The two boats that reached Gaza from Cyprus last week in defiance of the international siege imposed on the beleaguered territory have now headed home. Many had attacked and criticized the 47 volunteers from across the world who had put together their own money and resources and risked their lives to reach the coastal enclave, accusing them of attempting a publicity stunt that was designed to paint Israel in a bad light (seemingly unaware of the fact that Israel does a very good job of that herself with the imprisonment of 1.5 million humans).
When Israel allowed the boats to pass through (despite publicly threatening the volunteers with force for days prior to the journey and jamming their navigation and communication equipment at the beginning of the voyage), these critics smugly proclaimed the trip as a massive PR failure.
That analysis is only correct if you truly believe the whole event was just a media stunt. But it wasn’t. For over a year, the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza have largely been penned in and closed off from the world. Leaving or entering has been virtually impossible as Israel and Egypt sealed their borders with the Strip save for a smattering of basic necessities (in inadequate amounts).
Aid and supplies donated by people from around the world have usually had trouble getting through, as both the Egyptian and Israeli authorities sought to choke Gaza’s population as much as possible. With the exception of the foreign media and certain NGO’s, it has been literally impossible to visit Gaza (even Jimmy Carter was denied entry by Israel).
What the boats intended to do was show that it was possible for regular citizens to break this siege, break the suffocating stranglehold of foreign powers on the fate of Gazans. In that regard, their mission was a resounding success. The supplies they brought with them were symbolic (200 hearing aids and painkillers), but their intent was to be the first in what they (and Palestinians) hope will be a permanent sea-service to freedom, remove from the draconian control of Israel and Egypt.
The activists claim they have a plan and the logistics in place for a frequent ferry service between Cyprus and Gaza, with the only thing holding them back now being a lack of funding. In an email to supporters, one of the volunteers expressed hope that the Arab League would help cover the cost. Sadly, that is naïve thinking. Such a service would provide indispensible benefit to Gaza, but if the Arab League wanted to support the people of the Strip rather than collude with Israel and its backers, it would have opened the Rafah crossing permanently years ago. Unsurprisingly, PA officials expressed their belief that such people-power events are fruitless and that we should instead pin our hopes on PA-Israel negotiations. Rather than grow disillusioned at these examples of political stonewalling, the activists (and all of us who support them) should take heart; these are the very people contributing to the siege of Gaza, thus the very people whose positions are weakened by such actions.
Not all the activists left on the boats. Around six have remained behind in Gaza, with one of their first tasks being heading out to sea with Gazan fishermen in an attempt to enable the Palestinians to move freely within their own territorial waters. Currently, Gazan fishermen are not allowed to move more than roughly two miles out at sea, although that rule is arbitrary and their fishing boats are frequently attacked by Israeli warships even while they are still in the harbor.
But those are just details. The fact of the matter is that Gaza is the first occupied territory on earth to be subjected to an international siege; the Free Gaza boats hope that sooner rather than later the cruel policies of Israel and Egypt can be bypassed by sea, so that the Palestinians living there can enjoy some semblance of a normal life.
Monday, September 01, 2008
A breach-and hope
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Free Gaza Boats to break Siege
A couple of days ago, after weeks of preparations and delays, two small boats (the USS Liberty and Free Gaza) set sail from the port of Larnaca, Cyprus for the Gaza Strip. The initiative is an attempt by the international Free Gaza movement to break the crippling siege imposed by Israel and Egypt on the Gaza Strip and its 1.5 million men, women and children for the last year and two months.
On board are 44 international human rights activists and volunteers, including an 84 year old Holocaust survivor, Tony Blair’s sister in law, doctors, professors and other activists. The volunteers are bringing with them medicines and several hundred hearing aids-the entry of both of which into Gaza is severely impeded or banned by the Israeli authorities.
For the last few days, the Israeli government has been threatening to use force to stop the boats from reaching the Strip, predictably accusing the human rights activists of supporting terror. Even though the boats would travel out of Cypriot waters, into international waters and straight into Gaza’s waters, the Israeli military and government claimed they had the right to block the passage of the volunteers. Remember, Israel Left Gaza Two Years Ago™.
