RECENT NONFICTION

Amira Hass, Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights In a Land Under Siege, An Owl Paperback Book / Henry Holt and Company; $16, $24; Canada, 2000; 378 pp.

Gaza is a "black hole" in the media; the back cover of Drinking the Sea at Gaza characterizes this small strip of land as "the grim Palestinian enclave so feared and despised by most Israelis." A strip of 147 square miles with more than a million Palestinians, Gaza is far less a part of the romantic litany of the Holy Land than is the West Bank.

Notably, the most detailed and perceptive reporting on Gaza has come from women. Harvard scholar Sara Roy authored several detailed studies on the frightful state of development in Gaza. Caroline de Gruyter, a Dutch journalist who also lived in Gaza, has written a book (not yet published in English).

 

Dilapidated bus Israeli authorities gave to two Palestinians whose home they had destroyed. Photo: Kathy Bergen

Amira Hass writes for the Israeli paper, Ha'aretz, and she was the first Israeli journalist to live in Gaza. From 1987 to 1996 she listened carefully and heard the rhythms of life there. Ms. Hass painstakingly relates life in Gaza as she came to understand it from her increasing number of contacts, most of whom were curious why a Jewish woman would come to live among them. This book is a large fragment of their experience together.

Each of the fourteen chapters uses a basic theme as a starting point: organizing the Intifada, getting exit permits, feminism and patriarchy, running the family with the men in prison, and the mounting failure of the economy. Hass introduces us to her friends and their words guide us through the chapters.

Even so, the surprises catch you off guard. There is the Israeli soldier who likes -- and is permitted -- to beat up young Palestinians; his name is Yigal Amir, the man who was to assassinate Yitzhak Rabin. Then there are the Israeli guards who now and then befriend Palestinian prisoners only to be transferred for their kindness. More often, the surprises reflect the unceasing variety of thinking within the Gazans themselves. One haunting one, "Don't think that you're really seeing us. We're just a picture. Inside everything's empty."

The earlier, more historical material is unsparingly candid. Hass relates the initial reluctance of both organizations Hamas and Fatah to involve themselves in the Intifada, the "conversion" of Fatah which then took credit for it, the hamulas (clans) and the power structure in Gaza which still continues, and the widespread corruption within the Palestine Authority. A moving chapter is devoted to the Palestinians' ineradicable identification with their villages, most of which were destroyed in 1948. This is made even more powerful by the analogies Hass makes to her own Jewish ancestors.

The heart of Hass' analysis is that Israel perceives the land of Gaza as a resource for the Jews. For the sake of security Gaza is tightly controlled and separated from Israel. Regarding its inhabitants, there is the Israeli employer who says to his trusted Palestinian employee, "Being an Arab doesn't suit you." "All Palestinian behavior," Hass goes on to observe, "is explained in terms of Jewish behavior."

Since the "peace process" began in 1993, the situation in Gaza has worsened in important respects. The World Bank's reports have underscored this plight. In human terms the uniting force of family life has been eroding. Prisoners who were to be released remain in Israeli prisons. The children of Gaza have no childhood to speak of and often little education. Exit permits to leave Gaza in order to receive needed medical service at hospitals remain rare and hard to secure, even assuming there are no "closures" -- in which case there are simply no exits.

Hass' primary contribution is that she has come to comprehend how Israeli fears and insecurity are knitted into an oppressive fabric that surrounds the lives of all Gazans, often in the most intimate way. She has waited in the long exit queues, watched petitioners get referred from one office to another, attended appeals, and seen people in need of medical attention turned back. She has had the temerity to inquire of the Coordination and Liaison Office (CLO) what their policy is and whether it was being interpreted consistently. This earned her a letter of reprimand from the CLO spokesman.

Drinking the Sea at Gaza helps us to grasp how this has come to pass. "Effectively, Israel has declared that Palestinian prospects will always be subjugated to Jewish needs, desires, and strength." That power has created in Gaza a "sea of nitroglycerine" waiting to explode, perhaps as Gaza did once before, ushering in the Intifada. Why, she asks, have liberal Israelis not called for a civilian board that would review the policies of the CLO and serve as a court of last resort?

Drinking's final words are hopeful: "'We are, after all, the mother of the child' they say, alluding to King Solomon's judgment to explain their readiness to share the country. On condition, of course, that any solution treat the Palestinians with dignity, as a people with elemental rights and a claim equal to that of the others who live in this land and call it home."

Allan Solomonow is director of AFSC's Middle East Peace Program in the Pacific Mountain Region.