Despite the Siege!!!

 High School Students in Gaza under siege, Determination and will despite the suffering and despair!!!

By: Eman Alajramy

Paul Gaston Aaron

Palestinian International Campaign to end the siege on Gaza

01-07-2008

But I, being poor, have only my dreams.
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler Yeats

Electricity for only a few hours a day, and doing homework by candle light is exhausting. No copying paper, and pencils, pens and books remain in short supply.  No fuel for transportation, forcing many students to walk miles back and forth to their high school.

The siege has brought normal life to a standstill. Every activity, every move, every day is a struggle to maintain a sense of order and purpose.

“In this chaos, there is so much on my mind, so much to distract me,” says Wafa'a  Nayef Ouda, an eighteen-year-old girl from Beit Lahia and in his last year at Shadya  Abu Ghazala high school. “But my belief in God and my own spirit to endure have kept me from giving up. During these hard times, I must stay true to my dreams. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been determined to be one of the ten best students in Gaza, enter engineering college, and eventually complete my Ph.D.  I want to prove to the whole world that no matter how much others are able to control the sky, the sea and the land, they cannot control our minds, our imaginations. I won’t surrender to despair. I’ll keep my pride and keep my dreams.”

Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes

Jaber Alajrami is eighteen-years-old from Jabalia Camp and in his last year at Abu Obaida Ibn Aljarrah high school. When his father died eight years ago, he moved into with his uncle’s family. He’s had to grow up quickly, learn to take care of himself, and fight hard to hold fast to his dreams..

He’s always wanted to be a chemist. The periodic table of elements symbolizes for him the order and symmetry of creation. But he’s switched to mathematics. He knows that the Israeli military regards chemistry as subversive and students who pursue it as security risks, preventing them of studying abroad.

Jaber has pegged his hopes on making excellent grades and qualifying for an international scholarship. The siege makes all that a long shot. Gaza remains locked down. No one can leave. Jaber feels trapped, the horizons of possibility becoming more and more distant. Why study when all around him he sees educated, ambitious people sitting at home with no jobs.

He remembers the Arab proverb: “Time is like a sword. If you do not cut it, it will cut you.” And in Gaza, he and his friends are being cut to ribbons.

The siege has devastated the economy, so his uncle can earn only $400 a month, hardly enough to put food on the table for his children, his wife, and his nephew. Power cuts have reduced electricity to a few hours a day. Jaber tries to study. His sister tells him not to abandon his ambitions, that things are bound to improve. But the current reality seems unending.

How can you concentrate on succeeding in school when the future seems so bleak? Why bother preparing for exams by candle light in the midst of a sweltering, crowded house? Better to join your friends in the street. Better to find an escape valve, to take your mind off of a situation beyond your control.

He tells himself and his sister that he won’t give up, that Palestinians must practice ‘samud’- perseverance, steadfastness. But the siege -as it was intended- has reduced his field of vision, and starved him of confidence in himself and in the prospects for a better world.

A whole generation of Gazans is at risk. If the balance between hope and despair reaches the tipping point, the catastrophic consequences will extend beyond the borders of this small enclave.

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Langston Hughes

Hanan Fayad is thirty-five-years old and lives in the Jabalia Camp in Gaza City with her two children, Sondus, aged 14, and Suliman, aged 16 years, her husband died in an Israeli air strike. Since then, Hanan has been the family’s sole supporter.

Hanan left school when she was eleven. Israeli occupation had made life so dangerous that her parents decided that it was too risky for their child to travel back and forth to classes. Ever since, Hanan has dreamed about completing her education.

Before the siege, she had taken the initial steps on this long journey, studying at home to complete basic courses that put her on track for her high school equivalency. Every day, she would get up, prepare breakfast for her children, get them ready for their own school, and then head off down Alsaftawi Street towards the adult education program where she worked to improve her skill levels.

The siege has put a halt to this journey.  In situations of crisis, mothers sacrifice themselves. With food prices increasing during the last year, it’s all she can to make ends meet, so feeding her children takes precedence over feeding her own mind.

Her children are excellent students and make their mother proud. They in turn honor their mother’s courage and perseverance, taking heart from her refusal to surrender to circumstance. The family’s shared dream is that one day, God willing, Hanan and her children will receive their high school diplomas together, and that drums will beat to celebrate the triumph of love and hope.

We wish all success, we wish when the results are ready, they all will celebrate their success and the siege end together.