family politics and the new gaza crisis

By RAMZY BAROUD

Yet more haunting images of blindfolded, stripped down Palestinian men being contemptuously dragged by soldiers in uniform from one place to another. Yet more footage of bloodied men lying on hospital beds describing their ordeals to television reporters who have heard this story all too often. Yet more news of Palestinian infighting, tit-for-tat arrests, obscene language and embarrassing behaviour from those who have elected themselves -- or were elected -- to represent the Palestinian people.

Once again, the important story that ought to matter the most -- that of a continually imposing and violent Israeli occupation -- is lost in favour of Palestinian-infused distractions, deliberate or not.

In Gaza, the story of the Israeli siege, which represents one of today's most catastrophic man-made disasters, is relegated in favour of renewed infighting between Hamas and Fatah, whether directly or by proxy. As always, the Gaza story is largely told with biased and presumptive undertones: to indict one party as terrorist and extremist and to hail another as a champion of liberty and a defender of democracy. Such nonsensical conclusions cannot be further from the truth as in the latest clashes between Palestinian police under the command of the deposed Hamas government and militants from the Helis family, concentrated mostly in Gaza City.

The Hamas-Helis clash of early August was immediately probed by news media and Palestinian officials themselves as an extension of ongoing Hamas-Fatah violence, which led in the summer of 2007 to a complete Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. The logic was simple: the Helis clan is largely loyal to Fatah, thus Hamas's violent storming of their neighbourhood 2 August was an attack on rival Fatah. Hamas, on the other hand, explained its crackdown on Helis militants as part of its hunt for those responsible for the murder of five of its members and a civilian in a massive blast that rocked Gaza beach 25 July.

Naturally, Hamas pointed the finger at militants affiliated with Fatah in Gaza -- even though it refrained from directly accusing its rival Fatah -- and at Israeli intelligence collaborators amongst Palestinians. Fatah denied any responsibility in the bombing, which was clearly orchestrated to destabilise the Gaza Strip. Gaza, despite the debilitating siege, has been enjoying relative security as a result of Hamas's firm control and a moderately successful truce, agreed on by both Israel and Hamas, with the consent of all Palestinian factions.

The truce with Israel, accompanied by hesitant but constant calls made internationally to "engage" Hamas, positive remarks about dialogue made by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, and recent efforts in Jordan to bring the ostracised movement back to mainstream Arab politics, have all helped lay the groundwork for an inescapable conclusion: that Hamas is not a fleeting phenomena, and that isolation and repression have proved an ingredient of strength to the Islamic movement in Gaza and elsewhere.

Just then, the Gaza blast went off. The nature of the beach bombing is a clear indication that it was not a random act of revenge. The high-profiled targets, the intensity of the blast, its precision and its timing all suggest an elaborate operation aimed at a conclusive political consequence. Some Arabic news reports, including Aljazeera.net, stated that the bombing was a suicide attack. If true, then the employment of such a tactic -- which had thus far targeted Israeli occupation soldiers, paramilitary settlers and civilians -- would reflect the state of urgency and desperation of the attackers. In other words, the bombing needed to achieve its political aim even if it compels such an extreme upgrade in tactics. And if the goal was to destabilise Gaza, further discredit the Hamas government, derail the possibility of reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, and invite security chaos in the somewhat stable Strip, then the bombing was a considerable success.

Indeed, Hamas's subsequent criminal investigation led it to the Helis compound in Gaza. Demanding that the agreement between Hamas and Gaza's large clans be honoured, Hamas demanded the handing over of several Helis militants accused of perpetrating and carrying out the beach attack. The details of what followed remain blurry and narrated based on political affiliations. Helis clan members and Fatah officials say that Hamas attacked the compound with rockets and indiscriminate gunfire. Hamas contends that the militants fired at its officers first, compelling a gun battle that led to the death of 11 people, including on both sides, and the wounding of 90 more. To capitalise on another handy opportunity, Israel promised to deliver Fatah-Helles clan members, who fled Gaza to Israel, to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, in the West Bank, as it later did. According to one Israeli official, the move was part of Israel's commitment to fight Islamic extremism.

In reality, however, the beach bombing of 25 July was designed to provoke a violent Hamas reaction, which was preceded and followed by mass arrests of Hamas and Fatah members in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and has ultimately aborted planned Egyptian mediation between the two main Palestinian factions, thus weakening an already fractured Palestinian political front.

