A Day in Gaza
During my visit to Israel and Palestine earlier this month I was able to spend five and a half hours in Gaza. I intended to spend several days visiting AFSC’s staff and partners in Gaza but the Israeli military didn’t approve the permits I required to enter Gaza until the day before I was scheduled to return to the United States.
My Life Under Blockade Essay Contest
Call for Submissions: The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is pleased to announce the “My Life Under Blockade Essay Contest.
World Bank: The Gaza Economy is Collapsing
"The economy in Gaza is collapsing," writes the World Bank in a new report published at the end of September.
Complicit Companies in Gaza Blockade
Our AFSC colleagues working on Economic Activism recently released an important update on our Investigate site regarding companies that are complicit in the blockade of Gaza.
Tea for Return
On September 7, 2018, Palestinian activists invited anti-Zionist Israeli activists to have tea and protest in solidarity with the Great March of Return. Since the Gaza siege fence and occupying military forces stood between them, they instead joined the demonstration from the eastern side with Palestinian flags and spoke with the Palestinian protestors by phone.
Rafah Needs a Hospital: Campaign Highlighting Healthcare Crisis in Southern Gaza
Rafah, the southern city of the Gaza Strip, is populated with more than 250 thousand residents living in 64 sq. km. It is bound on the west by the Mediterranean, on the east by the 1949-armistice line, and on the south by the Egyptian-Palestinian borders.
Is the March of Return Over?
For more than 100 days, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip emerged from the shadows of occupation and blockade. Thousands of Palestinians, women and men, old and young, partisans and independent, marched to the barbed-wire fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel and raised their voices. Despite living under blockade and witnessing brutal wars, a majority of the protestors maintained the peaceful and nonviolent nature of the March of Return.
Summer Reads
Headed to the beach this summer? Long car trip or airplane ride? Print out these articles to learn more about the situation in Gaza.
Members of Congress request action on Gaza
Last week 70 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent an open letter to the US Secretary of State requesting immediate action to “alleviate the growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.”
Podcast: Understanding Gaza
In episode three of Palestine Now & Then, Jehad Abusalim interviews Toufic Haddad, a Palestinian writer and author of many works that analyze the Palestinian struggle in the larger context of geopolitical trends and history.
Swimmer's Olympic Dreams
The Independent ran a story a few days ago by their Middle East correspondent Bel Trew about a Palestinian girl in Gaza, 13 year old Fatima Abu Shedeg, who dreams of going to the Olympics in 2020.
US Mendacity on Gaza
On July 19th the Washington Post gave US Special Representative Jason Greenblatt, Jared Kushner, and Ambassador to Israel David Friedman room to write about Gaza. Their article is one of the clearest examples of why the US cannot lead peace negotiations between Palestinian and Israelis and how dishonesty is a hallmark of US Israel-Palestine policy under the Trump Administration.
Episcopal Church Convention Supports Palestinian rights
Last week the Episcopal Church held its tri-annual General Convention in Austin, Texas. The Episcopal Church is a mainline Christian denomination with three million members in the United States and is the U.S.-based member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
New AFSC Podcast
In July, Jehad Abusalim of the midwest branch of AFSC in Chicago began recording a weekly podcast entitled Palestine Now & Then. The show focuses on Palestinian culture, history, and politics, discussing the lives and experiences of modern Palestinians in the context of the similarities and differences with past generations.
Coding in Gaza
A recent article from The Guardian highlights the creative ways in which Gazans create opportunities and engage youth in the face of blockade. Gaza Sky Geeks, a “tech hub and co-working space”, trains youth in coding and modern online business practices.
Growing up under siege – What does the experience of children in Gaza look like?
Children living under military occupation in the West Bank and Jerusalem are haunted by the specter of arrest, detention, and settler violence. Their daily lives, their experiences as individuals and an entire generation are shaped by that brutal reality.
Farmers in Gaza: Risking life to survive
Since at least 2007 Israel has imposed a military no-go zone along the boundary between Israel and Gaza which extends up to one and a half kilometers into Gaza. Anyone entering this no-go zone can be shot by the Israeli military.
Gaza: A Lab and Showroom
This week the "Hamushim" a joint program of AFSC and the Coalition of Women for Peace in Israel published a new report titled "A Lab and a Showroom" on the Israeli military's use of new weapons against protesters in Gaza.
Gaza's Remarkable Women
Two weeks before her twentieth birthday, Asmaa Tayeh wrote, “I have spent my life so far in a prison called Gaza, which is in Palestine. I call it a prison because if you committed a crime and were sentenced to prison for 20 years, you would be unable to do anything except eat, drink, sleep and maybe study–achieving nothing. And that’s all that’s possible here...” (This article was first published in garnet news)
Shorouq Hajjar - Being human means serving others
On June 1st, 2018 Palestinian medic Razan Najjar was shot and killed by Israeli snipers while providing assistance to Palestinians injured during nonviolent Palestinian protests near the Gaza fence in Khan Younis. Razan was wearing a uniform that clearly identified her as a medic when she was shot.
Risking life to save life
During the Great Return March, university student Muawiya Alai volunteered with a Palestinian Red Crescent medical team providing assistance to those injured during the protests. While in the field and wearing his medical uniform, Muawiya and a colleague were shot by Israeli snipers.
#MakingHistory: US Senator Bernie Sanders features Palestinian voices in Gaza in recent video
In recent social media post, US Senator Bernie Sanders posted a video featuring the voices of Palestinians from Gaza. In the video entitled “Palestinians describe life in Gaza,” five Palestinians talked about their experiences living under the decade-long Israeli blockade. “The voices of the Palestinians are rarely heard,” the caption stated on the Senator’s various social media accounts.
US Congressional Briefing on Gaza held by Faith Forum
Sponsored by the Faith Forum on Middle East Policy, a network of Christian denominations and organizations working for a just peace in the Middle East, a Congressional briefing was held to discuss the implications of U.S. policy on the ground in Gaza and in Israel and the surrounding area and hear about constructive ways security and economic concerns can be addressed.
Gaza Unlocked: Overcoming Fences of Narrative
Our new blog shares stories and analysis from Gaza: Gaza, or the Gaza Strip, are names of a place that appears on the headlines every once and a while. Like most parts of the world where turmoil is routine, the media tends to treat Gaza as one political, social, and cultural unit. But Gaza, home (and refugee camp) to two million Palestinians, is far more politically and culturally rich than it would be portrayed in the media.