Loading ...Gaza Refugee Child: I Dream of Telling the World My People's Story
By Yara Jouda
I am a girl from Gaza barely 15-years old. Maybe I’m not old enough, but I’m mature enough to write in the name of dead Palestinian children who didn’t have enough time to enjoy life and who died in cold blood.
These kids wished to live lives full of happiness, but can no longer achieve these goals. Also, I want to tell you about their dreams. Most of Gaza’s children dreamt of being doctors to treat people who suffer during Israel’s offensives. These kids wanted to fight against those who stole our land and killed our beloved ones. They destroyed our houses, killed our families and friends, not to mention that they made us refugees.
I have a little bit of a different dream. I have always dreamed of traveling around the world, not to enjoy or have fun, but to deliver the message of these kids. I want to remove the guilty feeling in my chest because I believe that every person in the world should protect these children just as if they were their younger siblings or children, and to erase the sound of the bombs, and to make sure they have enough money to buy toys.
I hope those who are reading this message — Muslims, Christians, Jewish and everyone else — have enough humanity to do something about it, to take some responsibility.
In the past, I was fighting the media for my right to tell the world about how I felt when I saw the bombs in the sky falling on our neighbors’ houses, to describe how much fear I felt because of the rockets which caused the violent dancing of my house, those endless days and nights, and finally to have the chance to tell them how I suffered every day. Id wanted to tell them that a child like me could not have enough sleep in her night to tell them about every dream or shall I say nightmare that came to me every minute after closing my eyes, every second of drifting off to sleep. Now, I think it’s the perfect time for all of us to stand up and raise our voices and speak out against the injustices in Palestine.
Kids in Gaza, including me, may look in a good health on the outside, but we don’t feel so from the inside because of the terror from Israel’s random bombs. And they say that WE are the terrorists because we fight for our rights. I remember every page I read in the Palestinian history books about the Zionists’ killing ways. Every time I wake up I thank Allah because I am alive and I promise myself that I will raise my voice to let the world know what we face in Palestine, especially in Gaza.
Finally, I want to share with you something that is very sensitive about me. When I was 7 years old I remember clearly that I always wanted to fight Israel and be killed by Israeli soldiers so I could go to paradise and live happily ever after. I really hope that you won’t judge me or my dream because that’s the dream of every child in Gaza.
I hope that my message reaches your hearts and makes you understand our situation in Gaza. I also hope that the children of Gaza can live a better life to tell you about in the future.
– Yara Jouda lives in Alnusierat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. She is a student at Mamdouh Saidam High School. This article was contributed to the PalestineChronicle.com.
Source: www.palestinechronicle.com