B'Tselem : Lethal ambiguity, rules of engagement in the IDF (9')
"The bottom line is that the orders are unclear. They are confusing.
And when orders are unclear, people die".
Actually, people die because soldiers and settlers kill them".
Belém e outras cidades da Cisjordânia continuavam ocupadas, patrulhadas e terrorizadas pela IDF, como mostra o No Comment, abaixo, no dia 05 de dezembro.
Women block the destruction of Olive trees (9')
Eu vou aproveitar o fim de 2007 para fazer um balanço desse ano.
Em luta intestina, morreram cerca de 344 palestinos de janeiro a junho. Quase todos na Faixa de Gaza. Cerca de 73 deles eram alheios ao combate fratricida entre o Fatah e o Hamas.
Segundo a ONG israelense de Direitos Humanos B'Tselem, ativa nos territórios palestinos ocupados, o número de mortos no conflito caiu durante o ano.
O verbo cair denota otimismo, mas os números continuavam altos e as mortes ainda mais arbitrárias. Sem contar as dezenas de palestinos - adultos e meninos - nos quais os soldados da IDF atiram em lugares estratégicos do corpo para que fiquem com deficiências físicas irrecuperáveis, já que bloqueiam o socorro nas barragens e os feridos demoram a receber a assistência médica necessária. Já era praxe atirar direto na espinha dos adultos e nos joelhos das crianças para deixá-los aleijados. Este crime "banal" já deixara de ser notícia porque o número já era elevado demais. A mídia se cansa rápido de fatos repetitivos.
Em 2007, a IDF matou 373 palestinos - 290 na Faixa de Gaza e 83 na Cisjordânia. 53 deles eram menores de idade. No absoluto, o número de mortos foi elevado, mas é verdade que comparado com 2006, houve uma baixa. Em 2006, a IDF matara 657 palestinos, inclusive 140 menores: 523 em Gaza e 134 na Cisjordânia.
Houve uma redução também no número de civis palestinos assassinados. Em 2006, a IDF deu cabo de 348 totalmente alheios à resistência, o que consistia 54 por cento. Em 2007, a porcentagem caiu para 35 por cento.
Em teoria, a redução não singnificava que a IDF resolveu pegar menos pesado e sim que nos primeiros meses de 2007 deixara o confronto entre o Fatah e o Hamas, que induzira junto com o Quarteto, matar em seu lugar. De fato, proporcionalmente no tempo, houve um aumento das agressões israelenses.
Todas as vítimas palestinas foram mortas dentro da Cisjordânia e da Faixa de Gaza.
Por outro lado, os palestinos mataram 13 israelenses. Seis soldados nos territórios palestinos ocupados; cinco civis nas cidades israelenses de Eilat e Sderot, e dois colonos judeus para-militares em troca de tiros na Cisjordânia. Aí também houve uma baixa, pois em 2006, os palestinos mataram 17 civis ou semi-civis israelenses dentro e fora de seu Estado.
Durante o ano que estava terminando, houve um aumento de 13 por cento no número de palestinos em "prisão administrativa", que é a detenção sem julgamento e sem acusação formal. Estes 13% de aumento representam, em gente, 830 pessoas de todas as idades.
152 casas de famílias palestinas foram demolidas arbitrariamente na Cisjordânia; 62 delas em Jerusalém.
289 famílias palestinas foram expulsas de suas residências em Jerusalém para que imigrantes judeus fossem instalados.
Documentário B'Tselem
Separation barriers consequences for farmers (4')
Apesar de Israel e o Quarteto terem iludido Mahmoud Abbas com promessas de melhora para que ele combatesse o Hamas, as barreiras ficaram firmes em seus lugares. 66 checkpoints e 459 roadblocks controlavam o movimento dos palestinos na Cisjordânia.
O número de checkpoints, uma média de 102 - quase não mudou em relação ao ano anterior. Dos 66 que controlam o movimento dentro da Cisjordânia, 16 são dentro de Hebron e 36 estão na fronteira real, ou seja, na Linha Verde. Os demais são "móveis". Dezenas deles nem são computados por serem "improvisados". No intuito de azucrinar a vida dos moradores com a surpresa de terem de dar volta de quilômetros para chegar à escola ou ao trabalho, quando não ao médico ou ao mercado.
