Subscribe Feed (RSS)Everywhere we went we saw or heard about the effects of the siege. There was the director of an orphanage who had already lost the vision in one eye, was losing it in the other, but had been unable to obtain permission to travel to Egypt for medical care.
We also met Sharif, a university student studying business administration. He was in his second year and had top marks in his faculty. Though he had been offered a scholarship at Portland University in Oregon starting in the fall, he still had no idea if he would be allowed to go. “If I can’t get authorization by August, there goes my scholarship.” At Al Aqsa University, one of the professors has been offered a teaching position at the University of Manchester, however, he has been denied permission to travel. Professors are also unable to travel to attend international conferences.
Power outages were, of course, regular occurrences. The Gaza power plant simply can’t keep up with the demand due to a lack of fuel, which is blocked from coming in by Israel, as is electricity produced in Israel. There are both scheduled blackouts of 8-10 hours, as well as spontaneous outages. We visited a wonderful center that provided employment to women sewing dresses and linens as well as offering computer courses for young people. Unfortunately, there was no electricity the morning we were there, so the women sat around talking and the children were playing a game.
At the UNRWA vocational training center in Khan Younis, we were shown their library, which consisted of about 12 bookcases, 10 of which were completely empty and the others were half filled with photocopied manuals. The books destined for the center were held up in a storage facility in Jerusalem; the Israelis simply refused to allow them in. They are also unable to get the raw materials for their metal and woodworking training courses.
At a women’s center making traditional handicrafts, we were told their embroidery thread, which was produced in France, as well as the cloth they used was all smuggled in through the tunnels. A children’s center told us their computers had come through the tunnels.
At Al Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, we saw state of the art isotope scan and radio therapy machines that cannot operate because the radioactive material as well as a calibration tool had been refused entry by Israel. Dialysis machines sat unused, as they were out of the required fluids.
We heard over and over again about projects for which funding had been approved but were suspended for the simple fact that they could not get the materials in. Al Aqsa University, for example, has a new library that has been funded by Turkey, and Information Technology center funded by PalTel, the Palestinian telecommunications company, however the materials to complete these projects cannot enter.
As we were told by one of the UNRWA officials, it’s also a problem to get the actual banknotes in. They are often only able to get money in to pay the salaries of their employees while money to fund projects is blocked.
Not only are Palestinians restricted in their movement out of Gaza, but also within. Just days before we arrived, Israel began dropping thousands of leaflets near the border areas warning Gazans not to come within 300 meters of the border or they would be fired upon. The same restrictions are imposed on Palestinian fishermen. We heard shots fired nightly as the Israeli gunboats fired on fishing boats that attempted to venture far enough away from the shore in order to obtain a good catch.
Category: in gaza
