Palestine: A Story of Survival
and protest around the world in pursuit of justice and an end to the occupation – as was the case in May 2021. The whole world watched as Israel once again battered the people of Gaza in a barrage of missiles under the guise of going after Hamas and others. And as we saw, it’s civilians who pay the highest price. But this time the response was different. Israel was not prepared for the global outpouring of support for Palestine. It appeared the world had finally woken up to the fact an apartheid system exists in the occupied territory and many demanded action. Clearly there had been a shift in how people respond to this story and Al Jazeera was there every step of the way. Our goal is simply to tell the world what is happening in Palestine. To report the news as we see it. But that sometimes means we become a target for doing our job. When our team in Gaza found out the Israeli army was preparing to bomb our office – which also housed the Associated Press and other media outlets - they had less than an hour to save whatever they could and run for their lives.
Our office was in a residential area surrounded by family homes – where children live. But that wasn’t much of a deterrence. The Israeli army bombed the building and it came crashing down – all on live television. The world was watching. Our team kept going. Safwat Al Kahlout and his crew quickly found a safe area and came up live again to show our viewers what Israel had just done. This has been a never-ending cycle of violence since 1948. Governments come and go. Talks are held and ceasefires are declared. But millions of Palestinians around the world never lose hope that one day they shall return to their homes. It is after all, a story of survival.
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