Em novembro, a fim de dar pelo menos alguma margem de manobra a Mahmoud Abbas com seus compatriotas, houve uma baixa pontual do número de checkpoints móveis. De 141 para 69. Mas correu o boato que a medida era provisória.
Os roadblocks que limitam o acesso às estradas e o trânsito para os checkpoints ficaram. Estes vinham aumentando nos últimos anos e aumentaram também em 2007. Eram uma média de 410 em 2005, 445 em 2006 e 459 em 2007. Além disso, Israel proibia e limitava então o trânsito dos palestinos em 300 quilômetros de estradas dentro da Cisjordânia. O objetivo da medida era proceder a fragmentação geográfica e prejudicar uma administração central eficaz e coesa.
O sistema de separação, de fato, visava e visa prejudicar tudo: saúde, economia, famílias e serviços municipais.
Em novembro, a fim de dar pelo menos alguma margem de manobra a Mahmoud Abbas com seus compatriotas, houve uma baixa pontual do número de checkpoints móveis. De 141 para 69. Mas correu o boato que a medida era provisória.
Os roadblocks que limitam o acesso às estradas e o trânsito para os checkpoints ficaram. Estes vinham aumentando nos últimos anos e aumentaram também em 2007. Eram uma média de 410 em 2005, 445 em 2006 e 459 em 2007. Além disso, Israel proibia e limitava então o trânsito dos palestinos em 300 quilômetros de estradas dentro da Cisjordânia. O objetivo da medida era proceder a fragmentação geográfica e prejudicar uma administração central eficaz e coesa.
O sistema de separação, de fato, visava e visa prejudicar tudo: saúde, economia, famílias e serviços municipais.
Documentário B'Tselem (7')
West Bank road for Israelis Only
Outra enganação foi em relação às colônias. Em vez de gelá-las como prometido, Israel continuou a aprovar invasões de centenas de famílias judias. O aumento de invasores civis foi de 4.5 por cento comparado com 1.5 por cento no ano precedente.
Nesse ínterim, Israel continuou a negar aos palestinos a prerrogativa de reunificação familiar, proibindo dezenas de milhares de palestinos o direito de uma vida em família. Só permitiu, em um "gesto de boa vontade" a reunião de 3.500 famílias. O que comparado a 4 milhões é uma gota d'água.
Concomitantemente, Israel prosseguiu sua campanha surreal de "direito de retorno". Ao mesmo tempo que impedia os palestinos da diáspora de voltar para casa, incitava dezenas de milhares de judeus estrangeiros a se instalarem em terras alheias, dos nativos palestinos, como se invadir terra de outrem não fosse uma usurpação concreta e sim um "retorno", mais do que abstrato, a um lugar que nunca lhe pertenceu nem a seus ancestrais.
Por outro lado, Israel continuou a devorar Jerusalém Oriental demolindo mais 69 casas de famílias palestinas para instalar os imigrantes sionistas.
Na questão hídrica, os palestinos também foram prejudicados com a mesma intensidade. Os colonos judeus receberam a água que precisavam e até para coisas supérfluas como piscinas, etcétera, em detrimento dos cisjordanianos que continuaram a sofrer restrição draconiana ao consumo da água que sai de seus próprios poços artesianos. Alguns vilarejos foram privados até de água parar beber. A carência foi enorme, e o verão foi árduo.
Nesse ínterim, Israel continuou a negar aos palestinos a prerrogativa de reunificação familiar, proibindo dezenas de milhares de palestinos o direito de uma vida em família. Só permitiu, em um "gesto de boa vontade" a reunião de 3.500 famílias. O que comparado a 4 milhões é uma gota d'água.
