Lingering Palestinian Hopes, Shattered Palestinian Dreams
By Daoud Kuttab
7 October 2014
When I met Islam
Barbar in a Gaza restaurant in 2012, while on a human rights mission, I was
impressed by her cheerful demeanor but taken aback by the sense of hopelessness
she felt.
Barbar was publishing
media reports, running her own media training center and was active in the
field of women’s rights, but the one place she literally was dreaming to go to
was the occupied West Bank.
Not only had she not
visited other parts of Palestine, but at 26, she had never left the besieged
Gaza Strip.
The report that the
International Press Institute wrote after our visit stressed the need for
freedom of movement between Gaza, and the West Bank and Israel.
I succeeded in getting
Islam to Cairo in 2013 to attend the Aswatona community radio conference that I
was involved in. The radio practitioners attending exchanged ideas on how to
set up, manage and fund community-based stations.
A popular idea was to
start with an online station and then to move into the FM sphere.
Energized by the
potential of being involved in broadcasting, Barbar returned to Gaza and set
her sight on creating a radio station that can focus on women’s issues.
Within a year she was
able to secure a small grant from the UK-based Community Media Solutions,
through Qarya Media Institute, a Palestinian NGO which also gave her technical
support.
Nissagaza.com was
launched on April 30, 2014, out of her Gaza city media center, with local
women’s organizations and women activists and local leaders from all walks of
life attending.
Barbar was most
excited on launch day; the program started with a musical jingle that was
created for the new women’s station by a male supporter.
She uses this story
and the presence of men and women at her station to drive home the idea that
gender issues are not exclusively women’s affairs.
Barbar, who comes from
a progressive family in the Jabalya area, north of Gaza, started to spend
extensive hours in the studio/office.
Volunteers had to be
trained, radio programs to be supervised and modest sponsorships to be found.
She felt she had to
train the women in technical and journalistic skills, as well as raise their
awareness.
Within months of going
on air, the station was buzzing with people and ideas. In record time she and
the station became known, plaques and certificates of appreciation adorned her
office and studio.
Program ideas, calls
for cooperation and partnership ideas started flowing.
Fourteen separate
radio programs mostly produced and presented by volunteers were aired this
summer during the Ramadan season.
While the broadcast
was still online, she was pleasantly surprised to see the number of active
listeners go up.
“Initially when a
program reached 500 listeners I celebrated. Since then, our two leading
programs, Haki Sabaia [girls talk] and Dunia Nisaa [the world of women]
reached 2,000 listeners,” she said.
Reaction on social
media was also exciting and uplifting.
The biggest complaint
she was receiving came from listeners who wanted the station to broadcast on FM
so that others can also enjoy the programming and the music she personally
supervised.
Haki sabaia, which
Barbar was presenting, included four young women who would talk about
day-to-day issues of concern to younger Palestinians. Dunia Nisaa was
geared to a slightly older generation and dealt with issues such as honour
killing, violence at home and divorce.
During Ramadan, one
popular episode tackled the nervousness men exhibit because of the long fasting
hours.
Research about divorce
had produced an interesting fact: Khula’, the right of women to divorce their
husbands, was apparently granted in Gaza, although few women knew that they had
that right and fewer actually used it.
Nisaa Gaza never had a
chance to inform the audience about this important discovery.
On Aug. 25, Barbar
worked until 7 p.m. Before leaving, she supervised a medical program presented
by a medical nutritionist who, along with two women announcers, tried to
provide health tips to their radio audience.
She also followed up
with one of her colleagues on the report that would be broadcast on Dunia
Nisaa the following day, informing Gaza women that they have the right to
khula (divorce) if they choose to use it.
War Tainting Attempts
At Progression
Back at home, Barbar
followed the news that Palestinians in high tower buildings like the one she
worked in had been evacuated following calls from the Israelis that their
building is targeted.
Everyone knew that the
war on Gaza was about to be over and it was clear Israel wanted to boost its
negotiating hand.
Barbar was worried
about the evacuation of her building, but figured that this was a precautionary
move and that if anything; a specific office might be hit.
She was not worried;
her radio station was not political and was unlikely to be the target.
It was not.
The entire 13-storey
Basha Building that housed her station was the target.
At 4 a.m., Israel
delivered high explosives that brought the entire structure down, turning it
into rubble.
Barbar visited the
site and tried in vain to find any of the remains of her dream. Not a
microphone, not a paper and not any of the awards and plaques that were given
to the young station were found.
She participated in a
few protests, but for weeks was in depression. But her hopes have been revived
when friends and colleagues met and started a crowd-funding effort using the
indiegogo application in the hope of raising enough funds for her to go back on
air.
This time, Barbar says
her dream is to go directly to broadcasting on FM. In the meantime, her other
dream, to visit the West Bank even for a few days, still lingers.
Daoud Kuttab, an award winning Palestinian journalist who resides in
Jerusalem and Amman. Mr. Kuttab is the director general of Community Media
Network a media NGO that runs a radio station in Amman (al balad radio 92.4fm)
a newsweb site ammannet.net and a TV production operation in Palestine Penmedia
(penmedia.ps) which is producing the Palestinian version of Sesame street.
Source:
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2014/10/07/Lingering-Palestinian-hopes-shattered-Palestinian-dreams.html