By Minaz Kerawala, Communications and Public Relations Advisor
Our Advent stories this year are harrowing yet heartening accounts sent to us from the Holy Land by our partner, Caritas Jerusalem. As the world has stood by watching, nearly 45,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 have been injured in Gaza over the past 14 months. But even with Israeli bombs raining around them, obliterating life and all that sustains it, Caritas Jerusalem has vowed, “We remain committed to our mission of peace and hope.” These are the stories of their staff, who surmount unimaginable challenges to deliver aid and succour, an effort enabled in part by the generosity of Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada’s supporters.
“We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”
― Romans 5:3-4
Dr. Mohammed Suleiman Shbeir is eloquent in his testimony. But he need not have been. The devastation of Gaza that he describes is obvious―visible in his backdrop of broken buildings and crowded camps, to say nothing of the heartbreaking images inundating the internet for over 14 months.
As a legal advisor working for our partner Caritas Jerusalem, Mohammed has been in the thick of Israel’s carnage in Gaza. “As soon as the war broke out, we saw death everywhere,” he reported.
Like innumerable Palestinians, he has lost precise count of his forced displacements. Reckoning his last move to have been his seventh one, Mohammed recounted, “We were first displaced to the Mawasi area in Khan Yunis, then to the Al-Masdar area, then to the Rafah area, and finally back to the Mawasi area again. Now, we have returned to the central area, specifically on the western side of the Central Governorate.”
Losses beyond life and limb
Israel’s intent and effect are evident in the now sadly well-known casualty numbers. But it is on the affect of the victims that the war has had the most monstrous impacts.
It is a testament to their grit and good humour that the Palestinian people had managed to create a sense of normalcy in the most abnormal of circumstances. Under Israeli occupation or siege for decades, they had learnt to cope with the checkpoints, the restrictions, the detentions, the shortages and countless daily indignities.
“Prior to the war, our lives were almost normal. We still faced challenges, but it was relatively stable. It was a familiar life in the Gaza Strip,” Mohammed said, adding that they could do their work “passionately and energetically.”
“We lost our work and the energy to pursue it,” he said of the situation since the war began. “We no longer cared about anything except providing the minimum necessities of life. We lost our sense of safety and security.”
The lifeblood of the people
Israel kept bombing Gaza. The West kept supplying the bombs and bombers or issuing statements for a ceasefire while stalling UN resolutions to make one happen. Meanwhile, Gazans faced acute scarcities of food, fuel, water and healthcare.
“In the heart of this suffering,” Mohammed said stoically, “we found an artery that pumped hope into the souls of the agonized and displaced Gazans.”
If Caritas Jerusalem is the artery, the very marrow that makes the lifeblood it bears is the solidarity of the global Caritas family―people like you. With incredible resourcefulness and at incalculable risk, Caritas Jerusalem has stretched every dollar you have donated to reach thousands upon thousands of people.
It was an all-hands-on-deck situation. “At our offices, we were no longer just legal advisors,” Mohammed recalled. “We became a humanitarian team that volunteered to carry out urgent humanitarian initiatives for the displaced people in the camps.” They disbursed small cash grants to the most impoverished families and provided shelter, water, food and medical help to displaced people.
But what Mohammed and those he served treasured the most were “the events.” These small gatherings, sponsored by Caritas Jerusalem, provided much-needed avenues for diversion and camaraderie to adults and recreation and entertainment to children. Mohammed mentioned “Caritas, Caritas” becoming a popular cheer among the kids.
An audacious, tenacious hope
Mohammed is proud and glad that Caritas Jerusalem has been “able to put smiles on the faces of the young and the old.” Still, he knows that their efforts represent “just a drop in the ocean of the enormous humanitarian needs of the people in the Gaza Strip.” His realism, however, does not dampen his optimism.
“Despite the cruelty of this war, the catastrophic pain it has caused… I am absolutely sure that this war is an exception in our lives and that it will end,” he said, adding, “Our days and lives will return to normal. Human beings are meant to live in peace and security, and both will prevail.”
In this season of joy, please keep expressing your solidarity through generosity so that our partners can offer optimism to oppressed people and turn suffering into smiles in the Holy Land and around the world.
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