After Years in Exile, My Grandfather Returns to Gaza

This article was originally posted on The Nation

On Sunday morning, I found out through a note my friend wrote on Facebook, that the Israeli Air Force was attacking my grandfather's neighborhood in Gaza. Safa, who lives near my grandfather in the densely-populated "Asqoola" in Gaza City, recounted the harrowing hours she spent terrorized by what she called "the constant, ominous, maddening, droning sound" of Apache helicopters flying above. "Outside my home, which is close to the two largest universities in Gaza, a missile fell on a large group of young men, university students," Safa wrote over the weekend. "They'd been warned not to stand in groups--it makes them an easy target--but they were waiting for buses to take them home. Seven were killed."

My family had been trying to speak with my grandfather since Saturday, after Israel began its onslaught on Gaza. But we haven't managed to reach him, perhaps not surprising since so many phone lines are down. "Hold one moment," is all we hear. A computerized directive from the phone company, one that sounds increasingly strident the more it's repeated. "Hold one moment." My mother hangs up in frustration, unable to ease her anxiety or clear her mind from worst-case scenario thoughts.

My grandfather moved to Gaza five years ago after living all over the Middle East for almost fifty years. As far as he was concerned, it was always a matter of time before he'd find his way back to his birthplace. He was born in Gaza City in 1933. Both of his parents died of cancer by his fifth birthday, so he was raised by four older sisters. The Gaza he knew during his childhood was transformed by the establishment of Israel in 1948. Following their forced expulsion from villages and cities across the country, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians streamed into the tiny coastal strip. Most of the refugees relied on assistance from the newly-created United Nations Relief and Works Agency to survive, and jobs were hard to come by. My grandfather was thus forced to move to other Arab countries so he could provide for his young family. By 1958, he had married my grandmother, a refugee from Jaffa whose father, a policeman, had been killed by Zionist paramilitaries ten years earlier. My grandfather took her and their one-year-old son to Saudi Arabia, where he taught Arabic to schoolchildren.

Leaving his beloved Gaza was painful for my grandfather, but he was left with no other choice. Because he was never allowed to become a citizen of any of the four Arab countries in which he worked and lived, my grandfather never felt at home. In his mind, they were transitory stops, temporary resting places on the way to Return. He would save as much as he could from his meager salary so he'd have enough money to take his family to Gaza for summer visits. After years of living modestly, he was able to buy a quarter of an acre of land on Gaza's coast near the Mediterranean Sea.

My grandfather was sitting in a cafe with a group of friends in the coastal city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia when he heard that Israel captured Gaza in the June 1967 war. His face went pale and he fainted from the shock. The Israeli Army's occupation meant Gaza was lost. But in practical terms the news had another catastrophic effect: the Israeli military authorities decreed that any Palestinian who was not in Gaza before the war was not recognized as a resident of the strip.

My grandfather became a US citizen in 1999. By the time he passed his citizenship exam, his knowledge of American history and governance rivaled my own. Three of his children had moved here years earlier, and started their own families. Though my mother begged him to live here with her, my grandfather's dream of returning to Gaza never left him - and it was his American citizenship that helped him do just that.

When he finally moved back to Gaza, my grandfather changed. He stopped a lifelong habit of chain smoking and embraced the outdoors, faithfully tending the garden in his courtyard. He drank mint tea in his nephews' vineyard and ate from the fig trees he could only dream about years before. But he was also dismayed by the changes he observed. His hometown had become so overcrowded that trees were cut down to make room for more buildings. With more than 10,000 people per square mile, it has the highest population density in the world. (Considering Gaza's overcrowded environment, it is hard to fathom how anyone can argue that Israeli's aerial bombardment is focused exclusively on "Hamas targets.")

My grandfather, throughout his life, never belonged to any political factions, but like many Gazans he hoped that Hamas' election would bring back a semblance of law and order. Palestinian Authority officials had been dogged by allegations of corruption since they began administering Gaza and the West Bank under the 1993 Oslo accords. To many Gazans, the PA and its minions were no better than gangsters.

With Israel's draconian blockade of Gaza, imposed as punishment for the election of Hamas and backed by the US and Europe, my grandfather's life was transformed yet again. Medication to treat his diabetes was in short supply and because of a shortage of gas and electricity, his family was forced to use primitive kerosene burners for cooking. Bakeries now had to resort to baking bread with animal feed and sewage treatment plants were crippled as fuel ran out, forcing the water authority to dump millions of liters of waste into the Mediterranean Sea. Electricity was scarce, with homes receiving an average of only six hours a day. Unemployment shot up to 49 percent. Because of the border closures, my grandfather's nephews, who used to work in construction in Israel, now had no source of income. Israel's blockade caused a slow starvation of the entire population, as malnutrition rates spiked upwards of 75 percent among the strip's 1.5 million residents. As in most siege situations, children suffered the most from hunger and disease.

