Stories from the people of the British and Commonwealth Gaza War Cemetery, featuring staff and local people. It was produced by @AinMedia for Arab Television and published in 2018. It is shared here by permission and courtesy of Ain Media. The subtitles were translated and added by Roaa Alnatour, a freelance translator and subtitler from Gaza Strip in Palestine. The original version with Arabic subtitles can be found here: • مقبرة الانجليز - برنامج الجار الغريب
The Gaza War Cemetery in Tuffah, Gaza City, dates from 1917 and was established by British imperial forces fighting in WW1. Three major battles were fought that year between British imperial and Ottoman forces to seize Gaza and it was the major breakthrough in early November 1917, in the Third Battle of Gaza, that enabled Britain to gain the foothold to conquer Palestine.
It is funded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), formerly the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC), an intergovernmental body funded primarily by Britain but, also, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa.
HISTORY
Gaza War Cemetery holds the remains and headstones of over 3,000 British WW1 forces of varying nationalities who formed part of the British Empire and its dominions, including Australian, Indian, New Zealand and others. There is a large memorial stone dedicated to the 54th East Anglian Division. Two WW1 nurses, one from England and one from Ireland, are buried in the cemetery, which also holds the remains of an Australian nurse who died during WW2.
Some fallen are marked by individual graves, others by a collective memorial. There is a plot and memorial dedicated to 184 unnamed Ottoman war dead and four members of the Egyptian Labour Corps. Another section is for Indian WW1 war dead, with separate plots for Hindu and Muslims. A memorial stone here marks Indian UN peacekeepers who died in Gaza whilst serving as a buffer between Israel and Egypt forces between 1956 and 1967. There is also a walled off section for Canadian UN peacekeepers who died during service at this time.
THE FAMILIES
The Jaradah and the Awaja families have an inter-generational history of working in the war graves and, especially in recent decades, protecting and repairing the sites during incessant conflict and military operations. The Awaja family looked after the Deir El-Belah War Cemetery, a smaller site near central Gaza that holds over 700 WW1 British imperial burials. The Jaradah's have cared for Gaza War Cemetery, Gaza City, in particular, for four generations. Ibrahim Jaradah Snr, who died in 2017, and is the father and grandfather respectively of the two staff members featured in this documentary, Essam and Ibrahim, served at the Cemetery for some 60 years and received an MBE from the Queen.
More information about their history can be found in the numerous feature pieces written about them in European and Canadian press, in the past, including the BBC, Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph in the UK and CBC in Canada.
The last time Ibrahim Jaradah, Head Gardener, spoke to the media was in early November 2023, a month into the latest war. A Daily Mail reporter managed to speak to him by phone:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1...
CWGC have said: "We are continually monitoring the situation in Gaza and Israel. The welfare of our colleagues and their families is our clear priority and we remain in regular contact with them. We are saddened by the recent damage to the Gaza War Cemetery and Deir El Belah War Cemetery, and when it is safe to do so, we will assess what future repairs will be needed. In the meantime, the CWGC will not be making any further comments."
THE PEOPLE
The names of the interviewees in this documentary:
Omar Khalil Al-Ramlawi
The cemetery’s neighbor
Reem Ahmed Salem
The cemetery’s neighbor
Ibrahim Essam Jarada
Public Relations Officer at the Commonwealth Authority - Gaza
Essam Ibrahim Jarada
Cemetery Orchard Manager
Mariam Saadi
University Student
Despite conditions and casualties @AinMedia are still producing content from Gaza, particularly, on X/Twitter and on Instagram. Follow them for moving updates on the experiences of people in Palestine.
Tags: #GazaHistory, #PalestineHistory, #PalestineWW1, #GazaWW1, #BritishMandatePalestine, #Gazahistorydocumentary, British Mandate Palestine, British Mandatory Palestine, League of Nations, Ottoman Empire, First World War, WW1, FWW, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, CWGC, Imperial War Graves Commission, IWGC, Ibrahim Jaradah Garden, Middle East, Gaza City, Al-Tuffah, Tuffah, Israel-Palestine, Palestine documentary, Palestine film, Palestine history, Palestine and Sinai Campaign WW1, Sir Edmund Allenby, Sir Archibald Murray, Charge of the Light Horse, Australia WW1, Battle of Gaza, First Battle of Gaza, Second Battle of Gaza, Third Battle of Gaza
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