By Christoph Koettl, the Project Manager for Amnesty International USA's Science for Human Rights Project.
The New York Times today published a major front page story on the daily life in Gaza. The story chronicles the adversity, disunity, and sheer loss that dominates daily life in Gaza, and the Times' website includes some very powerful images and video footage. Civilians in Gaza suffer from a complete lack of opportunities, high unemployment, and scarce resources, including water and electricity, the article concludes.
The article also claims that the root of the current suffering is the loss of opportunity and the inability of Palestinians in Gaza to produce for themselves. Since these options do not exist for Gazans, men stay home throughout the day, some taking sedatives to numb their loss, and women struggle to ease their husband's pain and fill their children's bellies. Despite international criticism over the Israeli blockade of Gaza and the international concern over the May 31st flotilla incident, the blockade has continued uninterrupted for three years, and the daily struggles and overwhelming despair of the Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza have been largely overlooked and misrepresented internationally.
We have repeatedly urged the U.S. government and international community to pressure Israel to lift the blockade. In fact, the recent "easing" of the blockade is not sufficient in adequately addressing the daily plight of Gazans. Israel's blockade of Gaza has left more than 1.4 million Palestinian men, women and children trapped in the Gaza Strip, four in five of which are dependent on humanitarian aid. As a form of collective punishment, Israel's continuing blockade of Gaza is a flagrant violation of international law. The blockade does not target armed groups -- who in the past have repeatedly launched indiscriminate attacks against civilians in southern Israel - but rather punishes Gaza's entire population by restricting the entry of food, medical supplies, educational equipment and building materials. Unsurprisingly, its impact falls most heavily on those most vulnerable among Gaza's people: children, the elderly and the sick. To end the suffering and restore opportunity and hope to the people of Gaza, a full lifting of the blockade is imperative.
Don't forget to watch the New York Times video from inside Gaza.
Then, urge the Obama Administration to advocate for a lifting of the blockade!
Follow Amnesty International on Twitter: www.twitter.com/amnesty
Will the Western media show these images?
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001127.html
Gaza remains eminently More prosperous than many of it;'s arab neighbors... including Dairenes just 200 miles away.
The 'Flotilla' a PR STUNT.
"""Above: A Palestinian newspaper photo (May 18, 2010) shows Gazan children in the newly built Olympic-sized swimming pool which opened earlier in May 2010, despite continuing claims by some Western journalists and NGOs that there are no building materials and a severe shortage of water in Gaza. """"
Picture Link for pool is Palestinian Ma'an.
Photo is 2 weeks Before the Flotilla Stunt.
Also, Israel has considerable control over the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, but you are correct in that Egypt has a responsibility to open the crossing and also abide by int'l law relevant to their status. Opening the Rafah crossing however in no way is capable of alleviating the over-all situation in the Gaza Strip or absolve Israel from its responsibilities and LEGAL OBLIGATIONS. Israel as the 'occupying power' is ultimately responsible for calling for and enforcing the blockade and not abiding by its obligations under int'l law and this is why they are primarily targeted in calls to lift the blockade.
You're also correct that millions are pledged to help Gaza recover, but much is in the form of equipment and other materials which are blocked at crossings because of blockade restrictions/bureaucracy/arbitrary nature of allowances and the cash often gets tied up due to political considerations in relation to Fatah-Hamas reconciliation or being seen as aiding Hamas, etc ... These pledges do no good if they are not allowed in to work.
Someone needs to remind me why these poor people are still in refugee camps 62 years after they lost the war. Palestinian are refugees from the war they started after rejecting the UN Partition Plan, and after joining 6 Arab armies failed in their attempt to destroy nascent Israel, Why are these poor people are still in refugee camps?
Here, we refer to Palestinians that came to the US in 1948 by a very special name; US Citizens. The Arabs who started the war should give them citizenship, much as we did. With 10% of the world's land mass under Arab rule, there is plenty of room. The Egyptian should immediately begin opening up the Sinai to them. All is that is required is for the Arabs to give up their dream of destroying Israel and this could be solved.
Palestinians citizenship is not based on race. Their statehood is based on the land they already own. Their statehood has a geographical basis.
It is not the responsibility of neighboring countries to Palestine to reward Israel and its grotesque colonization policies by turning Palestinians into refugees and relocating them to other states on the basis of Israels preference for foreign settlers. Its not going to happen.
The world wont allow Israel to ethnically cleanse Palestine in favor of modern and recent immigrants from Europe, Russia and America.
yet Israel still allows aid through
So you keep blaming the one nation that gave land for peace, that allows women to have free speech and rights, that actively has Arabs as citizens and on their high court and in government (would jews ever be allowed to an Arab high court? hell would Jews yet be allowed into Saudi Arabia?), that has gay rights and in the military
but you won't even see the double standard that Israel is placed on in regards to her neighbors that have none of those?
What land is that? Be specific.
Many millions of refugees were created in WWII, yet 5 years later, there were none.
At least one million refugees were created in the Indo-Pakistan war in 1948, yet they are not allowed "refugee" status.
Nearly 800,000 Jewish refugees were created when the arab nations expelled them and/or created conditions that forced them to leave starting in 1948, yet they are not allowed "refugee" status.
