Diaries: Live from Palestine
Live from Palestine, EI's Diaries project, was launched during the violent March/April 2002 invasion of Palestinian towns by Israel, euphemistically described as "Operation Defensive Shield". Read the introductory article by EI's Arjan El Fassed which is reprinted with permission from the 2003 South End Press book Live from Palestine. Also see Life and Death in Palestine, an article by Stephanie Saldana that appeared in the Daily Star (Lebanon), which looks at the how Palestinians and internationals living in Palestine took reporting into their own hands during "Operation Defensive Shield". Quality submissions from people living in and visiting Palestine are welcomed.
Resisting to protect our own
Safa Joudeh writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 5 January 2009
All Palestinian factions have united and are out facing the enemy, using all of their military capabilities that they collectively have. Although these capabilities are incomparable to the military strength exerted by Israel, yet it has made us more certain than ever that Palestinians will fight to the very end to protect their own. Safa Joudeh writes from the Gaza Strip. [MORE]
Scared but steadfast in Gaza
Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 4 January 2009
My family is from Karatiya village a few kilometers away from the Gaza Strip in what is now called Israel. Karatiya is one of the 450 towns in historical Palestine that were cleansed by Zionist militias in 1948, displacing my family along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians. I now live in Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, which is currently being bombarded by Israel from tanks along the border, American-manufactured F-16s in the sky, and from the sea. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the besieged Gaza Strip. [MORE]
Trapped, traumatized and terrorized
Laila El-Haddad writing from Durham, the United States, Live from Palestine, 4 January 2009
My father and I made simultaneous back to back appearances on domestic CNN and CNN International last night. My father spoke calmly, eloquently, in the pitch dark of besieged Gaza, with only the the fire of Israeli bombs illuminating his world. "They are destroying everything that is beautiful and living," he told the anchor. His hands were trembling, he confessed, as my mother and he lay on the floor of their home, where they moved their mattress far away from the windows. Laila El-Haddad writes from the US. [MORE]
"They know no limits now"
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 3 January 2009
In the haze of dust and smoke from the latest F-16 strike, a family self-evacuates. The dispatcher at the Jabaliya Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) receives call after call from terrified residents fleeing their homes. It's a new year, a new Nakba, and an old scene; Israel is bombarding Gaza once again and the world is standing idly by, sitting on a fence very different from the electrified border fence encaging Gaza, or the separation wall dividing and ghettoizing the West Bank. Eva Bartlett reports from the besieged Gaza Strip. [MORE]
Family flees Israeli fire once again
Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 3 January 2009
"They have made us gather, they have made us recall past days, they have let us feel a warmth that we have long missed amidst life's troubles which have become so great. So we say simply and ironically, thanks to the Israelis." Sahar Ali Shaath and more than 20 other family members were forced to flee their house near the Gaza-Egypt border. The Electronic Intifada correspondent reports one Gaza family's story of constant displacement. [MORE]
In Gaza, targeting a nation
Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 2 January 2009
At al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's largest, an unidentified injured man is laying at the hospital's intensive care unit. He was hit by shrapnel from an Israeli missile that struck a target at the Samer crossroad in the Omar al-Mukhtar street in Gaza City yesterday. "This wounded patient has sustained critical injuries and his condition is unstable, but we don't yet know his identity, he is still unknown," Dr. Omar Manasra, the on-duty doctor of the intensive care unit said. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the besieged Gaza Strip. [MORE]
"Creative anarchy" in the Gaza Strip
Dr. Akram Habeeb writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 1 January 2009
Bombing governmental institutions in Gaza has nothing to do with isolating Hamas or weakening the resistance. The Israeli intent seems to be to create what US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called "creative anarchy." Indeed Israel has always wanted to keep Palestinians living a life of disorder. They want chaos to prevail in the Gaza Strip. Dr. Akram Habeeb writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. [MORE]
"Do these traumatized children have rockets?"
Fida Qishta writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 1 January 2009
This morning I went with some friends to visit the Block O neighborhood in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. While we were in one of the houses we planned to visit, my phone rang. It was a friend from Gaza City. He was asking about something. Suddenly I heard the sound of an explosion on his end. At the same time I heard an explosion in Rafah too. Fida Qishta writes from besieged Gaza. [MORE]
For the sake of Gaza's 800,000 children
Miko Peled writing from San Diego, US, Live from Palestine, 1 January 2009
As I sit and view the reports, photos and live videos streaming in from Gaza I find it impossible to make sense of it all. As a boy growing up in Israel and attending a regular public school, I remember being taught the story of Abraham, the patriarch arguing with God over the decision to destroy the city of Sodom. Miko Peled writes from the US. [MORE]
I can't hug my mother in Gaza
Ghada Ageel writing from the UK, Live from Palestine, 1 January 2009
There is nothing worse in life than being glued to the TV screen, watching one's nation being slaughtered on an hourly basis while able to do nothing. There is nothing more painful in this universe than hearing the tears and cries of one's mother on the phone and be unable to hug her, to wipe her tears or to comfort her with any words or means. Ghada Ageel writes from the UK. [MORE]
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