The Stolen Sky
When even the air above you belongs to someone else
Let’s talk about something you probably never think about, the sky above your head, the one you assume belongs to everyone, the one planes fly through and birds cross and clouds pass over without permission, because for you it is just there and it feels neutral.
For Palestinians in Gaza, that same sky does not belong to them and has not for as long as Israel exists, because Israel controls Gaza’s airspace and uses it for drones, jets and surveillance that define daily life with fear and noise and the constant possibility of death above your roof.
Most of us may or may not know that Gaza had an airport, but it operated for the shortest period of time, and that fact alone should make you pause and ask why a people were allowed to breathe for a moment and then choked again.
The point is simple and human, this sky could have been routes for students heading to class, for families reuniting, for patients travelling for life‑saving treatment, for ordinary journeys that say we are part of this world too, yet instead it has been turned into a machine that watches and strikes and reminds a besieged population that even the air above you does not belong to you.
The airport that was
Yasser Arafat International Airport opened in 1998, and for a brief time it gave Palestinians in Gaza the same basic experience everyone else takes for granted, step on a plane, visit family, study abroad, make a business trip, get surgery in another country, return home.
In 1999 the airport handled about 90,000 passengers, and Gaza’s population that year was roughly 1.09 million, which means about one journey processed for every twelve people, a small number in global terms but enormous in meaning because it proved movement was possible and normal life was within reach.
Palestinian Airlines linked Gaza to cities like Amman, Cairo, Larnaca and Dubai, and a few foreign carriers served the strip, which mattered not because of prestige but because it meant Palestinians could move without asking an occupier for permission to breathe.
Then it ended when Israel shut the airport and destroyed its critical infrastructure during the Second Intifada, and in 2002 the international civil aviation body condemned the destruction as contrary to the most basic rules governing civil air travel, because what was broken was not just concrete but the symbol and function of freedom.
For the first time Palestinians had a normal way to leave and return, then it was erased, not because of safety or some technicality, but because sovereignty in Palestinian hands was intolerable to those who insist on control over every crossing and every horizon.
They could not tolerate Palestinians flying freely or a working Palestinian airport on Palestinian land, because a working airport means dignity, connection and the simple truth that life is supposed to move.
What control means
Since the airport was destroyed, Gaza’s skies have been dominated by Israeli drones and warplanes that have killed thousands of Palestinian children and civilians, turning airspace into a cage without bars that can watch, follow and strike at will.
Israel also controls Gaza’s borders, the sea and the electromagnetic space, which means movement in and out, maritime access and even communications are subject to a gatekeeper who can say yes, no, or nothing at all.
Israel controls water, electricity and the movement of goods and aid, deciding who drinks, who eats, who lives and who dies, and uses that power to keep an entire population on its knees.
That is what occupation looks like, not just soldiers on the ground, but control so complete that even the air above your head is used to make you feel powerless and exposed and lesser, and that is why the memory of that short‑lived airport hurts, because it showed for a moment what normal felt like before normal was taken away.
And to the people who love to say if you care so much why don’t you just go to Gaza, here is the honest answer in plain words, go how, walk in when the borders are sealed, sail in when Israel intercepts every boat, fly in when Gaza’s airport was bombed to rubble and the sky above Palestinians is controlled by Israel.
“Even the sky above them is owned by the occupier, and until that changes, the question is not why we do not go, it is why the world still allows a people to live under a stolen sky.”
Thank you for bearing witness.
Thank you for this poignant reminder Tauqeer, that the occupiers have stolen every basic right from the Palestinians. Really well written.
Gazans stole Israeli babies on 10/7/2023. Who could have imagined that might lead to a negative consequences?