"Amnesty International is not only sacrificing its own credibility when it misstates the law and omits relevant facts in its obsession over Israel. It also harms progressive causes that AI should be championing. Just last year, for example, Amnesty blamed Palestinian rapes and "honor killings" on - you guessed it - the Israeli occupation. When I pointed out that there was absolutely no statistical evidence to show that domestic violence increased during the occupation, and that Amnesty's report relied exclusively on the conclusory and anecdotal reports of Palestinian NGOs, Amnesty stubbornly repeated that "Israel is implicated in this violence by Palestinian men against Palestinian women." This episode only underscored AI's predisposition to blame everything on Israel."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-dershowitz/amnesty-internationals-bi_b_28257.html
this becomes a circle of pointing fingers b/c you don't approve of a lawyer's perspective and others wouldn't approve of a biased organization
and back and forth...
this is a fabrication. the Times article, which Amnesty International refers to, specifically says that hunger is not an issue in Gaza.
from the NYT:
"In fact, talk about food and people here get angry because it implies that their struggle is over subsistence rather than quality of life. The issue is not hunger."
The reason for this easy deception is not hard to ascertain: The facts on the ground do not support their conclusion that ending the blockade will ease the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza. The truth of the matter as highlighted by the Times article is that in-fighting among the Palestinians and an abject refusal to recognize the state of Israel is the cause of much of their despair.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/chronic-malnutrition-in-gaza-blamed-on-israel-
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F2313D3F-5987-4DB6-AD98-317DC75FABE7.htm
electronicintifada.net/v2/article10666.shtml
It is to be about Jewish and Arab kids living in Jerusalem.
Maybe it will show some reasons to be hopeful for the future...?
Hopefully it will be fair to all.
maybe catch it at pbs.org too
Both sides need to understand that neither side is going away and a 2 state solution is the only hope or maybe 3 state now.
The UN summer camps in Gaza try to make things better
The Gaza Strip: Hamas hangs on | The Economist
Hamas has done well to survive but it is threatened by Rivalry among Islamists
Mar 31st 2010
"....The tunnels that snake under Gaza’s border with Egypt have multiplied so fast that supply sometimes exceeds demand.....For instance, cement, which cost 300 Israeli shekels ($80) a sack two years ago, has dropped almost Tenfold in price, precipitating a Spate of building for the first time since Israel’s attack a year ago reduced 4,000 houses to ruins. And eyewitnesses say that flashy 4x4 vehicles can actually drive through tunnels built from shipping containers......
The petrol pumped into Gaza by underground pipes and hoses from Egypt costs a Third of what it does in Ramallah, the Palestinians’ West Bank capital, where Israel supplies it.
Free health care is more Widely available in Gaza. Imports travel faster through the tunnels than via Israel’s thickets of bureaucracy...."
As well as lower prices, Gazans benefit from civil-service payrolls...
By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY
Oct 21, 2009
RAFAH, Gaza — Dusty sacks filled with cans of Coca-Cola were being loaded onto trucks by young boys, headed for Supermarkets in Gaza City.
Thousands of Motorcycles were lined up on display in a nearby stadium, ranging in price from $2,000 to $10,000.
At Nijma market, Refrigerators, Flat-screen televisions, Microwaves, Air-conditioners, Generators and Ovens filled the tents, all at inflated prices, having been spirited into this town on the border with Egypt through tunnels under the sand. Some Gazans have even purchased Cars smuggled in parts into the isolated Palestinian enclave.
[...........]
there are more tunnels now than ever, and Rafah has turned into a Shopping Mecca where the tunnel owners are kings.
[...........]In the past, armed gangs roamed this frontier town with a lawless feel; journalists and humanitarian workers were about the only visitors to venture here. Now, customers flock in from all over Gaza. What started as a few clandestine tunnels dug beneath houses has turned into a booming industry that nobody bothers to hide.
Before the Gaza war the tunnels numbered in the hundreds. Today about 1,500 of them are said to be crammed into an eight-mile stretch along the border, employing in the neighborhood of 30,000...
How nice of you to attempt to excuse a war crime (the collective punishment of a civilian population).
Blame their leadership - when Israel disengaged, they had greenhouses and full access
Which they used to fire rockets back..
now they use the materials they have for an Olympic size Swimming pool??
How is that going to help their own people?
This de facto government in Hamas (which, yes, was democratically elected, but now holds control by force) needs to step up and renounce violence... then the blockade can lift safely without fear of weapons importing alongside food
Greenhouses don't do much good when Israel will not allow water in, and will not allow Gazans access to their water reserves because they will not allow in the building supplies necessary.
Israel's position was simple - we gave you autonomous control, you used it to fire rockets at us...
it doesn't get more black and white than that..
And anyone who says "oh but they fired rockets as an expression against the oppressors, blah blah.. "
To them I say - you can go back as far as you want in history, but if at the end of the day all they claim to want is freedom and a country, well, they were given one in 2005... and they abused it for terrorism..
I want peace there, first Hamas needs to either renounce violence or we need to actively support overthrowing that terrorist government entity
I fault the mendacity of the major powers, not the least of which is the USA, but also the EU & the UN leadership (not its agencies) that has voiced only the mildest of opposition. President Obama has been AWOL about any Gaza topic, sad to say. I also fault the Egyptian leadership (not the Egyptian people) which has allowed itself to be compromised by pro-occupation US & Israeli interests.
The siege has been tolerated as a means of exerting yet more political pressure on the Palestinian people who have not give up their demand for justice, even after all this time. Is anyone really still expecting them to do so now?
The New York Times, a leader in misinformation about Palestine for more than 50 yrs. is coming up with something rather late in the day, interesting to ask why, it's certainly nothing to do with journalistic integrity or responsibility. Perhaps, the handwriting really is on the wall about the future of Palestine. The images are just too vivid. Even the NYT can't completely ignore them any longer.
Egypt has now open border with Gaza, so Gazians can create joint ventures with Egyptian entrepreneurs, build new farms and establish new businesses. The generous international community will help on the way to prosperity.