Sous les paves, la plage!’.
‘Beneath the paving stones-the beach’ May 68 Slogan
This slogan from the students in Paris during the May 68 revolution meant that underneath the constrictive weight of industrialisation, wage slavery, law and order lay the freedom of the beach.
For the people of Gaza, the beach has been a place where swimming in the ocean was made difficult because of sewage pollution and the lack of swim gear being provided by Israel, as well as an added danger from the boats. Still the beach was enjoyed by many Gazans who enjoyed a sense of freedom and a rare sense of peace.
The beach is the one place they can see a horizon not blocked by an illegal border wall. Where they can look outwards from an open air prison and be connected to the rest of the world by water. Where they can see the Israeli offshore platforms extracting the billions of dollars of their natural gas from the ocean floor.
Underneath the beach, the tunnels
For the people of Gaza, the Palestinian people, freedom lay under the beach, in the form of tunnels. These tunnels were created to smuggle in food and other supplies that were denied by Israel, holding Gaza under a total siege by land, sea and air since 2006, and supplying only enough food to keep the people in Gaza in a state of constant malnourishment.
The tunnels also became a difficult obstacle for the Israeli army. The tunnels were deep enough to be undetectable by radar, and often had no entry or exit points, Hamas using explosives to create temporary doorways that they then later covered up.
In- spite of all the advanced military technology and the billions of dollars spent on weaponry, in spite of pounds of bombs being dropped on Gaza, the tunnels were never discovered, and the tunnels remain intact.
Even though nothing else does, including churches, mosques, schools, universities, hospitals, water treatment plants, cultural centres, any kind of building that maintained life in Gaza has been destroyed.
As I am writing, Israeli hostages are still being kept in the tunnels by Hamas waiting for release in a hostage exchange. There is a ceasefire. People wait upon the rubble of where there houses once stood, hoping for a tent. Hoping to find the remains of their beloved ones, underneath.
It’s been 15 months since the international press has been allowed into Gaza to report on the genocide. This made the job of the journalists in Gaza more important as for the first time in history, a Genocide was live streamed daily onto our social media and Instagram, along with news services like Al Jazeera, who were banned from reporting from Israel and later the West Bank, and who were targeted by Israeli soldiers along with their families.
196 Journalists were killed by Israel in Gaza. After 15 months of reporting from Gaza, the reporters that survived finally took of their press jackets, jackets that offered little protection as the journalists and their families were deliberately targeted by Israel.
They kissed the ground.
They took off their blue press jackets and their blue helmets.
They kissed the ground again and hugged each other.
‘We lost some of our colleagues and I cannot be amongst them’. States ex Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, discussing the mix of emotions he feels after the announcement of the ceasefire. How painful it was to be separated after experiencing the same death, destruction and hunger that all the Palestinians in Gaza faced.
Alongside Journalists, Israel deliberately targeted doctors and medical staff. They targeted teachers and professionals. They targeted children. They targeted tens of thousands of Gazans using an AI targeting system, creating the worlds first techno genocide. These targets were always killed at home, along with their family. This operation was named ‘Where’s Daddy.’ Two AI systems called Lavender, which had a kill list of people and The Gospel system, which marked the buildings that the army claims militants operate from.
It is painful for me, and after everything I cannot dare to have a look at the cemetery where I have buried my wife, my son, my daughter, my nephew, my grandchildren, then Hanza my son. (Hamza al-Dahdouh, Wael’s son was a journalist who was later killed in an air strike whilst reporting in Khan Younis. Two of his nephews were killed in an air strike the next day). ‘I don’t know if parts of their bodies are still there in the cemetery, or they have been bulldozed by the Israeli bulldozers. I can’t know anything about those beloved ones are they in the cemetery or they have been taken away’
Wael Dahdouh isn’t alone in his pain of not knowing where his beloved’s remains lie, as many Gazans have returned to the sites where there houses once stood to search for their remains. In many cases this will be hard without the use of heavy machinery to lift the rubble. There are 50 million tonnes of rubble which could take 21 years to clear. A lot of the debris is contaminated with Asbestos. At least 2,840 bodies were melted and there are no traces of them according to the Palestinian Civil Emergency Services. An estimated 10,000 bodies are under the rubble. Aljazeera reports that 97 bodies have been recovered in Rafah since the ceasefire.
After 15 months of death destruction fear horror and loses now we are facing no buzzing drones in the skies, no artillery, no drones, state Wael Dahdouh. Wael continued to report on the Genocide in Gaza after his family were killed in an air strike. He was lifted from Gaza in mid-December after he and his camera man Abu Daqqa. were caught in a strike while filming at a school. His camera man bled to death after Israel blocked the ambulances from coming for 6 hours.
As 90 Palestinians were freed from the Prison, 68 women and 23 children, 60 people were taken hostage from the west Bank. There are currently 11,000 Palestinians being held hostage by Israeli in Israeli prisons, hundreds of them children. News reports of terrible conditions in these prisons, including overcrowding, poor diet, torture and sexual assaults.
After the ceasefire takes effect, a little boy is shot dead by Israeli snipers in Rafah, who continue to fire at people trying to get to his body.
Underneath the tunnels, the sea
Underneath the Sea, billions of dollars’ worth of oil and gas reserves. Reserves that have conveniently been kept from the Palestinians due to the military siege on Gaza. Whilst Gaza has suffered regular blackouts since 2006, Israel has been extracting gas from the Sea. There is enough gas to make Gaza economically independent and provide sovereignty to the Palestinian people.
Freedom is relative. Right now, it feels there is no sense of celebration, particularly not in the western media, at the relative freedom that the people of Gaza have, the freedom to survive and the freedom to sleep without the sounds of bombing and drones and the freedom from the fear of not waking up in the morning. It’s a freedom most of us hear in Australia and the rest of the world take for granted. One day the Palestinians will too.
Next is the freedom of being able to bury their beloved.
The freedom from starvation.
Next is the freedom of housing, sanitation, electricity.
But for now, they have the freedom to be able to walk amongst the pavers and walk on the beach. And to wake up the next morning, alive.
Kimbo / Secretworld322
