A year has passed since Israel launched a three-week war against Gaza Strip, leaving in its wake 1,400 Palestinian dead, mostly women and children, many thousands injured and maimed and at least 400,000 homeless. More than 40,000 homes were destroyed in “Operation Cast Lead,” which saw the use of forbidden weapons and stark violations of international laws. Against these haunting figures 13 Israelis were reported killed as a result of Hamas rockets.
But it would be wrong to think that Israel’s assault on Gaza had ended on Jan. 18, 2009. In effect the war goes on until today; through an air-tight blockade that has prevented the reconstruction of Gaza and left millions living a subhuman life. A Time magazine report quoted a senior official in the Benjamin Netanyahu’s government who summed up Israel’s goal in Gaza as: “No development, no prosperity, no humanitarian crisis!”
Amid suspicious international silence and absence of pressure on Israel that goal is being achieved. Not a single dollar of the $4 billion donated by world countries for the reconstruction of Gaza’s homes, schools and hospitals has reached the besieged strip. For Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants, the world has forgotten about them and left them to die a slow death.
Gaza’s plight is complex and multifaceted. Since Hamas took over the strip in 2006, Gaza became President Mahmoud Abbas’ nightmare and gadfly. The two sides exchanged bloody blows; rounding up supporters, shutting down each other’s institutions and accusing one another of collusion with enemies. It is no wonder that the PNA has resisted initiatives that would legitimize Hamas’ grip-hold over Gaza or reward the group politically.
The PNA had insisted that it must have a say on any agreement between Egypt and Hamas over the opening of the Rafah land pass in northeastern Sinai. Accordingly, the passage is closed most of the time, and the Egyptians open it only for dire humanitarian cases. Hamas’ reluctance to sign an Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation agreement, that took months to negotiate, with the PNA, and other Palestinian factions, has not endeared them to Cairo as well.
EVER since Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, relations with the Strip has been tenuous. The overwhelming victory by Hamas, that has never endorsed the Oslo process or dropped the resistance option, in Palestinian elections in 2006 united Abbas, the Israelis and Washington against them. Finally the Hamas-led government was sacked, triggering an inevitable showdown between Hamas and the PNA in Gaza. And when Hamas declared last December an end to a six-month cease-fire with Israel, claiming that the government of Ehud Olmert never respected the truce, the stage was set for a military operation to uproot Hamas and destroy its rising rocket capabilities.
The truth is that the people of Gaza are paying the price of an ineffective Israeli policy, endorsed by the US and tacitly supported by the PNA, to remove Hamas from power. It wouldn’t take a genius to realize that such a policy has been a total failure for all accomplices, and has in effect yielded opposite results.
The Goldstone report on the Gaza war has been a historical milestone by accusing Israel of war crimes and kick-starting a long and complex legal process that threatens to implicate Israeli politicians and generals. Attempts by Israel to bury the report may succeed in the end, but the fact that Israel has been associated with war crimes will have impacts on its policies for a long time to come.
MEANWHILE, the change-over in Israel with the election of a right-wing government supported by extremists has flummoxed supporters of a negotiated settlement and the two-state solution. Mahmoud Abbas’ hopes to deliver something meaningful to his people have been dashed, first by an intransigent Netanyahu and second by a weak US president. In the absence of hope Abbas lost his only winning card in the face-off with Hamas.
By abandoning Abbas, Israel and the US, gave Hamas a super boost, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank and beyond. And if Hamas succeeds in concluding a major deal to release thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails in return for Gilad Shalit, the group may end up delivering a knock-out blow to Abbas and his followers.
But none of these developments is likely to change the fortunes of the people of Gaza for the better. The Israeli blockade, which includes cement, schoolbooks, tools, iron and others, will not ease or be lifted any time sooner. On the other side of the strip Egypt is constructing a subterranean iron wall, which aims at sealing off tunnels which are the only viable source of munitions into Gaza today. Once this iron curtain is completed millions of Gazans will be stuck in 360 sq. kilometer prison.
The figures are chilling: Over 80 percent of Gazans live on humanitarian handouts, unemployment is over 40 percent and all but few of Gaza’s factories are closed. Only a handful of homes were rebuilt, the rest have been replaced by mud shacks. Thousands have no access to electricity or clean running water. Millions of liters of raw sewage are dumped into the sea every day. Hospitals are chronically under staffed and suffer from an endemic shortage of life-saving medicines.
No wonder that extremism and despair are rife. Hamas remains in control and younger generations are becoming aggressive. This is what Israel is raising behind barbed wires and it is only a matter of time before this angry tide of Palestinians finds ways to breach the walls.
But Gazans are not only victims of Israel and its allies in this heinous crime of collective punishment. The international community has failed the people of Gaza in a shameful way. One year later and the siege is still holding, while Israel’s recalcitrance shows no sign of wavering. The casualty count did not stop on Jan.18, when Israel halted its aggression. It continues to run every second of every hour of every day. Israel is not alone in killing the people of Gaza. The international community has become its accessory.
Hamas’ grip-hold over Gaza will not be dislodged soon. But the suffering of Gazans will continue. A year has passed so briskly and the tragedy is that we could soon be marking the second anniversary of the war while the people of Gaza remain incarcerated.
— Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist and political commentator based in Jordan.
