The Free Gaza Movement has been announcing on a daily basis for over a week now that its vessels are about to head off to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. But with each passing day, there's simply another delay.
Most of the Dutch citizens aboard the Dutch-Italian ship which forms part of the Freedom Flotilla are going home, they said on Wednesday. The ship is currently at anchor in the port of the Greek island of Corfu.
Will the flotilla of 8 to 10 ships ever leave Greece? RNW's Eric Beauchemin was supposed to have sailed on the Dutch-Italian boat, the Stefano Chiarini.
A few months ago, I attended a gathering at a community centre in Rotterdam where Dutch activists were packing goods into 49 boxes. They had collected toys, medicines, textbooks and musical instruments to deliver to Gaza. One of the spokesmen extolled young Dutch-Moroccan teenagers for having collected things in their neighbourhood on bakfietsen (typical Dutch transport tricycles which parents often use to transport children and groceries). The message was clear: this was a noble cause and the activists should fulfill their mission.
PR machine
But the Dutch and other activists did not reckon on the strength of Israel's PR machine and the Jewish state's economic and diplomatic clout. Israel had made it very clear that it would not allow a second Freedom Flotilla ever to reach the shores of Gaza. It had lost too much face when nine Turks were killed in clashes with Israeli troops who boarded the Mavi Marmara, the biggest vessel in last year’s operation.
Israel's primary goal was to ensure that members of the Turkish International Humanitarian Foundation did not sail again on the Mavi Marmara. The IHH is described by some as a humanitarian group. Israel, the United States and other countries regard it as an Islamist organisation, closely linked to Hamas, the ruling body in the Gaza Strip.
Pressure
Israel put considerable pressure on the Turkish government to block the Mavi Marmara from sailing. And it succeeded: in mid-June, the Turkish organizers announced that the ship would not leave port “due to technical reasons”.
On Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak hinted that reconciliation with Turkey is drawing near, saying Israel was very interested in "putting the past behind us."
Israel's closest friend
Israel also needed to get its closest ally, the United States, involved in the campaign to stop Freedom Flotilla 2. And Washington came through with flying colours. The United States - together with the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France - issued strong statements opposing their citizens' involvement in the flotilla.
But this did not deter the Dutch activists. They were going to draw publicity to the situation in Gaza, where 80 percent of the population, according to the United Nations, depends on international aid to survive.
Their other stated goal was to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, but the activists have since distanced themselves from that aim. Egypt has opened a port to receive the aid. Greece has also offered to transport the 49 boxes of Dutch toys and textbooks and all the other items, but the activists aren't interested. They simply want the world to take notice of Gaza.
End game
Both activists and journalists had expected the end game to take place in the Mediterranean, off the shores of Israel or the Gaza Strip. But instead, it is taking place in Greece.
The activists allege that two of the boats have been sabotaged by the Israelis. The Greek authorities, for their part, have barred the Freedom Flotilla 2's vessels from setting sail. Over the weekend, Greek commandos stopped and impounded the American boat, Audacity of Hope. On Monday, the Greek coastguard turned back a Canadian ship, with more than 40 people on board. A similar fate awaits the other ships, including the Dutch-Italian vessel, the Stefano Chiarani, originally named Open Gaza.
UN not involved
UNRWA, the United Nations agency that assists Palestinians, announced weeks ago that it would not distribute any aid delivered by the flotilla to avoid possible accusations from Israel that it was getting involved in the conflict.
Fiasco
The Netherlands-Gaza Foundation (www.nederland-gaza.nl) had reserved 32 places on board the Stefano Chiarani. Prominent Dutch citizens had been invited. In the end, 15 people expressed an interest. Now there are only seven people left, and one or two might still jump ship. All the Dutch journalists, including myself, withdrew last week after we lost confidence in the organisation.
Another day has passed. And yet another delay. One of the latest press releases from the Netherlands-Gaza Foundation quotes 19-year-old Chris Verweij, the youngest of the Dutch participants: "Whatever happens with our flotilla, Israel will not stop us. We might not sail today or tomorrow or next week or next month. As Mahatma Gandhi said: first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
(eb/imm)
Email this Article
Printer-friendly version
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/roy_01_.html
If Gaza Falls . . .
