US cuts funding for UNESCO after admitting Palestine as a full member

Palestine, UNESCO & USA

Gaza, October 31, The UN's cultural agency voted to admit Palestine as a full member on Monday.


UNESCO said 107 member states voted in favor, 14 states voted against, and there were 52 abstentions.

The resolution needed 81 votes to pass, the UNESCO representative said.

The United States, Canada and Germany voted against Palestinian membership. Brazil, Russia, China, India, South Africa and France voted in favor. Britain abstained.

The Obama administration has decided to cut off funding for UNESCO because it approved a Palestinian bid for full membership.


State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says Monday's vote triggers a long-standing congressional restriction on funding to UN bodies that recognize Palestine as a state before an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is reached.

Barack Obama speaking about the situation in Egypt at the White House, Feb. 1, 2011.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the UN cultural agency's decision was "regrettable" and "premature" and that it undermines the international community's shared goal to a "comprehensive, just and lasting peace" between Israel and the Palestinians.

Carney added that Monday's vote was a distraction from the goal of restarting direct negotiations between the two sides.

Delegates to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization approved Palestinian membership in a vote of 107-14 with 52 abstentions. U.S. lawmakers have threatened to halt $80 million in annual funding to UNESCO if Palestinian membership was approved.

Nuland went on to say the U.S. would refrain from making a $60 million payment it planned to make in November.

But she said the U.S. would maintain membership in the body.

"The UNESCO General Conference’s action does not diminish our determination to work with UNESCO to advance U.S. national interests. Therefore, we will maintain our membership in UNESCO and our commitment to UNESCO," the State Department said.

The Palestinians want full membership in the UN, but Israel opposes the bid. The U.S. ¬says it would veto a vote in the Security Council.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called UNESCO's acceptance of a Palestinian state "anti-Israel and anti-peace."

"This is only the beginning", said Ros-Lehtinen. "The Palestinians will now seek full membership at other UN bodies."

J Street urged the U.S. not to cut funding, saying disengagement from UNESCO would weaken the country's international standing. "In addition to undermining our own national interests, it would also deprive Israel of its most vocal and powerful advocate in a key UN organ," said Dylan Williams, J Street’s Director of Government Affairs.

The U.S. Congress is also currently considering new legislation that would impose additional restrictions on American funding of the United Nations, threaten cutting aid to the Palestinian Authority, and slashing military assistance to key foreign countries in retaliation to their support for the Palestinian bid for full UN membership.

Germany also said Monday that the UNESCO vote on Palestinian membership was likely to make it more difficult to achieve peace in the Middle East.

A Foreign Ministry statement from Germany said that the country opposed the vote.

"There is a danger that the UNESCO application will further harm the already difficult indirect talks recently begun under the aegis of the Middle East Quartet," the statement said.

The Palestinians are seeking full membership in the United Nations, an effort the U.S. has threatened to veto in the Security Council. Given that, the Palestinians separately sought membership at Paris-based UNESCO and other UN bodies.

Sources: Maan News, Reuters, Haaretz






Behind Bars, Palestinians Find Love, Marriage

Behind Bars, Palestinians Find Love, Marriage

I know it took me time to add a new blog post, for me writing is all about inspiration. I have been working on this feature for the past week and now I bring you a story that inspired me, enjoy.

He is Fatah, she is Hamas; they were both freed in last week’s prisoner swap

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – He was from Fatah and she was from Hamas, the two rival Palestinian movements. They were both serving multiple life sentences. They had participated in killings – she for her role in a Jerusalem restaurant bombing, he in connection with the killing of an Israeli.

As lovers go they could not have been more star crossed, yet Nezar and Ahlam Al Tammimi met, fell in love, got engaged and finally married while they were sitting in Israeli jails. Both were among some 450 Palestinian prisoners swapped for Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit last week.

“Nobody believes me when I say that I never ever lost hope. I always saw the light at the end of the tunnel and now I am free,” Ahlam, 31, declares.

Married behind bars, the two now plan a big wedding – as soon as they can finally see each other. They don’t know when that will happen: Under the conditions of their release, Nezar was returned to his home the West Bank while Ahlam was flown to her family in Jordan.

Ahlam was born in 1980 to a Palestinian family that moved from Palestine to Jordan in 1967. Ahlam has two brothers and four sisters. Recalling Ahlam’s childhood, her brother Fakhr Al Tammimi said: “Ahlam was a rebellious child with a strong personality. She never took the easy way and always thought out of the box. My sister had Palestine in her heart and always wanted to go back there.”

