The world's complicity with the illegal siege on the Gaza Strip that has been imposed by Israel for a few years now is beyond despicable. We're going to use our favorite tactic, called Breaking It Down, to provide background information.
WHY has Israel imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip?
In 2006, the Palestinian people voted democratically to elect Hamas as their government. As a way of punishing the Palestinians for exercising their democratic rights, this led to an immediate boycott of Hamas from international (mostly Western) governments, on the basis that Hamas is a terrorist group who will not rest on their laurels until every single Jew in the occupied territories (the 1948 region is included) is driven out from the land into the sea. These governments refused to deal with such a wack ideology, and condemned Hamas as a dangerous violent faction that threatens potentially progressive peace plans. Is it not, just a teensy weensy ironic, how these same filthy hypocritical governments are dealing with and embracing whole-heartedly the deranged serpentine ideology of Zionism? Zionism is a racist doctrine that is established on the grounds of ethnically cleansing an indigenous population in order to make the land available for settlers. Israel is a colonialist settler state that upholds noble acts of Apartheid and continuously harasses Palestinians on a daily basis under its deplorable occupation. When the Palestinians have the nerve to elect democratically a political faction, a dreadful civil war between rival factions Hamas and Fateh, instigated and backed by the USA government, ensues. Hamas stage a coup, overthrow Fateh from the Gaza Strip, and fuel the justification for a boycott against it even more. Don't listen to the Israeli hasbara machine. Hamas has on more than one occasion offered a peace plan based on the 1967 borders (Jews aren't under threat anymore!) but Israel has rejected it every time. Ceasefires between Hamas and Israel are always broken by...Israel. Israel blocks off all of its border openings, Egypt does the same, and as a result, collective punishment on the 1.5 million population of the Strip is eventuated.
HOW bad is this unlawful siege?
Very bad. Gaza is dependent on Israel and Egypt for electricity, and since we can't ask anything more from generous Egypt, Israel monopolizes electricity. It destroyed the only power plant in Gaza during its last massacre last year, and has not given its permission nor approval to fully rebuild it again. As a result, those on life-support machines or any kind of machine that aids them medically had their conditions even more worsened. Medical supplies and medicine have ran out, culminating in up to 400 deaths. Food was once scarce, everyday items such as pens and papers and coffee and diapers and powdered milk were deemed too much of a threat to Israel's precious security to be allowed entry to Gaza.
WHAT has been done to counter this siege?
The siege has effected into an explosive tunnel industry, where everything is smuggled from Egypt to Gaza. Food, animals, cars, motorcycles, clothes, gas, generators- all have become available. There are deep risks that come with these tunnels, as they are liable to collapse unexpectedly and are subjected to Israel's bombing once in a while. Children have become involved in tunnels as a means for providing for their families, and they use drugs to drive off fatigue and claustrophobia. Also, the tunnel industry will be forced to abort its activities because of Egypt's plans for a border wall that will have steel blocks 30 meters underground. The supplies that come from the tunnels however are double or triple their normal price, and with close to 90 percent of the people living on less than two dollars every day, their availability is useless to those who can not afford them. Yousef Munayyer has published a piece in Ma'an News where he states, "That's all part of the plan. Israel seeks to squeeze the strip to the point of near catastrophe, bad enough to make people suffer, but just short of having to take responsibility for it." Humanitarian aid has arrived in ships and convoys from different countries and a diverse mix of citizens, yet they encounter danger once they either enter Gaza's waters (under threat of Israeli navy ships that harass/barge/block their progress) or provocation and hounding by Egyptian officials, who beat activists and subject them to ungodly exasperation, when they land in Egypt and try to make it through the Rafah border crossing. The only breath of life Gaza's population has are mostly from the tunnels, which will be redundant in the near future, and the humanity of the people who organize and put together these convoys and ships.
WHAT is going on now?
There's a flotilla of three ships, courtesy of the Free Gaza Movement, making their way to Gaza right now, carrying aid, reconstruction supplies, and a few hundred activists on board. Israel has vowed to stop the flotilla and arrest all of the activists. It tries to convey its image as one of a benevolent nature that allows aid to enter into the Strip every now and then, when the reality is that the supplies entering are of minimal amount. A couple of months ago, Israel once again played the altruistic card by allowing clothes and shoes to enter. Their compassionate humanity is just too much for us. By withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, Israel has created the illusion of a free and totally Palestinian territory. How far from the truth is that, when Israel still controls all of the borders and forbid fishermen from fishing more than 12 kilometers from the coast, while at the same time still raids Gaza and shoots at random boats and people from the sea. We won't ever forget what happened to Huda Ghaliya's family.
Break the siege on Gaza, spread the word about Israel's fascist imperialism, and never forget the 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned on a strip of land 30 miles long, 5 miles wide.
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