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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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 Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 4:23 pm Post subject: Collective Punishment - A prison of a million |
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It seems that Gaza and the West Bank - Palestine, have fallen off the mind map of the world. Meanwhile the horror continues and the place has been turned into even more of a prison than it was.
I consider it a crime that countries do not condone or punish Israel for its actions, financial and political and military, of cordoning off Palestine and not allowing its elected govt to function. A crime that countries are withholding funds and preventing funds from reaching Palestine so that normal folk can buy something to eat and enjoy the most basic of human dignities. A shame. And each hour the U.S. and other military high minded nations lob missles into the oceans "on exercise" worth a million each. Enough to feed all of Palestine for days.
Here is an article subtitled Meanwhile, written by a Palestinian in a fairminded fashion.
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Meanwhile: Gaza, my home and my prison
Laila M. El-Haddad Published: December 13, 2006
GAZA: I awoke to the persistent stammering of my 2-year-old son Yousuf: "I think today the crossing will open, Mama!" Yousuf's prediction came true. After we had waited at the border for over two weeks, Israel finally opened the border for a few hours.
Amid chaotic crowds of thousands of stranded travelers, my son and I managed to squeeze through Gaza's Rafah Crossing from Egypt to reach our home in the Gaza Strip.
The hardships persist, however, for thousands of Palestinians on both the Egyptian and Gaza sides of the passage who were unable to cross during those fleeting hours. They now must wait until the Israeli government temporarily opens the border again.
The Rafah Crossing, the gateway to the world for 1.4 million Gazans, was shut by Israel in late June after Palestinians captured an Israeli soldier. It has been open only for a few days since.
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the region in October, her visit coincided with the one- year anniversary of the Gaza Agreement on Movement and Access that she had brokered. The agreement aimed to facilitate the movement of Palestinian people and goods and to lead to Palestinian control over the Rafah Crossing after one year.
At the time, she proudly promised that it would "give the Palestinian people freedom to move, to trade, to live ordinary lives."
The year has passed, and all our crossings, our air, our water and our lives remain under Israeli control.
Israel began violating its commitments immediately, well before Hamas's election victory, refusing to allow supervised bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank, or to speed the flow of vital goods in and out of Gaza.
Israel had also agreed not to close Rafah and other crossings in response to security incidents unrelated to the crossing itself. For example, according to the agreement, Palestinian rocket fire into Israel does not constitute a valid reason for closing Rafah.
So why close Rafah? Countering Israeli accusations, senior European diplomats told both Israel's Jerusalem Post and Ynet News that there have been no major Palestinian violations of the agreement, and that weapons are not smuggled through the crossing. The European Union has monitors stationed at the crossing pursuant to the border agreement.
An Israeli military document leaked to the Israeli daily Haaretz in August suggested that the closure was in fact calculated. It's purpose was to "apply pressure" on Gaza's residents to return the captured Israeli soldier. This action, says the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, constitutes collective punishment of Gaza's civilian population.
But instead of holding Israel accountable, Rice praised Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel for taking steps likely to "advance the peace processes in the region."
We wait day after day in the Egyptian town of Arish, when suddenly a rumor spreads that the crossing is about to open. We rush there along with thousands of other stranded Palestinians.
We waited for seven hours two days in a row, languishing in limbo, only to learn that the Israelis have closed the crossing again after a single hour. We stand in the sun packed together like cattle, penned in between steel barriers on one end and Egyptian riot police on the other.
"We've been waiting for 15 days. Only God knows when it will open � today, tomorrow, the day after?" 58- year-old Abu Yousuf Barghut tells me.
His wife weeps silently by his side. "We went to seek treatment for him. My four children are waiting for me in Gaza. We just want to return home now, that's all."
Nearby, a group of people try to comfort a young girl with muscular dystrophy, screaming uncontrollably in her wheelchair.
Providing Palestinians with their most basic rights � the right to move freely in and out of their own land � is critical to furthering peace and ensuring a viable Palestinian state.
Yet the world has remained relatively silent � even complicit � as Gaza has been turned into a prison.
Neither Israel, the U.S. government nor the rest of the world can imprison 1.4 million Palestinians and expect that somehow, some way, their "problem" will disappear.
We certainly aren't going anywhere.
Laila M. el-Haddad is a Palestinian journalist, mother and blogger who divides her time between Gaza and the United States. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 4:41 pm Post subject: Re: Collective Punishment - A prison of a million |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
I consider it a crime that countries do not condone or punish Israel for its actions, financial and political and military, of cordoning off Palestine and not allowing its elected govt to function. A crime that countries are withholding funds and preventing funds from reaching Palestine so that normal folk can buy something to eat and enjoy the most basic of human dignities. A shame. And each hour the U.S. and other military high minded nations lob missles into the oceans "on exercise" worth a million each. Enough to feed all of Palestine for days.
