PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Pittsburghers in Palestine
by hotsauce Wednesday, Sep. 24, 2003 at 12:06 PM

Eyewitness reports from Pittsburghers in Palestine, and how to contact and support them.

Hey, we recently had two Pittsburghers in Palestine. Jonas just came back from the West Bank and Laura is still in Gaza. Jonas is putting together a website with pictues and stories and Laura writes eyewitness reports from Palestine.

If you would like occasional email from Laura about life in Gaza, write to her at horia@riseup.net and she will be happy to put you on her list. Real news is so hard to get from our corporate media, so we are lucky to have people getting the word out. Please pass the word--these people are risking their lives to get the truth out.

Laura's stories are also published on the site http://electronicintifada.net/ . I'm posting a part of a recent email from her below. Fight the good fight!

Laura writes:

"It was Yom il-Jumaa ("Friday") and she had been fasting all morning with me. I gave her some money and told her to go buy something to eat, she was only eight and there was no reason for her to fast. She went on bicycle. She bought wafers, chips, and a popcycle and rode back. A tank was shooting from the Neve Dekalim settlement which borders their neighborhood. It shot her through the heart, she fell from her bicycle, we found her covered in blood, all the snacks she had just bought to break her fast, covered in blood, her hands still holding onto them."

Her uncle pitches in. "I didn't recognize her when I saw her in the hospital. I said, 'This isn't Ayya. Ayya is b'khair ("in good health").' She was covered in blood and I couldn't tell it was her. Her mother was there and she told me it's Ayya. I couldn't believe it."

More pictures are passed around of Ayya four months ago against a garden backdrop taken in a local studio. Ayya's new backpack. Ayya's new school uniform, unworn and fresh, pinstripes too blue, sleeves too empty of little girl arms.

"She wanted a guava that morning but we didn't have any guava. We said we'd buy her some the next morning, but she was killed."

Six other children were injured in this shooting including one girl who lost her legs. No adults were in the area at the time, it was just tanks against kids.

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