Name	Gaza
Imgsize	90
Image3	Gaza City.JPG|imgsize3250
Caption3	Skyline of Gaza, 2007
Arname
Founded	15th Century BCE
Type	muna
Typefrom	1994
Altoffsp	Ghazzah
Altunosp	Gaza City
Governorate	gz
Population	449,221
Popyear	2009
Area	45,000
Areakm	45
Mayor	Rafiq Tawfiq al-Makki
Pushpin map	Palestinian territories }}

Gaza ( '''', , ''Azza'' ), also referred to as ''Gaza City'', is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories. Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC, Gaza has been dominated by several different peoples and empires throughout its history. The Philistines made it a part of their pentapolis after the Ancient Egyptians had ruled it for nearly 350 years. Under the Romans and later the Byzantines, Gaza experienced relative peace and its port flourished. In 635 AD, it became the first city in Palestine to be conquered by the Rashidun army and quickly developed into a centre of Islamic law. However, by the time the Crusaders invaded the city, it was in ruins. In later centuries, Gaza experienced several hardships—from Mongol raids to floods and locusts, reducing it to a village by the 16th century when it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. During the first half of Ottoman rule, the Ridwan dynasty controlled Gaza and under them the city went through an age of great commerce and peace.

Throughout its history, Gaza has never been self-ruled or independent. Gaza fell to British forces during World War I, becoming a part of the British Mandate of Palestine. As a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Egypt administered the newly formed Gaza Strip territory and several improvements were undertaken in the city. Gaza was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967, but in 1993, the city was transferred to the Palestinian National Authority. Following the 2006 election, conflict broke out as the Fatah party seemed unwilling to transfer power to Hamas, resulting in Hamas taking power in Gaza by force. Since then Gaza has been under a blockade by Israel and Egypt.

The primary economic activities of Gaza are small-scale industries, agriculture and labor. However, the economy has been devastated by the blockade and recurring conflicts. Most of Gaza's inhabitants adhere to Islam, although there exists a Christian minority. Gaza has a very young population with roughly 75% being under the age of 25, and today the city has one of the highest population densities in the world.

Etymology

According to Israeli geographer, Zev Vilnay, the name "Gaza," from the Arabic "Ġazza", originally derives from the Canaanite/Hebrew root for "strong" (ʿzz), and was introduced to Arabic by way of the Hebrew, "ʿazzā", i.e. "the strong one (f.)"; cpr. English ''stronghold''. According to Mariam Shahin, the Canaanites gave Gaza its name, the Ancient Egyptians called it "Ghazzat" ("prized city"), and the ancient Arabs often referred to it as "Ghazzat Hashim", in honor of Hashim, the great-grandfather of Muhammad, who is buried in the city, according to Islamic lore.

History

Gaza's history of habitation dates back 5,000 years, making it one of the oldest cities in the world. Located on the Mediterranean coastal route between North Africa and the Levant, for most of its history it served as a key entrepôt of the southern Levant and an important stopover on the spice trade route traversing the Red Sea.

Bronze Age

Settlement in the region of Gaza dates back to Tell es-Sakan, an Ancient Egyptian fortress built in Canaanite territory to the south of present-day Gaza. The site went into decline throughout the Early Bronze Age II as its trade with Egypt sharply decreased. Another urban centre known as Tell al-Ajjul began to grow along the Wadi Ghazza riverbed. During the Middle Bronze Age, a revived Tell es-Sakan became the southernmost locality in Canaan, serving as a fort. In 1650 BCE, when the Canaanite Hyksos occupied Egypt, a second city developed on the ruins of the first Tell as-Sakan. However, it was abandoned by the 14th century BCE, at the end of the Bronze Age.

Ancient period

Gaza later served as Egypt’s administrative capital in Canaan. During the reign of Tuthmosis III, the city became a stop on the Syrian-Egyptian caravan route and was mentioned in the Amarna letters as "Azzati". Gaza remained under Egyptian control for 350 years until it was conquered by the Philistines in the 12th century BCE, becoming a part of their "pentapolis". According to the Book of Judges, Gaza was the place where Samson was imprisoned by the Philistines and met his death.

After being ruled by the Israelites, Assyrians, and then the Egyptians, Gaza achieved relative independence and prosperity under the Persian Empire. Alexander the Great besieged Gaza, the last city to resist his conquest on his path to Egypt, for five months before finally capturing it 332 BCE; the inhabitants were either killed or taken captive. Alexander brought in local Bedouins to populate Gaza and organized the city into a ''polis'' (or "city-state"). Greek culture consequently took root and Gaza earned a reputation as a flourishing center of Hellenic learning and philosophy.

Gaza experienced another siege in 96 BCE by the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus who "utterly overthrew" the city, killing 500 senators who had fled into the temple of Apollo for safety. Josephus notes that Gaza was resettled under the rule of Antipas, who cultivated friendly relations with Gazans, Ascalonites and neighboring Arabs after being appointed governor of Idumea by Jannaeus. Rebuilt after it was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 63 BCE under the command of Pompey Magnus, Gaza then became a part of the Roman province of Judaea. It was targeted by the Jews during their rebellion against Roman rule in 66 and was partially destroyed. It nevertheless remained an important city, even more so after the destruction of Jerusalem.

Throughout the Roman period, Gaza was a prosperous city and received grants and attention from several emperors. A 500-member senate governed Gaza, and a diverse variety of Philistines, Greeks, Romans, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, and Bedouin populated the city. Gaza's mint issued coins adorned with the busts of gods and emperors. During his visit in 130 CE, Emperor Hadrian personally inaugurated wrestling, boxing, and oratorical competitions in Gaza's new stadium, which became known from Alexandria to Damascus. The city was adorned with many pagan temples; the main cult being that of Marnas. Other temples were dedicated to Zeus, Helios, Aphrodite, Apollo, Athene and the local Tyche. Christianity began to spread throughout Gaza in 250 CE, last in the port of Maiuma. Conversion to Christianity in Gaza was accelerated under Saint Porphyrius between 396 and 420. In 402, Theodosius II ordered all eight of the city's pagan temples destroyed, and four years later Empress Aelia Eudocia commissioned the construction of a church atop the ruins of the Temple of Marnas. It was during this era that the Neoplatonic philosopher, then Christian, Aeneas of Gaza called Gaza, his town, "the Athens of Asia". Following the division of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century BCE, Gaza remained under control of the Eastern Roman Empire that in turn became the Byzantine Empire. The city prospered and was an important centre for the Levant.

Islamic era

In 635 CE, Gaza was quickly besieged and captured by the Rashidun army under general 'Amr ibn al-'As following the Battle of Ajnadayn between the Byzantine Empire and the Rashidun Caliphate in central Palestine. Believed to be the site where Muhammad's great grandfather Hashim ibn Abd Manaf was buried, the city was not destroyed by the victorious Rashidun army in spite of the stiff and lengthy resistance. The arrival of the Muslim Arabs brought drastic changes to Gaza; at first some of her churches were transformed into mosques, including the present Great Mosque of Gaza (the oldest in the city), a large segment of the population swiftly adopted Islam, Arabic became the official language. In 767, Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i was born in Gaza and lived his early childhood there; al-Shafi'i founded a prominent Sunni Muslim legal philosophy (or ''fiqh'') called Shafi'i, in his honor. Security was the key to Gaza's prosperity which had been maintained in the early rule of the Muslims. Although alcohol was banned in Islam, the Jewish and Christian communities were allowed to maintain wine production and grapes, a major cash crop in the city, were exported mainly to Egypt. Because it bordered the desert, Gaza was vulnerable to warring nomadic groups. In 796, Gaza was destroyed during a civil war between the Arab tribes of the area. However, by the 10th century CE the city had been rebuilt by a third Arab caliphate ruled by the Abbasids; Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi described Gaza as "a large town lying on the highroad to Egypt on the border of the desert." In 977 CE, a fourth Arab caliphate ruled by the Fatimids established an agreement with the competing Seljuk Turks, whereby the Fatimids would control Gaza and the land south of it, including Egypt.

