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This is Gaza.
Gilad Schalit — we all know his name. He is the Israeli soldier that has been held by Hamas for 3 years now. Hamas has kept Schalit with the hope that the Israeli government will agree to exchange him for Palestinian prisoners that Israel has been holding in certain known and unknown prisons for years. Now recent reports suggest that Israel is making “goodwill gestures” to appear as though they are doing all they can to guarantee Schalit’s safe return home:
Israel’s Defense Ministry has recommended a partial lifting of the embargo on the Gaza Strip as a goodwill gesture toward the Palestinians to spur talks to free a long-held captive soldier, an Israeli news site reported Friday. Israel has been linking the opening of Gaza’s borders to the release of Sgt. Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants for three years. Hamas has been pushing for a deal to trade him for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israel’s 3 year siege of Gaza which includes control of its borders along with the help of the complacent Egyptian government has trapped an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians in what is now known as the ”world’s largest open-air prison.” Gazans have been reduced to a constant state of dependence and uncertainty. They are dependent on the goods and supplies that are allowed to pass through their strictly controlled borders, manned by Israeli guards who dictate what goes through, how much of it and when, and the tunnel smugglers (mainly poor young men) who risk being crushed in the narrow passages either because the infrastructure itself collapses or because they were unlucky enough to be in one of the tunnels when the IDF targeted them with another bomb. Gaza’s once thriving fishing industry is also nearing devastation — even common fishermen who are limited by how far out into they sea they can go by the IDF are constantly surrounded by Israeli gunboats and the threat of death or imprisonment:
Citing security concerns and fears of arms smuggling, Israel has progressively tightened the blockade over the past 15 years to a zone that today extends only three nautical miles (NM) from shore. Once a thriving enterprise, Gaza’s fishing industry is now on the verge of collapse. Fishermen are cut off from the heavily populated shoals, and have seen total catch and total revenue drop by roughly half in less than a decade.
Mohammed Hassuna is one such common fishermen – listen to his experiences:
“We were suddenly surrounded by gunboats and naval boats. They started shooting at us and around us. I was very scared,” says Mr. Hassuna.
Hassuna says that and his crew were forced to strip down to their underwear and swim in frigid water to the navy gunboat where they were handcuffed, blindfolded, and their feet chained.
“They took us back to Ashdod port and we were kept like this for the entire day and not allowed toilet facilities or given any food.”
Then there is the uncertainty. Uncertainty about where or when the next child will be killed — just this Thursday a 17 year old girl named Hyam Ayash was shot to death by the IDF in Deir al-Balah Refugee Camp. Or when Israel will launch its next violent assault (the most recent of which took over 1,000 lives in less than 30 days), and how to make enough money in Gaza’s crippled economy. Never mind the fact that the region is now in a state of massive physical destruction since Israel’s December 08/January 09 assault which left hundreds of thousands homeless. The prospects of reconstruction are also grim — Gazans lack materials with which to begin rebuilding because Israel is not allowing enough reconstruction supplies to pass through their borders.
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy’s recent piece in Haaretz touches on this same subject and also does well to explain how Israel’s siege of Gaza is counterproductive for those Israelis who actually want peace with the Palestinians as opposed to simply wiping them all out through various modes of ethnic cleansing. Writes Levy:
The mass experiment on human beings has failed miserably; two years is enough time to determine this. Not one of the siege’s aims have been achieved and the damage is only piling up, perhaps for all eternity. Folly and malevolence, a fairly common combination, have melded into one of Israel’s most fateful mistakes. Even if we leave aside the moralaspect of the inhumane and illegal siege, it is no longer possible to ignore its stupidity as a policy. Shalit has not been released – no siege is going to free him. Hamas has not fallen – the group is only more firmly establishing its regime. And above all, a new reality is developing before our eyes that is worse for Israel than all its predecessors…
…But what about good sense? What is Israel getting out of the siege, apart from the enjoyment of the other side’s suffering and another stage in its disintegration?
Of course, Levy’s commentary implies that the Israeli government actually wants peace and reconciliation with Gaza, even while their alleged goodwill gestures are more similar to giving Palestinians the middle finger — and in cases like these, accompanied with big, toothy, leering smiles.
Boycott, divest and sanction Israel – how many more reasons will you need?
Written by Jasmin Ramsey
July 4, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Posted in Gaza, Israel, Palestine
Tagged with Gaza, Gaza Siege, Gilad Schalit
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