[News] Palestine - Gaza - Another world is necessary

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Another world is necessary
Serene Assir, The Electronic Intifada, 31 January 2008

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9271.shtml

Breaking the siege: A young Palestinian boy from Rafah, Gaza enjoys a 
cup of tea in front of the fallen wall at the border with Egypt. 
(<http://justimage.org>Matthew Cassel)

Under siege since 9 June 2007, the Palestinian people of Gaza moved 
the world by breaking out and materially reclaiming their stolen 
freedom of movement, rights to travel to and from their country, and 
right to resist the illegal status imposed on them through occupation 
since 1967 and economic and near-total physical blockade since the 
democratic election of Hamas in the legislative election of January 2006.

The present siege, which began shortly after Hamas' takeover of Gaza, 
led to a total collapse of the Gazan economy, as well as an 
escalating humanitarian crisis affecting every aspect of life for 
Palestinian residents of the world's most densely populated area, 
including business, health care and sanitation, state of mind, 
infrastructure and indeed survival itself. Israel's total blockade 
that began one week before the popular disruption of the siege led to 
total power blackouts, to the extent that the UN agency for 
Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, whose role in providing assistance to 
1948 refugees living in Gaza is central for the provision and 
distribution of goods including baby milk and basic foodstuffs, was 
rendered almost incapable of continuing its work. Where Gaza would 
have stood today without the act of disruption that awed the world 
last week cannot be gauged -- without pushing the limits of our 
imagination beyond the parameters of the worst plausible.

Under the 25 November 2005 agreement reached by Israel, the European 
Union and the Palestinian Authority (PA) -- then in charge of the 
Gaza Strip -- and under the surveillance of the United States, it was 
established that the PA would take over from Israel to control entry 
into and exit from Gaza of persons via the Rafah border terminal, 
with the EU deploying monitors at the terminal. Owing to Israeli 
interventionism, such as that exercised on and ever since 9 June 
2007, the terminal was closed more often than it was open, in 
contravention to the spirit of the 2005 agreement. As of the election 
of Hamas in January 2006, the terminal was closed 86 percent of the 
time, according to information gathered by the UN Office for the 
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Egypt was not a signatory to the agreement governing the Rafah border 
terminal. Instead it was granted observer status, which appeared to 
some high-ranking security officials bizarre enough given that the 
agreement concerned an Egyptian border. According to security 
sources, Egypt had expressed some interest in having its status 
upgraded to that of signatory when the agreement was renewed. This 
renewal was set to take place in 2006; however, it never did, owing 
to Israeli postponement.

Thus the precise details of Egypt's role in maintaining the blockade 
of Gaza have through much of the duration of the siege remained 
murky. For the most comfortable of analyses, all that was publicly 
known was that Israel instigated the closure of the terminals leading 
in and out of the Gaza Strip, and that the closure was supported by 
PA President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who criminally enough 
believed that Hamas would lose popularity to his advantage if the 
people of Gaza were progressively starved. Meanwhile Egypt's 
grassroots, Cairo-based human rights organizations remained 
conspicuously silent for months, for the most part speaking out only 
when Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip became total, by which time 
fear of reprimand from the notorious state security services was 
overwhelmed by the absolute rejection of the continuous suffering of 
fellow Arabs in Gaza. Only the Muslim Brotherhood-run Doctors' 
Syndicate remained active throughout the seven months of illegal 
collective punishment faced by the Palestinians of Gaza, and even 
then on a principally humanitarian level. Only in the time nearing 
the Palestinians' act of disruption last week did Cairo see mass 
action, the most notable example of which was a protest before the 
headquarters of the Arab League in the heart of the Arab world's most 
populous capital, organized by the Muslim Brotherhood and other 
opposition parties. Hundreds of people were arrested during and prior 
to the protest.

On the state level, even though it had been Israel and the PA which 
had created the humanitarian and political crisis in Gaza, Egypt 
could conceivably have unilaterally ended it. Under international 
law, given the illegality of the siege, Egypt had an obligation to 
act, an obligation to which it failed to fulfill. Under the Fourth 
Geneva Convention, to which Egypt is a High Contracting Party, 
parties are obliged "to respect and ensure respect" for all the 
provisions contained, including the criminalization of collective 
punishment (Article 33). No doubt, the besiegement of Gaza as a 
pressure mechanism to turn the Palestinian civilian population 
against Hamas constitutes, at the very least, collective punishment.

However, if there remained any shred of doubt that Egypt could have 
done more to interrupt the siege, then recent days' events have 
helped establish an even more glaring understanding of the role of 
Cairo. "To Egypt the disruption of the siege came as a surprise, and 
under growing pressure from the population and particularly the 
Muslim Brotherhood, it was impossible for the regime in Cairo to put 
an immediate end to the flow of Palestinians to and from Gaza," said 
director of the Addameer human rights group in Gaza Khalil Abu 
Shammala. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak "tried to capitalize on 
the events, by issuing statements that would paint Egypt in a more 
humanitarian light and thus to persuade opposition that the regime 
was doing its part in support of the Palestinians of Gaza. It was 
foolish, however, on the part of the regime to think that simply 
allowing Palestinians exit into Egypt for a few days would rid Egypt 
of its responsibility towards the Palestinians under the present 
conditions. Much, much more needs to be done. Egypt has to actively 
end its participation in the siege," Abu Shammala added.

