When I think of horses in Gaza the sad image which comes to mind is of a miserable, half starved creature, his ribs prominent and ears down, plodding ahead of a flat-bed cart piled high with bags of flour, baskets of vegetables, or plastic boxes of iced fish en route to market or with rubble from Israeli-demolished buildings. A little boy in soiled shirt and shorts sits at the front of the cart, his legs dangling, holding the reins. But, the horse pays little attention. He knows the routes for each cargo and makes his way without directing.

Weary work-a-day horses are not the only horses in the Israeli besieged, blockaded and bombed Gaza strip. Gaza also has its privileged thoroughbreds, handsome and sleek, beloved by their owners who treat them as part of the family. For Arabs the horse is a symbol of freedom, dignity, and pride. For stateless Palestinians, the horse also provides identity and belonging to the Arab nation like the olive tree symbolises the millennial Palestinian attachment to their land which is being gradually expropriated by Israelis.

Palestinians in Gaza love a canter along the beach sand wet from the Mediterranean surf and hold competitions on the empty runway of the strip’s wrecked and abandoned airport bombed by Israel in 2001 during the Second Intifada. Yasser Arafat International Airport, once seen by Palestinians as an expression of sovereignty, was opened in 1996 by US President Bill Clinton during the halcyon days when Palestinians still believed the two-state solution would free them from Israeli occupation.

There is only one equestrian club still functioning in the impoverished strip and a diminishing number of horses to ride because of the monthly cost of $100 per horse and the lack of medicine and vets to look after them. During the years when smuggling tunnels operated between the Gaza half of the town of Rafah and the Egyptian half, medicines needed to keep horses alive and well flowed through the tunnels and horses were sedated and carefully conveyed into Gaza, boosting their numbers in the strip and enabling breeders of Arab horses to increase and diversify stock.

From about 2007-08 the number of tunnels burgeoned to reach 1,100. Everything and anything was imported through the tunnels. Food, medicines and medical equipment, clothing, fuel, cement which the Israelis banned, cars, luxury goods, cows, sheep, and goats as well as people. Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, taxed imports as the tunnel economy flourished and a group of “tunnel millonaires” emerged. This was a grand time for horsemen and women as well as for the general populace. The closure of the tunnels by Egypt in 2013-14, locked off the strip and made Israel the sole arbiter of everything allowed into Gaza. Gazans became trapped and totally dependent on Israel.

Horses are sensitive creatures and are affected by their owners’ moods, financial worries, and the physical environment. Gaza’s horses as well as its people are afflicted by a shortage of water, polluted aquifers, untreated sewage, and fumes from motor vehicles and diesel powered generators. As one of the most densely populated stretches on land on earth, Gaza also has few open spaces where horses can be exercised.

Hadeel al-Gherbawi reported in “Al-Monitor” that several horses were killed outright during last year’s 11-day Israeli bombing spree of the strip, others died of anxiety after the bombs stopped falling. One breeder lost five from bombs, one to starvation because he could not reach the stable to feed her and her foal succumbed without her mother. A mare birthed a dead foal and two horses were frightened to death. His horses, rented out to riders and for weddings, are his sole source of income. Other interviewees told the author that it took several months for their horses to get over the violence and anxiety and even then they were not the same as before the Israeli onslaught.

The situation in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and Israel is far less stressful for the horses and their owners. Around 8,000 Arabian horses registered with the World Arabian Horse Organisation: 10 per cent owned by Palestinian West Bankers, 50 per cent by Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the rest by Jewish Israelis some of whom have developed their own breed. There are many stables dotted around the West Bank where Palestinians can board their horses or ride for a fee.

Unlike Gaza, there are the medicines horses need and well equipped veterinarians to look after the horses. Among them is David Garbe, a Palestinian who was trained in the US and returned to al-Buraq, his family farm near Bethlehem, to rescue ailing and injured horses and care for his own steeds.

West Bank Palestinian horses and their owners have, however, to contend with the never-ending occupation regime which starves Palestinian villages, towns and cities of water and denies freedom of movement by erecting checkpoints. Horses shy away from men with guns. Sick horses, like ill people, can die while waiting for check point clearance to visit a medic. Israel also demolishes Palestinian stables built without permits because permits are rarely granted although Israeli colonists who establish illegal horse farms on private Palestinian land never face eviction or bullddozers.

For Jewish Israelis, including mobsters, Arabian show horses are big business. They take part in local and  international competitions, and rake up the shekels when put out for stud. Palestinian breeders and trainers face multiple Israeli obstacles when seeking to enter their steeds in foreign competitions or put them up for sale. Israel’s imposition of apartheid impacts horses as well as humans.

Photo: TNS