Awni al-Heteni School, North Gaza

Free Gaza blog, April 7, 2009 - A day in the life of ordinary Socio-Psychological Support Workers in a recent war zone:

Gaza Wears a Face of Misery - Interview with Philip Risk

Al Jazeera English TV, April 6, 2009 -

....Q: What doesn't the media report on [in Gaza]?

More than 1400 people died in Israel's latest war on Gaza. But on a regular basis, Gazans die because of all sorts of causes that we don't hear sufficiently about in the media. The sewage system is horrible, water is polluted and diseases are becoming an increasing phenomenon in Gaza.

Hospitals can't cope because they face electricity shortages; a lot of Palestinians are in desperate need of kidney dialysis, the kinds of diseases that are out there are getting worse, it's simply not a livable space.

The line between the meaning of life and death becomes very thin. As a student, you can spend your whole life trying to do well in school, get good grades - but all that effort goes to waste because there is no future for the class valedictorian.

Everyone alike is left completely powerless without hope and potential future. I'm even shocked at how well kids can even perform in these schools, considering how they live in a constant state of war....

One thing I've noticed in the media is that the theme of violence is always associated with stories coming out of Gaza.

Why not focus on stories of non-violent resistance? While some Palestinians return Israeli violence with further violence, the vast majority does not, and the Arabic word for such everyday acts of non-violent protest is sumoud, which means steadfastness, perseverance.

No matter what Israelis do to the people I met, they continued fighting for their right to remain on their land, their right to stay alive. Many of the people I filmed aren't affiliated with political parties, they are normal people like you and I....

Philip Risk is a writer and filmmaker. He blogs at Tabula Gaza and just completed a film about non-violent resistance in Gaza called This Palestinian Life. He was recently held by the Egyptian authorities for four days.

Opinion: Egypt Errs in Playing Rough at Rafah Border - Daanish Faruqi

Daily Star, March 29, 2009 - Abdullah al-Ghoul was assured a safe voyage into Gaza, his homeland, from Egypt's Rafah border crossing. In order to see his family after three years of involuntarily exile in Egypt, where he is currently completing a degree in film studies, on March 6 Abdullah joined a 60-person delegation into Gaza sponsored by Codepink, in solidarity with Gazan women on International Women's Day. Miraculously, Egyptian authorities deviated from standard protocol and opened the border crossing to our delegates. Abdullah was casually allowed passage into Gaza, after paying an additional 250 Egyptian pounds, with a promise that he'd be granted a safe return to Egypt after completing his visit.

Unfortunately, upon Abdullah's return Egyptian authorities had reneged on their agreement, citing issues with his paperwork. Instructed to seek assistance from Ramallah to straighten out his file, Abdullah was flatly denied entry back into Egypt. His ability to complete his studies, consequently, is currently on hold.

Abdullah's case is frustrating and heartbreaking. After all, it seems spectacularly unfair to be forced to choose between completing one's studies and seeing one's loved ones after years of separation based on border policies. But his denial of entry into Egypt is far more than an isolated personal anecdote. Indeed, it elucidates the utter arbitrariness of Egypt's policy at the Rafah border, and ultimately Egypt's complicity in the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

The official policy of the Egyptian government at present is that Rafah must remain hermetically sealed, for reasons beyond Egypt's control--notably, the threat of "insurrectionary spillover" from Palestinians pouring into Egypt and radicalizing the Muslim Brotherhood there. But if this were a legitimate concern, and if the Egyptian regime's hands are genuinely tied, then why was our delegation allowed free entry through Rafah without so much as an official peep from the authorities? Sadly, our entrance was allowed primarily in the name of public relations....

Daanish Faruqi, senior Egypt liaison to the Washington-based Voices for a Democratic Egypt (www.democraticegypt.org), recently returned from a fact-finding delegation to the Gaza Strip sponsored by Code Pink: Women for Peace. He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon.

Tough Times for University Students in Gaza

IRIN, March 26, 2009 - Many university students who lost relatives or whose homes were destroyed during the recent 23-day Israeli offensive are finding it difficult to cope, according to university officials and students.

Some have been unable to register for the new semester due to lack of funds; others are still traumatised.

Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza said 14 of the 15 higher education institutions in the Strip (most are in and around Gaza City) were damaged by Israeli forces. Six came under direct attack.

Three colleges - Al-Da’wa College for Humanities in Rafah, Gaza College for Security Sciences in Gaza City, and the Agricultural College in Beit Hanoun (part of Al-Azhar University) - were destroyed, according to Al-Mezan communications officer Mahmoud AbuRahma.

Six university buildings in Gaza were razed to the ground and 16 damaged. The total damage is estimated at US$21.1 million, according to the Palestinian National Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan for Gaza....

The Pasta, Paper, and Hearing Aids That Could Threaten Israeli Security

The Independent, March 1, 2009 - Members of the highest-ranking American delegation to tour Gaza were shocked to discover that the Israeli blockade against the Hamas-ruled territory included such food staples as lentils, macaroni and tomato paste.

