Hunger.
Cold. Thirst. Disease. These are the daily realities of life in Gaza, where for
the past 423 days, Israel has unleashed a genocide that will come to define our
contemporary era. As Palestinians struggle to meet their daily needs, they are
also faced with a battle to preserve their memories and dignity. Over the past
year, journalist and filmmaker Ruwaida Amer has produced numerous powerful,
heart-wrenching documentary reports for TRNN from the rubble and ruins of Gaza,
shining a light on the darkest realities of Israel’s genocidal war on
Palestinians, even as she herself suffers from—and struggles to survive—the
onslaught. Calling in from Gaza, Amer joins The Marc Steiner Show to share an
honest portrait of her life and the lives of her fellow Palestinians in the
midst of genocide.
A Palestinian boy sits over a torn UNRWA sticker in Nuseirat in
the central Gaza Strip on December 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between
Israel and Hamas militants. Photo by EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images
Please
watch and share Ruwaida Amer’s on-the-ground reports from Gaza for TRNN,
including…
- “Gaza’s orphans speak: ‘I found [my family] in pieces. in pieces’“
- “Palestinians pray in the ruins of Gaza’s bombed mosques“
- “‘Look at our suffering!’: Gaza’s message to the world after a year of genocide“
- “Life for Gaza’s children during Israel’s genocide“
- “Gaza’s survivors cling to life in Khan Yunis refugee camps“
Studio Production: David Hebden
Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The
following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version
will be made available as soon as possible.
Marc Steiner:
Welcome
to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s good to
have you all with us. The War on Gaza has killed at least 45,000 people. No
less than 10,000 have been children. Most of the hospitals have been destroyed.
Patients are dying, children are dying. The infrastructure has been
obliterated. 90% of the 1.2 million Gazans have been displaced. There’s been no
food. People living on one meal a day, if they’re lucky. And still it goes on,
as I’ve said for decades, not in our name. This must end, and we must help to
end it. Israel just appointed Yechiel Leiter, who was part of the fascist,
Rabbi Meir Kahane’s, Jewish Defense League, as ambassador to the United States,
with Trump’s approval.
Now
here, the war rages on. And many of you have seen the documentaries we’ve
published by the amazing and brave, Ruwaida Amer, who lives in Gaza, whose home
and family have been torn apart. Ruwaida is a video and documentary filmmaker,
writer, and producer. You’ve seen her brave and brilliant work here at Real
News, as I’ve said, and also appeared on Al Jazeera, BBC, ABC, CNN, Euro News,
among others. And written for The Nation and Slate, among others. And Ruwaida,
welcome to the Marc Steiner Show. It’s good to have you with us.
Ruwaida Amer:
Hi.
Marc Steiner:
Thank
you so much for taking the time and being with us today. Can you just tell us
where you are at this moment?
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah,
as you know, I’m in Gaza, okay. And I’m in south of Gaza because I live in
south of Gaza. Okay, so it’s my home there. Also, there’s no difference between
north and south of Gaza, so anywhere there’s a very hard situation. And
everywhere, the bombing, that mean maybe in the beginning of the war. So if you
are in the south, you aren’t safe, no. I’m in the south, but I live in very
hard situation. Every time I hear the bombing, before a few minutes, I was very
scary because I had a very strong bomb around my area. So the situation here is
not good and not safe. It’s not better than anywhere in Gaza. All the areas
under hard bombing, and the worst war in the world. So no one is safe.
Marc Steiner:
And
you’ve lost friends and family personally in this war.
Ruwaida Amer:
I
have many stories about the losing of people in my life. In general, I don’t
like to talk about this, but because I like to be my works private. Or if I’m
working as journalist, so the people know that I’m a journalist. But I have
another work, I’m teacher. So as a teacher, I lost my students. My students,
they are in five grade and sixth grade, that’s mean they’re age nine years and
10 years. And recently I know I lose more than two or three or four students. I
lose more than them. And my student told me we have another one, we lose them.
In the beginning, in the war, he killed by a very hard bombing in the north.
