{"id":7371,"date":"2011-05-29T07:36:46","date_gmt":"2011-05-29T03:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=7371"},"modified":"2011-07-16T13:23:42","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T09:23:42","slug":"after-17-years-trying-to-visit-gaza-i-am-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/after-17-years-trying-to-visit-gaza-i-am-home\/","title":{"rendered":"After 17 Years Trying to Visit Gaza, I Am Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Palestinian security officer at the Rafah border was overly polite. He wore a\u00a0black uniform and walked around self-assuredly, as he instructed weary travelers on\u00a0their next moves before being allowed back into Gaza. On the other side of the\u00a0border, in Egypt, there was much anxiety, fear and anticipation.<\/p>\n

\u2018Things will get better,\u2019 said a Palestinian engineer from Gaza, who once studied\u00a0and now works in a Swedish town south of Stockholm. What he meant was that things\u00a0will get better at the border crossing, in terms of the relationship between Gaza\u00a0and Egypt. Without a decisive Egyptian decision to reopen the crossing \u2013 completely\u00a0\u2013 Gaza will continue to reel under the Israeli siege. Others agree, but Gazans have\u00a0learned not to become too confident about political statements promising positive\u00a0changes.<\/p>\n

However, the Egypt of today belongs to an entirely different political category to\u00a0the Egypt of Hosni Mubarak\u2019s leadership. Palestinians, especially those trapped\u00a0behind the shut borders in Gaza, are well aware of this. Still they are cautious.\u00a0\u2018Inshallah\u2019 \u2013 God willing, they say, \u2018May Allah bring good things.\u2019<\/p>\n

For now, things remain difficult at the border. When Egyptian border officials\u00a0collect passports for examination, and return a few hours later to read aloud the\u00a0names of those allowed in, a large crowd gathers around them. Tensions soon escalate\u00a0to yelling, and occasional tears.<\/p>\n

\u2018Go back or I will not give any his passport back,\u2019 shouted a large Egyptian officer\u00a0with some disdain. The veins on the side of his face suddenly bulked up. The crowd\u00a0disbanded, only to return seconds later. The officer looked exhausted and clearly\u00a0fed up. The Gaza travelers had already moved beyond the point of humiliation. They\u00a0simply wanted to get from here to there, and back.<\/p>\n

A young woman with a contorted back trotted behind her mother. Her pain was apparent\u00a0on her face. \u2018Yallah yamma,\u2019 \u2013 hurry, daughter – urged the mother. \u2018They might close\u00a0the gate any minute.\u2019 The girl, in her twenties, paused, closed her eyes tight, as\u00a0if summoning whatever strength remained in her frail body to carry on for a few\u00a0seconds longer.<\/p>\n

The gate of the Egyptian border point was very wide, but only a small gap of a few\u00a0feet was open. When it opened, early Thursday, May 19, hundreds tried to rush in at\u00a0once. Large bags were tossed over people\u2019s heads, children cried in panic, officers\u00a0yelled, and a few dared to yell back. \u2018Just open the gate, the big one,\u2019 someone\u00a0said. A white-haired little man, in an oversize, ancient suit, stood back and shock\u00a0his head. \u2018It\u2019s a tragedy,\u2019 he said. Soon, he too was forced to lose his civility\u00a0and push against the mass of desperate humanity. Later, I saw him inside the border\u00a0point, circling around nervously and intently puffing on a cigarette.<\/p>\n

Here at the border, everyone is nervous, even those who have no reason to be. The\u00a0Egyptian officers are edgy, as if their fate too is being determined somehow. Both\u00a0sides know that the Gaza-Egypt border is undergoing an important transition. Egypt\u2019s\u00a0new foreign minister, Nabil al-Arabi, had already promised a breakup with the past,\u00a0thus an opening of the border between his country and Gaza. There is much trust\u00a0among Palestinians that the new Egypt is genuine, but also a fear that a politically\u00a0vulnerable Egypt might be forced to compromise on its early stances.<\/p>\n

But the Egyptian people seem determined to keep their government in check. Palestine\u00a0is a major theme now in large protests. Hundreds of Egyptian activists were\u00a0arrested, and many were wounded as they rallied near the Israeli embassy in Cairo,\u00a0which was closed for few days before re-opening again. An Egyptian call to march to\u00a0Gaza, in commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 \u2013 the Day of Catastrophe \u2013\u00a0was aborted after the Egyptian army sealed much of Sinai. Tanks still dot the\u00a0highway leading from Cairo to Gaza via the Sinai desert. The soldiers are very\u00a0polite, though. The Egyptian driver who took me to Rafah in a very late hour seemed\u00a0happiest with the revolution in his country, simply because he is now treated with\u00a0respect by men in uniform. \u2018Officers used to treat us with so much disrespect,\u2019 he\u00a0said with a retrospective sense of grief. \u2018Now, we are like brothers.\u2019 The driver\u00a0extended his hand for an unnecessary handshake with a noticeably short solider,\u00a0wearing a pair of slippers.<\/p>\n

The sense of joy hasn\u2019t made it to the Gaza border yet. The hope and\u00a0anticipation that Gazans feel towards the changes underway in Egypt can only be\u00a0understood after a degree of investigation. The distance between Cairo and Rafah is\u00a0long and arduous. It will be no easy task to translate political will in the former\u00a0into meaningful policy in the latter. Still, the Egyptian people are keeping up the\u00a0pressure, and Palestinians in Gaza remain hopeful.<\/p>\n

At the end, no one was turned back. Everyone made it into Gaza. The man with the\u00a0very old suit was still smoking and cursing for no apparent reason. The girl with\u00a0the hurt back was still in terrible pain, but also happy to be home. The\u00a0Gaza-Swedish engineer had a crowd of young cousins waiting for him. In Rafah, I\u00a0found myself invited to a lunch followed by Arabic coffee with many men I didn\u2019t\u00a0know, most of whom were called Mohammed. They all seemed happy.<\/p>\n

\u2018So, Egypt has changed, right?\u2019 asked one Mohammed with a knowing smile and a nod.\u00a0Everyone seemed to agree, although they didn\u2019t pinpoint exactly how that change has\u00a0affected Gaza so far. Palestinians in Gaza survive largely because of the 500 or so\u00a0tunnels that connect the impoverished, besieged Strip to Egypt. Now, they feed on\u00a0hope and cheap cigarettes, much of it also coming from Egypt.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ramzy Baroud,\u2019 called out an older officer loudly. \u2018Welcome home, son,\u2019 he said, as\u00a0he handed me my passport and waved me in. No words could possibly have been sweeter\u00a0at that moment.<\/p>\n

After seventeen years of constant attempts to visit Gaza again, I am finally here.<\/p>\n

I am in Gaza. I am home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAMZY BAROUD: Today the border at the Rafah Crossing officially opens. It’s another significant milestone of the ‘Arab Spring’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":7379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,82,119,60],"tags":[378,18300,456,278,2323,6681,18297,1747,1566,7179,1890,1996],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}