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Introduction
On May 24, 2009,
an ad hoc group of 13 Americans gathered in Cairo in preparation for a
trip to Gaza that they had good reason to believe would not take place. In
the past two years and certainly in the past several months since the
December-January assault on Gaza by Israel, it has been extremely
difficult to enter the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza, and nearly
impossible through the Erez border between Israel and Gaza. The
uncertainty of their trip did not deter these remarkable people because
just trying to get to Gaza would be an action of defiance of what is now
known as the siege of Gaza.
By an unusual combination of luck and pluck, the group did
manage to get in and spent several days in Gaza, leaving on May 31, 2009.
Nine members of the group are women, four are men. Their ages range from
22 to 67. Some are retired; others currently work in a variety of
occupations that include writer, violinist, web technician, community
organizer and office worker. They are Jewish and Muslim and
Christian.
What
follows are brief reports by 11 of the 13 participants and brief glimpses
of what they saw and what they heard. And what they felt. I would have
been among them but I got sick. My heart was with them
nevertheless.
--
Dorothy M. Zellner
1
Felice
Gelman
How easy is it to get to Gaza?
How easy is it to get to Gaza? It’s hard to
understand the meaning of “blockade” unless you have actually experienced
it. As Americans, we got just a taste of what is served up every day to
Palestinians. When you get to the Rafah border, you will inevitably find a
crowd of people who have been unable to cross – sometimes for weeks.
Our own delegation’s effort to get to Gaza required contacts and
meetings with the UN, Egypt, and parts of the US government. We began with
an invitation from UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency),
which provides services to the 1 million Gazans who are refugees. Such an
invitation, even from the UN, is insufficient. So we trudged off to
Washington, DC to meet with Egypt’s Deputy Ambassador to the United
States, and to ask his help. He wished us well. Then we swung by a few
Congressional offices to ask our elected representatives to provide us
with a letter of support for our trip to Gaza. I will leave it to your
imagination as to how helpful they were! That was followed by negotiations
with the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department. They said
Egypt (and, curiously, Israel) require us to sign an affidavit waiving our
consular rights in Gaza. This can only be done at the U.S. embassy in
Cairo, in person, for a mere $30 per. “Why?” we asked. “Because the State
Department does not want to make it easy for you to go to Gaza,” was the
reply.
 In
Cairo, we learned that the bus company we had booked with had been visited
by the police and told they were not allowed to take anyone to the border.
Alarm bells! Surprisingly, we found a little help at the US
embassy from a well-connected diplomat who agreed to check out our problem
and to inform the Egyptian police that the U.S. embassy had no opposition
to our trip. He called back to say the problem was the Egyptian secret
police.
The ever resourceful CODEPINK did what the US embassy
would not --- tracked down the Egyptian Foreign Ministry liaison with the
secret police and sent him the names of all 130 people to be cleared to go
through the border. A sigh of relief…. But, when we arrived in Al Arish,
right behind us three big tour buses pulled in carrying the first two
CODEPINK groups returning from a day of protest at the border! They had
not been allowed to cross.
In the middle of that night, the real
fun began. Around two a.m., I was "invited" to come downstairs to meet the
Egyptian secret police. Thereon followed a Kafkaesque conversation indeed.
Three unnamed Egyptians, who claimed they were police, said we had no
clearance to cross the border. They were extraordinarily reluctant to
identify themselves. One told me it was forbidden for him to identify
himself because he was the secret police! The gumshoes invented one story
after another about why we could not cross to Gaza – our embassy, the
Foreign Ministry, the national intelligence service, etc. But their bottom
line: don’t go to the border and don’t stage a protest.
We decided
it was all a bad dream, loaded up the buses and headed for the border.
Outside Arish, we came to a checkpoint where three truckloads of riot
police waited, along with an assortment of other uniformed types. The road
to the border was closed for “military exercises”. Once we turned back,
all the uniforms packed up and left. I guess the “military exercise” was
“how to close a border.”
After our CODEPINK friends back in Cairo
made yet another visit to the Foreign Ministry, we were told we were
cleared for the border. Back down into the buses. Our 2 a.m. secret police
pals showed up to wave goodbye, all smiles and giggles.
It was hard
to believe there wouldn’t be another snag along the way. When we got to
the Egyptian border’s gate, there was one. The police asked for the
nationalities of all the people in the groups. When they learned we had
one Palestinian with us, they said, “Let us see the passport.” It was
Aysha Al Ghoul’s, whose papers were “not in order.” Aysha had been
studying in Tunisia, came to Cairo to go home at last year’s end, was not
able to go home because of Israel’s attack on Gaza, and lost her passport.
The Palestinian Authority issued her a new one but it did not include the
Egyptian visa stamp that had been lost with her old passport. Several
visits to the Egyptian authorities did not produce a new visa stamp.
Because she is Palestinian, it is always a problem. (The Border Police
paid absolutely no attention to the expired Egyptian visa of an American).