More, the fact that Abbas had met with representatives of the Helis clan in the West Bank, as if they represent a political organisation, was a dangerous validation of clan militancy that has grown in Palestine after the Oslo Accords of 1993 due to the security vacuum and decided corruption that have afflicted the Palestinian police for years. Clan militants became a necessary phenomenon to protect each family's interests, and had replaced the underground United National Front, which managed Palestinian affairs, despite of the Israeli occupation, which has done its utmost to break down Palestinian society and create an inherent sense of insecurity.

The bombing of 25 July, the violence of 2 August, and the political repercussions they have generated have proved immensely harmful to Palestinian national interests and spoiled the prospects of political reconciliation, thus national unity, which in my opinion, was the very intent of the violence in the first place.

Ramzy Baroud is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers and journals worldwide. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London).

http://www.thespec.com/Opinions/article/418302

Gaza's shocking devastation
By Harry Shannon , Professor of Clinical Epidemiology
The Hamilton Spectator

A Canadian Jew's visit to the territory left him ashamed by what he saw August 14, 2008

I had expected conditions in Gaza to be bad, but I was still shocked at the devastation when I went there in July.

Last month my companion and I entered Gaza at the Erez crossing through a modern building reminiscent of an airport terminal. After questioning by the Israeli border police, we left the building and had a kilometre walk to pick up transportation. It was as if we had travelled to another planet. The sandy track is surrounded by the blown-up remnants of Gaza's former industrial district. Rubble stretching for hundreds of metres lines the route.

Even on the main road through Gaza, driving is a slalom course around potholes. The air reeks of burnt oil and stale food from exhaust fumes (cars rely on used cooking oil for fuel.) There are not many cars on the road, anyway. Donkey carts are common. Despite the 35 C temperatures, drivers don't use air conditioning in cars so they can save fuel.Every so often, the smell of sewage fills the air. Lack of treatment facilities means that much of it is dumped raw into the Mediterranean.

We went first to a children's hospital on the edge of Gaza City. The hospital director and doctors described the conditions. Of 100 beds, 40 were occupied by children with bacterial meningitis, an extremely serious disease.

There's a shortage of basic medicines and supplies, even simple things such as alcohol swabs.

The hospital has three ventilators; only one is working. Israel won't let in spare parts for the others.The working machine is for a "hopeless case" who can't be taken off. Meanwhile, patients who could benefit have no working machine.

There are many cases of malnutrition -- for example, children nearly a year old weighing 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds). Their families can't afford the special formula they need to improve.

Because of lack of equipment and qualified personnel, there is no radiotherapy and limited chemotherapy in Gaza.Treatment for many conditions can only be obtained in Israel. Physicians for Human Rights -- Israel reports that, despite the ceasefire in the last few weeks, emergency medical cases are still refused entry into Israel, where they could have life-saving treatment. PHR has documented many cases of people dying before they are treated. Indeed the proportion of patients denied exit from Gaza for treatment has increased since last year. PHR will soon release a report on "medical extortion." Some sick Palestinians are interrogated at the Erez crossing and asked to become informants or collaborators as a condition of permission to leave Gaza for medical treatment.

After leaving the hospital, we travelled to the southern end of Gaza. We stopped at the Rafah crossing, the border with Egypt. It was closed, as it is most of the time.A cluster of people were waiting, hoping against hope that they would be allowed to cross. Egypt is under pressure from both Israel and the U.S. not to open the border, and in any event, they do not want large numbers of refugees to flood in.

We drove into the city of Rafah, which has come under bombardment by the Israeli military. A huge number of buildings have been severely damaged or completely destroyed. For street after street, barely any building is untouched. Makeshift shacks of corrugated metal and cloth sheets are now homes for those who have lost their housing.

We returned north along the coast road. The beauty of the sea view contrasted sharply with the rest of what we had seen.

After passing the Ash-Shati refugee camp, we went by modern hotels. They wait in vain for customers. The Gazan economy, devastated by Israel's border controls, continues to languish.

My sister and her husband are Orthodox Jews living near Tel Aviv. They are outraged at Israel's behaviour, especially the restrictions on sick patients needing to leave Gaza. My brother-in-law, a former chair of family medicine at Tel Aviv University and a specialist in medical ethics, has complained publicly about this.As a Jew, I, too, am ashamed and disgusted at what is happening. Yes, Israel needs security. But what is happening goes far beyond security needs. Israel's actions amount to collective punishment, forbidden under international law.

I am ashamed that the Harper government has tilted toward unconditional support for Israel against the Palestinians.The current policy is unconscionable, as anyone who visits Gaza can see only too well.

