There was shade of the pine trees and there was a pleasant breeze and there was coffee. For a brief moment there was a rumble of SUVs debating at the crossroads where to turn and finally turning in the opposite direction. The silence dropped to Good Friday afternoon in the summer heat. And there we were Shmulik, Hayuta and I talking in matters of Dumas.
At a quarter past three, when we were already thinking of shortening a bit in the lighthouse, Maharan and Ibrahim appeared. After coffee and blessings, Maharan offered to lead a “circle” and asked Ibrahim to say what Gaza is for him.
Ibrahim earns his living by operating a concrete sawing machine, a childhood friend of Maharan. He accepted his invitation to come to the lighthouse. Gaza, says Ibrahim, is a narrow place for 1.5 million people. A large prison. Need peace to solve the problem. The problem is between governments. That is, short and to the point.
Maharan opens and says that this week he was in Nablus. Went to buy a suit at an upscale store. There, an officer from the PA met and a conversation ensued. Ask him about Gaza. The officer said they are two separate entities and he does not even know what is going on there. He added that for some time there has been no contact with Gaza and they will not return there. Mahran adds his own insights and says that Abbas traveled to Turkey to promote gas drilling in front of Gaza. If Hamas takes over the West Bank, he says, that is the end of the PA and therefore Abbas with the Turks, to build support. Gaza is becoming more and more crowded and Lebanon is also an explosive barrel…
Shmulik tells about a tour we (he and I) did in the city of Lod. An initiative of the “Zochrot” organization. They are handing out maps of the Palestinian settlements that were destroyed in the 48th war. The young people are “warriors” and declare that they will fight for their homes and rights.
A woman whose mother was 8 at the time of deportation told us about her family history and past trauma. A student points in the direction of her home and says that in order to reach it now, she must pass by the yeshiva established by young Jews and they “make troubles”. Shmulik concludes, the atmosphere in Lod is not calm yet and there is a lot of anger.
Hayutal declares that she is not “politically eager” like Shmulik and Oded… she sometimes comes to give power… In her opinion, the current Israeli government is changing the atmosphere a bit and she seems to be coming to do the work. But that does not change about Gaza…
I was “caught” this week by two subjects. One is the refusal of the Israeli authorities to allow political activist Khaleda Jarrar to accompany her daughter Suha, who died suddenly at the age of 30. The refusal was mainly based on reasons of permit and bureaucracy. Who exacly has a legal possibility to initiate such a move…

The second issue was the already serious water situation in the Gaza Strip, when since the military “round” of May the situation has worsened because Israel does not allow the introduction of equipment for repairing water and sewage pipes. The security system defines as “humanitarian” only what enters Gaza Strip and equipment for repairing pipes does not fall under this definition. The result is polluted water and not even suitable for a shower. I hung this moral failure on a particular person, but because politics is not talking in a circle, I will not expand…

We were: Hayuta, Ibrahim, Shmulik, Maharan and Oded.

Rote: Oded