Absurdity Is the Norm in the Gaza Strip

[stephinrome]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Absurdity-Is-the-Norm-in-t-by-Stephanie-Westbroo-090610-182.html>

Upon returning home from Gaza, a friend commented, "It must have been horrifying seeing all the destruction." And it was. The 22-day Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip laid waste to an already ravaged territory.

The landscape is dotted with piles of rubble of bombed out buildings, the twisted iron and aluminum of destroyed factories, once green fields reduced to sand and dirt by Israeli tanks, apartments with 2 meter holes in the walls and toppled minarets of mosques turned to ruins.

But as devastating as bearing witness to the destruction was, it was the absurdities of the siege, the total blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt, that really affected me. Gaza itself remains frozen in time; for nearly five months after the ceasefire, aside from a few rare cases in which cinder blocks have been used to fill gaping holes in the sides of buildings, no reconstruction whatsoever has begun. The blockade keeps the necessary building materials out of Gaza.

While traveling throughout Gaza with a delegation of mostly U.S. citizens organized by CodePink, the absurdities of the siege presented themselves over and over.

At Al Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, we saw state of the art isotope scan and radio therapy machines in the oncology department that cannot operate because the radioactive material as well as a calibration tool have been refused entry by Israel. A row of dialysis machines sat unused, lacking the required fluids.

As medical conditions in Gaza deteriorate due to the siege, many look for medical care abroad. However, the sealed borders prevent them from traveling. We met the director of an orphanage who had already lost the vision in one eye, was losing it in the other, but had been unable to obtain permission to travel to Egypt for eye care.

Power outages are regular occurrences. The Gaza power plant simply cannot keep up with the demand due to a lack of fuel, which is blocked by Israel, as is supplemental electricity produced in Israel. There are both scheduled blackouts of 8-10 hours, as well as spontaneous outages.

While touring the Al Shifa Hospital, the Minister of Health apologized for the heat in the room, saying their generator must be reserved for higher priority uses than air conditioning. Families are forced to carry their loved ones up the stairs, the elevators shutdown during blackouts.

The centers working to create employment opportunities for Gaza's women inevitably fall prey to the siege. Power cuts bring the sewing machines making dresses and linens to a stand still. Even the embroidery thread used to make traditional handicrafts must be smuggled in through the tunnels.

The siege has also taken its toll on the father figure. According to Dr. Zeyada of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, with well over 50% unemployment due to the siege, children see their fathers as unable to provide for them. And during the war, they saw that their fathers were also unable to protect them. Children have started looking to other role models, and make easy targets for those who, unfortunately, have no desire for peace.

Education suffers under the siege. At a UN vocational training center in Khan Younis, the library consists of roughly 12 bookcases, but only two had any books at all, with half being photocopied manuals. The textbooks destined for the center have been held up in a storage facility in Jerusalem; the Israelis simply refused to allow them in. The center is also unable to get the raw materials for their metal and woodworking courses.

Sharif, a university student studying business administration in his second year, is understandably proud of having top marks in his faculty. His friends have nicknamed him 'The Genius.' Sharif has been awarded a scholarship at Portland University in Oregon starting this fall. Unfortunately, the irrationality of the siege is likely to prevent him from being allowed to go. “If I can’t get authorization by August, there goes my scholarship.”

A professor at Al Aqsa University has been offered a position at the University of Manchester, however, he has been denied permission to travel. Professors are also unable to travel to attend international conferences. And students of the English department have a tough time finding native speakers with which to practice the language; getting into Gaza is almost as difficult as getting out!

Numerous projects for which funding has already been approved are currently suspended for the simple fact that the materials to complete them are not allowed in. Turkey has donated funds for a new university library and PalTel, the Palestinian telecommunications company, has allocated funds for an Information Technology Center. Both projects remain in limbo, victims of the siege.

An official with the UN Relief and Works Agency remarked that it is also a problem to get the actual banknotes in. UNRWA, which provides services to more than 1 million registered refugees in the Gaza Strip, is often only able to get money in to pay the salaries of their 10,000 employees, while money to fund projects is blocked.

Not only are Palestinians restricted in their movement in and out of Gaza, but also within. In late May, Israel began dropping thousands of leaflets near the border areas warning the people of Gaza not to come within 300 meters of the border or they would be fired upon. Farmers are forced to risk their lives in order to work their fields that fate has placed too close to the border. The same restrictions are imposed on Palestinian fishermen. The sound of shots pierce the silence nightly, as Israeli gunboats fire on fishing boats that dare to venture far enough away from the shore in order to catch fish to sell and provide a living for their families.

