Gaza Forgotten - A Woman’s Journey to an Open-Air Prison

By Shenaaz Farred

‘I am not a writer. I never intended to write this book, but the Almighty Allah has plans for all of us.’

In August 2011, the Africa 1 Aid Convoy set off from South Africa to travel up the length of the continent and enter Gaza via Egypt. The convoy had been made possible by the generosity of Muslims all over South Africa. One of the people attached to the project was Shenaaz Farred from Johannesburg. Gaza was being bombarded by Israel at the time. Nevertheless the convoy entered with its precious cargo of medical supplies, generators, water desalination units, and sundry educational requirements. What happened during the seven days of their visit forms the substance of this book. Among the detritus of war the inextinguishable spirit of humanity shines through.

Shenaaz Farred writes with extraordinary compassion yet with an equally extraordinary absence of rancour. She has been married for thirty-eight years and has four children and ten

grandchildren. Her passion for charity work drove her into the heart of Gaza and back.

‘I love Gaza and the people there. I will continue to do all I can to join hands with them and support them in their time of need.’

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shenaaz Farred
• Release date: Sep 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781928276920

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© Shenaaz Farred 2017

First published in 2017 by

Porcupine Press

PO Box 2756

Pinegowrie, 2123

South Africa

[e-mail]

www.porcupinepress.co.za

ISBN: 978-1-928276-51-7

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Foreword

IN THE NAME of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praise is due to the Almighty who granted my sister Shenaaz this wonderful opportunity to have her experiences put into a book form for people to read and through the written word and photographs, experience what we experienced when we visited Gaza in 2011.

Ever since I first met Shenaaz many years ago, she was involved in fund raising and awareness, especially for Palestine and the people of Gaza. For the Africa 1 Aid Convoy, we spent many weekends traveling to various parts of our beautiful country to meet wonderful people, who, like us, wanted to find out more about the plight of our brothers and sister in Palestine and especially those living and struggling in the Gaza Strip and contribute in any way to the easing of the difficulties in their lives.

May the Almighty continue to bless Shenaaz for her efforts and grant the fruits of her efforts to continue to be of benefit to the people of Gaza in the way she intended. May the Almighty continue to watch over the people of Palestine & especially Gaza and keep them steadfast on their course for liberation. Ameen.

Wa Salaam,

Gatoon

Chapter 1

How do I write the unrightable wrong?

Africa 1 Aid Convoy 2011 – My Journey,

My Experience and My Broken Heart

BISMILLAH-IR-RAHMAN-IR-RAHIM (In the name of (God) Allah the Beneficent, the Most Merciful). As Salaamu Alaikum Warahmatullaahi Wabarakhaatuhu (Peace be upon you with the Mercy and Blessings of Allah).

I hope that when you read this book you are in the best of health In Shaa Allah (By the will of God) Allah (swt).

Undoubtedly there are thousands of books like this but what you have before you is what I saw with my naked eye and experienced first-hand; it is a book written in a simple style with a bit of documented data. My intention was never to go to Gaza, come back and write a book. It was the pain and sadness bottled up in a part of my body called a ‘heart’ that made me decide to write this book and I beg Allah to accept this book as an act of worship, only for His pleasure.

All Praise is due to Allah, The Most Gracious, Most Merciful, All-Knowing, All-Seeing, Master of all that is in existence, The Supreme, The Omnipotent, The Magnificent. There is none worthy of Worship besides Allah, and Muhammad (Sallallahu Wa Alayhi Wasalam) is the messenger of Allah.

For this Ummah to see the help of Allah, like it came in the time of Sahabah we have to propagate Deen and invite mankind towards good and forbid from evil and follow our Nabi (saw). Allah says if you claim to love me then you must love my Nabi and follow my Nabi then only you will love me, then you will stand firm against the enemy. For me the enemy was and still is the Zionist extremists in Israel.

The Gaza Strip was bombarded by thousands of tons of Israeli bombs from air, sea and land. The bombs resulted in devastating damage to thousands of houses, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, churches among other civil infrastructure in Gaza.