European Crusaders conquered Gaza from the Fatimids in 1100 and King Baldwin III built a castle there in 1149. After the castle's construction, Baldwin granted it and the surrounding region to the Knights Templar. He also had the Great Mosque converted into the Cathedral of Saint John. In 1154, Arab traveller al-Idrisi wrote Gaza "is today very populous and in the hands of the Crusaders." In 1170, King Amalric I of Jerusalem withdrew Gaza's Templars to assist him against an Islamic Ayyubid force led by Saladin at the nearby city of Deir al-Balah; however, Saladin evaded the Crusader force and assaulted Gaza instead, destroying the town built outside the castle. Seven years later, the Templars prepared for another defence of Gaza against Saladin, but this time the Islamic forces attacked Ascalon. In 1187, Saladin captured Gaza and ordered the destruction of the city's fortifications in 1191. Richard the Lionheart apparently refortified the city in 1192, but the walls were dismantled again as a result of the Treaty of Ramla agreed upon months later in 1193. The Ayyubid period of rule ended in 1260, after the Mongols under Hulagu Khan completely destroyed Gaza, which became his southernmost conquest.

Following Gaza's destruction by the Mongols, Muslim slave-soldiers based in Egypt known as the Mamluks began to administer the area in 1277. The Mamluks made Gaza the capital of the province that bore its name, ''Mamlakat Ghazzah'' ("the Governorship of Gaza"). This district extended along the coastal plain from Rafah in the south to just north of Caesarea, and to the east as far as the Samaria highlands and the Hebron Hills. Other major towns in the province included Qaqun, Ludd, and Ramla. Gaza which entered a period of tranquility under the Mamluks was used by them as an outpost in their offensives against the Crusaders which ended in 1290. In 1294, an earthquake devastated Gaza, and five years later the Mongols again destroyed all that had been restored by the Mamluks. However, circa 1300, Syrian geographer al-Dimashqi described Gaza as a "city so rich in trees it looks like a cloth of brocade spread out upon the land." In 1348, the Bubonic Plague infested the city, killing the majority of its inhabitants and in 1352, Gaza suffered from a destructive flood, which was rare in that arid part of the Southern Levant. However, when Arab traveler and writer Ibn Batutta visited the city in 1355, he noted that it was "large and populous, and has many mosques." The Mamluks contributed to Gazan architecture by building mosques, Islamic schools, hospitals, caravansaries, and public baths. Meshullam of Volterra found sixty Jewish householders in 1481, and in 1488, Obadiah of Bertinoro noted that Moses of Prague was the rabbi of the town.

Ottoman rule

In 1516, Gaza—at the time, a small town with an inactive port, ruined buildings and reduced trade—was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman army quickly and efficiently crushed a small-scale uprising, and the local population generally welcomed as fellow Sunni Muslims. The city was then made the capital of Sanjak Gaza, part of the larger Province of Damascus. The Ridwan family, named after governor Ridwan Pasha, was the first dynasty to govern Gaza and would continue to rule the city for over a century. Under Ahmad ibn Ridwan, the city became a cultural and religious center as a result of the partnership between the governor and prominent Islamic jurist Khayr al-Din al-Ramli, who was based in the nearby town of al-Ramla.

Although no explanation is provided in the biographies of the Ridwan family, they chose Gaza as their home and the location of their castle, Qasr al-Basha.

Gaza was briefly occupied by the French Army under Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, but they abandoned the city after the failed siege of Acre that same year. Starting in the early 19th century, Gaza was culturally dominated by neighboring Egypt; Muhammad Ali of Egypt conquered Gaza and most of the south of Ottoman Syria in 1832. American scholar Edward Robinson visited Gaza in 1838, describing it as a "thickly populated" town larger than Jerusalem, with its Old City lying upon a hilltop, while its suburbs laid on the nearby plain. Gaza's port was inactive in the mid-19th century, however, the city benefited from trade and commerce because of its position on the caravan route between Egypt and northern Syria as well as from producing soap and cotton for trade with the Bedouin. Robinson noted that virtually all of Gaza's vestiges of ancient history and antiquity had disappeared due to constant conflict and occupation.

The Bubonic Plague struck again in 1839 and the city, lacking political and economic stability, went into a state of stagnation. In 1840, Egyptian and Ottoman troops battled outside of Gaza. The Ottomans won control of the territory, effectively ending Egyptian rule over southern Syria. However, the battles brought about more death and destruction in Gaza whilst the city was still recovering from the effects of the plague.

Modern era

While leading the Allied Forces during World War I, the British won control of the city during the Third Battle of Gaza in 1917. After the war, Gaza was included in the British Mandate of Palestine. In the 1930s and 1940s, Gaza underwent major expansion. New neighborhoods were built along the coast and the southern and eastern plains. International organizations and missionary groups funded most of this construction. In the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan, Gaza was assigned to be part of an Arab state in western Palestine but was occupied by Egypt following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Gaza's growing population was augmented by an influx of refugees fleeing nearby cities, towns and villages that were captured by Israel. In 1957, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser made a number of reforms in Gaza, which included expanding educational opportunities and the civil services, providing housing, and establishing local security forces.

Gaza was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War following the defeat of the Egyptian Army. Frequent conflicts have erupted between Palestinians and the Israeli authorities in the city since the 1970s. The tensions lead to the First Intifada in 1987. Gaza was a center of confrontation during this uprising, and economic conditions in the city worsened. In September 1993, leaders of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the Oslo Accords. The agreement called for Palestinian administration of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, which was implemented in May 1994. Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza, leaving a new Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to administer and police the city. The PNA, led by Yasser Arafat, chose Gaza as its first provincial headquarters. The newly established Palestinian National Council held its inaugural session in Gaza in March 1996. In 2005, Israel pulled out the troops occupying Gaza, along with thousands of Israelis who had settled in the territory.

Since the Palestinian organization Hamas won a surprise victory in the Palestinian elections of 2006, it has been engaged in a violent power struggle with its rival Palestinian organization Fatah. In 2007, Hamas overthrew Fatah forces in the Gaza Strip and Hamas members were dismissed from the PNA government in the West Bank in response. Currently, Hamas has ''de facto'' control of the city and Strip.

In March 2008, a coalition of human rights groups charged that the Israeli blockade of the city had caused the humanitarian situation in Gaza to have reached its worst point since Israel occupied the territory in the 1967 Six-Day War, and that Israeli air strikes targeting militants in the densely populated areas have often killed bystanders as well. In 2008, Israel commenced an assault against Gaza. Israel stated the strikes were in response to repetitive rocket and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel since 2005, while the Palestinians stated that they were responding to Israel's military excursions and blockade of the Gaza Strip. In January 2009, Palestinian sources stated that at least 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the conflict. In April 2009, Israeli sources stated that at least 63-75% of the deaths were of men of combat age, based on the list of casualties published by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), supplemented by Hamas and Fatah websites and official Palestinian government online sources.

Geography

Central Gaza is situated on a low-lying and round hill with an elevation of above sea level. Much of the modern city is built along the plain below the hill, especially to the north and east, forming Gaza's suburbs. The beach and the port of Gaza are located west of the city's nucleus and the space in between is entirely built up on low-lying hills.

Gaza is southwest of Jerusalem, south of Tel Aviv, and north of Rafah. Surrounding localities include Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and Jabalia to the north, and the village of Abu Middein, the refugee camp of Bureij, and the city of Deir al-Balah to the south.

The municipal jurisdiction of the city today constitutes about . In the British Mandate era, Gaza's urban or "built-up" area consisted of , while its rural area was . Irrigated land made up and lands planted with cereals made up .

The population of Gaza depends on groundwater as the only source for drinking, agricultural use, and domestic supply. The nearest stream is Wadi Ghazza to the south, sourced from Abu Middein along the coastline. It bears a small amount of water during the winter and virtually no water during the summer. Most of its water supply is diverted into Israel. The Gaza Aquifer along the coast is the main aquifer in the Gaza Strip and it consists mostly of Pleistocene sandstones. Like most of the Gaza Strip, Gaza is covered by quaternary soil; clay minerals in the soil absorb many organic and inorganic chemicals which has partially alleviated the extent of groundwater contamination.

A well-known hill southeast of Gaza, known as Tell al-Muntar, has an elevation of above sea level. For centuries it has been claimed as the place to which Samson brought the city gates of the Philistines. The hill is crowned by a Muslim shrine (''maqam'') dedicated to Ali al-Muntar ("Ali of the Watchtower"). There are old Muslim graves around the surrounding trees, and the lintel of the doorway of the ''maqam'' has two medieval Arabic scriptures.