Concomitantemente, Israel prosseguiu sua campanha surreal de "direito de retorno". Ao mesmo tempo que impedia os palestinos da diáspora de voltar para casa, incitava dezenas de milhares de judeus estrangeiros a se instalarem em terras alheias, dos nativos palestinos, como se invadir terra de outrem não fosse uma usurpação concreta e sim um "retorno", mais do que abstrato, a um lugar que nunca lhe pertenceu nem a seus ancestrais.
Por outro lado, Israel continuou a devorar Jerusalém Oriental demolindo mais 69 casas de famílias palestinas para instalar os imigrantes sionistas.
Na questão hídrica, os palestinos também foram prejudicados com a mesma intensidade. Os colonos judeus receberam a água que precisavam e até para coisas supérfluas como piscinas, etcétera, em detrimento dos cisjordanianos que continuaram a sofrer restrição draconiana ao consumo da água que sai de seus próprios poços artesianos. Alguns vilarejos foram privados até de água parar beber. A carência foi enorme, e o verão foi árduo.
Documentário B'Tselem (1')
Separation Wall cuts off Palestinian children from school
O muro corta o caminho dos meninos de Tel'Adasa,
no leste do município de Jerusalém, e sua escola em Bir Nebala.
Como na maioria dos municípios da Cisjordânia. Quando não é o muro são os checkpoints.
Documentário B'Tselem (3')
Settlements and Palestinan Water suplly
Bidu-Qatanna, vilarejo do município de Ramallah, é privada de água como dezenas de áreas dos territórios palestinos ocupados. Mekorot, a companhia israelense de água, fornece apenas a metade da água necessária à sobrevivência dos 50 mil habitantes. Enquanto os colonos judeus nadam em suas piscinas.
Concomitantemente, a impunidade de Israel foi flagrante em todos os domínios.
A IDF continuou fazendo o que queria e quisesse na maior impunidade. Os tribunais civis e militares demonstraram a mesma relutância dos anos anteriores em investigar e processar seus concidadãos civis e militares responsáveis por crimes cometidos nos territórios palestinos ocupados.
E nenhum palestino recebeu as devidas compensações por desapropriação e pelos inúmeros ferimento sarbitrários. Embora o número de queixas tivesse aumentado.
Quanto à Faixa de Gaza, continuava bloqueada por terra, ar e mar. A maior prisão do planeta. Um campo de concentração com nuâncias enganosas, onde se mata a fogo lento, através da água semi-potável, esfomeando o suficiente para adoecer em grande escala, empobrecer sem "miseralizar". Com todo o cuidado de manter o estatuto de vítimas mesmo cometendo barbaridades.
Com a corda no pescoço, o Hamas conseguiu formalizar acordos com todas as facções da resistência na Faixa a fim que parassem de lançar seus foguetes artesanais do lado de lá da cerca/muro com a condição que Israel parasse de atacá-los. O Hamas concordou também em negociar a troca de prisioneiros. Ehud Olmert recusou o cessar-fogo proposto dizendo que "O Estado de Israel não tem interesse em negociar com entidades que não acatem as demandas do Quarteto". A bom entendedor, não haveria cessar-fogo a não ser que o Hamas se submetesse unilateralmente a todas as exigências que Israel fazia através do venal Tony Blair. Não era que o governo de Israel não acreditasse na palavra do Hamas, era que não se interessava em paz com o Hamas e sim em esmagá-lo junto com a Faixa de Gaza, pois as eleições nacionais se aproximavam.
B'Tselem: Efeitos da ocupação israelense (1'33)
No dia 27 de dezembro, às 9:20 a IDF usou seus drones para teleguiar mísseis para prosseguir sua campanha de assassinatos na Faixa de Gaza. Estes mataram Muhammad Murshid Abu Abdullah, de 33 anos, um dos chefes da ala militar do Jihad Islâmico, as Brigadas Saraya al-Quds, seu guarda-costas Abudullah Ali al-Loh, 27, e feriram uma terceira pessoa.
Às 17:30, aviões de combate bombardearam um carro em movimento na rua Salah al-Din próxima do campo de refugiados Nusairat matando Mohammad Ahmed Abu Hasanien de 40 anos, ferindo gravemente Mohammad Fawzi Abu Hasanien, 30; e três passantes, dentre estes duas crianças.
