Introduction
The headline for this report is the question I get every time I cross the Eretz checkpoint to go to Gaza. The Israeli soldiers find it absolutely crazy that someone would voluntarily enter the Gaza Strip. The first time I entered, I actually asked myself this question. The first things that catch your eye are concrete, wire and graffiti. The first smell that catches your nose is the bad smell of neglect, poverty and extreme crowdedness. The first sounds that catches your ears is the noise of cars, trucks and horns. But then you see the old churches, mosques and a tree here and there, as well as the tiny gardens that people insist on having; you smell the sea and you meet the Gazans . .
Visiting Gaza is wonderful; knowing that you are not forced to live there is even better. The Gazans do not have the luxury of choice. They are effectively locked inside the biggest outdoor prison on the planet.
Portrait of the YMCA in Gaza
The YMCA is located in the middle of Gaza city. It was started in 1952 with the support of Egypt YMCA, and was an Egyptian branch until Israel occupied Gaza in 1967. For international political reasons, it has not belonged to a State since then - and therefore has not been member of a national movement.
Entering the YMCA premises, at first you notice the trees, sounds of birds and space. On around 1.5 hectares (15,000 m2), there is a football lane, two basketball lanes, a tennis lane, a playground for small children, and a nice square with a stage. There are plenty of plants and flowers. There are also several buildings, one of them a kindergarten. Maybe you think that this sounds like relatively normal YMCA facilities, but in Gaza city it is one of the few open spaces, and therefore it has become very special.
The "big" night in Gaza YMCA is Thursday. All the schools are closed on Fridays and therefore children can be out late. Between 5 pm and 9 p.m., more than 200 children and youth are at the YMCA. They play football, basketball, skate on in-liners, use the swings, etc. At the same time, adults are talking, playing chess, domino or drinking Arabic coffee. Big spots illuminate the whole area. The atmosphere resembles an Italian plaza. It is unbelievably cosy!
In an average week, around 750 children and young people come to the YMCA. The vast majority of Christian youth go to the YMCA, but the majority of the YMCA youth are Muslim. This is because there are only 2500 Christians in the Gaza Strip out of a population of around 1.1 million Palestinians. The YMCA staff are both Muslim and Christians, but the elected board is 100% Christian. This way, the YMCA in Gaza keeps the balance of being inclusive without loosing its Christian identity.
Since all Christian children in Gaza are in Christian schools, and the churches also run Christian education, there is no preaching at the YMCA. As they say: "who ever heard of a Christian who became Muslim, or a Muslim who became Christian?" What they do instead is to educate youth about religious tolerance. This is extremely important in an environment, where the Christians are such a small minority. The YMCA in Gaza has a strong Christian identity, and at the same time, they are very respected in the Muslim communities. This is not an easy balance to obtain, and it is only possible because the YMCA-leadership has life-long experience in living, working and serving in an overwhelmingly, and quite conservative, Muslim environment.
The programmes and how they are effected by the Intifada
The YMCA has five main departments
The sports department has several sports teams of different ages (mainly children and youth). These teams practise several times a week with trainers who are volunteers. The teams participate in tournaments, but since the Intifada, such tournaments have become virtually impossible due to the closure politics. It is simply too risky to travel, even inside the Gaza Strip, and you only do it, if it is necessary.
The arts department has been running since the first Intifada. It started because the YMCA felt that there was a lack of possibilities for young people to develop their talents in painting. Since then, it has become very famous in Gaza and has even had exhibitions in Jerusalem and Europe. If you search on the web, you will find several non-YMCA links to the art department. Every six months, a new group of 25 students begin the exciting journey of learning how to express themselves as painters. They come to the YMCA three times a week for half a year, and a painter teaches them during that period. Most of the young artists in Gaza have been through this programme - and close to 1000 have learnt how to paint so far.
As I have reported previously, Israeli settlers bashed one of the former students of the art department to death a year ago, when he walked home at night. His portrait was painted by one of his fellow students and is now hanging at the YMCA. The YMCA hosted a memorial exhibition in his honour.
