She believes in the power of women and hopes that one day peace will finally return to her country. She cannot remain silent in the face of injustice, always moving forward with a smile. She does not stop at the first obstacle Rene Abu Rub, Palestinian activist. His life is divided between work, family and political and social commitment. For about 35 years he has lived in Messina, a city that he has learned to love and appreciate.
“I arrived in Messina in 1989. Everything was new to me. I only knew what I had seen on TV about Italy. For me it was the country of art that I had studied at school and university. I really liked going to museums and learning about the whole Italian food culture. When I arrived there weren’t many foreigners, there were only students. They mistook me for one of them. I had been forced to leave Palestine. I wanted to be a teacher but that wasn’t possible.”
How did your commitment to defending Palestinian rights begin?
“When my children were at school, some teachers invited me to talk about Islamic and Palestinian culture. In 2000 I started attending Arci, I taught Arabic, but at the same time I talked about Palestine. Then once I went to Rome by bus with the students to demonstrate on the occasion of the day for Palestine. A long journey began and now I am part of many Palestinian organizations in Europe and I have set up the Messina-Palestine coordination. We organize events and demonstrations to understand what is happening in Palestine, together we have managed to do many beautiful things”
What was your life like in Palestine?
«Since I couldn’t teach, I gave private lessons to children with problems or who were sick and couldn’t go to school. I also worked as a volunteer for an association that had a home for the elderly and disabled children. I traveled all over Palestine to raise funds for this association. It was 1984 at the time we could move even though it was an occupied territory, but there was a little more freedom, not like now. Every week with other people, we took a bus to look for prisoners. I understood that I couldn’t stay silent about something unjust but demonstrating peacefully. We also went to pick vegetables for the farmers. My father told me: “you’re crazy” but I thought that something had to be done. At the time they went out secretly, to go and buy an ice cream we challenged the army. Now people don’t even have a drop of water. ».
What is happening today in these territories?
“Today we activists must challenge the entire international community to help these people. Every day there is terrible news. The spotlight was turned on only after October 7th but it all started a long time before. Gaza has been under embargo since 2006. There were elections and the citizens chose Hamas but the international community did not recognize it. After the Oslo Accords, life in Palestine is terrible but it was already bad before. Now there is a genocide underway. The Palestinians do not have an army like the Israeli one, there are more than 40 thousand people who have died and almost 25,000 children alone, there is no hospital, there is no more water. People do not even have tents to sleep in.”
What do those who experience the drama of war say?
“A friend of mine told me that in one day he escaped three times from three different areas, he doesn’t know where to go, a lady sent me a message asking for help saying she doesn’t know what to do because she is left alone with her children, her husband has been arrested. I wonder how to help all these people. In addition to this, in the West Bank almost the same thing is happening, they enter the cities, destroy the water pipes mixing it with the sewers so that there is not even clean water, they burn the general vegetable markets. Every day they destroy houses, there were 92 families who lived from a market that was destroyed and then the people who came out with the prisoner exchange have mostly already been arrested and those who they didn’t arrest they killed. There is no justice at all.”
What help is coming from Messina?
“Through an association we send funds to buy medicines but in Messina we also raised funds to send flour to a camp in the north of Gaza where there was a very difficult situation. With the money we raised in Messina they built an oven and the elderly women made bread. It was beautiful. Messina has always been very generous. With other funds raised they bought milk for the children. The last time we bought a tent for a family. Small but important aids”
How do your relatives and friends live in those territories? “In Gaza I only have friends, while in the West Bank I have all my relatives, I am very worried about them because you never know what happens at any moment. I have some lawyer friends who live there, they are part of an association that has twinned with Arci, one of them was arrested. She had come to Messina on the occasion of the twinning also done with the Council of the Bar Association of Messina. I am very worried about her. The economic situation is serious. My relatives say there is no work and everything costs a lot”.
Do you think there will be peace one day?
“I really hope so, with all my heart, I would like people to live in peace and for kids to go out freely in the evening. The last time I went to Palestine in 2022 I was scared when my son went out in the evening, I told him to come back soon, here instead they can go out whenever they want and then there were drones that were constantly circling, I didn’t sleep for 20 days”
Can women be a resource for achieving peace?
“Of course they can, I believe so much in the power of women. We must have the courage to bring it out because we have the power to do everything. I personally have overcome all the fears in the world and I move forward.”
Today in Torre Faro near the Horcynus Orca beach the second edition of “Swim with Gaza”, an international solidarity initiative, will be held. From 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm everyone on the beach for a solidarity swim with the children of Gaza.