Sadly, Aysha went back to Cairo while we went on to Gaza – her home
country that she is not allowed to enter.
That is how Americans go
to Gaza. Palestinians, Egyptians, and many others don't get to laugh off
the secret police, and work the bureaucracy until it caves in. They
usually just don't get to go to Gaza at all.
2 Joyce Ravitz
The Destruction from the Attacks of Dec 2008
- Jan 2009
[note: for relevant photos, please see Jane
Adas, Come to Gaza, below]
I knew before our
May 2009 trip to Gaza that there had been terrible damage there from the
23-day Israeli assault on Gaza. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights
estimates that 2,500 tons of explosives were dropped on the Gaza Strip, an
area about twice the size of Washington DC. I would like to relate some of
the destruction I saw and how it made me feel.
In our travels, we visited not just piles but whole areas of
rubble which men, women and children had called home before the end of
2009. One man told us that he was afraid to excavate his former home
because he had found several live bombs around the pile of wreckage where
he had once lived. His home had housed an extended family of 30 people who
were now living in tents. We saw what life was like for people who had
been bombed out of their homes. The tents were bare, with little inside
them -- no beds, no clothes. “Home” had been reduced to a clean space
protected from the sun.
We saw the
first target of the December bombing: the police academy where a new
graduating class had been receiving diplomas. The entire class was killed,
although police are considered civilians under the Oslo Agreement. We were
told that the Israelis bombed almost every police station in Gaza. They
also bombed the fire stations. I saw fire engines parked on the streets.
The sewer system was destroyed as well, and we saw the filthy black water
going into the beautiful Mediterranean Sea.
Fields, too, and with them significant parts of the food
supply and the livelihood of farmers, have been destroyed. White
phosphorous dropped by Israeli bombers burned wheat and other crops. We
were taken out to fields that had been burnt and shown fragments of white
phosphorus that farmers are still finding in the ground. This substance
makes it dangerous to plant more crops. When the fragment is exposed to
oxygen it starts to burn again.
Of
the bombed schools we saw, my most vivid memory was of the International
American School, which was completely destroyed. Only the sign in English
told us what the wreckage had been.
Our guides told us that hospitals, too, had white phosphorus
bombs dropped on them.
Israel has
destroyed so much in Gaza, and continues to block its reconstruction. Gaza
once produced many tons of cement, but cannot do that any longer. Cement
factories were among the ruins of an industrial area we drove through.
Today, Gazans are building their houses with mud because cement is not
legally allowed across the borders.
Seeing this massive destruction and the bare,
difficult lives of the survivors, I felt horrible. I first visited Israel
50 years ago as a young teenager and saw an exciting new country founded
by people in search of freedom and justice. Whatever idealism fueled early
Zionism is long gone, replaced by brutality and destruction. And I, as a
Jewish American, had been silent for too long. I decided that when I
returned home I would tell people what I saw and felt during my short time
in Gaza. I would not be silent, never again!
3 Philip Weiss
The Tunnels of Gaza
Twice I visited the tunnels that connect to Egypt from Rafah,
at the southern end of Gaza.
The first impression is that while the
entire area is bombed out, and most buildings are either erased or are
dangerous shells, the tunnels are a thriving industry. You see scores of
tents jammed in between piles of sand and rubble. Inside each tent are
generators, cable winches and big spools of cable for pulling heavy loads
up from the bottom of the 75 foot shafts. The tunnels work day and night,
with crews of four or five men. One day we saw a Caterpillar tractor
toiling in the sand to dig out a new tunnel. Later I heard that the
tunnel-men were trying to make a tunnel big enough for cars to come
through. So far all they can accommodate are motorcycles.
 You see
the motorcycles all over Gaza, new gleaming motorcycles. Driven by young
men, with flashy outfits on, too. Thus the tunnels contribute to the
corruption in Palestinian society. Everyone knows that contraband is
coming through the tunnels, and that the commerce is enriching gangsters;
the cement my driver bought one day costs $20 a bag, 10 times what it
ought to cost. The tunnels are big, illicit business. A tunnel is said to
cost $100,000 to build. Capitalists are involved on both sides of the
border.
The Israelis are
obviously in on the whole deal. It is a simple matter to spot the tunnels.
(There are hundreds, according to some reports.) It would be a simple
matter to destroy them. But allowing them to flourish serves two purposes
for Israel, I concluded. One, if Gazans did not get the vital goods they
get through the tunnels (including even cheese, says Taghreed El-Khodary,
the Times correspondent there), the humanitarian crisis would be even more
severe. Thus the tunnels serve as a safety valve on the inhumane blockade,
lessening its effects in the eyes of the world. And secondly, the tunnels
serve to corrupt Palestinian society. They undermine the rule of law, and
undermine the presence of a civic culture. For who can feel good about the
time and money devoted to a physically-dangerous activity that would be
rendered instantly pointless if Gaza were treated like a normal place, and
the siege were lifted? Who in their right mind can see all this effort as
productive, when civilized human beings would never choose to live this
way, only prisoners, forced to do so?
