Shuja'iyya, Gaza, Winter 2015: a resident walks in what used to be a street. (Anne Paq /
Activestills)
Yes, the same Gaza that reigning Israeli PM "Bibi" Netanyahu had launched two wars against in less than two years... just like his predecessor did before him... (pdf) All cynical murderous failures. All supported by the main opposition, hailed by the mainstream media as "necessary", even "ingenious". All - did I say that already? - Never mind, worth repeating: all cynical murderous failures. Surely at the expense of southwest Israel's residents, including my wife's family; the latest war disrupting many lives as far as the country's main Tel-Aviv metropolis, not to mention several civilians and dozens of soldiers killed. But of course, the main victims have always been Palestinian civilians, and their quest for a semblance of that crazy little thing called "Life".
December 11, 2014: Palestinian woman Safa Fayez, 29, during her rehabilitation treatment session at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City. She was seriously wounded by shrapnel during the war, when IDF shells hit the UN school crowded by hundreds of Palestinians seeking shelter on July 24,2014. She lost her her baby and husband. She was a mother of four. (Heidi Levine/Sipa Press; from
a Washington Post story featuring Heidi's postwar images)
The sanctimonious assertions and promises by Western leaders that "things should improve for the people of Gaza" or "This time is different", made only a few months ago in the war's aftermath have been long forgotten. The locals have come to expect this amnesia. It is a replay of the aftermath to every war and crisis in the past decade: the solemn Western pledges that "This time will be different" are now beyond hollow and farcical. They are part of the torment itself.
This time around, aside from token measures wrested from Israel by Hamas in the ceasefire deal (fishing zone extended from 3 to 6 nautical miles, more permits for humanitarian/academic travel between Gaza and the West Bank, and a few other trinkets), the situation is worse than ever. The reconstruction billions pledged by donor nations to great fanfare, have not been delivered. Most people whose homes were ruined, still live inside their ruins (if somewhat liveable), or in shelters. And of course, even the little concessions agreed upon are being eaten away: Israeli forces are again shooting at farmers near the border, and at fishermen out at sea.
A Palestinian child with a kite stands in front of the destroyed Al Nada towers in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip. The towers had 90 flats (Basel Yazouri/Activestills).
Needless to say, no price is openly demanded from the main perpetrator, Israel's leadership. Price? Here's the price. The price is that the world, while hemming and hawing and lip-servicing, continues to
enforce Israel's open-air-prison policy towards Gaza.
Worthy of note: this policy was unilaterally decided upon by a very small clique of Israeli politicians and generals, with zero open debate in Israel's formal governing bodies. Well, that's par for the Israeli course. This is how major policy directions are set in stone in Israel: behind closed doors, improvised on a whim, with zero foresight, and driven by national traumas and superiority complexes, not to mention bigotry which is always around in heaping quantities.
But no sooner does some ass inside Israel's opaque corridors of real power farts out an idiotic, racist, bloody, eventually counter-productive policy - no sooner that this happens, the entire state apparatus jumps in to enforce and expand and entrench it. And out in the West, especially in the US of A, legions of lobbyists, politicians and ordinary foreign citizens enlist to buttress and "explain" the racist-farted policy and its merits, for eternity.
And it becomes a non-issue, because who wants trouble? You know, openly disputing the policy might "divide Democrats". No. We'd rather have the open-air-prison continue, thank you very much, with a side dish of inevitable frequent bouts of bloodshed and disruption on both sides of the border as well as on the regional and international scene.
Then, the stage is set for the "International Community", in particular the cowardly leaders of Europe (so brave against Greece!), to make a big pantomime show of pretending to push against this policy with all their might, sweating and making faces, while not moving it a single micron.
November 4, 2014: Palestinian bride Anaan El Harazen, 24, sits in the damaged salon of her family’s home as she waits to pose for pictures with family members before her groom comes to take her away for their wedding in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City. (Heidi Levine/Sipa Press)
Blame not the 24/7 news cycle. Believe me, 10 years from now people will still easily remember the dozens of victims publicly beheaded by Da'esh/ISIS. But holding nearly 2 million people in subhuman conditions for years on end, forced into bondage and pauperism by a people that enjoys freedom and prosperity? One of the world's biggest slums, held for the past 8.5, soon 9 years under open-air prison conditions, with repeated military campaigns killing thousands, yes, Mostly Civilians, and not even allowed to rebuild, rather, living in their ruins in the cold and rain - and the entire affair subsidized with your tax dollars and buttressed with American diplomatic muscle? See, you've already forgotten it.
February 9, 2015: A Palestinian girl from the Abu Shanab family prepares tea in the family's makeshift shelter in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza city, Gaza Strip. 18 members of the family live in the shelter located next to their destroyed home. The owner, Rabah Abu Shanab, says: "All the charity organizations are collecting funds for Gaza but the people don't see any of it". (Basel Yazouri/Activestills)
Anyone, aside from Palestinians and activists who care for their cause, remember the unarmed civilian flotilla which was bloodily stopped short of reaching Gaza in 2010? The one after which "Things were going to be different"? Well, things did change somewhat: the flotilla scandal had forced Israel to stop prohibiting dangerous foods such as halva and cardamom from entering Gaza. The discovery of such bans (hiding in plain sight, of course) was too embarrassing for the prison's Western partners to keep pretending there's some plausibly-reasonable policy involved. But other than that, it's all forgotten and business as usual.
