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Our first stop in Gaza was at a vocational training center in Khan Younis run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, where John Ging, a former Irish Army officer and director of UNRWA operations in Gaza, met with us. Our delegation was in Gaza at the invitation of UNRWA.
Ging spoke passionately and relatively candidly about the utter lack of support by the international community for the people of Gaza. “Time is literally running out. The people of Gaza are losing hope. And hope comes only from actions. There have been too many words and not enough action. We are heading in the wrong direction, and that leads only to injury, death and destruction.” He commended CodePink and their concrete actions and continued delegations. And as an Irishman, he was encouraged by the appointment of George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East.
Medea spoke about the followup work being done in Congress and the 10,000 people who had signed a petition in just one day urging Obama to come to Gaza during his upcoming trip to the Middle East. Norm Finkelstein remarked on the misinformation being spread about Gaza. “We are told that Gaza is a hostile territory. But here it is clear that you are a well-educated, civilized people.”
We then had a wonderful lunch and the chance to talk to the UNRWA support staff as well as the staff and students of the training center. Here we got our first taste of Palestinian hospitality; after just an hour in Gaza, we were eating falafel and dancing dabke. We also felt the hunger for contact with the “outside world” on the part of Gazans, as we were welcomed and grilled about our lives, what had brought us to Gaza and what we knew about the siege and recent Israeli assault.
We traveled along the coast to Gaza City, where the beautiful views were marred by the unmistakable smell of raw sewage. This is Gaza under siege.
Category: in gaza
