Putting Gaza into Words When There are None
There are enough opinions on the internet regarding Gaza, her martyrs, her suffering, and her destruction. Still, very little is shared and heard from Gazans themselves who are writing about their fears and horrific experiences of genocide. Particularly as the Internet has been turned on and off time and time again by the occupying administration of Israel, I would like to imprint some of their words here. I want them to be shared, somewhere, anywhere… I want everyone to remember what Gaza was trying to tell us before we witnessed what we have witnessed and what we are yet to witness.
I have tagged everyone so please go ahead and follow them, subscribe to them, etc. Hear from them directly. I would like to keep sharing their words as part of a series. These are extracted from X (formerly Twitter), I will share from other mediums soon.
On Fear -
Translation:
‘’You close your eyes for some minutes and you wake up to a sound stronger than the one before it, it feels like your turn has come. God have mercy on us.‘’
This was Reem’s last tweet, it is unclear if she has become a martyr.
Translation (chronological):
9th Oct: ‘’Where did the last bomb drop?’’
19th Oct: ‘’We are still alive, thank God’’
19th Oct: ‘’Forgive us (God) and pray for us’’
20th Oct: ‘’Every day we wake up to another one of our loved ones or one of our friends becoming a martyr. Mentally we are below zero and I can’t handle another loss. God, grant us your kindness.’’
On the Absence of Food and Water -
Translation:
‘’Today I saw mould on the bread with my own eyes. I wiped it and I ate, thank God.’’
‘’Do not think about the lack of money but this is what God has commanded. I am doing better than others. Thank God for every circumstance.’’
On the Pain of Observing the Media —
Translation:
‘’I wish the people outside of Gaza would stop giving us orders to ‘’be patient’’. What is there for us to do other than being patient anyway, even without your orders? You look silly when you tell someone who is dying to keep their spirits high while you’re sleeping on your bed, among your family members, you walk on the street normally, and you go to work and go back home to sleep in full safety.’’
‘’We are believers and we are patient but this does not mean we are ‘’super heroes’’. It’s normal, we are humans, we get tired, we get sad, we cry, we laugh, we feel, we hurt, we scream, we complain … The world gets used to images of us drowining in blood. But they get used to it, they forget that we, and even the martyrs who have already gone, had dreams and that, once upon a time, we wanted to live a normal and real life before we died.’’