But within five days of the disruption of the siege of Gaza, the 
deployment of Central Security Forces to north Sinai, particularly 
from al-Arish to Rafah, had been massively intensified. While initial 
attempts to close down the border were thwarted following clashes 
with armed Hamas members, later attempts were rendered impossible by 
the sheer fury of Palestinian civilians, who threw stones in the 
spirit of self-defense from renewed imprisonment by the simplest 
means at their disposal. Meanwhile, it was reported less than a week 
on from the popular outbreak that up to 3,000 Palestinians were 
detained by the Egyptian authorities as the campaign to prohibit the 
entry of Gazans without visas escalated. In addition, there were 
daily reports of the authorities prohibiting the entry into Sinai of 
Egyptian human rights and political campaigners from across the 
political spectrum as they brought with them medicines and supplies 
in demonstration of solidarity with the people of Gaza.

At the time of writing, such had been the forcefulness of the 
Egyptian regime's effort to expel the remaining Palestinians and to 
prevent any new entry that very few managed to remain in Sinai one 
week on from the initial outbreak. Barring approximately 1,000 
Palestinians who set up camp by the Security Headquarters in al-Arish 
in an attempt to secure visas and thus acquire legal means to remain 
in Egypt, or to travel to third countries where they work or study, 
most Gaza residents had returned home, ready to face a renewed 
closure up until the time that new arrangements for the border are reached.

Perhaps a total defeat of the natural and legal act of struggle 
against siege, poverty, occupation and death that the Palestinians of 
Gaza demonstrated over the past week is precisely what the Israelis 
and their allies in Washington and peace partners in Cairo would 
desire most. However, gauging from the mood in Gaza, that they would 
secure such a result in the long run is unlikely. First off, 
according to Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, "It would be absurd to 
suggest that Hamas would open the border only to then close it again. 
The destruction of the border is not intended solely to give 
Palestinians temporary relief, but essentially to work towards 
negotiations for a solution that would end the siege once and for all."

Meanwhile, on the streets the effects of the disruption of the siege 
extend far beyond a mere re-injection of economic life into Gaza, to 
the lifting of Palestinian confidence in struggle. "What has been 
made clear by this single action is that no matter how dark the 
abandonment by the entire world has been of the Palestinian people, 
the people can still take the initiative to secure their freedom," 
said Emad Abu Mohamed, one refugee resident of Gaza City. "There can 
be no going back from here." Insofar as the action raised the spirits 
of the people of Gaza, it also re-directed the focus of a people who 
have seen fierce factional rivalry and bloodshed to the occupation, 
which is the origin of the problem, said Mohammed Dahman, a 
Gaza-based journalist. "The whole of Gaza celebrated the outbreak in 
unity, and in so doing proved that the rivalries are superficial," 
Dahman added.

The immensity of the overwhelmingly peaceful movement of Palestinians 
in and out of north Sinai indicated that another reality is possible 
and indeed necessary in the Arab world. Occupation in Palestine 
cannot be successfully challenged if the Arab world does not wake up 
to the fact that anything but more actions of a similarly massive, 
popular nature are not encouraged. Acceptance of a continued 
oppression of Arab popular movements is tantamount to acceptance of 
Israel's siege of Gaza. Under international law, nothing short of 
full Egyptian cooperation at the state level with the people of Gaza 
will do. And it was precisely this sort of cooperation that Hamas 
called for, using last week's outbreak as a state-of-the-art pressure 
card to ensure it, alongside the promise of greater economic 
influence in the Gaza Strip. "We are looking to end Gaza's economic 
ties to Israel, and for Egypt to step in to take over," Palestinian 
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said.

Now given that Cairo has already turned down Hamas overtures to take 
control of the border, and that Hamas has rejected proposals for an 
international presence at Rafah, and granted that Cairo's relations 
with Washington have long been unequal to the effect that it is safe 
to say that the present regime survives because it is supported by 
the world's only superpower, it remains to be seen just where the 
unfolding crisis will lead. There is no doubt that the short-term 
economic advantage of maintaining ties with Washington over 
developing a longer-term strategy involving the Palestinian people, 
who are determined to emerge victorious over occupation, appears more 
beneficial to Cairo. However, what is clear is that, as is the case 
every minute of every day within Egyptian jurisdiction ever since the 
signing of the Camp David Peace Treaty in 1978, there is a 
fundamental discord between what the vast majority of the people of 
Egypt really want, and what power has imposed on them. Given the 
reality of power distribution in the Arab world, it is not yet the 
time to imagine that the crisis will lead to an immediate settlement 
that will aptly meet the requirements of the people of Gaza. But what 
the surprise disruption of the siege, involving the instantaneous, 
physical realization of what has been the dream of millions of human 
beings the world over for hundreds of years -- namely the downfall of 
borders and the victory of the people over brutality and oppression 
-- indicates, is that it is necessary to think beyond the limits of 
the mundane. This was a lesson learned not only by the Gazans, but 
also no doubt by hundreds of thousands of Arabs who watched in awe at 
the spontaneous creativity of their brothers and sisters, the Palestinians.

Serene Assir is a Beirut and Cairo-based independent journalist and blogger.




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