Municipalities and Councils - Australians for Palestine

Pasha’s Palace in Gaza. Photo by George Azar.
40
oppress the revolution, the
British arrested Fahmi Bek
and forced him into exile out of
Palestine.
Well, this sounds more familiar
to me than the Palestinian
pounds and the Gaza-
Yafa road. I can connect
to this very vivid memory of
foreign “intervention” in my
country’s affairs because I lived
through a similar experience
myself, whereas I never used
Palestinian pounds or travelled
on the Gaza-Yafa road. It seems
that whenever Palestinians
make a democratic choice and
elect the candidate whom they
believe is most suitable for a
certain position, a foreign power
begs to differ and decides to get
rid of the person. Thus,
Fahmi Bek was deprived of
the opportunity to keep his
promises to the people who
voted for him.
The emblem of the Gaza City
Municipality is the mythological
phoenix. Legend has it that this
beautiful bird grows and lives
for hundreds of years, and then
it builds itself a nest of twigs
and ignites. A young phoenix is
reborn from amidst the ashes
to which the bird and the nest
have been reduced. This, more
than anything, reminds me
of the Gaza I know. We will
arise, and already are arising,
from the ashes to which we
are constantly reduced. Our
first municipal council chose
the right bird for the right city,
but our history shows that the
most important decisions for our
society are rarely left up to us.
Yasmeen J. El Khoudary is a writer
and researcher in Gaza, Palestine.
You are invited to visit her blog,
A Voice from Palestine (http://
yelkhoudary.blogspot.com).