The welfare department organises different social activities such as concerts and parties for the Gazans to have some entertainment. It is very much needed and only offered in a few places. Normally these activities attract big crowds, but when the Intifada started, the YMCA chose to close the department down. It was done with sadness. Now more than ever, people in Gaza need to have places where they can have fun. The reason for the closure was because there are some fundamentalist Islamic groups that could take offence. These groups can make things very difficult. They act like football hooligans, and have even burned down buildings. They are not many, but they are unpredictable, and therefore the YMCA is very sensitive to avoid conflict with them.
The pre-school department makes sure that the premises of the YMCA are used all day, and the facilities for the school exceed most kindergartens in Europe that I have previously come across. It is on two floors with a yard in the middle, a well-equipped playground, and unlimited access to the sport lanes. All rooms are the shape of a hexagon to resemble beehives, and there are nice painted drawings of turtles, Donald Duck, dinosaurs etc. on the walls to show that "the 3-6 years olds rule here"! Since the YMCA has buses and drivers they ensure the children go on excursions to the beach, to the churches and the mosques, and other places to give them knowledge and a sense of freedom. They sometimes get actors to perform for them. There are 150 kids, 12 teachers and a lively atmosphere. The best thing for the Gazan children however, is the space. Living in overcrowded houses and apartments, and no possibility of playing outside, the YMCA pre-school is the only place where they have more space than industrially grown chickens.
The Intifada has seriously affected families' income, and many parents have no money to pay fees. For the YMCA the option of expelling children because of poverty is out of the question. It would violate the very core of the YMCA mission. Therefore the preschool this year will run with a substantial deficit and they have huge problems in covering salaries.
The youth department in the YMCA in Gaza has about 80 youth leaders between 15 and 25 years old. It is considered the most important asset of the association. The department receives training and runs social activities among themselves and programmes for children. Isa Saba, the Secretary General and others organise the training, which is very well thought through. The YMCA says that they build up young people over a period of ten years. The training includes teaching in democracy, human rights, pedagogic skills, organisation, planning of activities, learning about the YMCA mission and other things. They also try to make sure that as many as possible get the chance to visit YMCAs in other countries. They organise their own social activities. They have their own assembly every year where they elect the youth committee in charge of activities. They also run all of the non-sport activities for children in their spare time. This includes a six-week day camp in the summer with 500 children, and in winter time they run several programmes such as drama-classes etc.
Talking with youth leaders about the YMCA and the life of young people in Gaza
This interview was made with 11 youth leaders aged between 17-23 years; six of them were women. We talked about their lives, and life generally for young people in the Gaza Strip. All of them have been involved in the YMCA for more than seven years. The group is well educated; most of them are in university or have graduated.
Q: What does the YMCA mean to you and how often do you come here?
A: The YMCA is our second home, and sometimes our first. We come here several times a week, and in the summer we are here every day. If we did not have the YMCA, we would not have anywhere to go. Here in Gaza there is nothing for young people to do, especially for girls. This is the only place we can go. Our families are happy to send us here because they know we are safe.
Q: What are the activities you do at the YMCA?
A: Sometimes we just come here to hang out but there are many things you can do: play basketball, tennis, football and volleyball. We play other games also, and run training in Palestinian folk dances. Others come here for art classes, and very often there are things happening like concerts, exhibitions and so forth. Our main objective as youth leaders is to make activities for kids, so they can enjoy themselves and forget about the situation. We think it is very important to keep children active, because they are very frightened from all the shelling.
Internally in the youth group every year, we run elections for the youth coordination committee. The committee members are the ones who make plans for our activities and our training together with Isa (the Secretary-General)
Q: So what about the young people who do not go to the YMCA. What do they do?
A: There is nothing you can do. You watch television, you play cards, you go to the Internet café, and you sleep. Since the beginning of the Intifada, people have even lost their jobs because they are prevented from going to Israel, so they do nothing all day. In the summer it is better, you can spend your day at the beach.
