{"id":76066,"date":"2026-09-12T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/?p=76066"},"modified":"2026-09-12T03:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T02:36:20","slug":"shells-on-the-beach-memories-of-a-devastated-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/en\/short-stories-en\/shells-on-the-beach-memories-of-a-devastated-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Shells on the beach \u2026 Memories of a devastated country"},"content":{"rendered":"
12\/09\/2026 \u2013 18\/09\/2026\u00a0 By Uwe Heitkamp<\/span><\/h6>\n

Edition 36.2026<\/h3>\n

I<\/span>magine you\u2019re throwing a party and have invited friends and acquaintances round to your house: during the party, a bomb goes off, the house catches fire and suddenly everything around you is ablaze…<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Imagine you\u2019re on holiday in the mountains, planning a few hikes through the mountain forests: during one of these hikes a forest fire breaks out somewhere, the forest is ablaze, and you have nowhere to go\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Imagine you\u2019re taking part in a demonstration because it\u2019s your right to do so. You\u2019re demanding a better quality of life in your town: suddenly the police arrive and arrest you and many of your friends, and you\u2019re taken to an interrogation room and questioned there. The police officer accuses you of taking part in an unauthorised demonstration. He asks you questions you don\u2019t want to answer. A second police officer enters the room and starts beating you. You\u2019re shouted at, tied to a chair, and the first police officer keeps asking you the same question over and over again. Who are the organisers, the people behind the demonstration? Every unanswered question is met with a blow. But that\u2019s not all. At some point during the interrogation, a black plastic bag is pulled over your head\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The book I have just read was written by 29-year-old Hamza Abu Howidy. It is not a novel, but a work of non-fiction, and was published by Fischer-Verlag in Frankfurt. It is written in German (with the collaboration of journalist Judith Poppe from the daily newspaper \u201c<\/span><\/span>taz<\/i><\/span><\/span>\u201d) and should be translated into English and other languages as soon as possible. This 238-page book deserves a wider, international readership. The book\u2019s title is <\/span><\/span>“Muscheln am Strand(…)”<\/i><\/span><\/span>. What is it all about? What sort of memories are these of a devastated country?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hamza, the protagonist, recounts his life story. Not yet 30 years of age, this young writer has so much more to tell us about than many other people do at the end of their long lives. Hamza Abu Howidy tells us about growing up in Gaza at the start of the twenty-first century, about his family, particularly his father, who teaches him life\u2019s great lessons whilst they gather shells together, but also about the bloody clashes between Fatah and Hamas, right on his doorstep in Gaza City, and how deeply life there is marked by terror and corruption.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Years later, even before 7 October 2023, he protested against Hamas alongside many friends and was arrested; he was tortured and forced to flee. Today, he is one of the most important political voices from the Palestinian exile community, yet he refuses to be co-opted by either the pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian sides. Hamza currently lives somewhere in Europe as a tolerated political refugee.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A key sentence appears on page 139 of the book, which reads: \u201cI couldn\u2019t tell them that I\u2019d spoken to the Israelis, that I could certainly understand their security concerns, that I believed in coexistence \u2013 yes, in peace.\u201d The book offers the reader a perspective on the dilemma of this conflict, which has been raging for ages: \u201c…without taking the first step, without eliminating Hamas, there was no room for any vision I had of Palestinians and Israelis living together…\u201d Not an easy read. More books like this, please. It\u2019s well worth reading.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Uwe Heitkamp (66)<\/h3>\n

trained television journalist, book author and hobby botanist, father of two grown-up children, has known Portugal for 35 years, founder of ECO123.
\nTranslators: Dina Ad\u00e3o, John Elliott<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12\/09\/2026 \u2013 18\/09\/2026\u00a0 By Uwe Heitkamp Edition 36.2026 Imagine you\u2019re throwing a party and have invited friends and acquaintances round to your house: during the party, a bomb goes off, the house catches fire and suddenly everything around you is ablaze… Imagine you\u2019re on holiday in the mountains, planning a few hikes through the mountain …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":76051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1409,1417,1485],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-short-stories-en","category-zw1-en","category-zw1-2-en","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nShells on the beach \u2026 Memories of a devastated country - Eco123<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eco123.info\/en\/short-stories-en\/shells-on-the-beach-memories-of-a-devastated-country\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shells on the beach \u2026 Memories of a devastated country - 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