I met with one of the organizers the night before she flew out to Cyprus to prepare for the voyage. She told me everyone involved was aware that the Israeli’s may attack them, board the boats and arrest them, or hold them at sea for days on end. They were prepared to take the risks, daring to hope that if their mission succeeded, it would be the first of many such popular initiatives to break the siege.
Shortly after the boats set sail, the communication equipment was jammed for several hours. Those on board elected to keep going, and with Israel continuing to threaten the volunteers, the boats reached Gaza’s territorial waters. In a comedic show of the Israeli government’s inane arrogance, Prime Minister Olmert, Foreign Secretary Livni and Terrorist Barak convened to discuss the imminent threat to Israel’s security. Eventually, they bit the bullet and allowed the two small boats with 40 human rights activists and a few hearing aids to pass through.
*UPDATE: Its 6:10 in Palestine and the USS Liberty and Free Gaza have just docked in Gaza City’s port. Apart from when Palestinians knocked down the border wall in Rafah this past January, this is the first time the siege on Gaza has been broken. Full update later.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Accept the ceasefire
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.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Gaza on the brink
What I really don’t get about the siege imposed on Gaza is the goal of said siege. To destroy Hamas? Hamas’ popularity is higher than ever-the siege and the incursions and killings just juxtapose the image of Hamas fighting the Israeli army with the frequent image of Abbasshole attending dinner parties with Olmert and Barak in Jerusalem.
To convince the Palestinians to give up the armed struggle? I don’t know how Zionuts think the world operates but when I’m chilling in my living room and an Israeli missile lands in my brother’s lap, I’m more inclined to want to grab an AK and inflict pain on the perpetrator. And then when my sister, injured in the attack, can’t get to the hospital because you’ve banned us from receiving the fuel that the ambulances need to operate, I’m left to live the cruelty of this irony. Say we manage to get her to hospital through the dark (because you banned electricity) and sewage-strewn (because, again, there is no fuel to power the sewage treating plants) streets on the back of a donkey cart, I know she’d die anyway because you’ve somehow convinced the world that medicine is contraband; those dastardly Gazans would just use it to fight their occupiers.
Whatever the goals, these are the results:
• 130+ (and counting) patients dead because Egypt and Israel wouldn’t give them the mercy of medical treatment.
• 55% of Gazan children are bedwetters. These kids see death everyday in their face from the moment they’re born. Forget about this lost generation-the ones that survive are going to have to raise the next one.
• Most of Gaza’s ambulances are inoperable, standing idle as the stream of necessary fuel dries up and the stream of bloody wounded and dead turns into a flood.
• Sewage has flooded entire neighborhoods, as the lack of fuel and electricity required to pump and treat sewage propagates an already deadly health situation.
• Tens of thousands of university students cannot reach their classes with 95% of vehicles in Gaza out of fuel. Ditto for employees.
• 110,000 schoolchildren now rely on emergency UNRWA meals.
And on and fucking on.
See what I don’t get is how the world is so easily fooled. Israel lies and says that it must starve and bomb and kill 1.5 million humans because that’s the only way to weaken Hamas and their flying pipes. And then the Shabak writes up a report claiming that, a year after the total siege was imposed, Hamas is now stronger than ever and has fighters and an arsenal comparable to that of Hezbollah. Eh? So why is Gaza still getting murdered?
One thing is becoming clear though: this cannot last. The people of Gaza are at rock bottom. Throughout the week, Palestinian factions in Gaza, led by Hamas, Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, have been warning that a people explosion is imminent. Many took this to mean that there will be another human outpour across the Gaza-Egypt border. Immediately, Egypt issued threats and proclamations, sent reinforcements to the border, and closed off the main bridge across the Suez supplying the Ariesh and Rafah regions near the Gaza border. That is, should the Palestinians get through the massacre awaiting them at the border, they’d find no food or supplies to restock on in Egypt.
Today, the government in Gaza announced that this explosion is coming within the next two days, and that it will solely be aimed at Israel. I don’t know how they’re going to go about breaching the Israeli border-Israel has never been squeamish about mowing down nonviolent protests. If the Palestinian resistance goes the violent route, the result will be the same: huge casualties.
But whatever happens will be understandable, if unpredictable. After all, the world’s never placed an occupied people under sanctions and a suffocating siege before.
