“As the rest of the media pulled out of Gaza after operation “Pillar of Defence”, Patrick Keddie and photographer David Shaw stayed to record the effects of the eight-day bombardment. They found a territory that was threatened by a much bigger problem than the Israeli Defence Force’s rocket attacks: the near-total collapse of its water supplies and sewage infrastructure.” Read the article published in Delayed … Continue reading Troubled Waters
“No food has passed Samer Issawi’s lips for over 170 days. He is one of several Palestinian prisoners currently engaged in a protracted hunger strike against their detention without charge in Israeli custody. Their plight is being ignored by the mainstream international media.” Article published on Open Democracy here Continue reading Why is the world ignoring Palestinian hunger strikers?
Our month in Gaza passed in a blur and my friend was right – in spite of its tiny dimensions Gaza is ‘big’. We didn’t cover half of things we wanted to. Happily, this means we will have to return soon. As we left, Gazans were in the process of returning to what passes as ‘normal’ a month after ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’, the name … Continue reading Leaving Gaza: A month in the aftermath of Pillar of Defense
Mahmoud Ahmed Abu Sitta had left his two-storey house to harvest olives on his land. By the time he had returned, an Israeli airstrike had turned his home into a crater nearly two storeys deep, full of the smashed remnants of his life. I met Mahmoud two weeks after the attack, which occurred during Pillar of Defence – the name given to the recent 8-day … Continue reading Homeless in Gaza: A Farmer’s House Destroyed by an Airstrike
In the ceasefire that ended the latest violence between Israel and Gaza the new parameters of peace are fragile and uncertain – not least along the border, in some of the few areas in Gaza in which the Israeli military and Palestinians directly encounter each other. For 12 years Israel had imposed a ‘buffer zone’ on Gazan land bordering Israel, much of which is farmland, … Continue reading An Uncertain Peace: Farming in Gaza’s Borderland
“I am proud to be part of this army of tweeps,” said activist Ola Anan as she addressed around 80 young Gazans in Shalehat resort, Gaza City. They had gathered to discuss their efforts in the social media war with Israel during Operation Pillar of Defense – the recent eight-day Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory. As Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with F16 missiles, … Continue reading Gaza’s ‘Army of Tweeps’
Driving through the Sheikh Radwan area in Gaza City today we came across a road that had been taken over by Hamas marchers bristling with guns and flags. They were about to parade through the streets in a rehearsal for a huge demonstration planned on the 8th December 2012 – the 25th anniversary of the first intifada. It will be a double celebration as Hamas … Continue reading Hamas’s Dress Rehearsal
“I haven’t heard anyone express any interest, no one much cares about the damn thing” replied one person here when I asked about the Gazan interest in Mahmoud Abbas’s bid for ‘non-member observer state’ status at the UN. So I was surprised to find several thousand protesters, filling the streets of Gaza City yesterday, marching to the UNSCO building in support of the bid. Demonstrators … Continue reading Gaza reacts – somewhat – to the UN bid for Palestinian statehood
As we stood at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, a high-pitched bleep barely preceded the booms and the pressure drop as Israeli artillery targeting tunnels exploded half a kilometre away. I always knew our trip to Gaza would be no ‘jolly’ but this added a whole new dimension of fear. In the end the Egyptians wouldn’t let us through and we returned to Cairo to … Continue reading Gaza: a warm welcome in the aftermath of Pillar of Defence
Writing by Patrick Keddie 