YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS
We have reached Abu Saif, who reports that he and daughter Saja are unharmed, so far.
By the way, it’s very difficult to come up with a term to cover the situation of any of our Gaza friends. “OK?” “Well?” “Fine?” “Still alive?”
Just what do all those terms mean in the current circumstances?
Abu Saif has been distributing your contributions to families in Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah, both south of his location, in increments of 200 to 300 shekels, depending on the size and needs of the families. That’s about $55 to $75 per family.
MORE LOSS FOR OUR FRIENDS
From our wonderful friend Salah, who was the first person I met in Gaza, my work colleague for nearly two years, and my friend for 33 years, so far. Salah is the person who made all the other contacts and friendships possible.
Salah is an architect-engineer, designer of some absolutely beautiful and innovative homes in Gaza combining modernist and traditional features — until the Occupation put him out of business. He joined the U.S. Embassy staff on my first day in Gaza, and then went on to lead the excellent America Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) in Gaza for years. He also served on the Gaza City Municipal Council, and multiple professional boards. His family is one of the most ancient and respected in Gaza. Their family’s beautiful and ancient Cultural Center was destroyed by an aerial attack earlier in the war.
More than 20 years ago, his family’s orange grove, where I spent many happy times, between the ocean and the infamous Israeli settlement of Netzarim, was repeatedly uprooted and leveled by rampaging settlers and the IDF. Every attempt to replant was destroyed.
Ariel Sharon famously once described the fortified Netzarim settlement, in the middle of the Gaza Strip, as being as much a part of Israel as Tel Aviv. The area is now part of the fortified IDF corridor stretching from the sea, inland to the Israel border that prevents Palestinians from moving north and south. Settler activists pledge to re-establish Netzarim among their first actions on returning to Gaza.
Salah now resides in Canada.
Dear family and friends,
Last week, I learned with deep sadness and regret that our family home was bombed by Israeli warplanes, resulting in severe damage to the building and complete destruction of the furniture on all three floors. My engineering office, located next to the house on the main street, was also completely destroyed. What grieved me the most was that the bombing occurred when a local family, who had sought refuge in my office after their own home on the same street was destroyed, was present. Tragically, a young man from the family lost his life, and the other members sustained various injuries as they were pulled from the rubble.
The remains of my office are stained with the blood of this unfortunate family who sought safety, only to face such a devastating outcome with one martyr and four injured. The rubble also contains all my possessions, including books, references, research, studies, engineering plans, mementos, academic certificates, and memberships, accumulated over forty-four years. I am deeply sorrowful for the loss of these irreplaceable items, and equally heartbroken and regretful for the suffering of our neighbor Fouad's family (Fouad was a school principal), who lost his beloved son and saw the rest of his family injured during their refuge in my office.
Salah Sakka
July 18, 2024
Salah and I would rendezvous outside this office on Thalateen Street/Gamal Abdel Nasser Street, a divided boulevard that was one of three major east west thoroughfares in Gaza City. Our friends Abdul Samia and Khader lived on the other side of the street and toward the sea. Two buildings up from Salah’s house, the IDF maintained a fortified position atop what I recall as a four-story residential building occupied by Palestinians. A long block or two away, diagonally, the IDF and Civil Administration (military government) compounds, respectively, sat astride Omar Mukhtar Street with an elevated walkway connecting them. Just to the west were the main UN compound and Al Aqsa University, with thousands of male and female students coming and going constantly.
One day during the First Intifada, I was allowed to take my wife, Pat, with me to Gaza. I parked our armored sedan outside Salah’s office and went inside, while Pat remained in the car. When Salah and I returned a few minutes later, Pat described how a sedan with several well-dressed people in it had pulled up right alongside our car, and then backed up and parked closely behind her. They did not seem to be paying any attention to her, she said, although she had been preparing to sound the car horn if necessary to summon us.
A minute later, they backed up and then drove off.
Salah laughed and laughed. The car, he explained, was a driver education car with students practicing for their driver licenses. Since Thalateen Street was wide and divided, with one-way traffic, he said, it was the preferred location for practicing parallel parking.
In short, young people were doing what they do everywhere: learning to drive, even in the midst of Occupation, Israeli military patrols and gunposts, and Intifada.
SCENES OF FLIGHT FROM KHAN YOUNIS AHEAD OF THE IDF ASSAULT
The IDF destroys the entry gate to the Rafah Crossing, which they have controlled for months, ensuring that it cannot be made usable should a ceasefire ever be reached.
KEEPING THE AMERICANS IN LINE
Ariel Sharon was repeatedly credited (perhaps falsely) with pithy comments about how easy it is to keep the Americans in line, particularly the U.S. Congress. Whether or not properly attributed, the comments have a basis in reality.
As Netanyahu prepares to speak to a predictably adoring joint session of Congress, he continues pounding Gaza while keeping foremost the prospect of war with Lebanon, war with Iran, and increasing conflict with the Houthis, the latter of which places a daily burden and cost on every company and country shipping goods through the Suez Canal. (We all recall the disruption to world trade when the ship EVER GIVEN blocked the canal for a mere six days in March 2021.)
He absolutely rejects the idea of a Palestinian state, or an end to the Occupation, or an end to land seizures and settlement construction, or even a ceasefire that would end the conflict, bring the Israeli hostages home, and forge diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world. His position puts the lie to his and other Israeli leaders’ claims of the past 60 years that achievement of such relations are a Holy Grail — the “if only the Arabs would accept Israel…” argument.
He will avoid mentioning that all of those parties have said that they will cease attacks once there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Also off the table: rampant seizures of West Bank Palestinian property, increasing settlement construction, increasing violence by settlers against Palestinians, hundreds of barriers to movement within the West Bank, and promises of expulsion of Palestinians by senior-most members of his government. He will characterize the ICJ decision on the illegality of the 57-year Occupation as anti-Semitism.
As Bill Clinton supposedly said in the face of Israeli intransigence, “Who’s the x#@*&+ superpower here?
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