Gaza

Friday, June 19, 2009

Hi all,

Sharing an article I wrote on the trip to Gaza and the siege. It has been
published on OpEdNews, AfterDowningStreet, Global Research, Ma'an
News Agency and Palestine Telegraph.

It draws largely from the blog, so apologies for the repetition. Just wanted to
get a shorter article out there...

Stephanie

Absurdity Is the Norm in the Gaza Strip

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

Life in Gaza
Medical emergency

Video (3min 53sec): In the first of his three exclusive films for Guardian Unlimited focusing on life in an increasingly isolated Gaza, Clancy Chassay finds hospitals deserted as doctors and nurses are forced to take sides in the political infighting between Hamas and Fatah.
Patients caught up in middle of Fatah and Hamas tug of war

One of the few journalists in Gaza reports on the Fatah-imposed doctors' strike in force last month for a series of exclusive Guardian films.
Background
Inside Gaza: the main players

Conal Urquhart in Gaza City profiles the three main groups vying for power.