Old City and districts

The Old City forms the main part of Gaza's nucleus. It is roughly divided into two quarters; the northern Daraj Quarter (also known as the Muslim Quarter) and the southern Zaytoun Quarter (also known as the Christian Quarter). Most of the structures date from the Mamluk or Ottoman eras and some were built on top of earlier structures. The ancient part of the Old City is about .

There are seven historic gates to the Old City: Bab Asqalan (Gate of Ashkelon), Bab al-Darum (Gate of Deir al-Balah), Bab al-Bahr (Gate of the Sea), Bab Marnas (Gate of Marnas), Bab al-Baladiyah (Gate of the Town), Bab al-Khalil (Gate of Hebron), and Bab al-Muntar (Gate of Tell al-Muntar). Some of the older buildings use the ''ablaq'' style of decoration which features red and white masonry, prevalent in the Mamluk era. A few of Gaza's main markets, such as the Gold Market as well as the city's oldest mosque, the Great Mosque of Gaza, are located here. In the Zaytoun Quarter lies the Church of Saint Porphyrius, the Welayat Mosque, and Hamam as-Sammara ("the Samaritan's Bathhouse").

Gaza is composed of eleven districts (''hai'') outside of the Old City. The first extension of Gaza beyond its city centre was the district of Shuja'iyya, built on an eastern hill during the Ayyubid period of rule. In the 1930s and 1940s, a new spacial residential district, Rimal, was constructed on the sand dunes west of the city center, and the district of Zeitoun was built along Gaza's southern and southwestern borders, while Shuja'iyya expanded into the east to form the al-Judeide ("the New") and al-Turukman districts.

The areas between Rimal and the Old City became the districts of al-Sabra and al-Daraj. To the northwest is the district of al-Nasser, built in the early 1950s and named in honor of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. To the northeast is the district of Tuffah, which is roughly divided into eastern and western halves. The district of Sheikh Radwan is to the north of the Old City and is named after Sheikh Radwan—the tomb of whom is located within the district. Gaza has absorbed the village of al-Qubbah near the border with Israel, as well as the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Shati along the coast, although the latter is not under the city's municipal jurisdiction. In the late 1990s, the PNA built the more affluent neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa along the southern edge of Rimal. Along the southern coast of the city is the neighborhood of Sheikh Ijlin.

Climate

Gaza has a relatively temperate Mediterranean climate with mild winters and dry, warm to hot summers. Spring arrives around March–April and the hottest months are July and August, with the average high being . The coldest month is January with temperatures usually at . Rain is scarce and generally falls between November and March, with annual precipitation rates approximately at . |date=August 2010 }}

Demographics

Population

Year	! Population
1596	6,000
1838	15,000-16,000
1882	16,000
1897	36,000
1906	40,000
1914	42,000
1922	17,426
1945	32,250
1982	100,272
1997	306,113
2004 (Projected)	342,247
2006 (Projected)	395,680
2009	449,221

According to Ottoman tax records in 1557, Gaza had 2,477 male tax payers. The statistics from 1596 show that the Muslims consisted of 456 household heads, 115 bachelors, 59 religious persons, and 19 disabled persons. In addition to the Muslim figure were 141 ''jundiyan'' or soldiers in the Ottoman army. Of the Christians there were 294 household heads and seven bachelors, while there were 73 Jewish household heads and eight Samaritan household heads. In total, an estimated 6,000 people lived in Gaza, making it the third largest city in Ottoman Palestine after Jerusalem and Safad.

In 1838, there were roughly 4,000 Muslim and 100 Christian tax payers, implying a population of about 15,000 or 16,000—making it larger than Jerusalem at the time. The total number of Christian families was 57. Before the outbreak of World War I, the population of Gaza had reached 42,000; however, the fierce battles between Allied Forces and those of the Ottomans and the Germans in 1917 in Gaza resulted in a massive population decrease.

According to a 1997 census by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Gaza and the adjacent al-Shati camp had a population of 353,115 inhabitants, of which 50.9% were males and 49.1% females. Gaza had an overwhelmingly young population with more than half being between the ages of infancy to 19 (60.8%). About 28.8% were between the ages of 20 to 44, 7.7% between 45 and 64, and 3.9% were over the age of 64.

A significant number of Gaza's pre-1948 residents were Egyptians or their descendants who had fled political turmoil in Muhammad Ali's Egypt. A massive influx of Palestinian refugees swelled Gaza's population after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. By 1967, the population had grown to about six times its 1948 size. In 1997, 51.8% of Gaza's inhabitants were refugees or their descendants. The city's population has continued to increase since that time to 449,221 in 2009, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories. Gaza has one of the highest overall growth rates and population densities in the world: 9,982.69/km² (26,424.76/mi²). Poverty, unemployment and poor living conditions are widespread and many residents rely on United Nations food aid to survive.

Religion

The population of Gaza is overwhelmingly composed of Muslims, who mostly follow Sunni Islam. While held by the Fatimids, Shia Islam was dominant in Gaza, but after Saladin conquered the city, he promoted a strictly Sunni religious and educational policy, which at the time was instrumental in uniting his Arab and Turkish soldiers.

There exists a small minority of about 3,500 Palestinian Christians in the city. The majority of Gaza's Christians live in the Zaytoun Quarter of the Old City and belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, Roman Catholic, and Baptist denominations. In 1906, there were only 750 Christians, of which 700 were Orthodox and 50 were Roman Catholic.

Gaza's Jewish community was roughly 3,000 years old, and in 1481 there were sixty Jewish households. Most of them left Gaza after the 1929 Palestine riots, when they consisted of fifty families. In Sami Hadawi's land and population survey, Gaza had a population of 34,250, including 80 Jews in 1945. Most of them left the city after the 1948 War, due to mutual distrust between them and the Arab majority.

Economy

Nineteenth century

Gaza was among six soap-producing cities in Palestine, overshadowed by Nablus. Gaza's factories purchased ''qilw'' from merchants from Nablus and Salt, Jordan. Gaza's port was eclipsed by the ports of Jaffa and Haifa, however, it retained its fishing fleet. Although its port was inactive, commerce thrived because of its strategic location. Most caravans and travelers coming from Egypt stopped in Gaza for supplies, likewise Bedouins from Ma'an, east of the Wadi Araba, bought up all sorts of provisions from the city to sell to Muslim pilgrims coming from Mecca. The bazaars of Gaza were well-supplied and were noted by Edward Robinson as "far better" than those of Jerusalem. Its principal commercial crop was cotton which was sold to the government and local Arab tribes.

Contemporary economy

The economy of Gaza grew by 8% in the first 11 months of 2010, and by 5.4% in 2009. Economic activity is largely supported by foreign aid donations, with the latter regarded as the main reason for recent growth.

The major agricultural products are strawberries, citrus, dates, olives, flowers, and various vegetables. Pollution and massive population pressure on water have reduced the productive capacity of the surrounding farms, however.

Small-scale industries in the city include the production of plastics, construction materials, textiles, furniture, pottery, tiles, copperware, and carpets. Following the Oslo Accords, thousands of residents were employed in the various government ministries and security services, while others were employed by the UNRWA and other international organizations that support development of the city. Gaza contains some minor industries, including textiles and food processing. A variety of wares are sold in Gaza's street bazaars, including carpets, pottery, wicker furniture, and cotton clothing; the modern Gaza Mall opened in July 2010.

There are a number of hotels in Gaza, including the Palestine, Grand Palace, Adam, al-Amal, al-Quds, Cliff, al-Deira and Marna House. All, except the Palestine Hotel, are located along in the coastal Rimal district. The United Nations (UN) has a beach club on the same street. Gaza is not a frequent destination for tourists, and most foreigners who stay in hotels are journalists, aid workers, UN and Red Cross personnel. Upmarket hotels include the al-Quds and the al-Deira Hotel.

Many Gazans worked in the Israeli service industry when the border was open, but part of Israel's 2005 disengagement stipulated that Gazans will no longer be able to work in Israel and few Gazans are presently allowed to enter Israel. Gaza has serious deficiencies in housing, educational facilities, health facilities, infrastructure, and an inadequate sewage system, all of which have contributed to serious hygiene and public health problems.