So while the industry is impressive--and might
even be seen as a sign of Gaza's vitality--the whole thing struck me as
desperate, cruel and inhuman.
4 Sammer Aboelala
The Siege, from Tunnels to
Generators
To a
visitor from the outside, the impact of the siege on the lives of everyday
Gazans is obscured somewhat by the success of the tunnels especially for
those, like our American delegation, who can afford to pay blackmarket
prices for everyday goods. On either side of the tunnels, profit is being
made - how much, it's difficult to say - which adds tremendously to the
cost of goods and puts what should be humanitarian aid well out of
financial reach of unemployed or otherwise poor Gazans.
As far as
electricity, I saw small generators running every evening outside of
anyplace doing business... I remember being surprised when I stopped to
buy water midday on one of our last days there to find a generator running
outside of a little grocery store - seemed to be an odd time for the power
to be out. I have a vivid memory of a generator running nightly right
outside of our favorite falafel shop as well (we ate there nearly every
night).
One afternoon we tried to eat lunch at a little beach stand
ordering off of the standard menu, but our simple meals couldn't be
assembled in time as they were unable to maintain inventory for the place
on-site. Our orders started a flurry of activity that sent runners all
over town to gather the chicken, rice, and other basics needed to assemble
the meals. If not for the delay, we might not have noticed the strain
imposed by a siege economy in this instance, not to mention the endless
determination and resourcefulness of Palestinians to adapt and maintain a
functioning society in the face of such cruelty.
But I'm sure the
real siege experience can be had in the Rafah border area and in the other
devastated locales (especially after dark) where things like indoor
plumbing and electricity have been transformed from everyday conveniences
to unimaginable luxuries. I don't know how many hundreds or thousands are
living in tents or in partially destroyed homes who remain unable to
obtain decent temporary housing, much less rebuild, thanks to the
siege.
5 Gloria Bletter
Effects of the Gaza
Blockade
The
years-long blockade of Gaza by the Israeli government and its occupation
forces affects ALL aspects of life in Gaza, and all ages and conditions of
its residents. It makes Israel, with the complicity of Egypt and the US,
the sole arbiter of who and what comes in or out of
Gaza.
Although its siege
intensified after the election of Hamas as the democratically-elected
party in January 2006, economic sanctions had begun even as Israel
recalled its army and evicted Israeli settlements in 2005, claiming that
it was “no longer occupying Gaza.” But Israel never relinquished control
over ground access to Gaza (and had bombed its one airport), including, by
proxy, Gaza's border with Egypt through Rafah City. This was the way our
delegation entered Gaza.
Like the
construction of the Separation or 'Apartheid' Wall, the siege is an
example of collective punishment,* and like the Wall, should be found
illegal under international law, as was the Wall (by the International
Court of Justice). Meanwhile, people continue to die, and infrastructure
continues to deteriorate, for lack of access to basic and emergency
medical care, necessary foods and medicines, fuel, and materials for
maintaining water pipes, sewage, and road systems, as well as for
rebuilding after the recent massive Israeli attacks.
It must be remembered that the majority of Gazan
residents are from refugee families, who fled there in 1948. The UN,
through its Relief Works Agency [UNRWA] delivers health, education, and
other humanitarian services to these families and their descendants. The
Director of UNRWA, John Ging, who spoke to us and to other visiting
groups, implied that even UN staff must make use of the approximate 900
tunnels to obtain non-work-related items; for instance, all gasoline for
cars and buses comes through the tunnels via a pipeline, except for fuel
for UN vehicles and its power plant. King recognized that that few
essential supplies are getting in, and that the restrictions are
“prolonging the [general] misery.”
Even just prior to the Christmas invasion in December 2008, a
coalition of humanitarian and human rights organizations stated that the
blockade was destroying public service infrastructure, and had effectively
dismantled the economy and further impoverished the population of Gaza.
So, in addition to the denial of emergency ambulance and hospital
treatment during the attacks, and the bombing of hospitals, sick and
injured Gazans of all ages are still not able to get oxygen or use
lifesaving equipment which requires fuel and
electricity.
The actual
restrictions are administered by the Israeli military through its
Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories [COGAT]. Its daily
decisions are varied and inconsistent: for months, pumpkins and carrots
were allowed in, then abruptly reversed two months ago; food items
considered 'delicacies' are prohibited, such as cherries, pomegranates,
halvah, chocolate, avocados, and green almonds, while persimmons, apples,
and bananas are considered vital for basic sustenance, and allowed but in
insufficient amounts. Sometimes, produce from Israeli farms are given
special dispensation for admission, such as recently, for melons and
onions. Seedlings and calves are denied, as are clothes, shoes, toys,
school books and supplies, musical instruments and
lightbulbs.