Sorry, what did you say? Change the channel please. Oh, silly me, Gaza isn't even showing on any channel. Least of all in Israel, the perpetrating neighbor/ruler. Unless of course, rockets fly out of there. Shhhh, there's an election on in Israel, and of course neither Gaza, nor Occupation, are a "relevant" election topic. There's no daylight on this between the parties who will likely call the shots in the next government. So the story below had, maybe 15 minutes in the national Israeli media, before being brushed aside by campaign noise.
AP Exclusive: High Civilian Death Toll in Gaza House Strikes
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Feb 13, 2015, 2:49 PM ET
The Associated Press examined 247 airstrikes on homes, interviewing witnesses, visiting attack sites and compiling a detailed casualty count. The review found that 508 of the 844 dead — just over 60 percent — were children, women and older men...
... — Among those killed were 96 confirmed or suspected militants — or just over 11 percent of the total — though the actual number could be higher since armed groups have not released detailed casualty lists.
— The remainder of the 240 dead were males between the ages of 16 and 59 whose names did not appear in connection with militant groups on searches of websites or on street posters honoring fighters.
Note the massive downplay in the headline itself (this is an ABC story): very clearly, it should have read something like:
Exclusive AP Investigation Concludes Nearly 90% of Palestinians Killed by Israeli Airstrikes were Civilians. This is how some Israeli news outlets reported it, until the story disappeared after 15 minutes. Note, btw, that these are airstrikes, supposedly far more accurate than artillery shelling which also killed many hundreds of people.
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014: Mohammed Al-Bayoumi, 39, and his son Mahmoud stand on the rubble of their family home in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. A July 31 Israeli airstrike killed 13 people from two families, including his son. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
To be honest, Bibi's main "moderate" challengers (in present-day Israel, this is a gross misnomer) occasionally do criticize him on Gaza: they mock him for not being tough enough, for supposedly ceding a draw "from the jaws of (imagined) victory" in last summer's ceasefire. Other than that, it's all cheerleading and "loyal opposition"; a term that's almost as hollow as the West's lip-service, now that starting a cynical war of choice every 2 years has become standard operating procedure.
You'll have to go further left to find any real opposition to the policy: first the progressive-Zionist Meretz party, which in summer 2014 returned to its standard wish-washy position of half-heartedly supporting, half-heartedly criticizing the war. In fall 2012 Meretz actually took an exception, and boldly opposed that war which happened in the midst of an election campaign; it was nicely rewarded by voters, so one has to wonder why they chickened out again last year. Beyond them, there's the Joint List of mostly-Arab parties. They are the only major political body to openly oppose both the open-air-prison policy, and all its resultant wars. But who listens to the Arabs anyway?
November 7, 2014: Palestinian salvage materials from destroyed homes in the village of Khuza'a, southeastern Gaza Strip, whose center was devastated towards the end of the war. (Anne Paq/Activestills)
So naturally, Gaza in particular and the Occupation in general are not a main topic in the heated Israeli election campaign. A campaign that follows the recent Israeli tradition in one-upping the previous one in its sheer circus-act quality. One cannot escape the conclusion that the campaign itself has become part of the ages-old "Bread and Circus" formula to pacify and distract the willfully ignorant, apathetic masses. The circus is just, I have to admit, too damn entertaining.
So entertaining, that you forget that the the main battle for who'll set up the next government, is between Bibi and a pair of figures (Labor leader and the chameleon-like Zippy Livni) who say out loud that the only difference between them and Bibi on the Occupation and on Gaza, is that they, unlike Bibi, will know how to "explain" those massive crimes better to the world, put a friendly more palatable face on them, and resume the charade of empty "negotiations" with such talent, that the West's governments will be less burdened by a need to issue lip-service, hemming and hawing as they continue to help perpetrate them.
Therefore - goes the "pro-peace", "moderate opposition" party's campaign line - the West will be so grateful for the reduced need to issue Strongly Worded Letters to Israel, that they will embrace us once again. Wow, isn't that a winning campaign schpiel? Sit back and enjoy the show. After all, you've already paid for it.
December 29,2014: Nabil Siyam, 34, who lost his arm and sustained other injuries stands, with his son Badruddin, 5, at their home in Rafah. (Heidi Levine/Sipa Press)
I will write about the elections later, in particular about the Joint (mostly) Arab List, the only solid ray of light in this campaign. But I will also try to stop being part of the problem. Like everyone else, I haven't put Gaza out there enough. Yes, I've donated and supported, in particular the
Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, whose long-standing ties with Occupied Palestine in general and Gaza in particular enable them to offer meaningful aid, solidarity and solace.
But in between the flare-ups, I haven't been in your face about Gaza. It seems that enough people being in everyone's face about Gaza, might well be the only thing that works. Nothing else has worked so far. So I hereby pledge to start doing it.