According to a recent report by OXFAM, unemployment in Gaza is close to 40% and is set to rise to 50%. The private sector which generates 53% of all jobs in Gaza has been devastated, businesses have been bankrupted and 75,000 out of 110,000 workers are now without a jobs. In 2008, 95% of Gaza's industrial operations were suspended due to lack of access inputs for production and the inability to export what is produced. In June 2005, there were 3,900 factories in Gaza employing 35,000 people, but by December 2007, there were just 195 remaining, employing only 1,700 people. The construction industry was paralyzed with tens of thousands of laborers out of work. The agriculture sector has also been damaged severely and nearly 40,000 workers who depend on cash crops now have no income.

Gaza's economic conditions have been stagnant in the long-term and most development indicators are in decline. Food prices have risen during the blockade, with wheat flour going up 34%, rice up 21%, and baby powder up 30%. The number of Gazans who live in absolute poverty has increased sharply, with 80% relying on humanitarian aid in 2008 compared to 63% in 2006. In 2007, households spent an average of 62% of their total income on food, compared to 37% in 2004. In less than a decade, the number of families depending on UNRWA food aid has increased tenfold.

Culture

Cultural centers and museums

The Rashad Shawa Cultural Center, located in Rimal, was completed in 1988 and named after its founder, former mayor Rashad al-Shawa. A two-story building with a triangular plan, the cultural centers performs three main functions: a meeting place for large gatherings during annual festivals, a place to stage exhibitions, and a library. The French Cultural Center is a symbol of French partnership and cooperation in Gaza. It holds art exhibits, concerts, film screenings, and other activities. Whenever possible, French artists are invited to display their artwork, and more frequently, Palestinian artists from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are invited to participate in art competitions.

Established in 1998, the Arts and Crafts Village is a children's cultural center with the objectives of promoting comprehensive, regular and periodic documentation of creative art in all of its forms. It interacted on a large scale with a class of artists from different nationalities and organized around 100 exhibitions for creative art, ceramics, graphics, carvings and others. Nearly 10,000 children from throughout the Gaza Strip have benefited from the Arts and Crafts Village.

Gaza has one film theater, the Gaza Theater, which opened in 2004 using donated equipment and movies from Norway. The theater is not properly equipped and does not receive much funding from the PNA, depending mostly on donations from foreign aid agencies. The Qattan Foundation, a Palestinian arts charity, runs several workshops throughout Gaza that helps the local youth find artistic skills and give teachers basic drama skills. In 2005, the Gaza Theater Festival was held, playing in makeshift venues, although no foreign theater companies attended, as well as any company from the West Bank or Israel's Arab community.

The Gaza Museum of Archaeology, founded by Jawdat N. Khoudary, was opened in the summer of 2008. The exhibition is in a hall made partly of stones from old houses, discarded wood ties of a former railroad, and bronze lamps and marble columns uncovered by Gazan fishermen and construction workers. The museum collection features thousands of items, but some will not go on display, including a statue of a full-breasted Aphrodite in a diaphanous gown, images of other ancient deities and oil lamps featuring menorahs.

The Crazy Water Park was built in 2010, but shortly the water park was burned down by a group of about 40 masked individuals in a move that was seen by human rights groups as part of the increasing Islamization of Gaza.

Cuisine

Gaza's cuisine is characterized by its generous use of spices and chillies. Other major flavors and ingredients include dill, chard, garlic, cumin, lentils, chickpeas, pomegranates, sour plums and tamarind. Many of the traditional dishes rely on clay-pot cooking, which preserves the flavor and texture of the vegetables and results in fork-tender meat. Traditionally, most Gazan dishes are seasonal and rely on ingredients indigenous to the area and its surrounding villages. Poverty has also played an important role in determining many of the city's simple meatless dishes and stews, such as ''saliq wa adas'' ("chard and lentils") and ''bisara'' (skinless fava beans mashed with dried mulukhiya leaves and chilies).

Seafood is a key aspect of Gaza life and a local staple, but in recent years, due to Israeli restrictions on Palestinian fishing zones off Gaza’s coast, the industry has been in decline, and seafood prices have skyrocketed. Some well-known seafood dishes include ''zibdiyit gambari'', literally, "shrimps in a clay pot", and ''shatta'' which are crabs stuffed with red hot chili pepper dip, then baked in the oven. Fish is either fried or grilled after being stuffed with cilantro, garlic, chillies and cumin, and marinated with various spices. It is also a key ingredient in ''sayyadiya'', rice cooked with caramelized onions, a generous amount of whole garlic cloves, large chunks of well-marinated fried fish, and spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, and cumin.

Many of the 1948-era refugees were ''fellahin'' ("peasants") who would rely on eating seasonally, based on what they grew and these refugees highly influenced the basic cuisine of Gaza. Due to its geographic isolation from the rest of Palestine, as a result of decades of occupation, many of its dishes have not been heard of outside of Gaza. One of the most popular dishes is called ''sumaghiyyeh''.

Gaza has several restaurants, most of the well-known located in the posh Rimal district. Al-Andalus, which specializes in fish and seafood, is particularly popular with tourists, as are al-Sammak and the upscale Roots Club. Throughout the Old City there are street stalls that sell cooked beans, hummus, roasted sweet potatoes, falafel, and kebabs. Coffeehouses (''qahwa'') regularly accommodate locals with hookah (''sheesha''), Arabic coffee, and tea. Gaza's well-known sweet shops, Saqqala and Arafat, sell common Arab sweet products and are located off Wehda Street. Alcohol is a rarity, found only in the United Nations Beach Club.

Costumes and embroidery

Gauze is reputed to have originated in Gaza. Cloth for the Gaza ''thob'' was often woven at nearby Majdal (Ascalon). Black or blue cottons or striped pink and green fabric that had been made in Majdal continued to be woven throughout the Gaza Strip by refugees from the coastal plain villages until the 1960s. ''Thobs'' here had narrow, tight, straight sleeves. Embroidery was much less dense than that applied in Hebron. The most popular motifs included: scissors (''muqass''), combs (''mushut'') and triangles (''hijab'') often arranged in clusters of fives, sevens and threes, as the use of odd numbers is considered in Arab folklore to be effective against the evil eye.

In recent decades, Hamas and other Islamic movements sought to increase the use of the ''hijab'' ("headscarf") among Gazan women, especially urban and educated women, and the ''hijab'' styles since introduced have varied according to class and group identity.

Sports

Palestine Stadium, the Palestinian national stadium, is located in Gaza and has a capacity for 10,000 people. It serves as the home of the Palestine national football team, but after an Israeli air strike that severely damaged the stadium's field, home games have been played in Doha, Qatar. Gaza has several local football teams that participate in the Gaza Strip League. They include Khidmat al-Shatia (al-Shati Camp), Ittihad al-Shuja'iyya (Shuja'iyya neighborhood), Gaza Sports Club, and al-Zeitoun (Zeitoun neighborhood).

Government

Today, Gaza serves as the administrative capital of the Gaza Governorate. It contains the Palestinian Legislative Council building, as well as the headquarters of most of the Palestinian Authority ministries.

The first municipal council of Gaza was formed in 1893 under the chairmanship of Ali Khalil Shawa. Modern mayorship, however, began in 1906 with his son Said al-Shawa, who was appointed mayor by the Ottoman Authorities. Al-Shawa oversaw the construction of Gaza's first hospital, several new mosques and schools, the restoration of the Great Mosque, and the introduction of the modern plow to the city.

On July 24, 1994, the PNA proclaimed Gaza the first city council in the Palestinian territories. The 2005 Palestinian municipal elections were not held in Gaza, nor in Khan Yunis or Rafah. Instead, Fatah party officials selected the smaller cities, towns, and villages to hold elections, assuming they would do better in less urban areas. The rival Hamas party, however, won the majority of seats in seven of the ten municipalities selected for the first round with voter turnout being around 80%. 2007 saw violent clashes between the two parties that left over 100 dead, ultimately resulting in Hamas taking over the city. Normally, Palestinian municipalities with populations over 20,000 and that serve as administrative centers have municipal councils consisting of fifteen members, including the mayor. The current municipal council of Gaza, however, consists of fourteen members, including the mayor, Rafiq al-Makki.

