During my first week in Gaza, I attended a performance put on by the performing arts and drama club of the Qattan Center for the Child. The Center’s musician, choreographer and drama director adapted a short play from the story of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and trained the children to perform.
While attending their final rehearsal I spoke to one of the children, who overheard me speaking English to the employees. Nine-year old Rashid was introducing the play and spoke English very well. He asked me if I liked Gaza. When I told him yes, he seemed shocked. “But we have a lot of problems here,” he said.
Some children in an English class I teach explained it even better. “It’s not that we don’t like Gaza, but the [Israeli] F16’s are not nice.”
Growing up with the burdens of occupation, war and siege, children in Gaza are deprived of an innocent childhood. One social worker who had, in easier times, been on a trip organized by an NGO to take 20 kids from Gaza to Turkey for a 14 day holiday told me how much the children enjoyed it. “They had a great time; they visited playgrounds and parks. But this made them realise that not all children live like they do.”
On the contrary, Gaza’s children are preoccupied with the belligerent situation around them. When asked what they would like to be when they grow up, most children say ‘a fighter’ or ‘a policemen’, a direct reflection of the insecure situation in which they live.
The Qattan Center for the Child in Gaza offers children library services, recreational and extracurricular activities and the chance to participate in artistic clubs. Growing up in a disadvantaged area, riddled with conflict and violence, this center is vital in supporting children and offering them a safe and quiet place to express themselves and escape from daily realities.
Speaking to the Center’s employees after Sleeping Beauty, I learned more about the children involved in the play. The budding actors were from a variety of backgrounds, some poor, some new members to the artistic clubs and some long term, committed members. The director of cultural activities, Haifa, told me the story of one of the children, Wadih.
“This particular child was very introverted and shy; he found it hard to integrate with other children and would not speak unless spoken to. He found it really hard to perform his part; we knew we would have to work very hard with him if he was going to participate in the final show. He had recently lost his mother in a horrific accident so we knew he was going through a hard time. By the end of all our training sessions and come the final performance, his level of performance had improved vastly and he was no longer shy to perform or communicate with others. We were really proud of him.”
Social workers in Gaza tell of the aggressive behavior and general behavioral problems of children. “Following the last Gaza war, the children showed heightened levels of anxiety; they were very hyper, found it difficult to concentrate and refused to listen to their parents,” one social worker, Rania, 22, told me, “When the political situation deteriorates so does the behavior of the children. There are more cases of violence in schools, and incidents of nightmares and bedwetting at home. Children feel very insecure and anxious, particularly because they notice that their parents feel frustrated and scared and unable to fully protect them from the dangers of the situation in which they live.”
This is no surprise. With the soaring rate of unemployment due to the siege and political divide, the majority of Gazans face financial insecurity. For this reason, parents feel unable to fully provide for their children and subsequently pass their frustrations onto their children. It is normal to see children selling items such as chewing gum in Al Remal district of Gaza City because they have to contribute financially to their family. As such, they are unable to attend school.
Which brings us to yet another stumbling block in Gaza’s development. The right to receive an adequate level of education is hindered by psychological and social pressures, as well as by the blockade. Classrooms are typically overcrowded, one reflection of the Gaza Strip’s high child population. There are not enough schools, classrooms and resources to facilitate them all. As such, they are forced to go to school in shifts, the first shift starting at 6 am. When I asked one student how she feels about having to go to school so early, she said, “I feel far too sleepy to concentrate.”
The constant reality in Gazan society is this continuous circle of violence. Living under military occupation and siege are all combined sources of anger, hopelessness and tension. This is passed on to society’s weakest elements – women and children. This became clear to me during an activity I attended for children at the QCC. The children were drawing pictures and telling of how their teachers hit them in school. Teachers are not well paid and live in the same closed and oppressive environment as everyone else, so it is all too likely that they vent their frustrations onto those of weaker status.
It is clear that Gaza is severely lacking in services for children. There are organizations and centers in support of the child, but they are far from being enough. Wadih, who found his voice from the simple fairytale script of Sleeping Beauty is evidence that when children have the chance and support they need, they will come out of their shells and find themselves. In Gaza, unfortunately, there are just not enough similar opportunities to go around.
Saphia Shone is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
Who will hear their screams?
Date posted: April 01, 2024
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
When Israel claimed women were sexually assaulted on a mass scale on October 7, the world exploded. Almost the entirety of Israel’s genocidal war was based on these and other allegations, many unsubstantiated. We all remember the infamous’40 beheaded babies” story, do we not?