And all the building, a huge building structure, arrived on his head, with his
family. So I lost my student, I lost my friends, I lost my close friend. Also,
I lost my cousin. Also, maybe I want to be more negative, but I want to tell
you, anyone we lose in Gaza, I consider him or her like one of my family, one
of my society, one of my people.
Because
all the people we lose during the war, they have a great story. They have
dreams. They were planning to the future for their families, their children.
And we lose very close people in our life. We know them in our normal life, we
meet them every day. So now we don’t have them. So maybe it affected in my
feeling, my mind. So when I write my articles or when I produce my stories, I
feel very sad about the people in Gaza. So to be more clear, I don’t like to
talk about my experience because I don’t like the wars. And usually I told my
friends after the war ended, I said for my friends, “I think anyone died in the
war, is the one, he won, has life.” Because when you be alive and you remember
your family, your friends, your studies, you will lose your mind when you
think, “How’s my life without them? How I can go to my school without my
students? How I can go to the restaurant without my friends?
How
I can go to my work without my friend, also? How I can be strong when I see my
auntie, when she back from Egypt, and she will back to Gaza when the Rafah
Crossing open, and she will not find his son because he killed by bombing
Israel in the beginning of this war? Maybe the best thing for me, during this
war, I’m writing everything. I live in this war, so I like to comment it.
Everything, every situations, anything happened with me, I wrote about it in my
articles, also in my documentaries. Like what I work them for Real News. So
when you lose anyone from your people, you will feel like lose your life. So
it’s not easy. So you will not be sad for your friend just, or one of your
family, no. For example, I used to go to the restaurant, very, very famous
restaurant in Gaza. So I have very beautiful moments and memories there. All
the people working in this restaurant, they killed by Israel. Who will open the
restaurant again after the war?
Last
two days or three days, I saw post in this restaurant page, they posted the
memory for the owners of this restaurant, because all of them killed by the
Israeli bombing. And all the comments asking who will reopen this restaurant.
If we will see this restaurant again after the war. It’s not just people or
persons, no, the places, the streets. I live in Khan Younis city. If you will
come to this city, you will just see destruction. Everything is destroyed,
weed. You will not find any building good. All of them destroyed by the
bulldozers of them and the bombing of them. So also we have memories with the
places, the streets, the sea. I feel like our sea is very sad because there is,
near the sea, tents for the people. All the people put their tents near or on
the beach of the sea. They used to just visit the sea to relax, now they are
living near the sea. And the water attack them because we are in the winter
season. So maybe you see some news about many tent destroyed by the water, sea
and the raining.
So
it’s so sad. Just the situation in Gaza, it’s hard to express about it in the
words or sentences, or paragraphs or articles, or by documentaries. Need a lot
of documentaries to show the situation in Gaza. Sorry, I’m not speaking like
the answer about the question.
Marc Steiner:
No,
that’s fine. It’s fine.
Ruwaida Amer:
About
all the question. Sorry about that. Really, the lose is not just a person, the
lose also places, also streets, sea, our safe, our peace. We lose everything,
by the way.
Marc Steiner:
It’s
hard, watching all of your documentaries, reading what you’ve written,
following it every day, it’s hard to imagine, for you, to be able to keep up
your creative spirit and work in the midst of the madness that surrounds you.
Living in that death and destruction, maybe lucky if you have a meal a day, and
be able to produce what you produce. I’m sorry.
Ruwaida Amer:
Okay,
I will tell you something. Every day I say with myself, I will not work. I will
stop my work. Because the war, it’s not just one day or two days, or one month
or two month, we are under this war more than one year. So every day I say,
“No, I will not work. I will not send ideas. I will not discuss with my friends
about the ideas, if I can do that or not.” But in the same time I would say,
“No, I will keep my working, continue. I will cover the stories because we need
to show for the world, the situation in Gaza.” I want to show for the world, or
the people out Gaza, we are human. We deserve to live in good situation. We
deserve to find food, water, electricity. Our children deserve to go to their
schools. Our children deserve to live with their parents. I work in story about
children lose their parents. Maybe you watch this video, and I saw that there
is tens of thousand on views on this story.