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I am in full agreement with you. Over a million people, including children, the sick and the aged are being horribly punished. I've watched this whole thing unfold with disgust and dismay, and have been disappointed by the way it has been pretty much ignored by the mainstream press. I also believed that if ordinary Israeli people truly understood the appalling conditions the occupants of Gaza now live in, the majority of them wouldn't stand for it either. Very young children are regularly going hungry while their parents watch on in desperation, and the sick are no longer able to access medicines and proper healthcare. It is an appalling crime. My own nation has collaborated in this disgusting situation by both its actions and inactions, and frankly I feel shamed.
Here is a related article by Uri Avnery (an Israeli journalist):
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1160914974/
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IS IT possible to force a whole people to submit to foreign occupation by starving it?
That is, certainly, an interesting question. So interesting, indeed, that the governments of Israel and the United States, in close cooperation with Europe, are now engaged in a rigorous scientific experiment in order to obtain a definitive answer.
The laboratory for the experiment is the Gaza Strip, and the guinea pigs are the million and a quarter Palestinians living there.
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:48 pm Post subject: |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
| I consider it a crime that countries do not condone or punish Israel for its actions, financial and political and military, of cordoning off Palestine and not allowing its elected govt to function. |
No.... Really? You consider it a crime that Israel doesn't allow a group whose sole purpose is its destruction run freely and do what it wants?
| Big_Bird wrote: |
| I am in full agreement with you. |
 I don't believe you!
Of course, no blame lies with the government elected in Gaza. No blame lies with the group that had zero political or managerial experience, but was elected anyway out of sheer hatred for Israel.
Palestinian 1: We have two men running for election. One has a PhD from Harvard in political science and a MBA from Stanford. He worked for the president of BlahBlahBlah and is very experienced.
Palestinian 2: OK.
Palestinian 1: The second man has a gun and hates Israel. He can make an IED in 4 minutes and can make a fantastic effigy of George Bush. He has no experience leading a convenience store, much less a struggling government. But, that's a fine looking effigy.
Palestinian 2: OK. I'll vote for him. He's much more qualified.
One year later...
Palestinian 1: Man, this place sucks. None of the government agencies are running or being paid. We keep antagonizing Israel because we have a terrorist organization in control of our country and we keep getting our asses handed to us. Our infrastructure is shoddy because all of the rockets we send into Israel come back ten-fold!
Palestinian 2: I know. I work for the government and I haven't been paid in six months! I see them take the money given by the other Arab countries, but I don�t see where they spend it! I do see a lot of effigies, though. Man, we need to blame someone.
Palestinian 1: I know! Let's blame our incompetent government!
Palestinian 2: What!?!? How can it be their fault! This is all the fault of the Jews! |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:59 pm Post subject: Re: Collective Punishment - A prison of a million |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
| It seems that Gaza and the West Bank - Palestine, have fallen off the mind map of the world. |
I hardly think so. Its on your TV news virtually every day of the year. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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Of course, no blame lies with the government elected in Gaza. No blame lies with the group that had zero political or managerial experience, but was elected anyway out of sheer hatred for Israel.
Palestinian 1: We have two men running for election. One has a PhD from Harvard in political science and a MBA from Stanford. He worked for the president of BlahBlahBlah and is very experienced.
Palestinian 2: OK.
Palestinian 1: The second man has a gun and hates Israel. He can make an IED in 4 minutes and can make a fantastic effigy of George Bush. He has no experience leading a convenience store, much less a struggling government. But, that's a fine looking effigy.
Palestinian 2: OK. I'll vote for him. He's much more qualified.
One year later...
Palestinian 1: Man, this place sucks. None of the government agencies are running or being paid. We keep antagonizing Israel because we have a terrorist organization in control of our country and we keep getting our asses handed to us. Our infrastructure is shoddy because all of the rockets we send into Israel come back ten-fold!
Palestinian 2: I know. I work for the government and I haven't been paid in six months! I see them take the money given by the other Arab countries, but I don�t see where they spend it! I do see a lot of effigies, though. Man, we need to blame someone.
Palestinian 1: I know! Let's blame our incompetent government!
Palestinian 2: What!?!? How can it be their fault! This is all the fault of the Jews! |
You speak in gross generalizations and characature. This is not a problem of "blame" but of humanity. Person to person not gun to gun or nationalism to nationalism.
A man speaks, he shows his ignorance. This applies to your post. If you are looking for a causa sui, there is none. But death continues because of the prevailing attitude of those who speak like you.
DD |
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SPINOZA
Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Location: $eoul
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| Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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Terribly sorry to observe American posters perfectly happy with their dangerous alliance with what is - whether we agree or disagree - one of the world's most controversial states. Unless you are Jewish and some bias towards Israel inevitable and defensible, or unless you're a total Islamophobe and defend Israel solely for this reason, you must be utterly barmy or stupid or both. In fact, if I were an American neutral on the matter, perhaps even - heaven forbid! - indifferent (I assume this is the majority) then I'd consider you and your ilk something of a dangerously parasitic disease on society.
