welcome new blogger from Gaza refujees camps

Dear all
iam glad to introduce the new blogger, from Annusierat refugee camp in the middle of the gaza strip , he is the New horizon organisation vice president , he dedicates all his time, with the other members of the organisation , for the promotion and develpoment of the children of the camp via different educational , entertainment ,activities ,painting , writing , reading dancing , and above all keeping the land cause so deep inside thier hearts and souls, when you visit the place ,as i usualy do, you can meet smiling little faces amongst the misery and unsuitable circumstances , where immoral occupation and 5 decades of living outside homeland ,didnot succeed to let them, forget the great injustice of the colonial isarel foundation on the ruins of Palestine , you feel the warmth of the place , and the love and dedication for huminatarian causes

welcome mr. Abushawish to the palestinian bloggers board , being a novelist , iam sure he will be regular and interesting writer .
from gaza with love
mona

love and warfare

last November when i visited bet ha noun village north of Gaza Strip , straight away after the Israeli army withdrawal , i met families next to their demolished homes , i have met a very interesting 70 years old man , he is a poet ,and was wearing traditional Palestinian costume ,
in front all of us , and unusual to our traditions and on top of their home rubble , he hugged his wife and started reciting some of his love poetry , i felt speechless, his poetry was about land , love home and resistance
Palestinian people does not have the spirit of victims , they have the freedom fighters spirits , we fight for noble , just cause ,life will continue , and one day justice and peace will prevail , i can then tell you alot of humans steadfastness stories , ordinary people stories, whom i have met during my work and they made the Palestinian people struggle against occupation legendary

occupation did not defeat Mansour -cancer will not

Occupation did not defeat Mansour - neither will cancer

My friend Mansour Thabet, Abu Ghassan, is a political prisoner. He spent
19 years in Israeli jails. His big "error" was to say "no" to the
Israeli occupation, just like all the Palestinian people who have always
said "no" to the occupation, each in his or her own way.

Now he is out of prison, but suffering from colon cancer and its
aftermath. His right leg was amputated due to a rare complication of
chemotherapy, deep venous thrombosis. Mansour was its victim.

But in Gaza there is always more to the story.

In Gaza hospitals lack proper and adequate chemotherapy, because of the
embargo and sanctions and closure of border crossings. Mansour was denied
a permit to enter Israel for treatment because of his jail record. Leaving
Gaza via the Palestinian Egyptian border is a big ordeal and an uncertain
route, but he might succeed in taking this option for further treatment
abroad.

Mansour is a father, with one son and 5 daughters.

I visited him in the hospital. He was frail but smiling, and I was
inspired by his full determination and strong will. He was very
enthusiastic in pursuing his very successful important project (new
horizons for the children) in the Nusseirat refugee camp. There you can
meet dozens of young smiling Palestinian kids dancing, singing, painting,
reading and dreaming of a better future. They can tell you their great
grandparents' stories of their villages and life in Palestine before 1948,
when Palestinians were forced out by a big Zionist colonial plan to compel
indigenous people to leave their homes.

In less than 3 weeks Israel will celebrate its independence day.
Palestinians will commorate what happened in 1948, they will tell their
children again and again about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Is it just that Palestinian patients have had to suffer twice, from their
own illness and then from the Occupation whose rules and regulations
deprive
people of their humanity and dignity?

posted by Mona_Elfarra at 12:03 AM | 0 comments

Garbage again in Gaza

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Garbage again in Gaza

In July last year I posted something with the same title. Today, once
again I can see garbage while looking outside my window. The streets next
to my office are full of heaps of garbage because Gaza municipal workers
who did not receive their wages for over 4 months, are now on strike. It
is a direct outcome of the West's embargo and sanctions imposed on us here
in Palestine.

Ironically, the donkey carts business is flourishing as people hire carts
to collect the garbage. Last summer the candles and kerosene gas lamps
business took off after the Israeli occupying air forces bombed and
destroyed Gaza's only power plant during the infamous "Summer Rain"
military operation, an unprecented collective punishment against 1.4
million people in the Gaza Strip.

On my way to work I can smell smoke, as people are desperate to get rid of
the garbage. I can also see hundreds of workers protesting in front of the
Palestinian Legislative Council. I come across Palestinian journalists who
are protesting against the kidnapping of Mr. Alan Johnston, the BBC
reporter who has been abducted for one month and is still missing.

That is how I start one of my days; in my office I try to listen to some
relaxing music while dealing with some work pending issues. But in Gaza it
is difficult to relax. If you feed the details of daily life into any
computer, it will crash.

writing within the storm

Dear All
i would like to share this with you , it was written last autumn , but it still reflect my feelings , while writing from Gaza

