Oxfam America Blog

A boy in Beit Zaitoun is framed by a hole made in his house during the conflict. Photo: Kenny Rae / Oxfam America

This morning I read a powerful essay by Oxfam Great Britain’s Michael Bailey. Reporting back from Gaza during the tenuous ceasefire, Bailey gives a firsthand view of the consequences of war:

Gaza is a small place.  Three weeks of Israeli bombardment and battling with Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups on the ground has left its mark everywhere I look.  On the way south from the Erez crossing to Gaza, I pass through Ezbet Abed Rabou.  Here every house has been reduced to a pile of broken concrete.  Coloured towels, blankets, carpets and mattresses sandwiched between tons of flat grey slabs. The bright paint of bedroom walls exposed to public stare. 

An old man brews tea on a wood fire outside his personal mound of rubble.  “Yes,” he says, “Hamas gave me money and Oxfam gave me water and the UN gave me food.  I don’t want any of it, I want my house back.”

Amidst this devastation, Bailey says what worries him most is the way that civilians on both sides have become caught up in the conflict, seeing themselves as its intended targets:

I am still struggling to explain the devastation I have seen. Palestinian civilians I talk to in Gaza feel they were the focus of the Israeli military offensive.  Israeli civilians in Sderot feel they are the target of rockets from Gaza. 

Read Bailey’s full essay here–then come back and tell us what you think.

There are a few things we don’t talk about in my family. And one of them is the situation in Israel and Palestine.

It all started with an argument with my dad a few years ago. My dad is an open-minded guy, good-humored, always willing to help others, and able to see both sides of any issue. As I grow older, I see how his values of tolerance and service have shaped my own personal beliefs. These days, we often talk about politics, and we almost always see eye to eye.

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Jestina Mukoko, missing since 3 December. Photo by Chris Hufstader/Oxfam America

December 10 is International Human Rights Day, when we set aside a moment to consider the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was completed at the UN 60 years ago. This year we can also consider the 18 human rights activists in Zimbabwe who have disappeared in the last month. One of them, Jestina Mukoko, was abducted from her home at five in the morning last Wednesday.

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