HOW long must the traumatized, battered and starving people of Gaza remain under siege? How long must they be punished for their democratic choices? How long will the international community put up with Israel’s cruel refusal to open these people’s lifeline to the outside world? The homes of an estimated 30,000 residents of the tiny Gaza Strip have been destroyed by Israel’s weapons and there is an urgent need of tents, blankets, food, medicine and cash, yet little is getting through due to Israeli intransigence.
On Friday, the EU once again called for border crossings to be opened to humanitarian aid. Until now, Israel has refused under the pretext that it wishes to prevent weapons smuggling but one wonders how equipment to repair dialysis machines, medicines, blood plasma or baby milk could possibly be mistaken for guns. UN officials including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Humanitarian Coordinator John Holmes have urged Israel to put politics aside and facilitate the free passage of humanitarian supplies. “I gave the people of Gaza my word that the UN would help in their hour of need,” Ban Ki-moon told reporters at Davos while appealing to the world to help him keep his promise.
After refuting Israeli accusations to the effect Hamas had hijacked goods destined to relieve civilians, John Holmes warned unless all of the crossings are opened, “we’re never going to be able to get supplies into Gaza”.
Last Thursday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed to put “pressure on both sides” to open crossings into Gaza. Strange, when only one side Israel wants to keep them closed...or perhaps not.
Certain Western powers with strong affiliations to Israel appear unable or unwilling to separate politics from a humanitarian emergency, which would not be allowed to fester anywhere else on the planet. In other words, no country except Israel would get away with deliberately barring much-needed aid from a suffering population. Indeed, the international outcry would be deafening if the shoe were on the other foot and obstacles were put in the way of aid reaching homeless and hungry Israelis.
In this case, Israel is aggressively turning away humanitarian supplies. It has threatened an Iranian aid ship that had to re-route to Lebanon; rammed the Free Gaza Movement’s SS Dignity forcing the damaged vessel to head for a Lebanese port and seized a Lebanese vessel carrying medical supplies and urgently needed plasma to Gaza. Members of the crew were arrested and their personal possessions confiscated before they were handcuffed and hooded. Some were reportedly kicked and beaten. All except the respected British activist Teresa McDermott were subsequently deported. Israeli officials falsely stated that she had flown to the UK whereas she was later found to be locked up within Israel’s notorious Ramleh prison. The Arab League has described the Israeli action as “an act of piracy”, as according to reports the boat was boarded while still in international waters. Similarly the SS Dignity was in international waters when it was crippled by the Israeli Navy. Astonishingly, the crews and passengers sponsored by the Free Gaza Movement are undeterred with more boats on their way. It seems to me incredible that Israel isn’t being held accountable under international law for its flagrant breaches of laws pertaining to the open seas. There are so many good people out there eager to donate and others willing to lay their lives on the line to ensure such donations reach Palestinians in dire need. Yet a country that asserts it is not waging war against civilians and terms its military the most compassionate in the world is deliberately blocking their efforts. This is unconscionable by any decent person’s reckoning; just as unconscionable as the barring of humanitarian supplies to the people of Darfur, Somalia or the Congo would be.
Isn’t it about time that the US applied pressure on Israel to facilitate the inflow of aid just as it exerted efforts to force the Burmese military regime to accept humanitarian assistance following the devastating 2008 cyclone?
On Feb. 14, the British Member of Parliament George Galloway will head a convoy of ambulances, fire engines and aid trucks traveling from London to Gaza via Europe and North Africa. He calls the monthlong journey “a Valentine for Palestine”. I can only beseech the Egyptian authorities to allow this convoy of love to pass into Gaza through the border at Rafah.
In the meantime, Israel is holding 1.5 million caged people to ransom. It refuses to open the crossings unless the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been turned into a national icon, is first freed. Once again, the Israeli authorities are playing politics with Palestinian lives. Shalit’s homecoming would be seen a coup for the departing Olmert-led government, currently held in low esteem by most Israelis. If handing him over would allow the people of Gaza to breathe once more, Hamas should forget using him as a bargaining chip for the return of Palestinian prisoners, bite the bullet and comply.
With the frightening specter of Benjamin Netanyahu looming over today’s elections, a softening of the Israeli position looks unlikely. It is, therefore, up to the international community to get proactive in its defense of Palestinians. Otherwise, their heart-wrenching plight will remain a scar on our collective conscience for the foreseeable future and beyond.
