This is not the Gaza you typically see in American media
by Max Fisher
What is it like to live in Gaza? From what you generally hear in the United States, you might not have an easy time answering that question. Even when Gazan people are in the news, we tend to treat them as little more than pawns in the Israel-Palestine conflict — relevant only as talking points in our endless arguments about the conflict and which side bears moral superiority.
This discourse makes the lives of Gaza Palestinians feel less real, and thus less meaningful. It should not be necessary to say this, but it is: The lives of Palestinians in Gaza do have intrinsic meaning, just like the lives of everyone else. At the same time, those lives are indeed shaped by the conflict that physically surrounds them. Recognizing that fact without reducing Gazans' lives to their place in the conflict is difficult, and we in the media almost always fail at it.
Lauren Bohn, a journalist and a friend who is working with the GroundTruth Project, has a story in the New York Times that succeeds in capturing the experiences of Gazans as shaped by the conflict, as well as the ways that they are more than the conflict. It's about a technology startup accelerator in Gaza — the territory's first — and the people who are attending it.
I would really urge you to go read the story now. But there are two details that stuck with me. First is a bulletin board that Bohn saw in the startup accelerator's offices. At the top of the board is a question. Attendees are encouraged to pin postcards with their answer. The question is, "What would you do if you weren’t afraid?"
Normally, this question is part of the vernacular of the tech startup world, a way to describe the burdens of expectations and norms that can hold back creativity. In Gaza, though, it takes on a very different meaning.
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http://www.vox.com/2015/7/28/9048319/gaza-startup-afraid
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