In 1998, Ahlam began studying media and journalism at Birzeit University in Ramallah. In September 2000, as the Second intifada erupted, Ahlam felt like she had to do something. During her university years, Ahlam was working for Al-Milad magazine and Al-Istiqlal television station, both local media outlets, because she believed in working and studying at the same time.

“I met a fellow Palestinian in the university who inspired me, it turned out he was a member of Hamas. I expressed my desire to join them. He told me he has to ask his superior because Ezzeldin Al-Qassam brigades have no female members. After a few days, he came with an approval, which made me the first female Ezzeldin Al-Qassam brigade member,” Ahlam explains.

Ahlam helped Ezz Al Din Al Massri, 20, to blow himself up in Sabarro restaurant in Jerusalem in August 2001, which killed 16 Israelis and injured 150. Her role had been to choose the location and secure transportation to reach that location. Not long after, she was arrested.

Israeli security forces stormed Ahlam’s house at 3:00 a.m. They handcuffed her, blindfolded her and dragged her into interrogation. She was sentenced to do 16 life sentences for her deed.

“Israeli police used both mental and physical torture on me to admit my role in the operation but it wasn’t important because my fellow members had already confessed about my role,” Ahlam shared. During that time, Ahlam and her family were mourning the loss of their mother. “Aside from the mental and physical torture, I was also going tough times because of my mother’s death. Things were harder and darker.”

“I was placed in solitary confinement many times, sometimes for a reason and sometimes for no reason. The cell is so small and dark with dark walls and built underground. It’s just like being jailed in a tomb. If I hadn’t of turned to God, praying and Qura’an, I would have lost my mind.” Ahlam recalls.

“Let me share with you a funny story, I was sentenced with an extra year to my 16 lifetimes because I had a fight with an Israeli female prison guard. This incident kept me laughing for days, as if I would care less about an extra year added to my jail time of 1,548 years.” Ahlam says laughing.

Ahlam wasn’t veiled before jail, but she began to wear the hijab in jail and also got her first Palestinian identification card while in Jail.

Ahlam heard about Nezar Al Tammimi, her relative, 38, who was jailed in 1993 during his university years. He was also studying in Birzeit back then. He was sentenced to life in prison for belonging to a Fatah cell responsible of kidnapping and killing an Israeli in the Jewish community of Beit El near Ramallah. Ahlam admired him. Ahlam actually visited Nezar in jail before she was jailed herself. The spark of mutual admiration that they felt back then developed over time into love.

Ahlam and Nezar started exchanging letters while in jail. “Each letter would take a month to reach Nezar and another month to get his response back. I would place the letter in the mail and send it to my family. My family would send it to Nezar’s family. Nezar’s family would send it to him.”

“Nezar would go through the same process to send me a letter. Our letters were so precious, they took so much time and they were our only means of communication. We would share experiences, express our love and share our virtual dreams of being and living together after our marriage,” Ahlam says with a broad smile and a sparkle in her eyes.

The two were not only separated by bars but by membership in rival movements. After briefly sharing control of the Palestinian Authority, Fatah and Hamas fought each other for control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and have failed to patch up their differences despite a declaration of national unity last spring.

On an August day in 2005, Nezar’s fellow inmates threw him a party to celebrate his engagement to Ahlam. Simultaneously, Ahlam celebrated a party in parallel with her inmates. After that, their one and only meeting came in March 2010, when they were both summoned by the Israeli intelligence to be questioned about the relationship between them and their future plans.

“After exchanging letters and falling in love we both decided to get engaged even if we were both jailed for life,” she recounts.

Their fathers arranged the documents and sent them copies of the marriage contract in jail. Nezar sent his wife wedding rings but the Israeli prison administration confiscated them all, she says.

“Initially, it was purely a familial attachment ungoverned by factional politics even though our link is a practical demonstration of the factions' call for Palestinian unity,” Ahlam told Uruknet.info, a Middle East website. “As Nezar and I have been united by this engagement we hope to be a beautiful demonstration to the factions of the unity that is possible, God willing, through comprehensive reconciliation.”

With the release of the Palestinian prisoners October 18, Nezar was sent to Nabi Saleh, his hometown in the West Bank where he was welcomed as both a hero and bridegroom.

