Both Sides Now

Letter from the front

Helen Green is chair of cbm New Zealand, an organisation that helps people with disabilities in the poorest countries in the world. She was invited to conduct strategy and planning sessions with its partner organisation in Gaza, the Atfaluna Project, and she spent a week in that difficult country, sharing her development and management expertise with staff and board members there.

Finally arrived in Gaza after a somewhat harrowing border crossing.Things were going well and I got through the one-way turnstiles but the next door was locked. No way in and no way out again. After a short time, another Gaza resident, returning home, joined me and we had to sit and wait until the Israelis opened the door so we could continue. I was quite alarmed but he seemed to think that this was what you had to expect. It was outside, hotter than Hades with no shade and seemed like hours, but was probably no more than 20 minutes or so. There was no threat to us, and no danger – but it was certainly intimidating!

After that, there were no further hiccups, the porters were there to take my bag, and Naim, the Atfaluna director was there to meet me on the other side.
It feels good to be here.

This afternoon, I sat with a number of the people from the cbm-funded Gaza project and listened to some of their stories, dating back to the 1948 declaration of Israel as a state. I know there are two sides to every story, but the ones I heard today are pretty tragic. Stories of people who had lived, worked and raised families here for over two centuries, suddenly confronted by Israeli soldiers who confiscated their homes, their land, shot family members and then herded them into refugee camps, where they have stayed ever since – for over 60 years. There is no way to close these camps because the land the refugees had lived on has gone to the Israeli people who commandeered it at the time Israel became a nation. There is no possibility of purchasing new land, because most of them do not have work, nor can they afford land on the small wages they make if they do have work. Then, the final indignity is to be locked here in Gaza with no way out across the border unless they are extremely lucky. Most of them are not that lucky. They hold no hopes for the peace talks and neither do they want to think about convoys bringing aid. It is as though there is no way out of where they are now – a truly lost people.



Saturday
Sitting out on the terrace of my hotel, having a meal, it could be any exotic place in the world. Lighting is very poor but just sitting in the warm evening drinking cool lemon juice with mint, and the smell of smoky fruity hubbly bubbly pipes all around feels very exotic!

My room is very nice. I can sit in bed and look out on the ocean – just high enough not to be able to see the barbed wire! The air con re-starts each time the power comes back on, so I had a good night’s sleep, as the power must have been on for more than it was off, and I kept cool.

Thank the Lord for a good night’s sleep as it was a fairly long, gruelling day at the office today. Lots of preparation to do and this strategic planning is all new to the staff here. We spent most of the day getting to the point where we can start with what I need to do this week. So, a long day, but a good one. I do like the staff and they are so grateful for me being here. The director told me he had tried four times to get a permit to travel out of Gaza to do a strategic planning course and has been turned down every time so he is most excited that this is a learning opportunity for him.

It was also interesting talking to staff today. Although things are still really bad in terms of relationships with Israel, there are some positive changes. More food stuffs come through from Egypt by road now rather than through the tunnels, and there is certainly more fruit and vegetables available, but everything else is still dependent on the tunnels for access, and I get the sense that life is a little more free now than a few months ago. Therefore, although they fear the convoys, the pressure against Israel after the killing of the people in the convoy has made a difference. The Palestinian view, however, is that without the killings there would have been no changes, and any more convoys will not bring change unless there is a large loss of life and worldwide outrage, and they don’t want that.

The work is going well, although it is difficult to talk about strategic planning and future goals in a place such as this where there is much uncertainty. It does make for very interesting discussions with staff and board though. It is at times like this that it is apparent that the people here are so isolated from what is happening around the globe.

Interesting stuff and quite challenging, but they really got into it all and we had a great morning. The board want us to get together tomorrow night to continue to work through these issues and talk about how they can govern better. Difficult, but encouraging.

Helen Green