[News] Breaking the Gaza siege, by boat

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Breaking the Gaza siege, by boat

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9719.shtml

Dr. Bill Dienst, The Electronic Intifada, 29 July 2008


I've visited the Gaza Strip multiple times since 1985, partnering 
with local health care organizations. I have professional colleagues 
in Gaza who are also personal friends. They suffer under a 
catastrophic and brutal siege. My friends live in a surreal world 
where Israel, the powerful bully, is as violent as it wants to be 
without consequences from its financiers in the US or Europe.

Even though a truce between Israel and armed groups in the Gaza Strip 
has held for about a month, only minimal needs are being met and the 
humanitarian situation in Gaza worsens by the day.

I witnessed one of many examples of the siege on Gaza when I visited 
in November 2006. In the town of Beit Hanoun, an incursion by Israeli 
occupation forces resulted in the deaths of over 85 people with more 
than 300 seriously wounded. Israeli authorities justified this 
carnage as "retaliation" after one Israeli woman in the bordering 
town of Sderot was killed by a homemade Qassam rocket fired from Gaza.

On 8 November, after Israeli tanks and bulldozers had pulled out of 
Beit Hanoun, 120 extended members of the al-Athmina family were 
asleep. At about 4:30 am, the Israeli military fired multiple 
artillery shells directly into their large apartment for 10 minutes. 
Nineteen members of this family were massacred and 45 seriously wounded.

<http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6111.shtml>I found myself at 
the al-Athamina family apartment in Beit Hanoun a week later, 
climbing through the ruined apartment and interviewing survivors. I 
visited graves of 16 family members buried hastily in the sand under 
the watchful eye of Israeli tanks.

This massacre created an international incident. Archbishop Desmond 
Tutu was sent by the UN to investigate, but Israel denied him entry 
into Gaza for 18 months. He finally entered Gaza via Egypt in May 2008.

Israel is the fourth largest military power in the world. In 
contrast, Palestinians don't even have an army, just lightly armed 
rag-tag militias. When Palestinians respond nonviolently to Israel's 
60 year experiment in ethnic cleansing, they're ignored by the world 
press and the protests are brutally suppressed by the occupation 
forces. When they respond violently, they're demonized as 
"terrorists" in the same way that Native Americans were denigrated in 
the past as "savages."

Now, Gaza lives on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe in a cage 
controlled by Israeli land, sea, and air forces. Israel claims that 
Gaza is no longer occupied, yet it denies access to jobs, travel, 
visitors, commerce, education, medical care and other basic necessities.

Many of those who say "never again" fall silent, while it happens 
again. But this is not a natural disaster like a hurricane or an 
earthquake. This disaster is man-made. Spineless Western leaders, who 
have the means to stop this slow, painful death, do nothing.

This summer, a group of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals 
will sail directly from international waters into Gaza. We say: 
Enough already! I will be aboard as the ship's doctor. The Free Gaza 
Movement vessels will challenge Israel's policy of imprisoning over 
1.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, while saying they are free.

Preparing a medical team for the Free Gaza Movement is my 
responsibility; it will be difficult. The best case scenario is an 
uneventful trip where minimal medical assistance is needed. However, 
the worst case scenarios range from long periods of being besieged at 
sea and exposed to the elements to being attacked by Israel and a 
mass casualty incident. It is possible that many of us could be 
killed and injured all at once; or over several attacks, and our 
small medic system could become overwhelmed. Although dangerous, it 
is a risk we are willing to take, because the cost of doing nothing 
is too high. Once there was the Berlin Airlift; we intend to start 
the Gaza Sealift.

One way or another we intend to open Gaza to unrestricted 
international access. If we are unable, we will demonstrate that 
Israel still occupies Gaza despite its claim to the contrary. We will 
no longer be idle while those in power continue to blame the victim.

Dr. Bill Dienst is a rural family and emergency room physician from 
Omak, Washington. He is a graduate of the UW School of Medicine and 
Tacoma Family Medicine Family Practice Residency Program.



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