But Ahlam, denied entry to the West Bank as a condition for her release, says she was obligated to fly to Jordan to join her family. The couple met briefly at Cairo Airport's Sheraton Hotel on their way to their final destinations.

Arriving in Jordan, Ahlam says she was overwhelmed when large numbers of family, friends and fans came to Amman’s Queen Alya airport to welcome her. “I only met my family twice during my 10 years of jail time, which made me drown in despair sometimes. I missed them so much.

Meeting my father and the rest of the family means the world to me,” Ahlam says in tears.

Ahlam says she already feels rejuvenated by being reunited with her family. “There is a whole new generation in my family that I missed out on. Photographs and names have turned into people that I am eager to know,” Ahlam adds happily.

Ahlam’s dream now is to settle down after a huge wedding that reunites her with her husband Nezar. “All I dream about now is to live with Nezar, settling down and raising our future children.”

According to Ahlam, Plan A is Nezar’s trip to Jordan so they can hold a real wedding there and live together. If Nezar is denied access to Jordan, then Plan B is for both Ahlam and Nezar to request permission to visit Gaza and settle there with the support of the Palestinian Authority and Gaza’s Hamas government.

Ahlam is trying her best to acquaint herself with all the new technology that has become available during the years she was imprisoned, including means to communicate with Nezar till they reunite. “I was told that we can cam-chat with each other using motion picture and voice both at the same time, whatever that means,” Ahlam adds with a laugh, “It certainly sounds like a cooler way to communicate than the mobile telephone.”

I originally wrote it for the media line: http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=33569

UN Palestinian statehood bid: Gaza has no saying

Whether you are with or against UN statehood bid, if you live in Gaza you are asked to shut up

Gaza, September 21, So, what do you think about the awaited UN Palestinian statehood bid? OH SHUT UP. I don’t care what you really think. How would you feel if someone did this to you? Well, let me tell you it truly sucks. I have been doing my homework for days reading the opposing and supporting opinion of the UN statehood bid. I read every point: 194, right of return, Palestinian lands, borders, Palestinian prisoners, war crimes and so much more. I read so many opinions and so many debates whether with or against this UN statehood bid. Just when I was getting ready to write a new blog post discussing those issues and these points, Hamas issued a statement declaring their prevention to any events or rallies relating to UN statehood bid whether supporting or opposing.


So, all my hard work goes in vain. Apparently, Gaza’s opinion isn’t important. So we should remain silent, stay at home, watch the news on TV and just feel nothing???? How can I remain silent? How can I stop myself from rallying or hitting the streets? And why should Gaza be always oppressed?

Why do Gazan youth have to always turn to social network and blogging instead of hitting the streets freely and express their opinions and voice?

I saw the West Bank on the news today. Huge numbers of Palestinians rallying in the streets defying the Israeli occupation forces to express their opinions freely. They weren’t asked to shut and feel nothing like us in Gaza. How cant I be jealous? How cant I feel less Palestinian when I watch my fellow Palestinians challenging the Israeli forces in the West Bank to have their voice heard?

I felt ashamed. I felt less Palestinian. I felt frustrated and outraged. I felt numb. Israeli siege makes things hard enough and now its harder because I felt like I am separated from the West Bank even more. I felt like Gaza isn’t a part of Palestine.

I can hide inside my house and record a video saying my opinion, or maybe turn to social media and blogging, or call a friend and discuss this with him\her but nothing feels like being free enough to hit the street and SHOUT your opinion and rant out loud with no fear or Oppression.

How will I stop feeling ashamed and coward and be able to hit the streets after this bid fails or succeeds? ONLY IF we were allowed to even do that. I failed myself and my country today and I don’t feel like I deserve to share my opinion or even track the bid’s coverage or participate in it.

I am sorry Palestine. I am sorry I was asked to shut up and remain silent. I am sorry I have to stand still and say nothing while you go through a historical momentum. I am sorry I cant hit the streets and shout your name out loud. I am sorry that Gaza doesn’t seem like a part of you. I am sorry Fatah and Hamas havent reconciled yet. I am sorry we aren’t one. I am sorry we aren’t all of us in this together. I am sorry that it doesn’t matter whether I am with or against this bid. I am truly sorry Palestine.

So I am doing what I was told to do. I am shutting up and remaining silent. Don’t ask me if I am with or against because it doesn’t matter what I think or want. I will do my best to feel numb. I will do my best to forgive myself for not being able to be a part of this historical momentum that will make a difference for my country and my people whether it succeeds or fails.

