Reminiscences from Gaza 1981-1985.

AuthorMcAndrew, J. Thomas
PositionPersonal account

Editor's Note:

Seldom do we have an opportunity to get an insider's view of the operations of a critical international agency as well as the roots of an important contemporary conflict. Here, a retired American Foreign Service Officer provides such an insight with notes on his experiences, observations, and impressions when visiting the Gaza Strip as a diplomat assigned to U.S. embassies in the region and then service in Gaza as an officer of UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.--Assoc. Publisher

A number of people have asked that I record some of the experiences, observations and impressions acquired during my years working in the Gaza strip with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). With apologies for a lack of precision due to the passage of time, there follow descriptions of and comments on things that I observed during my four years administering relief services for some 450,000 registered Palestinian refugees living in the Gaza Strip, as well as impressions from previous visits to Gaza.

First Visits I first visited Gaza in 1969 when, as part of my duties as U.S. representative on the UNRWA Advisory Commission in Beirut, I undertook to visit all of the UNRWA field offices and as many of the refugee camps and other facilities as possible. Traveling with the UNRWA courier from Amman via the Allenby Bridge, my first view of Gaza was at the Erez crossing point between southern Israel and the Strip. Immediately adjacent to and south of the border was an area occupied by a complex of newly constructed Israeli light industrial facilities. I was told that Palestinian Arab labor had been used in the construction of these premises but that no Arabs were subsequently employed in their ongoing commercial activities. Indeed it was clear from the security fencing around the compound and the nearby Israeli Defense Force (IDF)-manned watch towers that this complex was not destined to make a contribution to the economic life of Gaza's Palestinian residents.

My second visit took place in the spring of 1970 when my wife, Tess, was able to accompany me. Again, we traveled via the Allenby Bridge and, after a brief stop at the UNRWA field office, proceeded to our lodging at Marna House. Marna House, as visitors to the Strip will recall, was then regarded as the only place suitable for western visitors. There weren't many in those days - western journalists, NGO representatives, UN officials and the occasional foreign embassy visitor, although most of the latter tended not to remain overnight in Gaza as security conditions were still unsettled. Marna House was an ad hoc B&B in the home of Mrs. Margaret Nassar, herself a refugee from Safad in northern Galilee. I don't recall the circumstances that resulted in Mrs. Nassar ending up in Gaza rather than Jerusalem where her son, Walter, lived, or with one of her two married daughters, Hilda and Ruth, both of whom were married and living in the UK. She was a charming lady with many interesting and sad tales of her experiences before, during and after the 1948 War. She also followed day-to-day events in Gaza very closely, and when I was visiting in the camps and something occurred in Gaza City that threatened to upset the security situation, she kept Tess in the house and away from the souq or the nearby UN beach facility.

For the most part, security conditions at this time within the Gaza Strip, at least in the cities, were generally tolerable. The local, non-refugee residents, and many of the refugee population as well, thought negotiations to implement UN Security Council Resolution 242, then under way in New York, could result in a settlement agreement that would enable the refugees either to return to their former homes in what had become Israel or be compensated for their losses and helped to resettle elsewhere. There was no support for any agreement that did not make it possible for most, if not all, of the refugees to leave the Gaza Strip.

Accompanied by a UNRWA expatriate staff member, I visited several of the eight refugee camps within the Gaza Strip, from Jabaliya, near the northern border with Israel, to Rafah, adjacent to the border with Egypt. On a slightly elevated plot of ground near Gaza City there was already an Israeli civilian settlement with, I was told at the time, "a few hundred" settlers. These were escorted by the IDF into Israel each day as there was no work for them in Gaza. Between this settlement and the southern edge of Gaza City was the main IDF camp, an area obviously not open to the public. During the years before June 1967, this area had been an Egyptian military administration headquarters.

Although I had little contact with local residents during this visit, I did dine with a few members of the al-Shawwa family. (The al-Shawwas are a prominent, extended family that has lived in Gaza for generations. Some years later, Haj Rashad al-Shawwa became mayor of Gaza City and after his death a nephew, 'Awn, took over the position.) I recall a comment from one of the people I met that, although the Gazans had not been happy with the Egyptian military administration in the Gaza Strip, the situation since June 1967 when Israel had reoccupied the area had deteriorated significantly. For example, the port of Gaza, destroyed during the June '67 fighting, had not been...

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