No mesmo dia, por volta do meio-dia, veículos armados da IDF invadiram o bairro Abasan al-Kabeera em Khan Younis enquanto helicópteros de combate distraíam com bombardeios do alto. Os soldados invadiram várias casas depredando e as confiscando para uso "militar". Como fazem sistematicamente na Cisjordânia. Por volta das 15:30 chegou a notícia que Hani Ramzi Abu Eid, de 20 anos, sucumbira aos ferimentos de shrapnel - bombinhas fragmentadas. Meia hora mais tarde um outro avião da IDF lançou outro míssil matando Muhammad Faraj al-Masry, de 27 anos; Haitham Talal Abu Hamdan Ela, de 25; e ferindo duas outras pessoas. Quatro outras ficaram feridas durante a investida, inclusive dois meninos. Às 16:30 os caterpillars armados demoliram 80 dunums de terra cultivada e uma casa.
O Al Mezan Center for Human Rights voltou a condenar as agressões contra as áreas densamente populadas da Faixa, o bloqueio que sufocava seus moradores, e pediu que a comunidade internacional interviesse nas repetidas infrações israelenses das leis internacionais. "These attacks constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and cause deterioration of the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)". Al Mezan ressaltou junto aos assinantes da Quarta Convenção de Genebra "the need to uphold their obligations and take necessary actions and measures to ensure Israel’s respect of its obligations under the Convention" e solicitou "those parties to intervene immediately and effectively for the international protection of Palestinian civilians in the OPT, especially in the Gaza Strip. The IOF continues to impose siege and collective punishment on the Palestinian population, and increases acts of murder, conducts that are prohibited by the Convention in all cases".
Falou a ouvidos moucos. O Ano Novo chegaria, mas a situação em vez de melhorar, pioraria.
B'Tselem: Separation Wall, testimony.
Depoimento sobre o Muro de separação
Depoimento sobre o Muro de separação
"The most famous words ever spoken in Gaza were the last words of Samson (Judges, 16,30): Let me die with the Philistines!"
According to the Biblical story, Samson took hold of the central pillars of the Philistine temple and brought down the whole building upon the Lords of the Philistines, the people of Gaza and himself. The teller of the story sums it all up: "So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life."
A story of suffering, destruction and death...
...The people of Gaza are worried. The Hamas fighters are preparing for action. The chiefs of the Israeli army are both worried and preparing for action.
For months now, the political and military leaders of Israel have been discussing the "big operation": a massive invasion of the Gaza Strip in order to put an end to the launching of rockets into Israel.
The army chiefs, who are usually raring to go into battle, are not eager this time. Not at all. They want to avoid it at almost any cost. But they are fatalistic. Everything now depends on blind chance. For example, if tomorrow a Qassam rocket falls on a house in Sderot and kills a whole family, there will be such an outcry in Israel that the government may feel compelled to give the order, even against its better judgment.
For every Israeli military or political planner, the Gaza strip is a nightmare. It is about 40 km long and 10 km wide. In this 360 square kilometers of parched desert, hardly twice the area of Washington DC, there are crowded 1.5 million human beings, almost all of them destitute, who have nothing to lose, headed by a militant religious movement. (It might be remembered that in the 1948 war, the Jewish community in Palestine amounted to less than 650 thousand people.)...
...According to the estimate of our military, an invasion of the Gaza Strip may cost the lives of a hundred Israeli soldiers and thousands of Palestinian fighters and civilians. The Israeli army will deploy tanks and armored bulldozers, and the world will see terrible pictures - the same kind of pictures that our army tried to suppress and that caused a world-wide outcry against the "Jenin Massacre" during the 2002 "Defensive Shield" operation.
Nobody can know how this operation will develop. Perhaps the Palestinian resistance will collapse after all, and the predictions of numerous Israeli casualties will be proved false. But it is also possible that Gaza will turn into a Palestinian Massada, a kind of mini-Stalingrad. This week, in one of the "routine" incursions by the Israeli army, an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) penetrated one of the renowned Israeli-produced Merkava Mark-3 tanks, and it was a miracle that the four crew members were not killed. In a big, bloody battle, such miracles cannot be relied on.