"When have lentil bombs been going off lately? Is someone going to kill you with a piece of macaroni?" asked Congressman Brian Laird. It was only after Senator John Kerry, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raised the issue with Defence Minister Ehud Barak after their trip last month that Israel allowed the pasta in. Macaroni was considered a luxury item, not a humanitarian necessity, they were told. The total number of products blacklisted by Israel remains a mystery for UN officials and the relief agencies which face long delays in bringing in supplies. For security reasons such items as cement and steel rods are banned as they could be used by Hamas to build bunkers or the rockets used to target Israeli civilians. Hearing aids have been banned in case the mercury in their batteries could be used to produce chemical weapons.

Yet since the end of the war in January, according to non-government organisations, five truckloads of school notebooks were turned back at the crossing at Kerem Shalom where goods are subject to a $1,000 (£700) per truck "handling fee".

Paper to print new textbooks for Palestinian schools was stopped, as were freezer appliances, generators and water pumps, cooking gas and chickpeas. And the French government was incensed when an entire water purification system was denied entry. Christopher Gunness, the spokesman for the UN agency UNRWA responsible for Palestinian refugees, said: "One of the big problems is that the 'banned list' is a moving target so we discover things are banned on a 'case by case', 'day by day' basis."

Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said: "Israel's blockade policy can be summed up in one word and it is punishment, not security."

Children in Gaza Afraid to Return to School

Irin, February 24, 2009 - School-children in the Gaza Strip face psychological trauma and lack facilities after schools were badly damaged or destroyed during Israel’s three-week assault on the enclave that began in December.

Primary and secondary schools in Gaza run by the government and the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) report a shortage of drinking water and textbooks for students, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Restrictions on the amount and type of materials being allowed into Gaza by Israeli authorities are hindering the education system.

Many parents and children say they were afraid to return to school after the war. The first attack hit Gaza on a morning while school was in session....

Lack of books

Asma Co-ed Elementary School “A&B”, run by UNRWA, is still waiting for this semester’s textbooks, according to area officer Mohamed Abu Hashem.

“We have been waiting three weeks for paper to print the books to enter Gaza; meanwhile, students are sharing textbooks,” said Abu Hashem. “The main problem is the psychological effects of the war on the children.”

After the war he organised stress-relieving activities for the children, including group therapy session and plays produced by local NGOs, such as the Children’s Theatre Organisation.

“The children are frightened by loud noises and panic when they see an airplane in the sky,” said Abu Hashem.

Some 161 of UNRWA’s 221 schools are running psycho-social support programmes, he said.

The school operates without electricity two to three days a week, and about 1,800 students attend the school in two shifts....

Higher Education Chronicle: War of Words on Investment in Israel

Higher Education Chronicle, February 13, 2009 - A pro-Palestinian student group and Hampshire College disagreed Thursday as to whether the Massachusetts institution’s withdrawal of investments from an index fund represented a rebuke of Israel, and a major first for the divestment movement. Any hope that this might stay a quiet campus disagreement — probably a slim hope given the topics involved — has evaporated with dueling press releases, media coverage from the Middle East and the entry of Alan M. Dershowitz into the dispute.

Dershowitz, a Harvard University law professor and well known supporter of Israel, threatened to unleash a campaign against the college, and issue a call for donors to withhold contributions, unless Hampshire resolves any ambiguities and clearly states that it rejects student efforts to divest from the Jewish state. “What they have to do is make it impossible for the students to plausibly be able to declare victory,” said Dershowitz, whose son went to Hampshire.

“They want me on their side, they want the anti-Israel students on their side, they want everybody on their side. But unfortunately the divestment campaign is a zero-sum game. Both sides can’t win, and Hampshire let the anti-Israel students win and they will pay a heavy price for that. Unless they withdraw it, they withdraw it and they make it clear they have rejected these efforts to divest from Israel.”

The students dominated the headlines on Thursday when, in a press release, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter hailed Hampshire as “the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” The student group celebrated having successfully pressured the college to divest from six companies with connections to Israel’s military operations in the West Bank and Gaza.

Hampshire officials acknowledge they initiated a review of the specific State Street fund in question in response to a petition from Students for Justice in Palestine. However, Hampshire maintains that it transferred assets to another fund after finding much broader violations of its policy on socially responsible investing, including unfair labor policies, environmental abuse, military weapons manufacturing and unsafe workplace settings. In all, Hampshire says it found more than 200 companies in the fund that fell short of its standards. “[T]he decision expressly did not pertain to a political movement or single out businesses active in a specific region or country,” the college’s statement says.....

Difficulties of Getting Aid into Gaza Persist

Irin, Gaza City, February 8, 2009 - Aid agencies are becoming increasingly frustrated with the difficulties of getting humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip.

