by Nathan Stuckey
21 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.
21 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Rachel Corrie was murdered nine years ago
by an Israeli bulldozer. Hana Shalabi has spent the last 34 days on
hunger strike an Israeli prison, yet she is accused of no crime. This
was not the first time Hana has been held in Israeli prisons while being
accused of no crime. She was only recently released as part of a
prisoner exchange after being held without charges for 25 months. Hana
has said that “freedom is more important than life,” and she knows of
what she speaks.
The protesters who turn out every week for the demonstration against the occupation and the no go zone agree.
An Israeli bulldozer did not stop the
message of Rachel, Israeli prisons have not silenced Hana, and Israeli
bullets will not stop our protests. Rachel Corrie was only 23 years old
when she was killed; Hana Shalabi is 29 years old. Our protest this
week was in honor of these women and all of the strong women of
Palestine.
At
a little after eleven in the morning we set off down the road north
from Beit Hanoun and towards the no go zone. There were about 25
activists from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International
Solidarity Movement, and other international activists.
As we walked music played over the
megaphone. Flowers were in bloom everywhere, it is springtime in Gaza.
I was so enthralled by the flowers that I didn’t even think to look up
and see if the giant balloon that always floats over Gaza observing our
move was there. We walked past blooming flowers, green fields of wheat,
a few olive trees that the Israeli’s haven’t managed to destroy yet
into the no go zone.
The change was dramatic. Gaza is one of
the most densely populated places on earth, it is also very poor, any
land that can be cultivated is cultivated. The no go zone is not
cultivated; it is overgrown with thistles and weeds. It used to be one
of Gaza’s most fertile areas, full of orchards and crops. Israel
destroyed all of this, the trees were cut down, any houses in the no go
zone were bulldozed, all wells were destroyed.
We
made our way up a small path that we have cut through the thistles on
previous demonstrations to the trench which Israel has cut across the no
go zone. The trench is lined with flags from one of our previous
demonstrations, Palestinian flags and flags from many of the factions in
Palestine. We were carrying pictures of Hana and Rachel, some of us
carried posters of Rachel decorated by the kids of the Rachel Corrie
Youth Center in Rafah for the anniversary of her murder.
Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local
Initiative spoke about the importance of continuing the popular
resistance and the inspiration that we all take from Hana and Rachel.
We left pictures of Hana and Rachel in the thistles as we left, perhaps
the Israeli soldiers can look out from their concrete towers on the
faces of their victims.