I always felt proud that I live in Gaza, always felt Palestinian more than any other Palestinian. Today, I feel different. I am ashamed. I wish I was living in the West Bank or any other country. I would have been able to speak out loud of what I think.

I love you Palestine. I hope you forgive me one day and I hope I can forgive myself also.


Follow my silence on twitter: @Omar_Gaza



Israel renews attacks on Gaza, 4 injured

Round 2 of the Israeli attacks on Gaza

Gaza, August 5, Israel decided to renew its attacks on Gaza again using air raids and again timing them at dawn. People usually are awake by that time since its Ramadan. Israeli warplanes carried out several air raids on several targets in Gaza.

The first air raid targeted a poultry farm located to the east of Deir Al Balah, considered at the center of Gaza. The second and third air raids targeted a security HQ. located in Deir Al Balah too. The third air raid targeted Asda’ media city in khan younis which led to a huge fire that broke out into it. The fourth air raid targeted a free zone in Beit Lahya, Northern Gaza, which led to the injury of three people –as official medics said- from which two of these injuries were guys who lost their lower limbs and the third injury was a kid.

Earlier that night, a man was injured after heavy Israeli shelling on Jabaliya, northern Gaza. Witnesses also reported seeing Al Rayes Mountain being shelled, no reported injuries.

On the other hand, Israeli soldiers station in the control towers on the borders with Rafah, southern Gaza, opened sporadic fire towards the houses and farms of Gazan citizens nearby which led to the flee of Gazan farmers and some Gazan families to a safer places until the sporadic fire stops.

Its noteworthy that Gaza is under attack for the second day in a row now.

Israeli warplanes attack Gaza at night

Israeli warplanes attack Gaza at night

Gaza, August 4, A couple hours after midnight Gaza was shaken by a huge explosion, turns out that the Israeli F16s and other warplanes bombed “Badr” security HQ. that belongs to Hamas which is located in Al Naser neighborhood in Gaza city, its noteworthy that this time security HQ. was bombed countless times before.

A few minutes later a huge explosion rocked Northern Gaza, Israeli warplanes bombed a second security HQ. that belongs to Hamas there. Then they moved south and started bombing the tunnels area in Rafah city, Southern Gaza.

Medics reported that two children were injured due to those Israeli nightly attacks on Gaza.

The Palestinian resistance fired 2 grad rockets earlier from Gaza into Israel, caused no injuries, so Israel used this incident as a pretext for their attacks.

Israel never needed an excuse to bomb Gaza, they didn’t have or need one when they started the vicious assault on Gaza back in 2008-2009 that lasted for nearly one month and left thousands of martyrs, injured, demolished houses and destruction behind.

Gazan Defies Handicap to Live Life to Fullest

Abdul Qader Abu Lubda overcomes birth defect, poverty and social stigma


GAZA CITY, Gaza – Abdul Qader Abu Lubda is walking down the street in his n Gaza City neighborhood one afternoon this week. In one hand he has a sheaf of papers perched precariously between his palm and two short fingers. In the other, two stumpy fingers are holding a heavy bag. But Abu Lubda doesn’t look or act like he’s struggling..

Along the way he is smiling and greeting neighbors and acquaintances. When someone stops him with a question, he easily puts down his load and takes a pen and piece of paper from his shirt pocket, confidently jotting down words with the pen positioned between his two fingers. In a minute, he is back on his way.

Born with a rare condition that left him with two deformed and short hands, each with only two fingers, Abu Lubda doesn’t just handle the ordinary challenges of day-to-day life with ease and aplomb. In a steely defiance of his handicap he has mastered a host of hand-centric skills, mastering the game of ping pong, learning to paint and making handicrafts. And, in a society that looks down on the disabled, he has found a wife and is father to four children. Now, he is taking on a college degree.

“You were shocked when you saw me carrying heavy bags with two fingers,” he tells a visiting reporter. Heavy set, with dark hair and a trimmed beard, Abu Lubda fits easily into the Gaza street scene by his looks and dress. “You should have seen me carrying my children when they were toddlers. I even held two of them at a time in each hand.”

