God, Painkillers, and Politics in Gaza
For the past three years, my hometown in the Gaza Strip has been struggling with an international siege that limits movement and controls the flow of humanitarian aid. In deprived Gaza, the dreams of a million and a half residents on the narrow strip of land are shattered. The situation is worse than most know: 68% of those living in the Gaza Strip are UN-registered refugees, the median age in Gaza is 16.2 and 47% of the population of Gaza is younger than 14.
While politicians bicker in Gaza, Ramallah, Cairo, Tel-Aviv, and DC, my little nephew Baha still struggles with a serious water retention problem in his head. My sister, Shimaa, has been waiting for three years and counting to be reunited with her husband in Norway. My nephew Ahmad walks around with a limp for not being able to get timely medical attention. And these are just the survivors.
Mahir, a relative of mine, passed away recently due to heart and liver failure because he wasn't able to get a transfer and proper medical attention. But Mahir was an older man who had a chance to experience life. 10-year-old Ribhi Jindiyeh, a lymphoma patient, passed away in Gaza because he was not granted permission to seek medical attention -- his dad was found sobbing next to his death bed.
This unmerited and inhuman siege continues to affect and harm the entire population. The siege is intended to make life more difficult for Hamas, but it only seems to affect the destitute children and broken refugees. Unfortunately, Israel's siege is achieving the exact opposite of what it hoped. The tougher life gets, the more spiritual Gazans become, thus driving the people toward religion -- an area Hamas knows a lot about managing.
While most people in Gaza find solace in religion, some have found other ways to escape their misery. As a direct result of despair, poverty, and extremely limited movement, young men and women in Gaza have developed addictions to painkillers and other hallucinogenic drugs. The most popular painkiller in Gaza is known as "Tramadol" which is manufactured in countries like India, Pakistan, Malaysia and China. Tramadol is smuggled through the tunnels and sold dirt cheap; pharmacies now sell it under the table instead of over the counter. Initially these types of drugs were prescribed to people in extreme pain as a result of losing a limb, or suffering from severe injuries from the latest Israeli assault. But now pharmacies are selling these painkillers to high school and college age kids. The local government cracks down on those vendors as much as they can with fines and arrests, but at the end of the day there are much more urgent matters that concern them.
While the current Israeli government promises to make things "better" for the Palestinians in the here and now, they hope to be absolved from any humanitarian aid, future peace negotiations, or final status agreements. The former Israeli government promised a "better" future, but gave Gaza a hellish present. The Palestinians are then left to decide on the lesser of two evils as both offers are inadequate. Unless there is serious movement towards peace, the change in Israeli government all but guarantees that the Palestinians will have neither a peaceful present nor a bright future.
I am sure some will argue that the children are collateral damage, or hostages to a bad government, or even paying with their lives for the election of Hamas. Such cruel and heartless statements do nothing to improve life in Gaza. They do not ease the suffering of starving children, and they certainly do not heal the pain of children struggling with cancer. A sick person in Gaza has to get the approval of three entities if they attempt to seek medical attention: the Israelis who have to clear them, the Egyptians who will likely reject them, and the Palestinian government who will attempt to keep track of them.
While some beg for medical attention, all the residents of Gaza are begging to be free. Nothing of value has yet to materialize for the Palestinians in Gaza despite the US administration's best intentions. In the meantime, all the politicians (Palestinians, Arabs, Europeans, and Americans) spend their time taking credit for how hard they are working to lift the siege on the children of Gaza. Rhetoric seems to mean more to them than results.
My family has been struggling with all the other families in Gaza. They are witness to the transformation of their industrious and proud communities, to a population of unemployed, broken, and beaten people. The vindictive siege on the people of Gaza is a lot like the abuse of painkillers; wrong decisions lead to grave consequences -- a gateway to bigger evils and darker futures.
It may have been P. Diddy who coined the term "Vote or Die," but it took the world community to tell the residents of Gaza and their election of Hamas, "Vote the way we want you to vote, or die."
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The siege of Gaza is a test of Obama's character.
What grade can we give him ?
1. Incomplete ?
2. Failure ?
Well Zaz,
I too was disappointed in the Obama silence on the Israeli war on Gaza; however,
Hillary's new statements which unequivocally come out AGAINST any kind of settlement activity, including even so-called "natural growth" seem very, very good! Will the Obama people keep up the pressure on the Israelis? Let's hope so. I know they & Congress are on the receiving line of many messages from their supporters, constituents against not only the Gaza situation, but the overall Aparathied & totalitarian apparatus that has been constructed to buttress the occupation & theft of land, water. Hani, please continue to get out your narrative about the plight of Palestinian families. It is making a difference in public opinion not only in the world, but finally in the USA. We don't like bullies!
