BIG things begin with a simple gesture, a symbolic act of defiance and a courageous stand in the face of evil powers. Last week’s arrival into Gaza port of two ships carrying 44 peace activists from 17 countries, 200 hearing aids and 5,000 balloons was all three put together. The trip, from Cyprus to the besieged, and forgotten, Gaza Strip, is relatively short; about 370 km, but the message it delivered was earth-shattering.
The two vessels had broken through the Israeli enforced blockade, which had left more than 1.5 million Palestinians cut off from the rest of the world for more than a year. It was a heroic thing to do, but more importantly it sent out one deafening cry to the world: The blockade must end! The voyage had defied Israel in the first place, but it had also humbled the rest of the world. The time had come, a bit late, but not a minute too soon, to peacefully, but with fortitude, to free the people of Gaza.
The scenes of arriving ships into the decrepit Gaza harbor have moved every human being with a conscience. Tens of thousands of jubilant Gazans were there to receive those who had risked their lives to reach out and be with millions of civilians who were being subjected to a cruel and unusual form of collective punishment. The historic gesture was not about politics, taking sides in an ongoing contestation or scoring points for this side or that. It was about sympathizing with the victims.
The trip came out of nowhere, but it had come at a time when the rest of the world, foremost Arabs and Muslims, had forgotten about a crime against humanity so huge in proportion and human toll that it is shocking that it had lasted as long as it did. It continues to go on. Beyond the symbolism and the courage of those international peace activists, which included one Israeli, the excitement of what has happened has failed to move one leader regardless of who he represents. That’s shameful and a testament to the state of paralysis that our world finds itself in.
BUT as much as humanitarian effort is needed now and in the future, only strong-willed and courageous politicians will be able to change the miserable reality of Gaza. The siege is illegal and it is wrong. Its effects on the lives of millions of Gazans have been documented by neutral agencies from all over the world. Babies are dying because of malnutrition, lack of medications and poor hospital care. Children are unable to receive nutrition, education and guidance while poverty levels have reached cataclysmic levels. Industries have gone out of business, land is no longer being farmed and health risks to the entire population are at dangerous levels.
Gaza has become a penal colony for millions, mostly children women and elderly, and to this day Israel has not been rebuked, denounced or condemned by the international community. In fact it is adamant on its plan to keep the strip isolated and under its iron thumb. And yet its excuses are flimsy and its legal stand nonexistent.
What hurts us more as both Arabs and Muslims is the feeling that we have become accomplices in a conspiracy of silence. The plight of Gaza has not been adopted full-heartedly by Arab and Muslim nations. The UN has not been asked to make a judgment on the crimes that are taking place there. The Arab League has forfeited its responsibilities toward a large segment of the Palestinian people and is in breach of its charter. The superpowers have abandoned their moral responsibility and chose to look the other side. The representative of the International Quartet, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is yet to muster the courage of his sister-in-law, one of those who made the daring voyage.
But the bulk of responsibility falls on our backs to help our brothers and sisters who are suffering under a brutal siege, whose only casualties are innocent civilians. If few true believers in human values can challenge the mighty Israeli power and sail unchallenged toward Gaza, why couldn’t our governments finance a flotilla of a thousand ships carrying food, medicine and hope to the desperate millions in Gaza?
This is not the time for careful political calculation, but for a stand against intolerable injustice. Israel is keeping an iron fence around Gaza not because it’s a huge military power, but because we have failed to rise to the moral level that is needed to defeat our enemy.
At a time when Israel is confiscating thousands of dunums of West Bank territory to build illegal settlements, and when it is implementing a sinister plan to demolish Al-Aqsa Mosque and when it is destroying the homes of Arab East Jerusalemites in order to tip the demographic balance in favor of Jews, there are still those who believe in the futile Bush vision. Israel’s agenda is clear and its leaders make it clearer everyday, and yet not a single Arab or Muslim government is ready to take a stand.
It would take courage and commitment to emulate the gesture of those brave men and women who penetrated through the Israeli naval blockade. But strangely enough, that is all what it would take to put Israel on the defensive. This is the time for a leader to take a stand. Gaza’s siege is illegal, it is a crime against humanity, it is a form of genocide, it is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions and it is the quintessential example of collective and indiscriminate punishment of a civilian population. It is all of these and more.
Land, as well as sea and aerial, borders should be opened immediately. Those who can breach the siege, especially governments, should do it now. Let us remember that innocent people are dying because of this and those who are still alive are living a hellish reality. Symbolically, the siege is on each and everyone of us!
— Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist based in Jordan.