The ease with Abu Lubda, 34, copes with his disability belies the many years be spent struggling to overcome his physical limitations and more importantly the psychological blocks to accepting who he was and what he could or couldn’t do. In a part of the world where suffering and redemption are usually framed in political terms of the Palestinian struggle against Israel Abu Lubda is rare instance of a Gazan whose challenges were intimately personal and physical

“I went through a phase in my life when I lost touch with reality. I was doing everything a normal person can and was even doing much more sometimes. I didn’t feel disabled,” he recalls. “I was angry when someone would label me as disabled. But then I learned the lesson, if you want to overcome your disability you should accept it first and not deny it.”

Even today, it took convincing to get Abu Lubda to tell his story. “I’m not extraordinary, you know. I’m just like everybody else, I just worked extra hard on myself.”

Life in Gaza – a tiny enclave of 1.5 million people, impoverished and cut off from the wider world by Israel’s embargo – but Abu Lubda and others with physical handicaps must also contend with social stigma placed on them. While more and more services are available from organizations like the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), many grew up without the help of trained professionals and families with the knowledge and resources to help them. Abu Lubda serves as mentor for many of them.

Basel Muqdadi, 11 years Abu Lubda’s junior, was born with the same condition. The two were introduced two years ago and since then, he says, Abu Lubda he become his mentor and inspiration. “When I met Abdul Qader I was blown away and immediately saw him as my role model,” he told The Media Line.

“It’s hard to be young and disabled, especially in Gaza,” says Muqdadi,. “People either judge you or show you pity with little consideration to your feelings. No matter how amazing you are at the end of the day you are called ‘disabled’ by your friends and family and by your society.”

Abu Lubda was born in 1977 in Rafah city to a poor family that already had five children to raise. He was left largely on his own to figure out on his own how to cope with his disability. Slowly, he trained himself how to tackle actions as simple as holding a pen, over the years gradually emerging into an independent, self-sufficient teenager. If he was ever angry at himself for his fate, he never blamed his parents for not knowing how to raise him.

Left to his own devices, he says, he became driven to achieve a better life and overcoming his disability.

“Yes, you sometimes ask your parents and God why you? Why did you have to be disabled while others are normal?” he asks without any hint of self pity.

“I was frustrated at my early age, especially when I saw my parents feeling confused and frustrated because they didn’t know what to do with me. Gaza back in 1977, there were much fewer associations for the disabled and fewer awareness programs,. Families with disabled children were considered as jinxed or cursed, which doesn’t make you feel exactly happy when you are just a little kid who was born with a condition and didn’t actually do this to himself.”

He also took advantage of every opportunity that came his way from professionals, which led him to the PRCS when it embarked on a new program to teach the disabled sports and other activities. “I trained hard and grabbed every opportunity I could to become better, better trained and stronger,” he recalls.

When he was asked in which program he wanted to enroll, he answered: “Thank you, I’ll take them all.” He wasn’t joking, and a few years later he was competing in ping pong, was painting and engaged in handicrafts. “I thrived to absorb every bit I can from every program because I had bigger plans in mind,” Abu Lubda adds proudly..

He is a member of a slew of Arab and international clubs for the disabled athletes and, travelling to Lebanon, Jordan, Dubai, Syria and European countries on a special visa, he has won medals for ping pong in Arab and international competition.

He holds a paddle confidently between his two fingers as if he had no handicap at all. Perhaps why his four children – two boys and two girls have never asked him about his disability. They simply didn’t see it.

“I had to sit with them and explain the condition I was born with,” he says, adding with a laugh: “I don’t want them to think that I’m normal while all other people are disabled because they have five fingers and long hands

The toughest challenge for Abu Lubda is making a living. He gets about 1,000 Israeli shekels a month ($293) in the form of an allowance for the disabled. Sometimes it works out to less than that. “It brings me nothing these days aside from rent, water, electricity and life expenses,” he says, but expresses no bitterness.

“I’m luckier than others. I get paid sometimes for training others and participating in competitions or handicrafts exhibitions “Other disabled people don’t get any financial help at all and can’t find jobs because disabled people here are degraded. They’re considered to be less than normal people regardless of the fact that they can be even more.”

While the PRCS gave him a chance to acquire skills and confidence, he says not enough is done in Gaza to help the disabled. “Although you hear about many associations caring for the disabled people in Gaza, most of them are just a front for a bogus association that gives very little actual help to the disabled,” he says.

Abu Lubda isn’t resting on his laurels. He is now planning to apply to enter a business administration program at Al-Quds Open University because it offers a flexible program that doesn’t require students to always attend class. He sees himself working in an organization in an administrative post.

