It took two months, international negotiations, and U.S. escorts to extract Isdud Al Najjar from the barricaded city of Gaza and bring her to Portland. For weeks she was a captive of the conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian governments that has shut Gaza off from the rest of the world. But Gaza is her home, and her family is there, and she knows she will have no trouble getting back in.
The ordeal illustrates only some of the conditions Najjar works under as the program manager for economic recovery in the Gaza Strip. She spearheaded the agency’s humanitarian work in the region when Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian party that won control of Gaza, erupted into war, killing 14 Israelis and an estimated 1,300 Palestinians while creating an imprisoned region for 1.5 million more.
She arrived in Portland to be honored with Mercy Corps’ Ellsworth Culver Leadership Award for her work in a city literally cut off economically and socially by the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. In Gaza, unemployment is more than 40 percent, communities lie in rubble for want of building materials, and nearly all of the people rely on international assistance for basic needs such as food. Eighty percent of Gaza’s population lives below the poverty line.
During the fighting, Najjar led the distribution of food and blankets, and helped establish recovery and post-trauma programs for children. In the aftermath of the war, Najjar leads Mercy Corps’ programs to help rebuild the Gazan economy, including the Cash-for-Work program that employs seamstresses, cooks, and repair specialists for farming and fishing equipment to help offset the paralyzing unemployment.
We spoke with Najjar during her brief stay in Portland, a few days before she and her 4-month-old son returned to Gaza at the end of October.
Joanne Zuhl: I understand simply getting here was a major undertaking, what happened?
Isdud Al Najjar: No one can imagine it because it is so difficult. Until you experience it. Just to get outside of Gaza I need an Israeli permit. I need to cross a crossing point that connects Gaza with Israel. It’s not easy to get it. It’s only for international human aid or social workers who can get in and out, or if you have severe health problems and need help.
When I get out of Gaza, I have to also get out through Jordan. When you get out of one, you worry that you can’t get out of the next one at the right time. If I am late, the crossing will be closed and I’ll lose my permit for that date. You get only one day to get through. So when I get back, I’ll have to call the Israelis to get the permit for that day to get from Jordan to the West Bank and then from the West Bank into Gaza.
J.Z.: So an average resident of Gaza is basically trapped.
I.A.N.: The 1.5 million, they cannot go. Because I’m working for an international organization and I’m an aid worker, they can issue me a permit. But generally, it’s been almost impossible. Going back is much easier.
J.Z.: What is an average day like for a resident of Gaza?
I.A.N.: We have more than 40 percent unemployment in Gaza, so most people are poor people and they don’t have anything to do, actually. They chat with their neighbors and sit outside their houses. If they have land, they take care of their land. Eighty percent of the households in Gaza are relying on assistance from the international community, which means that only 20 percent can get their own food. The other 80 percent rely on food assistance from an international agency. They cannot afford their own food. At the crossing points, they are allowing these supplies in. But when they close the crossing points, and there’s a scarcity of food, people panic — mothers more than fathers because the mothers are taking more of the burden on their shoulders because of the unemployment. You have domestic violence because men can become violent on the women and kids. When we have closed borders, people just go mad because they are afraid of the scarcity of food items. They depend on them for their basic needs.
J.Z.: How does that level of unemployment affect the community, the society?
I.A.N.: As a direct result of the unemployment, we have seen an increase in domestic violence. We see an increase in kids who are selling something in the streets. It was once difficult to find kids in the street selling tissues or something, or begging for money. But these days, this is increasing, because families are pushing their kids to go. And there is also an increase in drop-outs from the school, and this has led to a kind of gender discrimination, because if a family is to choose how to educate, they will educate their son and not educate their daughter, because the son could work and help the family, and the daughter will just get married and make the money for her family. So this also could result in early marriage for females. Families sometimes force daughters to get married because they want to be rid of the financial burden of her, even if she doesn’t cost them so much. But because they are poor, they think about her food, her transportation. All of these things are tied into the unemployment and general violence. People get very disappointed and it’s easy to lose there temper and unleash domestic violence on their wives, their kids, their neighbors, whoever.
We talk about the female forced into early marriage. We also have a high rate of divorce these days because of the unemployment.
