Israel keeps us imprisoned in an enclave (December 16 2012) Israel keeps us imprisoned in an enclave (December 16 2012)

Yasmeen El Khoudary the Palestinian cofounded Diwan Ghazza, a cultural and knowledge-exchange platform for youth in Gaza, runs a project to preserve Gaza’s cultural heritage and history.  El Khoudary has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘Steal what you will from the blueness of the sea and the sand of memory’. El Khoudary states “In the Middle Ages, Gaza was home to countless treasures, including rich agriculture, pottery making and wool weaving, with exports along the famous Silk Road. In 1660, a French visitor compared Gaza’s baths and markets with those of Paris and noted that Arabic, Turkish and Greek were all spoken in the streets. Where was Israel then? …our faith in humanity will not be restored if countries of the world vow more money for rebuilding Gaza. It will only be restored once the world starts looking at our cause with its brains and not with its donations, in which case, no donations will be required. The fact that the Gaza Strip is still besieged by Israel from land, sea and air, should mean that we are still under occupation and under the responsibility of the Israeli government. If Israel argues otherwise, saying that we are not under Israeli occupation, then it should relinquish its control of our borders and leave us to handle our own business. But as long as Israel keeps us imprisoned in an enclave of ambiguity, the world will keep paying and Israel will keep destroying. …I would like to prepare the international community for another Israeli argument that they will likely be hearing in a couple of years, when today’s children become the leaders of future Palestine. “We have no peace partners in Palestine,” you will hear every Israeli leader say. When you hear that, I want you to think of the 350 Palestinian children who were injured by Israel during the last six days…”

 

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