Gaza on my mind

I remember Gaza in 1998. I was traveling with a group sponsored by Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salaam/the Oasis of Peace. A unique village in Israel where Palestinian and Jewish Israelis lived in community sending their children to the same school where they learned each other’s language, history and customs.

Our tour included Gaza. Abject fear made me reluctant to enter this tiny coastal enclave five miles wide and 25 miles long where over 1.5 million people, including 900,000 refugees, lived in one of the most densely populated places on earth. Media reports had us believing Gaza was a hotbed of terrorists, Yasser Arafat clones without his hope of becoming a prime minister.

But the multi-million-dollar airport in southern Gaza near the Egyptian border had the grandeur of a world class museum. The airport was funded by Japan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Germany and designed by Egyptian and Moroccan architects. Israel approved every aspect. 

When our group arrived, bored Palestinian soldiers sat guarding priceless treasures in a ghostly airport. Their guns were used as props to keep themselves awake. Excited by our presence, they showed us around as if they were museum docents. Two-story arch-shaped glass windows allowed light to stream into the spacious main terminal decorated with Moroccan tiles. This was the embodiment of their future Palestinian state. Months after our visit, President Clinton stood next to Yasser Arafat for the official opening ceremony. The airport, designed to handle 700,000 passengers per year, was planning to be open every day of the year except on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. 

But the hum and bustle of world travelers and the sound of jet planes flying over Gaza International was short-lived. In 2001 Israeli warplanes destroyed the control tower at the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada triggered by Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the Temple Mount accompanied by a unit of police. And in 2002, Israel destroyed the runway. 

The Palestinian symbol of statehood in the West Bank and Gaza was obliterated just after they had reluctantly postponed a declaration of statehood at the United Nations. And the international airport became another footnote in a long, tragic history.

Photos and Words by Iris