Gaza

More from Elias Khouri's "Bab al-Shams."



"Gaza was struck by the great catastrophe (النكبة الكبرى) after the War of 1948 when it was transformed into a city of refugees. The city was filled by tens of thousands of the displaced who had been expelled from their regions by the Israeli Army. There were no Gazans left in Gaza. Gaza melted in a sea of refugees and became the first truly Palestinian place. There, the Palestinians realized that they weren't simply groups belonging to different regions and villages, but one people, born of tragedy. And, thus, Gaza became the most important font of politics in modern Palestinian history. The Communist movement was strong there. The Muslim Brotherhood grew there as well. From the camps and neighborhoods of Gaza sprung the first cells of the Fatah movement. And in the Seventies, the Popular Front, led by a legendary man called "Guevara of Gaza," ruled the city at night and beset the city with ambushes and fighters. And it was there that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were established. And so it goes..."