The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

inging in other men and even children. A six-year-old child was
brought in; my mother-in-law went to a soldier with the child she did
not know, and shouted: “How many times did I tell you!”, and hit him.
The soldier was shocked, thinking she was his mother or aunt, and said,
“Next time, you have to obey your aunt,” and let mim free. We stayed
there for many hours; the women were talking to each other and watch -
ing out for the men that got released. They knew the functions of the
different buildings; they knew who was kept only for hours, and who
would go to prison. My mother-in-law told one of the lawyers that my
husband had had an operation just some days before and that he
couldn’t squat. And the lawyer convinced the soldiers to let him sit
comfortably and my husband looked at us with deep anger because he
felt advantaged over the others. People sent some warmer clothes
from home, but they were not handed over, they didn’t even give the
men water. I wanted to go home, but my mother-in-law said, “Stay
here, he needs to see us”, and after a few hours, the men were released.
We couldn’t find jobs. We decided to visit my grandmother in Gaza, and
got a special permit to go to there for ten days. On the way to Gaza, on
the highway, I saw the Palestine I had heard about, the green fields and
the water irrigation systems. When we got to the Erez crossing, the soldiers
didn’t stop us, and we went to the centre of Gaza City. Driving
through Erez, we saw the difference, roads with holes, garbage every -
where, hardly any difference between refugee camps and villages, as
most houses were unfinished. My uncle waited for us at the main intersection
of Erez, and we met many relatives. I enjoyed Gaza, but it was
shocking at that same time. I liked many things in Gaza: I liked the Gaza
people, I liked the fact that the Israeli army was not present, the way it
was in the West Bank, that there were no settlements on hills, and I
loved the Mediterranean Sea. It seemed to be a better place than the
West Bank. Both of us loved it and we decided to look for jobs there. In
December 1994, we moved to Gaza.
With that, a rather good period started. Gaza became an enormous
workshop for everything. Funds started to come in, the Authority was
there, and for the first time in years, the Gazans could stay outside at
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