Also we’re seeing many of the ladies sitting in streets asking for money, and this hasn’t been found in our community at all, really. This is a new phenomenon. All the families are suffering from the same circumstances, and the same conditions, so they will not be able to afford help for her.
Unemployment is also increasing the number of people who need assistance, which increases the burden on the international community to cover the basic needs. Working on this kind of assistance means you can’t go and develop something else, something more. It’s basic needs coverage only, emergency needs.
J.Z.: What challenges do the current conditions present in your work in delivering aid to people?
I.A.N.: Under difficult circumstances, it is getting access to the worst families if they are in a restricted area or in conflicted areas, if there are killings or shootings. In terms of other programs, there are complications in how we can get materials. Because we are talking about helping disadvantaged farmers and irrigating their greenhouses, we need the raw materials for them to build and repair. Because of the siege on Gaza, we are not able to get this material, which makes our work more difficult. So this kind of scarcity of material has sometimes limited our intervention, and for all the international organizations.
We have 5,000 families who have lost their houses, and none of the international organizations or even the government is able to rebuild their houses or offer them a new house because the construction materials are not allowed to enter Gaza.
J.Z.: What are they doing? How are they surviving?
I.A.N.: Some of them are living with their relatives. Others are living in crowded apartments. And some of the organizations can afford some rent and heat, but it does not last for long. They could afford it for the first two months, but that’s it. So it sometimes forces the family to go to very bad conditions, bad apartments or warehouses, and live there. Because also they are unemployed, they cannot pay the fees.
J.Z.: Two years ago, during your work in Gaza shortly after Hamas took over, you said that the NGOs who are operating in the Gaza Strip would have to play the role of the government there because the government will not be able to do it.
I.A.N.: For example, the government should assure that the social affairs are OK. That people are working, students graduate, to take care of needy families. But now 80 percent is relying on food assistance. The government is not able to afford this. So the international organizations are now taking this responsibility.
The governing of basic needs is done by the international community.
J.Z.: You grew up in the region and the conflict all your life. What is there to give people a sense of hope that it can change because it is almost more grim today than it was 30 years ago?
I.A.N.: The humanitarian assistance is required, but also Palestinian people will have to work together. We are asking the international community to play an influential role and push the Israeli side to implement the resolution for a two-state solution. Because we want to live in peace, and we would like the international community to play their role, an active role in this. We know the negotiations have gone on for a while. We know we are the weak party. We are waiting for the international community.
J.Z.: There is international pressure to recognize the blockade as a war crime and a crime against humanity. And the U.N. fact-finding report noting violations on both sides is gaining attention. Does this give you hope for raising awareness of the Palestinian plight?
I.A.N.: We are hoping that something good will happen. But given the circumstances, there is nothing so far to let us be optimistic.
And who is paying the price for all these conflicts taking place? It’s not the government, it’s not the Palestinian Authority, it’s not Hamas. It’s the poorest people, the poor people in Gaza and the West Bank. Because the families are now homeless, they are waiting for an agreement, because they are hoping that the construction material will get in so they can have a shelter. Which is one of the basic rights. It’s then normal Palestinian people and the poor people who are paying the price for all these conflict, for the Israeli-Palestinian or Palestinian-Palestinian issues.
J.Z.: Personally, how do you deal with it?
I.A.N.: For hope, we are not so optimistic at all. Most of the people, they give up. The people are waiting for what kind of solution, we do not know. And I consider it a problem of the Palestinians, they are uniquely adapted. They can adapt to any situation — we stand in line for 10 hours just to get our bread. We will survive. This is the problem. Palestinians have a very strange coping mechanism. It’s strength, but I get mad at that. Whatever situation, we will just adapt, just cope with it.
They have something special because of what they have experienced since 1948, and in 1967 and then the First Intifada and then the Second Intifada, and now you have the ongoing military action ... They’re shooting farmers working on their farms, fisherman at sea — all for security reasons. What kind of danger does a farmer working by his hands do to a soldier, or a tank or a bulldozer? What kind of danger?
We want to live in peace with our neighbors. We are recognizing the existence of Israel, and we would like to live in peace with them. The normal people just want to enjoy life and have their basic human rights. You ask any average Palestinian and they say they want to live in peace, to have a shop and to feed their kids. This is what they want. Nothing more.
Top Photo by Joanne Zhul, bottom, Abu Mustafa