How do people and goods get in and out of Gaza? Do Gazans ever have fun? Is the Strip beautiful? And do TV reports actually reflect ordinary life inside the world's largest open-air prison? Meet Me in Gaza reveals the pleasures and pains, hopes and frustrations of Gazans going about their daily lives, witnessed and recounted by award-winning writer Louisa Waugh. Interspersed with fascinating historical, cultural and geographical detail, this is an evocative portrait of a Mediterranean land and its people.
This book is an intense exploration of daily life in Gaza, a region marked by decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The author immerses himself in stories of ordinary suffering, courage and resilience, detaching himself from the common media narrative. Through personal and direct testimonies, the book illustrates the human and touching reality of those who live in an area of constant instability. Telling stories of families, women and children, the work highlights how conflict profoundly impacts everyday life, influencing hopes, dreams and the struggle for survival. From the stories: "Imagine losing the partner of your life, the love of your soul, the beat of your heart at a time when the occupiers have decided to take away your entire life" "There is still time to save thousands of children who scream every day and night in fear, terror, sadness and pain in a collective cry for help" "They had said goodbye to me in so many ways in the midst of the frenzy of the days and I hadn't been able to understand that it was goodbye. They left me halfway and we still had so many dreams and promises to come true" "The one you cried with, laughed with, the one you told all your secret stories to... How can a person psychologically accept the total absence of the love of his life?" "They are not just numbers... they have names, places, stories and tales, houses, jobs, dreams and desires. They had everything. There were many chapters of happiness that were never completed"
Under the Israeli occupation of the '70s and '80s, writers in Gaza had to go to considerable lengths to ever have a chance of seeing their work in print. Manuscripts were written out longhand, invariably under pseudonyms, and smuggled out of the Strip to Jerusalem, Cairo or Beirut, where they then had to be typed up. Consequently, fiction grew shorter, novels became novellas, and short stories flourished as the city's form of choice. Indeed, to Palestinians elsewhere, Gaza became known as 'the exporter of oranges and short stories'. This anthology brings together some of the pioneers of the Gazan short story from that era, as well as younger exponents of the form, with ten stories that offer glimpses of life in the Strip that go beyond the global media headlines; stories of anxiety, oppression, and violence, but also of resilience and hope, of what it means to be a Palestinian, and how that identity is continually being reforged; stories of ordinary characters struggling to live with dignity in what many have called 'the largest prison in the world'.
A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK “This story is a necessary lesson against hatred and revenge.” ELIE WIESEL, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish captured hearts and headlines around the world in the aftermath of horrific tragedy: on January 16, 2009, Israeli shells hit his home in the Gaza strip, killing three of his daughters and a niece. By turns inspiring and heartbreaking, hopeful and horrifying, this is Abuelaish’s account of a Gazan life in all its struggle and pain. A Palestinian infertility specialist who lived in Gaza but worked in Israeli hospitals, he spent most of his life crossing the lines that divide the region. But it was his extraordinary response to the loss of his children that made news and won him humanitarian awards around the world. Instead of seeking revenge, Abuelaish called for the people of the Middle East to start talking to each other. He had hoped his daughters would be among the last sacrifices on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis. They haven’t been: thousands more innocents have died. But he hasn’t stopped believing that hate is not the answer or working for a peace based on equality, justice, freedom and dignity for all.
A moving account in words and pictures of a doctor at work in Gaza. This book is a medical doctor’s account of what he witnessed in Gaza in the summer of 2014. It is the photo story you will not see on television or in the newspapers. On July 7, 2014, Israel launched a series of aerial attacks on Gaza, followed by the ground phase of the operation ten days later. Mads Gilbert arrived in Gaza on July 13th, and worked day and night for the next two weeks at Al-Shifa Hospital, dealing with casualties, repairing serious injuries, and trying to save lives. With the help of a small, black camera ready in the pocket of his green operating scrubs, he was able to document some of the human cost paid by the Palestinian people for enduring the Israeli occupation. He also kept a daily journal about the situation, with eye-witness accounts of the havoc wreaked by the Israeli attacks, and moving accounts of his interactions with ordinary Palestinians—men, women and children—who had done nothing to deserve the horrific disruption to their lives. What Gilbert experienced was awful, and it was immense—the sounds of bombs and screaming, bodies torn to pieces and a society reduced to rubble—but he also saw camaraderie, dignity, human courage and unflinching resolve.
Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine, edited by Refaat Alareer is a compelling collection of short stories from fifteen young writers in Gaza, members of a generation that has suffered immensely under Israel's siege and blockade. Their experiences, especially during and following Israel's 2008-2009 offensive known as "Operation Cast Lead", have fundamentally impacted their lives and their writing. Indeed, many of these writers saw the war as a catalyst for their writing, as they sought an outlet and a voice in its aftermath. They view the book as a means of preserving Palestinian memories and presenting their own narratives to the world without filters. Their words take us into the homes and hearts of moms, dads, students, children, and elders striving to live lives of dignity, compassion, and meaning in one of the world's most embattled communities. (Some of the stories also take us with courage and empathy into the imagined world of Israelis living just on the other side of the great barriers Israel has built in and around Gaza and the West Bank to wall the Palestinians in.)
In what is sure to become one of the most controversial books ever written about the Middle East, National Book Award-winner Gloria Emerson writes with a personal, passionate brand of journalism about the Palestians--a people at once threatening and perverse, reviled and romanticized.
In 'In Gaza, I Dare to Dream', Rana vividly recounts details of her own life under Israeli Occupation, aggression and the Gaza Siege. The daily suffering of the Palestinian people is seldom mentioned in mainstream media, therefore, the author takes you on a journey to one of the most volatile parts of the Middle east to tell you the story of the ordinary people of Gaza. Gaza, a land where joy and grief are entwined, yet its people dare to dream, dare to love and struggle to gain their basic human rights.
?In the course of Israel's twenty-two day military offensive on the Gaza Strip in 2009, 1,300 mostly civilian, Palestinians were killed, with many thousands more injured. Once again, the Palestinian Community lay in ruins. Despite the Israeli authorities' attempt to shut out aid workers and the media from the conflict zone, NORWAC (the Norwegian Ai
