza City, I’m staying with three college students who are trapped here, unable for any reason to leave. While colleagues and family who were able to leave before the most recent clampdown are not allowed back. Stranded in place like Norway and Jordan for over 30 days and counting.
So that's a snippet of life in Gaza.
The day is sunny, chilly, quiet. For now, but given the Gazan reality, the situation could turn horrifying in a flash. Not to worry, we walk hand in hand with Providence, we do hope.
(To friends on my support-clearness committee and a few others, January 12, 2005)
Back from Gaza. With this news: like the Slaughter of the Innocents, Herod driven merciless and brutal from fear, executing all male children under the age of two because of the possibility that new leadership might emerge, the children of Gaza suffer. Mostly innocent, most no conceivable threat to any Israeli, they are shot down.
Yesterday I met two, a boy of 8 years, girl of 10. The boy was riding his bike, took a bullet in his back shot from the Israeli army of "pure arms." Far from any possible military action, any settlement, he was shot. He is in deep trauma. The girl was playing with her friends on her roof. Again, no military activity, no threats to settlers or the army, the Israelis hit her with a 50 mm projectile, tearing thru her right arm. Doctors might save it. I had the extreme privilege of meeting these two children in the Khan Yunis hospital thru the good offices of the GCMHP, invited to photograph the therapy--really an initial interview to assess the children’s psychological needs. Later in the taxi, thinking about what I’d just witnessed, I wanted to scream and weep. Until now I’ve held those tears back, felt in the taxi only a slight tearing, the water pulsing behind my eyes, ready to stream out. Eventually, eventually.
So I’m back in Ramallah safely, humdila, praise god.
This was not easy. Trying to leave thru the Arez checkpoint into Israel, a long labyrinthine gated funnel system, with soldiers barely visible, shouting orders thru loudspeakers-- remove your coat, lift your sweater, turn around--standing to be x-rayed by some hi tech distant camera, after driving to near the checkpoint, stopping, another loudpseakered voice shouting, stop or I shoot, go back, you are forbidden to drive thru (we walked), rifles pointed at us, striding past an armored personnel carrier (just like the ones in Iraq), one hour later, we emerged and drove off.
One more impression: Gaza Strip is on the Mediterranean Sea. So Gazans looking west see an expanse, a vista, limitless vision, freedom, but looking in any other direction (except up, and then there are the tethered balloons carrying remotely controlled cameras), they are penned in. Worse: consigned to a graveyard, as one Gazan put it.
More to come. I hope to sort thru my Gazan photos before I return home, think about what shows what, and put a few on my website. Keep posted. Thanks for your concern, your prayers, your love. I now move to a safer topic to photograph: water in the Palestinian city of Qalqilya for the Palestinian Water Authority, perhaps the beginning of a new sub series.
With gratitude to all,
--Skip
Links:
Maps of gaza—
http://www.palestinercs.org/images/Maps/gazamaplg.jpg
http://www.poica.org/maps/gaza.gif |
