Cinnamon Zone: Arab World

Eye Witness...

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:17:32 GMT

I had a long day, an awful day, taking photos and writing from on the ground in Gaza City and northern Gaza. I met with two children who survived Wednesday’s Jabalyia soccer bombing: the other 4 kids were, as you likely know, killed. One of the children I saw had no flesh on their legs, had burns all over their bodies from the tank’s shelling. This was one of the scariest things I have seen yet, and I have seen a lot more than that.

I asked one boy to give me details of what happened that Thursday afternoon. The 9 year old boy cried while he told that he’d seen the decapitated head of his cousin strewn far from his body, arms and legs, far away from where they were all playing soccer. His mother added that there wasn’t any electricity when her son was admitted to the hospital.

He was crying as he told the story, his tears hurting him even more than his psychological pain, as he has burns in his eyes. His mother uncovered his wounded leg where I could only see bones without flesh in places. I could not understand how he managed to lay down conscious, but knew it was a consciousness full of pain and anguish. I felt this pain in my own heart and head.

As I talked this child’s mother, she said that she’d had to evacuate her children, as it's no longer safe to be in that area where the children had been playing. The kids ranged from 6 to 14 years old. The two ones who survived said they had all been playing soccer in front of the door of their house in Jabalyia when the Israeli missile hit them.

I finally came back home some hours ago, after waiting a long time to find transportation. But, eventually managing to make it back to Rafah, I collapsed for a nap for an hour. My sleep was disrupted: I awoke scared by the bombing of F-16s (I learned later on). I ran from my bed through our dark house, and seeing no one from my family inside, I ran without shoes into the street. People were out in the street, young men running. I didn't understand, didn't know what I was doing other than that I was running but didn’t know to where. Most people's windows were down, shutters closed, as it is freezing cold at moment.

I was glad not to be injured by shattered glass and debris on the streets. I made it back home to write this on my laptop. But I’ve decided going back to sleep is not a good idea, no matter how exhausted I am. If I have to die (not my wish) , I want to be awake, so I know I’m dying, and by whom. Not asleep.

Mohammed

To Gaza, With Apology

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:15:00 GMT

Because you're a small city of a big Arab world, and a bigger Islamic world, who are both watching you burn from afar. Sorry because your kids are being slaughtered by weapons they've never heard of, their dreams are being nipped in the bud. Sorry for the elderly who are being humiliated, all in front of our eyes, for the women and men who are being mercilessly crushed to death under the heavy artillery, their homes demolished over them in their sleep…

Sorry because you've become nothing to us but a daily report on the news. Sorry because we're helpless, sorry before we watch you burn and do nothing but cry, and forget even to pray. Sorry because we've grown so numb, so senseless and so blunt. Sorry because in your suffering, we see our disgrace. Sorry because in your humiliation we see our own humiliation and bow our heads in shame. Sorry because we're too many powerless millions, standing with our hands behind our backs. Sorry because we turn a blind eye, sorry because we can't stand the sight of a little boy, face stained by blood and body wrapped with a green sheets, flowers scattered all over him as he's sound a sleep.

Sorry before we are what we are and you are what you are. Sorry because you have to burn before something inside us explodes. Sorry because you need to be destroyed before we wake up. Sorry because you need to be ruined before we learn the true meaning of bravery. Sorry because in you, the victim, we see the hero and the miracle.

Sorry, because we know you can’t accept this apology, and yet we offer nothing else.

Live and Uncensored: Pictures from Gaza

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 10:22:00 GMT

Few days ago as the Israeli atrocities intensified and rained down relentlessly on Gaza, and in a desperate attempt to shed more light on the crisis through the blogosphere, I e-maild a friend of mine who's a journalist and a photographer in Gaza, Mohammad Omar, asking him about the situation there and what he could report. Few days passed and Mohammad didn't reply. I started to have some dark thoughts as to the reason, but I hoped it was just that he's too busy or that there he had no internet access.

Today, as I was checking my other email, I was surprised to find an email from Mohammad sent on the 20th of January. I began lamenting not checking that email earlier but that feeling was soon replaced by shock and mortification as I saw the pictures he sent.

