Despite unending calls for a reciprocal ceasefire in Gaza and southern Israel (i.e. no bloodshed, no Israeli incursions, and no Palestinian ‘rockets’ fired at Sderot), Israel’s government still doesn’t know how in the world it is to stop said rockets from being fired at Sderot.
Its military institution has come with multi-hundred million dollar plans to develop highly advanced missile defense systems to neutralize the effects of the flying pipes launched by the Palestinian resistance. Its politicians continually threaten to wipe out Gaza, to kill more and destroy what they still haven’t. Every other day the ‘widescale invasion’ of Gaza is announced to be just days away.
But the calls for a ceasefire are ignored.
The suffocating siege imposed on the world’s largest open air prison is unbelievably catastrophic. Sewage flows in the streets because there is no fuel to power the treatment plants. Drinking water is scarce because there is no electricity to power the water pumps. Ambulances run out of fuel rushing towards the latest victims of the Israeli army’s unchecked killing spree all over Gaza.
If the victims get lucky and die, they’re wrapped with hospital bedsheets and blankets because the morgues have run out of supplies and new covers aren’t allowed in. And those that stay alive sleep without covers, in the cold because there isn’t any fuel or electricity to power the hospitals heating.
The everyday effects of the siege are too overwhelming to describe in any one post, or even a full length article. You can only really experience it by being there. One of the few foreigners to have been allowed in recently is Nora Barrows-Friedman. This is some of what she had to say:
“On a massive and wide-ranging scale, every single aspect of life in Gaza is punctuated by the Israeli occupation and the blockade. There are 1.5 million people here, trapped and hermetically sealed, in this 22-mile by 6-mile strip of devastated open-air prison compound. Fuel is scarce and the streets are thick with the soupy smoke of cooking gas, falafel oil and benzene as Israel’s collective punishment policies force people to fill their cars with their families’ gas rations.
This trickles down. Hospitals, grocery stores, butcheries, fishing boats, administrative centers, schools, factories, clinics, they all either run on generators or have been forced to quit operations altogether because of the fuel crisis. In the sewage treatment facilities, the fuel shortages mean that sewage plants can’t operate at full capacity — and remember, there are 1.5 million people here — so millions of gallons of raw sewage are being dumped into the sea, untreated, making the ocean extremely toxic.
Giardia, dysentery, cholera — diseases not known just five miles up the beach, in the cities of historic Palestine (some call it Israel), where toilets flush and water is safe to drink, where people lay in the mid-day sun getting tan and drinking pina coladas and speaking a language resurrected just in the last hundred years, unknown to the indigenous and dispossessed here in Gaza — are now common. And once Palestinians get really sick, hospitals try to do all they can to alleviate the pain and eradicate the disease, but, as my friend told me, since the blockade began last summer, there are 95 medicines on the “blacklist” — prohibited from entering Gaza.”
95 medicines banned from reaching 1.5 million human beings? Shit, no wonder Israelis are so proud of reaching 60 years of statehood. With those kinds of morals, it’s a miracle they’ve lasted this long.
There are very limited supplies of most medicines left, but they are close to running out. The fastest dwindling medicine? Anesthesia.
This is a siege run by sadists. They want the Palestinians to literally feel the pain.
If anybody still believes this siege is designed to stop Palestinian attacks, pull your head out of your ass. Apart from the fact that the casualty numbers between Palestinians and Israelis cannot even be compared, Israel remains the occupier in this unequal equation and the Palestinians have the right to fight back. If you really do care about the number of bedwetters in southern Israel, then the solution is accept the ceasefire and end the siege.
Related posts:
- Ceasefire? Fuck No.
- Gaza on the brink
- Gaza out of fuel, out of electricity
- Gaza Blackout – Day 3
- War Crimes in Gaza
Wait wait, here comes Joe to tell us these actions that are causing untold suffering in Gaza “suck” and are “stupid.” Maybe he could add a few more interesting words. How about “lame?” Maybe “unfortunate.” He could tell us how Israel doesn’t really want to do these things, but their hand is forced. Come on Joe, we’re waiting.
Posted by safiyyah | June 11, 2008, 4:20 amWho should care about the Palestinians more, Hamas or the Israeli government? If Hamas for the privilege of shooting their rockets and not recognizing the state of Israel think the Palestinians ought to suffer then it is their problem. The fate of the Palestinians is in their hands. Don’t tell us it is Israel’s fault.
The only country in the world asked to supply and reinforce its enemies is Israel. Do you think Israelis are that stupid? Do you really think Israel should help Hamas by letting them have what they want so in a few months they can shoot rockets at Israel again?
The suffereing of the Palestinians is just like the suffering of a person who is sick and refuses to take medicine. At some point you stop feeling sorry for the guy and start pointing his stupidity to him.
Posted by Anonymous | June 11, 2008, 2:14 pmWell done anonymous. It must feel great to be able to justify banning human beings from vital medicines to make political gains.
Recognizing Israel? How stupid are you? Why is the onus on Palestinians to ‘recognize’ the rights of their occupier, colonizer and terrorizer?
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. The PLO recognized Israel, made huge concessions, collaborated with Israeli security forces against their own people for the sake of Israeli security-and in return got nothing but increased settlement activity, land confiscation, closures and systematic denial of Palestinian rights. So no, the Palestinian people in Gaza are not forced to starve and die just because Hamas won’t ‘recognize’ Israel.
As far back as the first couple of years of the second Intifada, the Palestinians have called for calm, the deployment of international peacekeepers and, in the case of big bad Hamas, even given Israel long term unilateral ceasefires. Israel’s response has always been to increase and deepen its occupation. That, dumbass, is the cause of the problem.
“Do you think Israelis are that stupid?” With advocates like you, the answer is a resounding yes.