It
was very sad story to hear children talk about their family and their parents,
and they will not see their parents again. It’s very sad. Also, if I have
patience to work, and complete my work, when I go to film the works or the
story, I back to my family, my home, with very bad mood, sad. And I come to
sleep, and to think, I said with myself, “When this war will finish?” I ask my
friends, “There is any hope to finish this madness or this crazy war?” It’s not
easy to go to the people and talk with them about their situation, because you
know their situation. You live in this situation. You are not different about
them. By the way, I live in the same situation with the people. And many times
the people don’t like to talk with me. They say, “Sorry, Ruwaida, because there
is no people hear us.” I respect them, by the way. I respect them because they
told me there is no people hear us.
If
there is people hear us, there is people consider the people in Gaza as human,
like them, and deserve to life, like them, the war stop for a long time. But we
are more than one year in the same situation with. And I will tell you
something, the war, it’s not different in the beginning and the middle. The
situation, it’s not different. Because I will be not honest when I say, “No,
now the situation better than last two months or three months.” No, no, no,
it’s the same thing. Now we don’t have food. I live in very hard hunger. So I
don’t know what my family eats every day. There is no food, there is no water,
there is no electricity. So the war is, every day worse than before. So there
is no change in the situation in Gaza. So when you go to the people to make
interviews or to film with them, many people don’t like to do that. I’m one of
them. I respect them. A lot of time I leave them and say sorry, and go back
again, call them.
I
support them. I give them positive energy. I told them this is our right to
talk about our situation. We need the world to know what we are living. So some
people say, okay, and complete the story with me. Some of people told me no,
and I respect them. And I stopped the filming with them, and looking for
another family, like this. So the people in Gaza live in very bad psychology
feeling. So they are very nervous. They are very sad. They don’t hope for
tomorrow. Today the war in Lebanon stop, they have ceasefire. But Gaza, no. All
the people in Gaza very sad about it, because why we are allowed? Why the
people don’t care? The world don’t care about Gaza, to stop the war in Gaza.
Why we will live in Gaza, live in this world, many days or many months? We don’t
know what will happen tomorrow. So when you work as a journalist in Gaza,
during the war, you will live in very hard challenge to complete your work, to
continue your work. And also, as filmmaker or producer, before the war, it’s
totally different during the war.
So
my work, it was totally different. Because before the war, I filmed very hope
and happy stories. And the communities, I was so happy when I would film with a
music group. And when I film with the sport, the group or teams. Now I film
with the people to talk about hunger, about bombing, about losing, about no
schools, about no education, about no health, about no life. So it’s totally
different. So it’s not easy for me to work like this, but I did it. And when I
finish any work, I feel happy. When I saw a good reaction from the people, out
Gaza, about their feeling, their support, I feel like I fresh the letter from
Gaza, or the message from Gaza. And I told them what’s happening in Gaza. And
because there is big thankful for the journalists in Gaza, photographers in
Gaza, because they are working very hard to send the real stories in Gaza,
about the real happening in Gaza, during more than one year. And they are under
the bombing. The journalists are also targeted by Israel. So we are not in
safe, but-
Marc Steiner:
Including
you?
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah,
but we are working, still working.
Marc Steiner:
And
it’s amazing to me that you can continue to produce and write just amazing,
creative, brilliant work. You’re telling the story the world has to see. No one
else is telling it like you’re telling it, because you’re telling it from the
perspective, in the eyes of the people of Gaza, what they’re seeing and
feeling. It’s not a detached person. And after watching your films and reading
your articles, I just was amazed about how you can continue to do it in the
midst of the destruction around you. Almost all the Gazans now are homeless.
It’s been destroyed.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah.
Yeah. Also, I displaced my home last August.
Marc Steiner:
August?
Ruwaida Amer:
Not
August, no, July. And when I displaced my home, I went to my sister home. Also,
my sister’s home destroyed. But we live in straight rooms. Just we bought
plastic paper to close the walls, because we see the street from the rooms. Her
home is not good. You can’t live in it, but we don’t have a place to go there.
