Dr. Wajjeh Abu Zarefah is a Palestinian journalist for NBC News based in Gaza. He has also reported for other news organizations, including ABC Australia and Franceâs TF1. He lectures in two universities in Gaza and has been a resident fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. He departed Chicago for Gaza in mid May.
Maureen Clare Murphy is the Chicago-based managing editor of the Electronic Intifada website and the author of many articles on the critical situation in Gaza. Her writing appears in the anthology Gaza Unsilenced, published by Just World Books.
Both speakers represent informed voices on the situation in Gaza. Dr. Abu Zarefah speaks from his multiple roles: husband and father to twin boys, journalist for NBC, repeatedly targeted by Israeli missiles and university academic, specializing in political analysis. He recounts daily life experiences: contemplating college for his sons, cooking over wood fire because cooking gas is not to be found, the uncertainty of access to drinking water and how their lives are ruled by a lack of electricity. Social, cultural and commercial life are badly effected by the destruction of Gaza's infrastructure and Israel's interference with recovery. Children and adults suffer from PTSD following the viciousness of Israeli aggression. The Israeli 8 year blockade created extreme shortages of the most basic items but following Israel's most recent attack's intentional destruction of Gaza's electrical plant, factories, farms, dairies, drinking water system, sewer treatment plant and hospitals during the 51 day attack that Israel initiated on July 8, 2014, Gaza will soon be uninhabitable according to the UN. He calls for an end to the occupation and the return of some normalcy to their lives. He screened several video clips. One, an aerial view of a marathon run through Gaza's urban landscape which a few months later the Israelis reduced to unrecognizable rubble. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbSk5KEXtQw
The other, an Israeli video clip, shows Israeli tanks firing high explosive shells into a civilian community, reducing it to rubble. That clip is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oDxVsIUJXQ
Comitte for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine CJPIP http://cjpip.org
Almost 2 million people of Gaza, in the throes of a massive humanitarian crisis, have largely been forgotten by the rest of the world. Since Israelâs two assaults on Gaza in 2005 and in 2014, resulting in the death of thousands, Gaza remains under a crushing military siege.
20,000 homes, 148 schools, and 15 hospitals â still devastated. Attacks on Gazaâs infrastructure have resulted in power outages up to 12 hours a day and 90% of water supplies deemed unsafe. Children are suffering from malnutrition and about 20% of the population suffers from PTSD. The United Nations has said that Gaza could be âuninhabitableâ by 2020 if current economic trends continue.
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