Gaza cat cafe offers refuge from troubles

Issam Adwan, Associated Press

Transcribed from the clipping

“GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The global cat cafe trend, where people pay to have coffee and hang out with cats, has finally come to the besieged Gaza Strip.

In the impoverished Palestinian enclave run by the Hamas militant group and crippled by a 17-year blockade, residents seeking to escape the territory’s troubles flocked on Thursday to the new Meow Cafe — Gaza City’s answer to the quirky concept tried successfully around the world.

The cafe’s founder, 52-year-old Naema Mabed, said she envisioned the spot as a unique escape from the pressures of life in Gaza — with its lack of recreational options, a youth unemployment rate over 60% and frequent rounds of conflict with Israel since Hamas violently seized control of the strip in 2007.

At the cozy hang-out, Mabed offers a modest drink service and encourages guests to head straight to the cat corner to pet and play with furry friends. The rules of entry are simple: Visitors must cover their shoes with plastic and wash their hands before cuddling the cats.

‘I have spent my life raising cats, and they’re a source of joy and quiet, a release of pressures,’ Mabed told The Associated Press as cats roamed around her. She described feline communion as a ‘global anti-depressant.’ Her customers seem to agree.

They looked exuberant as they played and lounged with the 10 cats in residence, including some named Tom, Dot, Simba and Phoenix. Some guests were quiet as they soaked in the cats’ calming presence. The cats are not adoptable, said Mabed, who is strongly bonded to her feline friends.

‘The feeling, honestly, is that you just come to feel the psychological comfort of the cats,’ said 23-year-old Eman Omar, who had paid the entrance fee of 5 Israeli shekels ($1.30) to spend half an hour snuggling with cats. ‘Everything is beautiful!’

Experts said the cafe does far more than indulge the cat-crazed and give visitors a chance for a good selfie. Psychologist Bahzad al-Akhras said that in places like Gaza such havens can serve as therapy for those scarred from the strip’s devastating wars and other hardships.”

Context added by this archive

Seven weeks before the day this archive stops at, an American paper ran a story from Gaza about a cat cafe. Four Palestinians are named in it — the founder, a customer, a psychologist — and so are four of the cats. The reporter and the photographer are both Palestinian. Nobody in it is a casualty, a claim or a number.

Cite this item

"Gaza cat cafe offers refuge from troubles," The Daily News, 20 August 2023. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2023-080. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2023-080