Egyptian Collusion With Israel’s Siege of Gaza Sickens Me
A humanitarian convoy organized by American activists successfully reached the besieged Gaza Strip last week. The Viva Palestina, US, was the second such land convoy to successfully enter Gaza via the Egyptian border. Activists hope that such missions break down the Israel-Egyptian embargo on Gaza, which has made the strip into a prison-like enclosure.
While the convoy’s success was uplifting, its struggle to get into Rafah reminded me of Egypt’s inexcusable and treacherous collusion with Israel in the collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza.
The convoy carried 200 activists in 50 vehicles. It delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of food and medical supplies for the people of Gaza. It finally was allowed to cross the Rafah border on Wednesday after receiving permission from Cairo.
Though we have seen Egypt’s role as essentially Israel’s sidekick before, the machinations around the Viva Palestine really exemplify how much it shares Israel’s sick agenda of collective punishment in Gaza.
1) The convoy was delayed by Egyptian bureaucracy by 10 days.
2) The Egyptian government added new conditions despite prior agreement with the convoy’s organizers. The convoy’s humanitarian workers were given only 24 hours to remain in the war-torn territory.
3) Only half of the 50 aid-carrying trucks were allowed in. Also, the convoy left behind hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of vehicles earmarked for hospitals and nongovernmental organizations. Egyptian authorities have refused to allow the vehicles to enter Gaza through its Rafah border.
For more than two years, Israel has enforced an embargo of Gaza as punishment for the Hamas takeover of Gaza following the effective annulment of it parliamentary electoral victory in 2005. Egypt also considers Hamas a threat, particularly because of its association with the Muslim Brotherhood, a political party the regime treats as an enemy despite its participation in mainstream politics.
In late December and much of January, Israel’s military attacked and invaded the strip to seek the defeat of Hamas. It left 1500 Palestinians dead, and large swathes of the land in ruins. Hamas remains in power, but the Israeli grip on imports has denied Gazans the materials to rebuild.
Egypt has played a role in maintaining the closure of the Strip on the Egyptian border. This has been a political liability for Egypt, as it should be. The pressure it has put on ordinary Gazans led to dramatic acts such as when mobs of Palestinians broke through the Rafah crossing in early 2008 just to buy groceries.
The goal of the convoy is to bring an end to the closure of Gaza. It seeks to protect the rights of the 1.5 million Palestinians who live there. It is not organized to support one faction over another, although Israeli and Egyptian policies clearly are.
Critics of the convoy, however, argue these moves serve to bolster Hamas politically. It is clear the convoy’s organizers would not be persuaded by this objection. They are clearly rejecting collective punishment, in this case, the idea that all of Gaza can be punished for the goal of removing the party in power. Collective punishment, whether enforced by Israel or maintained by Egypt, is obviously wrong, and a testament to the bankruptcy of the Egyptian regime.