Sara Roy
London Review of Books
1 January 2009
Israel's siege of Gaza began on 5 November, the day after an Israeli attack inside the strip, no doubt designed finally to undermine the truce between Israel and Hamas established last June. Although both sides had violated the agreement before, this incursion was on a different scale. Hamas responded by firing rockets into Israel and the
violence has not abated since then.
Israel's siege has two fundamental goals. One is to ensure that the Palestinians there are seen merely as a humanitarian problem, beggars who have no political identity and therefore can have no political claims. The second is to foist Gaza onto Egypt. That is why the Israelis tolerate the hundreds of tunnels between Gaza and Egypt around which an informal but increasingly regulated commercial sector has begun to form. The overwhelming
majority of Gazans are impoverished and officially 49.1 per cent are unemployed. In fact the prospect of steady employment is rapidly disappearing for the majority of the population.
On 5 November the Israeli government sealed all the ways into and out of Gaza. Food, medicine, fuel, parts for water and sanitation systems, fertiliser, plastic sheeting, phones, paper, glue, shoes and even teacups are no longer getting through in sufficient quantities or at all.
According to Oxfam only 137 trucks of food were allowed into Gaza in November. This means that an average of 4.6 trucks per day entered the strip compared to an average of 123 in October this year and 564 in December 2005. The two main food providers in Gaza are the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the World Food Programme (WFP). UNRWA alone feeds approximately 750,000 people in Gaza, and requires 15 trucks of food daily to do so.
Between 5 November and 30 November, only 23 trucks
arrived, around 6 per cent of the total needed; during the week of 30 November it received 12 trucks, or 11 per cent of what was required. There were three days in November when UNRWA ran out of food, with the result that on each of these days 20,000 people were unable to receive their scheduled supply. According to John Ging, the director of UNRWA in Gaza, most of the people who get food aid are entirely dependent on it. On 18 December UNRWA suspended all food distribution for both emergency and regular programmes because of the blockade.
The WFP has had similar problems, sending only 35 trucks out of the 190 it had scheduled to cover Gazans' needs until the start of February (six more were allowed in between 30 November and 6 December). Not only that: the WFP
has to pay to store food that isn't being sent to Gaza. This cost $215,000 in November alone. If the siege
continues, the WFP will have to pay an extra $150,000 for
storage in December, money that will be used not to support
Palestinians but to benefit Israeli business.
The majority of commercial bakeries in Gaza - 30 out of 47 - have had to close because they have run out of cooking gas. People are using any fuel they can find to cook with.
As the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has made clear, cooking-gas canisters are necessary for generating the warmth to incubate broiler chicks. Shortages of gas and animal feed have forced commercial producers to smother hundreds of thousands of chicks. By April, according to the FAO, there will be no poultry there at all: 70 per cent of Gazans rely on chicken as a major source of protein.
Banks, suffering from Israeli restrictions on the transfer of banknotes into the territory were forced to close on 4 December. A sign on the door of one read: 'Due to the decision of the Palestinian Finance Authority, the bank
will be closed today Thursday, 4.12.2008, because of the unavailability of cash money, and the bank will be reopened once the cash money is available.'
The World Bank has warned that Gaza's banking system could collapse if these restrictions continue. All cash for work programmes has been stopped and on 19 November UNRWA suspended its cash assistance programme to the most needy.
It also ceased production of textbooks because there is no paper, ink or glue in Gaza. This will affect 200,000 students returning to school in the new year. On 11 December, the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, sent $25 million following an appeal from the Palestinian prime minister, Salaam Fayad, the first infusion of its kind since October. It won't even cover a month's salary for Gaza's 77,000 civil servants.
On 13 November production at Gaza's only power station was suspended and the turbines shut down because it had run out of industrial diesel. This in turn caused the two turbine batteries to run down, and they failed to start up again when fuel was received some ten days later. About a hundred parts ordered for the turbines have been sitting in the port of Ashdod in Israel for the last eight months, waiting for the Israeli authorities to let them through customs. Now Israel has started to auction these parts because they have been in customs for more than 45 days. The proceeds are being held in Israeli accounts.
During the week of 30 November, 394,000 litres of industrial diesel were allowed in for the power plant: approximately 18 per cent of the weekly minimum that Israel is legally obliged to allow in. It was enough for one
turbine to run for two days before the plant was shut down again. The Gaza Electricity Distribution Company said that most of the Gaza Strip will be without electricity for between four and 12 hours a day. At any given time during these outages, over 65,000 people have no electricity.