The nightmare does not end there. No doubt, the Israeli army will overcome the resistance, whatever the price on both sides, perhaps by demolishing whole neighborhoods and massive slaughter. But what then?
If the army leaves the strip quickly, the situation will revert to what it was before and the launching of the Qassam rockets will be resumed (if it stops at all). That would mean that the whole operation will have been in vain. If the army remains there - what alternative would it have? - it will be compelled to take on the full responsibility of an occupation regime: feeding the population, running the social services, establishing security. All this in a situation of a vigorous and ongoing guerilla war, which will turn the lives of both occupier and occupied into hell.
For an occupier, Gaza has always been problematic. The Israeli army has left it three times already, and each time the joy was great. "Gaza - goodbye and good riddance!" was always a popular slogan. When Israel made peace with the Egyptians, they adamantly refused to accept Gaza back at all.
It is no accident that both intifadas started in Gaza. (The first, exactly 20 years ago this week, broke out when an Israeli truck collided with two cars full of Palestinian workers, which Palestinians took to be a deliberate Israeli reprisal. The second exploded after Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the Temple Mount, when Israeli policemen shot and killed outraged Muslim protesters.)
The Hamas movement itself, which is today celebrating its 20th anniversary, was born - also no accident - in Gaza.
No wonder that our army chiefs shrink back from re-conquering the Gaza Strip. They do not relish the idea of playing the role of the Lords of the Philistines in the story of the Palestinian Samson.
The problem is that nobody knows how to undo the Gordian knot left behind by Ariel Sharon, that master-weaver of such knots.
Sharon initiated the "Separation Plan" - one of the worst follies in the annals of this state, which are so rich with follies.
As will be remembered, Sharon dismantled the settlements and evacuated the Strip without a dialogue with the Palestinians and without turning the territory over to the Palestinian Authority. He did not leave the inhabitants of the Strip any possibility of leading a normal life, but turned the territory into a giant prison. All connections with the outside world were cut - the Israeli navy cut the sea lanes, the border with Egypt was effectively sealed, the airport remained destroyed, the building of a harbor was prevented by force. The promised "safe passage" between the Strip and the West Bank was hermetically sealed, all crossings in and out of the Strip remained under total Israeli control, to be opened and closed arbitrarily. The employment of tens of thousands of Gazan workers in Israel, on which the livelihood of almost the entire Strip depended, was terminated.
The next chapter was inevitable: Hamas took military control over the Strip, without the helpless politicians in Ramallah being able to intervene. From the Strip, Qassam rockets and mortar shells were launched at the neighboring Israeli towns and villages, without the Israeli army being able to stop them. One of the most powerful armies in the world, with the most sophisticated weapons, is unable to counter one of the most primitive weapons on earth.
Thus a vicious circle was set up: the Israelis choke the people in the Strip, Gazan fighters bombard the Israeli town Sderot, the Israeli army reacts by killing Palestinian fighters and civilians, the people from Gaza launch mortars at the kibbutzim, the army carries out incursions and kills Palestinian fighters daily and nightly, Hamas brings in more effective anti-tank weapons - and no end in sight.
An ordinary Israeli has no idea of what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The disconnection is absolute. No Israeli can enter the Strip, almost no Palestinian can get out.
This is the way most Israelis see things: We left Gaza. We dismantled all the settlements there, in spite of the fact that this caused us a profound national crisis. And what happens? The Palestinians just keep shooting at us from inside the strip and turn life in Sderot into hell. We have no alternative but to turn their lives, too, into hell, in order to get them to stop.
This week I heard a report from one of the most credible individuals in Gaza - Dr. Eyad Sarraj - a well-known psychiatrist, peace and human rights activist. Here are some of the things he told a small circle of Israeli peace activists: Israel blocks all imports into the strip, except for a short list of about half a dozen basic articles. 900 trucks used to be employed daily for the imports and exports of the Gaza Strip, now their number is reduced to 15. For example, no soap is allowed in.
