Contextualization videos

The Gaza strip is under siege by Israel and Egypt. The Israeli military controls and restricts the traffic of people and goods to and from Gaza. It also sporadically bombs Gaza. In December 2019, we went to Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine, and interviewed Palestinians who used to live in Gaza, but had left for Ramallah. We asked them about their daily lives in Gaza and about their hopes and dreams. For example, we asked them to tell us a happy memory from Gaza and a sad memory from Gaza. We asked about the differences between life in Gaza and Ramallah, and we asked what they miss from Gaza. Here, you can see videos of our interviews. We thank Fatima AbdulKarim for arranging the interviews. (Filming and editing: Joona Pettersson.)

Ola, works at a research center in fundraising, reporting and event planning. Left Gaza in 2008.

Mahmud, human rights worker. Left Gaza in 2013.

Waliid, web developer. Left Gaza in 1998.

Akram, left Gaza in 2019.

Haneedi, left Gaza in 2019. Studied psychology in Gaza.

Haneedi talks about daily life in Gaza and the hardships she faced as a single mother.

Some other resources on Gaza

We Are Not Numbers - an organization which collects stories from Gaza
Information on Gaza by the Israeli human rights organization Gisha
Information on Gaza by Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Information on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Gaza and West Bank) by the UN

Books about Gaza

Amira Hass (1996): Drinking the Sea at Gaza - Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege
Mads Gilbert (2009): Eyes in Gaza (published in Finnish as Silminnäkijänä Gazassa)
Laila El-Haddad (2010): Gaza Mom (published in Finnish as Gazamom)
Max Blumenthal (2015): The 51 Day War - Ruin and Resistance in Gaza

Resources on Palestine

Rafeef Ziadah's spoken word poem "We teach life, sir"
Palestinian Voices in Finland (@palivoicesfin) on Instagram
ICAHD Finland (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Finland) on Facebook