“This is the best, cleanest place in Gaza."
June 3, 2021 5:54 PM Subscribe
There are around 23,000 cemeteries and memorials worldwide where Commonwealth casualties from World Wars I and II are commemorated. One of the hardest to visit is on a plot of land located off Salah al-Din Road in Gaza City.
The cemetary contains 2,696 identified Commonwealth burials and many more unidentified. Most of the dead were killed in the three Battles of Gaza launched by the British to capture Gaza from Turkish forces in 1917-18. About two-thirds of those buried there were brought into the cemetery from the battlefields at the end of the war. The Australian War Memorial's collection includes a postcard produced by the Royal Flying Corps to commemorate the capture of Gaza, with images of the city and landscape at the time. In 2009, Mark Urban visited the cemetary to find the grave of his great-uncle, killed in the Second Battle of Gaza in 1917, and wrote about it for the Guardian. The cemetary also contains 210 Second World War burials, 30 post war burials and 234 war graves of other nationalities.
Though their bodies are interred in Gaza, many have memorials elsewhere. Australians L/Cpl James Dyson Lacy and Tpr William Wallace Flood both died in Gaza and are buried in Gaza War Cemetary. While walking in Hobart, Tasmania, I came across trees planted for them on Soldiers Memorial Avenue, a commemorative avenue comprising 520 trees planted in 1918 and 1919 to mark the loss of soldiers, mainly from Hobart, who died in WWI. Their trees can be found on this map; they are 502 and 57 respectively.
The cemetary was established in 1920 and has been tended by three men from the same family ever since. In 2014, Joe Catron interviewed its longest-serving caretaker, Ibrahim Jeradeh, who tended the cemetary for 45 years. Employed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Jeradeh started working at the cemetery when he was 20, overseen by his father who was the head gardener at the time. His own son Issam replaced him when he turned 65. He still grows the plants for the cemetary himself in his nursery. “This is the best, cleanest place in Gaza,” he said. “I work hard to keep it nice.”
The Commonwealth War Graves website provides the cemetary's opening hours and detailed travel directions from Gaza's main dual carriageway, Salah al-Din Road. Prospective visitors are "strongly advised to seek travel advice from their Embassy or Consulate before travelling to Gaza". It advises that visitors can enter Gaza through Erez Crossing, although since the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020 Israel has increased its existing restrictions at Erez to what Israeli human rights organisation Gisha describes as a "hermetic and continuous travel ban". There is another, smaller Commonwealth cemetery in the Gaza Strip at Deir al-Balah.
The cemetary contains 2,696 identified Commonwealth burials and many more unidentified. Most of the dead were killed in the three Battles of Gaza launched by the British to capture Gaza from Turkish forces in 1917-18. About two-thirds of those buried there were brought into the cemetery from the battlefields at the end of the war. The Australian War Memorial's collection includes a postcard produced by the Royal Flying Corps to commemorate the capture of Gaza, with images of the city and landscape at the time. In 2009, Mark Urban visited the cemetary to find the grave of his great-uncle, killed in the Second Battle of Gaza in 1917, and wrote about it for the Guardian. The cemetary also contains 210 Second World War burials, 30 post war burials and 234 war graves of other nationalities.
Though their bodies are interred in Gaza, many have memorials elsewhere. Australians L/Cpl James Dyson Lacy and Tpr William Wallace Flood both died in Gaza and are buried in Gaza War Cemetary. While walking in Hobart, Tasmania, I came across trees planted for them on Soldiers Memorial Avenue, a commemorative avenue comprising 520 trees planted in 1918 and 1919 to mark the loss of soldiers, mainly from Hobart, who died in WWI. Their trees can be found on this map; they are 502 and 57 respectively.
The cemetary was established in 1920 and has been tended by three men from the same family ever since. In 2014, Joe Catron interviewed its longest-serving caretaker, Ibrahim Jeradeh, who tended the cemetary for 45 years. Employed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Jeradeh started working at the cemetery when he was 20, overseen by his father who was the head gardener at the time. His own son Issam replaced him when he turned 65. He still grows the plants for the cemetary himself in his nursery. “This is the best, cleanest place in Gaza,” he said. “I work hard to keep it nice.”
The Commonwealth War Graves website provides the cemetary's opening hours and detailed travel directions from Gaza's main dual carriageway, Salah al-Din Road. Prospective visitors are "strongly advised to seek travel advice from their Embassy or Consulate before travelling to Gaza". It advises that visitors can enter Gaza through Erez Crossing, although since the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020 Israel has increased its existing restrictions at Erez to what Israeli human rights organisation Gisha describes as a "hermetic and continuous travel ban". There is another, smaller Commonwealth cemetery in the Gaza Strip at Deir al-Balah.
The respect and care taken of war graves in (most) of the world, even for soldiers of the enemy, is remarkable.
posted by Bee'sWing at 5:04 PM on June 4, 2021
posted by Bee'sWing at 5:04 PM on June 4, 2021
Daily life in Gaza is so miserable for so many. The recent Abby Martin documentary is a must watch if you're interested in what's happening there. To see basic humanity shining through such degradation is both hopeful and infuriating.
posted by chaz at 8:41 PM on June 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by chaz at 8:41 PM on June 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
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