MARIÂNGELA BERQUÓ enfoca a Geopolítica: Resistance, ever and ever, against Rogue Israel

Israel has bombed Gaa daily since August 6 "in response" to the launch of harmless balloons fitted with homemade firebombs, or less frequently, homemade rockets that caused no harm and no casualties.

It also suspended fuel shipments and closed its border crossings with the Gaza Strip last week in response to the attacks, resulting in the only power plant in the Gaza Strip being shut down for lack of fuel.

It also restricted the fishery zone on Gaza's coast.

The Gaza Strip has a population of two million, more than half of whom live in poverty, according to the World Bank.

The Palestinian territory has been under a devastating Israeli blockade since 2007.

An Egyptian delegation was trying to broker a return to an informal truce.

Egypt has acted to calm repeated flare-ups in recent years to prevent any repetition of the three wars Israel and Hamas have fought since 2008.

Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day War, but unilaterally pulled out its army and evacuated its settlements in 2005. Israel, however, continues to control much of Gaza's borders, with the rest under Egyptian control in concertation with Tel Aviv.

The excuse for this latest attack on Hamas, has nothing to do with Hamas, actually. In fact, for the past two weeks, a group of seven Palestinian men have camped close to the buffer zone separating the Gaza Strip from Israel in the early hours before dawn.

But this is no ordinary camping trip. Among their supplies are gas cylinders, small inflammable cubes, balloons and Guy Fawkes masks, which they wear to conceal their identity.

The Palestinians call themselves the Barq (Lightning) Unit - one of several groups involved in floating "fire" balloons and kites into Israel.

Hiding between the bushes and olive trees, the men fill the balloons with helium, group them in a bundle, and then attach a small incendiary object to their tail.

Once the wind direction is right, they launch the objects discreetly in the direction of empty areas within Israel that are close to the buffer-zone fence.

The balloons, which Israel has described as "arson attacks", have been causing large fires on some agricultural land.

While no Israelis have been hurt, the airborne devices have prompted Israel to bombard the Gaza Strip for 12 consecutive days - targeting Hamas field training facilities and monitoring points without causing any Palestinian casualties.

"We came here to send a fiery message to the Israeli occupation that we in the Gaza Strip can no longer tolerate the blockade that's been taking place for 13 years," Abu Yousef, the spokesman of the Barq Unit."We would like to send a message that we deserve a decent life to our families and loved ones," the 24-year-old added.

The most senior group member, who goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Obaida, said they turned to these tools to challenge the blockade because they increasingly feel "nobody is looking at Gaza" and resorted to this tactic seeking to "alleviate the miserable situation on Gaza". "The world is looking the other way," the 35-year-old father of five said. "We don't have any enmity with the Jewish people. Our battle is against their government that has been besieging us for 13 years."

In addition to the nightly air raids on the blockaded coastal enclave, Israel has undertaken a series of punitive measures it says is a response to the incendiary balloons.

Last week, Israel closed Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom), Gaza's main commercial crossing. Then on August 17, Israel closed down Gaza’s fishing zone.

The following day, Gaza's sole power plant halted its services as a result of Israel cutting Gaza's fuel imports on Thursday, which brought down the city's electricity intake from eight-12 hours to only three-four hours per day.

Despite the increased measures of collective punishment on the Gaza Strip, the Lightning Unit is adamant it will continue its activities, which members say is a means of pressuring Israel to lift the devastating blockade on Gaza.

Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, generally tolerate the fire balloon floaters despite the violent reprisals by Israel.

"The Palestinian people have a right to resist the Israeli occupation and to raise their voices in any way against the blockade of the Gaza Strip," said Hamas official Bassem Naim. He accused Israel of ignoring agreements mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations. "The result is that the people in Gaza are now living in unprecedented miserable conditions," said Naim. "This is what has pushed some young people to undertake popular resistance actions such as the incendiary balloons, because all other methods to draw attention to what is happening in the Gaza Strip have failed to result in any change."

According to the United Nations, Gaza's blockade was expected to render the besieged city uninhabitable by 2020. The enclave suffers from a severe scarcity of drinkable water, where water contamination has reached 97 percent. Nearly 80 percent of Gaza's population receives some kind of aid, according to the World Bank, while nearly 53 percent has fallen below the poverty line.

The harsh economic conditions have driven the Barq Unit to challenge the status quo, the members said. While they all have university degrees, they are all unemployed - as part of what the World Bank has described as the highest unemployment rate - 45.5 percent - in the world.

"I'm married with three children, but I'm unemployed," Abu Yousef, another member, said. "My children deserve a decent and dignified life. I'm here today because when I look into their eyes, I can only see that I cannot provide for them."

Abu Yousef said he cannot afford to buy the basic necessities for their school, and had to borrow used uniforms from neighbours. "We are not terrorists as Israel claims," Abu Obaida said. "We don't want to burn anything or hurt anybody. I recently graduated in public relations and marketing with top marks but couldn't find a job afterwards. We deserve to have employment opportunities and electricity. My children deserve to find food on the table," he added.

The fire-balloon squads in Gaza were all participants in the "Great March of Return" rallies that began in 2018, when Palestinian refugees gathered peacefully near the fence with Israel in an attempt to return to their pre-1948 homes.

But after Israel brutally put down the demonstrations, the marchers sought other ways to highlight the plight of Gazans.

The Barq Unit stressed its activities are a legitimate response to Israel's crippling blockade.

"We're not asking for astronomical demands but basic rights," Abu Obaida said. "We will continue to use the balloons and kites until Israel complies with our legitimate right to lead a normal life and provide for ourselves."