These are the absurdities that have become the norm in Gaza. But perhaps most absurd of all is how anyone can believe that Israel's severity in the closures, the destruction of the economy and social fabric of the Gaza Strip, will serve to convince Palestinians to place their trust in international law.

What we in the international community must do is to heed the call we heard repeatedly from the people of Gaza: work to break the siege so that they can take care of themselves.

Stephanie Westbrook


Stephanie Westbrook is a founding member of U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice in Rome, Italy (http://www.peaceandjustice.it) and currently serves on the group's coordinating committee.

[Chulanowa]

1. BUT TEH ROKKITS! TEH ROKKITS!

Also insert some vague nonsensical mumblings about how Iran is full of evil, evil, blood-drinking baby-eaters, and I think I've just summed up the pro-israeli response to this peice.

[aquart]

2. Oh, aren't you clever. But what about the pro-Egyptian response?

Why isn't Egypt opening its loving arms? Are they controlled by AIPAC? Well, of course they are. THE WORLD IS. And that just about sums up the so-called liberal American pro-Palestinian response.

[shira]

4. Hamas response: "But all the money and resources we have are for resistance..."

:eyes:

[parkia00]

5. Their hands are dirty so it make my dirty hands A -okey!

Try to look at things with a little wider view please. The OP was showing the absurdities of life in Gaza where in "normal land" things like this would be unimaginable like the part about state of the art medical equipment not working because one component is "banned" etc... Stop trying to divert attention to Eqypt or whatever entity is convenient at the moment. Both Egypt and Israel are responsible for the blockade that has made life what it is in Gaza today. Yes, the rockets (how many fired recently?); and the evil Hamas who hates Israel with such a degree of hate rivaled only by Israel's hatred of Hamas. All this which forces Israel to punish all Gaza residents as a whole because of the narrow point of view of the some of the punishees as well as the punisher. But them... oh they cause all this; we are not to blame.

Look at it this way, if Egypt decides it's a good idea to use shit as shampoo, it's not a good idea to follow suit. But here everyone has used shit as shampoo. So you get Egyptians that smell like shit. You get Hamas that smells like shit. You get Israel smelling like shit. Sometimes you even get Hezbollah coming to join the shit orgy. So rather than finding ways to clean the shit up, they find ways to keep the shit on others and in the proceess get themselves coated with shit. But that's okey. Cause it's not Hamas's, Egyptian , Israel's fault. It's the other guys. So you get a bunch of people smelling like shit insisting to disgusted outsiders that the shit they smell is not emanating from them but the other shit coated people. "It's them, not us." My God don't they stink!

On a side not, concerning your "the so-called liberal American pro-Palestinian response" comment. Yeah I consider myself to be a pro-Palestine liberal. And you know what? That does not mean I'm anti Israel or anti-Jew. I do not want to see Israel pushed into the sea and other stupid things like that. What most people mean by pro-Palestinian is, it means wishing that the Palestinians to emerge from the war scarred hell they are in today and live in peace WITHOUT fear of some sort of knee jerk response in the form of air/ground attacks whenever Israel insecurity is twitching. Israelis have the right to live in peace and bring up their families in a safe environment. This same right is also extended to the Palestinians! The trouble is both people are surrounded with shit heads armed to the teeth with weapons whose only importance in the entire universe is implementing their view of how things must be.

I find it odd that in an American liberal forum you would accuse liberals of being liberals believing that would be an argumentative point....

[Recursion]

9. Remind me why Egypt should take on a few million refugees from their neighbor?

I always missed the logic there.

[Chulanowa]

10. Wow. Who said anything about AIPAC controlling the world?

Seems to be something straight from your own imagination. Huh. Imagine that, Aquart imagining some sort of massive world-controlling Jewish conspiracy. Gosh what a surprise that is!

Why isn't Egypt opening its arms? Because if they did, it wouldn't matter, because it's Israel blocking the people from crossing to Egypt. You are aware that Israel's kept the border crossings closed since 2007, in order to (according to Israel) prevent Egyptian weapons from getting to Hamas.

learn the subject before you open your mouth about it.

