Justice for Gaza

Last Wednesday, the Israeli Navy intercepted a Greek ship, the Spirit of Humanity, operated by the American aid group, the Free Gaza Movement, that set off from Cyprus and was bound for Gaza. Its cargo, immediately confiscated by the Israeli authorities, consisted of humanitarian aid, including three tons of medicine, desperately needed by the beleaguered and besieged Gazans.
All twenty-one on board were arrested, including former US Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, and 1977 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire.
Ironically, they are to be deported for illegally entering the state of Israel…
Greta Berlin, a founding member of the Free Gaza Movement, told Ynet news:
they simply kidnapped the passengers. I call on the Israeli occupation forces to release our people immediately. It’s funny. What are they going to do? Deport us? The last place we wanted to reach was Israel.
At Israel’s request, the ship had been searched prior to departure, and no weapons of any kind were found on board.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Aharon Leshno-Yaar accused the future deportees of having launched a publicity stunt: clearly the purpose of that ship was to create a buzz and serve as a propaganda vehicle against Israel, he told Reuters.
For his part, the Israeli Consul in Atlanta claimed that Mrs. McKinney’s sole interest was to get in the papers.
Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, described the Israeli seizure as unlawful.
Yet, would Mrs McKinney have made the headlines had Israel not intercepted a ship chartered by peace activists and full of humanitarian aid, aid that Israel has deliberately and systematically withheld for years?
One would have thought that the most efficient way to dispose of officious foreign do-gooders would be to deprive them of their cause in the first place.
Gazans would not be in such desperate need of help, and outsiders would not be attempting to attract attention to their plight if Israel did not maintain a near-total embargo on the territory…
Israel’s policy of deliberately victimizing an entire population, misguided by the delusional belief that a deprived populace will turn against its leaders and not those directly responsible for its plight, has had dire consequences.
According to a recent report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
1.5 million people are now trapped in despair.
For, after having destroyed much of the enclave last January in its military onslaught to eliminate Hamas, Israel has refused to authorize the entry of basic materials to rebuild the 50,000 homes, 800 industrial sites, and some 200 schools its armed forces damaged if not destroyed outright.
No steel or cement has been allowed to enter. Houses cannot be rebuilt or repaired, pipes replaced, machines repaired, hospitals rehabilitated.
There are no dairy products, no fertilizers or the farm equipment required for the agricultural sector.
Patients cannot receive adequate treatment, but are forbidden from going abroad for care.
The naval blockade has virtually destroyed Gaza’s once flourishing fishing industry.
In 1994, after Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo Accords, Gaza fishermen could fish up to 20 nautical miles from the shore.
After the start of the second Intifada in 2002, Israel reduced that distance to 12 nautical miles…
When Hamas took over Gaza, the fishing zone was reduced further, unilaterally, it goes without saying, to 3 miles…
Erminio Sacco of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization, told the Christian Science Monitor : we are witnessing a huge crisis where the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen, associated laborers, and their dependents have been decimated by Israel's blockade and closure.
Most fish and particularly sardines can be found in abundant quantities only 12 to 15 nautical miles from Gaza’s shores.
As such, Israeli policy has condemned the 45,000 Gazans who worked in the fishing industry, and their families to destitution…
According to Mr. Sacco, during March 2007, 248 metric tons of fish were caught. In March 2008 this figure dropped to 121 tons and in March this year, the catch was only 89 tons.
This, in a nutshell, is what life has become in Gaza today: little quality food or water, inferior health care, no jobs, and no prospects….The most vulnerable in such a context are children.
Nor can the latter be consoled with toys or other objects children enjoy, and take for granted everywhere else. As Jimmy Carter told his audience at a UN Human Rights Graduation in Gaza recently:
last week, a group of Israelis and Americans tried to cross into Gaza through Erez, bringing toys and children's playground equipment – slides, swings, kites, and magic castles for your children. They were stopped at the gate and prevented from coming. I understand even paper and crayons are treated as "security hazards" and not permitted to enter Gaza. I sought an explanation for this policy in Israel, but did not receive a satisfactory answer – because there is none.
Since practically nothing can legally enter the territory, most essentials are smuggled through the tunnels originating in Egypt. Prices of these commodities, therefore, have skyrocketed, though fewer and fewer Gazans have the means to earn a living and can thus afford them.
One resident told Ynet news: two tires which used to cost 400 shekels, I had to buy for 1,400 shekels, which is nearly four times more and at a terrible quality compared to the ones which used to come from Israel. Even when we eat we know that we're not eating flour of the best quality, and the same is true in regards to dairy products…
Since the siege we pay much more and get a much lower quality. Both in fuel and in all other products the quality is poor.
And yet, the plight of the Palestinians in general, and the Gazans in particular, does not interest anyone, perhaps because their conflict with Israel is now over six decades old.
There are no prominent campaigns, either in Europe or America to seek justice on their behalf, even though the efforts of Jimmy Carter and the Free Gaza Movement are genuine and thus commendable.
Will justice ever visit these people?
It should.
Amnesty International, in a recent report, accused Israel of committing war crimes in its anti-Hamas January invasion : much of the destruction was wanton and resulted from direct attacks on civilian objects, the organization concluded.
More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed, as well as 13 Israelis. Three hundred children were among the dead:
Hundreds of civilians were killed in attacks carried out using high-precision weapons, air-delivered bombs and missiles, and tank shells.
Others, including women and children, were shot at short range when posing no threat to the lives of the Israeli soldiers. Most of the cases investigated by Amnesty International of close-range shootings involve individuals, including children and women, who were shot at as they were fleeing their homes in search of shelter.
Others were going about their daily activities. The evidence indicates that none could have reasonably been perceived as a threat to the soldiers who shot them and that there was no fighting going on in their vicinity when they were shot, Amnesty International added….
Furthermore, it accused the Israelis of using civilians, including children, as human shields.
Human Rights Watch issued its own report (entitled Precisely Wrong ) condemning Israel’s use of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCLAV), or drones, in the conflict. They accounted for about one third of all Palestinian deaths: mistakes can happen, concluded Marc Garlasco, a senior analyst at HRW, but here there is a clear pattern – many civilians were killed. It seems Israeli rules of engagement were very loose – keeping Israeli casualties to a minimum, valuing the lives of soldiers more than those of Palestinian civilians.
The Israelis refute all accusations, and routinely present its army as the most moral in the world…
They have offered to compensate the UN however, for the Israeli armed forces destroyed many UN buildings during its offensive, including schools and clinics…
What good can ever come from gross injustice and the wanton killing of innocent men, women and children?
What are the Gazans supposed to do?
Nothing will ever justify the launching of crude rockets on Israeli neighborhoods. Those who resort to such tactics serve their own interests, and certainly not the Palestinians’.
But what is an 18 year-old Gazan to think?
He is most likely without a house, a job, or prospects.
If he goes to college, he will find no job, and will be prevented by the Israelis from emigrating abroad to obtain one. He is probably mourning the loss of family members and friends, killed indiscriminately by Israel’s most moral army, while the outer world, enthralled by the Green Wave, the unexpected demise of the King of Pop, and the next event ignores him and his people…
The third Intifada has probably already begun, with an entire generation of young Palestinians at its service…
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