No other diesel fuel (for standby generators and transport) was delivered during that week, no petrol (which has been kept out since early November)or cooking gas. Gaza's hospitals are apparently relying on diesel and gas
smuggled from Egypt via the tunnels; these supplies are said to be administered and taxed by Hamas. Even so, two of Gaza's hospitals have been out of cooking gas since the week of 23 November.
Adding to the problems caused by the siege are those created by the political divisions between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas Authority in Gaza. For example, Gaza's Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU), which is not controlled by Hamas, is supposed to
receive funds from the World Bank via the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) in Ramallah to pay for fuel to run the pumps for Gaza's sewage system. Since June, the PWA has refused to hand over those funds, perhaps because it feels that a functioning sewage system would benefit Hamas. I
don't know whether the World Bank has attempted to
intervene, but meanwhile UNRWA is providing the fuel,
although they have no budget for it. The CMWU has also asked
Israel's permission to import 200 tons of chlorine, but by the end of November it had received only 18 tons - enough for one week of chlorinated water. By mid-December Gaza City and the north of Gaza had access to water only six hours every three days.
According to the World Health Organisation, the political divisions between Gaza and the West Bank are also having a serious impact on drug stocks in Gaza. The West Bank Ministry of Health (MOH) is responsible for procuring and delivering most of the pharmaceuticals and medical
disposables used in Gaza. But stocks are at dangerously low levels. Throughout November the MOH West Bank was turning shipments away because it had no warehouse space, yet it wasn't sending supplies on to Gaza in adequate quantities. During the week of 30 November, one truck carrying drugs and medical supplies from the MOH in Ramallah entered Gaza, the first delivery since early September.
The breakdown of an entire society is happening in front of us, but there is little international response beyond UN warnings which are ignored. The European Union announced recently that it wanted to strengthen its relationship with Israel while the Israeli leadership openly calls for a
large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip and continues its economic stranglehold over the territory with, it appears, the not-so-tacit support of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah - which has been co-operating with Israel on a number of measures. On 19 December Hamas officially ended its truce with Israel, which Israel said it wanted to renew, because of Israel's failure to ease the blockade.
How can keeping food and medicine from the people of Gaza protect the people of Israel? How can the impoverishment and suffering of Gaza's children - more than 50 per cent of the population - benefit anyone? International law as well as human decency demands their protection. If Gaza falls, the West Bank will be next.
[Sara Roy teaches at Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and is the author of Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
A concentration camp
for 1 million people
Administered by Israel, paid for by the US and tolerated by Arab rulers, Gaza is an open air concentration camp where snipers take pot shots at children, aircraft shoot missiles into crowds, and bulldozers randomly destroy homes with impunity.
The recent mass assault is only the latest in a long string of atrocities.
Dishonest news outlets like the Associated Press talk about the bombing of the Gaza tunnels without pointing out that for over a year they are the only source of food, medicine, and other necessities for one million people walled in and surrounded by homicidal psychopaths.
Approximately half of the population of Gaza is under 18 years old.
A concentration camp
for 1 million people
Administered by Israel, paid for by the US and tolerated by Arab rulers, Gaza is an open air concentration camp where snipers take pot shots at children, aircraft shoot missiles into crowds, and bulldozers randomly destroy homes with impunity.
The recent mass assault is only the latest in a long string of atrocities.
Dishonest news outlets like the Associated Press talk about the bombing of the Gaza tunnels without pointing out that for over a year they are the only source of food, medicine, and other necessities for one million people walled in and surrounded by homicidal psychopaths.
Approximately half of the population of Gaza is under 18 years old.
How would this scene play out if the shoe were on the other foot - a humanitarian flotilla bringing much needed help to israel? How much longer does the world have to endure the Holocaust guilt trip? How much longer is the world going to look the other way while israel keeps ignoring every single UN resolution it doesn't like? How much longer should we allow israel to brand us 'anti Semitic' just because those of us, who have a conscience and heart, do not agree with israel's barbaric behaviour? Why do we keep ignoring the fact that Palestinians had absolutely nothing to do with the Holocaust? A puny little nation thinking it can dictate to the world at will...and, shame on us, and we let it.
"How would this scene play out if the shoe were on the other foot"...They would sink the ship with everybody on it. That is what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot.
