Video: Gaza is being strangled and its people are suffocating

-
“I feel so depressed, I feel detained and humiliated and violated because I’m denied one of the most basic rights, the right to have an education, the right to travel,” says Shahd Abusalama in this video report from Gaza by The Real News Network’s Yousef Al-Helou.

Abusalama, who blogs regularly for The Electronic Intifada, is one of thousands of Palestinians trapped in Gaza, unable to travel due to Egypt’s closure of the Rafah crossing.

The Rafah crossing is the only connection to the outside world for the vast majority of Gaza’s almost 1.7 million residents, since Israel imposed its tightened siege beginning in 2006.

Among the stranded are hundreds of students, like Abusalama, hoping to take up university places or scholarships abroad, as well as many medical patients.

Egypt has closed the border completely for the past week, citing the “security” situation in its Sinai peninsula, where it is engaged in military operations against what it calls Islamist militants. more

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Israeli warships open fire at Gaza fishermen

-
Image
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli warships opened fire at fishermen off the coast of Gaza City early Wednesday, a fisherman said. A fisherman told Ma'an Israeli ships fired gunshots at Palestinian fishing boats, and that a shell hit the water near the boats. No injuries were reported. An Israeli army spokeswoman said that "warning shots were fired in the air," without providing further details. Palestinian fishermen are only allowed to venture three nautical miles from Gaza's shore, though official Israeli-Palestinian agreements previously settled on 20 nautical miles. more
Read more

Egyptians continue to keep Gaza's only exit closed

-
Image
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – The Gaza Strip’s only exit to the outside world, the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the enclave, was shut down for the second consecutive day on Saturday. Sources at the terminal confirmed to Ma’an that the crossing point was still closed. On Friday, Palestinian official Mahir Abu Sabha said that Egyptian officials at the site informed the Palestinian side it would remain closed until further notice. more
Read more

Support striking Palestinian quarry workers demanding their rights from Israeli employer

-
Image
On 16 June, 35 Palestinian workers at Salit Quarries in Mishor Adumim (in area C, east of Jerusalem, in the Occupied West Bank) began a strike. The workers, organized with the independent union WAC-Ma'an, are demanding an end to exploitation and humiliation, and insist on signing a first collective agreement. Salit Quarries’ main customer is Readymix Industries (Israel). The total reliance of Salit Quarry on Readymix as their biggest and by far the most important customer puts responsibility on Readymix to make sure that their clients abides by labour laws and safeguards elementary rights for the workers of Salit. We call upon Readymix to urge the Salit management to terminate this unnecessary strike by signing the collective agreement with the workers and WAC-Ma’an. Click this protest link to send your message. The text of the message is as follows: I write to you to express my grave concern about the failure of Salit management to sign a collective agreement with the workers of ...
Read more