coming soon.
They slap everyone around, including their own leaders.
They just want a chance at life, like any kids would,
in an Occupied city.
checkit: The Observer
Gazan
youth issue manifesto to vent their anger with all sides in the conflict
An
anonymous group of students has created a document to express their frustration
born of Hamas's violent crackdowns on 'western decadence', the destruction
wreaked by Israel's attacks and the political games played by Fatah and the UNAna Carbajosa
Sunday 2 January 2011
The meeting takes place in a bare room in a block of flats in the centre of Gaza City. No photographs, no real names – those are the conditions.
This is the first time that a group of young Palestinian cyber-activists has agreed to meet a journalist since launching what it calls Gaza Youth's Manifesto for Change. It is an incendiary document – written with courage and furious energy – that has captivated thousands of people who have come across it online, and the young university students are visibly excited, but also scared. "Not only are our lives in danger; we are also putting our families at risk," says one of them, who calls himself Abu George.
... The
Manifesto
"Fuck
Hamas. Fuck Israel. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNWRA. Fuck USA! We, the youth in
Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human
rights and the indifference of the international community!
"We
want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference like
the Israeli F16s breaking the wall of sound; scream with all the power in our
souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of
this fucking situation we live in...
"We
are sick of being caught in this political struggle; sick of coal-dark nights
with airplanes circling above our homes; sick of innocent farmers getting shot
in the buffer zone because they are taking care of their lands; sick of bearded
guys walking around with their guns abusing their power, beating up or
incarcerating young people demonstrating for what they believe in; sick of the
wall of shame that separates us from the rest of our country and keeps us
imprisoned in a stamp-sized piece of land; sick of being portrayed as
terrorists, home-made fanatics with explosives in our pockets and evil in our
eyes; sick of the indifference we meet from the international community, the
so-called experts in expressing concerns and drafting resolutions but cowards
in enforcing anything they agree on; we are sick and tired of living a shitty
life, being kept in jail by Israel, beaten up by Hamas and completely ignored
by the rest of the world.
"There
is a revolution growing inside of us, an immense dissatisfaction and
frustration that will destroy us unless we find a way of canalising this energy
into something that can challenge the status quo and give us some kind of hope.
"We
barely survived the Operation Cast Lead, where Israel very effectively bombed
the shit out of us, destroying thousands of homes and even more lives and
dreams. During the war we got the unmistakable feeling that Israel wanted to
erase us from the face of the Earth. During the last years, Hamas has been
doing all they can to control our thoughts, behaviour and aspirations. Here in
Gaza we are scared of being incarcerated, interrogated, hit, tortured, bombed,
killed. We cannot move as we want, say what we want, do what we want.
"ENOUGH!
Enough pain, enough tears, enough suffering, enough control, limitations,
unjust justifications, terror, torture, excuses, bombings, sleepless nights,
dead civilians, black memories, bleak future, heart-aching present, disturbed
politics, fanatic politicians, religious bullshit, enough incarceration! WE SAY
STOP! This is not the future we want! We want to be free. We want to be able to
live a normal life. We want peace. Is that too much to ask?"
