The sixteenth edition of Messages from Gaza created by the White Kite Collective is dedicated to the journalists in Gaza. Cultural workers and journalists gathered at the Arcola to give voice to those suffering in Gaza. These are glimpses of a modern tragedy from which Western arms manufacturers and investment companies profit.
According to a February United Nations report, “since 7 October, over 122 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza”.
Those still reporting from Gaza do so in appalling conditions. Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif says: “we slept in hospitals, we slept in shelters, we slept in the streets and on highways, we slept inside vehicles and cars. We were displaced more than 20 times, from one place to another, from one area to another… We don’t sleep for days as a result of the continuous bombing and shelling... it is often difficult to get to the site of an incident because there are no vehicles or cars available, we would go by cart or on foot to reach a place that was targeted.”
Refusing the Israeli order to stop reporting from the north of Gaza, his home was bombed, killing his father in the blast. He survived.
The Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Al-Ghoul suffered a similar experience. Back in March, Israel raided Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, detaining him and other journalists who were blindfolded with hands tied behind their backs for hours. At the end of July, they claimed he was a Hamas operative and assassinated him. Al Jazeera rejected the allegation. As usual, Israel provided no evidence for their claim.
He wrote: “let me tell you, my friend, that I no longer know the taste of sleep. The bodies of children and the screams of the injured and their blood-soaked images never leave my sight. The cries of mothers and the wailing of men who are missing their loved ones never fade from my hearing. I can no longer bear the sound of children’s voices from beneath the rubble… I am tired, my friend…”
The journalist Ayah Walid Shama survived an Israeli bombing of her home, killing all but one of her children. She was trapped below a collapsed floor, her surviving child Nasser aged six “was crying and screaming, trying to grab the tips of my fingers, the only part of me he could see… I started calling out to my son, trying to calm and reassure him that I was okay, until my brother and the neighbours heard his voice half an hour later and rescued him. He then guided them to my location.”
This is the education we are giving the children of Gaza as the world watches and occasionally reports that Israel did something positive, such as allowing the polio vaccine into Gaza.
Hossam Madhoun, the co-Artistic Director of Theatre for Everybody, comments: “today, Israel allowed the polio vaccine to enter Gaza, but they do not allow enough food, so they create famine. They do not allow health products and supplies, so thousands of patients and injured people die (including my mother and my sister-in-law). They do not allow hygienic products, so diseases spread among the people of Gaza, skin diseases, waterborne diseases, and so much more. They do not allow tents so people can use them as alternative shelters after the bombing and the destruction of their homes. They do not allow the international media to enter Gaza, so their crimes won’t be documented. They do not allow clothes, cigarettes, fruit, and thousands of basic needs, so they create a humanitarian crisis among the living people. And they continue bombing, shelling, striking, and killing more and more people.”
A journalist's job can place them in danger. Even their reports can make them unpopular with Israel, which doesn’t hesitate to remove anyone who bothers them. But nowhere is safe in Gaza.
Mahmoud Al Shaer, an editor and poet, describes waking in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Gaza during the night of 10 September to the sounds of six explosions just thirty metres away. Israel described these as a “precise target”. It left Mahmoud covered in blood. He left his home wearing just his shorts and T-shirt accompanied by his wife Hadeel and daughter Nai. He says, “I am in the humanitarian zone. I look at my language, my experience, what I have built, and I see that I am a body without meaning. I search for meaning and find only pain. I search for hope and see my friends bringing news of loss again and again. I search for meaning and find none.
"Your solidarity and engagement with me have made me feel like my words are seeds spreading on the ground, breaking free from the chains of this war of annihilation. Please continue to liberate me by using my words and sharing them.“
Many at the event speak the messages in tribute to personal family or friends killed in Gaza. One of those was the grieving Ahmed Najjar who in Arabic spoke a poem by his cousin Rashad Abu Sakhilah, the youngest Gazan poet ever to be published. This month, he was killed at age 23 with many of his family.
The stories we hear are mostly disturbing, but the evening did include moments of poetic hope, as in the poem “Antizionist abecedarian” by the Jewish sam sax spoken by Barnaby Raine, which finishes with the words, “yesterday a bird flew through an airport & I watched that border zone collapse under its basic wings.”
Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd argues, “we are required, as writers and journalists, to have a backbone... I am demanding: decolonizing the press or controlling the means of (knowledge) production... engaging in journalism rooted in respect for oneself, one’s people, and one’s craft. It is about journalists refusing to become state-secretaries."
Many thoughtful contributions from the packed audience and the panel of journalists point to the collective power of mass protest and the success of divestment campaigns.
One of the panel argued that, “the media lies have never been this exposed, now social media points to their lies. Gaza is the back end of an empire that ruled for centuries. They don’t give a shit for human life. The door is ajar we need to kick it in.”
The Arcola has from the formation of the White Kite Collective supported its work, including waiving fees for the performance space. All the money from ticket sales at this sold-out performance goes to the charities International Media Support, which supports safety and freedom of expression for journalists, and the youth-led Palestinian organisation in Gaza We Are Not Numbers, which helps mentor and publish new Palestinian writers.
Twelve hours after this event, Israel showed its contempt for international law and journalism in the West Bank, which the United Nations insists is illegally occupied by Israel and the Oslo Agreement insists is under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Armed Israeli soldiers marched into the offices of Al Jazeera, confiscated broadcast equipment and ordered them closed.
It reminds us how necessary it is that UK theatres are agreeing to audience demands to give witness to the voices of Palestinians that Israel is trying to erase. Palestinians should not be silenced.