This article is not about Israeli allegations per se, neither will it only focus on violations against Palestinian women. This is about a world that is immediately up in arms when one side merely alleges atrocities while it turns a blind eye to actual documented violations against the “other”.
In Gaza, it is painfully clear that we indeed, are ‘the other’. How else can anyone explain the muted cries of women being stripped, raped, starved and murdered practically in real time, on our phone screens, documented in UN reports and described in horrific detail in eyewitness testimonies? There is no other explanation than that Palestinians are what Arundhati Roy calls “Children of a lesser God”. We are the victims of deep-rooted colonialism, one whose geographic demarcations may have vanished but whose insidious, dehumanizing mentality still prevails and manifests in the ugliest of manners.
For nearly six months, Palestinians have endured unspeakable atrocities at the hands of Israel’s occupying army. Today, the Gaza Strip has been reduced to an emaciated shell of what it once was. As Gaza is being systematically decimated and ethnically cleansed, the world, for the most part, looks on. Barring sympathetic supporters and a few well-intended but timid political actors, nothing has been done to stop the carnage. Palestinians once believed there was no way the world would allow Israel to erase Gaza off the map, no way it could see a live-streamed genocide and do nothing. But that is exactly what is happening.
Then, when we thought things could not get any worse, something unfathomable emerged from the deathtrap of Gaza. When this happened, we were certain it would be the turning point in this hellish nightmare. Well-documented reports, corroborated by the UN and eyewitnesses on the ground, told of harrowing stories of sexual assault against Palestinian women in Gaza.
We were paralysed with horror when we heard of women being raped by Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza, assaulted and stripped in front of their families. What’s worse, we all know that in times like these, the undocumented atrocities will far outnumber those documented. Who knows what horrors will unfold once the dust settles in Gaza; no doubt they will be so horrific, our entire nation will be traumatized for years to come.
The real question here is not how Israel’s soldiers perpetrated such gross violations. I think by now we can all agree that this depraved military establishment and its political echelon to boot, has dehumanized and vilified Palestinians so much and for so long, they will justify just about anything. No, the question is more about the moral compass of the rest of the world. While alliances and political interests are always part of the equation, even when the issue pertains to basic human rights, nothing can better explain the blatant hypocrisy, double standards and loss of collective humanity than the deafening silence today.
Our women have not only been killed, starved and displaced, they have been exposed to the very violations that sparked global outrage and a genocidal war against an entire population under occupation, unprecedented in modern history. This is not only unacceptable, it is an indelible stain on humanity. Sexual violence is a crime so heinous it is imperative to condemn and prevent, no matter the perpetrator or the victim. That must always be the baseline in any argument.
Palestinians will never get past this genocide; it is not something you can come back from. However, be assured, this is not only about the Palestinians. The world’s women, the majority of so-called feminists who have remained disgustingly silent, must know this: when you do not stand up for women, all women, no one will stand up for you in your time of need.
A new day will come
Date posted: February 14, 2024
By Joharah Baker
I once heard that anger is not a real emotion, but a cover for other feelings such as sadness, disappointment or fear. You need to peel back that outer layer to understand what is really going on inside.
Strange how this has lately resurfaced for me, but I think I know why. Lately, I and surely, millions of other Palestinians, have been filled with a blinding rage -- at Israel, at the United States, and at the world overall. This is a rage that is all-encompassing, the depth of which is palpable at the cellular level, permeating every molecule and every atom of our being. The genocide in the Gaza Strip has grated our emotions raw and we are left stinging and burning from our head to our toes.
Our anger is like a huge magnetosphere and we are all trapped inside, but its walls are translucent and we can see the source of our rage mocking us from beyond. We Palestinians are angry because we are so disappointed and we are angry because we are disillusioned and we are angry because we are drowning in sorrow.
Our disappointment lies in the fact that the world has failed us in the worst possible way and has allowed the unspeakable to be committed against us. Genocide is the ‘mother of all crimes’ and, contrary to the promises, the conventions and the historical lessons the world was supposed to learn, it has been committed over and over again. The Palestinian genocide, however, is unique in at least one way: it is live-streamed, which means no one can claim ignorance and everyone has a responsibility in stopping it. Hence, our disappointment is not limited to countries, Arab or otherwise, or to international and human rights organizations. It has spread to everyone in our orbit; acquaintances and people we thought were friends, but whose silence towards our slaughter is a deafening betrayal. Our sense of disappointment has discolored every relationship it touches because every relationship for us is a dichotomy: you are either with or against genocide and either support Palestine in word and deed, or not.