Another member, Abu Hamza, chimed in: "Our message to the world is to see Gaza for what it is. It is an occupied territory where two million people are living under a suffocating siege. Israel has no right to maintain this situation."

The Barq Unit recognises its activities come with enormous risks to their lives.

"The danger we're facing every day is that the occupation is shooting live fire towards us," Abu Yousef said. "The skies above us are always full of drones. Of course we feel fear, but life as it is in Gaza is more terrible."

He said all Gazans want is a decent life with no blockade, adding, "Until then, Gaza will remain a thorn in the occupation's throat."

"Whoever thinks that we will continue to accept the bleak life that is forced upon us in Gaza is delusional," said Abu Yousef.

PALESTINA

During this century, 2020 seems like a year we would like to remove from our memory. With life being toppled upside down for everybody all over the world due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, forces of evil still find a way to strike again and again.

The Middle East hardly got over the shock of the explosion in Beirut on August 4, and the loss of so many lives along with the destruction of a large area of the city when we got another shock on August 13, with the breaking news of the United Arab Emirates’ recognition of Israel and the normalization of their relationship on all levels.

Why would the Emirates do that at a time when the Palestinians are at their lowest ebb, and they need the support of all their Arab neighbors to sanction Israel instead of allying with it. A promise for full Arab States relationship with Israel was stipulated clearly in the Saudi initiative at the Arab summit meeting in Beirut in March 2002, provided Israel ended its occupation and withdrew from all the Arab territories it occupied 1967, in accordance with Security Council 242 and 338. However, the Israeli occupation has been further entrenched by the establishment of settlements all over the West Bank. So, is the UAE rewarding Israel? Or, is it encouraging other Arab countries to do likewise, and further abandon the Palestinians? It is shameful indeed and no justification is acceptable.

My first reaction was that Israel won once again, and succeeded in driving a wedge in the midst of the Arab countries. All colonial countries are experts on the policy of “divide and rule”. As I know History, I know about this kind of policy during the British Mandate of Palestine and wherever the British Empire ruled. So ever since the creation of the State of Israel which was a byproduct of the British Mandate, such a policy continued to prevail, except that the major player now supporting Israel is the USA since 1948. Without Washington’s unequivocal moral and financial support, Israel could not have been able to maintain the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. And during the term of Donald Trump, the USA has been exceptionally generous with Israel and rewarded it with a United Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Deal of the Century, and this latest UAE initiative.

In the meantime, and very sadly the wedge between the Palestinians continues to prevail. However, the words of Condoleeza Rice, the US Secretary of the Sate from 2005-2009, and who was the National Security Adviser to President George Bush during the invasion of Iraq, become so pertinent at such a time as she had declared at that time that the USA wants to see a New Middle East. Who else but Israel, their ally in the region, who would help them attain that, being Israel’s wish as well? Since then we have seen what happened in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and all the region in general. So with this latest announcement, what else is new?

My second reaction to the deal was that the “wizard” Binyamin Netanyahu, as he was referred to by one of Israeli papers, as well as the business man, Donald Trump, are facing problems and challenges in their political careers and upcoming elections in the US and another possible election in Israel. What better distraction and promotion could they get than striking such a deal at such a time. And especially that all three of them, the UAE, Israel, and the USA share a common enemy – IRAN-.

Yet, I could not help but reflect on the Oslo Accords by which Bill Clinton & Yitzhak Rabin & Shimon Peres deceived Yasser Arafat to the point of making him accept to establish their state on the 1967 borders for the sake of peace. Yasser Arafat was given the impression that his people would have at least one third of their Historical state and the Palestinians were given the impression that peace was really around the corner; their deported young men would be allowed to come back, and the prisoners would be released. In the end, some of the deportees did come back but most of the prisoners are still languishing in Israeli jails, including their greatest living leader Marwan Barghouti.

To start with, the Palestinians recognized Israel, whereas Israel did not recognize the State of Palestine, but it recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization. Representatives of the Palestinian National Council amended the PLO charter to renounce the armed struggle as a means of liberating the country, whereas International law stipulates “the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle”. And the worst part of the deal besides dividing the occupied territories into areas A, B, and C, was to defer the following basic issues, Jerusalem, borders, refugees, and settlements, till the end of the first phase of the negotiations, which was five years.

And the five years went on for four times five, until all negotiations came to an end and the Palestinian Authority cut all relations and coordination with Israel as well as the USA for not being an honest broker. In the meantime, Israel had created a new reality on the ground by establishing settlements all over the occupied territories, and by announcing Jerusalem as its capital and moving the USA embassy to it.

Once again the Palestinians are paying the price. And throughout their history, and despite all the compromises that they have made for the sake of peace, they were never offered a fair deal. They were demanding justice, and they even made a compromise on it and were willing to settle for a relative justice, but even that they were denied, because they were powerless. Yet all along they were being accused of “never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” That opportunity was either a bad one or a worse one. While they have been so powerless under occupation, they still had faith in their just cause and were counting on the international community to pressure Israel to abide by international law and United Nations Resolutions.

However, now they feel that in an era of power and domination, neither justice nor the United Nations resolutions seem to work. As a Palestinian cried out:“Woe to the powerless!” I feel like this exhortation could not be more true than in those times when their cry is not only the cry of the powerless, but a cry in the wilderness, when even their fellow arabs are not listening and selling them out.

Yesterday a friend asked me How come the Palestinians even bother to fight, to go on resisting, but as I know their resilience and determination I know that they will keep on fighting, for they know that amidst all this hopelessness, History has taught us that no injustice or empire can last forever.