with love , truth , justice and solidariy
Mona

Gaza - writing within the storm
Mona Elfarra and Hilary Nelson
Mona Elfarra is a doctor at the Al-Awda hospital in Jabalia Refugee
Camp,
>> in northern Gaza. Hilary Nelson is active in the Palestine Solidarity
>> Campaign in Sheffield. They wrote to each other last autumn as Israel
>> escalated its military assault on Beit Hanoun, next door to Jabalia.
>>
>> Mona Elfarra
>>
>> hello Hilary
>>
>> hello
>>
>> While life goes from one day to another, worsening everyday for all of
>> us
>> living in this big prison named Gaza, I try to keep myself together. The
>> community is suffering and needs all my efforts so that we all do not
>> collapse but continue struggling against this ugly occupation.
>>
>> Last month I could not write. I have two different feelings. When I
>> write
>> I feel it is important to spread the word and to satisfy the eagerness
>> of
>> all my friends abroad to know the truth of what is happening inside
>> Gaza,
>> which the mainstream media do not cover fairly.
>>
>> On the other hand I feel it is a luxury to write while others are
>> suffering everyday from hunger, illnesses that could be cured easily if
>> there were no closures or sanctions imposed on us. Others are dying
>> because they did have not the right treatment at the right time. Many
>> cancer patients died.
>>
>> I also felt that I report and write about the same things, the same
>> suffering again and again, but the world is silent and Israel goes ahead
>> with its pre-planned agenda against the Palestinian people.
>>
>> I felt helpless, so I focused on my people and how I could assist their
>> daily needs in practical ways.
>>
>> I know very well that writing is extremely important, especially since
>> our
>> news is not covered in the mainstream media. I also know very well that
>> this is a phase I am going through. I feel guilty too because of those
>> feelings, and that I should stay strong and not lose hope and faith.
>>
>> I will never lose it, my life under occupation and my resistance will
>> continue until this occupation is over. My cause is not only to resist
>> this occupation, it is fighting against imperialism and its new
>> globalisation of injustice all over the world.
>>
>> There is a big scale operation in the north, 14 were killed and at least
>> 100 were injured. Many were women and children, the village of Beit
>> Hanoun
>> is under siege. Nobody is allowed in or out of the village, children
>> cannot get milk, any moving body is shot, all the men over 16 were
>> forced
>> to gather inside one of the village schools and we do not know their
>> fate.
>>
>> Health teams are not allowed inside Beit Hanoun, one woman (Maysoon
>> Hweehy) was shot dead while trying to defend her family from the
>> soldiers.
>>
>> Hilary please write to me, I miss you. How are Paul and Mischca?
>>
>> Love to all of you
>>
>> p. s. The 4 girls received their scholarship for their tuition. I wish
>> you
>> were there to see the happiness on their young faces. There are some
>> photos. They all came from poor socioeconomic backgrounds in Rafah camp,
>> Khan Yunis, Nusseirat, Jabalia – and have a good promising future with
>> this scholarship and our support in general.
>>
>> love
>>
>> mona
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Hilary Nelson
>>
>> Dearest Mona
>>
>> How are you? We are really missing you and would love to see you. I was
>> hoping you were coming early in the New Year, but now I am wondering if
>> you have changed your plans.
>>
>> It was lovely to hear from you and to hear your thoughts and feelings
>> about writing / not writing. How different times make you feel
>> differently. Sometimes the writing is therapeutic and sometimes it makes
>> you feel worse when you realise that writing isn't defeating the
>> occupation. It feels futile, or worse - indulgent.
>>
>> I know what you mean. You have to do what you feel you can at the time.
>> Sometimes you want to be there doing practical things with the people,
>> maybe other times you need the writing as an outlet for your own
>> frustrations or grief.
>>
>> All I can say is that what you are doing is very important for us.
>> Writing
>> or not writing, we feel whatever communication we get from you is good
>> for
>> us and good for Palestine. But we also understand when you feel too
>> weary
>> to satisfy our hunger. Just keep on being you and doing what you can.
>> Only
>> don't ever feel that your efforts are useless. You are a star to us, and
>> I
>> am sure a star for so many others who are suffering.
>>
>> I am sure the people also give you your own reason for surviving and
>> continuing with your unending fight. They give you a reason to be there,
>> and you should take what courage you can from them, and what they can
>> give
>> to you.
>>
>> How are the girls? I hope they are OK. Give them my love.
>>
>> We are having a women's social evening to raise money for the women's
>> scholarship fund this Saturday. I have attached the flyer so you can see
>> what we are doing. We had a big debate about whether to cancel it or not
>> because of the awful killings of women and children last week. We didn't
>> feel it was appropriate to do any partying after such a dreadful
>> tragedy.
>>
>> However, we decided to go ahead with it because people seem so
>> enthusiastic about this women's project. We have had quite a lot of
>> positive response.
>>
>> Catherine Gaze gave me a cheque for £240 (almost $500) yesterday for the
>> fund. She said it was to celebrate her 60th birthday. She wrote a little
>> note stating that she would have had a very different life without free
>> education. It made me realise how important this project is, and how it
>> has captured a spirit of support and hope for many women here.
>>
>> We wondered if you would be able to send a message to the social
>> evening,
>> just telling us something about the women or the project or just about
>> life in Gaza and explaining what it means for women there to have an
>> education.
>>
>> We thought if we could read something out to the party about life in
>> Gaza
>> it would be good to put things in context. We don't want women to be sad
>> all night, but to remember why we are doing it, and to realise that
>> singing and dancing is also part of life which goes on in the face of
>> horrible tragedies - just like in Gaza and Iraq. I hope you can
>> understand
>> our decision, and you will be able to send us a message by Saturday
>> which
>> we can read out.
>>
>> We all think about you a lot. Your presence in March has made a
>> difference
>> to so many women here in Sheffield who would have thought so differently
>> about events in Palestine if they hadn't met and heard you speak.
>>
>> We had a visitor from Al Haq yesterday. An Irish man called Gareth Gleed
>> and a young woman called Mays. She is an amazingly confident young
>> woman,
>> and spoke very well at the meeting about Human Rights in Palestine,
>> about
>> international law and Gaza. It made me start dreaming again about
>> another
>> women's conference. I would love to get you and her together with some
>> other women and organise another women's workshop. What do you think?
>>
>> Lots of love to you and your family. Don't forget to visit us soon.
>>
>> Love Hilary

>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

from gaza with love belated one year anniversary

fromgaza with lovebelated , one year anniversary
it has been one year last march 2006 , when i started this blog , it was new experience for me , i gained alot i learned alot , and was able to say alot about my country and to give 1st hand vivid experience about , my life and my people lives under occupation