When Gaza Children Dream: Stories Between Pain and Hope

By Muhammad Shaaban, MINA’s Correspondent in Palestine

In a time of suffocating siege on the Gaza Strip, under the increasing human rights violations throughout Palestinian lands, the suffering of children continues ceaselessly. In the face of that oppression, Palestinian kids are actually devising new ways of defending their rights and delivering their dreams and voices to the outside world.

16th October Media Group affiliated with the foreign media unit of the Al-Thuraya Institution for Media and Communication, in partnership with the Palestinian Artists Association and under the auspices of the Malaysian Cultural Center, organized a distinguished artists concert entitled “When Kids Dream” on Saturday, January 29, at Rashad Al-Shawa Theater in Gaza City.

This operetta aims to shed light on national and international humanitarian issues, particularly the suffering of Palestinian children under Israeli occupation. As well, it shows how Palestinians live under systematic Israeli aggressions and deprivations of normal peace-time lives most other people enjoy.

This great operetta can be viewed as the result of 16 consecutive years of the suffocating siege imposed on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation.

The operetta is performed in the Palestinians’ strong belief that art is one of the most important means of conveying authentic Palestinian messages to the world.

Those messages include reminding the world about the human rights of Palestinians guaranteed by international human rights laws and treaties.

This distinguished artistic work is one of the 16th October Media Group’s first achievements for the year 2022, which aims to defend the Palestinian cause, reveal the consecutive violations of the occupation, and export the details internationally by all means possible.

Hadeel Dies, and Palestinian Childhood Dies

“Hadeel is nine! No, sorry! Hadeel was nine. Just this morning, Hadeel was nine.”

This is how the Palestinian child Dina described the crimes of the Israeli occupation committed against innocent Palestinian children without logic or reason.

The Israeli occupation crimes are not limited only to the physical targets of Palestinian citizens, houses and facilities throughout Palestinian lands.

Furthermore, these violations also affect the very real though intangible innocence of Palestinian children. They are deliberately deprived of their dreams and simple joys considered normal to all children around the world in relatively free societies.

The first scene of the operetta showed some of the occupation warfare witnessed by Palestinian kids, as well as the innocent children being killed without guilt or remorse by the occupation.

She asked hauntingly, “Do you know me? I am Rasha, a Palestinian born 13 years ago with the sounds of bombs instead fireworks, and sounds of constant worry and anxiety instead of laughter. I grew up before my time. I am a Palestinian refugee child, who is pursued by the occupation everywhere, whether inside Palestine or abroad!”

In a tragic scene, Mariam expresses her shock at the destruction that occurred after the occupation warplanes targeted her house. From the ruins, she explains, “My father prevented us from leaving our house, and said that there is no safe place in Gaza, thinking that the house is the best place. Our residential building where more than 20 families lived was targeted, and my entire family fell. I looked at my mother while she tried to protect us. But she lost her breath, right in front of me.”

Balsam performed the role of a disabled girl in a wheelchair who was targeted by the occupation during her participation in the peaceful Great Return March. She described the brutality of the occupation and its failure to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate targets.

Balsam recalled, “Although our marches are peaceful, the enemy does not discriminate and targets everything that is Palestinian. They focused on leaving disabilities among the demonstrators in order to kill our determination.”

Describing the daily suffering in Gaza as a result of the continuous power cuts, the little girl Minna asked many questions to the audience and the world: “How long will we stay like this? When will I hear that electricity is available for 24 hours, and the internet is fast enough to follow my lessons?”

In an interview with MINA, the girl Nour Dalloul, 13, a member of 16th October Kids Group, expressed the message of Palestinian children and their suffering.

“We children of Gaza are trapped in a very small piece of land, and we have been living in difficult living conditions for 15 years. We have been deprived of many of our rights, and we have suffered a lot and we still suffer from the consequences of Israeli occupation attacks, and the suffocating siege blockade. We always feel fear, anxiety and insecurity,” Said Nour.

She continued, “Children of my age have survived 5 consecutive wars and 5 consecutive nightmares, so they have become desperate for life even though they are alive. In fact, they are bodies without souls and we are not sure if we will die or that we will survive in the next war.”