Mayors

Said al-Shawa (1906–1916)

Mahmoud Abu Khadra (1918–1924)

Omar Sourani (1924–1928)

Fahmi al-Husseini (1928–1939)

Rushdi al-Shawa (1939–1952)

Omar Suwan (1952–1955)

Munir al-Rayyes (1955–1965)

Ragheb al-Alami (1965)

Rashad al-Shawa (1971–1982)

Hamza al-Turkmani (1982–1994)

Aoun al-Shawa (1994–2001)

Nasri Khayal (2001–2005)

Majed Abu Ramadan (2005–2008)

Rafiq al-Makki (2008–present)

Education

According to the PCBS, in 1997, approximately over 90% of Gaza's population over the age of 10 was literate. Of the city's population, 140,848 were enrolled in schools (39.8% in elementary school, 33.8% in secondary school, and 26.4% in high school). About 11,134 people received bachelor diplomas or higher diplomas.

In 2006, there were 210 schools in Gaza; 151 were run by the Education Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority, 46 were run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and 13 were private schools. A total of 154,251 students were enrolled and 5,877 teachers were employed. The currently downtrodden economy has affected education in the Gaza Strip severely. In September 2007, a UNRWA survey in the Gaza Strip revealed that there was a nearly 80% failure rate in schools grades four to nine, with up to 90% failure rates in mathematics. In January 2008, the United Nations Children's Fund reported that schools in Gaza had been canceling classes that were high on energy consumption, such as information technology, science labs and extra curricular activities.

Gaza has four universities: al-Azhar University – Gaza, al-Quds Open University, al-Aqsa University and the Islamic University of Gaza. The Islamic University, consisting of ten facilities, was founded by Ahmed Yassin and a group of businessmen in 1978, making it the first institution of higher education in Gaza. In 2006–07, it had an enrollment of 20,021 students. Al-Azhar is generally secular and was founded in 1992. Al-Aqsa University was established in 1991. Al-Quds Open University established its Gaza Educational Region campus in 1992 in a rented building in the center of the city originally with 730 students. Because of the rapid increase of the number of students, it constructed the first university owned building in the Nasser District. In 2006–07, it had an enrollment of 3,778 students.

The Public Library of Gaza is located off al-Wahda Street and has a collection of nearly 10,000 books in Arabic, English and French. A total area of about , the building consists of two floors and a basement. The library was opened in 1999 after cooperation dating from 1996 by Gaza under mayor Aoun Shawa, the municipality of Dunkerque, and the World Bank. The library's primary objectives are to provide sources of information that meets the needs of beneficiaries, provide necessary facilities for access to available information sources, and organizing various cultural programs such as, cultural events, seminars, lectures, film presentations, videos, art and book exhibitions.

Local infrastructure

Landmarks

Landmarks in Gaza include the Great Mosque in the Old City. Originally a pagan temple, it was consecrated a Greek Orthodox church by the Byzantines, then a mosque in the 8th century by the Arabs. The Crusaders transformed it into a church, but it was reestablished as a mosque soon after Gaza's reconquest by the Muslims. It is the oldest and largest in the Gaza Strip and was identified as the "only structure of historical importance" in the city by some 19th century Western travelers.

Other mosques in the Old City include the Mamluk-era Sayed Hashem Mosque that believed to house the tomb of Hashem ibn Abd al-Manaf in its dome. There is also the nearby Welayat Mosque that dates back to 1334. In Shuja'iyya, the Ibn Uthman Mosque was built by Nablus native Ahmad ibn Uthman in 1402 and the Ibn Marwan Mosque, housing the tomb of a holy man, was built in 1324.

The Unknown Soldier's Square, located in Rimal, is a monument dedicated to an unknown Palestinian fighter who died in the 1948 War. In 1967, the monument was torn down by Israeli forces and remained a patch of sand, until a public garden was built there with funding from Norway. Qasr al-Basha, originally a Mamluk-era villa that was used by Napoleon during his brief sojourn in Gaza, is located in the Old City and is today a girl's school. The Commonwealth Gaza War Cemetery, often referred to as the British War Cemetery, that contains the graves of fallen Allied soldiers in World War I is in the Tuffah neighborhood.

Utilities

According to the 1997 census by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 98.1% of Gaza's residents were connected to the public water supply while the remainder used a private system. About 87.6% were connected to a public sewage system and 11.8% used a cesspit.

The blockade on Gaza has severely restricted the water supply to the city and its sewage system. The six main wells for drinking water no longer function, and roughly 50% of the population is without access to water on a regular basis. The municipality claims it is forced to pump water to the citizens through "salty wells" because of the unavailability of electricity in some of the wells fails to meet the needs of the citizens. Most sewage plants struggle to work, and more than 75% of the untended sewage in the city, has periodically led to a rash of waste water to the homes of residents. About 20 million liters of raw sewage and 40 million liters of partially treated water per day leak to the Mediterranean Sea due to the lack of electricity, fuel and spare parts at Gaza's treatment plants. The municipality claims that accumulation of garbage in the streets, roads, wells, and sewage overflow cause the risk of disease outbreaks and insect epidemics, as well as mice and in residential areas.

Health care

One of the first hospitals in Gaza was al-Shifa ("the Cure") founded in the Rimal District by the British Mandate government in the 1940s. Housed in an army barracks, it originally provided quarantine and treatment for febrile diseases. When Egypt administered Gaza, this original department was relocated and al-Shifa became the city's central hospital. When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip after occupying it in the 1956 Suez Crisis, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser had al-Shifa hospital expanded and improved. He also ordered the establishment of a second hospital in the Nasser District with the same name. In 1957, the quarantine and febrile disease hospital was rebuilt and named Nasser Hospital. Today, al-Shifa remains Gaza's largest medical complex.

Throughout the late 1950s, a new health administration, Bandar Gaza ("Gaza Region"), was established and headed by Haidar Abdel-Shafi. Bandar Gaza rented several rooms throughout the city to set up government clinics, but they were fairly basic, just providing essential curative care.

The Ahli Arab Hospital, originally founded in 1907 by the Church Missionary Society (CMS), was destroyed in World War I. It was rebuilt as the Southern Baptist Hospital in the 1950s. In 1982, the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem took leadership and the original name was restored. Al-Quds Hospital, located in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood and managed by the Palestine Red Crescent Society, is the second largest hospital in Gaza.

As a result of fuel and electricity restrictions, hospitals currently experience power cuts lasting for 8–12 hours daily. There is currently a 60-70 percent shortage reported in the diesel required for power generators. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the proportion of patients given permits to exit Gaza for medical care decreased from 89.3% in January 2007 to 64.3% in December 2007, an unprecedented low.

Transportation

The Rasheed Coastal Road runs along Gaza's coastline and connects it with the rest of Gaza Strip's coastline north and south. The main road of the Gaza Strip, Salah ad-Din Street (the modern Via Maris) runs through the middle of Gaza City, connecting it with Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis, and Rafah in the south and Jabalia and Beit Hanoun in the north. The northern crossing of Salah ad-Din Street into Israel is the Erez Crossing and the crossing into Egypt is the Rafah Crossing. The crossings have been closed by Israel and Egypt since 2007.

Omar Mukhtar Street is the main road in the city of Gaza running north-south, branching off Salah ad-Din Street, stretching from the Rimal coastline and the Old City where it ends at the Gold Market. Prior to the Blockade of the Gaza Strip, there existed regular lines of collective taxis to Ramallah and Hebron in the West Bank.

The Yasser Arafat International Airport near Rafah opened in 1998 and is south of Gaza. Its runways and facilities became significantly damaged during the Second Intifada. The Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel is located roughly northeast of the city.