Also, I have private, my mother, she’s not good. Her health, not good. So we
can’t go anywhere with her because she has problem in her walking. So we talked
about good place to go there. So it was like just my sister’s home, destroyed.
But there’s just one room. It’s good, but we can see the streets, the people on
the road, because it was very bombing. And her living room and kitchen don’t
have windows and doors. And also the bathroom, like this. And her home, not
just destroyed, or so you can see plaque everywhere. That’s affected in my
feeling so sad. I couldn’t still there, because I know my my sister home, it
was very beautiful. We had very beautiful [inaudible 00:24:18] when visited
her.
And
she didn’t have also internet. And I wanted to work, I wanted to complete my
work. So I were just writing article, and go to hospital to send my work. And
under very hard situations, I’m challenged, I work it. I want to work, I want
to write because it make me better. When I write what I feel, what I think, it
will be good. Also, when I sent in, she left a refuge camp, by the way. And I
saw this refuge is totally destroyed. Maybe you can find some articles about
this thing. So I want to work and I complete that. I complete my work, and
still working until now. Many challenge. If I want to tell you about the
challenge I live in, I will not finish, because every second I have a
challenge.
Every
second living in Gaza, you are challenged. Challenge, the situation, how you
want to complete your day, how you want to work, how you want to contact with
your friends, or your people, you work with them. It’s not easy to live in this
war. I used to live in wars, by the way. I’m not very young. I lived in three
wars before, or four wars before. But it’s not like this war. No, this is not
war. This is very, very bad thing. It’s not normal war, no, it’s very hard war.
Marc Steiner:
People
have called it genocide.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yes,
maybe it’s more genocide, by the way. I don’t eat very well for two months.
Also, we have people need to take their medicine. To be good, they need to eat
very well, because their health is not good. There is no food. I don’t know why
there is no food in Gaza. I don’t know, really. I want to tell you something. I
told my family, all the time, by the way, I told my family, and give them
advice. It’s not advice. It’s crazy advice, by the way. I told them, “Live
without think. Stop your mind and live. Just, if you will think about the
situation, you will be crazy.” I do that, by the way. I’m trying to be good
like this. I don’t like to think about my situation around me. If I will think,
I will be crazy, I will not be Ruwaida. No, I’ll be crazy again. So I stop to
think.
Marc Steiner:
I
was wondering, as you’re speaking, how you have remained so calm, and sound so
calm, in the midst of all you have to live in the war, people dying and places
have been destroyed. And you tell the story so vividly. The way you tell the
story, you almost feel like you’re there, you’re in the middle of it. But
somehow you manage to keep yourself calm. I can imagine you as a teacher in
school, you were probably a great teacher for the kids. I mean to be able to be
this calm.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah,
yeah. I’m still teaching them. I stopped to contact with them a long time, but
before one month, I restart to contact with them, because a lot of them in
Egypt. So I’m teaching them every Saturday. Teaching them science. So I’m
clever girl, but in this war, I’m not sure, still clever, by the way. It make
me crazy. When I teach them science, I told them, “Oh, I’m very happy because
I’m still saved the information of science in my mind.” I thought I lost all
the information, all my study, all my culture and science, but Alhamdulillah,
I’m still saved a lot of information, and I can think and I can teach them. So
really, really, maybe it’s like crazy words, but this is the real life in Gaza.
If you think about what you are life, you will be crazy. Because it’s not
normal, it’s abnormal.
If
you don’t have a problem today… If you don’t have problem with the food, you
will have a problem with the water. If you don’t have problem with the water,
you have a problem with the food. Maybe one of your family sick, you need
medicine, and there there’s no medicine. And the pharmacies are in the
hospitals. We was very sick last three weeks and I didn’t find any medicine on
how I can be good, because there is not any medicine supplies come to Gaza. So
I feel like I will die by flu. But I’m still stronger, Alhamdulillah. And also,
every time I told my friends, I’m trying to be strong until the war finish. I
am not sure if I will be strong until the… I don’t know if I can keep my energy
until the war finish or not, but still trying to be strong. Trying to save my
mind at least.
