NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip. THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948. THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza’s air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. THE BLOCKADE Israel’s blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation. The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights. THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed. WAR CRIMESThe targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip. This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Nor is it about “restoring Israel’s deterrence,” as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”
To some people, so far 2009 may not seem so promising. The more optimistic lot might argue that things could change, which some cynics would agree with, only that they’d assume it could take a turn to the worse, as hard to imagine as that could be to the former group. No matter what prospects and dreams you may have for the coming year, which we’re entering as I type these words, I think all of us agree that New Year’s Day is anything but Happy this year. Some of us might take offense in the greeting itself. “Happy New Year”, like, seriously? Well, despite the morbidity of the situation, I think we can still hope for a better year to come. In the meantime, while New Year’s celebrations in Jordan were cancelled, I think it’s only fair that we share Gazans their celebrations of the New Year! Yes! It could be one hell of a Happy New Year in Gaza. Happy New Year if a bomb is dropped just few meters away from your house. It might scare you half to death but still, you’re alive. It’s a Happy New Year if you are injured and they find enough blood supply that fits your blood type to save your life. It’s a Happy New Year if your child is being tended to at hospital, despite the lack of qualified medical staff and medical equipments, you’ll be happy that he, unlike many others, is alive. It’s a Happy New Year if you have enough candles and electric torches at home to last you during the power outage in the darkness of the night. Not that you have much to do, but it’s definitely less scary when you listen to the sound of roaring war crafts and the deafening bombardment with some light on. It’s a Happy New Year if you’re still alive, have a roof to sleep under and clean water to drink. It’s a Happy New Year if you’re not attending your little brother’s funeral, or trying to identify the remainings of one of your parents. So, yes, if “Happy” means all that, then New Year should be celebrated all right, and Gaza must be the place. Happy New Year Gaza, as crappy as it must be.
Yesterday, while you were waiting for your child to come home from school, someone’s child never made it home from school, because as he was leaving school eager to finish his homework to go out and play with the other kids, he was killed by a bomb that was dropped over him out of nowhere. Last night, as you complained about your headache and couldn’t wait to go to bed and have a good night’s sleep, some woman in Gaza couldn’t sleep as she spent the night beside her husband and children at the hospital, waiting for them to wake up, knowing that they might never do. Thousands of others couldn’t sleep too as they waited for another shelling any moment, and their fears came true at a number of occasions. As you watched the news and then switched the channel, or maybe turned the TV off and went to sleep, those people you saw, that crying kid and that unconscious girl, they couldn’t turn it off or just wish it all was a dream. You might think of them as super beings who can bear whatever atrocities they are faced with, but the truth is those are people like me and you. They may not have a higher pain threshold than you, yet you can’t imagine yourself going through have what they’re going through now. They might be dead, but thousands of others are waiting for the unknown, maybe the same destiny and maybe worse.
Today as I was listening to the radio on my way to work, I switched to Hayat FM and they were dedicating that morning to the subject of the Jordanians prisoners in the Israeli jails, since today, 20/10, is the Jordanian prisoners solidarity day, as it was chosen two years ago by the Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails themselves. On the phone was the mother of Abduallah Al-Barghouthi, who has what was described by the host as "the longest jail sentence is in the history of humanit". Well, that is not so hard to believe when you know that he has 67 life sentences. I wonder what human being could possible live to serve that time. There were other calls with the wife of Palestinian prisoner. She's Jordanian and therefore she's denied the right to visit her husband in jail. Neither the Jordanian nor the Palestinian authorities seem to be of any help, each side saying that she should seek the help of the other. There was also another call with an ex-prisoner who said that those who are still prisoners in the Israeli jails are better than us, because they are living their struggle day by day, while we are living out our daily routine life unaware of what happens in there. Those were sad yet eye-opening facts. To think of all the Jordanian, Palestinian and Arab prisoners in the Israeli jails, and to realize how most people have little idea about that, and then to look at what the Israelis have done and still doing for Gilad Shalit, demanding his return and making him perhaps the most famous prisoner in the history of the conflict, to think about that you find that there must be something wrong. Those people deserve more attention and their case must be brought to light more often, not only on this day, but everyday. For the time being, the 20th of October remains a reminder of those people who were willing to sacrifice their lives and their freedom to serve their just cause.
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