Despite Their Suffering, Children of Palestine Can Still Dream

In the final scene of their operetta, the talented children of the 16th October Media Group voiced fragments of their messages and wishes they hope to be heard by the whole world in light of continuous Israeli violations, the suffocating siege on Gaza, and deprivation of even the most basic human rights for Palestinians.

Sarah has a passion for drawing, despite all the difficulties she faces. She says, “I am ten years of oppression and suppression old. I am an artist, and I won many local competitions. My drawings embody our lives under the brutal occupation.” She wondered out loud, “Will 2022, bring happiness to our people, end the occupation, and fulfill my dream of traveling to participate in globally-organized competitions to win?”

Another little girl, Nada, has dreams rich with love and loyalty for Palestine. She told the audience, “My dream is to become an engineer and rebuild my country after the occupation destroyed everything beautiful. My dream is to innovate in architecture that is not related to the occupation allowing building materials to enter the besieged Gaza.”

Unexpectedly, 7-year-old Wafaa shocked the audience with her unusual wish. This innocent child said, “My wish is different from yours. I love my family and I wish to live with them as long as possible. So I hope to die a martyr, not because I love death but because I long for being with my family who were killed by the occupation during the last aggression on my neighborhood.”

Speaking to MINA, Dina Abu Amsha, a member of the kid’s team of the 16th October Media Group, sent a humanitarian message saying, “Children of the world have the time to think about their dreams to make them come true. As for the children of Palestine, the sounds of Israeli warplanes and the bombs of tanks assassinate their simple dreams.”

She added, “My dream is nothing more than living a decent life like the rest of the children in the world. I dream of living my childhood in peace and safety, practice my hobbies and develop my talents. In the future, I will become a doctor, helping the children of the world and eliminating diseases that rob their childhood.”

16th October Media Group Is Voice That Can’t Be Extinguished

Many years ago, the 16th October Media Group committed to the mission of exposing the truth of Israeli occupation crimes against the Palestinians to the world, speaking in a human language that transcends borders in order to defend the Palestinian question and rebuke Israeli occupation crimes.

In her interview with MINA, journalist Wafaa Al-Udaini, director of the 16th October Media Group, and head of the foreign media unit at Al-Thurayya Institution for Media and Communication, said, “16th October Media Group consists of a number of English-speaking Palestinian activists and journalists from Gaza, who serve the Palestinian cause by communicating the Palestinian reality to the international community. They are also working to reveal the crimes and violations of the occupation against the Palestinians, and to refute the occupation’s false narrative.”

This team seeks to make the voice of the Palestinian people who have been suffering from the crimes and violations of the Israeli occupation for decades heard to the world, using the power of youth to spread the Palestinian narrative that the Israeli occupation seeks to silence and obfuscate.

The group’s work focuses mainly on guiding Palestinian youth to defend their cause and communicate their message to the world through media trainings, recorded reports, publishing on social media, preparing press interviews and television programs. In addition, it works on organizing local and international media meetings and webinars.

In her conversation with MINA, Palestinian activist Basma Al-Bayed, a member of the 16th October Media Group, emphasized the group’s importance on the media and humanitarian level, saying, “Believing in the power of the word and our right to resist and defend ourselves, I decided to join the 16th October Media Group, as it is my gateway to the outside world.”

The group is also working on supporting and training English-speaking kids who have been suffering from wars, destruction and bombardment in order to break their silence and talk to the world about their suffering in order to be a spokespeople for Palestinian children.

In the same context, it includes a distinguished team of creative English-speaking children who strive with all their efforts to serve the Palestinian cause and demand their human rights.

Regarding her work within the group, Basma said, “When I joined this distinguished team, I participated in a number of meetings, media seminars, theater performances, as well as field activities, which aim to raise the Palestinian voice to be heard everywhere, and to tell the world that there are people on the land of Palestine is still resisting the occupation until its demise.”

In its vision, 16th October Media Group seeks to create a distinguished English-speaking youth media cadre, capable of conveying the Palestinian message and narrative to the whole world and refuting the false Israeli narratives and allegations, as well as documenting and revealing the crimes of the occupation and its violations committed against the Palestinians in all parts of Palestine and abroad. (AKG/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)