May 29, 2021 10:21 am
On May 21 in Tel Aviv they reopened the municipal swimming pool. The city administration was concerned that swimmers could slip on the wet floor running towards the shelters, so they closed it during the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas. Gazans can laugh with laughter or die of envy, because there are no swimming pools or shelters around them. On May 23, Sunday, Palestinian workers who are building the new changing rooms for the Tel Aviv swimming pool returned to work.
The pool was built on the ruins of an irrigation tank used by the old Palestinian village of Sheikh Munis, which has long since disappeared. The bricklayers resumed getting up at three in the morning in their homes in the occupied West Bank to be able to reach the checkpoints by five and the workplace by six, thus building changing rooms for the Jews that are not found in their villages.
At six in the morning on Saturday May 22, Hayarkon Park was full of people jogging and cycling, happy to be there. Military-themed conversations (“Where did they get the Kornet missiles?”) Were gradually replaced by normal chatter about speed, distance traveled and beat count. At the tennis courts across the street, the last of the Ethiopian revelers came out of the “white” sports club which turns into a “black” disco on Saturday night. And from Gaza the photos and videos continued to arrive: traumatized people next to the rubble, tents to mourn the dead, the bombed building that housed the ministry of health, and then the poignant image of a father walking down the street holding his arms the newborn son, who collects white flowers from a bush and hands them to the child.
We Israelis will provoke and torment, humiliate and oppress, convinced that we can continue to do so without obstacles.
KT, the medical student at Al Azhar University in Gaza who made those images, hesitated on May 21 before leaving home for the first time in eleven days. “I was very hesitant, but then I thought it was a defining moment in the history of Palestine, and that I wanted to see it with my own eyes. I want to remember these crimes and fuel my anger, ”he wrote.
The checkpoints on the Gaza border and in Jaffa were removed on May 21, the shelters in Tel Aviv were closed on the 23, and Galina, the dog who disappeared while the first siren sounded, which the owners set out to search for by hanging a infinity of posters in the park, apparently he has not yet returned home: we are waiting for you Galina, it’s time to get back to normal.
This routine will cause the next war. Everything that has been and everything that will be will provide the fuel for the next wave of hostilities. The blockade of Gaza will continue, the Israeli boot will continue to crush the neck of the West Bank, and in mixed Arab-Jewish cities the provocations against what remains of the pre-1948 Palestinian community will continue, while the world will continue to support Israel. Even the arrogance will remain the same: we Israelis will provoke and torment, humiliate and oppress, remaining convinced that we can continue to do so without obstacles.
It is difficult to admit how willing Israel is to invest in war, without investing anything to try to avoid it. Just as you do not worry at all about the risks of a possible war, but tremble with fear at any attempt to prevent it. In Israel, talking to Hamas is considered a much more dangerous option than bombing it.
Is there at least one Israeli with a plan for the Gaza Strip? Is there an Israeli who knows what Israel wants from Gaza, as well as peace of mind for their people? Should they throw rice at us in honor of the asphyxiation we are imposing on them? Should the people of the Strip welcome us with enthusiasm for the devastation we have wrought? Should they forgive us for everything we have done from 1948 to today? Has Israel ever used a method other than the unilateral one towards Gaza?
A few hours after the ceasefire went into effect, Israel placed blind faith in Hamas, opening roads and schools and closing shelters. In other words, there is a partner in the Strip who can be trusted, who keeps his promises. Maybe we should try to talk to him before the next war, and not just after. Hamas does not lack the courage or the willingness to sacrifice, much more than what, incidentally, we have. Perhaps this courage this time will translate into political courage. There are rational people in Gaza too.
But these are empty words. Galina may even go home, but Israel will not learn anything. Retired General Israel Ziv will return to the television studios to explain how we must strike and destroy, greeted by applause from viewers. Welcome back to our routine.
(Translation by Francesco De Lellis)
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