« Cheney Throws Down Gauntlet, Defies Prosecution for War CrimesA brief Hate statement... »

Gaza: The Untold Story

December 19th, 2008

Ramzy Baroud

Conquerors came and went, and Gaza stood where it still stands today. This was the recurring lesson for generations, even millennia. Its modern conquerors are as unpitying as its ancient ones. But its people are defiant as they have always been, hell-bent on surviving, says Ramzy Baroud.


It’s incomprehensible that a region such as the Gaza Strip, so rich with history, so saturated with defiance, can be reduced to a few blurbs, sound bites and reductionist assumptions, convenient but deceptive, vacant of any relevant meaning, or even true analytical value.

The fact is that there is more to the Gaza Strip than 1.5 million hungry Palestinians, who are supposedly paying the price for Hamas’s militancy, or Israel’s ‘collective punishment’, whichever way the media decide to brand the problem.

More importantly, Gaza’s existence since time immemorial must not be juxtaposed by its proximity to Israel, failure or success in ‘providing’ a tiny Israeli town – itself built on conquered land that was seen only 60 years ago as part of the Gaza Province – with its need for security. It’s this very expectation that made the killing and wounding of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza a price worth paying, in the callous eyes of many.

These unrealistic expectations and disregard of important history will continue to be costly, and will only serve the purpose of those interested in swift generalizations. Yes, Gaza might be economically dead, but its current struggles and tribulations are consistent with a legacy of conquerors, colonialism and foreign occupations, and more, its peoples collective triumph in rising above the tyranny of those invaders.

In relatively recent history, Gaza became a recurring story following the 1948 influx of refugees, who were driven from their homes by Zionist militias or fled for their families’ sake, hoping to return once Palestine was recovered. They settled in Gaza, subsisting in absolute poverty, a situation that continues, more or less, to this day.

The history of Gaza, and the place itself was largely irrelevant, if not revolting from the point of view of the refugees who poured into the Strip mostly from the south of Palestine, for it represented the pinnacle of their loss, humiliation and, at times, despair. It mattered little to the peasant refugees as they fled to Gaza that that they probably walked on the same ancient road that ran along the Palestinian coast when Gaza was once the last metropolis for travelers to Egypt, just before they embarked on an unforgiving desert journey through Sinai. So what if Gaza was described as the city, as told in the Book of Judges, where Samson performed his famous deed and perished. Christianity was relevant to the refugees insofar as a few of Gaza’s ancient churches provided shelter to the tired bodies escaping snipers, bullets and massacres. Even the strong belief amongst Muslims that Prophet Mohammed’s great-grandfather, Hashem, died on one of his journeys from Mecca to the Lavent and was buried in Gaza, was largely sentimental. His shrine in Gaza City was visited by numerous refugees, who kneeled and prayed to God that they, someday soon, would be sent back to their humble existence, and their ways of life from which they have been forcefully estranged.

But Gaza’s history became more relevant to the refugees when it appeared that their temporary journey to the Strip was likely to be extended. Only then the areas’ many stories of conquerors, tragedies, triumphs but also sheer goodness, became of essence. A pilgrim to the Holy Land, who passed through Gaza in 570 AD, wrote in Latin, “Gaza is a splendid city, full of pleasant things; the men in it are most honest, distinguished by every generosity, and warm to friends and visitors.”

Gaza’s history became even more relevant when the refugees realized that their violent encounters with Israel were not yet over, and that they needed the moral tenacity to survive what would eventually be viewed as one of most severe humanitarian catastrophes in recent memory. And indeed, there was much history to marvel upon, and from which to extract strength and substantiation.

Conquerors came and went, and Gaza stood where it still stands today. This was the recurring lesson for generations, even millennia. Ancient Egyptians came and went, as did the Hyksos, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Ottomans, the British, and now the Israelis. And through it all, Gaza stood strong and defiant. Neither Alexander the Great’s bloody conquest of 332 BC, nor Alexander Janneus’s brutal attack of 96 BC broke Gaza’s spirit or took away from its eternal grandeur. It always rose again to reach a degree of civilianization unheard of, as it did in the 5th century AD. It was in Gaza that the Crusaders surrounded their strategic control of the city to Saladin in 1170, only to open up yet another era of prosperity and growth, occasionally interrupted by conquerors and outsiders with colonial designs, but to no avail. All the neglected ruins of past civilizations were only reminders that Gaza’s enemies would never prevail, and would, at best, merely register their presence by another neglected structure of concrete and rocks.

Now Gaza is undergoing another phase of hardship and defiance. Its modern conquerors are as unpitying as its ancient ones. True, Gaza is ailing, but standing, it people resourceful and durable as ever, defiant as they have always been, and hell-bent on surviving, for that’s what Gazans do best. And I should know, it’s my hometown.

[Excerpts from this article will appear in Ramzy Baroud’s new book, My Father Was a Freedom Fighter - Gaza: The Untold Story (Pluto Press, London).]

Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian-American author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in numerous newspapers and journals worldwide, including the Washington Post, Japan Times, Al Ahram Weekly and Lemonde Diplomatique. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London). Read more about him on his website: RamzyBaroud.net

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

Photo illustration:
Cristina Ruiz Cortina

Source:
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=29286

No feedback yet

Voices  Share this page

Voices

  • Katherine Watt [07/29/23] Orientation for new readers Excellent new post by Sasha Latypova on Dec. 10, 1974 National Security Study Memorandum 200 ■ July 26, 2023 - Population Control Policy. Why would my government want to kill me? Don't they…
  • PressTV The Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza is funded by the United States according to Joe Iosbaker, an American political analyst and a leader of the Anti-War Committee – Chicago. 💬 “The US government leads the world in many…
  • Dr. Halvor Næss [06/17/23] It is now more than three years since the covid-19 pandemic started, and two almost self-evident statements summarize the most important lessons learned. 1. Without the draconian handling of the authorities, the pandemic would…
  • Dr Vernon Coleman If you want to know the truth about vaccines and vaccinations please read my book Anyone who tells you vaccines are safe and effective is lying: Here’s the truth. You can find it for sale on Amazon. 1. The UK is now sending long range…
  • Cesare Sacchetti When Donald Trump in 2016 walked down the mobile stairs of his New York residence, the Trump Tower, many prominent members of the deep state were anguished by a feeling of both panic and fear. Panic because for the first time after the…
  • Jeff Thomas The decline from democracy to tyranny is both a natural and inevitable one. That’s not a pleasant thought to have to consider, but it’s a fact, nonetheless. In every case, a democracy will deteriorate as the result of the electorate…
  • Walter Gelles Legal trickery would silence Dr. Charles Hoffe Prominent Canadian physician Dr. Charles Hoffe has spoken out courageously to warn people of the very serious dangers of the Covid mRNA genetic "vaccines". He now faces trial from the Canadian…
  • Stephen Lendman [04/05/23][Stephen died on May 9th, 2023, about a month after he wrote this article.] Illegitimately installed Biden regime criminals run the empire of lies and forever wars. A previous article discussed Trump’s politicized indictment,…
  • Linh Dinh [Pakse, Laos on 6/5/23] Sherwood Anderson, “For a time he was lonely and wrote to Alice almost every day. Then he was caught up by the life of the city; he began to make friends and found new interests in life.” Why quote a rather plain…
  • Walter Gelles Breaking News: "A prominent Canadian doctor who is bravely speaking out about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) 'vaccine' damage he is observing in many of his patients is facing trial this March over accusations of professional misconduct.…
March 2024
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31            

  XML Feeds

blogging soft
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi