Talestotell is getting published in Jan 2010!

From the book’s back cover:

‘An honest, forthright account full of compassion and insight. It plunges the reader into Gaza.’
JEREMY HARDY

‘Moving and understated. … By sharing in the vulnerability of the 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in the crowded killing fields of the Gaza Strip, Sharyn Lock manages to humanise the inhuman. … Unforgettable.’
RICHARD FALK, from the Afterword

The Israeli offensive in Gaza was described by Amnesty international as ‘22 days of death and destruction’. Defying an international press ban, Sharyn Lock’s eye witness blogs became crucial reading for anyone following the conflict. Gathered here, they are a unique account of the reality of life in Gaza beneath the bombs. Sharyn Lock arrived in Gaza with the Free Gaza Movement, making it past the Israeli sea blockade in a fishing boat. Soon afterwards, Israel attacked Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants by land, air and sea. With others from the International Solidarity Movement, Sharyn volunteered with Palestinian ambulances, assisting them as they faced overwhelming civilian casualties.

Sharyn’s candid and dramatic accounts provide an important glimpse behind the media black-out of a people who face their oppression with courage and humour.

Sharyn Lock has been volunteering in Palestine since 2002. She writes for New Internationalist, Red Pepper and the Big Issue North. Sarah Irving is a freelance writer whose work appears in New Internationalist, Big Issue North and Electronic Intifada. She has been reviews editor at Red Pepper and Peace News, and features editor at Ethical Consumer. She has been an active campaigner on Palestinian issues since 2001.

All the stories you have read here are going out into the world, when Gaza: Beneath the Bombs is published in January by Pluto Press. Please post a message here if you’d like to order a copy or two. In fact… I’ll make you a gift voucher if you would like to give the “promise” of a copy to someone for Christmas. Let me take the chance to say thank you, from me and Gaza, to all those of you who read this blog. Pluto took into account the large scale of readership when they decided to publish – so you helped make it happen – and as a thank you I’d like to make copies available to you for £10 instead of the £12.99 it will be in the shops. Any money raised will go on further Gaza projects, maybe involving me or maybe not!

Info about book events is available here and will be updated as more comes in…

Defend the Rescuers

Some of us are currently working on setting up a blog called Defend the Rescuers, as part of  a new International Campaign of Solidarity with Palestinian Emergency Workers. It’s a work-in-progress but I wanted to tell you about it. You can see what emergency workers face in Gaza in the following short film, “One of…” made by Emad Badwan, which won the World Health Day Short Film Competition. It features footage taken by my colleague Alberto of the shooting of medic Hassan, with a voice over by my colleague Eva.

Emad asks us the question – What if it was “one of” your family that needed emergency help, or whose work it was to try to deliver this help? This is 22 days telescoped into a few minutes. This is what we witnessed.

May 25: Back home in England

Mona Samouni - both parents lost, but still someone to love

I’m back in the UK. It is nearly a year since I left here to be part of making the FreeGaza project happen, pretty much expecting to end up in Israeli prison – the one thing that didn’t happen! Instead, we reached Gaza and it became inextricably part of my life. I don’t really have the words to thank you all, old friends and new both, for the emotional, financial and political support you have given both me and my Gaza friends over this year.

April 16: Visiting Al Assria Cultural Centre

Right to Return mural in Al Assria Centre, Jabalia camp

In one of my last Gaza days I went to visit the Union of Health Work Committee’s Al Assria Cultural Centre . I’d meant to get there ages ago, on request of Sheffield Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, who have been supporting various projects Al Assria have run for years now, but the Israeli attacks had gotten in the way.

April 20: Kafka’s Border

Rafah Border: the wrong side of the fence

This is an excerpt from a post I wrote in September 2008…

The outdoor restaurant overlooking the sea has been nicknamed “Casablanca without the alcohol” by Dr Bill. Here, we internationals and Palestinians alike sit, looking out over the moonlit water, sharing argeelah and rumours about the Rafah border. Will it open? If so, when? And for who? People tell each other about what documents they have obtained, what connections they have made, which consulate may be arranging a visa for them.They show pictures of the husbands, wives, children, lovers who are waiting in other lands.

April: Kids on wheels in Jabalia & other farewells

Here again are the children of our Jabalia friends, one of the many lovely families I spent last week saying goodbye to. The wheelchair belongs, not to any of the kids thank goodness, but to the father of the oldest boy, who lacks both legs, yet continues to tackle life with humour and enthusiasm. It made me smile to watch them use the chair for their games. But it reminded me of something I saw recently; two young friends, boys of about 12, going down the street side by side. One was on his bike, the other in his motorised wheelchair. This is Gaza.

April 20: a world without bullet holes

…after two days at the border, I managed to exit Gaza via Rafah into Egypt. I feel a bit stunned at the shinyness of this world outside. Give me a day or two to adjust, and I hope to share some final Gaza writing with you.

April 13: Living in the real world

EJ's medic notebook - I guess involving Posh Spy and Sporty Spy?

When we began our first level medic course here in Khan Younis Red Crescent after the Israeli attacks, we found a lot of black humour in the training slides, developed in America, which their authors were probably unaware of. The smiling medic pairs, wheeling Aryan children – sitting up and looking unaccountably cheerful – into shiny ambulances, seemed like some sort of sick joke.

April 11: Disarming by direct action

L with her broken foot from fleeing gunfire, & youngest child

Last night I was playing chess in the shisha cafe across from Al Quds Red Crescent, where I am sure to find a familiar face and where they seem to have got over me being a girl in amongst the shebab, when I got a text from the south. “Our friends J and L were trying to fix the asbestos sheeting on their farmhouse roof in Faraheen today…” it began.

April 9: Art in the ruins

by Shareef Sarhan

In my last post, I told you about the photo exhibition in the middle building (which I tend to call the Social Centre, possibly because someone told me it was called that) of the Al Quds Red Crescent hospital complex. And last week you heard about the concert held in the ruins of the third building (which for the sake of argument we will call the Cultural Centre) which held the theatre and a children’s space and is so badly damaged it must be demolished. Now, also as part of the World Health Day commemorations, three artists are displaying their work in this same theatre building, art that is a response to the Israeli attacks on hospitals and medical workers.