Meeting WordPress Developer Rola Zaqout. She Moonlights Building Bzzra, a Popular Gardening Community from Gaza!

In the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, beseiged Gazans may not survive bombing and starvation. As my heart is with my Gazan Mentee, I share my experience working with her, because Palestinians are not represented in American media.

Update: Please donate to Rola Zaqout’s GoFundMe to escape Gaza war zone with her family!

In 2014, I signed up to mentor virtually at Gaza Sky Geeks Accelerator, a Google-backed program run by Iliana Montauk. She paired me with Rola Zaqout — “the first woman I saw in Gaza who checked out ‘The Lean Startup’ from our library and read it, entirely of her own volition.”

Rola Zaqout led the first-place women’s team at Startup Weekend Gaza, creating Bzzra, a community for budding home gardeners to share experience, tips, pictures, and videos. She earned her Bachelor’s in computer mathematics from the Islamic University of Gaza. She loves web development, online marketing and entrepreneurship. She is ambitious, friendly, and sociable.

She was inspired her to start Bzzra because “Gaza is a small region with a high population density and green areas that get smaller every day. We want to encourage gardening culture in Arab countries, not only in Gaza, by making it easier, cool, and fun to start gardening!”

I learned about the restrictions on Gazan residents (electricity is limited to hours a day) — we had to schedule our Skype calls around her availability.

The next year, I was able to volunteer at Gaza Startup Bootcamp in Gaza with my TechWomen Mentee Mai Temraz, a Grace Hopper Abie Award winner! As Gaza Sky Geeks was run by Mercy Corps, the volunteers were able to cross Erez from Israel into Gaza.

The 5-day trip to Gaza was a lovely experience as I met so many warm, friendly Gazans who love food and technology. Pictures are below — or see my photo album from Gaza here!

GSG’s Iliana Montauk leading the women’s entrepreneurship session. She is an incredible leader and now runs Manara, a Y-Combinator backed social impact startup.

We met many lovely techies at the Gaza Sky Geeks office in Gaza. This is a picture of English Club meeting. Sadly the Gaza Sky Geeks office was bombed since October 7.

One of the Gaza Startup Bootcamp teams involved sensors for your feet/shoes!

It was a wonderful full-circle experience mentoring at Startup Bootcamp in Gaza with my TechWomen Mentee Mai Temraz. She wrote about post for the State Department-sponsored TechWomen blog. #GazaChallenge

My Gaza Sky Geeks Mentee Rola Zaqout and I accidentally matched one day at Gaza Startup Bootcamp! She has the flower-printed shoes, I have a flower printed skirt of almost the exact same flowery print. Wild.

Met ladies from the the UNRWA college in Gaza. We took a lot of “selfies” in Gaza; it was the era of selfie sticks.

Here’s my photo album from Gaza. There’s often no electricity so the streets are quiet, with no street lights.

My favorite evenings were spent eating with Gazans:

Fattet hummus eaten with spoons, a Gaza Sky Geeks tradition!

My FAVORITE dinner with my Mentee’s family at their beautiful rooftop garden — you almost forget they live in a refugee camp in Gaza.

Her family has a green thumb with plants and gardening. This is their rooftop garden at a Gaza refugee camp.

A fine Gazan dinner, thanks to the Zaqout family!

With each Israel-Gaza war, my heart aches for the sleepless nights she and the Gazans endure with the endless bombings. Lately I’ve been horrified at white phosphorous bombing in Gaza, absolutely illegal, and the weeks of no food/water/fuel orders from Israel as Palestinian collective punishment for Hamas’ atrocities on October 7.

I am devastated and disappointed that Hamas and Gazans are false equivalences. It’s misleading to believe that all Gazans are Hamas. About half of Gaza’s population are children, who were either not alive when Hamas was elected or not of voting age.

I join the call of universities and cities globally for immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid, and stopping the cycle of violence.

Peace is the only battle worth waging. — Albert Camus

More useful links:

• Resources for Gaza, from Donations to Lobbying
• TechCrunch: Palestine’s growing tech industry has been literally blown apart by the war between Israel and Hamas
• Fortune: The Israel-Hamas war has already had a tragic impact on tech workers in Israel and Gaza
• Visit Palestine.tech is a travel guide for techies
• Tell Secretary Blinken you demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza now!

A Gazan child’s drawing was gifted to me. She lived through multiple Israel-Gaza wars and is currently studying abroad in Turkey for a degree in Computer Engineering.

In 2015, Mercy Corps ran Gaza Sky Geeks — here’s Rola and me with another fresh mint tea drink in hand.

Street art / graffiti in Gaza.

We located the Banksy graffiti of a cat (and some Aljazeera folks) in Beit Hanoun (بيتحانون) on our way out of Gaza thru Erez Crossing. I hope to be able to visit Gaza again one day.

UNRWA SITUATION REPORT #17 ON THE SITUATION IN THE GAZA STRIP AND THE WEST BANK (INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM)

Remembering Slain Palestinians and their Places — Ideas for Educational Projects — Because Oakland Children Want to Learn About Palestine!

Basically I just looked at UNRWA’s update on the situation on the ground (click on the United Nations logo to view the latest):

Bedouins

Reportedly, 12 persons from the Bedouin community of Zanuta in Hebron (occupied West Bank), including five children under 10, were displaced due to the coercive environment that they face, including exposure to settler violence. More than 450 people displaced in Area C of the West Bank since October 7.

Palestine

Israeli Security Forces (ISF) operations, involving Palestinian fatalities, have been reported in Jenin and Qalqilya refugee camps on October 27.

How about traditional Palestinian village cutouts and/or luminaria? The winter holidays often call for little houses lit up with lights. Did you know that Bethelehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is a West Bank city in Palestine?

We stayed at a hotel at the port of Gaza. Drive west on the pier to get a nice view of the Gaza skyline for a fun selfie! amongst the fishing boats!