[Dick Dastardly]

12. I think you need to learn the subject

Israel does not control the Egypt Gaza border




Egyptian and Hamas security forces have closed the border with Gaza Strip after more than two weeks during which Palestinians were able to pass freely through the crossing.



clip
'Restoring control'

Hamas has been under pressure from Egypt to stop the movement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt.

After talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Saturday, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a former Palestinian foreign minister, said Hamas "will restore control over this border, in co-operation with Egypt ... gradually".

Al-Zahar also said that the closure would be temporary while the Egyptians search for a way to reopen the border.

Egyptian officials were not available for comment on the Hamas claims.

Any role for Hamas for controlling the border would be sure to anger the international community and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, because it would amount to tacit recognition of Hamas rule in Gaza.

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from the Gaza side of the crossing, said that Egypt allowing Hamas to help with securing the border, indicated the government's recognition of Hamas as the ruling authority in the Gaza Strip.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/02/200852514935891560.html

[Chulanowa]

15. February 2008

And you'll also note all that was sealed was a hole in the wall between the two.

However, Israel has kept the legitimate crossings between the two - such as the Rafah crossing - sealed since 2007.

[Dick Dastardly]

19. No, the article showed Israel does not control the border. You claimed it did.

Since 2005 Israel has not controlled the border with Egypt and Gaza. Its Egypt and the Palestinians who control it

more

EGYPT-OPT: Tensions running high on the Egypt-Gaza border
RAFAH, 11 January 2009 (IRIN) - With Israel’s two-week military offensive in Gaza showing no signs of abating, patience is running thin among those waiting to get into the Strip from the Egyptian border town of Rafah, the Palestinians’ only access to the outside world that is not controlled by Israel.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2009/01/mil-090111-irin02.htm


A New Reality on the Egypt-Gaza Border
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2376

[Smith_3]

3. And of course "Iran is Hitler".

And some mumblings about how the author of that article is an anti-semite.

[Fozzledick]

6. The siege will end when the war ends

The war will end when Hamas ends their aggressive attacks, either by choice or from defeat.

So far they show no sign of choosing peace.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. No, the occupation will continue even if/when the resistance ends.

"Peace" is not a choice available to the Palestinians; their choices are "one-way violence" or "two-way violence"; there is no possibility of an end to Palestinian violence being reciprocated by an Israeli withdrawal.

It is Israel who is choosing war and could choose peace - an end to the occupation, if managed correctly, almost certainly *would* lead to an end to organised Palestinian violence.

[Fozzledick]

8. The occupation will end only after the war ends

It's the unending violence from the Palestinian side that keeps the war going.

And we've already seen the results of a unilateral withdrawal in Gaza.

[Chulanowa]

11. "So far they show no sign of choosing peace."

First off, you're either ignorant or a liar. Take your pick. 2008 saw an amazingly successful truce between Hamas and Israel, broken by Israel. Hamas has offered repeatedly to come to the table with Israel, which has continuously rebuffed such offers.

Now you can argue all you like whether Israel was right or wrong in these, but Hamas was willing to try peace, and it seems Israel wasn't.

Way I figure, if I get two bounced checks from someone, I won't be taking their checks again.

[Fozzledick]

13. So much for the theory that no one in this forum supports Hamas

I guess if continuing sporadic terrorist attacks is your idea of "an amazingly successful truce" then the rest follows.

Cute little false dichotomy there. I'm tempted to speculate whether a person making such a statement is an idiot or an asshole, but I can't logically eliminate the possibility of both.

[Chulanowa]

17. You really weren't paying attention, then

Hamas launched no attacks and systematically cracked down on those who did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rocket_and_mortar_attacks_in_Israel_in_2008

The truce began in June 2008. Attacks dropped SHARPLY after that. it ended after Israel attacked Gaza.

Feel free to call me what you want, but it doesn't change the facts of the situation.

[Fozzledick]

18. Your own facts contradict you

A temporary reduction in attacks isn't a truce, it's just a tactical maneuver.

And I will indeed continue to respond to flamers as I feel is appropriate.

[MrBig]

20. Since you provided the link...

According to the report linked on that site, which provides much of the facts for that wikipedia page, there were 20 rockets and 18 mortar shells fired after the truce between June and November 4th. While that is a significant reduction compared to the average of 300+ rockets that were fired per month beforehand, how can you say that this is not a violation of the truce? The fact that one rocket was fired constitutes a violation.

