A Gaza Diary A somewhat controversial publication by Chris Hedges, titled A Gaza Diary, illustrates to the reader his vivid experiences during his weeklong stay in what is know as the Gaza Strip. Hedges’s travels, with illustrator Joe Sacco, start in Jerusalem and proceeds down south through the Gaza strip to a Palestine camp refuge called Khan Younis, where they stay for the majority of the trip. They venture over to Mawasi, also a Palestine village, located on the coast. In both these locations he describes the constant unrest and turmoil that residents face everyday and every night. Hedges’s first entry has him in Beit Agron receiving his press pass and preparing for the dangerous trip ahead. While leaving he notes a man of Israeli Arabic descent that voices his opinion on the Palestinians and how they “are animals,” and that .”..
Israel is a land of love… Palestinians do not love… We should put fire to them.” They proceed down the strip through gates and checkpoints. They meet up with Azm i Kasha wi in Gaza City and make there way down to Abu Holi, a Israeli-controlled junction. At this junction Palestinian traffic is stopped until Jewish and Israeli troops are not in use of it. Sometimes they can wait up to hours or days and sometimes the gate is closed for long periods at a time.
Later on that evening they arrive in Khan Younis. Hedges’s describes the refuge as a dense, concrete shantytown, with crude septic tanks at every house that can over flow into the dwellings. Drinking water is limited and dirty at best, and the mazes of houses that occupy the area are accompanied to layers of sand on anything and everything. The village is horseshoed by Israeli military posts that have guns pointed down onto the rooftops constantly. They converse with a born resident of Khan Younis named Fuad Faquawi.
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He runs the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees in the village. As they speak, homemade mortars are sent up at the Israelis and groups of men and boys are out at the dunes throwing rocks at jeeps that patrol the Jewish settlement. Soldiers open fire and wound eight Palestinians. Boys are commonly found at the dunes daily, throwing rocks at the Israeli soldiers and get fired at. The Palestinian police are said to have given up on the holding the children back. Because of this Hedges was witness to a boy’s funeral procession the next day.
Even though events like this take place normally, the general attitude of most Palestinian boys is to kill all the Jews. The next day they proceed to Mawasi near the coast. They decide to go to the beach and there he talks about how once people swam and surfed here but now no recreation is known. After collecting seashells they return to Khan Younis. While doing so they see another ambulance drive by with more victims from the dunes. During the next two or so days Chris talks and hears more horrific stories of the lifestyles that different people have had in the area over the years.
The last entry of his published diary has Chris back in Jerusalem, having dinner with a friend. During the meal he retails his story but the audience does not sympathize with the Palestinians. In my personal opinion I can honestly say that before recently I did not know much about the situation over in Israel and the Middle East. I knew that struggles were constant and that people were being killed, but I never looked into see how it affected American politics or what the general consensus was.
After reading the article, along with the letters in response and Jeffery Goldberg’s The Martyr Strategy, it would be hard to say who is right and who is wrong. Both sides of the confrontation are killing and avoiding the possible steps to peace. It could be easy to say that most Americans side with the Israelis and I believe in the past our government has provided help to certain issues. The accompanying letters of response to Hedges’s diary took this opinion. Most of them were in opposition of the way that Chris presented the Israeli troops as being barbaric and unfair in their practice.
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They said that Palestinians were the ones that killed innocent children and used themselves as bombs to murder numerous people in public places. This view can also be seen in the media since normally you hear these types of stories on the news rather than Israeli driven confrontations with Palestinians. I think that might have something to do with that issue of martyrdom that most Americans cannot fully grasp and except. In The Martyr Strategy, Goldberg explains how a good number of Palestinians sign up to die for their cause. They feel no shame in strapping a bomb on to their body and walking into a busy store. Each individual that does so believes that afterwards they will become a martyr, dying for their belief or religion.
In the article there is even mention of a Egyptian newspaper writer, A mru Nas if, calling for a mass suicide attack against Israelis. As stated before I did not really have any view of this issue before. I am sure that Americans side with Israelis for a reason but I would want to know more about Palestinian Muslims and Arabs before I condemned them. In closure my opinion would have to remain open minded, and it will probably stay this way for awhile.