Since the topic of rockets launched into Israel will be a topic.
I read Haaretz News every day, and since the latest cease fire, Israel sources have rarely if ever accused Hamas of firing rockets. Most of the launches have been blamed by ISRAELI sources on groups attached to Fatah. (which the US and Israel controls)
The excuse for the siege now is the release of one soldier held by Hamas. ( Israel's holding of more than 10,000 Palistinians is not an issue)
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Now that Gaza is independent since Israel has withdrawn, it is Hamas' responsibility to take care of its people. Israel will certainly lift the blockade if Hamas recognizes Israel, stops terrorism and sets up a democracy instead of the dictatorship that they currently have. As long as Hamas rules Gaza and as long as it remains a criminal dictatorship, the blockade will continue. Of course Hamas will never do this since they are fundamentalists and fundamentalists never change, they always want their absolute and unreasonable demands. Gazans may have to overthrow them and set up their own government.
Distortion:
Now that Gaza is independent since Israel has withdrawn.
Correction:
Members of the highest-ranking American delegation to tour Gaza were shocked to discover that the Israeli blockade against the Hamas-ruled territory included such food staples as lentils, macaroni and tomato paste.
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Israel is not obligated to feed the people who want to kill Israelis. Who in their right mind would feed their enemies? If Palestinians want to be independent, then they should stop depending on Israel for everything.
We (on planet Earth) are still waiting for the withdrawal you mentioned to take place.
All Jewish residents and Israeli troops have been removed from the Gaza strip years ago. Did you just arrive on planet Earth?
Heartbreaking stories from the occupied front.
If it's any consolation, Hani, more and more people around the world, and especially here in the USA, are learning how to dodge the Israeli PR bullets.
More and more people are wanting justice and justice now for your people.
It will happen.
In our lifetime.
Norway trade union to boycott Israel if peace talks fail'
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Wow, that hurts. I guess we'll have to get herring from another source.
The Palestinian leadership is unique. Unlike most governments with far greater resources which are responsible for taking care of its own people and their needs, the Palestinian leadership in its extreme poverty has to provide services not only for the Palestinian people but also to the Israelis. While the Geneva Conventions rules state that it is the responsibility of the occupiers to provide protection and security to the occupied, Israel has turned this on its head and are forcing the Palestinian leadership to devote its resources to enforce first and foremost security and services for Israel.
I am deeply saddened by your personal account of what's going on. But I will be no different than the politicians who pay this grave issue lip service if after all of what you have shared I'm simply saddened. I've already started to schedule meetings with my representatives, including one who stood up against Israel's assaults but was immediately put in his place by the AIPAC lobby. I'm working on a strategy that I'm hoping will bloom into a grass roots movement. My goal is to remove the anti-Semitism taboo from questioning our unconditional support for Israel and to eradicate this myth that support for Israel is support for the US. A tall order I know, but everybody has to think if not me then who.
Good luck with your efforts. I know many Americans who are fed up with the near 100% support of our Congress for enabling, even encouraging & making possible in EVERY way the conditions under which Palestinians are forced to live & Hani describes so well in this article. Thank you also to Hani for telling the story of his family in Gaza. Very poignant. No thanks to our corporate media, which is complicit with Congress in preventing the American public from fully understanding the plight of the Gazans, esp. in the past 5-6 months. With the media, we can go around the bottleneck, find other & better sources than CNN, ABC & the NYT, but we can't so easily evade the influence of the big pro-Israel lobbies in Washington. President Obama, I hope you are paying attention. My family supported you during the campaign, but we have yet to see any real action to stop the blockade, Caterpillar demolitions of homes , settlements, bypass, barrier & checkpoint apparatus in the region.
So, your point is the people in Gaza have no responsibility for their own circumstances? If they had not elected Hamas, a group of cowards, perhaps Israel would be able to normalize relations. But givewn the current state of affairs we have no obligation to open our border with gaza. Egypt can provide whatever access Gaza needs to the outside world.
In short, the Palestinian leadership is corrupt, incompetent and abuses its own people just like the leaderships of most countries in the ME. The only difference is that in the Palestinian case, it is the fault of everybody else in the world but themselves.
Wow that's some strawman argument you're erecting there.
Arabists are so eager to use this argument and in this case it is just not applicable.
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