“For us to move ahead with rehabilitation and repairs, we must get building materials into Gaza,” Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), told IRIN by telephone. “Two hundred and twenty-one schools for 200,000 children only have 40 percent of their books because we can’t get paper and glue into Gaza.”

Some US$93 million-worth of UNRWA construction projects have been on hold since before Israel’s military operation in Gaza began in late December due to a lack of cement, said Gunness....

We have had difficulties entering our education supplies, like paper,” Marixie Mercato, a UNICEF spokesperson, told IRIN from Jerusalem. “These are not problematic goods,” he added, referring to Israeli restrictions on goods entering the Strip that have security implications.

Several UN agencies and other aid organisations say Israeli authorities have a confidential list of items prohibited from entering Gaza. Certain items, such as cement and paper, are commonly denied entry....

Gaza War Deals Blow to Schools in Gaza

Miftah, February 4, 2009 - The jewel of Gaza's bare-bones education system — a U.S.-style school on lush grounds overlooking the Mediterranean — is now a mound of broken concrete. The territory's only laboratory for genetic testing, at a Gaza university, lies in ruins.

With 37 primary and secondary schools destroyed or damaged by air strikes, and 18 others still serving as refugee shelters, learning in Gaza has become even more of a struggle.

Israel says the attacks on schools struck militants and a weapons lab during its three-week war against Hamas. Gaza educators say Israel hasn't provided proof to back up its claims, adding the strikes on some of its best educational institutions set back efforts to develop the impoverished territory.

Even before the offensive, overcrowding had forced most of Gaza's 380 primary and secondary schools to run morning and afternoon shifts of no more than four hours each to accommodate 450,000 students.

The American International School of Gaza, near the northern town of Beit Lahiya, stood apart from the rest. Sitting on an 8-acre plot, it was an oasis in dusty and crowded Gaza, with its lawns, palm trees and roses....

Haaretz: For the First Time, US Professors Call for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

Haaretz, January 29, 2009 - In the wake of Operation Cast Lead, a group of American university professors has for the first time launched a national campaign calling for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

While Israeli academics have grown used to such news from Great Britain, where anti-Israel groups several times attempted to establish academic boycotts, the formation of the United States movement marks the first time that a national academic boycott movement has come out of America. Israeli professors are not sure yet how big of an impact the one-week-old movement will have, but started discussing the significance of and possible counteractions against the campaign.

"As educators of conscience, we have been unable to stand by and watch in silence Israel's indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions," the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel stated in its inaugural press release last Thursday. Speaking in its mission statement of the "censorship and silencing of the Palestine question in U.S. universities, as well as U.S. society at large," the group follows the usual pattern of such boycotts, calling for "non-violent punitive measures" against Israel, such as the implementation of divestment initiatives, "similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era."

The campaign was founded by a group of 15 academics, mostly from California, but is, "currently expanding to create a network that embraces the United States as a whole," according to David Lloyd, a professor of English at the University of Southern California who responded on behalf of the group to a Haaretz query. "The initiative was in the first place impelled by Israel's latest brutal assault on Gaza and by our determination to say enough is enough."

"The response has been remarkable given the extraordinary hold that lobbying organizations like AIPAC exert over U.S. politics and over the U.S. media, and in particular given the campaign of intimidation that has been leveled at academics who dare to criticize Israel's policies," Lloyd wrote in an e-mail to Haaretz Monday. "Within a short weekend since the posting of the press release, more than 80 academics from all over the country have endorsed the action and the numbers continue to grow." ....

CNN Reports: Why did Israel Destroy the American International School in Gaza?

The American International School in the northern part of Gaza City opened in September 2000. Its first class of 5 seniors graduated in 2004. The school's language of instruction was English and it was geared towards preparing students for admission to American universities. The diploma they received upon graduation was an American high school diploma. The library housed 10,000 volumes.

According to the school's web site, its mission was to develop the following in each student:

• The ability to think rationally, solve problems, follow principles of logic, employ various modes of inquiry, use and evaluate knowledge and develop positive attitudes toward intellectual activity
• Moral integrity and the sound judgment to evaluate events and phenomena
  
• Productive and satisfying relationships with others based on respect, trust, and cooperation
• Self-control and the willingness to accept the responsibility for one's own decisions and their consequences
• The ability to engage in constructive self-criticism, yet promote and maintain a positive self-concept
• Decision-making skills in selecting personal, life long learning goals and the means to attain them
• Physical fitness, health habits, recreational skills,and effective use of leisure time
• An appreciation of the arts for on-going enjoyment and growth
• A concern and respect for the environment and the use of natural resources
• An awareness and understanding of one's culture heritage and to become familiar with the achievements of the past that inspired and influenced humanity
• An understanding and appreciation of global interrelationships to face the opportunities and challenges of a constantly changing world
  

Were these threats to Israel's security? CNN reports: