GAZA DELEGATION UPDATES

6/14/08

I returned from Gaza a week ago. It was difficult to get updates out via email or phone calls.
We also kept to a very hectic schedule. We learned a lot from our time with the Palestinians.
We witnessed first hand the devastation wrought by Israel's invasion and massacre of Gaza. We
spent time with children whose schools were destroyed by bombs dropped by Israel... bombs made and
paid for by the United States. We visited familes living in the ruins of their bombed out homes
because the embargo prohibits building materials. We witnessed hospitals which were staffed by highly
qualified medical personnel but were unable to provide adequate health care because the embargo prohibits many
important medical supplies and equiptment.
We were also priviledged to experience the hopitality, graciousness, generosity and resilience of
people of Gaza. Bombed buildings have been turned into jettys, new gardens are popping up everywhere,
and the people of Gaza want peace with the Isael's, whom they call their cousins.

We are putting together a pictorial presentation to give you a sense of life in Gaza. Our hope
is by sharing the experiences our delegation witnessed, we will give others a sense of urgency and an impetus to act on behalf of the people of Gaza.

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I (Jeanie Toth) traveled to Gaza in May to extend a hand of peace to the people of Palestine, a people who have
been systematically oppressed, militarily assaulted and massacred, and are now suffering under the yoke of an embargo which makes it impossible for them to sustain any semblence of a normal standard of living.


Crossing the Border

Since Hamas was democratically elected, Israel
imposed an embargo on the Occupied Terrirories. Since
the Dec-Jan massacre, the embargo has become much
more horrific. Much needed food and other humanitarian
supplies are rotting on the borders. Health care workers
are not allowed to enter the Gaza Strip.
Our delegation was lucky to get in. We were preceeded
by three other Code Pink delegations and had a
letter of invitation from UNRWA.
We were greeted with tearful enthusiasm by the
Palestinian people. Their hope is that as more and more
delegations are able to break the embargo by entering
Gaza and telling the plight of the Gazan people
the siege will be lifted.

                       

The Egyptian Side of the Rafah Border                            Entering Palestine.
                                                                                 Each color of the Palestinian Flag is symbolic of                                                                                 their struggle. Red stands for blood shed, green                                                          
                                                                                for life, and white for peace. Black stands for
                                                                                Occupation and it is at the top of the flag. When
                                                                                the Palestinians are free the black will be placed
                                                                                on the bottom of the flag, proclaiming occupation
                                                                                to be a thing of the past.



Gaza's once green fields have been reduced to sand and dirt by Israeli tanks. The land is splotched with piles of rubble from bombed out buildings. What once were productive factories lay in heaps of concrete and twisted iron. Single family homes, apartments, and mosques have been turned to ruins while the charred remains of children's schoolwork lie scattered around schools targeted by Israeli bombs.

We put a number of names to the area of Palestine... The nation of Palestine, the Occupied Territories, ect..., but what Gaza is in actuality is a prison. One and a half million people, almost 50% of them children, live in an area smaller than Pinellas County. Israel controls what and who is allowed into and out of Gaza. This means Israel decides what Gazan parents can feed their children. Israel decides what medical services will be offered to the people of Gaza. Israel decides who can visit with or live with their families and who cannot. Israel makes these decisions under the pretext that Palestine as a whole and Gaza in particular is a terrorist state. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Our first stop was the UN compound where UN officials and Palestinians provided us an overview of
the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. More than 4000 homes were destoyed during the Dec-Jan massacre;
17,000 homes were damaged. Twenty Five schools were destroyed and 1500 factories and small businesses
were destroyed. The rationaing of electricity is effecting every aspect of Palestinian life. Hospitals
often have to depend on generators for emergency procedures. Many essential medications are not available.


Our Welcome into Gaza

           
    



Still, the Palestinians have hope for their future. I met a young woman who had just finished a degree
in English and she wants to go to a University in Glasgow to further her education. Luckily, Keith Hammond,
member of our delegation is a professor at a Glasgow University. The two of them were introduced
and hopefully this young woman will be able to realize her goal of a higher education.

The first place we visited after the Palestinians graciously welcomed our delegation of 68 people
into their country was the American International School of Palestine. I can't describe it. Horrible!
Unnecessary! Criminal! There was nothing left of the buildings for the children to resume their education.

                        
   
    In the United States, we think of schools as a haven of education for our children. But the scene
    we encountered at the American International school in Gaza was anything but a haven for                     education.
    What was once a preeminent K-12 school was nothing but a burned out shell of a building after             Israel bombed it. Desks, supplies and children's schoolwork was strewn among the ruble of the buildings.The Palestinians put a lot of stock in education. The people are articulate, aware and engaged. Western media often portray the people we are at war with as backward, unsophisticated and uneducated. Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes  to the people of Gaza. The literacy rate is almost 93%, which is phenomenal when one considers the hardships that have been placed on Gazan people by Israel and the United States. Children are traumatized by Israeli raids, schools are blown up, the embargo prohibits materials to rebuild them (as well as basic school supplies) and students are prohibited from traveling abroad forstudy.

View Video of 12 year old Dima showing delegates around the wreckage of the school. Click here.

Being a witness to the destruction of schools, mosques and homes was a heartrending experience. However, I feel I was most effected by witnessing first hand the prison Israel has turned Gaza into. A "security wall" surrounds Gaza. In many places the  Palestinian attempting to breach the wall may be shot on site.



More on the Crisis in Gaza:


Gaza Under Siege


Articles

Israeli Soldiers reveal the brutal truth of Gaza Attack

Interview with an old woman living near the tunnels

Israel Wantonly Destroyed Gaza

The Activists are Not the Story!

Residents have no escape from 'zeroed out' land