before I start I apolgize if I say “I” so much , I’m telling my personal experience and I’m not a professional reporter , so I’m sorry if this wasn’t a professional report.
feedback : Palestine is country teared by occupation since 1948 , and by division to two non-official countries in 2007 , one is Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas party , and the other is West Bank ruled by Fatah party
logos of most powerfull factions in palestine
in February people from Palestine called for a demonstration against division at the egyptian-tunisian style , I joint and started inviting people to such patriotic event because its my duty, few mini demonstrations held by some youth and others by Hamas and minor factions occurred in the few weeks before , but the main event was at the 15th of march , we were counting days til it was the day
it’s patriotism that moved me that day to Alkateba square , not knowing how will it end , I woke up that day and went to my friend’s house “Ahmed” and we called someone who told us “we moved the demonstration to alkateba square”it was Planned to be in “the unknown soldier’s square” but Hamas followers went there and refused to rise Palestinian flag they raised their own flag forgetting they are Palestinians too , many young people demanded they Rise Palestinian flag but they refused and it ended to clashes and the police “which is linked to Hamas” step in and jailed many young people.
the unknown soldier square
Al-Kateba square
many of the youth went home saying “it’s ruined” but some moved to “alkateba square” a bigger square that held 1 million demonstrator before in 2007 at a national day” me and my friend Ahmed arrived there hoping to join what left of the crowds and so it was , there were almost 50.000 person demonstrating there and some are coming individually , no one was rising a political flag but Palestinian flag and some posters say “end division” I lost Ahmed few minutes later but I joint some people and split from them and joint others many times , it’s easy to lose people in the middle of crowds
picture from the demonstration
a noticeable thing is the influence of Egyptian revolution and humor in the posters some said ” end division I want to take a shower” others say “end it my fiance is waiting for me” and others which have humor kind of revolution
end it guys I got a date with my fiance
women there were getting more in numbers and in such a crowded demonstration that could end bad , some youth built a small fence built by sticks and a rope to separate us , it’s a good thing in a conservative society like ours not to mix both genders , we dont want troubles to happen , a “Hamas-leaded” demonstration tried to enter there with Hamas flags , we blocked them and said slogans in front of media “only Palestinian flag , only Palestinian flag” few stones were thrown , I went to front and stretched my arms as a challenge telling them you can’t enter the square if you are political leaded and it’s only pure patriotism there , they flee , the first time a Hamas protected demonstration to do so since they take over Gaza in 2007 , but also police disappeared from the region.
at 1 pm I went home to eat some lunch and get back there , at 3 pm I went back carrying some food and water with me to help people stay , some people were building their tents and journalists were video taping many were foreign press , we didnt see “aljazeera” there tho , one of the strongest arabic news channels
aljazeerah slogan
some people light some fire to fight the coldness as it was getting cold
people grouping around fire to warm up
a van came in with loud speakers launching slogans , I dont know who came with it but it said anti-division slogans and so I agreed with it , people formed circles around it and were jumping and repeating the slogans I joint too , after that I got joined with Ahmed again and few other friends , they said they will stay the night there and he and a friend of his went to stay the night in the square , a friend of mine who is also a reporter came with another group of my friends we went looking for someone when my friend -the reporter- told us Hamas took video tapes from journalists minutes ago and he is expecting a suppressive action from them , it was 07:00-07:30 when he said so…
I witnessed the attack , I was a little far from seeing what is happening but the news I got are the following
Hamas people seized all press materials that can prove this demonstration 15 mins before the attack , lucky I kept mine on mopile
at 7:00 or 7:30 – I can’t tell for sure - Hamas militants started a wave of attacks with jeeps running into the crowds and men armed with clubs driving motorcycles started beating people and grappling them to be jailed for practising their righ of speech
during the attack tents were burnt with people inside from “Pharmacy Guild of Palestine” and after they escaped it they were beaten up , journalists were beaten up , everyone was running from them , but when they saw them attacking women and grappling their hair and calling them with Obscene words and crushing their bones many young men went to clash with only hands against them , and were brutally beaten , hitting a woman is one none-forgiveble insult in our culture and men would start fight to death for that , Hamas men begin shooting bullets in air…
my mom called me then I didnt listen to her telling me to run home as she heard the bullets sound , I was amazed that mobile network was working as it was hardly calling anyone all day , but I told her that I am revolutionist and the rebel soul is never to calm down then I hanged out , as I did so I grappled some stones trying to join the clashes but my friends were grappling me with all power they got and as I saw many of protesters wer laying down beaten and dozens fighting against thousands of Hamas millitants armed with clubs and gun power “they called themselves none-comprimisng force”, as they were reaching my way and almost none left fighting I ran as fast as I could , me and many people started to run towards “Islamic University” we saw jeeps coming from different sources in main streets trying to wound and kidnap as much as they can , but many of us started running in sideways and alleys to shatter them
running continuously from place to place escaping them , I ran almost 10 miles in circles none stopping but for few seconds til they reach us again , I was exhausted but I flee home that day in one piece
later I knew my friend Ahmed was beaten up hardly , and another friend got hit on his head and fainted , they stitched his head , and many were wounded or jailed
on news we heard politicians say “we will end division” like they always said since 2007 till now…the revolution continues , yesterday it started in many universities and one person died there , and today we’ll have our action near that university demanding to end the Division
join here please or any other anti-division group on facebook and twitter