Those who have asked
for a written list have been refused. What is essential now, after all the
willful destruction, is not allowed: building materials, steel pipes,
spare parts for cars and machines, and fertilizer. These items were
mentioned by nearly every person and official we spoke with. It is
well-known by now that Gaza's own farm produce is even less available as
farmers are shot at when they go to harvest their fields in farming
communities near the so-called green line [the border proclaimed by Israel
after the 1967 attacks].
As for
allowing people in or out of Gaza, freedom of movement being an
international human right, there are clear instances as to how this right
is being denied, primarily by Israel, but also with the enforcement aid of
Egypt. We witnessed the denial of a Gazan student, who had been away,
from entering along with the student delegation, from visiting her family.
[See Felice Gelman's report above for more details.] We saw the
protesting remnants--four physicians--from a larger group of doctors and
medical personnel who had been denied entry and were in the "Travel House"
at the Rafah border; we heard about that or another group of cardiac
specialists with their equipment who had been turned away; and read about
Israel's refusal to allow UN officials in [Special Rapporteur Richard
Falk, for one] to view the situation after the
attacks.
The daily denial of
Gazans' right to travel is ongoing; sick and injured Gazans are routinely
not permitted to travel to Egypt for treatment, and several have died
while waiting for documents granting them 'permission' to reach
hospitals.
What is clear is
that Israel misrepresents the basis for the continued blockade and
obfuscates its necessity. It appears that it intends to dismantle
Palestinian society and institutions. For Gazans, the deficit is not only
in tangible goods, but in truth and justice, and the loss of hope for a
sustainable life.
6 Susan
Johnson
The War and the Children
On the first day of Operation Cast Lead Israel began bombing Gaza just as
schools were changing from morning to afternoon sessions. It’s estimated
500,000 children were out in the open, walking on streets when the first
bombs began to fall. NO, the bombs did not fall; they were intentionally
dropped on Gaza’s most vulnerable people at the time of day when they were
most vulnerable.
Panic and fear must have gripped each child. What should
they do? Run? Hide? Try to reach home? Why is this happening? With 500,000
children involved there must have been millions of questions asked; but
few answers.
The assault on Gaza was
just beginning, it continued for 23 days. Bombs and missiles rained down.
Bombs of white phosphorous lit the sky with red and white streams.
Soldiers, tanks, helicopters, airplanes, bulldozers, landmines, weapons of
all sizes & power; all were active in Gaza for 23 days.
Our delegation met with the Gaza Community
Mental Health Agency to discuss the impact of the war on Gaza’s children.
Depression was at the top of the list. Aggression, clinging to parents,
lack of concentration, anger, fear, crying, bed wetting were among the
symptoms being observed. Some children remain so fearful they had yet to
return to school; it had been five months. They do not suffer from post
traumatic stress. There is no “post” in Gaza, just traumatic stress.
Let the children tell their
stories through art. These pictures were drawn or painted at the Qattan
Center for the Child as part of their art therapy program. Each picture
speaks of violence. But please, look at them carefully for signs of
hope.
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7
Terry
Rogers
Palestine Agricultural Relief
Committees
As
we travelled up and down the Gaza Strip, I was amazed to see how
much of the land was actually rural. When we visited PARC (Palestine
Agricultural Relief Committees) we were told by their spokesperson,
Ahmed Sourani, that one third of the total area of the strip should
be available for agricultural use. However, 25% of this land is in
the so-called buffer zone, along Gaza's eastern border with Israel.
In this area, about 300 meters wide, Israel has already uprooted the
orchards and continues to shoot at Palestinians attempting to plant
and harvest vegetable crops. Mr. Sourani described this practice as
de facto annexation.
Because the importation of food into Gaza is limited
and expensive, PARC has emphasized improving local food production.
PARC's local committees work on the rehabilitation of agricultural
capacity - land, roads, and water resources. Because 25% of Gazan
households have gardens, PARC encourages their use for food
production and income-generating activities. To this end PARC has a
micro-enterprise saving and lending program - targeting women - for
crafts, agriculture, raising animals, and producing prepared
food.
Another PARC project
concerns water and environmental protection. Because the quality and
quantity of Gazan water is severely compromised, families are taught
how to harvest rainwater and to re-use grey
water.
The Israeli siege has
made it difficult to import pesticides and fertilizers, so PARC is
developing a compost-producing unit. Farmers are recalling
traditional indigenous knowledge about how to farm without chemicals
- rediscovering organic gardening. The agricultural committees are
helping people establish seed banks as well. The NGO Grassroots
International has partnered with PARC in many of these
projects.
Four years ago,
PARC began another initiative, called Poor Farmers for Poor
Families. The goal is for relief agencies to purchase fresh food
from local producers as much as possible, thus supporting the Gazan
economy. They plan to target 15,000 families to receive fresh food
baskets regularly, and almost half of this goal has been
reached.
