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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/20/women-gaza-israel-palestine-community
Gaza – Women’s Lives Shattered by Conflict & Lack of Rebuilding, Support – Call for Dignity
During the worst
of the violence between Israel and Palestine last summer, Gaza student Hoda
Elrayes shared her experiences of living on the frontline with GuardianWitness. One year on she tells us about
three women in her community whose lives are still affected
Sabeha Abu Rok lives with her family in Khuzaa, a village that was the site of intensive Israeli bombardment late last July. Photograph: Hoda Elrayes
Hoda Elrayes – 20
August 2015
The conflict
between Israel and Gaza last July has left the most acute humanitarian crisis
in the Gaza Strip for decades. An international donors’ conference in Cairo last October
raised $5.4bn (£3.4bn) to rebuild Palestine – however, according to a World Bank report in May, only a quarter of that
sum has actually been delivered to those desperately in need.
Life for women in
Gaza has never been easy but last summer’s escalation of violence has made the
situation much worse for many. Over the last year I have have been in contact
with three women whose lives were shattered – and I have approached the authorities
in Gaza
to find out the reasons why their situation has still not improved.
On the outskirts
of Khuzaa, a farming village in the southern Gaza Strip that was destroyed during last summer’s conflict,
a poster with pro-resistance slogans defiantly declares a self-proclaimed
victory over Israel. Inside the village, young activists have decorated the
caravans that have replaced the destroyed homes, with colourful spraypaint in
an attempt to show the sheer force of will of the families now living in them.
However, the reality is very different; after a year the resilience of
residents here has been seriously reduced by the slow delivery of
reconstruction.
Sabiha
Abu Rok: ‘This is not a life’
I first visited
Sabiha, 65, in February. She had lost her house in Khuzaa during the violence
and spent last winter living with her three sons, daughter and grandchildren in
a manmade tent of tree leaves and nylon next to her devastated home. When asked
about how her life had changed, Sabiha said: “I’m afraid of everything. I lost
my house. My married sons’ houses were completely destroyed as well. We are all
homeless now. We hear about promises of reconstruction but nothing has
happened.”
Sabiha’s
grandson, Hareth, stands on the hill of a rubble where his room once was.
Photograph: Hoda Elrayes
Sabiha’s family
asked the Gaza reconstruction committee for help. “We needed a caravan. We were
calling for the officials to get us a caravan for more than five months.”
Instead the family received a tent but it was insufficient protection during
the cold months: “We usually lit a fire to feel warm and cook but the strong
winds made it impossible on some days ... We only managed to take showers once
every two weeks as we had no bathroom. This is not a life. If I had the choice
to choose between this life and death, I would choose death.” After Sabiha told
me this, she burst into tears.
The effect on the
family isn’t just physical. Hareth, Sabiha’s grandson, 11, recalls the sounds
of F16 warplanes whenever he hears thunder. He showed me his bedroom which is
now a small hill of rubble. “I used to cry here when I heard the shelling. The
sound of thunder reminds me of war. They are very similar. Our life is very
hard. It’s hard to study in the tent and it is cold. I go to my aunt’s house to
study. Although their windows and doors are broken, it is the best place to
keep my books and study. They have electricity and it is quiet there.”
In July, after 11
months of living and sleeping in the tent, the Catholic Relief Services, who are working with
local partners in Gaza, built a 28-metre wooden shelter for Sabiha’s family,
but Sabiha says: “This shelter cannot replace my house. It’s very hot inside
the shelter. I stay outside most of the time. I only enter the shelter when I
want to sleep.” As yet, there’s no sign of compensation for Sabiha’s family, so
they can’t rebuild a permanent home.
I spoke to Gaza’s
deputy minister of public works and housing, Naji Sarhan, about why housing
reconstruction is taking so long. First he described the scale of
reconstruction: “There are 12,620 completely destroyed housing units, 12,740
severely destroyed and uninhabitable housing units, and another 143,680 housing
units that are partially destroyed. We cannot rebuild all of this in
a day, nor in a year.”
Sarhan estimates:
“It may take a minimum of three years to rebuild these houses – and that’s only
if the promises of all the donors are fulfilled. $1.4bn
out of the $5.4bn pledged is designated for the reconstruction of houses. The
question is when and how these donating countries will fulfill these promises.”
Sarhan maintains
there are further challenges preventing reconstruction in Gaza – the political
rift between the main Palestinian political factions, Hamas and Fatah, which
stalls the necessary governmental administration that is needed for
reconstruction – and the blockade imposed by Israel on the entry of cement and
construction material (that was agreed by the UN).
“If a citizen
needs a cement bag, that citizen request should be authorised by the
Palestinian Authority and monitored by the UN agencies – and international
community organisations so that Israel will allow the entry of that cement bag.
If the UN agencies continue to comply with this Israeli mechanism, we will not
achieve real reconstruction and development. Also, the Kerem Shalom crossing is
the only one operating out of five commercial crossings. This is insufficient
to fulfill the needs of Gaza residents.”
According to OCHA,
the United Nations agency which coordinates humanitarian affairs, only 1% of the construction materials required to
rebuild houses have entered Gaza as of June 2015. The Israeli government
defines basic construction materials as “dual usage” items that can also be
used for building tunnels therefore threatening the security of Israel.
Sarhan’s response
to this: “Even if cement is used for building tunnels, the amount used is
extremely small. Israel cannot punish all the inhabitants of Gaza because of a
small minority. This is collective punishment.”
Rasha Qudaih and her family only have one habitable room to live in. She is finding it very difficult to continue her studies.
