Wednesday, December 29, 2010

GAZAN YOUTH’S MANIFESTO FOR CHANGE

GAZAN YOUTH’S MANIFESTO FOR CHANGE

 
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Posted by Marivel Guzman
Original posted by Abu Yazan
GAZAN YOUTH’S MANIFESTO FOR CHANGE
F**k Hamas!, F**k Israel!, F**k Fatah!, F**k UN. F**k UNWRA. F**k USA!
We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community!
We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference. Like the Israeli F16’s breaking the wall of sound; we want to scream with all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of this f*****g situation we live in.
We are like lice between two nails living a nightmare inside a nightmare, no room for hope, no space for freedom.
We are sick of being caught in this political struggle, sick of coal dark nights with airplanes circling above our homes, sick of innocent farmers getting shot in the buffer zone because they are taking care of their lands, sick of bearded guys walking around with their guns abusing their power, beating up or incarcerating young people demonstrating for what they believe in.
Sick of the wall of shame that separates us from the rest of our country and keeps us imprisoned in a stamp-sized piece of land.
Sick of being portrayed as terrorists, homemade fanatics with explosives in our pockets and evil in our eyes.
Sick of the indifference we meet from the international community, the so-called experts in expressing concerns and drafting resolutions, but cowards in enforcing anything they agreed on.
We are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being kept in jail by Israel, beaten up by Hamas, and completely ignored by the rest of the world.
There is a revolution growing inside of us, an immense dissatisfaction and frustration that will destroy us unless we find a way of canalizing this energy into something that can challenge the status Quo and give us some kind of hope.
The final drop that made our hearts tremble with frustration and hopelessness happened on November 30th, when Hamas’ officers came to Sharek Youth Forum, a leading youth organization (http://www.sharek.ps) with their guns, lies and aggressiveness, throwing everybody outside, incarcerating some and prohibiting Sharek from working.
A few days later, demonstrators in front of Sharek were beaten and some incarcerated. We are really living a nightmare inside a nightmare. It is difficult to find words for the pressure we are under.
We barely survived the Operation Cast Lead, where Israel very effectively bombed the shit out of us, destroying thousands of homes and even more lives and dreams.
They did not get rid of Hamas, as they intended, but they sure scared us forever and distributed post traumatic stress syndrome to everybody, as there was nowhere to run.
We are youth with heavy hearts. We carry in ourselves a heaviness so immense that it makes it difficult to us to enjoy the sunset. How to enjoy it when dark clouds paint the horizon and bleak memories run past our eyes every time we close them?
We smile in order to hide the pain. We laugh in order to forget the war.
We hope in order not to commit suicide here and now.
During the war we got the unmistakable feeling that Israel wanted to erase us from the face of the earth. During the last years Hamas has been doing all they can to control our thoughts, behavior and aspirations.
We are a generation of young people used to face missiles, carrying what seems to be a impossible mission of living a normal and healthy life, and only barely tolerated by a massive organization that has spread in our society as a malicious cancer disease, causing mayhem and effectively killing all living cells, thoughts and dreams on its way as well as paralyzing people with its terror regime. Not to mention the prison we live in, a prison sustained by a so-called democratic country.
History is repeating itself in its most cruel way and nobody seems to care. We are scared.
Here in Gaza we are scared of being incarcerated, interrogated, hit, tortured, bombed, killed.
We are afraid of living, because every single step we take has to be considered and well-thought, there are limitations everywhere, we cannot move as we want, say what we want, do what we want, sometimes we even cant think what we want because the occupation has occupied our brains and hearts so terrible that it hurts and it makes us want to shed endless tears of frustration and rage!
We do not want to hate, we do not want to feel all of this feelings, we do not want to be victims anymore. ENOUGH! Enough pain, enough tears, enough suffering, enough control, limitations, unjust justifications, terror, torture, excuses, bombings, sleepless nights, dead civilians, black memories, bleak future, heart aching present, disturbed politics, fanatic politicians, religious bullshit, enough incarceration!
WE SAY STOP! This is not the future we want!
We want three things; We want to be free. We want to be able to live a normal life and We want peace.
Is that too much to ask?
We are a peace movement consistent of young people in Gaza and supporters elsewhere that will not rest until the truth about Gaza is known by everybody in this whole world and in such a degree that no more silent consent or loud indifference will be accepted.
This is the Gazan youth’s manifesto for change!
We will start by destroying the occupation that surrounds ourselves, we will break free from this mental incarceration and regain our dignity and self respect.
We will carry our heads high even though we will face resistance. We will work day and night in order to change these miserable conditions we are living under.
We will build dreams where we meet walls.
We only hope that you – yes, you reading this statement right now! – can support us. In order to find out how, please write on our wall or contact us directly: freegazayouth@hotmail.com
We want to be free, we want to live, we want peace.
FREE GAZA YOUTH!