Local water is undrinkable. Israel does not let in bottled water. Nor does Israel allow the importation water pumps. The price of water filters has gone up from $40 to $250, there are no spare parts at all for filters. Only the well-to-do can still afford them. However, chlorine is let in.
There is no import of cement. When there is a hole in the ceiling, it cannot be repaired. The building site for the children's hospital stands silent. There are no spare parts of any kind. A medical instrument that goes out of order cannot be repaired. Not even incubators for babies or dialysis equipment.
The severely sick cannot reach hospital - neither in Israel, nor in Egypt or Jordan. The few permits issued are often delivered after a deadly delay. In many instances, patients are condemned to death.
Students cannot reach their universities abroad. Foreign citizens who happened to be visiting Gaza cannot get out if they have a Palestinian ID. Palestinians who have contracts to work abroad are not allowed to leave. Some Palestinians were allowed to pass through Israel on the way to Egypt, but were not allowed in by the Egyptian authorities and had to return to Gaza.
Practically all enterprises have been closed and their workers thrown onto the street for lack of raw materials. For example, the Coca Cola factory has closed down. After 60 years of occupation - first by the Egyptians and than the Israelis - almost nothing is produced in the Strip, except oranges, strawberries, tomatoes and the like.
Prices in the Gaza Strip have risen sky-high - fivefold and even tenfold. Life is now more expensive in Gaza than in Tel-Aviv. The black market is flourishing.
How do people exist? The members of extended families help each other. Well-to-do people support their relatives. UNRWA brings in the most basic foodstuffs and distributes them to the refugees, who are the majority of the inhabitants.
Is there another way out besides a massive invasion? Of course there is. But it requires imagination, boldness and a readiness to act contrary to established patterns.
An immediate cease-fire can be achieved. According to all the indications, Hamas, too, is ready for it, provided that it is general: both sides must stop all military actions, including "targeted liquidations" and the launching of Qassams and mortar shells. The crossings must be opened for free movement of goods in both directions. The passage between the Strip and the West Bank must be opened, as well as the border between the Strip and Egypt.
Such a calming of the situation may encourage the two competing Palestinian governments - Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza - to start a new dialogue, under the auspices of Egypt or Saudi Arabia, in order to heal the rift and set up a unified Palestinian national leadership that will have the authority to sign peace agreements.
In place of the cry "Let me die with the Philistines", let us take the words of Dylan Thomas: "And death shall have no dominion!"
A story of suffering, destruction and death...
...The people of Gaza are worried. The Hamas fighters are preparing for action. The chiefs of the Israeli army are both worried and preparing for action.
For months now, the political and military leaders of Israel have been discussing the "big operation": a massive invasion of the Gaza Strip in order to put an end to the launching of rockets into Israel.
The army chiefs, who are usually raring to go into battle, are not eager this time. Not at all. They want to avoid it at almost any cost. But they are fatalistic. Everything now depends on blind chance. For example, if tomorrow a Qassam rocket falls on a house in Sderot and kills a whole family, there will be such an outcry in Israel that the government may feel compelled to give the order, even against its better judgment.
For every Israeli military or political planner, the Gaza strip is a nightmare. It is about 40 km long and 10 km wide. In this 360 square kilometers of parched desert, hardly twice the area of Washington DC, there are crowded 1.5 million human beings, almost all of them destitute, who have nothing to lose, headed by a militant religious movement. (It might be remembered that in the 1948 war, the Jewish community in Palestine amounted to less than 650 thousand people.)...
...According to the estimate of our military, an invasion of the Gaza Strip may cost the lives of a hundred Israeli soldiers and thousands of Palestinian fighters and civilians. The Israeli army will deploy tanks and armored bulldozers, and the world will see terrible pictures - the same kind of pictures that our army tried to suppress and that caused a world-wide outcry against the "Jenin Massacre" during the 2002 "Defensive Shield" operation.