Harry Shannon is a professor of clinical epidemiology and bio- statistics at McMaster University, and a member of Independent Jewish Voices. He lives in Dundas.

 gaza zoo rejuvenated !

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3580083,00.html

Gazans smuggle lions, monkeys into zoo via secret tunnels - Stocked almost entirely with smuggled animals, 'Heaven of Birds and Animals Zoo” is sign of Strip's ever-expanding tunnel industry - 10 Aug 2008

Monkeys and lions are drugged, tossed into cloth sacks and dragged through smuggling tunnels under the border between Egypt and the besieged Gaza Strip before ending up in a dusty Gaza zoo.

Stocked almost entirely with smuggled animals, the "Heaven of Birds and Animals Zoo" is a sign of Gaza's ever-expanding tunnel industry.

Dozens of passages are believed to snake under the border, serving as a mainstay of the local economy and a way to smuggle in everything from cigarettes to lingerie to automatic weapons.

And smugglers say a new effort by Egypt to blow up the passages will have little effect on the flow of goods.

Gaza's commercial trade was literally forced underground after the Islamic militant Hamas seized the coastal territory last summer, prompting neighboring Israel and Egypt to restrict movement through commercial crossings.

While Israel has allowed more goods in since a June truce with Hamas, it is not enough to meet Gaza's needs. Tunnel smugglers fill the gaps, bringing in contraband drugs and guns and more mundane items like frilly underwear and laptop computers, as well as exotic animals like the lion and lioness that pace in a cage at the Rafah zoo.

They were purchased as cubs from Egypt for $3,000 each, drugged and dragged through a tunnel in sacks. Zoo manager Shadi Fayiz said he went through a middleman to put in his order.

At the small zoo, where umbrellas shade battered couches, there is a parrot who was slipped through a tunnel in a cage. He can ask for a kiss in Arabic, startling veiled Gazan women walking by, Fayiz said.

Two monkeys were bought together as babies. So were three spindly legged gazelles, one of whom bit several tunnel smugglers when they forgot to sedate it, Fayiz said.

All told, his animals cost over $40,000. Fayiz opened shop in June.

"Without the tunnels, I couldn't have done this," the 23-year-old said.

Competition in the smuggling market

Egypt, under Israeli pressure, has ratcheted up its efforts in recent weeks to destroy the passages, blasting tunnel entrances on its side.

But smugglers say they can easily build new ones.

"You can't kill a snake," said a middleman who goes by Abu Mohammed, referring to the passages by their Gazan slang name, "hayyeh," the Arabic word snake.

Like other traders interviewed by The Associated Press, he declined to give his full name, fearing retribution from Egypt and tax demands from Gaza's Hamas rulers.

Gaza traders come to his office in Rafah with lists of products — food, clothes, motor oil. He contacts Egyptian traders to find them, then shops for the cheapest tunnel to haul them through, ensuring a bigger profit.

"Some tunnels want $100 a box, some just $70. You have to compare prices," he said.

Such competition in the smuggling market was unthinkable before the Hamas takeover, when there were fewer passages and overland crossings still worked.

Rows of lacy underwear hang in Abu Mohammed's shop, left over from a previous shipment. They were big sellers through the summer, when most Gaza weddings take place. This season, traders are ordering nuts for Ramadan, an upcoming Muslim holy month when the devout fast throughout the day and usually snack through the night.

Traders estimate around 100 tunnels now run under the border, with the number rising since the Hamas takeover.

Israel has demanded that Egypt block weapons smuggling into Gaza.

Israel's main concern about the current truce is that Hamas will use it to rearm. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said he believed Egypt was devoting more energy to destroying the passageways, but also said Hamas was exploiting the calm to strengthen its military wing.

Earlier this month, five smugglers were killed when Egypt blew up a tunnel exit, suffocating them inside. An Egyptian border official said authorities destroy about a tunnel a day.

In early August, Egyptian border troops uncovered a 2,400-foot underground pipeline used to smuggle fuel into Gaza. Black market fuel has been a lucrative product in Gaza since Israel began reducing supplies to the territory to pressure militants to halt their fire at Israeli border communities.

Tunnel traders, meanwhile, say Egyptian efforts to destroy tunnels might delay shipments but won't halt them — smugglers can quickly dig new tunnel entrances by branching out from the main passage.

It's unlikely overland transport will soon replace the subterranean traffic. Hamas says a full opening of Gaza's border crossings must be part of any truce deal, but Israel refuses until there is progress in talks on the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas since 2006.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, says tunnels can't provide a solution to Gaza's woes.

