Given a chance Gaza will emerge like a phoenix

In the summer of 2023, Palestinian journalist Yousef Alhelou returned to his native city of Gaza for a two-month holiday during which he took footage of the seafront views, the Mosques and other sights and scenes of his hometown.

Such was his experience there, he was planning to move back home from London where he had been living for 10 years.

Little did he realise that the idyllic views he filmed during that summer holiday would be reduced to dust and rubble in the months after he left.

On October 7, Hamas mounted a series of attacks, including on a rock concert and several Israeli settlements which left almost 2,000 dead and resulted in hundreds of hostages being taken, including women and children.

The Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu lost no time in mounting a fierce onslaught on Gaza which has left, according to many international relief agencies, up to 50,000 civilians dead and left the once proud city in ruins.

Every Saturday since the week after the October 7 attack, there have been marches organised in Cork in support of the people of Gaza since then.

Yousef, who produced and directed the award-winning film, The Phoenix of Gaza, attended and participated in a question-and-answer session at a recent screening in The Pav on Carey’s Lane, an event organised by the Cork Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Yousef spoke about his film to The Echo and how he felt now about what had happened to the city where had grown up.

“My film, The Phoenix of Gaza, is a 45-minute documentary film and the phoenix represents the resurrection, the rising from the ashes,” he said. “Gaza has been subjected to numerous Israeli wars and destructive offensives — after each war we managed to rebuild it, but this time may be difficult, because Israel has intentionally levelled Gaza to the ground and they refuse to allow the reconstruction.

“With determination, I think it will be rebuilt but it will take time.

“I enjoyed every moment of my two months stay in the summer of 2023. After I arrived back in London, a genocide happened, I lost my sister and seven of my nephews and nieces and dozens of cousins. Our house is destroyed.

“It breaks my heart to see my city destroyed. People are being killed as we speak, massacres are being committed, every day people are being killed or injured.”

He described his documentary as a “celebration of life”.

“We ended up mourning our dead, it is a eulogy now,” he added.

Yousef initially left Gaza as he had secured a scholarship to go to Oxford University to study journalism.

“When I left 10 years ago, it was still a city under siege and occupation — I always had a dream to go back, we never abandon our country,” he said.

“Gaza had improved a lot in the 10 years since I left and I was thinking while there for that two months, to go and live there.

“Gaza is the place I grew up, I know its alleyways — it’s a very small piece of land, 25 miles long, eight miles wide, you can enjoy your life there.”

However, he described Gaza as a prison.

“It’s a prison but we are happy to live in that prison because it’s our country and we are the indigenous people of the land and we will not become refugees again.

“Gaza is a very beautiful city — some nice places, but not all people on the sliver of land can enjoy those luxuries because there’s a high level of poverty and unemployment and the siege has badly affected all aspects of life.”

Even before the Israeli onslaught which followed the October 7 attacks, the latest in a long series of eruptions of conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinians, life in Gaza was difficult for those living there, as they faced many restrictions, including constraints on their movement.

“We are isolated but despite that, people try to have a normal life. We didn’t have many foreigners visiting us, Gaza was closed for tourism,” he said.

“Even us Gazans, we are banned for life from going to the other part of Palestine, the West Bank — and they cannot visit us, the same, Christians are not allowed to go to visit Bethlehem or Nazareth, it’s the world’s largest open-air prison.”

In response to a recent plan, disclosed by US president Donald Trump, to turn Gaza into a resort city by first removing all Palestinians and then rebuilding it, Yousef had this to say: “Why doesn’t Donald Trump take 2.5m Gazans in any US state? Some people might accept that. He cannot dictate his decision to force other countries to take Palestinians.

“Palestinians wouldn’t go to Arab countries, they would like to go to Europe, they would like to go to America, maybe, to a guaranteed income, to a nice life.” In the past few weeks, people in Gaza have mounted protests against Hamas.

“Hamas is the result of the Israeli occupation, not all people support Hamas, like here [Ireland] not all people supported the IRA,” said Yousef. “If Israel had not occupied Palestinian lands, Hamas would never have existed.

“As long as there is occupation, Palestinians will call for independence, they will resist with all means available, whether it’s armed struggle or peaceful, non-violent struggle.”

In terms of what he would like to happen now, Yousef wants the world to end what he described as its silence on what is happening in Gaza as, he argues, silence is complicity.

“As long as there is complicity, there is silence, Netanyahu and his extremist government will continue.

“Any removal of Palestinians will destabilise the region and the conflict will continue. I think the only option is to have one secular democratic state for everybody to live in peace with equal rights.

“Israel has killed any chance for a two-state solution, Netanyahu has said he will not allow a Palestinian state.”

He said what this means for Ireland is the Government should ensure Shannon Airport is not used as a stopover for US flights bringing weapons to Israel to use against Palestinians, while also praising the solidarity of the people of Ireland.

He added: “We need [the Irish Government] to take practical steps on the ground to prove to the people who elected them they care about humanity, they care about their fellow human beings.”