As missiles rain over Gaza, I can only imagine what my grandfather is thinking. Much of the territory's civilian infrastructure, including police stations, universities, mosques and homes, has been decimated. In the Jabalia refugee camp, five sisters, the eldest aged seventeen and the youngest only four, were killed on Monday as they slept in their beds when an Israeli air strike hit a mosque by their home. Their parents told reporters they assumed they were safe, since houses of worship typically are not military targets. The cemetery where the girls were buried was filled to capacity, so they were placed in three graves. A United Nations spokesperson said the killing is a "tragic illustration that this bombardment is exacting a terrible price on innocent civilians." The bereaved father expressed the sentiments of so many in Gaza in an interview with the Washington Post. "I don't have anything to do with any Palestinian faction. I have nothing to do with Hamas or anyone. I am just an ordinary person." A few days after the attack, I found out that the girls were relatives of our family friends in Florida.

I asked my mother why my grandfather did not leave Gaza while its gates were still open. Why he didn't leave before the siege, before life became unbearable, and before this latest bombardment. "Because that's where he feels he belongs," she said. "He was always homesick before. Gaza is where his parents were buried. It's where he wants to die."

Comments

[Pema]

08:34 PM on 01/05/2009

Laila,
my thoughts for the saftey of all Palestians is deep in my heart. I was rasied by Syrians and had many Palestian friends, most dont know what incredibly kind people the Palestians are.
I pray for the saftey of your father and all you know.
Israel is now using chemical weapons. evedience in pic can be found at ADC.ORG
May God keep your family safe. May the truth get out, threu email campaigns and people calling their congress and the white house.I am doing what ever I can from here.,
Pema
visit adc.org

[skaterdon66]

03:28 PM on 01/04/2009

I think I have a solution...get a rich Saudi prince to make the Gaza Strip into a Vegas like Strip..Give all the Gazaites or Gazinians each a $1000 or whatever Gaza money is. That would be a little over a billion $$..mere chicken feed. Now they can all play the slots, maybe win a little, and they don't have the time or inclination to make and launch rockets. What do you think ??

[Michale32086]

11:45 AM on 01/04/2009

@LillianB

}}}}}
What Israel is doing is not within the boundaries of the Geneva Convention, the International Criminal Courts nor the rules of war.
}}}}}

Cite your evidence..

Show me the articles or rules that Israel is violating??

It's already been established that Israel targets legitimate military targets.

It's been established BY PALESTINIAN PRESS that Hamas places weapons storage areas in schools.

It's been established BY HAMAS that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians killed are security forces/combatants/terrorists..

So, please cite the specific articles or rules that Israel is violating and cite specific examples of Israeli acts that violate said articles..

I showed you mine, now you show me yours...

}}}}}
And the UN Secretary of General, whom I'd say is a far greater authority come to the mentioned than yourself, is urging Israel to stop their operation due to humanitarian sufferings. THOSE are the facts, and I am acknowledging them.
{{{{{

You think that the UN SecGen has more authority than the Geneva Conventions and the International Criminal Court???

Oh, I get it... That's a joke, right???

Tell me, why did the UN delay and procrastinate on the Iraq situation?? So they could continue to make 9 BILLION dollars a year off the program...

Why did the UN go down to an African nation to disarm rebels, but ended up selling them weapons instead?? So they could make millions...

Why is it that the UN has been labeled the MOST CORRUPT organization???

Michale.....

[LillianB]

02:24 PM on 01/04/2009

I think the UN SecGen is more of an authorithy than Michale32086, like I have formerly said and you've quoted above. I have never implied that the UN stands above the Geneva Convention.

Israel is breaking the Third Geneva Convention's Article 3, both points (3.1. is that "Persons taking no active part in the hostilities shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria", 3.2 is that the wounded and sick shall be cared for), and Article 9 (in short that humanitarian aid shall not be hindered). Israel is also breaking 3.1 and 3.2 in the Fourth Geneva Convention (identical to the mentioned above) as well as Article 13 in the same (making it clear that the above goes for the whole war-area population), Article 16-23 in the same (concerning different aspects of health services and treatment) and Article 24 (concerning
protection of children).

Examples are numorous. At least a fourth, probably more of those killed these last days are women and children, according to international aid workers now in hospitals in Gaza.

Fact is that civilians are killed against the Geneva Convention and international law. Fact is that international media is not given access to document it - what we know, we know through the UN and international aid workers (some having been able to get in, others have been refused entry). People are suffering immensely.

[Michale32086]

02:51 PM on 01/04/2009

{{{{{
Examples are numorous.
{{{{{

Yet, you can't provide any...

}}}}}
Fact is that civilians are killed against the Geneva Convention and international law.
}}}}}

Again, you are completely wrong...