Here is what Mohammad said, and here are the pictures, I'll just leave you with them.

"I am sending you a collection of photos from the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza . I have some other hundreds of photos, but I should run out as things are getting even worse with more bombings. Please see the attached sample photos of what Israeli snipers and rockets are doing to the Palestinians. I have my vest on and should get out right now."

Injured in Gaza

Killed boy in Gaza

Killed by Israeli warplanes

unidentified people who were killed lately

Human flesh of different people arrived at the hospital

half body in Gaza by Israeli rockets

flesh arms and legs in a truck during last attack on Gaza

flesh colleceted in Gaza

Body parts after bombed by Israeli helicapters

Palestinian kids watching remains of flesh of someone who was killed

So Many Tragedies in So Little Time

Where to start…, what to talk about…? The crippling electricity shortages, affecting hospitals as well as civilians? The air strikes & on-going, daily bombings by the Israeli army, their indiscriminate targeting of civilians and police stations…? Israel ’s non-accidental, enforced starvation of 1.5 million people by closing off ALL borders and not allowing in even UN aid, let alone basic medicinal, food, and construction needs…?

Shortages of fuel have re-surfaced in Gaza : most of Gaza has no electricity and even more importantly, the shortage of medicine in Palestinian hospitals continues to increase, with the Ministry of Health reporting a looming humanitarian catastrophe.

Or should I begin with the bomb which just hit a wedding close to the Ministry of Interior building in Gaza City , with 15 apartment buildings within the bomb’s target range? One woman was killed and 47 others were injured –mostly children and women who had been inside their homes or playing on the street!! Scenes of children injured, bleeding and crying just moments after they had been enjoying a wedding celebration in a Gaza wedding hall…a horrific sight likely to go without mention of that in most news sources.

The injured were evacuated to Al Shifa hospital, where it was then hard to find enough beds and blankets for them, with children crammed three to four on a bed due to overcrowding.

Earlier Friday, Israel closed its border with the Gaza Strip to all traffic in what officials say is response to cross-border rocket fire, preventing even UN humanitarian supplies from getting in. The decision came after Israel vowed to broaden its military campaign against Gaza militants who have fired more than 110 home made rockets at southern Israel in the last three days resulting in the injury of two Israelis.

In contrast, 19 Palestinians were killed in one day last Wednesday during another Israeli attack, this one targeting the eastern part of Gaza City .

These are the latest attacks, but not the only: since the visit of US president and ‘peacemaker’, George Bush, within only 74 hours, Israel has killed 37 people and injured more than 90. Those numbers, which could again go up at any minute, were confirmed by Khaled Radi, the Ministry of Health spokesman in Gaza . Radi also said that Israel is using internationally illegal weapons, which makes it impossible for people to identify the bodies of their relatives as they have been destroyed to unrecognizable ends.

Among the tens killed were a 13 year old boy and his father and uncle, killed in what Israel claims was “a mistake”. Another Israeli attack killed a mother, Maryam Al Rahel, and her son, Mohammed, who were on a donkey cart when an Israeli warplane bombed them. Their bodies, like so many others, were rendered into small pieces of flesh, scattered everywhere!

An Even Blacker Night!

I and some journalist colleagues went to offer condolences to a journalist friend of ours for the death of his cousin as a result of medicine shortages on Wednesday. While on the way, there was a lot of shooting going on, from funerals and demonstrations. Later, as we were starting to drive off from our parking spot, Mohammed, another journalist, suggested waiting for a moment. But as others preferred to not wait around, we eventually left.

After we had gone just a few minutes down the road, we learned that the place where our car had been parked had just been bombed, targeting and killing two Palestinians, injuring another three. “It could have been us who were killed,” one of the journalists said to me. I answered: “Thanks to God, it wasn’t. But this is so sad; it must be terrible for their families, with children left behind and no one now to support them.”

Update on Killings

As predicted, the death toll has risen since I began this report: another two have been killed in northern Gaza , and another 4 badly injured. Israeli Ministry spokesman, Shlomo Dror says that: “It's unacceptable that people in Sderot are living in fear every day and people in the Gaza Strip are living life as usual.”

