Love under siege in Gaza In honor of Valentine’s Day, three tales from Gaza of the impossible conditions for families and couples created by Israel’s closure of the Strip.

[TomSea]

Love under siege in Gaza
In honor of Valentine’s Day, three tales from Gaza of the impossible conditions for families and couples created by Israel’s closure of the Strip.

Palestinian demonstrators hold a mock wedding during a nonviolent demonstration in the West Bank village Al-Ma’asara, July 31, 2009. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

To receive a permit to travel to and from Gaza via Erez Crossing, Israel must determine that your reason for travel is humanitarian in nature or that you meet a list of exceptional circumstances (like playing for the national football team or being a trader). Traveling to visit your mother you haven’t seen in 10 years isn’t considered to be humanitarian in nature, unless, God forbid, she’s ill with a fatal condition.

Traveling for the purpose of attending a wedding is possible, but only if the groom or bride is a first-degree relative. Traveling to your own wedding doesn’t count. Gaza, like all other places in the world, is full of people who love. Here are three stories from the Strip, not just of romantic love, but of all kinds of love under closure. The stories stand out for how ordinary they are, on the one hand, and how extraordinary the circumstances are in which they take place.

Continued: https://972mag.com/love-under-siege-in-gaza/125229/