International relations

Twin towns and sister cities

Gaza is twinned with:

	* Dunkerque, France (1996)	* Tel Aviv, Israel (1998) Note: Reaffirmed by Tel Aviv in 2008	* Turin, Italy (1997)	* Tabriz, Iran		* Tromsø, Norway (2001)	* Cascais, Portugal	* Barcelona, Spain (1998)	Cáceres, Spain>Cáceres, Spain (2010)

See also

List of cities in Palestinian National Authority areas

Little Gaza

Gaza War

References

Mozgovaya, Natasha (5 June 2011). "Gaza, the most Facebook friendly place on earth." Haaretz

Bibliography

External links

WebGaza.net: Gaza, Palestine

GAZA Museum "Al Mat'haf"

Municipality of Gaza

Gaza at Google Maps

Rashdan, Abdelrahman (2008-04-29), Myths and Facts about Gaza (FAQs)''IslamOnline.net''

Gaza Strip and Jews in Gaza until 1929 (history) – highest density of population worldwide since 1949 (from Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971)

Gaza in Ottoman Times

Category:Cities in the Gaza Strip Category:Populated coastal places * Category:Gaza Governorate Category:Hebrew Bible cities Category:Philistine cities Category:Cities and towns of the Byzantine Empire

af:Gasa ang:Gaza ar:غزة bn:গাজা সিটি bs:Gaza (grad) br:Gaza bg:Газа ca:Gaza ceb:Dakbayan sa Gaza cs:Gaza cy:Gaza da:Gaza pdc:Gaesa de:Gaza (Stadt) et:Gaza es:Gaza eo:Gaza-urbo eu:Gaza (hiria) fa:غزه (شهر) fr:Gaza gd:Gaza gl:Gaza, Palestina ko:가자 hy:Ղազա hi:ग़ज़ा hr:Gaza (grad) id:Gaza os:Газæ it:Gaza he:עזה sw:Gaza la:Gaza lt:Gaza mr:गाझा ms:Gaza nl:Gaza ja:ガザ no:Gaza (by) nov:Gaza pnb:غزہ pl:Gaza (Palestyna) pt:Gaza ru:Газа sco:Gaza scn:Gaza simple:Gaza sk:Gaza (mesto) ckb:غەززە sr:Газа sh:Gaza fi:Gaza (kaupunki) sv:Gaza kab:Gaza tt:Газзә tr:Gazze uk:Газа ur:غزہ vi:Gaza yi:עזה zh:加薩

Hassan Ghani, (born 1985 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish broadcast journalist and documentary film-maker, based in London. He has worked in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza, Somalia, Turkey and Egypt during the uprising.

He was on board the international flotilla bound for Gaza in May 2010 which was boarded by the Israel Defense Forces His earlier news reports from the ship had warned of an impending bloody confrontation, and he reported live as Israeli soldiers boarded the Mavi Marmara Turkish ship.

Biography

He grew up in Glasgow and studied at the University of Stirling in Scotland, where his degree course specialised in documentary production.

From June 2006 to January 2009, he was employed as a journalist and documentary film-maker at the Islam Channel in London, and regularly presented the channel's daily news bulletin. He is currently working as an international correspondent for Press TV.

His work includes the 2007 documentary ''The Silent Prisoners'' filmed in Pakistan, and the 2006 documentary film ''Miles Beyond''.

Recent films

In November 2008 he and British journalist Yvonne Ridley travelled to Afghanistan to produce a documentary about female prisoners being held by the United States military. "In Search of Prisoner 650" was commissioned by Press TV. During the making of the film the two came under fire amid a clash between the Taliban and Afghan police on the road to Ghazni. The drama was caught on camera and featured in the film. The documentary was broadcast worldwide on Press TV in April 2009, and included in Aljazeera's documentary film festival 2010.

Ghani was Press TV's correspondent on the Viva Palestina humanitarian aid convoy that drove from London, United Kingdom to Gaza and sent back regular television news reports along the way. He followed up his coverage with a 50-minute documentary that summarised the journey, broadcast on Press TV in May 2009, as well as a second documentary entitled "Three Uncles go to Gaza" narrated by broadcaster Yvonne Ridley.

In December 2009 and January 2010 he followed this up by travelling with another Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza (again as Press TV correspondent), and has plans to make a further documentary about it.

Israeli attack on Gaza aid flotilla

On 31 May 2010 Ghani was involved in the Gaza flotilla, when the Israel Defense Forces attacked an international aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, killing several activists and wounding others.

We are being hit by tear gas, stun grenades, we have a navy ship on either side and helicopters overhead. We are being attacked from every single side and this is in international waters, not in Israeli waters.

Later that day his father Haq Ghani spoke at a rally in George Square in Glasgow in protest at the attack. He was deported to Turkey. He talked to ''BBC Radio Scotland''s "Good Morning Scotland" from Turkey, that people:

used sticks, chairs, anything to stop these soldiers who were coming down with machine guns and tasers and firing rubber bullets and later on using live ammunition on civilians. We knew Israel would do some sort of action, but we thought they would perhaps just try to scare us and then allow us through. We didn't expect a ship with 32 different nationalities on board, with aid from 50 different countries on board, would be attacked in such a brutal manner.

Awards and nominations

In 2008 Ghani was one of five nominated by Channel 4's 4Talent scheme for its journalism award in the UK, and in October 2008 he was awarded 'Young Scottish Muslim of the Year' by Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond for his work in journalism and documentary. His work 'In Search of Prisoner 650' was included in Aljazeera's documentary film festival 2010.

See also

List of Pakistani journalists

References

External links

Filmmaker's website

"Freedom Flotilla on the Way to Gaza", May 29, 2010

Category:1985 births Category:Living people Category:People from Rawalpindi District Category:People from Glasgow Category:Scottish journalists Category:Pakistani journalists Category:Scottish people of Pakistani descent Category:Prisoners and detainees of Israel

name	Robert Fisk
birth date	July 12, 1946
birth place	Maidstone, Kent, England
education	Lancaster University (B.A., 1968)Trinity College, Dublin (Ph.D., 1985)
occupation	Middle East correspondent for ''The Independent''
credits	Jacob's Award, Amnesty International UK Press Awards, British Press Awards, International Journalist of the Year, "Reporter of the Year", David Watt prize, Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize
url	http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/ }}

Robert Fisk (born 12 July 1946) is an English writer and journalist from Maidstone, Kent. As Middle East correspondent of ''The Independent'', he has primarily been based in Beirut for more than 30 years. He has published a number of books and has reported on the United States's war in Afghanistan and the same country's 2003 invasion of Iraq. Fisk holds more British and International Journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent.

Career

''The New York Times'' once described Robert Fisk as "probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain." He reported the Northern Ireland troubles in the 1970s, the Portuguese Revolution in 1974, the Lebanese Civil War, the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. A vernacular Arabic speaker, he is one of few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden, and did so three times between 1994 and 1997. His awards include being voted International Journalist of the Year seven times.

Fisk has said that journalism must "challenge authority, all authority, especially so when governments and politicians take us to war." He has quoted with approval the Israeli journalist Amira Hass: "There is a misconception that journalists can be objective ... What journalism is really about is to monitor power and the centres of power." Speaking on “Lies, Misreporting, and Catastrophe in the Middle East,” at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, September 22, 2010, Fisk stated, "I think it is the duty of a foreign correspondent to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer, whoever they may be."

He has written at length on how much of contemporary conflict has its origin, in his view, in lines drawn on maps: "After the allied victory of 1918, at the end of my father's war, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. In the space of just seventeen months, they created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent my entire career—in Belfast and Sarajevo, in Beirut and Baghdad—watching the people within those borders burn."

Fisk is a pacifist and has never voted.

The blogosphere term fisking originates from various American conservative blogs, which have taken particular issue with Mr. Fisk, who holds a "very skeptical view of U.S. foreign policy", and his articles and reports. Many of these bloggers have responded by reprinting his dispatches on their blogs, adding their own paragraph-by-paragraph commentary, purportedly dissecting and debunking Fisk's facts and opinions. Irrespective of the success of their endeavour, the term "fisking" has come to denote the practice of "savaging an argument and scattering the tattered remnants to the four corners of the internet".

Early career

Fisk was educated at Sutton Valence School and at Lancaster University and has a PhD in Political Science, from Trinity College, Dublin in 1983. The title of his doctoral thesis was "A condition of limited warfare: Éire’s neutrality and the relationship between Dublin, Belfast and London, 1939–1945". He worked on the ''Sunday Express'' diary column before a disagreement with the editor, John Junor, prompted a move to ''The Times''. From 1972–75, the height of The Troubles, Fisk served as Belfast correspondent for ''The Times'', before becoming its correspondent in Portugal covering the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution. He then was appointed Middle East correspondent (1976–1988). When a story of his was spiked (Iran Air Flight 655) after Rupert Murdoch's takeover, he moved to ''The Independent'', with his first report published there on 28 April 1989.