When we left
the PARC office we saw many plastic-roofed greenhouses nearby. They
underscored the insistence of the PARC representatives that
assistance for Gaza needs to focus less on relief and more on
development. The creativity and resourcefulness of Gazans in such
oppressive circumstances can be an example for the rest of the
world.
8 Ceil
Lavan
IDF still shooting at
Gazans
We
visited a farming community in Gaza, where just days before Israeli
planes dropped leaflets announcing that Palestinians were not to
enter within 300 meters of the Israeli green line. This buffer zone,
the entire western and northern perimeter of Gaza, includes 30% of
Gaza’s agricultural land. Palestinian homes, schools and farms are
within the buffer zone. The leaflets warned the Palestinians that
they’d be shot if they entered that section of their
land.
Palestinians
were already being shot at as they tried to farm their land or
harvest a crop near the green line. From the porch of the home we
visited, which was 500 meters from the green line, we could see
where the tanks patrolled back and forth in Israel, shooting
randomly at the Palestinian farmers. Nestled in the field across
from the home was an innocent looking tower. We were told that
Israel has many towers armed to shoot at Palestinian farmers. This
particular tower had a bulb-like top, which opened like a flower to
automatically fire at the farmers. The firing is remotely controlled
from Israel!
 How
are Palestinian farmers to make a living, and how are Gazans to feed
themselves with a blockade and farmers not allowed to
farm?
The beautiful
Mediterranean Sea hugs the entire eastern shore of the Gaza Strip.
The area is presently receiving international attention since June
30th, when the FreeGaza boat, the Spirit of Humanity, was captured
at gunpoint and towed to Israel by the Israeli navy, while
attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. This naval blockade
is part of the Israeli effort to seal off the coastal Gaza Strip,
and is devastating one of Gaza’s key industries,
fishing.
The Oslo Accord
gave Palestinians the right to fish within 20 nautical miles of
their shores, which Israel never observed. At first Israel limited
the fishing area to 10 nautical miles, then 6 and now 3. Fishermen
who go farther out risk being arrested, shot, killed, or having
their boats destroyed or confiscated. However, even those fishing
within the 3 mile limit have the same risks.
We could see Israeli speed boats patrolling back
and forth on the sea, and we heard their gunfire in the distance.
Before the massacre, the Israeli boats would shoot around the
fishermen to intimidate them, or Israeli ships would sail round and
round a fishing boat and then leave it not looking back to see if it
was capsized. Water cannons, as well as guns, are used to damage
fishing boats and threaten and /or hurt fishermen.
Since the massacre, Israeli
naval vessels fire directly at the fishermen, and several have been
hit. They routinely confiscate Palestinian fishermen and their
boats. When the fishing boats are returned they are damaged and
stripped, and because of the blockade there are no parts to repair
them.
Fishermen have seen
their catch drop by two-thirds since 2007. And to make matters
worse, because no fuel is allowed through the blockade, fishermen
are forced to pay excessive black market prices for fuel that comes
through the tunnels from Egypt.
Cut off from the heavily populated shoals of fish
beyond the 3 nautical mile limit, paying more for fuel to go to sea,
and facing attack every time they go out to fish, it is not hard to
see that the once thriving fishing industry in Gaza is being
destroyed. An industry that once employed 45,000 Gazans, not only
cannot sustain the fishing industry workers, it can no longer
provide the needed fish for a people with a critically deficient
diet due to the blockade as well as the IDF bulldozing of the citrus
and olive groves, the shooting at the farmers, and the burning of
wheat ready for harvest.
This unbearable treatment of the already suffering
Palestinian people is greeted with a resilience beyond my
imagination. We met some of the fishermen at the sea the morning we
left Gaza. The face of the fisherman who addressed us was actually
joyful, as were the faces of the people we met in the farming
community.
I asked Jenny
(International Solidarity Movement) why she thought the fishermen
were joyful in such dire circumstances. Jenny told us, “Palestinians
have a great sense of humor.” She described being on a Palestinian
fishing boat as Israeli boats were speeding toward them. The unarmed
Palestinian fishermen started heckling the Israelis singing out
comments like,”Come and get us.” One of the fishermen started
dancing, and soon all the men on his boat joined him; then those on
a nearby boat started dancing too, and then those on another boat...
as they waited to be attacked by the Israeli vessels!
One of the fishermen told
Jenny that he’d rather risk his life fishing to feed his family than
stay home and not be able to feed them.
While the resilience of the Palestinian
people is inspiring, not allowing Gazans to farm or fish to feed
themselves or make a living is one more Crime Against Humanity that
Israel needs to be held accountable for.
