"Everything You Can Imagine, We Do Not Have": A Q&A with Gaza-Based Journalist Sameh A. Habeeb
By Zahra Hankir, Indypendent. Posted January 8, 2009.
By Zahra Hankir, Indypendent. Posted January 8, 2009.
"Today I wanted to go to the market to bring home some food. Thank God, I did not go; there was a massacre from artillery shells." Twenty-three-year-old Sameh A. Habeeb, a photojournalist based in Gaza City, hardly sleeps. The sounds of the bombings keep him awake.
Habeeb seldom leaves his home for fear of being killed by sporadic bombing, but he has slipped out several times to take pictures and to obtain chilling first hand accounts of daily life ever since the Israeli attacks on Gaza began on Saturday December 27.
During the days, his main priority is to find a place with electricity so he can charge his laptop and connect to the Internet. His goal is to get the word out about what is happening on the ground in Gaza. He works primarily from his phone, calling up a number of sources, from doctors to media contacts to human rights workers.
Habeeb is one of few local journalists in besieged Gaza who are attempting to reach out to international media outlets by way of the Internet and the phone. "I'm not sleeping so you are welcome to call me on this number in the night," says one of his blog notes.
Aware that mainstream media have fallen short of reporting on the crisis, in part because international reporters have been banned from entering Gaza but also due to political biases, he has been issuing daily reports of the situation. The reports can be found on his blog, on his Facebook account and on arabisto.com.
Habeeb was born and raised in Gaza, and has worked in civil society for many years. He has also worked as a journalist at the Ramattan News Agency, a regional media facility based in Gaza. He has offered his journalistic work to various organizations worldwide for free.
The young journalist is currently confined to his home with his three sisters, his two brothers, his parents and his grandmother with barely any food.
During the interview below with the Indypendent, Habeeb speaks from his phone over the sound of persistent bombing that he has grown used to. "Can you hear that one?" he says. Boom. Boom. "That was an F-16 [bomb]. I know how an F-16 sounds. I can distinguish what types of bombs they are."
His voice trembles a little, but he goes on speaking, even after being asked if he would like a moment to collect himself. "You know that I can speak and that I will speak at whatever hour and in whatever situation," he says, resolutely.
It is almost 1 a.m. in occupied Palestine.
Zahra Hankir: What is the current humanitarian situation on the ground in Gaza?
Sameh A. Habeeb: If we counted the things that are missing and that we need, we would not finish [this interview]. There is no bread. There is no sugar. There is no gas. There is no fuel. There is no electricity and there is no wood. There is no cement. Everything you can imagine, we do not have. And this was a problem that started with the blockade and that has accentuated since the attacks began. It was preplanned. It is not only a matter of a rocket being fired here and there. It is a strategy that Israel has followed.'
Habeeb seldom leaves his home for fear of being killed by sporadic bombing, but he has slipped out several times to take pictures and to obtain chilling first hand accounts of daily life ever since the Israeli attacks on Gaza began on Saturday December 27.
During the days, his main priority is to find a place with electricity so he can charge his laptop and connect to the Internet. His goal is to get the word out about what is happening on the ground in Gaza. He works primarily from his phone, calling up a number of sources, from doctors to media contacts to human rights workers.
Habeeb is one of few local journalists in besieged Gaza who are attempting to reach out to international media outlets by way of the Internet and the phone. "I'm not sleeping so you are welcome to call me on this number in the night," says one of his blog notes.
Aware that mainstream media have fallen short of reporting on the crisis, in part because international reporters have been banned from entering Gaza but also due to political biases, he has been issuing daily reports of the situation. The reports can be found on his blog, on his Facebook account and on arabisto.com.
Habeeb was born and raised in Gaza, and has worked in civil society for many years. He has also worked as a journalist at the Ramattan News Agency, a regional media facility based in Gaza. He has offered his journalistic work to various organizations worldwide for free.
The young journalist is currently confined to his home with his three sisters, his two brothers, his parents and his grandmother with barely any food.
During the interview below with the Indypendent, Habeeb speaks from his phone over the sound of persistent bombing that he has grown used to. "Can you hear that one?" he says. Boom. Boom. "That was an F-16 [bomb]. I know how an F-16 sounds. I can distinguish what types of bombs they are."
His voice trembles a little, but he goes on speaking, even after being asked if he would like a moment to collect himself. "You know that I can speak and that I will speak at whatever hour and in whatever situation," he says, resolutely.
It is almost 1 a.m. in occupied Palestine.
Zahra Hankir: What is the current humanitarian situation on the ground in Gaza?
Sameh A. Habeeb: If we counted the things that are missing and that we need, we would not finish [this interview]. There is no bread. There is no sugar. There is no gas. There is no fuel. There is no electricity and there is no wood. There is no cement. Everything you can imagine, we do not have. And this was a problem that started with the blockade and that has accentuated since the attacks began. It was preplanned. It is not only a matter of a rocket being fired here and there. It is a strategy that Israel has followed.'
Lees verder: http://www.alternet.org/rights/117981/
2 opmerkingen:
Elsevier is zo teleurgesteld dat de [? 2 tot 5] raketten [? elders lees ik 'mortiergranaten'] uit Libanon geen Clash of Civilizations hebben veroorzaakt, dat ze nu nog harder gaan roepen: 'Iran betrokken bij raketaanval op noorden Israël'.
Onderussen doet Israël wat het wil:
Chauffeur VN-transport gedood in Gaza
Volgens een woordvoerder van de VN had de aanval plaats tijdens een gevechtspauze die door Israël was ingesteld om de aanvoer van humanitaire hulpgoederen mogelijk te maken. Hij zei dat het transport met Israël was afgestemd en dat het voertuig van de vlag en het embleem van de VN was voorzien.
Dit lees je natuurlijk niet in Nederland want dat past niet in het pro-Israël plaatje:
Amerikaanse media waren blind op cruciaal moment in Gaza
Omdat de Amerikaanse media helemaal gefocust waren op de uitslag van de presidentsverkiezingen, misten ze een belangrijke Israëlische aanval op Hamas. Precies die aanval betekende volgens veel Palestijnen het effectieve einde van het bestand tussen de twee partijen. ... “Hoewel geen van beide zijden de wapenstilstand 100 procent respecteerde, was de Israëlische aanval veruit de grootste schending”, zegt Stephen Zunes, een deskundige van het conflict aan de Universiteit van San Francisco. “Het was een enorme, enorme provocatie en die me nu lijkt bedoeld om Hamas ertoe te brengen de wapenstilstand te verbreken.”
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