Lebanon, and other conflicts

Fisk has been living in Beirut since 1976, and was present in Beirut throughout the Lebanese civil war. He was one of the first journalists to visit the scene of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon, as well as the Syrian Hama Massacre. His book on the Lebanese conflict, ''Pity the Nation'', was first published in 1990. Fisk also reported on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Kosovo war, the Algerian civil war, and the Iran-Iraq War. Fisk suffered partial but permanent hearing loss as a result of his being within close proximity to Iraqi heavy artillery in the Shatt-al-Arab when covering the early stages of the Iran-Iraq conflict.

Osama bin Laden

Fisk is one of the few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden - three times (all published by ''The Independent'': December 6, 1993, July 10, 1996, and March 22, 1997). During one of Fisk's interviews with Bin Laden, Fisk noted an attempt by Bin Laden to convert him. Bin Laden said; "Mr Robert, one of our brothers had a dream. He dreamed ... that you were a spiritual person ... this means you are a true Muslim." Fisk replied; "Sheikh Osama, I am not a Muslim ... I am a journalist ... A journalist's task is to tell the truth." Bin Laden replied: "If you tell the truth, that means you are a good Muslim."

During the 1996 interview, Bin Laden accused the Saudi royal family of corruption. During the 1997 (and final) interview, Bin Laden said he sought God's help "to turn America into a shadow of itself".

September 11 attacks

Fisk condemned the September 11, 2001 attacks, describing them as a "hideous crime against humanity." He also denounced the Bush administration's response to the attacks, arguing that "a score of nations" were being identified and positioned as "haters of democracy" or "kernels of evil," and urged a more honest debate on U.S. policy in the Middle East. He argued that such a debate had hitherto been avoided "because, of course, to look too closely at the Middle East would raise disturbing questions about the region, about our Western policies in those tragic lands, and about America's relationship with Israel."

In August 2007 Fisk expressed personal doubts about the official historical record of the September 11 attacks. In an article for ''The Independent'', he claimed that, while the Bush administration was incapable of successfully carrying out such attacks due to its organisational incompetence: "I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11." He proceeded to raise his concerns about a lack of aircraft debris, the melting point of steel, the collapse of World Trade Center 7, misidentified suicide-hijackers, the authenticity of correspondence attributed by the CIA to Mohamed Atta, and other familiar questions that have circulated within the 9/11 Truth Movement. He added that he does not condone the "crazed 'research' of David Icke [...] I am talking about scientific issues". Fisk had earlier addressed similar concerns in a speech at Sydney University in 2006. During the speech, Fisk said: "Partly I think because of the culture of secrecy of the White House, never have we had a White House so secret as this one. Partly because of this culture, I think suspicions are growing in the United States, not just among Berkeley guys with flowers in their hair[...] But there are a lot of things we don’t know, a lot of things we’re not going to be told[...] perhaps the plane was hit by a missile, we still don’t know."

War in Afghanistan

After the United States launched its attack on Afghanistan, Fisk was for a time transferred to Pakistan to provide coverage of that conflict. While reporting from there, he was attacked and beaten by a group of Afghan refugees fleeing heavy bombing by the United States Air Force. He was saved from this attack by another Afghan refugee. In his graphic account of his own beating, Fisk pardoned the attackers of responsibility and pointed out that their "brutality was entirely the product of others, of us—of we who had armed their struggle against the Russians and ignored their pain and laughed at their civil war and then armed and paid them again for the 'War for Civilisation' just a few miles away and then bombed their homes and ripped up their families and called them 'collateral damage.'"

Iraq

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Fisk was stationed in Baghdad and filed many eyewitness reports. He has criticized other journalists based in Iraq for what he calls their "hotel journalism", literally reporting from one's hotel room without interviews or first hand experience of events. His opposition to the war brought criticism from both ''Sunday Independent'' columnist and senator, Eoghan Harris, and ''The Guardian'' columnist, Simon Hoggart.

Fisk has criticised the American handling of the sectarian violence in post-invasion Iraq, and argued that the official narrative of sectarian conflict is not possible: "The real question I ask myself is: who are these people who are trying to provoke the civil war? Now the Americans will say it's Al Qaeda, it's the Sunni insurgents. It is the death squads. Many of the death squads work for the Ministry of Interior. Who runs the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad? Who pays the Ministry of the Interior? Who pays the militia men who make up the death squads? We do, the occupation authorities [...] We need to look at this story in a different light."

Books and other works

Books

Fisk has published a number of books. His 2005 work, ''The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East'', with its criticism of Western and Israeli approaches to the Middle East, was well-received by critics and students of international affairs, and is perhaps his best-known work.

''The Point of No Return: The Strike which Broke the British in Ulster'' (1975). London: Times Books/Deutsch. ISBN 0-233-96682-X

''In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality, 1939-1945'' (2001). London: Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 0-7171-2411-8 — (1st ed. was 1983).

''Pity the Nation : Lebanon at War'' (3rd ed. 2001). London: Oxford University Press; xxi, 727 pages. ISBN 0-19-280130-9 — (1st ed. was 1990).

''The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East'' (October 2005) London. Fourth Estate; xxvi, 1366 pages. ISBN 1-84115-007-X

''The Age of the Warrior: Selected Writings'' (2008) London, Fourth Estate ISBN 978 0 00 727073 6

Video documentary

Fisk produced a three-part series titled ''From Beirut To Bosnia'' in 1993 which Fisk says was an attempt "to find out why an increasing number of Muslims had come to hate the West." Fisk says that the Discovery Channel did not show a repeat of the films, after initially showing them in full, due to a letter campaign launched by pro-Israel groups such as CAMERA.

Forgery misattributed to Robert Fisk

''Saddam Hussein - From Birth to Martyrdom'' (2007). Egypt: Ibda; 272 pages.

Awards

In 1991, Fisk won a Jacob's Award for his RTÉ Radio coverage of the first Gulf War. He received Amnesty International UK Press Awards in 1998 for his reports from Algeria and again in 2000 for his articles on the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999. In 1999, Fisk won the Orwell Prize for journalism.

He has received the British Press Awards' International Journalist of the Year seven times, and twice won its "Reporter of the Year" award. In 2001, he was awarded the David Watt Prize for "outstanding contributions towards the clarification of political issues and the promotion of their greater understanding" for his investigation into the Armenian Genocide by the Turks in 1915. In 2002 he was the fourth recipient of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. More recently, Fisk was awarded the 2006 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize along with $350,000.

He was made an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of St Andrews on June 24, 2004. The Political and Social Sciences department of Ghent University (Belgium) awarded Fisk an honorary doctorate on March 24, 2006. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the American University of Beirut in June 2006. Trinity College Dublin awarded him a second, honorary, Doctorate in July 2008.

Fisk gave the 2005 Edward Said Memorial lecture at Adelaide University.

In 2011, Fisk was awarded the International Prize at the Amalfi Coast Media Awards in Italy.

Fisk is also a recipient of the College Historical Society's "Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse".

References

Further reading

Robert Fisk on Shakespeare and war

''Man of War'' by Rachel Cooke of The Observer, April 13, 2008

Journalism and 'the words of power': Robert Fisk address to the fifth Al Jazeera annual forum on May 23

External links

Column archive at ''The Independent''

Article archive at Journalisted

Robert Fisk on the Gap Between U.S. Rhetoric and Action in the Egyptian Uprising - video interview by ''Democracy Now!'', 2011

Category:British people of the Iraq War Category:British reporters and correspondents Category:War correspondents Category:War correspondents of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) Category:Writers on the Middle East Category:Historians of the Middle East Category:British historians Category:The Times people Category:Jacob's Award winners Category:Alumni of Lancaster University Category:People from Maidstone Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Dublin Category:English expatriates in Lebanon Category:People educated at Sutton Valence School Category:The Independent people

ar:روبرت فيسك bn:রবার্ট ফিস্ক ca:Robert Fisk cs:Robert Fisk de:Robert Fisk es:Robert Fisk eu:Robert Fisk fr:Robert Fisk ga:Robert Fisk it:Robert Fisk ml:റോബർട്ട് ഫിസ്ക് nl:Robert Fisk pt:Robert Fisk ru:Фиск, Роберт sh:Robert Fisk fi:Robert Fisk sv:Robert Fisk uk:Роберт Фіск

Name	Amira Hass
Birth date	June 28, 1956
Birth place	Jerusalem
Nationality	Israeli
Known for	Coverage of daily life in Palestinian territories
Alma mater	Hebrew University
Employer	''Ha'aretz''
Occupation	Journalist
Years active	1989 - present
Footnotes	}}

Amira Hass (; born June 28, 1956) is a prominent left-wing Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper ''Ha'aretz''. She is particularly recognized for her reporting on Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she has also lived for a number of years.

