A shocking encounter. Read and tell me how you feel. اقرأ و صف شعورك.

My friend Abeer Ayyoub was on a trip to Shejaiyya, one of Gaza's neighborhoods, trying to find the house of one of the martyrs' from the last Israeli attacks on the city. She came across a young boy playing marbles.

Abeer, "Hey, do you know martyr X? Or his house?"
Boy: "Yes, he was my father. Yalla, its your turn, hit the marbles! (shouting to his friend)"
Extremely shocked Abeer: "Your father as in your father?!"
Boy: "Yes. Let me take you to our house. Hey, wait for me, don't play until I come back! (shouting to his friend).

P.S.- The boy was injured in the same attack that killed his father.

Can you PLEASE describe your feeling right NOW in a comment below?

عن صديقتى/ عبير أيوب

المعنى الحقيقي لكلمة : .We teach life, sir

مبارح في منطقة الشجاعية , كنا بندور ع بيت شهيد , بسأل ولد زغير بيلعب "قلول" .. بتعرف بيت الشهيد فلان ؟ قلي "اه ابويا , العب ولا يلا دورك" !! انصعقت انا و من معي , بقلو أبوك أبوك ؟ قلي اه تعي اوديكي ع البيت .. و نادى ع صاحبو "استنا ولا تكملش الدق" !!!

و للعلم , الطفل كان متصاوب بنفس الضربة اللي استشهد فيها أبوه !

الرجاء وصف شعورك الان بعد قراءة هذه القصة فى تعليق على التدوينة!!

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NYTimes: As Bombs Fell in Gaza, a Rich Cactus Lover Could Cultivate Only Patience

Jodi Rudoren from the NYTimes wrote the following article about my father, Jawdat Khoudary, to whom I owe my unconditional love for Gaza, great hope for a better future, and positive outlook on life. 

disclaimer: I wasn't one of 'kids' asking "Why?" Read on and you will understand. 

As Bombs Fell in Gaza, a Rich Cactus Lover Could Cultivate Only Patience

By JODI RUDOREN

Published: November 25, 2012

GAZA — Jawdat N. Khoudary is one of Gaza’s wealthiest men, and one of its boldest dreamers.

Continue reading: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/world/middleeast/in-gaza-even-a-wealthy-man-cannot-silence-the-bombs.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

November 26, 2012
	Ed Ou for The New York Times Jawdat Khoudary, amid his cacti and other plants at his home in September, is one of Gaza's wealthiest residents, the head of a construction company. One can learn patience from a cactus, he said, "because it grows very slow."

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Published in Aljazeera: Steal what you will from the blueness of the sea

Steal what you will from the blueness of the sea and the sand of memory

The world should start looking at our cause with its brains and not with its donations.

The millions that were "spent by different world powers on rebuilding Gaza", rehabilitating its homes, schools and hospitals, creating emergency and early recovery programmes, "have all gone to waste" [REUTERS]

Continue reading here: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/11/2012112111117878510.html

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A Hopeful Week in Gaza

[Note: This article was written before the recent ongoing conflict in Gaza].


While the world was busy following an election that will probably result in nothing but more negative interventions in our futures, Gaza was immersed in a long week of events and accomplishments.

People usually imagine that living in Gaza, our lives revolve around conflict and our futures are in the hands of whoever is running the Middle East. Little do they know about the unraveled potential in this city, and the magnificent history it sits upon.

That said, what else happens in Gaza and is not covered by the media? It’s the good news. Allow me to share with you a few examples of good news made in Gaza, all in just over a week.


Continue reading on: http://www.fairobserver.com/article/hopeful-week-gaza

*[This article was originally published by Fair Observer on November 19, 2012].

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Deep political analysis of the current situation in Gaza.

Here's what I think.

غزة، قط بسبع أرواح. روح للأرض، روح للبحر، روح للسماء، روح للقضية، روح للماضي، روح للمستقبل، و روح للانسان.

Gaza, like a cat, has seven souls. A soul for earth, a soul for the sea, a soul for the sky, a soul for the cause, a soul for the past, a soul for the future, and a soul for the human.

And Gaza will survive this time, like it always does.

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Rehabilitation Centre for the Visually Impaired- Gaza

Because this city will continue to give, and never ask for anything in return...

I'm heading to UNRWA's Rehabilitation Centre for the Visually Impaired-#Gaza to celebrate its golden jubilee. This amazing center, which runs under UNRWA, has been helping visually impaired in children enjoy life for the past 50 years. An asylum providing educational and rehabilitation services for 150 'different' kids, right in the middle of a crazy city.

More info and pictures to follow..

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Gaza's Pink Fighters

Its a doubtless fact that only a marginalized minority in the world relates anything but negativity to "Gaza". But how many of the overwhelming majority remember that the people of Gaza are vulnerable to other issues faced by humanity, such as, cancer, and, more specifically, breast cancer?

Few. And its shocking because cancer is the second cause for death in the Gaza Strip. Today, there are 11,000 cancer patients in Gaza, not counting those who have not been diagnosed yet.

Women Die Waiting - Breast Cancer in the Gaza Strip

So this month, Gaza celebrated Pink October by launching an extensive awareness campaign, calling on women to get early screening and protection. The campaign also featured:

Making the largest pink ribbon in the work, ON GAZA'S BEACH!

And we did! The organization behind this amazing initiative is called the Aid and Hope Program for Cancer Patients Care. It's led by Eman Shannan, a survivor of the disease. Running on a low budget provided by several Palestinian private sector institutions,  the team (75% of the staff are patients or survivors of breast cancer) made the ribbon using a 1.4 kilo long pink cloth, breaking the Guinness Record, on the beach. 

Its a message to the world, and more importantly, to ourselves. Living in Gaza takes a fighter, but a fighter with cancer? A female fighter with cancer? Fighting off the disease and its provider (the occupation) with abnormal resilience, hope, and will. Israel's war machines, the #1 provider of Cancer cells in Palestine, do not only destroy buildings or human lives, they also cause slow death and prolonged suffering, embodied in cancer.  

It might destroy a human body, but it would take a lot more to destroy a Palestinian soul, and it never will.

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A glimpse of Gaza's Old City today!

A reflection of Old Gaza's sky on one of its walls.

انعكاس سماء غزة القديمة على أحد جدرانها

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The sun through a Mashrabeyya..

Gaza, August 20, 2012.

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Very powerful. Please read!

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