Our anger is a thin veil concealing our disillusion with the international community and its institutions, supposedly established to protect people in situations precisely like ours. We have confirmed what we knew all along, that these organizations were constructed for some and not all, for colonial powers and not those who suffer beneath them. Even when the highest court in the land rules in our favor, the Global North ensures that its ruling will not be implemented to save us, the oppressed, indigenous brown people whose lives apparently do not matter.
And finally, our anger is a survival mechanism to shield us from our own grief. Our sorrow over the murdered men, women and children, defenseless, homeless, starving and shivering in the cold, is so deep, so immense, we ourselves cannot fathom it. If we dare peek behind this anger and truly feel a fraction of the aching in our hearts, it will paralyze us for sure, because no people can endure the magnitude and scale of such suffering and not lose their minds.
We Palestinians know we cannot let go and that a new day is near. We know we must hold on just a little bit longer, because Palestine depends on it. We are no strangers to oppression, suffering and sacrifice and we know the price of our freedom has and continues to be painfully high. Still, we also know that a life without shackles and the yoke of oppression around our weary necks is the only life worth living.
Killing the flowers will not delay spring
Date posted: February 01, 2024
By Joharah Baker
This may be the hardest article I’ve written so far, for obvious reasons. As the genocide in Gaza grinds on into its fourth month, with winter in full force, the situation is so dire it has been described as hell on earth. To date, some 27,000 Palestinians have been murdered by Israel, nearly 70% of them women and children. Another 70,000 have been wounded and at least 1.9 million people have been displaced. With only 2.3 million in the Gaza Strip to start with, this computes to 1% of its population being exterminated, and in less than four months.
However, in the midst of these horrific times, let us allow ourselves a sliver of hope. The ICJ ruling, announced on January 26, prompted mixed feelings among Palestinians who naturally, wanted to hear a clear and firm demand on Israel to stop its onslaught. However, even without the express demand for a ceasefire, the ICJ offered something to the Palestinians for which they have been demanding for many years: their suffering, their plight and the brutal oppression they live under, was finally acknowledged by the highest court in the world. More importantly, Israel is being called out for its crimes, displayed in real time for all to see. For this, we will be eternally grateful to South Africa and its exceptional legal team for bringing this case of genocide to the ICJ and forcing the world to look straight down the barrel of Israel’s cruel intentions.
Of course, for the Palestinians, we did not need an international court to tell us that Israel is committing a genocide, but it was cathartic to hear this acknowledged on a global platform. While we are aware that the actual charge of genocide perhaps needs years to prove, it only takes hearing the ruling and the case argued by South Africa to surmise that Israel is as good as convicted.
This is not insignificant, and we will cling to any shred of hope we can find in this unjust world. Having said that, this is no time to rest. If anything, it is time to push even harder because now, we have ICJ rulings in our favor and legal backing to claims we already knew were legitimate.
However, while this may have offered us some ray of light in the darkness in which we are all engulfed, the fact of the matter is that things continue to worsen on the ground in Gaza. This genocide is so heinous, not only in the brutality of the Israeli bombs and denial of basic aid to the people of Gaza, but in the fact that its people are suffering from multiple and simultaneous injustices. That is, those who are being starved are the same people who have been displaced and the same people who have been injured and cannot receive medical attention. They are the same people who have lost their homes and family members and the same people who are under the rubble. One atrocity does not cancel out another in Gaza and that is what makes this genocide so unimaginable.
We have reached a point where it is unnecessary to describe the horrors of life in Gaza because frankly, in the past four months, everyone has seen them. It is not a matter of the world not knowing. This may have been the case in other genocides and atrocities, but not this one. It really boils down to two things: The dehumanization of the Palestinians and Israel’s impunity for its crimes, the latter being a direct result of the former.
Shame on the world for accepting Israel’s vile propaganda, hook, line and sinker. Shame on the “western world” in particular, who we will never forgive. Shame on them all for aiding and abetting the slaughter of our people, their displacement, starvation and annihilation. This will not go unnoticed in the annals of history, which will paint each and every accomplice in the criminal light it deserves.
But these despicable powers do not know the lion-hearts of the Palestinians and their fierce loyalty to Palestine. They will never be able to kill us all and my hope is that this thought haunts them day and night.
A sign held up in one of the many protests around the world reads: “Killing the flowers will not delay spring”. Our Spring is coming, without a doubt.