Posted by Mohammad | June 11, 2008, 3:41 pmMohammad,
“So no, the Palestinian people in Gaza are not forced to starve and die just because Hamas won’t ‘recognize’ Israel.”
Really? Would the situation in Gaza be drastically different if Hamas accepted the Quartet conditions? Of course. The onus on Hamas is to act in the best interest of the Palestinian people. If not accepting conditions which the US, UN, Europe and Russia support is against the interest of the Palestinians then so be it. Only Hamas supporters would agree with you.
If you want the right to keep shooting rockets at Israel and not recognizing Israel while having Israel supply and make Hamas stronger then just say that. Not likely to happen. You have every right to resist but do you really expect and think it reasonable that Israel will help you resist?
Posted by Anonymous | June 11, 2008, 6:08 pmAs I’ve said before, many of Israel’s actions in Gaza are disproportionate to the security threat they face. That said, primary blame for their predicament falls first upon Hamas, for refusing to begin down any sort of mutual path toward reconciliation, and second upon Egypt, who could invalidate the blockade in a heartbeat if they wanted to, and who don’t face a fundamental security threat from Hamas in the same way that Israel does. Israel is to blame, but they’re #3 on the list. It’s awful that medicine is being kept out, but Egypt could open their border with Gaza to medicine and reverse the shortage in a heartbeat if they wanted to — and unlike with Israel, there’s not the same history of ‘bad blood’ explaining why stalwarts on both sides keep progress from being made.
“”Recognizing Israel? How stupid are you? Why is the onus on Palestinians to ‘recognize’ the rights of their occupier, colonizer and terrorizer?”"
Because doing so is an essential step toward ending Israel’s role as an occupier?
As to the ‘colonizer’ part, depends what you mean… some people consider Israel in its entirety a colonial project. If you’re referring to the illegal settlements, again, recognition of Israel by all its adversaries is an essential step toward ending that.
As to ‘terrorizer’… that’s mutual.
“”
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. The PLO recognized Israel, made huge concessions, collaborated with Israeli security forces against their own people for the sake of Israeli security-and in return got nothing but increased settlement activity, land confiscation, closures and systematic denial of Palestinian rights.”"
Er, no, that’s not all they’ve gotten. They’ve gotten international legitimacy and a much better negotiating position for moving toward an eventual settlement.
And, last I checked, they’re not suffering in the way Gaza is right now.
“”
As far back as the first couple of years of the second Intifada, the Palestinians have called for calm, the deployment of international peacekeepers and, in the case of big bad Hamas, even given Israel long term unilateral ceasefires. Israel’s response has always been to increase and deepen its occupation.”"
Some Palestinians have called for those things (And in the case of Hamas, those offers are considered disingenuous *at best* in part due to the lack of recognition of Israel’s right to exist — a cease-fire is only relevant as a means to an end, and if even a basic sense of what the ‘end’ is can’t be agreed upon…), just as some Israelis have. But to present the Palestinian position as an overwhelmingly peaceful one is disingenuous.
Posted by Joe | June 11, 2008, 9:05 pmOh, and the description of people terrorized by rockets in Sderot to ‘bedwetters’ isn’t helping your case.
The whole point of progress for the Palestinians is so that one day, they can enjoy a country as progressive and prosperous as Israel is; destroy that Israeli model of prosperity and happiness through the psychological terrorism of rocket attacks, and what’s left for the Palestinians to work towards? Israel’s one of the few countries in the region who’ve created a life for its citizens that’s worthy of emulation; the solution is to pull the Palestinians up toward that bar, not to drag Israel into the same unfortunate morass much of the rest of the region is stuck in.
Posted by Joe | June 11, 2008, 9:08 pmThe best interests of the Palestinian people are the Quartet conditions? How? The Quartet conditions are political conditions that are extremely unfavorable to the Palestinians because they do not require Israel to meet those same conditions.
1) Renounce violence. Israel has publicly stated that it won’t, so why should the Palestinians?
2) Recognize Israel. The largest political entity representing the Palestinians has recognized Israel. Israel has refused to recognize the basic rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of self determination.
3) Accept past agreements. Why? Israel has not kept its part of any past agreement all the way back to Oslo. Therefore the past agreements are in reality non-existent.
Perhaps things would be better in Gaza if Hamas accepted these conditions. But isn’t it inhumane to starve people to get them into making political concessions?
Joe, I’m glad you put that recognizing the right of your occupier to occupy you (because in reality, thats what unilateral recognition means) ‘is an essential step to ending its role as an occupier’ at the top of your list.
Then I can ignore most of the rest of it.
But about Egypt: Nobody is denying they are being just as cruel as Israel. But Israel remains the occupier in Gaza; under international law it is solely and ultimately responsible for the well-being of the people it occupies.
Last, about the ‘bedwetters’comment. That was referring to an earlier post when, during the largescale Israeli attack on Jabalya in early March the Israeli ambassador to the UN justified the attack that killed 130 Palestinians in 3 days by telling the Security Council about increased numbers of bedwetters in Sderot.
Posted by Mohammad | June 12, 2008, 12:11 am“”Joe, I’m glad you put that recognizing the right of your occupier to occupy you (because in reality, thats what unilateral recognition means) ‘is an essential step to ending its role as an occupier’ at the top of your list.
Then I can ignore most of the rest of it.
“”
Since this gets to the heart of the matter, let’s start with this.
Recognizing Israel’s right to exist does not say anything about recognizing its right to certain borders or policies (the ‘right to be an occupier’ as you describe it). You’re missing the point by conflating the two.
Posted by Joe | June 13, 2008, 4:51 pmHamas might gain credibility if it starts following the agreement it signed with Fatah.
Posted by Joseph | June 18, 2008, 4:40 am