Simon worked for development NGOs for several years before selling his soul to the United Nations, for which he currently manages a small office in the Gaza Strip. He has a Master’s degree in Policy Analysis, having first pretended to study English at Oxford. Like every other idiot who did so, he suspects he has a great book in him; the woeful state of his Arabic after six years in the Middle East testifies that he’s probably too lazy to find out. Simon enjoys singing, shooting and carousing. Happily he is married to Aurelie. Email: [email protected]
In the middle of last month a violent storm blew across Palestine and Israel, the worst in decades. The strongest winds were felt in the East, but Gaza also took a battering. Fifteen-foot waves swept up the coast and cleared the breakwater of the fishing port, wrecking boats and gear, while a sandy wind scoured…
I thought at first it was a bomb, but when I got up to the wreck I realised that the man had been speaking German, and it had been a ‘baum’ that had done for the car. It made more sense that it was a tree, as this road had been out of the fighting…
When I saw him he had only a couple of months to live, and the days I spent at his chairside were hardly pleasant. He had adopted a mask of stoic resignation to his fate (the best way to induce guilt in the living), so I feigned a cheerful ignorance of it (the best way…