9 Ayla Jay
Schoenwald
The “Big Dreams” of the Palestine Youth
Committee
Hazem, a 24 year old Palestinian college-graduate and a
member of the Palestine Youth Committee (PYC), has tried to leave
Gaza four times in order to continue his education abroad. Three of
these times involved scholarships. Each time, however, he was turned
back, told his papers weren’t in order or that he should try another
crossing or simply that the borders weren’t open and he had to go
home. When he tried to explain the situation to various
universities, they refused to cooperate. It was too late; he had
lost his scholarship. When he told one of the universities that he
couldn’t get through the border, they asked him why he didn’t just
leave from the airport instead. He had to explain that there isn’t
an airport in Gaza- not anymore. Hazem wants to acquire his PhD by
the time he’s 30. He also wants to be a pilot, but he’s given up on
this goal. No one will let a Palestinian go to school to be a pilot,
especially not after September 11th.
 Perhaps
this is why, when we asked Summer (another student from the PYC)
what we could do to support their organization she responded “tell
people how we are, how we live, who we are; we are not terrorists,
we are just ordinary civilians.” Except, they are more extraordinary
than ordinary. The Palestine Youth Committee is made up of students
and youth in Gaza, many of whom, like Hazem & Summer, have lost
scholarships due to the siege and Israeli-imposed, internationally
enforced travel restrictions placed on Palestinians. As a result of
these restrictions, the students have decided to use
videoconferences, websites, and other technological tools to connect
with other students and young people around the world. When we met
with them in Gaza City, the students kept talking about their “big
dreams” of what they want to build, the networks they want to
create, the actions they want to take. We talked about connecting
them with student organizations doing Divestment work on their
campuses as well as other student organizations that work on other,
relevant issues, such as immigrant rights (also, of course, about
borders & freedom of movement). The “big dreams” kept getting
bigger, for all of us, young and old, and everywhere in
between.
I could go on and
on, listing examples of how these students have been denied access
to the education they deserve. However, they told us they don’t want
to be seen as victims; they want to be seen as people with something
to offer the world. I respect that. I also don’t want to make them
into symbols of “hope” and “the future,” because while this is
positive, it still distracts from their humanity. They are
activists. They are young. They are empowered. And they are
inspiring. Sitting with them at the Marna House, drinking tea and
coffee, I could imagine meeting up with them again 30 years from
now. By that time, some of us (“us” being the young people in the
room) would be published authors, professors, non-profit executive
directors, lawyers, mothers, fathers…etc. “Real grown ups.”
“Successful.” But will we be successful? Will we have the
opportunity to sit together one day in a free Palestine? Will other
movements look to us the way we look to South Africa now, to learn
how they dismantled Apartheid?
Husni - another one of the extraordinary
students from the PYC - told us that despite the siege, the war, and
the occupation, he is still free: “I am free,” he said, “I have the
right to think, I have the right to speak.” He’s right. The Israeli
Apartheid State can restrict the freedom of movement, but they
cannot restrict the building of movements. No border, no wall, no
army, and no war is big enough to stop “big dreams” from getting
bigger.
10 Tom Suarez
Hamas?
Upon crossing the
Egyptian border into Gaza, we entered a territory whose government
the US has declared a terrorist organization, one so terrible that
US anti-terrorism laws could lock us away merely for aiding a
charity whose funds indirectly found their way to its public
assistance programs. Presidents of the US and esteemed universities
have spoken of Israel and Gaza in apocalyptic terms, an ancient
battle between Good and Evil. One’s mere presence is complicity:
when in 2008 I was among a group whom Israel refused entry to Gaza,
a spokesperson publicly charged that we were “cooperating with
terror organizations”.
Words
often control, rather than represent, human thought. Invoke the word
“terrorist,” and critical thought is rendered not just impotent, but
even treasonous. “You voted for Hamas,” decreed graffiti we saw left
by IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers on the walls of their
victims’ homes in northern Gaza, in way of justification for their
mass slaughter.
Actually,
that family hadn’t; but why the West's hatred for Hamas? Hamas has
much to criticize, yes, but what, in truth, does the West fear from
Hamas?
In a word,
representation.
The
Palestinian struggle for liberation differs from all others in that
their “representatives,” going back to the fall of the Ottoman
empire, have served only at the pleasure of those with whom are they
supposedly negotiating. In January of 2006, Palestinians were
presented with two choices: Fatah, an organization that had become
synonymous with corruption, that had done little to help
Palestinians in their day-to-day struggles, and that had sold them
to the glue factory at Oslo; or Hamas, which had a proven record of
social assistance, had earned a reputation for scrupulousness, and
was not in the pay of their adversaries.
Yet the West was taken by surprise when, though it had
invested heavily to assure Fatah’s victory, Palestinians elected
Hamas to be the representative of all Palestine — Gaza, East
Jerusalem, and the West Bank. Immediately, US weapons and cash were
redirected to squelching the democracy, and the legitimate
government is now confined to Gaza which, in the West's Orwellian
language warp, it “took over.”
|
"You voted for
Hamas" |
What did we find in this “enemy
entity,” as Israel declared Gaza? Despite the enormous disadvantages
under which Hamas must govern, including blockade, siege,
bombardments, denial of rightful funds, vast Western capital put to
sabotage it from within, and the violent denial of autonomy over its
borders, airspace, coastal waters, and aquifers, our experience in
Gaza was of an orderly, civil society making the best of a
catastrophic situation.