“I didn’t get the chance to go to college, I was busy learning everything else,” he explains. “But I guess now is the right time.”

An inspiring story that gave me pleasure while writing and sharing. It was published on:

http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=32873
 
and
 
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article482008.ece

The 3 Palestinian scams: Rafah border, Reconciliation & Electricity

Scams are no fun, specially local ones



Gaza, July 31, When you hear the word “scam” the first thing comes to your head is the hundreds of emails we get into our junk mail on daily basis either promoting money laundry or just selling bogus stuff. We all detest scams so much, but what if those scams were local and focal to the extent that they control your daily life? I bet you would detest them even more.

Our first and biggest most hilarious scam is\was the reconciliation, back in April Hamas and Fatah collided to come up with the most shameful scam in the Palestinian history: so-called reconciliation. The news of the reconciliation initial agreement broke suddenly and people around the world “including news agencies” were sharing whispers on how sudden and strange the news came. We heard nothing about preparations or initial meetings or nothing. We just heard “what we considered back then” the good news.

While Palestinians were busy celebrating, Hamas and Fatah were assigning dates and meetings to make this reconciliation final and start working on practical steps, but it never happened. They kept postponing the date for creating the transitional government saying they needed more time –more time maybe to benefit from this hoax- and people continued celebrating.

Apparently March15th movement and protests in Palestine were creating an international buzz which led Hamas and Fatah to come up with hoax to shut us up. They deceived us and few weeks ago both conflicted and STILL CONFLICTED parties Hamas and Fatah announced that the reconciliation reached a dead end after Hamas’s refusal of Salam Fayad and Fatah’s persistence on assigning Salam Fayad to the new transitional government. I feel ashamed because I was one of those who believed this hoax and thought that it might actually work –how naïve- and actually fought those who said it’s a hoax and asked me and Palestinians to becareful and not to believe in this.

Second Scam: After Egypt’s unprecedented revolution and victory in toppling Mubarak and his old regime, media outlets rushed to quote Egyptian officials who vowed to help end the siege on Gaza by opening Rafah border with less restrictions and adopting a new approach towards Gazans.

Another hoax well planned and advertised by the “new” regime in Egypt which is proving day after day that its not really different than Mubarak, same regime but different names. Media outlets then started singing and chanting about Rafah border’s great opening and that Gazans can easily travel and started predicting the future by saying “Rafah border opened, it’s the first step towards breaking the siege”. What was really funny is that I woke up everyday reading those headlines and laughing my heart out. Nothing changed at Rafah border. The first few days of this alleged new system failed epically. Then Hamas and the new Egyptian regime sank in bickering and fights and at the end Gazans were left sieged and bound to Gaza with minimal hope of traveling.

*Drum rolls*

The third and final ridiculous scam: lessening the daily long power cuts in Gaza by operating the third generator –Yeah Right- this made headlines to all local news networks.


Gazan officials in the power and energy Authority in Gaza resorted to local agencies to allegedly let Gazans know some good news about easing the daily long power cuts. Many officials said that the third generator in Gaza’s only power plant will be operated which will lessen the daily power cuts. Many Gazan officials backed up each other and kept their stories straight. Then they came up with a new scenario, “Gaza’s power plant has only 3 generators, two of them work and the third was completely damaged and took a lifetime and so much money to fix, it will be operated during the summer and Ramadan only”. Everyone believed these allegations until they saw no change in the daily power cuts. If anything, the power cuts were expanding and this was driving Gazans mad. The weather is super hot here in Gaza during summer and tomorrow is Ramadan which will require us to fast till 7 pm Gaza local time, the sun goes down at 7:30 – 8 pm in Gaza which leaves us with many hours of heat each day.


Ramadan will definitely be a challenge but Gazans are very used to this and we have seen even worse. But what makes us mad are those continuous and shameless local Palestinian scams made by Palestinian leaders and officials. Its like your own people are degrading the level of your intelligence, wouldn’t you be pissed off?


I guess that leads us to one thing: Never believe a Palestinian leader until you see practical and real steps taken on ground, even then don’t believe him and wait till the steps are made on a continuous basis, even then don’t believe him and wait till he finishes all his steps, even then don’t believe him and wait till he turns to the media to say what you believed in was a complete lie. Oh well, in the end, just don’t believe any Palestinian leader when it comes to internal issues, believe your instincts and experiences.