Things you don’t know about life, origins and culture in Mediterranean Gaza
The Palestinian tiny strip is one of the most beautiful, cultured and beleaguered territories in the world: a seafaring town, with one of the highest literacy rates, a rich culture and common Islamic and Christian heritage
The city of Gaza is one of the oldest in the world. In 1457 before our era, it was attacked by the armies of Pharaoh Thutmosis III. The reason was to quell one of the ongoing rebellions of the native Canaanites. In the temple of Amon in Karnak it was written in hieroglyphs: Gaza is a charming and vibrant city. Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Israelites, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Nabateans, Bedouins, Byzantines, Arabs, Frankish Crusaders, Armenians, Kurds, Ottomans, British and Israelis have lived in this small piece of land in present-day Palestine. It has been conquered and liberated an infinite number of times. It has been destroyed and rebuilt on so many occasions that they cannot be counted. Maybe that’s why the symbol of the municipality is the phoenix. Ovid, the Roman poet, explains that, when this mythological bird reaches the end of its very long life cycle, it makes a nest out of cinnamon sticks. She lights it herself so that the bird and the nest burn to ashes. From these the new phoenix will be born.
Palestinian Gaza has been wounded too many times. Perhaps this is why its inhabitants have developed what psychologists call resilience. That is, the ability to cope with adversity and survive trauma. And most importantly: to be strengthened and positively transformed by pain. How is it possible not to fall into hatred, revenge and despair in the face of so much horror? Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychologist who survived Auschwitz, discovered in the concentration camps that only those who were able to give meaning to suffering could take it on and learn from it. Husam El-Nounou, of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, explained to me in his office facing the sea that Palestinian society is equipped with two basic pillars for resilience. The first is the traditional family and community structure. In this, the extended family and the neighborhood form a network of solidarity where no one, young or old, is ever alone. The second pillar is that they still have a system of ancestral beliefs and values that gives meaning and prepares them for what may happen in life. In good times it shows shukr, gratitude. In the face of difficulties, it is necessary to use sabr, patience, will and perseverance. This is their secret, their deen. Maybe that is why the first Arabic word I learned was hayat, life.
“Since the beginning of civilization, Gaza has been a connecting link between Asia, Europe and Africa”
Gaza, a seafaring town in the Mediterranean
Gaza is an oasis surrounded by the Negev and Sinai deserts. A coastal region facing the Mediterranean sea. Since the beginning of civilizations, it has been a stop for caravans and ships. Link between Asia, Europe and Africa. Now, by contrast, Palestinian ports in the Strip are minuscule. Foreign ships have not docked there for more than half a century. Neither do the Palestinians. Israeli military authorities impose a variable fishing limit. Depending on negotiations, it can increase to 10 kilometers or decrease to three. Depending on the strategies of the colonizers, more or less fishing will be allowed there.
Fishermen in Gaza said in 2014 that out of 4,000 boats, only a hundred were leaving due to daily military attacks. They also tell stories of dozens of stolen boats and countless captured and imprisoned fishermen. When they show the ship graveyard, you can see that they don’t need an autopsy: the impact of the projectiles is obvious.
In 2010, in fact, an international flotilla with activists and journalists from 50 nations gathered in Istanbul with the idea of breaking the sea blockade of Gaza. Elite Israeli troops stormed the ships. Cevdet Kiliçlar, Turkish coordinator of the flotilla’s international press, was executed on the Mavi Marmara. With him, nine other activists are killed. Hundreds of survivors were kidnapped and locked in a prison in the desert. In 2014, the Ark of Gaza was built, a ship that aimed to overcome the siege from the inside, while bringing Palestinian products to the outside world. A guided missile hit it on one of the first days of the war. It wass charred. In 2023 new bombs rain down that disintegrate what is left of the tiny and wounded fishing fleets.
David vs. Goliath, a Jewish, Christian and Islamic story
Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions tell the story of the warrior Goliath and David the shepherd. It goes like this: The Philistine and Israelite armies meet in the valley of Elah, and Goliath, as champion of soldiers, challenges the enemies to fight with him to settle the battle without a slaughter. Everyone is afraid of it. But David offers to fight it. King Saul says to him: “Goliath has been a warrior all his life, and you are only a young man.” David answers him: “I took care of my father’s flock. When a lion or a bear attacked, I killed them and rescued the sheep.” Saul accepts and gives him his sword and armor. But David rejects them. They are too big and cumbersome. He picks up five pebble stones from the river and puts them in his bag. With a sling in hand, he approaches the giant. Goliath is outraged at the humiliation that a boy offers himself for the duel. “Come closer, and I will give your flesh to the birds and wild animals,” he tells him. As the soldier approaches with his weapons, David places an anvil in the sling and, with one blow, brings down the mighty Goliath.