Life

The daughter of two Holocaust survivors (Bergen-Belsen concentration camp), Hass was born in Jerusalem, and was educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she studied the history of Nazism and the European Left's relation to the Holocaust. Early in her career, she traveled widely and worked in several different jobs. Frustrated by the events of the First Intifada, she began her journalistic career in 1989 as a staff editor for ''Ha'aretz'' and started to report from the Palestinian territories in 1991. As of 2003, she is the only Jewish Israeli journalist who has lived full-time among the Palestinians, in Gaza from 1993 and in Ramallah from 1997.

Hass was the recipient of the World Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute in 2000, the Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Award in 2002, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2003, the inaugural award from the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund in 2004 and Hrant Dink Memorial Award in 2009.

Her reporting is generally sympathetic to the Palestinian point of view and critical of Israeli government policy towards the Palestinians. During the years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, however, Hass published several highly critical articles about the chaos and disorder caused by militias associated with the Fatah party of Yasser Arafat and the bloody war between Palestinian factions in Nablus.

Her reportage of events, and her voicing of opinions that run counter to both official Israeli and Palestinian positions has exposed Hass to verbal attacks, and opposition from both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities. Recently she compared Israeli policies towards the Palestinian population to those of South Africa during Apartheid, saying:

'The Palestinians, as a people, are divided into subgroups, something which is reminiscent also of South Africa under apartheid rule'

In June 2001, Judge Rachel Shalev-Gartel of the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ruled that Hass had defamed the Jewish settler community of Beit Hadassah in Hebron, and ordered her to pay 250,000 shekels (about $60,000) in damages. Hass had reported Palestinian eyewitness accounts of Israeli settlers defiling the body of a Palestinian militant killed by Israeli police; the settlers argued that the event did not take place, and said that Hass reported the story with malicious intent. The ''Jerusalem Post'' asserts that Hass's story was contradicted by television reports. The presiding judge found in favour of the settlers, and said that the report damaged the community’s reputation. ''Ha'aretz'' indicated that it did not have time to arrange a defense in the case, and announced that it would appeal the decision. Hass noted that she had brought forward sourced information from the Palestinian community, and said that it was the responsibility of newspaper editors to cross-reference it with other information from the IDF and the settler community.

On December 1, 2008, Hass, who had traveled to Gaza aboard a protest vessel, was arrested by Israeli police on her return to Israel for being in Gaza without a permit.

After residing in the Gaza Strip for several months, Hass was again arrested by Israeli police upon her return to Israel on May 12, 2009 "for violating a law which forbids residence in an enemy state."

Awards

On 27 June 2001, Hass received the Golden Dove of Peace Prize awarded by the Rome-based organization ''Archivo Disarmo''.

On 20 October 2009, Hass received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation.

Books

''Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land under Siege'' (Owl Books, 2000) ISBN 0-8050-5740-4

(with Rachel Leah Jones) ''Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land'' (Semiotext(e), 2003) ISBN 1-58435-019-9

''Diary of Bergen-Belsen: 1944-1945'' (Haymarket Books, 2009) ISBN 978-1-931859-87-5 ... a new English language translation of her Sephardi Yugoslav mother Hanna Levy-Hass' 1946 memoir, with addition of Hass' fore- and after-words.

References

External links

Interview by Robert Fisk (2001)

Interview by US National Public Radio (RealAudio, 2001).

Interview by Democracy Now (RealAudio, MP3, and transcript, 2005)

Speech at University of Wisconsin-Madison: "Reporting the Middle East" (.mp3) (Fall 2003)

Anna Lindh prize

Press Freedom Hero award

Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Award

World Press Freedom Prize

Anna Lindh Award

Video: Amira Hass - From Occupation to Enclosure: Fragmenting the Palestinian State (Part 2) (April 22, 2006)

International Women’s Media Foundation Honors Hass with 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award - video report by ''Democracy Now!''

Video: Amira Hass Asks Obama to Imagine Life as A Palestinian Under Occupation

After U.S. Praise for Netanyahu’s "Restraint", Israeli Journalist Amira Hass Asks Obama to Imagine Life as A Palestinian Under Occupation - report by ''Democracy Now!'' (July 7, 2010)

Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:Israeli Jews Category:People from Jerusalem Category:Israeli journalists Category:Post-Zionists Category:Children of Holocaust survivors Category:People of Haaretz Category:Israeli women journalists

de:Amira Hass fr:Amira Hass it:Amira Hass he:עמירה הס nl:Amira Hass ru:Хасс, Амира vi:Amira Hass

Laila El-Haddadis a Palestinian freelance journalist, writer, blogger, and media activist from Gaza City. She is currently based in the United States. El-Haddad is the author of ''Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between'' (Just World Books) and co-author of the book-in-writing ''The Gaza Kitchen''. She is also a contributing author of ''The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict''. El-Haddad writes principally for the al-Jazeera English website and the Guardian Unlimited.

Life and career

From 2003-2006, El-Haddad was the Gaza stringer for the Aljazeera English website and was praised for her extensive behind the scenes coverage of the Gaza disengagement 2005 and Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006.

Most recently, El-Haddad made two Gaza-based documentaries for Al-Jazeera International (Tunnel Trade and A Rafah Playground) with Tourist With A Typewriter production company. She has also contributed to the Beit-Sahur based Alternative Tourism Guide's Palestine guidebook.

Since November 2004, she has authored an award winning blog formerly called Raising Yousuf: A Diary of a Mother Under Occupation, and now known as Gazamom. The site won the Brass Crescent Award for "best Mideast blog", was nominated as best Mideast blog in the 2007 Bloggies Award, has been selected as ''Blog of the Day'' by www.BlogAwards.com, and chosen as a Blog of Note by www.Blogspot.com.

A running theme in El-Haddad's writing is the personalization of the situation of Gazans and Palestinians by writing with humor and introspective humanity about her domestic life and those of other Gazans. By revealing Palestinians neither as terrorists nor as currency in a worldwide market of political opposition to western dominance, but as sympathetic people capable of wit and humor amid violence and the occupation of their territory, she thereby contributes a human voice from Palestine.

She has been published in The Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The New Statesman, Le monde diplomatique, and the Electronic Intifada, among others, and has been a guest on NPR stations and CNN.

Personal life and background

El-Haddad was born in Kuwait. She was raised primarily in Saudi Arabia, in the Saudi Aramco compound in Dhahran, while summering in Gaza. Her father, Dr. Moussa El-Haddad is from Gaza City, her mother, Dr. Maii El-Farra, from the town of Khanyounis in southern Gaza. Both are now retired and reside in Gaza City. She was educated in Bahrain and the United States. She earned her B.A. in Political Science and Comparative Areas Studies from Duke University and her Master in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, after being awarded the Clinton Scholarship for Palestinian graduate students.

El-Haddad carries Gaza residency (hawia) and a Palestinian Authority travel document. She is married and has one son, Yousuf, and one daughter, Noor.

References

External links

"Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything In Between' Just World Books, September 2010."

"'Personal Voices: The Occupation is Not Over,' AlterNet, August 2005."

"'Disengagement from Justice,' Washington Post, July 2005."

"'Rafah Counting the Dead,' Al Jazeera, June 2004."

Category:Palestinian journalists Category:The Guardian journalists Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Arab journalists Category:John F. Kennedy School of Government alumni Category:Duke University alumni