Simone Susskind

I was lucky to receive a permit from the Israeli authorities to go to Gaza, through UNRWA.

Since I had only the one day left in my schedule, I asked UNRWA to help me focus my visit on their gender programs.

I was at the Erez checkpoint at 8.00 sharp when it opens. Surprisingly enough, it took me only half an hour to receive the authorisation from the Israeli security check to cross.

My passport was stamped as if I am leaving Israel in a huge departure hall, totally empty. I then walked into a tunnel for around 1 km with barbwired around me. I came across some 10 small groups of Palestinian sick children and adults who were lucky enough to receive a permit to be treated in Israeli hospitals.

I could see outside young Palestinians taking away ruins of industrial infrastructures destroyed by former bombings. This material is reutilized for whatever very very limited reconstruction. This is what can be called “Industry” in Gaza!

On the other side, I was received by Rebecca Dibb, the UNRWA woman in charge with gender programs. We drove to the Beach Camp where we visited a women’s hospital.   O

On the picture, from left, Maryam the chief nurse, Doctor Hind, the director, Rebecca and her assistant, Amal.

Around 70.000 refugees live in the camp. The hospital takes care of thousands of women. The gynecologist devotes 5 minutes per patient. There is a small laboratory and a pharmacy where the patients receive free medication.

The women in need of advise on birth control, domestic violence and other problems can find a professional who tries to manage for the best each situation.

It is striking to notice that the management and the daily life of the people in all services is done by Palestinian refugees who have been trained in Gaza or elsewhere when it was less difficult to leave.

We then went to visit a woman who benefits from the micro-credit program of UNRWA.

She started in 2003 and runs now a shop with clothes for children, women and men in front of the entrance of the camp. She proudly explained that she was able to hire her husband and her son into her business.

All the products she sells come through the tunnels. She tells me smiling that if a wealthy man wants to order a brand new Mercedes, he simply can call in Cairo and within a few days, he receives his car through the tunnel.

I bought a lovely shirt for each of my grandchildren.

We moved then to the women’s center of the Jabalia camp, the biggest one in Gaza.

There, women learn to use a computer, can have gym courses, can share their problems and mainly, can spend some time out of the house in a safe environment.Here are the managers of the women’s center.

We went then to visit one of the most successful summer activities of UNRWA in Gaza: the Summer Games. Watch a “Debka” training activity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h-vuaZwy34

Since 4 years, 250.000 children participate in those games. The Hamas summer camps hardly gather more than 15.000 children.

In view of the school year, I was told that because of lack of funding and the impossibility to build in Gaza, UNRWA had to refuse 39.000 children into their schools. This means that those children will automatically go to the Hamas schools!

And finally I asked to visit a youth NGO founded by my friend Hania Bitar, PYALARA, which has its main office in Ramallah but maintains a center in Gaza which is actually not easy. Pyalara trains young people to become journalists. Their Gaza office was closed during 6 weeks by the Hamas authorities and they had all their documents taken away for “control”.

Those young women and men do a magnificent work in Gaza. They need so much to be able to travel and to be in physical contact with the outside world!

Contrary to what many people think, people in Gaza don’t starve. There is no humanitarian crisis like what can be found in some parts of Africa. But there is ”no development, no prosperity, and no humanitarian crisis“, Gisha, the Israeli Legal Centre for the Freedom of Movement, explained in a press release.

What struck me too is the resilience of the people there. They adapt as they can to the dire situation they are confronted with. And it is worthwhile here to stress the exceptional work being done on a daily basis by the UNRWA staff.

The people in Gaza don’t want handouts and uncertainty and despair; they want their dignity and their freedom, employment and prosperity.

Perhaps most significantly, they want to be able to move freely – something they cannot do.

They need also to be able to produce and export their products.

This is the best recipe for marginalizing extremism and fundamentalism.

And the danger is there: thousands of young people finish their studies in the Gaza universities and have no hope to find any job and to build any future. They are the best targets for extremists groups, which infiltrate the Hamas, already considered by some to betray the Palestinian cause.