Photograph: Hoda Elrayes
Rasha Qudaih: ‘I
do not encourage people to emigrate. Gaza needs our help’
Rasha, 21, is a
student at the Palestine College of Nursing. Her home in Khuzaa was burnt after
being hit by artillery missiles last July. Her family now spend their days and
nights in one semi-lit room. When I met them in February, they were all sitting
on thin straw mattresses which cover the half-paved floor.
Rasha told me: “We
were besieged in this house for five days by the Israeli special forces during
the worst of the violence. Then we managed to get out. When we returned, we
found our house burnt. Now we spend our time in this one room as it’s in
slightly better condition than the other rooms.”
According to
Rasha, her life is much harder since last summer’s violence. “Although my life
was difficult before the war, I could manage to study. Now I’m unable to focus
on studying while all my family are living in the same room.” She continues:
“We spent all the money we have on house repairs. I was about to delay my
university semester because we could not afford to pay the fees. When the
university heard about my situation and because I had excellent grades, it
agreed to defer the payment of the fees until I manage to pay.
Rasha’s education
had already been curtailed because of the financial situation of her family.
When she graduated from secondary school, a Syrian minister offered her a full
scholarship to do her bachelor’s degree overseas. That opportunity was lost
because her family are unemployed and could not afford the other expenses
accompanied with her studies overseas.
When I spoke to
Rasha recently, she was no better off than before. Although she was happy
aboout volunteering for a local non-governmental organisation which helps the
poor, she was still preoccupied with her own problems with the fees. “I will
not be allowed to enroll in the next semester in September until I manage to
pay for both the last semester and the next one. I do not know how I will
afford that.”
My wishes are not
different from those of any young woman in the world
Rasha’s
frustration is now reflected in her politics. “I do not think that the
political factions here have helped us in any way. I ask the government to be
more responsible for its people. My wishes are not different than those of any
young woman in the world. I wish to have a normal life and help my family because
I do not expect the world to help us. I have to continue my education and get a
job. I do not encourage people to emigrate. Gaza needs our help. I am totally
against the idea of emigration. I believe that we need to cooperate to help
ourselves.”
I discussed
Rasha’s situation with the deputy director general of international and public
relations in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Mutasem Al-Minawe.
He confirmed that Gaza students have fallen victims to the Palestinian internal
political divide: “There are thousands of students like Rasha. Such students
should be fee-exempted or at least receive higher education loans.
“We can’t provide
loans and scholarships to our students in Gaza because there’s no communication
with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Ramallah. Higher
education loans should be distributed equally to the Palestinian universities
in all regions. However, students in Gaza do not receive such loans. Added to
this, we cannot enforce universities to grant loans and scholarships for its
students when they can barely pay partial salaries for their employees.”
Rahma Al-Atawy:
‘I’m afraid I will be not be able to take care of my daughters’
Rahma, 33, lost
her seven-year-old daughter, her mother and father-in-law last summer after
artillery shelling of her house in the Al-Tofah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza
city. She was injured in the shelling after shrapnel entered her spinal cord,
and now suffers from paraplegia. Her other four children, now looked after by
her mother-in-law and sister, were injured as well.
At the time Rahma
underwent surgery in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, and was then transferred to the
Al-Maqased hospital in Jerusalem – she received further treatment in Turkey
after the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, made an offer for some
casualties to be treated there.
After returning to
Gaza, Rahma spent six months at the Al-Wafa hospital for physiotherapy. Every
weekend she left the hospital to go home and be with her family but now her
injuries are making life very difficult. “I have four little daughters who need
me. The neighbours carry me to my apartment on the third floor. When I leave my
daughters every week they start crying and I feel so upset.
“My daughter in
the fifth grade asks when I will be able to join the parents’ meeting that’s
held every month in her school. I do not know how to respond. I’m afraid I will
be no longer be able to take care of my daughters.”
Despite Rahma’s
incomplete recovery, she was discharged from hospital in March. She believes
this is due to lack of funds at the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Rahma is
now afraid that she will never be able to fully recover. It was, she tells me,
suggested in Turkey that she should go to Germany for further treatment,
however there is no sign that this is going to happen.
Dr Neman
Al-Jabari, a neurology specialist and member of the Palestinian Ministry of
Health, which has responsibility for referring patients abroad, explained the
difficulties of treating Palestinians in other countries outside Jordan, the
West Bank and Egypt. “We depend heavily on the donations we receive and the
rare help that some countries like Germany and Turkey offer to treat war
casualties in their national hospitals.
“Even if Rahma can
be treated in Germany, it is not easy to coordinate her departure from Gaza
through Israel-Gaza Erez crossing. The closure of borders by the Israelis is
one of the main problems we have in the referral abroad department at the
Ministry of Health.”
The neurosurgeon
at Al-Shifa hospital, Dr Rami El-Sousi who operated on Rahma also wasn’t sure
if complete recovery was possible however he agreed it definitely needed
further investigation. He believes that tensions between the two main
Palestinian political factions, Fatah and Hamas, had held up urgent referrals
of many patients. “The communication between the two factions is needed to
facilitate the referral of patients. The patients are victims of this political
internal divide.”
Rahma agrees that peace initiatives and a political solution is imperative for long-term peace. “This is enough. We need a political solution to end this suffering once and for all. We want to live in peace. I support the resistance fighters in their battle against Israel, but the Palestinian officials should identify people’s needs. I do not encourage emigration, but, if we want to live here, we want to live in dignity."