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I m speechless this is what I want to hear. Out with all the rules that bound you in your own mental prisons. Liberation yes, I m 110 % agree with your Manifesto, free, freedom and liberation.
I m sharing your courage. I m sharing your dreams, your hopes, your pains, your deaths, your ideals, your free and open mind.
I wanted to hear the youth speaking, I do no k,ow if will make a difference now, but certainly your message will spread in the world, in the mind of the old and tired souls, tired of their struggles.
It will infuse energy to the resistance, to the old and decrepit bodies that have fought for more than 6 decades without seeing compassion from the world, that have not received justice from the international bodies than have appointed themselves as the saviors of the world, to the peace activists, the justice seekers that are fighting for your land.
I was almost giving up my fight for Gaza, I was getting stiff and tired of yelling, writing, posting, complaining. I thought no one was listening, but I was wrong.
This Manifesto full or courage. rage dissatisfaction and pain have given me hopes again.
I m awake again, your words have giving me the food for the soul that I was missing.
I love you Gaza, I m proud of you, I m with you, in your fight against indifference, against the oppression of your mind, in this fight for your land, for your human rights, for your motherless children, and your childless mothers, I m with you with your olive trees that with one last stand they resist to let go and still embracing the land, I m with you, with your flag, that not being mine, have awaken the fighter on me.
I m sharing this word in every wall, available, in the blogs. my channels, everywhere that there is space.
Thanks Gaza youth I love you all…Free Palestine.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Posted by Marivel Guzman on December 2, 2010

18-Nov-2010 (Gaza Strip, Palestine)
By: Issam Sammour

Issam Sammour Gaza Resident and Witness of the siege

Peace talks
Gaza Witness
Honest talks to achieve an historic peace deal within a year.
Abu Mazen says; “No peace with settlements will make it impossible for them to create a viable state and the issue is one of the core problems standing in the way of any peace deal.”
United States is trying to pressure Israel to return to the peace table negotiations, using the all known and convenient economical incentives in exchange for political retraction, and temporal acceptance of compliance of International Law.
The only strategy for Palestinians is their goal: A dream of peace.
They have this strong weapon of hope and willingness of solidarity of the whole world that is based on international law that stand for their rights.
Palestinian reconciliation
The Palestinian reconciliation document between the two major parties between Fatah and Hamas will be signed in the next few weeks.
There is one good opportunity for unification and for working as one team to end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and achieve peace.
To really respond to the practices of the occupation, there should be unity behind the leadership that can address the world with one voice, to once and for all end the occupation and establish a Palestinian State as a strategic option for peace
Siege and humanitarian situation in Gaza
According to UN estimates, humanitarian efforts will continue in the near future, and growing increasingly complex.
The humanitarian organizations are working continuously in Gaza to provide assistance for poor families that were affected by the last Israeli assault and by the blockade. The humanitarian efforts are to respond to the conditions of poverty and unemployment, which reached a rate of 80%, that provide food aid and non-food items to beneficiaries!.
The blockade has been widely described as “collective punishment” resulting in a humanitarian crisis.
Two of the more crippling conditions in Gaza are the Water Crisis and Electricity Power Shortage.
Water crisis
Almost 95 percent of the water pumped in the Gaza Strip is polluted and unfit for drinking.
This warning was recently issued by the UN Environment Program, the Palestinian Water Authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, and international aid organizations.
They estimate it will take at least 20 years to rehabilitate Gaza’s underground water system, and any delay in dealing with the problem will lead to additional deterioration in the situation and thus might extend the rehabilitation process for hundreds of years.
Since June 2007 that Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza, Israel has forbidden the entry of equipment and materials needed to rehabilitate the water and waste water-treatment systems there.
The prohibition of the equipment has remained despite the well published easing of the siege after the Mavi Marmara Massacre.
Electricity situation
Since January 2010, there has been a serious deterioration in the supply of electricity in the Gaza Strip.
The immediate reason is that Gaza’s sole power plant, the Gaza Power Plant (GPP), is able to produce only half the electricity that it did prior to January 2010, due to a lack of funds needed to purchase the industrial fuel required to operate the plant.
As a result, almost all of the 1.5 million Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip, must cope with scheduled electricity cuts of 16 hours daily.
These power cuts exacerbate the already difficult living conditions in Gaza and disrupt almost all aspects of daily life, including household chores, health services, education and water, and sanitation services.

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Behind the Siege: Israel Strategy

There is more than just unti-humanitarian heart or political moves, 
The closure of Gaza is a tool to brake down the moral and the aspirations for any Palestinian government.
The closure of Gaza is a show of power and impunity. 
The closure of Gaza is a low blow of the Palestinian Independence Dreams.
The closure of Gaza is an offensive to keep down the efforts for reconciliation with their counterparts in the West Bank, and to keep busy Palestinians just as the building of the wall was designed to keep them from uniting and facilitating their movements and disrupting their normal life as an emotional weapon that keep their moral down.


But we all can change the odds. 

DBS is a good way to start the defense on Palestine Case.
Awareness of the conditions on the besieged Gaza Strip as a crash course.
Dissemination of the Truth of the Occupation on Palestine.
Accountability for the crimes committed on the Inhabitants of Palestine should be brought to justice.