GAZA CITY, 6 August 2006 — It’s wedding day in Jabaliya. Amid the devastation and despair inflicted by a month-long Israeli siege and bloodshed, 200 couples tied the knot this weekend in this refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip. “We have so few occasions to celebrate because of the Israelis who are attacking us,” said Salma Hamud, 40, whose son was among the grooms.
“We are half happy and half sad,” said her neighbor, Yasmina. “We want the world to see that the Palestinians hold celebrations despite the situation.” The situation is the Israeli offensive that the Jewish state launched on June 28, three days after Palestinian militants in Gaza killed two Israeli soldiers and seized a third in a cross-border raid.
The offensive has killed at least 167 Palestinians and brought death to one Israeli soldier, according to an AFP count. It has also ruined much of the infrastructure in the strip, one of the world’s most densely-populated places that is home to 1.4 million people.
In addition to cowering from Israeli military raids, the residents of Gaza have for weeks lived with rationed electricity and untreated sewage.
But on Friday night up to 20,000 of them put aside their troubles and, decked out in their finest clothes, turned out for the ceremony in the camp’s park. In accordance with the tradition practiced here, only the groom were present on the stage set up for the ceremony. Seated on chairs before them, the guests were also separated by sex, a shoulder-length sheet strung across the open space between them.
“The groom is the most handsome, the ring shines with a million lights,” singers crooned in the first mass marriage ceremony to take place in Gaza since July 2005, when the Islamic Jihad movement helped 242 couples to say “I do.”
Jabaliya, a refugee camp north of Gaza City around five kilometers (three miles) from the Israeli border, has been one of the worst-affected areas of the Israeli monthlong offensive.
“Of course we’re happy to be here,” said Hamud. Surrounded by her sisters, aunts and female cousins, Hamud came to see her son embark on his married life. She wore a black robe and headscarf, the traditional attire for women in Gaza, where Islam has always leaned toward the conservative, especially after Hamas came to power in January.
Hamas enjoys considerable grass roots support in this coastal strip because of numerous social programs that it has carried out for years in the impoverished territory. The wedding ceremony was organized by its Islamic Society organization. “We wanted to show the world that we are a nation happy to be alive and that wants to live on its soil,” said Issam Juda, the coordinator of the ceremony. “A number of marriages have been annulled because of the situation in Gaza,” Juda said. “We organized this ceremony to help the couples and to reduce the costs of the celebration for their families.”
Hamas pays for the ceremony thanks to contributions from abroad, especially Arab countries, Juda said.
Each couple is due to receive $600 to help get them started, including $100 in the name of Hamas’ Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and bedroom furniture, Juda said.
Mohammed, one of the grooms dressed in a black suit and the green scarf of Hamas, beamed as he climbed the stage toward his familial future. He has wanted to get married for a long time, he says. “I am thankful to Hamas for having helped me.”
