Subscribe Feed (RSS)One constant in our journey through Egypt and then Gaza was armed guards. Everywhere we went in Gaza, we were escorted by Hamas and UNRWA security guards. There was a great deal of concern for our safety. In fact, UNRWA had requested that we not use home stays and instead have everyone stay at the hotel. But home stays was something the delegation was not willing to give up as it makes up an important part of the experience for both our delegates as well as the Gazan families. In the end, over half our delegation stayed with families.
We asked a woman with the UNRWA support staff what the concerns were with the home stays. She said it was obviously over our security and just made things more simple, security-wise and organizationally, to have us all in one place. She also mentioned that it could also create problems for the host families. And she definitely had a point. Our family definitely tried to keep it quiet that we were staying there, ushering us in from the street each day when we arrived home and discouraging us from a walk in the neighborhood. Another family was actually harassed by Hamas and had their identification confiscated.
This harassment of families, in addition to rather oppressive security while we were out on our visits, led to a midnight meeting between CodePink, Hamas and UNRWA. The harassment by Hamas was attributed to a few overzealous officials and we were assured that security would back off. And they did to some extent, though we still had to remind them that at times their presence wasn’t necessary or appropriate, for example while talking to young girls inside an orphanage!
By the end of the trip, we were allowed, or rather, simply took more freedoms. A few of us dared to walk unescorted down the street from the hotel to a souvenir shop to buy Palestinian flags, keffiyehs, etc. As luck would have it, just as we were leaving the shop, a rally of the political party Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was just going by. We stood on the sidewalk waving our flags and shouting “Free Gaza! End the Siege!” The cars, trucks and vans going by with the red flags of PFLP were both surprised and thrilled to see us cheering them on.
There have been a number of kidnappings, and certainly with the infighting between Hamas and Fatah, continued bombings by Israel – several camps were bombed during the night while we were there – you can’t say Gaza is among the safest places in the world. However, we never felt unsafe or even uncomfortable, aside from being swarmed by hundreds of children as we assembled the playgrounds. What we did feel was the warmth and hospitality of the people of Gaza.
Category: in gaza
