Gaza Under Siege

by A.R. Sow

The Palestinian/ Israeli debate is an issue that I feel like is too complex for me to truly understand. It is an issue where in my opinion both sides are simultaneously fundamentally wrong and fundamentally right.

Recently, Egypt has jumped once more into that breach by fortifying the system of underground tunnels that run beneath the border between Egypt and Gaza. Egypt is reportedly doing this because in addition to the goods, and humanitarian supplies that are smuggled through the pathways to Gaza, the tunnels are being used to smuggle arms to militants in the region. The video below explains it in more detail.

Now, I’m no expert but I feel like generally people can agree that the arms trade in the Middle East in general -- and in Gaza in particular, is a pretty bad thing. But ever since Israel instituted a blockade on Gaza in an act of self-defense, Palestinians have been limited in their ability to get the supplies and goods necessary to sustain themselves. However, as the video points out, Israel ships needed supplies into the area.

It has been a longstanding norm to frame the conflict in this region as a tension between Israel’s need to protect itself from the existential threat of Palestinian terrorism and the Palestinian desire to reclaim what they deem to be Israeli occupied territories. It would be a colossal understatement to say this description is a gross oversimplification but hey it’s gonna have to do.

I submit that the tension in this particular instance is between Israel’s need to protect themselves from the existential threat of terrorism and the need for Gazans to, you know, survive the siege.

First off, let’s address this notion that the blockade is somehow categorically justified because Israel is shipping in supplies.

If I were to keep 30 puppies in a single room, without letting them leave for any reason. Feed them only what someone who hates puppies and also pays for the food decides according to their whim, and give only most of them shots. That wouldn’t really be cool right? It’s kind of like that. Substitute puppies with human beings, “someone who hates puppies” with a significant cross-section of Israelis, and “food/shots” with well, food and shots (humanitarian supplies) and hopefully you see my point.

Next up is Egypt. Jews for Justice for Palestinians has a really detailed analysis of this topic. The piece points out that if Hamas were allowed to join its ideological allies in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, they could gain political power that would threaten Hosni Mubarak. You should check out the whole thing but I think this paragraph summarizes some of the other motives behind Egypt’s decision to fortify themselves against Hamas nicely:

"But two other factors seem to have been decisive in convincing Cairo to bend to American and Israeli pressure and close the vice on Gaza’s Palestinians, along with those who support them. The first was a US threat to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of aid unless it cracked down on arms and other smuggling. The second is the need for US acquiescence in the widely expected hereditary succession of Mubarak’s ex-banker son, Gamal, to the presidency. So, far from protecting its sovereignty, the Egyptian government has sold it for continued foreign subsidy and despotic dynastic rule, sacrificing any pretence to its historic role of Arab leadership in the process.”

So the threat from Hamas towards Egypt has more to do with them as a political organization than it does with them as a terrorist organization.To steal a phrase from Henry Kissinger, The U.S./Egyptian interest in eliminating terrorism has become for the people of Gaza, little more than a “dictatorship of the virtuous".

Source:
H/T:

http://www.newsy.com/videos/egypt-border-wall-seen-to-starve-gaza

http://www.watan.com/en/the-news/625-bleak-ramadan-for-besieged-gaza-residents.html

http://jfjfp.com/?p=9234

Gaza: Hundreds protest Apartheid Wall: Egypt's

Yet the world's hypocrisy about Israel's security fence will no doubt continue.

"Mideast: Gaza, Hundreds Protest Against Egyptian Wall," from ANSAmed, December 21

GAZA, DECEMBER 21 - Today in Rafah (south of Gaza) some 700 people joined a demonstration staged in this portion of Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas Islamic radicals to protest against the underground steel barrier planned by Egypt along the only section of the Gaza Strip border that is foreign to Israel.

The protesters gathered in front of the so-called Saladins Door, near the Egyptian border, but not in front of the main Rafah pass.

The crowd included local residents, local Hamas activists and even one of the movements spokespersons who arrived from Gaza City, Sami Abu Zahri, who requested a halt to work in progress and the dismantling of the section of the barrier that has already been built.

During the gathering people chanted slogans inviting Egypt not to choke the people of Gaza and to help the Palestinian people, while others carried signs saying Stop the siege or Enough walls and invoked Arab solidarity.

Hamas security, present in force, however avoided any excessive approach to the border and incidents of any kind.

The barrier, which was created with the help of American technicians, represents Cairòs reply to the problem of underground tunnels which allow the passage of vital goods to the Gaza Strip (which has been under an almost total Israeli blockade since Hamas rose to power in 2007) in addition to weapons, militiamen and illegal aliens.

According to reports referred in recent days by the BBC and by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the project estimates a total final length of 10 kilometres for 30 metres of depth.

Initially denied, the start of work was later confirmed by Cairo sources, which claimed Egypt's right to control its borders.

And they blamed Hamas intransigence for the failed agreement (where Egypt acted as middleman) over inter-Palestinian reconciliation, which is considered as one of the reasons behind the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip.

With thanks to JihadWatch

Egyptians Installing Underground Barrier to Gaza Attacked

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Shots were fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday at Egyptians installing an underground barrier meant to choke off the smuggling of goods and weapons through tunnels into blockaded Gaza.

No one was reported injured in the attack, Palestinian and Egyptian officials said.