Hamas is not a monolithic institution, and conservative
elements flourish under societal duress. Yet we saw little evidence
that Hamas, however objectionable some of its religious-inspired
policies, was interested in a sharia-style state. Few women wear the
niqab (face covering), kite flying is a happy diversion, children
sing and dance, and the new music school in Gaza City, teaching both
Western and Arabic instruments, has already been restarted from its
destruction by the IDF in January. Nor did Hamas’ feud with Fatah
make anyone afraid to flaunt the image of Arafat, who lives on as a
symbol independent of his problematic legacy.
We visited a community center in Khan Younis
where the women who ran it described how newly-elected Hamas had
removed some of their furniture and equipment, but how
the women
pestered Hamas until the items were returned — the imagery of women
challenging men of Hamas, and winning, worth
noting.
Western media are unable to enunciate the two
syllables "Hamas" without reminding us that it refuses to recognize
Israel, refuses to renounce violence, refuses to honor existing agreements
with Israel, and that it fires rockets (some
media substitute the inaccurate word “missiles”).
—
Doesn't recognize Israel?
● How could a people under
siege "recognize" their attackers, who refuse to recognize
them?
● Israel refuses to state where its borders lie and
daily expropriates more and more Palestinian land. Which Israel
would Hamas be recognizing?
● The U.N.'s own recognition of
Israel was contingent on its abiding by international law under
Resolution 194 (December 11, 1948), which it not only has never
done, but indeed has further and dramatically violated for six
decades.
● Hamas has long offered to make peace with Israel in
exchange for all parties abiding by international law — such a
"permanent peace" being the same relationship the US has with Taiwan
(which the US refuses to
recognize).
— Refuses to renounce violence?
How
can those being attacked renounce violence when their attackers will
not?
—
Refuses to honor existing agreements with
Israel?
● Hamas, even after being
democratically elected by the Palestine people to be their
representative, has
never been allowed to take part in the
negotiations with Israel and the West that produced these
"agreements". That Hamas is then expected to abide by them is
preposterous on the face of it.
● Quite
independent of any failure of Hamas to abide by agreements made
between Israel and other parties, Israel has itself never honored
its own agreements. Indeed Hamas has been far more scrupulous in
honoring its own positions, such as unilateral cease-fires.
— Fires rockets?
Yes, in response to
Israel's incursions, siege, and other violence. The rockets may be
strategically foolish, but they are a reaction, a flea attempting to
bite the claw of an attacking behemoth.
In Gaza, we heard a range of opinions
about the primitive rockets (Qassams), being any variation of
defensive (though they are unguided and cannot be directed to
military targets), idiotic (because they play into Israel’s
“defense” excuse), or symbolic flares of desperation to signal the
world’s attention.
What was universal,
however, was the bewilderment at the West’s seizing upon the
rockets, and Hamas, to blame Gaza’s woes on Gazans. “At night we
would listen to the news and hear that it's our fault,” one women
living near the Green Line lamented about the brutal attacks of
Dec-Jan.
|
Grafitti of a Qassam being
fired |
The siege predated Hamas’ election; and
the cease-fire of last year, never honored by Israel because it
tightened, rather than eased, the siege, was broken not by any Gazan
rocket, but by unprovoked Israeli infantry incursions and air
strikes, timed for US election day to be doubly sure nothing would
reach the Western media. Several Palestinians were killed, several
injured, Palestinian homes were occupied, and land was
levelled.
The ineffective
mortar and rockets fired in response then gave Israel its excuse for
the twenty-two days of terror whose aftermath had bought even the
more stoic among us to tears.
Hamas' charter, a convoluted and deeply objectionable
document, has little relevance to its day-to-day governance; it
should be discarded and written anew. Although the claim that the
charter calls for the extermination of Jews is a fabrication, an
attempt to frame the issue in Holocaust language, the charter does
ignorantly jumble together "Jews" and "Zionists." Ironically, in
doing so it is merely following Zionism's own inescapably
anti-Semitic logic, making an intrinsic, metaphysical link between
Judaism and a modern nation-state.
Contrast the charter to the letter
that Hamas prepared, while we were in Gaza, for Code Pink
cofounder Medea Benjamin to deliver to US President Obama, stating
that they “are prepared to engage all parties on the basis of mutual
respect and without preconditions,” stressing the importance of
international law and United Nations
resolutions.
But
therein lies the West’s quagmire: the rule of law and justice would
expose its six decades of lies, its neo-colonial enterprise, and its
staggering hypocrisy.
