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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Why a Gaza ceasefire isn’t enough</h1>
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<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/raji-sourani"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Raji Sourani</a> </div>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-gaza-ceasefire-isnt-enough/13692">http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-gaza-ceasefire-isnt-enough/13692</a></small></small></small></b>
<div class="field-publication-date">
<span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2014-08-03T22:15:00+00:00">3
August 2014</span> </div>
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<p>The death and destruction being inflicted on the Gaza Strip is
impossible to describe. Sitting here in Gaza, it is hard to even
understand what is happening.</p>
<p>Last week, we witnessed another attack on a United Nations
compound where civilians were sheltering — 17 dead, 120 injured
— and an attack on a market in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/shujaiya%E2%80%9D">Shujaiya</a>
during the hours of what was supposed to be a ceasefire — 18
dead, nearly 200 injured.</p>
<p>Today in Rafah, Israel shelled another school run by UNRWA, the
UN agency for Palestine refugees, where thousands were
sheltering, killing ten. Even the US State Department issued a <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/03/un-school-shelling-_n_5645771.html%E2%80%9D">rare
condemnation of Israel</a>, calling the attack “appalling” and
“disgraceful.”</p>
<p>This is a nightmare. But it is one we know we cannot wake up
from.</p>
<p>Israel’s <a
href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/it-is-a-war-crime-to-target-densely-packed-gaza-homes-1.1874825">Gaza
Doctrine</a> of illegally targeting densely packed civilian
areas and homes is inflicting untold horror.</p>
<p>Israel is deliberately punishing civilians in order to exert
political pressure on <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/hamas%E2%80%9D">Hamas</a>.
They are collectively punishing the 1.8 million citizens of the
Gaza Strip. How else do you explain the statistics?</p>
<p>The <a
href="http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10491:statistics-victims-of-the-israeli-offensive-on-gaza-since-08-july-2014&catid=145:in-focus%E2%80%9D">most
recent figures collected by the Palestinian Centre for Human
Rights</a> (PCHR) indicate that 1,817 Palestinians have been
killed. Of these, 1,545 — an incredible 85 percent — are
civilians: the so-called “protected persons” of international
humanitarian law.</p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced. Ordered
to flee, but with nowhere safe to go: UN shelters housing
civilians have been repeatedly targeted. The Gaza Strip lies in
ruins. The destruction of Shujaiya is difficult to comprehend.
Even the power plant has been destroyed. How will our hospitals
operate? How will the sewage treatment centers run? How will we
access safe water?</p>
<h2>Our demands</h2>
<p>In the middle of this we want an end to the violence. We want
an end to this horror, to this suffering. Too many children have
died. War crimes have become our daily reality.</p>
<p>But a ceasefire is not enough.</p>
<p>We demand justice. We demand accountability. We demand to be
treated as human beings, to have our inherent human dignity
recognized. We demand an end to the closure of the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>For the last seven years, Israel has subjected the Gaza Strip
to a <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-siege%E2%80%9D">strict
closure</a>. By shutting the borders, Israel has slowly
suffocated Gaza, subjecting us to a process of deliberate
de-development.</p>
<p>Before the current offensive, 65 percent of the population were
unpaid or unemployed. Eight-five percent of the population
depended on food aid distributed by international organizations.
Patients requiring life-saving treatment unavailable in the Gaza
Strip were denied permission to leave. They died.</p>
<p>Life under the closure is not life. We cannot go back to this
reality. I cannot imagine another seven years. The closure
signifies the absence of hope. It means that Gaza’s youth have
no future. No jobs. No opportunity to leave. Even when the war
comes, we cannot flee.</p>
<p>But the closure is only one half of the reality of the Gaza
Strip. The other is the total absence of the rule of law. War
crimes are committed with complete impunity. The closure itself
is a war crime and it is official policy of the government of
Israel.</p>
<p>Beside this there are the constant attacks and the frequent
offensives. This is the third major offensive since the closure
began. Literally thousands of civilians have been killed.
Thousands more homes and livelihoods have been destroyed.</p>
<h2>Complete impunity</h2>
<p>These war crimes are committed with complete impunity. After
Operation Cast Lead — the 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009
offensive — PCHR submitted 490 criminal complaints on behalf of
1,046 victims. In the five years that followed, we received only
44 responses. The Israeli authorities decided that 446 cases
didn’t even warrant a reply.</p>
<p>The results?</p>
<p>One soldier was convicted for the theft of a credit card and
received a seven-month sentence.</p>
<p>Two soldiers were convicted for using a nine-year-old boy as a
human shield. They each received a three-month suspended
sentence.</p>
<p>One soldier was convicted for the “misuse of a firearm” in
relation to the shooting of a group of civilians carrying white
flags, which resulted in the deaths of two women. He was
sentenced to 45 days imprisonment.</p>
<p>This is not justice. The impact of these constant war crimes,
and the resultant impunity denies our very dignity, our worth as
human beings. It says our lives are not sacred. That we don’t
count.</p>
<p>Faced with this existence, our demands are not excessive. They
are not unrealistic.</p>
<p>We want to be treated as equals. We want to have our rights
respected and protected. We ask that international law be
applied, equally, to Israel and Palestine, to Israelis and
Palestinians. The rule of international law must be adhered to,
and all those responsible for its violations must be held to
account.</p>
<p>We ask that suspected war crimes be investigated and those
responsible prosecuted. Is this unreasonable?</p>
<p>We want an end to the closure. The illegality of Israel’s
closure policy is not in doubt. In a rare public statement the
International Committee of the Red Cross <a
href="http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/update/palestine-update-140610.htm">explicitly
stated</a> that Israel’s closure policy constitutes collective
punishment in violation of international law. The consequences
of the policy are evident in the reality of the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>We ask that the closure be lifted. We want the opportunity to
live a life in dignity. Is this unreasonable?</p>
<p>These are not political demands. They are a demand to be
treated as human.</p>
<p>A ceasefire is not enough. It will not end the suffering. It
will only move us from the horror of death by bombardment to the
horror of death by slow strangulation.</p>
<p>We cannot go back to being prisoners in a cage that Israel
rattles when it chooses with brutal destructive offensives.</p>
<p><em>Raji Sourani is the director of the Palestinian Centre for
Human Rights.</em></p>
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