Nobody can know how this operation will develop. Perhaps the Palestinian resistance will collapse after all, and the predictions of numerous Israeli casualties will be proved false. But it is also possible that Gaza will turn into a Palestinian Massada, a kind of mini-Stalingrad. This week, in one of the "routine" incursions by the Israeli army, an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) penetrated one of the renowned Israeli-produced Merkava Mark-3 tanks, and it was a miracle that the four crew members were not killed. In a big, bloody battle, such miracles cannot be relied on.
The nightmare does not end there. No doubt, the Israeli army will overcome the resistance, whatever the price on both sides, perhaps by demolishing whole neighborhoods and massive slaughter. But what then?
If the army leaves the strip quickly, the situation will revert to what it was before and the launching of the Qassam rockets will be resumed (if it stops at all). That would mean that the whole operation will have been in vain. If the army remains there - what alternative would it have? - it will be compelled to take on the full responsibility of an occupation regime: feeding the population, running the social services, establishing security. All this in a situation of a vigorous and ongoing guerilla war, which will turn the lives of both occupier and occupied into hell.
For an occupier, Gaza has always been problematic. The Israeli army has left it three times already, and each time the joy was great. "Gaza - goodbye and good riddance!" was always a popular slogan. When Israel made peace with the Egyptians, they adamantly refused to accept Gaza back at all.
It is no accident that both intifadas started in Gaza. (The first, exactly 20 years ago this week, broke out when an Israeli truck collided with two cars full of Palestinian workers, which Palestinians took to be a deliberate Israeli reprisal. The second exploded after Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the Temple Mount, when Israeli policemen shot and killed outraged Muslim protesters.)
The Hamas movement itself, which is today celebrating its 20th anniversary, was born - also no accident - in Gaza.
No wonder that our army chiefs shrink back from re-conquering the Gaza Strip. They do not relish the idea of playing the role of the Lords of the Philistines in the story of the Palestinian Samson.
The problem is that nobody knows how to undo the Gordian knot left behind by Ariel Sharon, that master-weaver of such knots.
Sharon initiated the "Separation Plan" - one of the worst follies in the annals of this state, which are so rich with follies.
As will be remembered, Sharon dismantled the settlements and evacuated the Strip without a dialogue with the Palestinians and without turning the territory over to the Palestinian Authority. He did not leave the inhabitants of the Strip any possibility of leading a normal life, but turned the territory into a giant prison. All connections with the outside world were cut - the Israeli navy cut the sea lanes, the border with Egypt was effectively sealed, the airport remained destroyed, the building of a harbor was prevented by force. The promised "safe passage" between the Strip and the West Bank was hermetically sealed, all crossings in and out of the Strip remained under total Israeli control, to be opened and closed arbitrarily. The employment of tens of thousands of Gazan workers in Israel, on which the livelihood of almost the entire Strip depended, was terminated.
The next chapter was inevitable: Hamas took military control over the Strip, without the helpless politicians in Ramallah being able to intervene. From the Strip, Qassam rockets and mortar shells were launched at the neighboring Israeli towns and villages, without the Israeli army being able to stop them. One of the most powerful armies in the world, with the most sophisticated weapons, is unable to counter one of the most primitive weapons on earth.
Thus a vicious circle was set up: the Israelis choke the people in the Strip, Gazan fighters bombard the Israeli town Sderot, the Israeli army reacts by killing Palestinian fighters and civilians, the people from Gaza launch mortars at the kibbutzim, the army carries out incursions and kills Palestinian fighters daily and nightly, Hamas brings in more effective anti-tank weapons - and no end in sight.
An ordinary Israeli has no idea of what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The disconnection is absolute. No Israeli can enter the Strip, almost no Palestinian can get out.
This is the way most Israelis see things: We left Gaza. We dismantled all the settlements there, in spite of the fact that this caused us a profound national crisis. And what happens? The Palestinians just keep shooting at us from inside the strip and turn life in Sderot into hell. We have no alternative but to turn their lives, too, into hell, in order to get them to stop.
