[News] Life in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Life In Gaza
As President Obama visits Cairo, Nearby Gaza Remains Devastated and Isolated
By Jordan Flaherty
<http://monthlyreview.org/mrzine/flaherty030609.html>http://monthlyreview.org/mrzine/flaherty030609.html

More than four months after Gaza was devastated by a massive Israeli 
military bombardment, rebuilding has not yet begun. The problem is 
not a lack of funding or desire to rebuild. However, an Israeli-led 
blockade has kept all materials, including concrete or any tools that 
could be used to rebuild the hundreds of homes and buildings here, 
out of Gaza. The border entries, controlled by the Israeli and 
Egyptian governments, are sealed to almost all traffic. Among the 
arbitrary and frequently changing list of prohibited items are 
products from pasta to children's toys.

There is an intense desire here to rebuild, and there is no shortage 
of skilled labor. Billions of dollars of aid from countries around 
the world, including the US, has been pledged. But scarcely a single 
house has been repaired. From the Rafah border in the south to the 
town of Beit Hanoun in the north, people are still living in tents, 
or with family members, or in shelters.

The range of destruction is breathtaking. More than 1,400 
Palestinians were killed in 22 days, the vast majority civilians, 
including more than 300 children. Schools, health clinics, houses, 
and, most importantly, the basic infrastructure of both public 
services and government has been destroyed. Rubble is everywhere. And 
the violence from the Israeli military continues. This morning, as 
with many mornings here, we woke up to the sound of Israeli ships 
shooting at Palestinian fishermen, just a few hundred meters off the coast.

Two days ago, a delegation 66 activists, scholars, journalists and 
human rights workers, mostly from the US, visited the Parliament 
building. The visit was organized by the peace group Code Pink, which 
has led several delegations attempting to break the blockade. The 
group was surprised to find the building housing the legislature 
reduced partly to rubble, and Parliament members forced to meet in a 
tent outside.  Having no building to meet in is just one of the many 
problems facing the elected government of the Palestinian people. 
"Not only are more than 11,000 prisoners in Israeli jails," explained 
Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the Palestinian legislative 
council, and part of the Hamas political party. "Forty members of the 
legislative council are imprisoned, including the head of the 
legislature.Can you imagine if the head of the legislature, of 
anywhere else in the world, were held in prison by a foreign 
government?"  Dr. Bahar appealed to the US activists assembled for 
help in breaking the siege. "They don't allow basic construction 
material to enter," he said. "Cement, glass, wood, steel."

Gaza is among the most densely populated places on earth. One and a 
half million people live in 139 square miles, and it has been 
described as the world's largest prison. Traveling across this very 
small area, you meet people everywhere who just want to live a normal 
life, but are being prevented by a cruel blockade from going anywhere 
or doing anything.

"The biggest lie that has been told is that Gaza is a hostile 
entity," declares John Ging, the head of the United Nation's Relief 
and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip. "Its populated by well educated, 
decent people. They're not spitting hatred. They're asking for help, 
they're asking for justice, they're asking for the rule of law." A 
tall and charismatic Irish former soldier with a staff of 10,000, 
Ging is a UN bureaucrat, not an activist, but his respect for the 
international law has made him a passionate spokesperson for a 
rebuilding of Gaza.

Under the current siege, explains, Ging, "Theres no cement, even if 
its to repair a hospital or school or health center. So people are 
being kept alive, nothing more." Its been said in the US media that 
the situation in Gaza is complicated, that the siege is part of a 
defense against terrorism, but Ging denies these claims. "When  it 
comes down to it, its rather simple what's needed," he says. "What we 
now need to focus on is creating a life for people here. We need to 
see the depoliticization of assistance. What we have here in Gaza is 
a failure to uphold those basic human rights."

Gaza is currently hosting several delegations of international human 
rights observers and activists from the US and Europe. With each 
month, more people come here, and see the painful reality of the 
situation here. And with each new arrival, the siege perhaps moves a 
step closer to ending.

President Obama is scheduled to be in Cairo tomorrow, and members of 
Code Pink plan to ask him to visit Gaza. Tens of thousands of people 
from the US have signed a petition asking him to see the devastation. 
Across Gaza, people are looking for some sign that the new president 
will stand up for human rights in Palestine. "We ask Obama not to 
close his eyes to the Palestinian catastrophe," says Dr. Bahar. "We 
are running out of time," says John Ging. "We need to move from 
keeping people alive to giving them a life."


Jordan Flaherty is a journalist based in New Orleans, and an editor 
of Left Turn Magazine.  He was the first writer to bring the story of 
the Jena Six to a national audience and his reporting on post-Katrina 
New Orleans shared a journalism award from New America Media. His 
work has been published and broadcast in outlets including Die Zeit 
(in Germany), Clarin (in Argentina), Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, and 
Democracy Now. He is currently traveling in Gaza with a delegation of 
journalists, organizers and human rights workers from the US south. 
He can be reached at <mailto:neworleans at leftturn.org>neworleans at leftturn.org.

More Information about the US South Delgation to Gaza:
  <http://patoisfilmfest.org/?page_id=160>http://patoisfilmfest.org/?page_id=160

More information about Gaza:
<http://electronicintifada.net/>http://electronicintifada.net/
http://english.aljazeera.net/

Other Resources:
Left Turn Magazine - <http://www.leftturn.org/>http://www.leftturn.org
PATOIS: The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival - 
<http://patoisfilmfest.org/>http://patoisfilmfest.org

Other recent reporting by Jordan Flaherty:
Media As Weapon: New Orleans' 2-Cent - 
<http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=532&p=1>http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=532&p=1
Torture at Angola Prison - 
<http://monthlyreview.org/mrzine/flaherty270109.html>http://monthlyreview.org/mrzine/flaherty270109.html
New Orleans Intifada - 
<http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10340.shtml>http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10340.shtml
Video report for Democracy Now during Hurricane Gustav - 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtfcMkdoNhk>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtfcMkdoNhk





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