[Marxism] What Many Don’t Know About Gaza

["Nasir Khan" <naskha3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://nasir-khan.blogspot.com/2009/01/rashid-khalidi-what-you-dont-know-about.html

By Rashid Khalidi | New York Times,

Published: January 7, 2009

NEARLY everything you've been led to believe about Gaza is wrong.
Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the
conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about
Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip.

THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice.
The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140
square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns
and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were
driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.

THE OCCUPATION: The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since
the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an
occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from
the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports
and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control
over Gaza's air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at
will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the
Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian
population of the Gaza Strip.

THE BLOCKADE: Israel's blockade of the strip, with the support of the
United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent
since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in
January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of
people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to
life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and
transportation.

The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and
malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the
tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for
exercising its democratic rights.

THE CEASE-FIRE: Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket
fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel
and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza
from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the
subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The
cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and
ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported
killed.

WAR CRIMES: The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel,
is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the
numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them
civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of
last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis
killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective
way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have
been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June
cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

This war on the people of Gaza isn't really about rockets. Nor is it
about "restoring Israel's deterrence," as the Israeli press might have
you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then
the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: "The Palestinians
must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their
consciousness that they are a defeated people."

Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author
of the forthcoming "Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance
in the Middle East."

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

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