I nearly fell on my ass boarding the official boat of the Gazan Shurta Buhayra, or coast guard.
Cackling with laughter and telling me to sit down, the two-man crew spun the boat around and headed out towards the north east, open corner of Gaza’s only port. Roughly built like a square – a northern wall of a small pier ending in a ruined lighthouse and a southern wall forming a ninety-degree angle with a concrete-slab breaker – the port is full of small fishing boats. Boys dive into the dirty water, ignoring the fecal and chemical contaminants swirling around them, and laughing as fishermen cast lines.
Big ships sit in dry docks along the shore, some with holes, others in various stages of construction and repair – the easing of the siege, however slight, has meant a few material like glue and wood have reached the Gazan shipwrights for the first time since 2008. They melt the packets of adhesive in camp-fires and lay fiberglass layers with plastic doctors gloves and brushes in the open air.
The coast guards were troublemakers. They beelined their wooden vessel towards a small plastic canoe-type float. A father and his two suns began yelling as we approached rapidly. Curses flew as the coast guards glanced the ship, knocking one of the boys into the water. The father was irate as the guards circled him, coming in for another attack. The family stayed in the canoe this time, but their oar had drifted off. Again, the big ship spun in the water and aimed its bow at the family.
The blow landed heavy mid-ship and overturned the whole canoe. With the family clinging to their capsized craft cursing through the gargle of literally shitty salt water, the coast guards sped away chuckling, out into the golden rays of a Mediterranean sunset.
“What the fuck man!” I yelled to Ted over the motor and churning water. We left the pier and headed south to the packed beaches south of the port. Friday is the big beach day of Gaza, and whole families swam in the polluted waters, hijab or not.
Ted shrugged, smiled and looked away. We could be on the International Solidarity Movement boats getting shot at with water hoses, I guess.
