Grieving Gaza on Google Maps

Snapshots of a people, vibrantly alive.

Sometimes, I pull up the Gaza strip on Google Maps, just to look at the digital record what was there not long ago. The smallness of the land strikes me every single time.

I look at the reviews of random hotels, museums, public beaches, and restaurants — places where Palestinian people spent their mundane moments — the words “Temporarily closed” now hanging under all of them with infuriating banality.

Every park is closed, every beach is closed, every university, closed — but Google retains details about whether these spaces were wheelchair accessible when they still existed, and what time of day they’d be opening if they still did.

I’m trying to understand the lives of the Palestinian people better, but I’m still looking at it through such a myopically American lens. What shops did you go to? Did it have good reviews? Is this where you spent money in order to pass time? Have you called to see if it’s still open? But I…