Writing in the daily PA newspaper Al-Ayam last Sunday, Hamed was not shy in accusing his fellow residents of not knowing how to take advantage of the opportunity granted them to manage their own affairs.
Excerpts:
"Walking the streets of Gaza, you get the feeling that you have to close your eyes: anarchy everywhere, policemen who don't care about public order, boys carrying guns, people setting up condolence tents in the middle of the street, and murders between rival families. Gaza has become a garbage dump, with a stink everywhere and sewage everywhere. The government can't do a thing, the opposition watches, the two sides fight between them, the Presidency is helpless; we have caught the bug of apathy.
"I remember that when the occupation left Gaza [last summer], the masses of all the factions and movements came out to the streets to celebrate, with each faction carrying its own flag. We went out to scream and to say that the enemy had failed and retreated.... But no one had an answer for what to do the day after. We heard much about a 'shining sparkling future' and 'turning Gaza into a commercial and industrial center.' ...But it appears that our 'culture of life' has disappeared; life in Gaza has become a nightmare and an unbearable burden! ....
"I'm not trying to justify the criminal occupation and its crimes; that is something that all the Palestinians know. But I would like to note our mistakes. We are always afraid to talk about our mistakes; we are used to always casting the blame on the occupation. My question is: The anarchy, the security problem, the arbitrary killing, the stealing of lands, the clashes between families - how is all this connected to the occupation?
"...The question is why we didn't preserve the achievement of the 'liberation'? Didn’t we say that we were fighting for the liberation of every centimeter of our land? And today we have 365 square kilometers at our disposal, and yet we haven't succeeded in maintaining them and we have lost them [in favor of] slogans and banners."
Excerpts:
"Walking the streets of Gaza, you get the feeling that you have to close your eyes: anarchy everywhere, policemen who don't care about public order, boys carrying guns, people setting up condolence tents in the middle of the street, and murders between rival families. Gaza has become a garbage dump, with a stink everywhere and sewage everywhere. The government can't do a thing, the opposition watches, the two sides fight between them, the Presidency is helpless; we have caught the bug of apathy.
"I remember that when the occupation left Gaza [last summer], the masses of all the factions and movements came out to the streets to celebrate, with each faction carrying its own flag. We went out to scream and to say that the enemy had failed and retreated.... But no one had an answer for what to do the day after. We heard much about a 'shining sparkling future' and 'turning Gaza into a commercial and industrial center.' ...But it appears that our 'culture of life' has disappeared; life in Gaza has become a nightmare and an unbearable burden! ....
"I'm not trying to justify the criminal occupation and its crimes; that is something that all the Palestinians know. But I would like to note our mistakes. We are always afraid to talk about our mistakes; we are used to always casting the blame on the occupation. My question is: The anarchy, the security problem, the arbitrary killing, the stealing of lands, the clashes between families - how is all this connected to the occupation?
"...The question is why we didn't preserve the achievement of the 'liberation'? Didn’t we say that we were fighting for the liberation of every centimeter of our land? And today we have 365 square kilometers at our disposal, and yet we haven't succeeded in maintaining them and we have lost them [in favor of] slogans and banners."