Israel has PR machine, it is the same one that stole all the video/pictures from the flotilla and produced their own slanted version of history. Do you people really think you are fooling anyone by denying that there isn't a major propaganda campaign waged by Israel? Israel could have made copies of the various video/pictures and returned them to the rightful owners but didn't. That is a stark example of a desperate country wanting to control the story rather than a truthful story. If Israel had nothing to hide, they would release what the stole.
If Israel doesn't want flotillas then all they need to do is end the collective punishment. It is that simple. This was not about rocket parts, it was about banning things like "dangerous" pasta from being imported into Gaza. Only a little has changed since the first flotilla. So many on here seem to have very selective memories, before the first flotilla absurd things like crayons for school kids, shoes, clothes were banned from Gaza.How was that for "security"? The Israelis didn't publish a list of all the items, because they knew what they were doing was wrong, but thought they could get away with it anyway. Only after the pressure brought about by the first flotilla did attention of the world show the misdeeds of the Israeli's illegal actions and they rescind some of their list of absurd banned items. Israel brought this on them self, but cries about terrorists, when all they need is a mirror to see who is terrorizing a populous. They still are banning construction materials and the exports of manufactured goods so a Palestinians can't get jobs.
To all those on here trying to say what about Syria,I say to you what about Israel? The village of Madama had 500 olive trees burned down by settler on July 3 Anyone trying to put out the fires were shot at by nearby settlers. Who are terrorist? I really don't know how you people live with yourselves. I care about all areas of the world that mistreat people, but unlike you I do not excluded Israel from being held to western standards of human rights.
No, it has nothing to do with the "Israeli PR machine." Israel is good at a lot of things, such as medical advances that save people's lives. But Israel isn't all that good at PR.
The groundswell of support for Israel comes from a lot of individuals like me, most of whom aren't even Jewish. We just know the difference between right and wrong. The Israelis are right. Their enemies are wrong, wrong, wrong.
For those from the Jewish Lobbies writing on every space available to regurgitate the official Zionist line of FM Liberman, and attack for the past six month everyone in the planning of the flotillia to Gaza, and to dare not to call it Pressure,it's the usual Jewish Chutzpah!
I opine that the only way Zionist/Bolcheviks will understand, is when they will get some real bombs/missiles on their heads, in payment of 60 years of State terrorism!
If the "activists" really cared about human rights, they would sail to Turkey and deliver aid to the thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled from Assad's murderous regime.
If their propaganda stunt really did make it to Gaza, it would open the gates for ships carrying rockets that can hit me and my children. No thanks.
These people are just a bunch of fascist hypocrites.
Larry, you forgot to mention: If the activists really cared about human rights, they, themselves, would go into Syria and help those people fight for their freedoms. Or, maybe go into Iran! How about going into Korea and fighting for their rights? Naw, you boys and girls ain't about freedom. You are just like your grandparents of the 1930's. You have come full circle in your lust for Jewish blood and you know it. Only this time, you will find the Jewish people will not walk into the ovens for you. Larry was being nice to you when he stated "fascist hypocrites". Words can't decribe you. We ain't leaving Israel, folks. It is a promise and a gift from a Force far greater than you can perceive.
Tim Bus, I agree with you on the statement "Israel put considerable pressure on the Turkish government to block the Mavi Marmara from sailing."...What kind of "considerable" pressure did Israel put on Turkey?
Is this reporting news, or making it up?
"...it would not allow a second Freedom Flotilla ever to reach the shores of Gaza." Bad writing. That deliberately makes it sound like the first fauxtilla (last year) got through. It didn't. Substitute 'the' for 'a' to make sense.
"The IHH is described by some as a humanitarian group."
The 'some' are people like ISM, FGM, and anyone on the far left, who will make common cause with genocidal fascists.
"Israel put considerable pressure on the Turkish government..." PLEASE, tell me you're joking! What, did Israel threaten to invade Turkey, or seize Turkish Cyprus?
"...Mavi Marmara...would not leave port" That could have been an insurance problem. Absolutely nothing to do with Israel. Why would any insurer cover a vessel which intends to enter a conflict zone, 'with malice aforethought, in full knowledge of what happened last year?
I must however, acknowledge that Eric has 'owned' the dark side of this PROPAGANDA STUNT. For that is all it is, all it was and all it ever will be.
Post new comment
Please be reminded all comments must be in English, short and to the point - guideline 250 words. Abusive and inappropriate comments will be removed.