There is nothing new in the world

except the history you do not know.

                               (Harry Truman)

Much has already been said about Gaza in this round of TH!NK. We got great reads from Lara, Iwona, Mirza, Stefan, Hemant, Hanna and many other fellows.

Even so, this discussion is still opened. And because of all sort of non-senses on Gaza Strip I’ve heard about in the last few days, I have decided to write this post to continue this somewhat ‘splenetic’ debate, with some thought provoking cartoons.

As the New Yorker highlighted, it’s only twenty-six miles long and seven miles wide, but once again Gaza has the world’s attention. But beyond all that loomed a larger issue: can the blockade exist? At least saying, the Freedom Flotilla incident ensured effective attention was given to the blockade.

Beforehand, let’s make one thing clear: it will not be a one-sided post.

Click in the picture below to see this short video on the flotilla fiasco from Ann Telnaes of the Washington Post. It is worth checking.

Many friends of mine, who are Jews, say pointedly to me that even after so much suffering (the Holocaust) they can not still settle down in their own land.

Well, it is unacceptable that the Holocaust serves as an alibi for the State of Israel to behave against the Palestinians with the very same arrogance and the same cruelty that victimized Jews at that time. 

Government after government, since 1948, Israel violate international resolutions and expand its borders beyond the partition approved by the UN in 1947. The so-called Goldstone Report (on that three-week Israeli military offensive) found that both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants were guilty of serious human rights violations and breaches of humanitarian law during the conflict.

As the president of Syria said: “It is no longer acceptable for the international community to stand idle, as a spectator. The situation in the Syrian Golan was no less tragic than what is occurring in Gaza. Over the last 40 years, numerous Syrian farmers had been killed by anti-personnel landmines”. So, let’s jump at it to better understand the blockade landscape.

(Le Monde - 6/3/10

Parking: fines are going to increase. - I don't care, cause I won't pay anyway!)

GOLDSTONE REPORT

I have selected some extracts from this report (my bold added).

“The international community as well as the State of Israel and, to the extent determined by their authority and means, Palestinian authorities, have the responsibility to protect victims of violations and ensure that they do not continue to suffer the scourge of war or the oppression and humiliations of occupation or indiscriminate rocket attacks. People of Palestine have the right to freely determine their own political and economic system, including the right to resist forcible deprivation of their right to self-determination and the right to live, in peace and freedom, in their own State. The people of Israel have the right to live in peace and security. Both peoples are entitled to justice in accordance with international law.”

“As the Mission focussed on investigating and analyzing the specific matters within its mandate, Israel’s continuing occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank emerged as the fundamental factor underlying violations of international humanitarian and human rights law against the protected population and undermining prospects for development and peace. Israel’s failure to acknowledge and exercise its responsibilities as the Occupying Power further exacerbated the effects of occupation on the Palestinian people, and continue to do so.” 

(Le Temps - 5/31/10

- A blunder! It happens even to the best oppression forces.)

As in many conflicts, one of the features of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the dehumanization of the other, and of victims in particular. Palestinian psychiatrist Dr Iyad Sarraj explained the cycle of aggression and victimization through which “the Palestinian in the eyes of the Israeli soldier is not an equal human being. Sometimes […] even becomes a demon [… ]” This “culture of demonization and dehumanization” adds to a state of paranoia. “Paranoia has two sides, the side of victimization, I am a victim of this world, the whole world is against me and on the other side, I am superior to this world and I can oppress it. This leads to what is called the arrogance of power.” As Palestinians, “we look in general to the Israelis as demons and that we can hate them, that what we do is a reaction, and we say that the Israelis can only understand the language of power”.

Israeli college teacher Ofer Shinar offered a similar analysis: “Israeli society’s problem is that because of the conflict, Israeli society feels itself to be a victim and to a large extent that’s justified and it’s very difficult for Israeli society to move and to feel that it can also see the other side and to understand that the other side is also a victim. This I think is the greatest tragedy of the conflict and it’s terribly difficult to overcome it […] I think that the initiative that you’ve taken in listening to […] people […] is very important. What requires you to take this responsibility is the fact that you have to understand how difficult it is to get this message through to Israeli society, how closed the Israeli society is, how difficult it is for Israeli society to understand that the other side is not just the party which is infringing our own human rights, but how they are having their human rights infringed, how they are suffering as well.”

(Le Monde - 6/2/10

- We wanted to isolate Gaza, and then...)

International law sets obligations on States not only to respect but also to ensure respect for international humanitarian law. The International Court of Justice stated in its Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that “all States Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 have in addition the obligation, while respecting the United Nations Charter and international law, to ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law as embodied in that Convention".