Marc Steiner:
It
seems, just seeing you and listening to you, that you’re tapping into some
internal strength, that you probably didn’t even know you had. To see what
you’ve been able to do, to make the films you’re making. I can say here, that
at Real News, we, and I personally, will do everything possible for the world
to see your work. Because you tell the story that is real, that nobody else is
telling in the way you’re telling it. Especially when you hear the voices of
the children in your documentaries.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah,
so hard.
Marc Steiner:
It’s
hard. It must be hard for you. It’s hard living through what you’re living
through, but to have to embrace the pain of the stories of the children and
families every day on your work, because you clearly are a person who, you take
that in. It’s not like a-
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah-
Marc Steiner:
Go
ahead.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah,
when I see the children. So if I want to help any family, I help them because
they have children. Because the children don’t deserve to live in this world.
We lost many thousands of children, babies. Babies, just two days, three days,
or month, two months, their age. So when I meet the children… My sister have
two children, five years and three years, and they lose their home. Every day
they are telling me about their memory in their home. Five years and three
years. I think they don’t have big memories in their home because they are very
child, but they have. Her son, so Spiderman can come to Gaza and rebuild their
home. He wants Spiderman to come to Gaza and rebuild their home. Can you
imagine how is the children think in Gaza, because they lose their childhood?
There is a lot of children have responsibility, their home, their families. So
if you want to go to the market, you will see children sell in the market.
Simple
things. They sell simple things just for $1, $2, $3, $5, and they back to their
family to buy any food for them. The children live in very hard situation. Our
children, their place is in the schools, not in the markets, not in the
streets, not in bad tents, not with crying about their parents or their
families. So they lose their child heart. So many times when I film it with the
children, they are crying. And I hug them and say, “You are heroes. You will be
good in the future. And it will end very soon, and you will back to your home
in the north. And your mother and father, see you in the paradise. They are in
the paradise, and they see us in Gaza and they are very proud of us because we
are very strong and still alive in Gaza. And you will complete your family
life.” But they are children, and very clever. They know the reality story in
Gaza. You can support them, but they know the real story. They know they will
not see their parents again. So it’s very hard for them.
So
you can’t say anything for child said, “I hope to hug my mother again.” How you
can pray her mother to hug her? How you can? So when you work as journalists,
or especially filmmakers or produce long video stories, like my works, you will
spend more time with the children. Every place or every family in Gaza have
children, and you will take your time for them and listen to their words and
support them. You don’t know you need to support your family, yourself, your
family or the people in your work, or the people you filmed about them. You
don’t know. So as I told you, I’m trying to don’t think about my life during
the war. Because if I will think, I’ll lose my mind and go to be crazy.
Marc Steiner:
Which
is why I am deeply thankful and grateful that you agreed to this today, because
I know as calm as your demeanor is, this is very difficult.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah,
so hard. It’s not difficult, difficult is symbol. Word to describe the
situation here. No, it’s not easy. You feel like you want to cry every step you
walk in the street, every second you meet the people outside. Really, many
times I don’t like to call and ask about my friends, because I know the
situations. My situation, it’s not good. And their situation, it’s not good,
but maybe worse than me, because they are in tent, and they are out their
cities. We are living Gaza Strip, there is Gaza City. So they are out of their
cities, Gaza, and the cities in the north, in more than one year, it’s a long
time. So no one can appear to be away from their place long time, like one
year. And we live in the situation our grandfather, grandmother live in ’48.
Marc Steiner:
’48,
yeah.
Ruwaida Amer:
1948.
Okay? We live in this situation. I remembered when I wrote article about Nakba,
I asked my grandmother about how the experience was, that he died for the last
two years. It’s good thing to die last two years, because he didn’t like the
wars. And I will tell you, they destroyed his grave, by the way, also earlier.
Marc Steiner:
Really?
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah.
They destroyed his grave. And if we want to visit his grave, we will not find
it, because they destroyed it as well.
