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It was shocking for me to discover that there are over 54,000 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank even more trapped and isolated than most Palestinians. They are the citizens lacking a hawiyye (national identification card), which were issued by Israel under the provisions of the Oslo Accords. When the second Intifada broke out, the cards stopped coming and many people who had come to Gaza visiting friends and family have been trapped here ever since. Most disturbing of all, they do not technically exist.

For the past 15 weeks some of these people in Gaza have been staging sit-ins in front of the Palestinian Legislative Council in an attempt to raise awareness about their plight and demand political action. To their credit, I have noticed an increase in the media coverage of this issue, which is an important step. Here is an article by Laila El-Haddad about the situation and another on Yahoo News. Some of the stories are terribly tragic… I spoke with many of these people people today at the sit-in. Here is just one of the short interviews I took… (more…)