Furthermore, the Israeli act that is considered to be the "truce breaker" was actually a defensive act to stop a Hamas operation.

"On November 4 the IDF carried out a military action close to the border security fence on the Gazan side to prevent an abduction planned by Hamas, which had dug a tunnel under the fence to that purpose. Seven Hamas terrorist operatives were killed during the action. In retaliation, Hamas and the other terrorist organizations attacked Israel with a massive barrage of rockets. Since then, 191 rockets and 138 mortar shells have been fired. The attacks have been continuous and some were carried out by weapons not previously used, such as 122mm standard Grad rockets and 120mm mortar shells. Hamas has been directly involved in the attacks in cooperation with the other terrorist organizations."

But of course when you couch things in terms like "teh rokkits", it surely means that there really isn't anything bad going on. Maybe us Pro-Israelis should start saying, "teh okkupashun"

[Violet_Crumble]

23. "teh okkupashun"

Not the wisest point to argue considering yr posting in a thread where more than one 'Pro-Israeli' is posting their support of continuing a siege which is collective punishment of a civilian population to force a militant group to stop doing what it's doing. Mind you, the overdone outrage over someone saying 'teh rokkits' is pretty lame when some of those feigning outrage made sarcastic and nasty comments accompanied by suitably inane emoticons about the civilian population of Gaza and the suffering during OCL...

[MrBig]

26. This seems like a very round-a-bout way...

to simply say, "because your side does it, we can do it too."

I have no control over what other people post. I do think it's ridiculous to make light of the violent acts of one side by posting things such as "teh rokkits" and "teh okkupashun". I did it to, hopefully, exaggerate and make obvious the ridiculousness of that point.

The fact of the matter is, these violent acts, whether by firing rockets at civilians or by the IDF committing violent acts against innocent Palestinian civilians, are wrong and should not be made light.

[Violet_Crumble]

27. Totally agree with yr last sentence n/t

[shira]

28. where's your outrage at Hamas' abuse, slaugher, and exploitation of Pal'n children and civilians?

just more psycopathic empathy for Pal'ns when Israel is at fault (while defending its own citizens). No outrage when the far worse abuse is committed by Hamas.

lame.

[Violet_Crumble]

24. It might help if the post you replied to expressed support of Hamas..

They didn't. But if you think they did, you can show me where you think they did, and then we'll go back over yr posts about Nutty and using the same logic you can admit yr a supporter of Nutty. ;)

[shira]

14. not this shit again

you've been corrected at least 3 times now about the 2008 "ceasefire" or "truce" you claim was broken by Israel.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x250119#250340

[Chulanowa]

16. No, I haven't

I've had a couple racist turds who keep changing their excuses on me, but I haven't been "corrected"

[shira]

21. oh, but you have

You were utterly refuted in this thread....see, for example, my posts #60 and #63 here which you never responded to:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x250119#251631

You'll also find all over the web that tahdiya/tahadiya/tadiya = CALM. As opposed to another arabic word for ceasefire; HUDNA. Words do have meaning. Reminds me of the retarded pundits who kept trying to cover for Iran's Ahmanutjob calling for Israel's destruction and claiming it was a 'mistranslation'. :eyes:

Here are a couple of examples explaining very clearly what a tahadiya is, as opposed to hudna.

====================

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/936852.html
"Hamas is apparently referring to a tahdiya (lull, or quiet), an intermediate status that reflects a lower degree of commitment and which is usually imposed for a shorter period of time. Total calm is not achieved, but the demands of both parties are more limited. "

=====================

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-03-12-374518999_x.htm

=====================

[proteus_lives]

22. A common conversation in Gaza.....

"Hey Guys? Where all that aid and international money going? Rockets and re-arming? Are you sure? What about....Oh wait that AK-47 you're pointing at me just reminded me, this is all Israel's fault! Sorry about bothering you."

[Violet_Crumble]

25. Pretty stupid post there...

Apart from the fact that it's highly doubtful you'd know what Palestinians in Gaza say about much at all, I don't think you bothered reading the OP before replying. If you'd read the OP or had paid attention to news reports in the media, you'd be aware that Israel is blockading Gaza and things like funding and materials aren't allowed into Gaza. It's sad that you feel you have to blame the Palestinians for something that Israel's responsible for, even when the facts are poking you in the face...