Marc Steiner:
I
don’t think, in many ways, that the world, this country especially, really
understands the devastation that’s taking place in Gaza. That’s part of the
reason that your documentaries and your writing are so, so important. And I
would encourage the world to watch everything you do, if you want to feel and
understand what is going on. Because you do it from the heart and you do it
from the head, and you bring that story to all of us. I think it’s
unfathomable. Most people can’t even begin to understand what it’s like to have
to live in this dystopian hell that you have to survive in.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah.
Many times I feel like we live… The people out Gaza, or anyone support the war
in Gaza to be continued, they consider the people in Gaza, not to human. But we
are human. We are doctors, teachers, journalists, and very important people. We
are people, have dreams, we have plans for our future. We deserve to life, and
we deserve to stop this war very soon, like Lebanon. So I hope to wake up on
good news like this, stop this war in Gaza. I will be so happy, so very happy.
Because we don’t have energy to complete or to live in more days in this war.
Not just the young people or the men or the woman, no, the children. Also,
always I said, “Please, stop the war, not just for the people in Gaza, just for
the children, because they need to sleep. They need to be in their homes. They
deserve to back to their schools. This is the second year without schools, it’s
too much. They will lose their education. So the schools is their place, is not
the road or the markets or the tents.
So
I hope the people out Gaza can know more about the situation in Gaza, and
support ceasefire in Gaza. Stop the war. And anyone can work to stop this war.
Don’t be slow. Just work very hard to stop this war, because the situation is
very hard. And day by day, and second by second, we lose a lot of people, a lot
of places, a lot of safe, a lot of peace. So peace is the best solution for
everything. The war’s not good thing, by the way, because we lost everything.
So I hope my documentaries, my articles, my works, can wish for a lot of
people, and very important people in the governments, countries, and they can
to work hard to stop the war in Gaza. I hope that. Because the war is not good
solution, just the peace.
And
all the people deserve to live in peace, especially the Gazan people. Because
they live in siege more than to 20 years maybe, and they didn’t find any good
day. So solution for the life in Gaza. The people in Gaza want to complete
their life without wars, so enough. I posted story on Instagram. I said, “Gaza
want to stop the war. Ceasefire now.” And enough. Really, enough.
Marc Steiner:
Enough.
Ruwaida Amer:
It’s
too much.
Marc Steiner:
Enough.
I know. And you’re doing it now, in terms of talking to our audience. And we
can just maybe close with this, to continue what you’re saying about this and
why it’s so important to watch your work, for people to understand what is
going on, to see and feel what Palestinians are going through, and what we can
do to stop it, that’s why your work is so critical.
Ruwaida Amer:
I
show the humanity sides of the people in Gaza because all the stories in Gaza
now about the human people, they lose their life, their safe, their very
important things, like food and water. Imagine you live without food for just
one day. How will you feel? Okay, imagine to try all your day to looking for
water. Measure your life, your children life without schools. Measure your life
without home. Measure your life to live and sleep in the roads, in the streets,
without blanket, without good clothes, without good water. Imagine your life
without medicine, without good health or good hospitals. Imagine to spend just
one day, anyone, feel sick and go to hospital, and sleep in the hospital just
one night. He will be very nervous, and, “I want to back to my home.” But the
people in Gaza live more than one year in the hospitals, and they made tent in
the hospitals, and see the suffering of people in the hospitals.
And
it’s very important to look to Gaza, because when you see or watch the stories
from Gaza, you will see there is no humanity in the world, because they
accepted to be the war more than one year. And the people live in that
situation more than one year. By the way, I was very positive in the beginning
of the war, and make support for my families. And for my family, I told them,
“No, no, no, this war will be just one week, two weeks, three weeks.” But it’s
more than one year. I’m very surprised, because we are in this war more than
one year. It’s too much, too much. So it’s very important to follow the
situation in Gaza, and Gaza need the world. Don’t leave us alone, because we
need the people support, out Gaza. Maybe their support will stop this war. Maybe.
I hope that.