Zaher, 23, studies political science: "My day is like this: in the morning I go to university for classes, at 2pm I go home to sleep, at 4pm I go to the YMCA to drink coffee, at 6pm I go to the street and play cards, and maybe after that I go to check my email. When I come home at 9pm, my parents and brother are watching television. They do not have jobs and are very depressed. They sit there until late. When I try to study, I get disrupted in my thoughts. Every time I sit alone, I start thinking about the situation, the people I know who have been killed, my family situation, about my brother who is in prison, and I cannot concentrate."
Q: Are there any cafés or clubs you can go to?
A: There are some restaurants, but they are very expensive and boring if you do not have anything else to do. In Gaza there is not one single bar or nightclub, but we do not think that one could run. You would not be able to buy alcohol anyway (there are no restaurants and bars in Gaza where you can buy alcohol) and girls would not be allowed to go, so what's the fun?
Q: I have noticed that many young people in Palestine don't think that they have the right to have fun, because of all the things happening here. Why?
A: How can we allow ourselves to have fun when people our age are killed, when our land is taken, and so forth? You cannot have fun, when your people are suffering.
Q: Yes, but the occupation does not end because you deprive yourself from occasionally enjoying life. The occupation has lasted since '67 - your whole life. Don't you ever become fed up?
A: The occupation has lasted since '48 - this was when Palestine was taken from our people and when we became refugees. And how can we have fun, when we are reminded of the occupation all the time. Every morning, when you meet someone, you say: "Hello, do you know how many were killed during the night"? It has become an expression in Arabic. Most mornings people have been killed, and always somebody has been wounded. Most nights we hear shelling. How can we have fun?
Fifi, 22, works at the American school: "Sometimes I get fed up, and sometimes my foreign friends complain about us. Once a friend from the West told me that we as Palestinians were no fun. I got very upset. We are a fun-loving people, but our traditional behaviour has been taken away from us and instead we have become sad"
Q: Many tell me that this Intifada is much worse than the Intifada from 1987 to 1993. What is the difference?
A: The difference is that in the first Intifada they (the Israelis) were only shooting. Now they are using helicopters, there is heavy shelling and car bombs. You are not safe anywhere. Here in Gaza strip we are locked in. We cannot leave the strip, unless we want to go abroad. We cannot go to Israel and we cannot go to the West Bank. It is claustrophobic. Most of us have not even been out of Gaza city for more than one year. To travel the strip has become too dangerous, so you do not go unless you have to.
Hani, 23, university student: "Whenever I hear shelling at night, I do not know what to do to. So, I go to the kitchen and start eating to keep myself busy. It is almost a compulsory habit."
Q: Do you ever think about immigrating?
A: No, we do not want to live abroad. It is not our home, and who will fight the Israeli occupation if we leave? We will not surrender. Whenever we have been away for some time, we want to come back. We start missing friends and family. We start missing Gaza.
Q: Do you think you will have your own State in 10 years time?
A: No, but we hope we will.
As this discussion continued, I was asked why the Western world is doing nothing substantial to help the Palestinians, and why the West hates Arabs. Lately, this subject coincides with questions about the war in Afghanistan. I have not met one person here so far, who is in favour of the war.
Abu Isa - the grand old man of the YMCA in Gaza
A portrait of the YMCA in Gaza is simply not complete without mentioning Abu Isa. "Abu Isa" means the father of Isa, and he is the former Secretary General and father of Isa Saba, who is the current Secretary-General. Everybody calls him Abu Isa, and in fact I only found out by chance that his real name is Mousa Saba. He has been in the YMCA in Gaza from the very beginning in 1952, and it is because of him that the YMCA in Gaza today is so strong and well known.
Every morning, seven days a week he comes to the YMCA at 7 o'clock. In the afternoon he goes home to take a nap and then he is back at 4 pm for the evening programme. It seems he knows just about everybody. The first time I was with him, I was surprised when we drove around in the crowded Gaza city and most people greeted him. Last time, we went all the way to Rafah, 45 km south of Gaza city, and the same thing happened. Old people greet him and young people greet him, and he has close personal connections to many prominent Gazans.
