[antiwar-van] FW: [ISM-Van-General] Normal Life in Rafah

[hanna kawas]

-----Original Message-----
From: ism-van-general-admin at ender.indymedia.org
[mailto:ism-van-general-admin at ender.indymedia.org]
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 12:08 AM
To: general at ism-vancouver.org
Subject: [ISM-Van-General] Normal Life in Rafah



Melissa of ISM Vancouver is currently in Rafah, located in the southern Gaza
Strip. Rafah is the site of the Israeli Occupation Force's (IOF) most
barabaric ongoing operation of invasions and massive destruction. The IOF
destroyed more than 200 Palestinian houses in the last month and Amnesty
International has declared that their actions are "war crimes".

Melissa has posted three new reports from Rafah in the last few days, one of
which is included below to give you a sense of the horror. Please go to the
reports page at <http://www.ism-vancouver.org/reports.html> to read all of
Melissa's reports, complete with shocking photographs of the destruction.

-------------------
Normal Life in Rafah

Melissa

Rafah, Nov 22, 2003

Most of the time life in Rafah seems normal. A bustling city- taxis honking
and speeding through the crowded streets, schoolchildren in their uniforms
on their way to and from school, merchants of all types with their colourful
wares lining the streets- fruits, clothes, household items- the perfume of
life filling the air. Everywhere things seem normal, then all of a sudden
something will happen and the façade of normalcy will disappear, and the
ugliness of the reality will show through.

A few days ago I was walking down the street with a friend, going to visit
his sister. We had just come from his family’s house where we ate a
delicious meal, breaking our Ramadan fasts. As we turned a corner and
entered another neighbourhood the illusion of normalcy disappeared. The
buildings beside us were punctuated with several bullet holes. A normal
sight in Rafah, bullet ridden buildings are a constant reminder that life
here is not normal, as you and I who make our homes in the West, who have
never seen conflict, define normal.

Along with the bullet ridden buildings comes the reality of how they are
created. Starting in the early evening and continuing until dawn there is
regular gunfire- coming from any number of sources. Sniper towers surround
Rafah, thereby controlling it almost completely. At almost any point in the
city you could be shot and killed by a sniper. Bullets fired from the towers
can kill for up to 5 kilometres.

One of my most surreal experiences is sitting on the “patio” outside Abu
Yunis’s house. The house is in the last line before the sandy nothingness
that separates Rafah from the Egyptian border. It was once several blocks
from the border however time and a great deal of bulldozing has left it next
in line to suffer the same fate as its neighbours. Sitting on this patio I
have shared many great moments with the wonderful family that call this
home.

Around five hundred meters from the house is the wall that marks the border.
Along the wall is a sniper tower. Between the house and the tower is only a
wasteland of sand. As we sit and drink our tea, soaking in the remaining
light of the day the soldiers watch us. At any moment any of us could be
shot dead. However, this is the new reality, and we continue to drink our
tea.

For the past few nights there has been a large military operation being
carried out in Block O. This means that on top of the regular gunfire, as we
eat our suhor the sounds of Apache Helicopters drowned out the advance of
heavy armoured bulldozers and tanks. Large explosions frequently rock the
house as more houses are demolished. One large explosion rocks the very
foundation of my home. A tunnel has been discovered and destroyed maybe. I
finish my food and go back to sleep. It has all become so mundane, so
ordinary. The next night as we watch television the family and I can hear
the withdrawal of the tanks and bulldozers, a long metallic procession from
behind the wall.

Yesterday I sat on the roof of a friend’s home making Ramadan sweets that we
would enjoy later in the day. The invasion was going on only a few blocks
from her house. A few doors away a Shaheed Tent has been erected to
commemorate the death of a martyr- a man killed by a heart attack while
under fire from an Apache Helicopter. My friend’s house is surrounded by
shooting. We make our sweets. Eventually it is time to move inside as the
shooting begins to move in our direction and it is deemed to dangerous to
continue sitting on the roof. Random bullets know no targets. A young boy
was shot in the head while standing on his porch by a miscellaneous bullet.

This is life in Rafah. On the surface it appears normal, but at any second
this façade can be wiped away with the opening of a new round of fire from
the sniper towers. Maybe this is normal and I must redefine my experience of
the word. Maybe I already have. Shooting, tanks, shaheeds- they have all
become a part of daily life, like taking out the garbage or taking the dog
for a walk. As my eyes sift through the crumbled remnants of yet another
demolished home, yet another demolished life I know it is a scene that will
be repeated again and again.

And yet I there is part of me that cannot fully accept this new reality,
this new normalcy, for no one should experience normalcy in this way.
Talking on the phone with people outside of Rafah brings my two conflicting
realities to come to a head. As we talk about every day situations the sound
of gun shots ring through the air and I am reminded that to the person on
the other end of the line this is not normal, this is a completely foreign
occurrence.

Normal means not being afraid to walk down your street at night because the
tanks may shoot you. Normal means not being awaken by loud, earth rattling
explosions. I can only hope that life in Rafah resumes some aspects of my
idea of normalcy, especially before the people here forget about what it is
like completely. Forget how their old photographs tell them life is supposed
to be.

Normal.



_______________________________________________
ISM-Van-General mailing list