And
if I receive any support message from my friends out Gaza, I feel like I am not
alone. There is people feel about my situation, and don’t leave me alone. Also,
I’m teaching Arabic language for non-speakers. I have students from America,
Australia, Holland, and French, and many Europe countries. And they supported
me, and still support me, so I feel I’m good. There is people think about Gaza.
There is people support me. Sometimes they send me photos, “We are with Gaza.
We are in the roads and street, we call it to stop the war in Gaza.” So it’s
good. So I’m working to show for the people what’s happening in Gaza. So I hope
they are supporting us and working to stop the war in Gaza. I hope that maybe
one day we will be in freedom. I hope that.
Marc Steiner:
Ruwaida
Amer, we, here at Real News, will be standing by you and with you as much as we
can, and help bring your voice and your work out to the world. You need to be
heard. And I want to thank you for everything you’ve done, the work you’ve done
as a filmmaker, as a teacher, as a human being.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yes.
Also, I want to say I’m not working for me. I’m working for the world to see
Gaza, to watch what’s happening in Gaza.
Marc Steiner:
Yes.
Ruwaida Amer:
I’m
working every day to be the people following what’s happening in Gaza. If you
want to come for me, many times in depression, many times in bad moods, times
very bad psychology, my feelings’ very bad, but I’m working hard to show the
situation in Gaza, to be the people know what’s happening in Gaza. My work’s
not for me, it’s for the world. See Gaza, to watch what’s happening in Gaza, to
know what the people, how they live in Gaza during the wars. What is the
situation in Gaza? How they get the water, the food. How is the life for the
children in Gaza also? So I hope my work reach the people, and they see that,
and they watch that, and they work hard to believe the people in Gaza have
right to still alive, and have right to be free, and live in freedom and live
in safe and peace, and move in their countries and around the world, as any
person in the world.
Because
we don’t have right as normal people. No, the Palestinians living under bad
situation in the world. So maybe the Palestinians come to live, and safe, come
to take their rights because we are under occupation. So I know many people no
more about the Palestinian case during this war. So that mean our work reached
the world. So maybe it’s good point for the journalists in Gaza, they show the
real case of Palestine for the world. Maybe the people now they have more
information about the situation in Palestine, in general, especially in Gaza.
So I hope that if you like my work, I think the people also like my work.
Marc Steiner:
People
love your work.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah,
thank you so much.
Marc Steiner:
You’re
telling the story that has to be told, and we are here for you as much as we
can be. And you, Ruwaida Amer, I want to thank you for telling the story of the
Gazans, of the Palestinians, that needs to be told, and working with us here at
Real News. And we’ll be linking to all of your work. And I promise you that I
will do everything I can to spread that work so people see the real story
through your eyes, through the eyes of the Palestinian people in Gaza. And-
Ruwaida Amer:
Thanks.
Marc Steiner:
Please
stay safe. And we’ll stay in touch.
Ruwaida Amer:
I
will try, I hope to succeed to be safe. Inshallah.
Marc Steiner:
Inshallah.
Once again, let me thank Ruwaida Amer for joining us today. She joins us in the
midst of a war that has taken the lives of people she loves, of her students
and her friends. Through it all, she keeps writing and making her documentaries
that bring into stark reality what Palestinians face every day in Gaza. I have
seen few do it as well. I encourage all of you listening to go to our website,
type in her name, Ruwaida Amer, R-U-W-A-I-D-A-M-E-R, and experience the reality
of what Gazans face every day. We must do what we can to end the carnage in
Gaza. And thanks to David Hebden and Cameron Grandino for running the program
today, and audio editor Alina Nehlich for working her magic. Rosette Sewali for
producing the Mark Steiner Show and the tireless Kayla Rivara for making it all
work behind the scenes. And everyone here at Real News, for making this show
possible.
Please,
let me know what you thought about what you heard today, what you’d like us to
cover. Just write to be at MSS at therealnews.com and I’ll get right back to
you. And once again, thank you to Ruwaida Amer for your work, for your bravery,
for telling the story of the Palestinians in Gaza. And for joining us today in
the midst of all of it.
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