The experience I have is that my heart will be engraved with the scenes of suffering and painful stories that will remain with me forever. The Africa 1 Aid Convoy team of 67 brothers and sisters took great strides towards death without fear or the desire to retreat. We were willing to sacrifice ourselves in anticipation of the reward of Allah and to learn about the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Gaza. I get very emotional when I speak about the Gaza, so writing is the better option for me, and although it took me a long time to write this book, it was because I could not stop thinking. The only way to put my message across was to put pen to paper. I can’t believe that a week in Gaza has made such an impact on my life. Sacrifice is part of nature but the excruciating pain and suffering that a mother in Gaza has to endure is disturbing and humiliating. I can’t comprehend and understand why we have so much hatred in this world when there is so much love to give.

My visit was the most heart-wrenching and saddest emotional journey I have ever been on. I left my heart in Gaza. I have seen the destruction with my own eyes and it has ripped my soul apart.

I have come back with a message especially for our women, that the stories and pictures in this book will hopefully awaken the unmindful amongst us and give hope to the desperate sisters in the Gaza. No one deserves it more than them; they are the ones bearing the unbearable sorrow and live where the brave dare not go.

This is a story that relates to a woman, a daughter, a sister, a mother, a grandmother and most of all a God-fearing human. As I sit and write this, my thoughts become words and my words become tears; tears of joy and tears of sadness. I am overcome with sadness and by the distance I find myself in with Gaza so far away. How we reached what we thought was unreachable.

I came back from Gaza a while ago and am still deeply disturbed. I witnessed the suffering, the displacement of people, the destruction of homes and children left orphaned. I know deep in my heart I would never be able to live the life that the Palestinian brothers and sisters are living and yet I long to be part of that sacrifice, pain and Sabur (patience). Will Allah take me back again? Only He knows, yet my heart longs and yearns to be there, to go back to Gaza. The place we all Muslims long to go and visit and most of all, the place we want to see prosper and grow economically, like every other country in the world, where its citizens can live freely and happily and watch their children grow up, get married and become parents and grandparents. But just becoming a mother or a grandmother is a dream for many women in Gaza, and Allah has his reasons for this. He wants the people of Palestine to never lose hope. Why are they being deprived of life by heartless people who call themselves humans? Are these people actually human? If they were why would they watch little children suffer and die?

How many more babies does Netanyahu want to see murdered before he stops the killing? He has proved himself to be one of the most arrogant leaders in the history of the modern world. How can he and the people of Israel enjoy the land they have stolen and still want to breathe the air? I know this is not what Islam teaches us. Islam is a religion of peace and so we will leave him to the Highest, Allah.

What’s happening in Gaza is not a matter of power or how technologically advanced the Israelis are, but rather a matter of humanity. It is a matter that will go down in history as a conflict in which one country denied another the right to exist for the simple reason of greed. There is no question of security concerns for Israel. But Palestine will never give up fighting for what is rightfully its own, and we must stand with them in joining hands and showing our support, by writing books like these and exposing their plight to the world. We have to carry on until the world knows we care and will never stop caring and making dua (prayer) for the freedom of the Palestinian people.

Israel wants Palestine. It is simply greed for something that was never theirs. Having the third largest army in the world and attacking people who do not even have an army is brutal and cruel. This greed is depriving fellow human beings the basic necessities of life such as water.

My stomach is fluttering like I have butterflies crawling inside and my heart feels like it’s skipping a beat. My throat has a huge lump in it and I am fighting back the tears trying not to remember the sadness, but the good that came out of my visit. Every day I sit and I feel extremely restless. It is more difficult than I thought it would be; my mind strays frequently to the scenes of the suffering in Gaza and it weighs heavily on my mind. I can’t get the images of the children out of my mind. Some of them with no limbs and deeply scarred both physically and emotionally, their families killed by the Israeli army and living in orphanages. Faces flashing in front of me and they will only be erased by my death one day. I have to live with this for the rest of my life; thinking non-stop about the brothers and sisters in Gaza who have to