It's a case of with some  |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:56 pm Post subject: |
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In September Ilan Pappe (an Israeli professor of history at Haifa university) wrote about the brutal Israeli onslaught on the citizens of Gaza:
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A genocide is taking place in Gaza. This morning, 2 September, another three citizens of Gaza were killed and a whole family wounded in Beit Hanoun. This is the morning reap, before the end of day many more will be massacred. An average of eight Palestinian die daily in the Israeli attacks on the Strip. Most of them are children. Hundreds are maimed, wounded and paralyzed.
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http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5656.shtml
Since that time missiles aerial bombardment and other military incursions into this densely populated area (one of the most densely populated in the world in fact) has killed 457 people (a quarter of whom are children) and injured more than a thousand others.
In that time, it was only occasionally mentioned in the national newspaper that is delivered to my door 6 days a week. Even the deaths of 18 members of an extended family only got a little coverage. |
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Gamecock
Joined: 26 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:27 pm Post subject: |
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As an American, I have to agree with Spinoza. I worked in the West Bank and Gaza for over 2 years with a relief organization. Although I don't condone the actions of suicide bombers, I have seen firsthand the desperation these people live in and I understand what gets them to that point. I have no doubt that most Americans and people like Pligganease (cute name, by the way...you're a great one to speak about racial sensitivity) would act in a similar manner as the Palestinians if they found themselves in such an oppressive situation.
I cannot fathom the logical reasons for the ongoing political and military support of Israel by my nation. The primary reason it goes on is a twisted religious tie that American Christendom feels it has with "God's Chosen People" of the Old Testament, and the idea that somehow to not support Israel is to be an enemy of God! Some holocaust guilt and Jewish-American influence keep it going, as well as good old-fashioned racism. |
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 1:05 am Post subject: |
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| Ahh, I get it. If I put all the blame on the Jews, I'm not a racist. Right? |
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Gamecock
Joined: 26 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:00 am Post subject: |
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| I'm not saying Israel should get all the blame at all...Yet I suspect the unwavering support for Israel by the US government may have a little (not the primary reason) to do with the fact that most Israelis (at least the faces of the leaders in the press) are white, while everyone else in the region is not...It's an ugly thing to ponder, but something we haven't quite outgrown even in the 21st century. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:23 am Post subject: |
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I see the racist loons have filled up this board in my absence.
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| I consider it a crime that countries do not condone or punish Israel for its actions |
Ddeubel you should be ashamed.
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| frankly I feel shamed. |
Oh please. How is it that inaction over darfur does not even show on your radar scale? Blinkers off now miss bird: the palestinian govt if they really cared for the future of their people, would have concentrated on wise governance, making peace with their neighbours, and stop spouting off about war and buying weaponry. If the nearby rich Arab nations cared a jot about their brothers, Oil money would have developed palestine a long time ago. |
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Gamecock
Joined: 26 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:31 am Post subject: |
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Junior,
By your avatar, I'd say you are as unbiased on this topic as I am! 
Do you know that IDF Babe? |
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 5:10 am Post subject: |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
| Quote: |
Of course, no blame lies with the government elected in Gaza. No blame lies with the group that had zero political or managerial experience, but was elected anyway out of sheer hatred for Israel.
Palestinian 1: We have two men running for election. One has a PhD from Harvard in political science and a MBA from Stanford. He worked for the president of BlahBlahBlah and is very experienced.
Palestinian 2: OK.
Palestinian 1: The second man has a gun and hates Israel. He can make an IED in 4 minutes and can make a fantastic effigy of George Bush. He has no experience leading a convenience store, much less a struggling government. But, that's a fine looking effigy.
Palestinian 2: OK. I'll vote for him. He's much more qualified.
One year later...
Palestinian 1: Man, this place sucks. None of the government agencies are running or being paid. We keep antagonizing Israel because we have a terrorist organization in control of our country and we keep getting our asses handed to us. Our infrastructure is shoddy because all of the rockets we send into Israel come back ten-fold!
Palestinian 2: I know. I work for the government and I haven't been paid in six months! I see them take the money given by the other Arab countries, but I don�t see where they spend it! I do see a lot of effigies, though. Man, we need to blame someone.
Palestinian 1: I know! Let's blame our incompetent government!
Palestinian 2: What!?!? How can it be their fault! This is all the fault of the Jews! |
You speak in gross generalizations and characature. This is not a problem of "blame" but of humanity. Person to person not gun to gun or nationalism to nationalism.
A man speaks, he shows his ignorance. This applies to your post. If you are looking for a causa sui, there is none. But death continues because of the prevailing attitude of those who speak like you.
DD |
Someone touch the needle! The record is skipping!
You say the same crap all the time. The stories don't matter. The ideas don't matter. Only MY ideas matter and are correct!
Death continues because of people like me? I think death continues because of people like you. People that turn a blind eye to violence and allow violence to go on unchecked are the reason that violence continues.
You don't see any fault with the Palestinians? While my little story was highly simplified, it does spell out what happened when the Palestinians were allowed to choose their destiny.
You say that my post shows ignorance. I say your posts show dumassity.
I guess if, like you, I was able to feign ignorance long enough to overlook all of the wrongs done on one side to in order to cast total blame on the other everything would be just fine. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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