A farm on the edge of Gaza
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2024
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
Today on “Post Reports,” the story of Ashraf Omar Alakhras and his family farm and an exclusive investigation into the destruction of food and agriculture in Gaza.
Read more:
Since Israel’s invasion of Gaza more than seven months ago, Gaza’s food and agricultural system is on the brink of collapse. Airstrikes and bulldozers have razed farms and orchards across the region, according to a Washington Post investigation comparing satellite imagery before and after the start of the war. Experts say that it could take decades to reconstruct what had already been a vulnerable but dynamic food system.
But beyond those satellite images is the story of Ashraf Omar Alakhras and his family’s farm. For months, the Post’s visual forensics reporter, Nilo Tabrizy, has been corresponding with Alakhras about what has happened and what it will take to rebuild.
Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon. It was mixed by Sean Carter and edited by Monica Campbell. Thanks to Reem Akkad, Peter Finn, Leila Barghouty and Elyse Samuels. Additional reporting from Imogen Piper and Miriam Berger, with help from He Yin of Kent State University.
Find The Post’s latest coverage of the Israel-Gaza War here.
Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone. This is Ashraf Omar Al-Achros from the family in the north of Gaza. |
| 0:12.0 | The story of my lands or our farm, |
| 0:16.0 | it is really, really, really big. |
| 0:20.0 | We can write books. |
| 0:22.0 | Ashraf is 43 years old and he's from Beeth Lejia in northern Gaza. |
| 0:27.0 | Until just recently, that's where he was on his farm. |
| 0:31.0 | He loves it, the community, the smells. |
| 0:35.0 | And just people walking to the farm and smelling the cucumbers, |
| 0:41.0 | smelling the tomatoes, smelling the apples, smelling everything in the farm. |
| 0:48.1 | It's a farm that's been in his family for generations. |
| 0:52.1 | My relationship and love of farming began when I was five years old, seeing my grandmother |
| 1:00.6 | farming and singing traditional songs while she was farming |
| 1:05.2 | attracted me a lot. Each tree in the farm has a story, how we plant it, how it is growing, and how we harvest. |
| 1:18.0 | For months, Ashraf has been talking to Nilo Tabrizi, a visual forensics reporter at the post. They've been exchanging messages through |
| 1:26.7 | what's-up, about the farm and about life in Gaza. And kind of right from the beginning of our conversations he would just start flooding my phone of images and videos I think such a sense of preservation in our conversation. |
| 1:41.0 | So that these memories and these realities aren't |
| 1:44.2 | destroyed forever. |
| 1:45.1 | He also sent me this video of his son playing, being chased by his uncle and laughing and just kind of |
| 1:55.4 | of like that beautiful moment of life. When the war began last fall, Ashraf's life and the farm turned upside down. |
| 2:15.0 | His family was just forced to try to survive as much as possible. |
| 2:19.0 | They try to find shelter in different parts of Gaza. |
| 2:23.2 | And so his story is pretty typical |
... |
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