I had wanted to meet with Dr. Haider M Abdel Shafi, who used to be part of the Palestinian negotiating team during the Madrid-process, and now heads the Red Crescent Society in the Gaza Strip. He is a leading Palestinian diplomat. "Okay", Abu Isa said. It turned out that the two of them used to play tennis together for many years. I had also wanted to meet with Raji Sourani, who is director for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. "Okay", he said again. They knew each other very well and Raji Souranis' children were in the YMCA pre-school. Both meetings were organised in a day. It was only by chance that we did not meet with the Palestinian Minister of Justice as he happened to be in Cairo.
Abu Isa is 73 years old, but the young people in the YMCA hang around him all the time. When he and I visited the pre-school, the children wanted to sit on his lap.
His family is originally from Gaza, but he grew up in Beer Sheeva, nowadays an Israeli city 20 kms from Gaza. We once talked about the habit of stone throwing among Palestinian youth and he said: "they inherited it from their grandparents. In Beer Sheeva in the 30's we used to throw stones at the British whenever we had the chance. I also climbed the telephone poles to cut wires. . ..". In 1948, the family was forced to seek refuge in Gaza, and he has lived there ever since. He has been on trips to Jerusalem and the West Bank, but the only time he has left Gaza for a long period, was when he served one year in an Egyptian prison in Cairo. He has a brother in Cairo, one in Chile and a daughter in the USA, but he refuses to go there, as long as Palestine is occupied: "as long as my country is not free, I am going nowhere!".
Abu Isa is a man of strong convictions, a non-stop talker, he has a big heart, and he is a first class YMCA leader. I am very fond of him.
Theme: Life in Gaza
Economic conditions
Since the beginning of the Intifada, life in Gaza has gone from bad to worse. Gaza is completely dependent on its labour force having access to Israel, since there are very few job opportunities inside the strip. Little investment has taken place in the industrial sector, mainly because of the Israeli closure policy makes it a risky business. Due to the crowdedness and the confiscation of land by the Israelis, very few can live as farmers. Due to the Israeli control of the sea, very few can live as fishermen.
Gaza has an economy with little industry, farming or fishing. Both in the primary and secondary sector, the Gazans are close to 100% dependent on access to the outside world. For more than a year now this access has been prevented. Added to this is that the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world , which means that there is no subsistence economy. The financial situation has generally been poor since 1948, which means that most people have very little savings, and housing in Gaza is very expensive with a large gap between supply and demand. It is clear that people live in a very difficult situation.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics , the situation in Gaza in August 2001 was as follows:
- 21.9% (38,000) households have lost their source of income since the beginning of the Intifada; and 56.4% have lost more than 50% of their income.
- The average income per household had decreased from $459 to $212 .
- 81.5% of Gazans live under the poverty line (the World Bank defines the Palestinian poverty line as $388 per month for a household composed of two adults and four children or $2.10 per person per day).
Many families rely on UNRWA for food assistance, but the funding for UNRWA is inadequate. There is no reported starvation, but obvious malnutrition as the diet in many households is almost reduced to bread and tea. Bear in mind that this situation is not due to a natural disaster or unforeseen refugee problems. It is due to closure of the Eretz checkpoint.
Youth and unemployment
The unemployment rate in general has sky rocketed since the beginning of the Intifada. The situation was poor for young people prior to the closure. Working permits to Israel were only given to married males over 25 years old, and in many cases you had to be over 30 years old . According to statistics from 1997, 76% of the population in Gaza is less than 30 years old and 25% is between 15 and 30 years old . The proportion of this age group has risen since then and it would be fair to estimate that the number of young men between 15-30 years old is close to 150,000 in Gaza . Of these, many choose to go to high school and university; some out of interest and some because there are no other options. Even young Gazans with Masters degrees and good marks from the University find it next to impossible to get employment.
Young women are even less fortunate. Due to a generally conservative Muslim environment and a lack of need for additional labour, many of them are forced to marry early and to forget about using their intellectual potential.
Settlements
In Gaza there are 6,000 Jewish settlers , and 1,167,359 Palestinians . The settlements are concentrated in three main areas.
