[Posted Nov. 4]
The second link is to a WaPo article on a skateboarding park in Gaza built by an Italian NGO. The photos alone are worth it.
I think it’s important to remind ourselves that human beings live in the Gaza Strip. The coastal territory has been brutalized for decades, especially in the twenty-first century. I think the word “tortured” might be appropriate. Israel rained death and destruction on the territory in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. The people there spend much of their time in the dark due to rolling blackouts (Israel controls all utilities and the cell grid), clean drinking water is scarce, raw sewage can run through the streets, unemployment sits at around 50 percent, and fisherman are restricted as to how far they can go out and fish. All this takes place with US permission and authorization.
There is no place like Gaza in the world. Its 2 million people are punished daily. And yet their spirit cannot be destroyed. This should not provide inspiration; it should create humiliation and shame among Americans, that we allow our country to deliver this kind of cruelty to such a hospitable people (I speak from experience), to a courageous people, to an indomitable people.
Skate or die.
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| (Virginie Nguyen Hoang/ Collectif Huma) |
