At least now the eyes of the world, the press, can see its way in Gaza and send us some credible reports. What is being reported is shocking, shocking enough, I hope, to make the world pay sustained attention and take positive action. This morning NPR was carrying live interviews with people in Gaza. For the first time since the current Gaza war began, reporters from agencies other than Al-Jazeera have been allowed in. We heard from a woman whose three-family house had been destroyed and who was agonizing about where she and her dependents could go. She said she could impose on relatives for a few days, but after that… what? No money, no supplies, no land or house? She said she and her family had never had ties with political groups.. Hamas, Fateh, or anyone else, but that from now on she was backing Hamas. She said there were never terrorists in her house, as Israel claimed. The same claim (that no terrorists had been in his house), was made by a prominent Palestinian MD who spoke fluent Hebrew and had appeared often on Israeli TV before the war. Most of his family had been killed in the last few days of the war, and his case may be taken seriously and provide the press with reason to focus on Gaza for longer than the day or so that such stories normally last in the US/European media.
I still think this is a good time to boycott Israeli goods and services.. as the last possible effective way for the outside world to affect Israeli policy. This policy is neither keeping Israel safe nor honoring morality and international law. I recommend this article from last year as a primer on the stages of Israel’s occupation of Gaza (http://www.merip.org/mero/mero021608.html
Disengagement and the Frontiers of Zionism by Darryl Li
Middle East Report, February 16, 2008)
Li sees the occupation as having proceeded from “Bantustan”, where Gazans were used as cheap labor in Israel, to “Internment Camp”, where Gazans subsisted on inefficient handouts distributed by the UN and had some domestic industry but limited trade and no freedom to travel, to “Animal Pen”, where Israeli goods are just dropped off at the border, like meat left in a lion cage, travel ouside Gaza is all-but-unheard-of, and only inadequate “humanitarian supplies” are allowed in. There is no consideration of letting the Gazans trade and work in any normal way; they are treated as animals in a cage.
The US is responsible for encouraging the Israelis to impose these conditions, so that pressure on the Obama administration could be somewhat effective. Pressure on Israel is possible through a boycott. Hamas is, of course, a violent and unhelpful organization, intent on provoking Israel in hopes of martyrdom in an even-more-violent conflagration, but the ability of Americans and Europeans to affect their actions are virtually non-existent. The people of Gaza must be welcomed into the international community and allowed to rebuild. The woman who said she would back Hamas now that all her hope is gone, must be given concrete reason to hope; hope is the only effective antidote to the quasi-religious violent propaganda of Hamas.Hope will be possible only with a viable Gaza economy and open borders.