In the south, the settlements are located just inside the border to Egypt. The confiscated area takes up around 33% of the Gazan coastline, bordering a big part of Khan Yunis, the second biggest city in the Gaza Strip. The road from the settlements to Israel isolates Rafah, the most southern city, the poorest area in Palestine, and the area that has been most seriously affected by Israeli shelling. I visited Rafah with Abu Isa in the middle of the day and asked him why the city was completely empty. "They sleep. It is too dangerous for them to sleep at night. They are under attack every day after dark".
Another block of settlements are located along the northern border to Israel. They are very close to Gaza city, and have to be passed to go to Eretz checkpoint.
The last block of settlements is located in the centre. Apart from cutting the strip in the middle, and making travel between north and south a risky affair, they are placed exactly on the most important water resource in the entire strip.
All together the settlements, their roads and the military deployed in Gaza to protect the settlers take up 42% of the land . This means that not only is Gaza very small and narrow (most places less than 8 kms in width) but it is in three pieces with checkpoints, military control and settler violence.
The land is confiscated from the Gazans without compensation, and there are daily reports of further uprooting of plantations: dates, figs, oranges, olives, etc. This is always done by the military, and always for "security reasons".
An even more serious issue in the long run is the question of water. Israel controls the water, and the settlers use an estimated 550 litres per person per day, while the Palestinians can only use around 70 litres. The minimum quantity to meet basic human need is 100 litres, according to the World Health Organisation. The natural water resources in Gaza do not have the capacity to meet future demands.
The size of Gaza is 365 km2 , which means that the general population density is 3214 people per km2. When we consider that the Israelis control 42% of the land, the population density in the Palestinian areas is 5514, and the population density in the Israeli areas is 39. . 824.622 or 71% of Palestinians are refugees.
Outside access:
While Israeli settlers have several roads cutting through Gaza to access Israel, there are only two alternatives for the Palestinians: the Eretz checkpoint which has been closed to Palestinians since the beginning of the Intifada; and the Egyptian-Gazan border which is controlled by Egypt and Israel. All around the land, there are fence at the borders to Egypt and Israel, and the Gazans can only go 2 kms out from the coast. They have no access to East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The only way to leave Gaza has been to ask for an Israeli permit to use the Tel Aviv airport and go abroad. This is also the only option if the West Bankers and Gazans want to meet.
Quotes:
Mousa Saba, 12 years old, YMCA in Gaza (commenting on the list of terrorist organisations compiled by the UK and USA, which includes several Palestinian organisations):
"I am very angry that the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the USA has said that the Palestinian organisations are terrorists. We are not terrorists; we are fighting to free our country. I am also very angry with the Palestinian authorities who are capturing Palestinian freedom fighters to please the West".
Dr. Haider M Abdel Shafi, leading Palestinian diplomat (commenting on the Palestinian political system and the lack of progress in convincing the world of the obviously just Palestinian cause):
"The main problem for us Palestinians has always been that we seem to be very bad in getting organised. . .The main obstacle for peace now is the settlements, and the main disaster of the Oslo process was that we were deluded into thinking that it could be solved at a later stage".
Raji Sourani, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (on the issue of the 3.5 million Palestinian refugees)
"The Israelis need to acknowledge their moral responsibility for creating this problem. It is like they want to delude themselves into thinking that we were not really here before 1948, but we did not drop down from heaven".
Concluding remarks
When you drive from Jerusalem to Gaza, you would need to find your own way. More than 1.1 million people live there - around 350,000 people in Gaza city - and the first road sign to Gaza is 20 kms from the checkpoint. Hardly any Israelis have ever been there, and Gaza is a big part of the collective denial. For the Israeli public or politicians is too challenging to think about, and going there is out of the question. Without knowing what life is like, it is easier for everybody to write off the Gazans as troublemakers and fundamentalist terrorists.
It does not take rocket science to realise that the cocktail of poverty, crowdedness, youth unemployment and closure is a breeding ground for frustration and violent resistance. It is also not very difficult to realise that the man-made situation in Gaza is gross violation of human rights. It is neither politically, economically or ecologically sustainable.
It is an open-air prison with no possibilities for parole.