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No Eid
with the siege
Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip,
Live from Palestine, 29 September 2008
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Palestinians wait at a
checkpoint before they attend Friday prayers
at the Ibrahimi mosque in the West Bank city
of Hebron, 26 September 2008. (Mamoun
Wazwaz/MaanImages)
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Ramadan al-Hour's four children have not seen their
father for the past year. Ranging in age from five years
to four months old, Amal, Aya, Sulaf and Walid live with
their mother in the town of Kufr Qassem inside Israel.
Israeli authorities have prevented al-Hour's wife and
children from entering Gaza. Ramadan, 35 years old, is
from the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip
and used to work in Israel. A year ago he was arrested
by Israeli security forces from his home in Kufr Qassem.
Since then, he has been prevented access into Israel.
"What I can say, I am increasingly feeling depressed
because I am unable to see them, to embrace my children
or to pamper my four-month-old baby. My life has become
miserable under this siege," al-Hour said.
"Every time I speak to my daughter Amal over phone, she
asks me the same questions: when does your work finish,
dad? We want to see you badly. The work never finishes,
she wonders every time. For how long I can lie to them
that I am busy working?"
Al-Hour was married a few years ago, before the Israeli
authorities banned family reunification of spouses from
the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.
However, Ramadan could not obtain Israeli residency
despite several application attempts.
"For the past two months, my wife has formally applied
for entry into Gaza at the Erez checkpoint [in the
northern Gaza Strip], yet she received no response from
the concerned Israeli authorities," he said.
"In spite of the fact that this procedure is totally
consistent with Israeli law, every time my wife phones
the authorities, she hears an answering machine saying
'do not leave a message,'" al-Hour explained. He added,
"Is that humane that we still can not see each other for
more than a year? Is that humane that even in such an
occasion of the Eid al-Fitr, we can not embrace each
other? It's really ruthless, so ruthless."
Essam Hamdan, 40 years old, from the Khan Younis refugee
camp in the southern Gaza Strip tells a similar story.
He has lived alone for the past two months after his
wife, who is originally from the West Bank city of
Tulkarm, was forced by the Israeli authorities at the
Erez checkpoint to sign a written pledge that she would
not return to Gaza.
Hamadan's wife was pregnant when she arrived at the
checkpoint and needed urgent medical treatment in the
West Bank. In spite of her condition and the fact that
she had an Israeli permit to live in Gaza for one year,
the Israeli authorities required her to sign the pledge
or she would not be allowed to leave Gaza and she
complied. Because of the severity of her condition, she
was transferred to an Israeli hospital in Ashkelon,
where she delivered four babies. Upon recovery, she and
the children were transferred to the West Bank.
"Can you imagine, for 10 years I couldn't have children,
yet the moment God has met my wish, I can never see my
dearest children," Hamdan explained. "What a shortfall
Israeli humanity is this, I really don't know what to
say. Shall I thank them for the treatment they provided
to my wife or should I curse this occupation?"
Hamdan's attempts to obtain a permit to visit his wife
and children have been denied because he was previously
arrested for working in Israel without a work permit. "I
have already spent four months in prison, and now I am
staying idle in Gaza for the past three years. I can
hardly live because I haven't worked," he said.
Hamdan added that he would like to ask the Israelis "how
can I pose a security threat to them while my life is
now lost with no work and no job. All I want is to see
my beloved children and enjoy some time with them. I
have been looking forward to having children for ten
years, since I divorced my first wife."
Al-Hour and Hamdan are just a small sample of hundreds
of similar cases in the Gaza Strip of Palestinians who
are victims of Israel's "security considerations." As a
result, these families will be unable to spend the Eid
al-Fitr holiday, which begins at the end of the holy
month of Ramadan, together.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9859.shtml
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