“This war has stopped joy,” says Farah Baker, who at 16 years of age has already lived through an intifada and three subsequent Israeli wars on the Gaza Strip.
In a yearning for the quotidian, Farah proclaims:
“Life has become boring because I haven’t set foot on the sidewalk since July 7 because it’s so dangerous. I miss seeing my friends and hanging out. Life has become full of stress and fear because of the loud noise of the bombings, because Israeli warplanes randomly bomb civilians’ houses so I feel unsafe, and it’s horrible to keep listening all the time to that sound you hate: that sound of the drones.”
Despite all this, Farah is able to find some positivity in the situation. “This has made the relationship between me and my family stronger,” she says. “I am spending all my time with them. It also makes me know who my friends are, those who care about me.”
In confronting the horrors of this latest Israeli assault, she is caught between grief and resiliency.
“The situation is too awful, how these innocent civilians are dying in outrageous ways. I can’t stand seeing my brothers and sisters cut into pieces or burned. I’m astonished by the Arab leaders. I just can’t understand how they can keep watching us die every day without even caring! I realize that they might bomb my house at any moment. But I don’t want a ceasefire unless it means the siege of Gaza will be lifted. We can’t go back to how it was before.”
In the end, Farah is left with determination. “I feel unsafe, but also brave and strong,” she says. “I have the will to defy the media by showing the world exactly what is happening in Gaza without the fear of being arrested by Israel someday.”