Journey With Jonathan: Entry #9
Sharhabeel Al Zaeem
Today in Ramallah I met an old friend, attorney Sharhabeel al Zaeem from Gaza. Sharhabeel had managed to get one of the very rare permits to travel from Gaza to Ramallah. I had not seen Sharhabeel for years, having not been allowed into Gaza myself for almost 15 years. It was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with him and learn the latest about life in the open-air prison called Gaza.
The figures are well known, but Sharhabeel informed me that the most recent records show the population of Gaza to be 2,365,000, all living in that narrow strip of land 20 miles long and 5 to 8 miles wide. Almost a third of that area is a “free fire zone,” governed by automatic machine gun installations called Roay, Yoray ("to see, to shoot") that surround the borders of Gaza. Palestinian farmers can only enter this land under the risk of death. Sharhabeel is despairing of the fact that the entire world community seems to have forgotten Gaza altogether. He estimates that Hamas members consist of around 2% of the population and their supporters to be about 10-15%, yet the world is perfectly happy to allow Isarel to punish the entire Gaza strip and keep it under siege because of Hamas. While he is no friend of Hamas, he believes the world needs to engage with them if only to help the people of the Gaza strip, which they control. Palestinians in Gaza are an integral part of the Palestinian people who ache for democracy and freedom, but who are kept in this inhuman open prison with no access to clean water, energy, electricity, and even the most basic living conditions.
The amazing thing is that when I asked him what can be done, he, a Muslim, said, “You need to strengthen the Christian Palestinians in Gaza and their institutions. While their numbers there are miniscule, their impact is great and needs to be strengthened." Good to see you, my friend.