Winning Essay "Dear Blockade"
"Dear Blockade, I was 14 when I first met you. You never asked me to be friends, you just took over my life. You grew as I grew. I'm writing to you because you're a part of my life..."
Congressional Briefing on Gaza Mental Health Crisis
A US Congressional briefing focusing on mental health in Gaza will be held at noon on Thursday, November 29 at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2203 in Washington, DC.
Congratulations to the Essay Winners
We were thrilled to receive 41 submissions to our Gaza Unlocked essay contest "My Life Under Blockade." The essays were a powerful tribute to the bright and talented youth in Gaza...
AFSC holds a Personal Essay Writing Workshop in Gaza
As part of the My Life Under Blockade essay contest, AFSC’s Gaza and Chicago teams organized an essay writing workshop on writing personal narrative essays.
Drowning in a Sea Away from Gaza: The Tragic Story of Malak Abu Jazar
This text is an adapted translation of a report by Palestinian journalist Yehya al-Yacoubi, published in Felesteen newspaper on October 25th, 2018.
Biased Media Coverage of Gaza Protests
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a national media watch group challenging media bias since 1986, published this week an article by Gregory Shupak on the recent coverage of Gaza in the press.
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.