(Newswire.net — August 28, 2014) — As the rest of the world continues to dump buckets of cold water over their heads in support of ALS research, some Palestinians have created their own version of the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness about the ongoing crisis in Gaza – The Rubble Bucket Challenge.
The idea is simple: raise awareness for the political situation in Gaza by replacing ice and water with debris from bombed-out buildings.
“The use of water is more important than to empty it over our heads, and even if the water is available it is difficult to freeze it.” said Palestinian journalist Ayman al Aloul, who posted the first Rubble Bucket Challenge on Facebook ” garnering more than 4, 000 likes within days.
Unlike the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, this campaign does not ask users for monetary donations. Instead, it relies on social media simply to raise awareness about a humanitarian crisis that its Facebook page describes as “ethnic cleansing.”
Israel launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza on July 8th, with the aim of halting Hamas rocket fire and destroying the organization’s network of tunnels. Since then, the operation killed 2, 133 people, mostly civilians and more than 10, 000 people have been injured. Sixty-eight Israelis have been killed over that span, including four civilians.
The truce, ending seven weeks of fighting was brokered by Egypt and began at 19:00 (16:00 GMT) on Tuesday. Hamas said the deal represented a “victory for the resistance”. The US gave the full backing to the deal, with State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki saying: “We strongly support the ceasefire announcement.”
Palestinian officials said Egypt’s ceasefire proposal called for an indefinite end to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza’s crossings with Israel and Egypt, and an extension of the territory’s Mediterranean fishing zone.
In Gaza, where the bombardment has meant water is in drastically short supply and electricity shortages make iced water practically non-existent, local journalist Ayman al-Alul’s “Rubble Bucket Challenge” hits the bullseye.