This is a powerful piece. But for the lack of metaphors one might acquire from a more privileged existence, it almost reads like a poem. One wonders how this kid has held it together to this extent.

This reminded me of an article from a few weeks ago that touched upon the plight of youth in Gaza--particularly the bit about sweets, halva, and toys being disallowed in Gaza as part of the critical strategy to break Hamas.

Natalia

*Richard Silverstain, Tikun Olam - */Amnon Danker, former editor of one of Israel's most popular dailies, Maariv, has written a scathing essay excoriating Israel and the current political situation there. The terms he uses are savage and unsparing. It's rare for such mainstream cultural and media figures to speak in such unconditional terms about the state of latter-day Israeli society. Here is my translation:

/*Amnon Danker - *It's quite clear that if our [national] life continues in the manner it has been evolving, good, moderate, balanced and humane individuals will no longer be able to live here. Before our very eyes with results that grow every stronger, Israeli society is changing, the political culture is changing. Checks and balances are violated and are swept to the winds by this awful spirit which blows through our lives and dyes them with an ever-deepening shade of black.

It seems that things that were repressed within the Israeli soul and well-hidden through shame are suddenly bursting forth with a sense of liberation, dancing obscenely in the public square. It's now acceptable to be overtly racist and to be proud of it. It's acceptable to disparage democracy and be proud of that. Acceptable to steal and rob and trample on rights when it concerns Arabs. And acceptable to be proud of this. There are Knesset members for whom this is one of their specialties and they do it with smiles they don't even bother to conceal. There are entire parties whose tenor and tone arouse feelings of horror and terrifying memories.

How is it possible, for example, that there are people who sat and calculated the needs for feeding children and removed these necessities from the list of products permitted to enter Gaza? They sat and counted sweets and halva and toys and who the hell knows what else and crossed them out with an "x" and explained to us that this was a critical part of toppling Hamas' rule. And we took these wicked fools seriously and put our faith in them. After what happened with the Marmara we lifted the sweets siege and even permitted the import of coriander into Gaza. No disaster happened besides that we remained in this great exposed space loitering in front of the gates of Gaza though our own naked, wicked stupidity. . .

What adds to my sense of depression is the awareness that demographic processes are turning our society more and more religious, more and more racist and venomous, more and more withdrawn and violent.

For a man of my age who wasted serious parts of his life writing in newspapers about these issues, to see that I did all this out of great hope that has come to naught and was based on illusions and naivete; what happens now is a particular type of bitterness and disillusion. To see Israeli society change its nature so quickly, becoming something you never thought you'd see outside of nightmares, it breaks your heart. To begin to feel ashamed at being Israeli, and to know with not a small amount of confidence that such a feeling will grow, it depresses you utterly.

On 2/1/2011 6:28 PM, Michael Gurstein wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of mp
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 10:59 AM
To: [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; aul
Subject: [iDC] "We want to be free, we want to live, we want peace" - FREE
GAZA YOUTH!

> From organised youth in Gaza - as the tension spreads from Egypt:

-------- Original Message --------

     Fuck Israel. Fuck Hamas. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNRWA. Fuck USA! We,
the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, Fatah, the occupation,
the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international
community! We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and
indifference like the Israeli F16's breaking the wall of sound; scream with
all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that
consumes us because of this fucking situation we live in; we are like lice
between two nails living a nightmare inside a nightmare, no room for hope,
no space for freedom. We are sick of being caught in this political
struggle; sick of coal dark nights with airplanes circling above our homes;
sick of innocent farmers getting shot in the buffer zone because they are
taking care of their lands; sick of bearded guys walking around with their
guns abusing their power, beating up or incarcerating young people
demonstrating for what they believe in; sick of the wall of shame that
separates us from the rest of our country and keeps us imprisoned in a
stamp-sized piece of land; sick of being portrayed as terrorists, homemade
fanatics with explosives in our pockets and evil in our eyes; sick of the
indifference we meet from the international community, the so-called experts
in expressing concerns and drafting resolutions but cowards in enforcing
anything they agree on; we are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being
kept in jail by Israel, beaten up by Hamas and completely ignored by the
rest of the world.

     There is a revolution growing inside of us, an immense dissatisfaction
and frustration that will destroy us unless we find a way of canalizing this
energy into something that can challenge the status quo and give us some
kind of hope. The final drop that made our hearts tremble with frustration
and hopelessness happened 30th November, when Hamas' officers came to Sharek
Youth Forum, a leading youth organization (www.sharek.ps) with their guns,
lies and aggressiveness, throwing everybody outside, incarcerating some and
prohibiting Sharek from working. A few days later, demonstrators in front of
Sharek were beaten and some incarcerated. We are really living a nightmare
inside a nightmare. It is difficult to find words for the pressure we are
under. We barely survived the Operation Cast Lead, where Israel very
effectively bombed the shit out of us, destroying thousands of homes and
even more lives and dreams. They did not get rid of Hamas, as they intended,
but they sure scared us forever and distributed post traumatic stress
syndrome to everybody, as there was nowhere to run.

     We are youth with heavy hearts. We carry in ourselves a heaviness so
immense that it makes it difficult to us to enjoy the sunset. How to enjoy
it when dark clouds paint the horizon and bleak memories run past our eyes
every time we close them? We smile in order to hide the pain. We laugh in
order to forget the war. We hope in order not to commit suicide here and
now. During the war we got the unmistakable feeling that Israel wanted to
erase us from the face of the earth. During the last years Hamas has been
doing all they can to control our thoughts, behaviour and aspirations. We
are a generation of young people used to face missiles, carrying what seems
to be a impossible mission of living a normal and healthy life, and only
barely tolerated by a massive organization that has spread in our society as
a malicious cancer disease, causing mayhem and effectively killing all
living cells, thoughts and dreams on its way as well as paralyzing people
with its terror regime. Not to mention the prison we live in, a prison
sustained by a so-called democratic country.

     History is repeating itself in its most cruel way and nobody seems to
care. We are scared. Here in Gaza we are scared of being incarcerated,
interrogated, hit, tortured, bombed, killed. We are afraid of living,
because every single step we take has to be considered and well-thought,
there are limitations everywhere, we cannot move as we want, say what we
want, do what we want, sometimes we even cant think what we want because the
occupation has occupied our brains and hearts so terrible that it hurts and
it makes us want to shed endless tears of frustration and rage!

     We do not want to hate, we do not want to feel all of this feelings, we
do not want to be victims anymore. ENOUGH! Enough pain, enough tears, enough
suffering, enough control, limitations, unjust justifications, terror,
torture, excuses, bombings, sleepless nights, dead civilians, black
memories, bleak future, heart aching present, disturbed politics, fanatic
politicians, religious bullshit, enough incarceration! WE SAY STOP! This is
not the future we want!

     We want three things. We want to be free. We want to be able to live a
normal life. We want peace. Is that too much to ask? We are a peace movement
consistent of young people in Gaza and supporters elsewhere that will not
rest until the truth about Gaza is known by everybody in this whole world
and in such a degree that no more silent consent or loud indifference will
be accepted.

     This is the Gazan youth's manifesto for change!

     We will start by destroying the occupation that surrounds ourselves, we
will break free from this mental incarceration and regain our dignity and
self respect.  We will carry our heads high even though we will face
resistance. We will work day and night in order to change these miserable
conditions we are living under. We will build dreams where we meet walls.

     We only hope that you - yes, you reading this statement right now!
- can support us. In order to find out how, please write on our wall or
contact us directly: freegazayouth[at]hotmail.com

     We want to be free, we want to live, we want peace.

     FREE GAZA YOUTH!

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