Eyewitness in Gaza

Eyewitness in Gaza
Featuring Dr. Ghada Ageel
Tuesday, October 28 (7:00 pm)
Education Centre South Room 306
87 Avenue at 113 Street, University of Alberta Campus
(Click here for map)

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For 50 days in the summer of 2014, Israeli forces pounded the besieged Gaza Strip from air, land and sea, killing more than 2200 Palestinians and wounding more than 11,000, most of them civilians. At the height of the bombardment, roughly a third of Gaza’s population was displaced, and by the time the August 26 cease-fire was declared over 17,000 homes had been completely destroyed and another 37,000 homes damaged.

In the midst of it all, Dr. Ghada Ageel travelled to Gaza to be with her family, spending more than a month experiencing the Israeli bombardment and the chilling aftermath of the assault. She calls it “the scariest and most stressful trip” of her life. Come hear Ghada’s story and learn what the prospects are now for Gaza’s future.

“Expecting the unexpectable, I put my documents, passports and money in a small bag and hung them around my neck and sat next to my mom’s bed fully dressed with my shoes on for most of the week,” Ageel writes of the experience. “In the case of invasion of the refugee camp, my brothers were to carry my disabled mother in a mattress similar to the way they’d done a few days earlier with my 89-year-old grandmother, Khadiaj, minutes before Israel bombed the neighbour’s house. My sister-in-laws, Wafa and Arwa, the plan says, would carry their children, the little money they have and some of their valuable belongings. I was to look after my two children and carry my mom’s medications.”

This is a free event, all are welcome.

Dr. Ghada Ageel is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. Her research interests focus on rights-based approaches to forced migration, Palestinian refugees in comparative perspective, oral history, women’s studies, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the permanent status issues involved in the Middle East peace process. Dr. Ageel’s work has been widely published in several newspapers, magazines and journals worldwide, including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Hill, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Journal for Palestine Studies, Palestine Chronicle, Occupation Magazine and many Arabic newspapers throughout the Middle East. Dr. Ageel is currently working on a book project: The Palestinian Nakba and Israeli Apartheid : The Law and The Experience. She is also active in Faculty4Palestine-Alberta.