THE OTHER SIDE

Do you remember a Lara’s post concerning this topic? Well, it reinforces it is not a simple issue. Those who are not with Hamas (a government legally elected), do not see any of relief goods. That is a domestic flip-side in Gaza that deserves our attention.

Ulrike Putz, from Der Spiegel, highlighted it brilliantly.

“Having built a three-storey house in Jabalia, north of Gaza City, Zaed Khadar used to be a proud homeowner. He ran a supermarket from the ground floor and made enough profit there to provide for his seven children. His wife bred chickens on the roof. Then came the Gaza War, a three-week conflict between December 2008 and January 2009, and suddenly Khadar's life was in ruins. His neighborhood, his house and his business were all destroyed. Since then the 46-year-old has been helpless in every sense of the word. Donations coming to the Gaza Strip from both large and small aid organizations never arrive at the Khadars'.

"People who are not in with Hamas don't see any of the relief goods or the gifts of money," Khadar says. On the sand dune where his house once perched, there is now an emergency shelter. The shelter is made of concrete blocks that Khadar dug from the rubble, and the roof is the canvas of a tent that provided the family with shelter for the first summer after the war. "Hamas supporters get prefabricated housing, furnishings and paid work. We get nothing," Khadar complains.

The reason his family receives nothing: Like many of his neighbors, Khadar is a die-hard supporter of the Fatah party, the sworn political enemy of the more radical Islamists in Hamas. That's why Khadar has little hope of seeing any of the 10,000 tons of aid that the activist flotilla heading for the Gaza Strip tried to bring to Gaza's harbor at the start of this week.”

In interview to Le Temps, Marcelo Kohen, of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies of the University of Genebra, analysed the flotilla incident under the optics of international maritime law. According to him, there is no armed conflict state because Hamas is not a State. Paradoxically, the Israeli government repeats here the very same argument it had criticized in the past, reasonably, before the Six-day war, before the Egyptian blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba.

(El País - 6/3/10

- International Law is not in the Bible)

Accoding to this issue of ‘Special Focus’:

In the occupied Palestinian territory […] the humanitarian community is facing a number of obstacles to the movement of staff and goods and other restrictions impacting day-to-day operations that limit its ability to efficiently and effectively respond to existing needs.

[…] nearly 40 percent of the Palestinian population is food-insecure and unemployment levels in the West Bank and Gaza Strip remain high.

UNRWA reports that it has had 24 construction and infrastructure projects, totaling some US$ 109 million in donor funds, frozen as a result of the blockade. Among the affected projects are schools, health facilities, housing units, and sewage infrastructure. Additionally, the ‘no contact’ policy of some donors, prohibiting contact with the Hamas authorities, continues to affect some humanitarian organizations, while Hamas’s requests for compliance with its administrative procedures from UN agencies and NGOs have intensified. This ‘two-way’ tension is narrowing the operational independence of some organizations and, at times, restricts on-going humanitarian operations.

(Al Khan al Ahmar school, serves Bedouin children in the Jerusalem governorate. It faces the threat of demolition due to the lack of a building permit. Photo by Patrick Zoll)

A complete lifting of Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip and improved Palestinian access to land and resources in the West Bank and external markets are just a few examples of measures that could significantly improve Palestinian livelihoods through a reduction in unemployment and poverty.

Sweeping import restrictions imposed by Israel since June 2007 have either prevented the implementation of planned humanitarian projects or resulted in significant delays. For example, restrictions on the import of cement make impossible the reconstruction of some 12,000 Palestinian homes damaged or destroyed by Israeli military operations in recent years, as well as a further 20,000 homes needed to accommodate natural population growth in the Gaza Strip.  In the same vein, UNRWA needs to build 100 schools in Gaza to cope with population growth; the number of students in UNRVWA schools by the start of the coming academic year will have increased by 15,000 above the classroom capacity since the start of the blockade in 2007; 15 schools are needed immediately.

In late May 2009, the UN presented a proposal to kick-start early recovery in Gaza to the Government of Israel, starting with the completion of US$ 80 million worth of housing, health and education projects that have been suspended since June 2007. Intensive consultations with the Israeli government took place over the course of nine months before the UN received a response in March 2010, approving a number of UN projects including the completion of 151 housing units in Khan Younis and an expansion in the types of goods that can enter via the private sector. While welcome, the approval was characterized by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as a “drop in the bucket,” given the immense reconstruction needs.

Cut and dried: this illegal blockade has to be over. 

A bit of History and cartoons: click here to see Arafat and Peres drawing together with Plantu, one of the founders of Cartooning for Peace.

Tell me your opinion!