Future Tense

 

 

 

 

While I was teaching the future tense, I asked Mohammed a 14 old-year student about his future. He said, "Yea, I hope to finish my secondary school, go to university, and have a good  job. But I want to tell you a secret, I am sure that I will not fulfill  any of these, because I will be a fighter and I will defend my country from the foe, so martyrdom is my only future  ". Then he asked me " Did I use the future tense correctly?" I was a teacher, busy thinking about how to give the children a vivid colorful image, another dream, a calm future. In that moment I couldn't utter even a word .

 

While driving down the road, a known leader from Hamas party, Ahmad al Jabari was killed by an airstrike from a F-16, and the Israeli " Pillar of cloud" operation started on The Gaza strip. The operation lasted  for eight deadly days. During those days the Israeli gunboats were shelling from the sea, the F16s, drons, and Apaches were shelling from the air, and the tanks were shelling from the land. The Palestinian resistance also was launching its "rockets" towards Israel but they rarely reached their target.

 

 The people said, " Even the rockets will not kill anyone, at least they will frighten them". During the eight days the people were recalling what happened in the Cast Lead. Every mother was horrified, anticipating what will happen next, which of her children will be the next victim?

 

At the end of the eight days there was a ceasefire and the media declared a Palestinian victory. What does a victory mean for a mother who lost her son? What does a victory  mean to a young man who became disabled? What does a victory mean to a poor father who spent his life in building his house which is now  a ten-deep meter hole due to a bomb? What does a victory mean to us, the people of Gaza, who have more than a hundred and ninety martyrs and a thousand injured people almost a third of them now disabled?

 

 The people of Gaza  were celebrating the ceasefire agreement, which gives the farmers the green light to harvest their crops, the fishermen to fish within six nautical miles, and the patients to cross the border for treatment. It took only two days to reveal the ceasefire, is based mainly on lies. Neither the fishermen nor the farmers are allowed to carry on their work, The situation is worse than before the ceasefire. A fisherman told me, " While I was fishing within the three miles, the Israeli navy started shooting at my boat targeting its motor, then ordered me to strip in the underwear and jump in the sea. After that, they arrested me and took me to Ashdod. I stayed their for half a day. Finally they released me but what to do?? They took my boat which I live by.! How can I live? Where is the ceasefire they are talking about ? What shit?"

Really? What a shit?? How do we get out from this nightmare?

 

I heard tens of heartbreaking stories all over the Gaza strip. A four-old year boy died because of  shrapnel that took his head off while he was sleeping, a woman was blinded while her husband's two sons were martyred, a brother carried his brother's corpse which turned into pieces, four kids from the same family buried under their destroyed house, and so on…

 

A hopeless, helpless, and sad mother said, "Our area is usually safe, all the neighbors have their own fields and there are no fighters between us. We civilians weren't afraid of the " war". Suddenly I lost my son who was four years. He was the " house motor"  now the house is silent and calm"  I was sniffing and lost my words, then I started crying. Mohammed 21 years old said," They were bombing randomly, all the Gazans were targeted and everybody was expecting his death"  Until this moment I am out of words, just thinking about the future tense.