And I wonder, what exactly does he consider “life as usual”? For if he means it is normal that over 35 civilians should be killed in 4 days, an entire population should be on the verge of starvation and should be forced to shiver through winter nights without electricity or sufficient blankets, that hospitals and medical centers should be forced to shut down or operate at sub-par capability and without needed medicine, food, blankets, and even space,…the list goes on…well then yes, we are living life as usual.

Yet another annoying Arabic commercial

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 11:08:00 GMT

"A woman and her husband arguing about something. The man is yelling and saying: I won't say this twice, your parents can't live with us. The woman tries to calm him down to discuss it quietly and convince him of that.

Then, she brings him a dish of food prepared with none other than Craft cheese. And all of a sudden the man is enchanted, and he's okay with his in-laws coming to live with them."

Yes, Arab men are nothing but insatiable gluttons with no sensitivity whatsoever so if you want to persuade them of something all you have to do is bring them a dish of food, specifically Craft cheese and they will be hooked. Cram his face and he'll be your slave.

Moreover, I find it very humiliating to show a woman begging her husband to let her parents live with them. I think that this is a very sensitive subject in our society and it should not be displayed in this way. Whatever happened to the renowned Arab chivalry and strong family bonds and duty toward parents, not only biological ones, but also in-laws. Cress cross all that and bring him a dish of Craft cheese in one stupid commercial, Ugh!

You might think I'm exaggerating, but those commercials are getting more stupid each day, they are lucky nobody is suing them!

Funny Names of Arabic Dishes

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:58:00 GMT

What's in a name? Well, with all due respect for Mr. Shakespeare: So much. At least that what the Arabic cuisine has to say, with the wide variety of dishes that hold some of the weirdest names ever. I wonder why is that! Maybe women used to invent things, and since they didn't look so appealing and the ingredients were somehow irrelevant so they just preferred not to call them the conventional way, like "Marinated Chicken with Rosemary and Mushroom sauce" or some such name like those we read in the menus of Italian and Chinese restaurants.

One of the most popular Levantine dishes is 7orra2 isba3o, the literal translation of which would be Burner of his own finger. It's very famous that the name seems to have grown on people, but looking at the translation now, you might start to think it's quite ridiculous, especially that we don't know the real reason behind such a name. This dish is made up primarily of lentils and dough. It may look like a mashed mess of vaguely related ingredients, but it's really good. I didn't find anything on the origin of the name though.

Another one I haven't heard of until recently is Yahoodi Msafer (Traveling Jew). I don't know what it's made of exactly but I understood it consists of grain, zucchini and egg plants. I'm not sure of the origin, but the only thing I found is that (Arab) Jews used to make this dish and they called it "Traveling Muslim" So Arab/Muslims changed the name to "Traveling Jew".

If you like beans, then you might want to try 3aisheh Khanom (Madam Aisha). Large white beans in tomato sauce, couldn't find anything on the origin of the name, it could be the lady who invented it.

I guess all of us have at some point tried Jaz Maz (Untranslatable), Also know as "2allayet bandore ma3 baid" (Fried eggs with tomato) a very popular dish, delicious, cheap and easy to prepare. But I can't help but wonder who would give it such a name, and why!

Perhaps it's time for dessert. Qudret Qader (Might of the Mighty) is a maliciously delicious treat that consists of a layer of cream caramel on top of a thin sponge coffee cake. Supposedly called that because it's so easy to make; for they say however you put the ingredients together, the result is the same.

If you're into more Oriental kind of treats, the answer to your cravings is kol weshkor (Eat and be thankful). Another rich sweet dessert, which is more widely known as Baklawa (From Turkish Baklava). It's made of layers of dough filled with nuts and soaked with sugar syrup. I don't know why it's called thus, but I imagine that if we had an Arabic version of Thanksgiving, then kol weshkor will be the parallel of stuffed roast turkey.

The rich Arabic cuisine never ceases to provide us with good dishes and weird names, and if you dig more deeply, you'll probably find dozens of those. But again, I think Shakespeare was right. For to hear the other half of the (adapted) quote: What's in a name? That which we call "Msalwa3a", by any other name would taste as good!