"Flowers Are Not Allowed"
By Dr. EYAD al-SERRAJ
(Dr. Eyad al-Serraj works with the Gaza Community Mental Health Project)
CounterPunch
"......How much painful it was to realize time and time again that I am not and we, people of Gaza, are not allowed to feel normal or think normal.
Our right to our land, to freedom and to justice were systematically raped. Now they are after our sanity. The aim is to destroy what has remained -- our identity. It is our identity that is so threatening: our humanity, our attachment to the family and the holy Jerusalem, to falafel and the music of Fairuz and women weaving traditional dresses.
I was three months waiting for a medical permit or a travel permit. All attempts failed until Uri Hadar intervened and won for me a one-day permit to see my doctor in Tel Aviv and travel immediately to Amman to join you and the Cyprus group.......
The first human I saw was a Rambo with dark glasses and a grin carrying a huge machine gun across his massive body. He must feel the power of his muscles and his gun and the weakness of me with my frail body and obedience to his orders. But I could not escape the question, " Who is frightened?" because I was not. I was angry but not afraid.
When I crossed to the Israeli side of the border, I saw the BBC correspondents and few journalists waiting to cross into Gaza. They were not allowed for the eighth day running. On the same day twenty European diplomats were barred from coming into Gaza. On the same day Israel decided to cut the fuel supply to Gaza’s sole generator and to close the borders to UN food. On the same day the Israeli army kills four Palestinians in Gaza, while stressing their adherence to the truce......"
P.S.
Dr. Eyad Serraj was one of my classmates and neighbors in Gaza, back in the fifties!
By Dr. EYAD al-SERRAJ
(Dr. Eyad al-Serraj works with the Gaza Community Mental Health Project)
CounterPunch
"......How much painful it was to realize time and time again that I am not and we, people of Gaza, are not allowed to feel normal or think normal.
Our right to our land, to freedom and to justice were systematically raped. Now they are after our sanity. The aim is to destroy what has remained -- our identity. It is our identity that is so threatening: our humanity, our attachment to the family and the holy Jerusalem, to falafel and the music of Fairuz and women weaving traditional dresses.
I was three months waiting for a medical permit or a travel permit. All attempts failed until Uri Hadar intervened and won for me a one-day permit to see my doctor in Tel Aviv and travel immediately to Amman to join you and the Cyprus group.......
The first human I saw was a Rambo with dark glasses and a grin carrying a huge machine gun across his massive body. He must feel the power of his muscles and his gun and the weakness of me with my frail body and obedience to his orders. But I could not escape the question, " Who is frightened?" because I was not. I was angry but not afraid.
When I crossed to the Israeli side of the border, I saw the BBC correspondents and few journalists waiting to cross into Gaza. They were not allowed for the eighth day running. On the same day twenty European diplomats were barred from coming into Gaza. On the same day Israel decided to cut the fuel supply to Gaza’s sole generator and to close the borders to UN food. On the same day the Israeli army kills four Palestinians in Gaza, while stressing their adherence to the truce......"
P.S.
Dr. Eyad Serraj was one of my classmates and neighbors in Gaza, back in the fifties!
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