Hamas loses youth support
Report/coment from 1)GYBO, 2) NY Times and 3) Ynet. Plus the Yeats poem in Notes and Links
Protest against Hamas rule in Gaza. Photo by Mohammed Abed / AFP
Gaza youth break wall of silence
By Gaza Youth Breaks Out (GYBO), Facebook
April 30, 2015
I came across a piece of poem by Yeats, while studying literature today, that illustrates many Gazans’ lives in recent years:
* “The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind,
In balance this life, this death.”
±±±±±±
Gaza youth breaks out holds Hamas responsible for the safety of the youth of Gaza who has were attacked and arrested in today’s protest..
Today’s protest was a breaking of the wall of silence and the youth of Gaza will be out again and again until our demands are met..
#EnoughSuffering #EnoughPain #EnoughSiege
Hamas police beat, arrest protesters at Gaza rally
By AFP / Ynet
April 30, 2015
GAZA CITY — Police in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip beat and arrested protesters on Wednesday at a youth rally in the north of the besieged coastal territory, an AFP correspondent said.
More than 400 demonstrators gathered in Shujaiyeh, a neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City that was razed during a July-August war between Hamas and Israel, urging reconstruction and calling for an end to intra-Palestinian division.
Plainclothes police officers entered the crowd, beating a number of protesters without causing serious injury, the AFP correspondent said.
They then arrested at least seven people, according to witnesses.
The Hamas-run interior ministry said in a statement that the crowd had grown violent, forcing police to intervene “to protect the lives of those participating, after which calm prevailed”.
The Gaza war, which killed over 2,200 Palestinians and 73 on the Israeli side, has left 100,000 people homeless in the tiny coastal territory, home to 1.8 million people.
Reconstruction of homes has barely begun.
Hamas and their West Bank-based rivals Fatah have failed to implement a unity deal they signed in April last year.
The deal was meant to hand over control of Gaza to the Western-supported Palestinian Authority, which Fatah dominates.
With Hamas continuing to control Gaza, Israel has left in place its eight-year blockade, which has largely banned the import of building materials, fearing they could be used by militants to make weapons.
Gaza Protesters Beaten and Detained by Hamas Security Officials, Witnesses Say
By Majd Al Waheidi, Ma’an news
April 29, 2015
GAZA CITY — A rare show of defiance against Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that controls Gaza, was quelled on Wednesday as men who appeared to be Hamas security officials beat some protesters and detained others, witnesses said.
Men in plainclothes believed to be Hamas security officials interrupted the demonstration, beat men and women with sticks and herded people into jeeps, said one protester, Fadi al-Sheikh Yousef. There were no reported injuries among the crowd, estimated at 150 to 200.
Palestinian activists in Gaza said the demonstration was meant as a call for political change and freedom. They said they also hoped that it would draw attention to the dire conditions they lived under, including unemployment, poverty and Israeli restrictions.
Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 and has crushed all opposition to its rule. The last demonstration against Hamas was more than four years ago.
In the West Bank, the rival Palestinian Authority has cracked down on suspected Hamas loyalists.
Hamas police beat, arrest protesters at Gaza rally
More than 400 protesters gathered in east Gaza neighbourhood urging reconstruction and end to intra-Palestinian division.
By AFP/Ynet
April 29, 2015
Police in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip beat and arrested protesters on Wednesday at a youth rally in the north of the Palestinian territory, an AFP correspondent said.
More than 400 demonstrators gathered in Saja’iya, a neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City that was razed during the July-August war between Hamas and Israel, urging reconstruction and calling for an end to intra-Palestinian division.
Plainclothes police officers entered the crowd, beating a number of protesters without causing serious injury, the AFP correspondent said.
They then arrested at least seven people, according to witnesses.
The Hamas-run interior ministry said in a statement that the crowd had grown violent, forcing police to intervene “to protect the lives of those participating, after which calm prevailed”.
The summer war left 100,000 people homeless in the coastal territory, home to 1.8 million people.
Reconstruction of homes has barely begun.
Hamas and their West Bank-based rivals Fatah have failed to implement a unity deal they signed in April last year.
The deal was meant to hand over control of Gaza to the Western-supported Palestinian Authority, which Fatah dominates.
With Hamas continuing to control Gaza, Israel has left in place its eight-year blockade, which has largely banned the import of building materials, fearing they could be used by militants to make weapons.
Notes and links
* An Irish Airman Foresees His Death by WB Yeats, 1918
I know that I shall meet my fate,
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.