"A tunnel can bring in a mobile phone, but it can't bring in raw materials," such as cement, building materials, gasoline and other fuel, which are all in short supply, said Abu Zuhr. "Because of that Gaza is paralyzed."

But zoo manager Fayiz praises the smugglers' ingenuity.

"It's just a matter of time until they make a tunnel an elephant can walk through," he said.

How Many More Innocents Must Die ?

“Since the truce was declared on June 19th [2008], 46 patients, including 10 children and 14 women, have died. The health situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, the siege emptied Gaza hospital and medical centers from the basic medical supplies and equipment.”
 Ministry of Health official in Gaza to IMEMC New – 26th August 2008


•    With its total control over Gaza’s land borders, airspace, territorial waters, population registry, tax system, supply of goods and supply of fuel, Israel has managed to maintain its blockade of the 1.5 million civilian population of the territory.

•    The declared aim of the policy is to force the population to withdraw their support for the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

•    The increasing restrictions on entry and exit of money, goods, services and persons via Gaza crossings and the closure of Rafah Crossing into Egypt since June 2007 have led to a sharp decline in social services. The healthcare system has been one of the worst hit.


•    The Egyptian brokered truce that came into force on 19th June 2008 was supposed to bring about the lifting of restrictions, including the freedom of movement. Two months on there have been no significant progress toward this end.


MEDICAL IMPACT

•    Meanwhile the health situation in the Gaza strip continues to deteriorate. All hospitals have now been emptied of basic medical supplies.

•    The net result has been a sharp increase in the number of patients referred to external medical centers (in Israel, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Jordan) via Israeli-controlled Eretz Crossing.

•    There has also been a steep rise in the proportion of patients denied exit permits: from 10 percent in the first half of 2007 to 35 percent in the first half of 2008.


•    Patients are barred from leaving the Gaza Strip for medical treatment elsewhere.
 
•    Amid these developments, John Ging, the UNRWA head of operations in Gaza called upon the Israelis and Egyptian governments to open the crossings at Rafah and Eretz so that patients could access urgent treatment.

•    On 22nd August Ministry of Health sources in Gaza reported the death of a 2-year-old infant after his parents were barred from leaving the Gaza Strip to seek the needed medical treatment for their child.

•    In the short term, hundreds of patients in Gaza are liable to die if they do not get immediate life-saving treatment.

•    Since the siege began a total of 241 patients have died due to lack of proper medical treatment.

•    A report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) – Israel in August 2008 criticized the total control exercised by the Israeli General Security Service (GSS) over the procedure of patients leaving for medical treatment.

•    Under the strict policy employed by the GSS, patients are regularly detained for interrogation at the Erez Crossing. They are requested either to provide information or to act as collaborators as a condition for permission to exit Gaza for medical treatment. Over the past year more than 30 patients submitted testimonies to PHR-Israel corroborating this practice.

•    Dr. Bob Brecher of Brighton University (UK) wrote in his formal ethical opinion on the report, “…it is clear that the State of Israel’s conduct, and in particular that of its agent in this matter, the GSS, raises serious ethical, as well as legal, issues in respect of the State of Israel’s international obligations.”

•    The PHR report concluded that certain acts of the GSS constitute inhumane and degrading treatment, and in some instances amount to torture.

•    Meanwhile according to a report from the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) raw and partially treated sewage continues to pour into the Mediterranean Sea from Gaza.

•    The worst affected areas are the Swedish Village, near Rafah in the South, the area north of Wadi Gaza, South of Gaza City, where raw sewage blackens the sea for at least a mile inshore and all the beaches around Gaza City.

•    The CMWU estimates that 40 million litres of partially treated sewage enters the sea from the Gaza City sewage treatment plant, 15 million litres of raw sewage from three other Gaza City outlets and a further 15 million litres of raw sewage from Rafah and Wadi Gaza. While these figures are only estimates, the effect on the sea is clear; most of the coastal water of the Gaza Strip is discolored, ranging from black to murky green.

I am an Israeli here in Gaza, we as Israelis have to start taking responsibilities for what we are doing. For the Israelis there is no occupation, so everything is terrorism from their point of view. What I am trying to say is: no, we have an occupation, we have siege, we have sanctions, we have closure and therefore, we are the strong party, we are the oppressors, the Palestinians aren't occupying Tel Aviv. Therefore, it's our responsibility to end the occupation and to bring an end to the conflict.


Jeff Halper, Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions in interview with The Electronic Intifada, 1st September 2008