Episode 028: A Duty To Help with @JoeGaza93

This week, the Palestine Pod hosts Yousef Mema aka @JoeGaza93. Yousef is a nurse, social media activist, and humanitarian. His Instagram profile rose to prominence during the May 2021 Israeli assaults on Gaza where he spent every day of the 11-day attacks showing the world first-hand accounts from life in Gaza. He shared photo and video (including live) footage from his home in Gaza City during the shelling as well as from Al Shifa Hospital, one of the main hospitals in Gaza where he was working at the time as a nurse in the orthopedic department. Joe talks to us about what it was like to survive these Israeli assaults. Lara recalls filming an Instagram live with Joe in May while he was at home during the shelling and the sound of Israeli drones and missiles interrupting the conversation every couple of seconds. Lara and Joe discuss one of the most brutal nights of the May assaults, May 16, 2021, when Israel committed the Al-Wehda Street Massacre, and heavily shelled one of the most prominent residential and commercial streets in Gaza, leveling entire apartment buildings and killing entire families including Dr. Ayman Abu al-Ouf, one of Gaza’s leading doctors, and several of his family members as they slept. The Israeli occupation forces are said to have used 11 advanced precision-guided missiles along several meters of Al-Wehda Street without warning, leading to the killing of around 50 Palestinians and significant damage to the street and infrastructure. In response to international condemnation, the Occupation forces said that the casualties were an unforeseen “freak” consequences of an attempt to target tunnels under the street. Michael queries whether anyone really believes their outrageous claim that this was unforeseeable (they did use advanced weaponry designed specifically to kill on one of the densest residential streets in Gaza after all - what else would you expect to happen?). Joe reminds us that the Israeli siege is intended to keep Palestinians in Gaza preoccupied with basic needs such as food and electricity to hinder the pursuit of liberation. Michael compliments Joe’s beard and Lara suggests Michael’s facial hair resembles that of Julian Assange.

To consult the sources used in the preparation of this episode, please see:

Books/Videos

1. Yousef Mema's Instagram

2. Yousef Mema's Twitter

3. Yousef's live IG videos during Israel's bombing of Gaza, May 2021

4. "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine", by Ilan Pappe

Articles

1. What is the Nakba? Day of catastrophe for Palestinians explained (Middle East Eye)

2. Mizrahi voices in Musrara. An inter-Jewish discriminative spatial pattern (EchoGéo Journal)

3. 1982 General Assembly affirmation of the right to armed struggle in Resolution 37/43 (United Nations)

4. How does the world feel about Israel/Palestine? (Vox)

5. Four Wars Old: fourteen years of childhood in Gaza (Visualizing Palestine)

6. Through four wars, toll mounts on a Gaza neighborhood (Associated Press)

7. Remembering Israel's "disengagement" from Gaza (Middle East Monitor)

8. Israel/ OPT: Cycle of impunity leaves civilians once again paying the price amid the escalation of hostilities (Amnesty International)

9. Palestinian barber resumes work amid ruins of destroyed Gaza shop (EuroNews)

10. Putting Palestinians “On a Diet”: Israel’s Siege & Blockade of Gaza (IMEU)

11. Gaza’s Refugees Have Always Haunted Israel. Now They’re on the March. (Haaretz)

12. Palestinians eagerly await the arrival of 4G cellular service (Jerusalem Post)

13. As Israelis enjoy 5G, Palestinians are told they can have 4G 'soon' (The New Arab)

14. Gaza Staggers Under Shortages as Israel Steps Up Attacks (New York Times)

15. In Gaza, fueling cars with cooking oil in Gaza, fueling cars with cooking oil (Electronic Intifada)

16. Summer 2020: Gaza’s electricity crisis deepens again, with 4 hours of daily supply (B'Tselem)

17. PCHR Warns of Health Sector Collapse and Suspension of Health Services in the Gaza Strip (Palestinian Centre for Human Rights)

18. Israel-Palestine: Egypt prepares for a cross-border influx of wounded Palestinians from Gaza (Middle East Eye)

19. Israel attacks on Gaza left the strained health care system in tatters (The Intercept)

20. Israeli airstrikes kill civilians and damage MSF clinic in Gaza (Doctors Without Borders)

21. US aid group destroyed in Israeli airstrike vows to rebuild its office. (CNN)

22. ‘Your worst nightmare’: Inside the deadliest night of Israel’s attacks on Gaza (Independent)

23. Gaza Lives Erased: Israel Is Wiping Out Entire Palestinian Families on Purpose. (Haaretz)

24. Palestinian Ghettos Were Always the Plan (Haaretz)