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Friday January 15, 2010 14:46
by redjade
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After less than four hours sleep we set off from Cairo to make the long journey through the Sinai desert to get to the crossing point into Gaza.
We stop on the way and there are more introductions. - some national parliamentarians from Greece, from Poland and from Switzerland.
Majed Al-Zeer of the Palestinian Return Centre tells us he was born in Bethlehem but has not been back to Palestine since 1967.
Rafah is partly on the Egyptian side and partly in Gaza. People cannot go from one to the other without prior permission and this depend on the decision of the Egyptian government.
Even this VIP delegation has waited 2 months for permission to enter Gaza through Rafah.
Now we have arrived and we have been told in advance that crossing at Rafah should go smoothly and that there should be no long delays in getting into Gaza. It takes an hour and a half and then the delegation enters.
As we go in Omar Faris who has accompanied the Polish parliamentarians that he is a Palestinian who has never set foot in Palestine before. It is an emotional moment for him. He was born in a tent on the Golan Heights between Palestine and Jordan and lived in other countries since then.
The delegation is received by the deputy speaker in Gaza. At the press conference he says he hopes the visit by the European Parliament will be followed by a visit by the Arab League.
Gerard Kaufmann talks of the suffering of people in Gaza. He says. The oppressed people of Gaza must have their voice in the world.
'We shall report back to our parliament and our government on what we see and what we learn on this visit. We will be your voice but we will not replace your voice' he says.
Although bearing witness is important in its own right, let’s hope this is not just another junket, dressed up as a fact-finding-mission, for those involved. Surely, the European governments in question know what the situation on the ground is like; know what has to be done on a policy level in order to release the Palestinians from the open prison that Gaza has become, never mind address the more fundamental issues of which the former is simply just one more effect. Yet what are the odds that regardless of what the various MEP’s report back to the European parliament, regardless of the pressure they try to exert (if any!) the sad song that has characterised European ‘policy’ on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will remain the same?
video...
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16 January 2010
This morning I visit Isbit Abd Rabu for the second time. I visited here one year ago with a group of MEPs after the Israeli offensive. I was horrified and shocked by what I saw then, as I wrote in my blog at that time. I am anxious to see what has changed in the lives of the people here since then.
We talk to a man whose extended family lost 13 houses and whose son was killed in the air attacks. "Our children don't have clothes, decent education, or food. ", he says
He talks of how this area was a most beautiful area before the bombardments. Now there are destroyed houses and a destroyed mosque and nearby the factories, fields and olive groves have been destroyed also.
A woman tells us that the main thing people need now is to rebuild their houses. Because so many people lost their homes it is now also very difficult to find somewhere to rent.
I am very disappointed at the lack of progress in rebuilding and reconstruction. Much of the rubble has been cleared but there is little evidence of progress otherwise.
All the talk of donor conferences and reconstruction is pointless if people do not see change on the ground even after one year. Part of the process of recovery from such trauma is the physical re-building. Here the international community has not made that happen, and people here feel abandoned.
Hopes have been raised only to be dashed again.
Some attempts are being made by local people but rebuilding is very difficult without the necessary materials and these are blocked by the siege.