But Egypt increased security in the border area after the fourth cross-border shooting since workers began building the metal barrier several weeks ago.

The construction would tighten a blockade imposed on Gaza by Egypt and Israel after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power over the tiny coastal territory in 2007.

An Egyptian security official said nearly the full force of the 750-member border guard was called to the area, and dozens of additional armored vehicles were deployed near the frontier.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information to reporters.

Gaza's interior minister, Fathi Hamad, said in a statement that Hamas was trying to "control" the shooting attacks.

"The government confirms that it will protect Egypt's security and it is in contact with the Egyptian government," Hamad said.

Egyptian officials have refused to confirm the barrier is being built. But in an interview published Saturday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit provided the first official confirmation that Cairo was reinforcing security along the border.

"Whether it is a wall, sensors or tapping devices ... what matters is that Egyptian territory must be protected," the weekly al-Ahram al-Arabi quoted him as saying. "Whoever says Egypt is imposing its control on the border, we tell them this is Egypt's full right."

The barrier could worsen already tense relations between Egypt and Hamas, which relies on the tunnels to skirt the blockade.

Although Egypt is worried by the presence of an Islamic militant government on its border, it has been wary about choking off the tunnel networks between Gaza and Egypt's Sinai desert.

It already has come under fire from Arab and Muslim countries for cooperating with Israel in blockading Gaza.

FoxNews

Palestinians Fake Cancer to Escape Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A healthy man in blockaded Gaza faked cancer, hoping the deadly disease would be his ticket out of the territory that has become an open-air prison for its 1.4 million residents.

His ploy failed, but several thousand others succeeded in fleeing this shabby sliver of land this year using bribes and fake medical reports, a sign of Gazans' desperation over growing poverty and misery under the strict border closure enforced by Egypt and Israel since Hamas militants overran Gaza in June 2007.

The blockade has few loopholes. Israel allows passage to top business people and a limited number of Gazans seeking treatment for serious illnesses. Egypt sporadically opens its border for university students and those with residency abroad.

Everyone else is stuck, even as Palestinian polls suggest nearly half the population would like to leave if they could.

Deepening the Gazans' sense of imprisonment, they must now also obtain permission from the Hamas government before attempting to leave, further complicating an obstacle-ridden path to freedom.

Those trying to bribe their way out usually approach middlemen who put them in touch with local doctors, Palestinian health officials or Egyptian bureaucrats and military officials.

Akram Ghneim, 31, an unemployed father of six living off food handouts, told The Associated Press he promised $260 to a Palestinian middleman, who obtained for him a bogus medical report saying he had cancer. Ghneim said he hoped he'd get a rare spot on the list of Gaza patients with life-threatening illnesses who are allowed to enter Israel for treatment.

Once in Israel, he planned to disappear and work illegally. But Israeli intelligence officials, who review applications, rejected him last summer, saying his cancer report was forged.

"This is what the blockade does," said Ran Yaron, of the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which helps bring Gazans into Israel for treatment by lobbing Israeli defense officials.

"Most are frustrated and devastated people."

Yaron said fakers are a minority, but clog up the system for real patients who have to go through longer checks as a result.

Of more than 7,000 Gazans who crossed into Israel this year to seek medical treatment, some 500 haven't returned, said Col. Moshe Levi, an Israeli defense official.

Some stay in Israel, while others move to the West Bank, a territory controlled by Israel but partly administered by Palestinians loyal to Fatah, bitter rivals of Hamas.

One Fatah loyalist, a healthy 30-year-old woman, said she was desperate to leave Gaza after being harassed by Hamas officials.

She bribed a Gaza doctor with $100 to certify she had "whatever cancer could only be treated in Israel." The doctor then paid off a physician serving on a Palestinian committee that certifies medical reports for Israeli military officials, the woman said. She eventually succeed in reaching the West Bank and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being sent back to Gaza by the Israeli authorities.

More at FoxNews

Israeli patrol boat rams aid ship off Gaza

From correspondents in Jerusalem | December 30, 2008

THE Israeli navy has reportedly rammed a boat that was trying to deliver medical supplies to the Gaza Strip.

No one was injured in the collision between the patrol boat and the 20-metre Dignity, which was trying to take three tonnes of medical supplies into Gaza on day four of Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian territory.

Israeli army radio said the boat — operated by the pro-Palestinian Free Gaza Movement — ignored both orders to turn around and warning shots across its bow before it was rammed.

The Free Gaza Movement, which has ran the blockade six times since August to take humanitarian supplies into Gaza, said the vessel could still sail after the ramming.

Paul Laurdee, one of the group's founders, said the Dignity had been "surrounded" in international waters about 70km off the Israeli coast and 135km from Gaza.

"It was surrounded by 11 Israeli naval vessels," he said.

"They ordered the boat to stop, and we didn't. They began firing over our boat and into the waters next to the boat. When the boat wouldn't turn back, one of the naval vessels rammed the boat, but not enough to disable the boat."

On its website, the Free Gaza Movement said the Dignity was on a "mission of mercy" carrying three tonnes of medical supplies "donated by the people of Cyprus," from where it set off on Monday.

"Our people are communicating with the Israelis as to what's next," Mr Laurdee said.

"We will try to dock in Egypt or in Lebanon, or all the way back to Cyprus. But there is doubt about fuel on board and whether they can make it all the way back to Cyprus as normally we refuel in Gaza."

Source: The Australian