The International Criminal Court AND the Geneva Conventions specifically states that innocent civilians CANNOT BE TARGETED....

It says NOTHING about innocent civilians being killed.

Nay, the Roman Statute of the International Criminal Court , "permit belligerents to carry out proportionate attacks against military objectives, even when it is known that some civilian deaths or injuries will occur."

No matter how you slice it, ma'am, you are wrong...

You have absolutely no legal support, no moral support and no ethical support that justifies your position.

And NO WHERE, in ALL your posts, do you express ANY concern or sympathy for the innocent men, women and children of Israel that have been brutally butchered by Hamas...

That simply indicates to me that you are bigoted and anti-semetic....

I wish you could prove me wrong on that point, but to date, you haven't....

Michale.....

[Michale32086]

04:51 PM on 01/04/2009

I mean, seriously..

THINK about your definition of terrorism..

If your definition of terrorism is where innocent civilians are killed, that would encompass EVERY war, every conflict and every battle since time began..

That's not a definition... That's a cop-out...

Terrorism has a very specific, very definitive and very objective definition.. You can't "adjust" the definition on a whim or a lark, just because you don't like a group of people...

It's not how things work...

Michale.....

[LillianB]

10:44 AM on 01/04/2009

Thank you, Lailia Al-Arian, for sharing your story, and giving us (yet another) human face to the conflict. I wish all of those claiming that Israeli attacks are "justful" will read your post, and though I know it is much to hope for, I hope some of them realize the reality. Most Gazans, and other Palestinians, just want to live in peace in their land, just like most Israeli jews want to live in peace in theirs. But the humans are trapped between aggressive leaderships continuously escalating the conflict.

Michale, you can hammer that Hamas is violent all you want. I know that Hamas is. But so is the Israeli government, and the violence Hamas stands behind is still just a small part of the violence in the Israeli-Palestinian areas of now. Israel is the military force, here, and Israel is using it's military force. The victims are Palestinian, and they are civilians. They aren't who've been sending rockets into Israel. They're innocent women, men and children just wanting to survive. And killing them, blindly, is a war crime, no matter what's been done to provoke it. Denying the international media access into Gaza to document the atrocities is an example of using one's force for the worse, too. That's denying the world true access to seeing and understanding what's really happening.

[Michale32086]

11:02 AM on 01/04/2009

You are correct... Hamas is violent and so Israel..

But the difference which you fail to concede is that Hamas is a terrorist group and Israel is not a terrorist country..

That makes ALL the difference...

}}}}}
The victims are Palestinian, and they are civilians. They aren't who've been sending rockets into Israel. They're innocent women, men and children just wanting to survive. And killing them, blindly, is a war crime, no matter what's been done to provoke it.
{{{{{

I agree that the Palestinians are victims.. But it is Hamas who is victimizing them, not Israel...

Israel is not "killing them blindly." Israel is striking legitimate military targets. The fact that Hamas places those targets in crowded civilian areas and schools and mosques is what makes HAMAS, not Israel, responsible for the innocent deaths..

These are the facts...

Michale.....

[LillianB]

11:41 AM on 01/04/2009

All of Gaza is a crowded civilian area (the area is on par with Gibraltar, the world's fifth most densely populated country, come to density). That's part of the problem. But when Israel is bombing the grocery market, leaving 90 civilians killed or severely harmed, they aren't striking legitimate military targets. They are striking civilians. AND THESE ARE THE FACTS. You can choose whatever fact you like to distort the truth, but you can't convince anyone that your truth is the only one.

Let's use a metaphor. Imagine that you killed your neighbors wife, and that your neighbor responded by killing the wives of all other neighbors in your street as retaliation. That's what Israel is doing. No one can deny that you weren't entitled to kill anyone in the first place. No one would agree that you murdering the woman was a good thing, and no one would disagree with your neighbor's right to defend himself and his family. But neither could anyone defend the response, and "you started it" is a very bad argument on why one should escalate the violence and look away from human rights or international law. Which Israel does. The US is the only country blocking the UN Security Council from saying so, as proved in their meeting yesterday.

[chaos4700]

09:11 AM on 01/04/2009

Thank you for sharing your story and I hope your grandfather manages to stay safe through all of this. I know right now it seems like the US is happy to shield Israel while they use overwhelming military force on a civilian population, but these times in which information flows much more freely and lies shrivel and flutter in the great wind that is building up, I can assure you that one way or another, the world as a majority will stand up and do something to stop Israel and its rampant militarism.

[Michale32086]

05:55 AM on 01/04/2009

@larry278

}}}}}}
What is the introduction of IDF ground forces to the Gaza Strip to be called? That happened about 2:00 PM, EST on 1/3/09.
{{{{{{

According to the International Criminal Court, the UN {barf} (Article 51), the Geneva Conventions and the accepted rules of warfare, it's called a "proportionate response"...