The story of David and Goliath repeats itself: the Palestinians have grown up using the slingshot and are not afraid of death
In the year 2023, one of the most powerful armies in the world, that of Israel, attacks one of the poorest and most isolated areas in the world, Gaza. Satellites, drones, fighter-bombers, helicopters, missiles, destroyers, submarines, artillery, armored vehicles and tanks, equipped with the latest technology, are launched relentlessly against the narrow and overpopulated Mediterranean strip. Tens of thousands of elite soldiers surround the territory of Gaza along all the borders. In underground tunnels, hundreds of members of the resistance, armed with rocket launchers and rifles, organize the defense. They have grown up using the sling. And they are not afraid of death.
Saint George, a Palestinian martyr
Saint George was the son of a Roman soldier and a Palestinian woman from Lydda-Lod. Following his father, he enlisted in the army. It was the time of the Christian rebellion against the Roman Empire. George was ordered to pursue the rebels. And he refused. Secretly, he was also part of the insurgents who denied the divine character of the emperors and the Roman State. For this reason he was sentenced to death and executed.
One of the oldest Christian churches in the world is a few meters from a 1,000-year-old mosque
When the Christian crusaders arrived in Palestine in 1098, they were surprised that the Muslims of Lydda had preserved the cult of Saint George, whom they called Al-Khadr (‘the Green’). In those days, both Christians and Muslims paid tribute to him. Upon returning from the Crusades, the myth of Saint George reached Europe and its veneration quickly spread to Naples, Aragon, Catalonia and the Valencian Country. He was also proclaimed patron of England, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Georgia, Russia, Ethiopia, Syria and Lebanon. And, of course, of Palestinian Christians.
In 1948, Lydda had 20,000 inhabitants. Approximately 18,500 were Muslims and 1,500, Christians. That year, the Zionist armed gangs received an order from the then General Yitzhak Rabin: “The inhabitants of Lydda must be expelled.” Four hundred people were killed. Many women were raped. The population deported and dispersed. 1,800 trucks were needed to transport all that was looted from Palestinian properties. The Israeli historian Benny Morris has documented it. And the founder of the State, David Ben Gurion, confirms this in his War’s diary.
The church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza is one of the oldest in the world, with 15 centuries of its foundation. It is a few meters from a mosque that is 1,000 years old, with which it has united its destiny. The missiles, when they kill, kill both Christians and Muslims. There I discovered the story of St. George, the Palestinian martyr. They never told us about it in Europe.
Gaza, one of the highest literacy rates in the world
Let’s do a journalistic exercise and ask ourselves: why do the media never tell us about these stories? Why doesn’t the media tell us that amidst the rubble of Gaza and all of Palestine, you can find a society with one of the highest literacy rates in the world? According to the World Bank, 98% of Palestinian youth are literate. Remember that Israel has just bombed dozens of universities. And that it has already killed 105 journalists.
Why do we know nothing about the scientists, poets, photographers and filmmakers from Palestine? Why don’t we listen to Palestinian journalists? Why doesn’t the press tell these stories? So let’s start by reading poets like Rafeef Ziadah, Samah Sabawi, Fadwa Tuqan, Mahmud Darwix (the Palestinian national poet) or Mohammed El-Kurd. Let’s study writers and thinkers such as Ghassan Kanafani, Edward Said, Refaat Alareer, Adania Shibli and Salah Jamal. And listen to musicians such as Rim Banna, Tamer Nafar, MC Abdul, Shadia Mansour or the Joubran Trio. We may learn from the photographs of Wissam Nassar, Ali Jadallah and Lily Bandak. We can discover the art of Sliman Mansour and Belal Khaled. Let’s see the films of Annemarie Jacir, Elia Suleiman, Mohammad Bakri and Darin J. Sallam. Let’s find out and reflect with journalists like Wadah Khanfar, Dima Khatib, Hind Khoudary, Youmna ElSayed, Ramzy Baroud, Ali Abunimah, Wael Al-Dahdouh, Eman Alhaj Ali and Nour Harazeen. Let’s follow ByPlestia and Motaz Azaiza.
Journalist Eduardo Galeano explained that humans are made of stories. And that it is the stories that give meaning to our lives. Because they give us a context, a “why” and a “what for.” From a coherent narrative comes the ability to create order out of chaos. The miracle of creating beauty from horror. And be able to survive. I think that journalism could be much more than what it has become today. I dream that journalists can also teach our sons and daughters to grow up loving the beauty and truth for which Palestinian journalists die. But perhaps that is asking too much of journalism. Or maybe not.
Whenever you face injustice or roughness, remember to defend yourself by finding beauty. Document, prove, and defend it because all beauty is resistance.
Tamim Al-Barghouti, Palestinian poet
