Eid Mubarak Gaza

I celebrated Eid Al Adha in Gaza- the last one before hell broke loose.

You wake up to the sounds of children chasing the carts carrying cows and sheep awaiting slaughter, shouting and cheering. For some, Eid Al Adha is the only day where people eat beef. If they can’t afford a slaughter, usually someone in your neighbourhood does and that food gets distributed.

The slaughter takes place in front of people’s homes. I remember my cousin-in law coming up with the cow meat after the deed was done, with a big smile on his face. I, on the other hand, was grossed out. He was covered in blood, and showed me how to blow inside the cow’s lungs to see them inflate.

“Do you want to see the eyes?” he said, basking in my disapproval over the red mess.

“What- no!” I said. He showed me anyway.

I always had the perception that I appreciated the country side, and simple life on farms and hated the mass manufacturing of meat where the person is disconnected from his food, not knowing the process of how beef or chicken ends up at your table. However, after looking at Mohammed holding a bowl of cow guts, I, instead vowed to become a vegetarian.

Eid Al Adha in Gaza 2022 my photo

I went outside afterwards and the streets were all red. The women went inside to prepare the meat for dinner, while the children grabbed their hose to clean the streets. They took turns spraying each other, laughing, singing the Eid chant at the behest of an onlooking elder: labeik Allah huma labeik ..

And today is Eid al Adha once again. I heard a cow in Gaza cost 18,000 dollars now. There will be no slaughters, no children blowing into the animal’s lungs to see them inflate. No water tags. No big fancy meals. No house visits, heck there aren’t even any houses left to visit. No Eid gifts. Nothing.

There is nothing worth celebrating.

Men and children, instead of covered in the blood of their animal sacrifice, they are covered in the blood of their mothers, wives, children, siblings. They are covered in their own blood. Doctors are blowing air into their lungs, hoping they inflate.

They have become the sacrifice. And I never became a vegetarian.