And, just so you know, "proportionate" is defined by those same agencies as the level of force necessary to stop the attacks. In this case, it means that Israel pretty much has free reign as long as Hamas missiles are landing on Israeli soil..

These are the facts...

Michale.....

[chaos4700]

09:07 AM on 01/04/2009

So wait a minute. Did Nazi Germany "pretty much have free reign" when the French Resistance struggled to drive them out of sovereign French land?

And your denigrating comment about the UN just goes to show how much care you've really taken to understand international diplomacy and treaty obligation. The US is the /only/ country standing behind Israel right now. That means we're the only other country that will suffer the backlash when this goes into the historical record (not to mention the international criminal one) once all is said and done.

[Michale32086]

09:41 AM on 01/04/2009

}}}}
So wait a minute. Did Nazi Germany "pretty much have free reign" when the French Resistance struggled to drive them out of sovereign French land?
}}}}

Did the French Resistance commit terrorism??

Michale.....

[alexa07]

10:41 PM on 01/03/2009

Thank you for sharing such a poignant story. Please do NOT stop from sharing your grandfather's story with Americans. As more of us come to understand the great suffering of the Palestinians (of more than 60 yrs.), it will become increasingly more difficult for our leaders & media to justify Israeli aggression as well as how our tax dollars & armaments enable it. Already the hosts on the cable TV networks are looking increasingly more embarrassed as they try to adhere to the "accepted" view that always blames the Palestinians! You will not get a compassionate response from readers of your blog who are looking to justify present & past events, but please keep writing. I wish you, your family & most especially your grandfather the very best in Palestine.

[Laila Al-Arian]

11:08 PM on 01/03/2009

Thanks for your kind words, Alexa.

[SamEllison]

08:11 PM on 01/02/2009

Americans can not fathom sixty year old refugee camps.
In America sixty years after immigrating we have doctors and lawyers and judges, leaders of the community. This refugee status must end and the inequity it has brought.

[totalliberal]

05:12 AM on 01/03/2009

Let's get serious about Palestinian history. They have only been recognized by the Arab states as Palestinians since the 1920's and were part of a shared area, Jews, Arabs, Christians that also called themselves Palestinians. For years under the leadership of Haj Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, uncle of Yasser Arafat, friend of Hitler and Adolf Eichmann, a newly formed militant Palestine secessionist group formed in order to make Palestine into an all Muslim state. Something previously unheard of.
After the 1948 partition, following the British rule, the Arab League attacked the Jews in order to wipe them out, and lost. That means they only existed as a multi-cultural country for about 25 years. And never as a purely Muslim state. At the time of partition there were about half a million Muslim Palestinians in the area. At present there are over 4 million. That would obviously negate any talk of genocide.

[bbrecht]

05:15 PM on 01/06/2009

Okay- lets do get serious. 93% of the population in the 1940's was Arab. Jews, Christians and Muslims lived in relative peace. 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes in 1948 -- to refugee camps in Gaza and elsewhere.

I agree with the previous poster. I find it very difficult to imagine what it means to be a refugee for 60 years. Sixty years and the Palestinian people do not have equal rights with their Israeli brothers and sisters, do not in fact have any civil rights whatsoever and are subject to brutality such as the whole world is witnessing.

If what is happening in Gaza is not genocide than our language lacks the word for it.

[Michale32086]

06:51 PM on 01/02/2009

}}}}
Their parents told reporters they assumed they were safe, since houses of worship typically are not military targets.
{{{{

That was before Hamas started using mosques and schools as weapons storage depots..

"Residents of a Gaza town complained this week after Hamas forces constructing a weapons storage facility under the local schoolhouse severed a water main.

The Ramallah-based Palestine Press news agency reported that Hamas hoped to use the school to shield some of their heavy US and Iranian-made weapons from Israeli raids and air strikes....

In other Gaza news, Hamas gunmen on Thursday bombed a cemetery where British soldiers who helped liberate the area from Ottoman Turkish rule during World War I are buried.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights later reported that two of its workers and two accompanying Reuters correspondents were attacked by Hamas security forces when they arrived at the scene to interview cemetery guards. The Hamas police reportedly confiscated the reporters' camera memory cards and all video footage taken at the site."

Michale......

[Equator180]

02:12 AM on 01/03/2009

Michale, please lay off the koolaid and do some rational thinking, in other words wake up. This what is happening now is definitely a war crime and terrorism in the worst form. Shooting fish in a tank is more even handed than what the Isrealies are doing..

[Michale32086]

05:59 AM on 01/03/2009

Sorry, but you are wrong.

What Hamas is doing is terrorism.

What Israel is doing is within the purview and the boundaries of the Geneva Conventions, the International Criminal Courts and the rules of war.

These are the facts, whether you choose to acknowledge them or not.

Michale.....