Sharyn Lock with Sarah Irving
Sharyn Lock first visited Palestine, with the International Solidarity Movement, in 2002. Having heard about the then newly formed ISM from a friend, she thought, '...created by Israelis and Palestinians to invite internationals to support Palestinians in nonviolent struggle against Israeli occupation. It sounded creative, flexible and accessible, and I decided to go and learn what I could.'
Having been on the original seaward aid flotillas, and been arrested and imprisoned by the Israeli authorities, she returned by fishing boat in time to volunteer help with the over-worked ambulance brigade, as it fought to cope with the Israeli assault on Gaza at the end of 2008. This book is built out of the blog she managed to maintain while dealing with the unending trauma of the bombing, mining, bulldozing and sniping orgy that followed; in danger of losing her own life of course, as bullets zipped past her face. It reads like life in The Inferno. Page after page lists the gore, the tragedy, the despair. And the (understandably) dark humour. For all its unrelenting horror it’s thoroughly gripping, and I for one found it difficult to put it down until the finish.
More than a mere transcript of a blog , this well-written, lively account also contains a very useful index. One for the reference bookshelf, after your first read-through. If you think you know what happened in Gaza, try this and think again.
Gaza Beneath the Bombs
published byPlutoPress http://www.plutobooks.com/
Sharyn Lock first visited Palestine, with the International Solidarity Movement, in 2002. Having heard about the then newly formed ISM from a friend, she thought, '...created by Israelis and Palestinians to invite internationals to support Palestinians in nonviolent struggle against Israeli occupation. It sounded creative, flexible and accessible, and I decided to go and learn what I could.'
Having been on the original seaward aid flotillas, and been arrested and imprisoned by the Israeli authorities, she returned by fishing boat in time to volunteer help with the over-worked ambulance brigade, as it fought to cope with the Israeli assault on Gaza at the end of 2008. This book is built out of the blog she managed to maintain while dealing with the unending trauma of the bombing, mining, bulldozing and sniping orgy that followed; in danger of losing her own life of course, as bullets zipped past her face. It reads like life in The Inferno. Page after page lists the gore, the tragedy, the despair. And the (understandably) dark humour. For all its unrelenting horror it’s thoroughly gripping, and I for one found it difficult to put it down until the finish.
More than a mere transcript of a blog , this well-written, lively account also contains a very useful index. One for the reference bookshelf, after your first read-through. If you think you know what happened in Gaza, try this and think again.
Gaza Beneath the Bombs
published byPlutoPress http://www.plutobooks.com/
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