This week I heard a report from one of the most credible individuals in Gaza - Dr. Eyad Sarraj - a well-known psychiatrist, peace and human rights activist. Here are some of the things he told a small circle of Israeli peace activists: Israel blocks all imports into the strip, except for a short list of about half a dozen basic articles. 900 trucks used to be employed daily for the imports and exports of the Gaza Strip, now their number is reduced to 15. For example, no soap is allowed in.
Local water is undrinkable. Israel does not let in bottled water. Nor does Israel allow the importation water pumps. The price of water filters has gone up from $40 to $250, there are no spare parts at all for filters. Only the well-to-do can still afford them. However, chlorine is let in.
There is no import of cement. When there is a hole in the ceiling, it cannot be repaired. The building site for the children's hospital stands silent. There are no spare parts of any kind. A medical instrument that goes out of order cannot be repaired. Not even incubators for babies or dialysis equipment.
The severely sick cannot reach hospital - neither in Israel, nor in Egypt or Jordan. The few permits issued are often delivered after a deadly delay. In many instances, patients are condemned to death.
Students cannot reach their universities abroad. Foreign citizens who happened to be visiting Gaza cannot get out if they have a Palestinian ID. Palestinians who have contracts to work abroad are not allowed to leave. Some Palestinians were allowed to pass through Israel on the way to Egypt, but were not allowed in by the Egyptian authorities and had to return to Gaza.
Practically all enterprises have been closed and their workers thrown onto the street for lack of raw materials. For example, the Coca Cola factory has closed down. After 60 years of occupation - first by the Egyptians and than the Israelis - almost nothing is produced in the Strip, except oranges, strawberries, tomatoes and the like.
Prices in the Gaza Strip have risen sky-high - fivefold and even tenfold. Life is now more expensive in Gaza than in Tel-Aviv. The black market is flourishing.
How do people exist? The members of extended families help each other. Well-to-do people support their relatives. UNRWA brings in the most basic foodstuffs and distributes them to the refugees, who are the majority of the inhabitants.
Is there another way out besides a massive invasion? Of course there is. But it requires imagination, boldness and a readiness to act contrary to established patterns.
An immediate cease-fire can be achieved. According to all the indications, Hamas, too, is ready for it, provided that it is general: both sides must stop all military actions, including "targeted liquidations" and the launching of Qassams and mortar shells. The crossings must be opened for free movement of goods in both directions. The passage between the Strip and the West Bank must be opened, as well as the border between the Strip and Egypt.
Such a calming of the situation may encourage the two competing Palestinian governments - Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza - to start a new dialogue, under the auspices of Egypt or Saudi Arabia, in order to heal the rift and set up a unified Palestinian national leadership that will have the authority to sign peace agreements.
In place of the cry "Let me die with the Philistines", let us take the words of Dylan Thomas: "And death shall have no dominion!"
Uri Avnery, 15/12/2007
Hebronitas obrigados a locomover-se nos telhados (3')
B'Tselem: The Rooftops of Hebron
Hebronitas obrigados a locomover-se nos telhados (3')
B'Tselem: The Rooftops of Hebron
Reservistas da IDF, forças israelenses de ocupação, (Adar)
Shovrim Shtika - Breaking the Silence
"Did you go on missions inside [the city of] Nablus?
Yes. Arrest missions.
A lot?
I don’t know if I’d call it a lot. Once every two weeks, there was some arrest.
Whom did you arrest, do you know?
I didn’t know to what extent they were… Sometimes they’d tell us, “this one is more wanted, that one is less”.
Do you remember a particular arrest mission?
I remember arrests. I remember that once, we arrested some kind of policeman. It was while I was in the area of Nablus, in [the village of] Burin.
You arrested a policeman inside Burin?
A former policeman, or something like that. He had a sword, this guy. He didn’t use it against us, it was hanging on the wall. One of the soldiers took it.
Did your commanders see that?
No, they didn’t see him do it. He simply brought it back with him to company HQ.
Were there instances of looting?
There was looting, yes.
Of what?
Cell phones, a lot. Sometimes money, from houses. I didn't see it myself, but I heard about it.
What did you hear?
There was a guy who used to take cell phones, and there was a case where money was taken from a house".
Adar II
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