In the
West, commentators discuss whether or not Israel's attacks of
Dec-Jan were an "overreaction" to Hamas and its rockets, but this is
a false, manipulative framing of the issue, because by way of
pretending to criticize Israel for "excess," it safeguards the
essential fiction upon which Israeli aggression depends: that Israel
is defending itself. And it is this inversion of reality, not
relative body counts, that is the core of these six decades of
injustice.
In Gaza we found
a society determined to hold on to its humanity no matter how it is
pushed to imitate its tormentors. We were in the only part of
Palestine that has not been taken over by a Western-backed
coup.
11 Jane
Adas
Come to Gaza
Come to Gaza. See for
yourselves the direct results of your government’s Middle East
policy, paid for with your tax dollars. This is the message that a Palestinian taxi driver and
the Irish head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
in Gaza asked our New York delegation to convey to Americans.
Majd Abdullah Al-Atannah, holding an unexploded
land mine |
Majd Abdullah Al-Atannah and his sons
lost their homes twice. The first time was during Israel’s Operation
Autumn Clouds in November 2006, when Israel invaded Beit Hanun on
the northern Gaza border using air strikes, tanks, and helicopter
gunships. One Israeli soldier and 53 – 82 (reports vary)
Palestinians were killed, among them 18 of Al-Atannah’s relatives.
After the U.S. vetoed an already watered-down Security Council
resolution, the General Assembly in emergency session passed a
resolution 156 to 7 deploring Israeli military operations in the
Gaza Strip.
Al-Atannah and
his five sons moved to the outskirts of Beit Hanun, in the Ezbat
Abbed Rabbo neighborhood of Jabalia, and rebuilt their lives, a big
house for Al-Atannah and five smaller ones for his sons and their
families, in all 57 people supported by their taxi business. Their
neighborhood, however, was the first area taken over during the
ground invasion phase of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead. Al-Atannah
described how Israeli soldiers forced families out, firing at them
with machine guns as they walked the two kilometers to Beit Hanun,
taking nothing with them but the clothes they were wearing. Soldiers
also arrested one of his sons, the father of seven
children.
When the
families returned after the ceasefire on 18 January, they found
their homes and cars destroyed, including all three of Al-Atannah’s
big Mercedes taxis. As though the Israeli army was using the
neighborhood as a laboratory to experiment with different means of
demolishing homes, they blew up Al-Atannah’s house with land mines,
brought down his sons’ houses with bulldozers, and others by aerial
bombardment (see photos at end). Many of the land mines failed to
detonate, making the rubble dangerous, so most families had the
Hamas government remove them. Al-Atannah, however, reached into the
debris of his house and pulled out a live land mine with writing in
English: “ARMED / DANGER” (see photo, above). Asked why he didn’t
have it defused, Al-Atannah responded, “What’s the difference? I’m
60 years old. Do I have time to rebuild … again?”
Al-Atannah and his family are now living
in tents and he no longer has taxis to drive, but he is an astute
political observer: “Where are the Western countries that speak of
democracy and human rights? Israel influences the U.S. so much. In
your country, you think Palestinians are terrorists. Do you accept
the terrorist act of destroying the homes of others? We were hit
with American rockets. Is there no conscience in America? You will
not speak out because Israelis will not allow it. Bush should go
before the ICC (International Criminal Court). He has two daughters
who should come see what their father did.”
|
John
Ging |
John Ging, whom the Code Pink
delegations met later that same day, has been head of UNRWA in Gaza
since 2006. He too believes Gaza needs many witnesses. “Those who
make decisions in far away offices should come to see and have to
answer. They might then see the detachment of their rhetoric from
reality and the results of a deficit of truth and an absence of
justice in policy making.” The rule of law, Ging said, should be the
starting point, even if it is an inconvenience for politics.
After Operation Cast
Lead and for the first time in years, senior political figures have
been coming to Gaza to see the consequences of their decisions – UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, European leaders, American
congressmen. Ging said that all, without exception, were shocked and
humbled by the ordinary people they met who, though having every
reason to lose their minds and turn violent, were civilized and
dignified. The visiting dignitaries had been told that the aim of
Operation Cast Lead was “to destroy the infrastructure of terror,”
but when they see the bombed American International School, the
willfully destroyed factories and businesses, the demolished
ministries, presidential compound and legislative council, they see
that what was destroyed was the infrastructure of education,
the
economy, and democracy.
The
basis of hope for change, Ging concluded, is people from the outside
willing to come, seek to be better informed, and influence those
back home. So, come to Gaza. And the West Bank. And Israel. See for
yourselves.
Destruction by land
mines |
Destruction
by aerial bombardment |
Destruction
by bulldozer |
Demolished
factory |
The
American School |
Parliament |
|
Please
visit
www.vivagaza.org
for information,
photographs, and videos
If you'd like to
contact members of this Gaza delegation,
please e-mail suarez@n-y-s-e.org
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|
