Ahmad is a Palestinian Journalist, living in Hebron. He is member of the International Council of the World Social Fórum, integrating the Palestinian Commtte of The World Social Forum Free Palestine. Member of Alternative International Center (AIC) staff in Hebron, he writes for the independent media and social networks. His articles are regularly published in the Ciranda website
We’ve asked him how things are going on for him, his comunity, his people. We’d like to express our solidarity, to show him we are worried about the way the Palestinian people are beind massacred by the bombs and the cruelty that we are seeing today in the social networks. We wrote to tell him about demonstrations and protests that his friends around the world are engaged in.
He drew some lines on the tragic days that the Palestinians are living. He sent us this brief report few hours before the invasion of Gaza by land and the order for mass evacuation. We hope he is save, working for AIC and for all of us in Hebron.
Ahmad Jaradah
I would like to say frankly that what you and others do (public actions) is more than important and needed at this time. First, it is important the solidarity with my people . It is important too for real justice and real future in the Middle East, mainly in Palestine.. life here is not acceptable at all.. My life is 50 years old.. I didn’t see the sadness and the hard time like what I saw this time .. it is a real massacre happening in Gaza .. real massacre, real massacre.
I live in a town called Saeer, 5 km to the north east of Hebron city, in the South of West Bank.. As you know the events and the problems happened firstly in my District Hebron, then to Gaza and so on.. For two weeks Hebron was closed totally by military checkpoints,, 2500 soldiers according to Israeli Authority were came to the District..
The people from the district was prevented to travel out side.. We couldn’t go to the hospitals in others places for treatment.. The farmers couldn’t reach their fields, so they have lost a lot. Workers couldn’t reach their work places.. Curfew was imposed on many towns and villages.. More than 150 were arrested. from the district . Students couldn’t reach their Universities in Palestine and out side..
I don’t know if you know that all Palestinians in West Bank prevented to use Ben Gorion airport since 2000. So, if we want to travel, we should cross to Jordan to use Amman Airport.. In this situation, from Hebron, all people who are under 50 years old are prevented to leave.. Imagine dozens of students who are studying in other countries and they came to spent summer holiday with families and now they couldn’t leave so they will loose semester ..
When Israel started the war before 12 days ago.. the situation became more dark and hard.. In Gaza , wich is very small area of just 360 km2, around 1500 air force attacks happened, 237 were killed, 1770 were injured.. dozens of building and houses were damaged totally. 48% died and injured are children under 18 years old. All of them were killed or injured when the air force shot missiles on them.
Just one day ago, they just killed 5 children on Gaza beach,. Now it is a big case in the world media.. The children were attacked and killed while they are enjoying near the sea, with no military events in the area, at time of the attack.. it is so clear that they are children but they were attacked. Why??? More 85% of the people who were killed or injured are civilians, mostly children and women..
From my work as Journalist and researcher in the Joint Organization Alternative Information Center, our project is to follow the situation in Palestine and circulating the information through many means. One of them is the the website of the Center. I wrote many articles, reports and many interviews with people in Gaza, so most of the Gaza Strip is without electricity because of the attacks and the the shortage of the fuel.
Basic suplies should come through passages between Gaza and Israel But those passages were closed .. the electricity works some times just 8 hours daily.. This shoratage created problems for the Hospitals in the Gaza Strip.. There is shortaage of in thej food too.. The farmers in Gaza couldn’t go to the fields for the harvesting of the production, to bring it to the markets og the cities there. The time of the closure of all the passages, is cause of real shortage of food..
Residential units (800 apartments) have been completely destroyed, and 16,000 partially. There is clarify that the attacks is not against military targets but against the area of civilians.. and mainly the crowded area.. we know that Gaza is the most crowded area in the world, with 1,5 millions living inside a small space of 360 km2. Some families have lost most of its’ members because the attacks against civilians area and houses like the family of Kaware, that has seven members killed, Just during the writing this paper, news reported that the Israeli Air Forces bombed the house of Shabeer family in Sabra side, where 4 from the family were killed.
Beacuse shortage of gas, the people are using alternatives to cook, like wood…..
Here and everywhere in Palestine , views that we see on TVs of the massacres and how people are living in Gaza under such war effecting negatively on the children .. a lot were choked that people following the situation in Gaza moment by moment..
In spite of all difficulties , when you meet anyone or walk in the streets, people are very proud of the resistance and how bravely the people in Gaza is facing the Israeli attacks..it is a real war and it is an important time when Palestinians resistance is facing the Israeli Army strongly .. All the Palestinians are in good unity these days against the occupation, In West Bank ,East Jerusalem and Palestinians in 48 area are daily organizing demonstrations, marches and events as protesting against the war and loudly expressing their solidarity with Gaza and with ttheir resistence.
Palestinians believe that this war is against all Palestinians and against our freedom and hope to live without occupation.. It is not true that the war is against only this party or that.. on the social media we can see Palestinians expressing this reality. And it is no only against Gaza but against all of us.
Social media is being using in a good way to circulate the information and organizing events through local media. Facebook and so on….Many journalists were targeted by the Army in Gaza and other cities in West Bank.. at least five were injured, a lot arrested..
Public solidarity with my people is the most important we need at this moment. It is important too for real justice and real future in the Middle East, mainly in Palestine.. life here is not acceptable at all.. My life is 50 years old.. I didn’t see the sadness and the hard time like what I saw this time .. it is a real massacre happening in Gaza .. real massacre, real massacre.
warm Greetings
Ahmad