Suffering in Gaza, lest we forget

July was the most lethal month for the Palestinians of the occupied West Bank and Gaza since the terrible month of April 2002.
The MSM in the US seems to have almost completely stopped reporting on the horrors inside Gaza. Which doesn’t mean they’re not happening…
In July, according to this report from B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories,

    the Israeli military killed 163 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 78 of whom (48 percent) were not taking part in the hostilities when they were killed. Thirty-six of the fatalities were minors, and 20 were women. [Meanwhile,] In the West Bank , 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in July.

U.N. humanitarian-affairs monitors in Palestine and Israel gave this perspective on August 3:

    We are concerned that with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten. We estimate that since 28 June, 175 Palestinians have been killed, including approximately 40 children and eight women, and over 620 injured in the Gaza Strip. One IDF soldier has been killed and 25 Israelis have been injured, including 11 Israelis injured by homemade rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Palestinians have fired on average between 8-9 homemade rockets per day towards Israel (319 in total) and the Israeli military has fired on average 200-250 artillery shells per day into the Gaza Strip and conducted at least 220 aerial bombings. [Can you say ‘disproportionate’– here as in Lebanon?]
    …The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the targeting of Gaza’s vital infrastructures, particularly the destruction of the only domestic power plant, has triggered a chain reaction of lack of power, scarcity of fuel for generators and water shortage, thus causing a serious threat to people’s health and harming the functioning of the entire health system. Provisional measures to avert the crisis are being set up by the local institutions and the international community… Of further concern is the lack of access to health care in Egypt and Jordan due to Rafah border total and prolonged closure. WHO continues monitoring the situation to identify early warning signs of crisis in the health system and health status of the Palestinian people.
    …According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) some 838,000 Palestinian children living in Gaza are bearing the brunt of disproportionate shelling and attacks. Shortages and closures make it virtually impossible to deliver quality care, while simultaneously fueling the conditions for outbreaks of communicable disease, which hits children hardest. Of the approximately 40 Palestinian children killed in Gaza in since 28 June, almost a quarter were under 10 years old. Since the beginning of 2006, 69 children have died due to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, including one Israeli child.

Some heart-wrenching reporting on the fate of Gaza’s children comes from UNRWA public-affairs reporters Adnan Abu Hasna and Chareen Fahmi:

    “I don’t want to go! I don’t want to go!” screams six-year-old Mustafa, adamantly refusing his father’s mentioning to return to their apartment in the towers of the Abraj Anada area, northern Gaza Strip. He doesn’t talk except for those words. Like most children in the Gaza Strip, he has witnessed things children should never have to see. Fresh in this child’s mind are visions of a Palestinian man lying on the ground near Mustafa’s home, his leg severed by a shell. Asia Kabeer, an UNRWA psychologist working with Mustafa and other children says that “all the scenes are stuck in his memory and he can’t forget them”. She adds that fear prevents Mustafa from playing alone; he spends every hour of the day beside his family and in fear that they will leave him alone. Mustafa, his 6 siblings and their father Yehya fled the Beit Hanoun area for Jabalia Preparatory A Girls’ School, one of the four UNRWA schools where over 1,500 displaced people from 270 families have taken refuge.
    Enter nine-year-old Palestine refugee Ayesha, quite confident and talkative. But her talk in this makeshift shelter in a school is not of dolls or future plans. Another young witness to horror, she explains “I am afraid all the time because it was the first time in my life that I saw people hit by shells. I can’t forget the screaming of one of them. I am afraid that the shelling may come to where we are in the school”. She has mixed feelings about returning home: “I really want to go back but at the school I feel more secure despite having lost everything—my room, dolls and toys”.

And along with this recent report, BTtselem presents some solid-looking documentation about a mid-July incident in which the IOF used six Palestinian civilians, including two minors, as “human shields” in an operation inside the Gaza Strip. Here’s the summary:

    B’Tselem’s initial investigation indicates that, during an incursion by Israeli forces into Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip, on 17 July 2006, soldiers seized control of two buildings in the town and used residents as human shield.
    After seizing control of the buildings, the soldiers held six residents, two of them minors, on the staircases of the two buildings, at the entrance to rooms in which the soldiers positioned themselves, for some twelve hours. During this time, there were intense exchanges of gunfire between the soldiers and armed Palestinians. The soldiers also demanded that one of the occupants walk in front of them during a search of all the apartments in one of the buildings, after which they released her.
    International humanitarian law forbids using civilians as human shields by placing them next to soldiers or next to military facilities, with the intention of gaining immunity from attack, or by forcing the civilians to carry out dangerous military assignments…

The conditions in which Gaza’s people have been forced to live for the past few months are inhumane and should shock the conscience of the world. This, after their orderly holding of two democratic elections since January 2005…
I saw President Bush briefly on the television this evening. He looked flustered, defensive, and very unsure of himself. But he kept repeating that what he was trying to do in the Middle East was “bring democracy to the region.” What a sad, sad man. It is really quite scary the degree to which that sad man and the Prime Minister of Israel– both of whom command armies of unimaginable destructive capability– seem both to be so ignorant and so out of control as they address the current challenges in the Middle East.

15 thoughts on “Suffering in Gaza, lest we forget”

  1. NON-RECOGNITION WATCH
    Number of days that Israel declared its independence and the overwhelming majority of Arab and Muslim nations have refused to recognize that nation’s right to exist in peace.
    21,269

  2. Let us not forget the terrible suffering in Gaza, and let us not allow the horrors being perpetrated there and in Lebanon to make us forget the suffering of Iraqis. It seems no one thinks about that anymore.

  3. “Denial of a RIGHT TO EXIST” Watch
    Number of days since Palestine was WIPED OFF THE MAP:
    21,269
    ACTIONS speak louder than words….

  4. Let us not forget the terrible suffering in Gaza, and let us not allow the horrors being perpetrated there and in Lebanon to make us forget the suffering of Iraqis. It seems no one thinks about that anymore.
    True. Here’s the latest Riverbend:
    Baghdad Burning

  5. “I was thinking about the Lebanon analogy yesterday for a different reason: the rather stunning similarities, across the board, to the Iraq war. Remember – Lebanon 1982 was the original “war on terror.” Ariel Sharon, then Defense Minister, hoped to crush the PLO in Lebanon and thereby end Palestinian resistance to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza – remember that back then, Israel defined the PLO solely as a terrorist organization and rejected the existence of a legitimate Palestinian nationalism with political grievances.
    Sharon’s desire to crush the PLO dovetailed with the ambitions of Bashir Gemayal and the Phalange, a right wing (near fascist) Maronite Christian militia, to establish their hegemony over Lebanon. The expectation was that Gemayel would be installed as a pro-Israeli, pro-Western President who would align Lebanon accordingly. Sharon also expected the Shia to welcome the IDF as liberators, not conquerers, based on their clear and very real hatred for the Palestinians (which they did, initially – not with hugs and puppies, but with tacit acceptance… until the Israeli presence proved too oppressive and Hizbollah rose up to seize the mantle of resistance). To get this war of choice, Sharon manipulated intelligence and lied – certainly to the Israeli people, and arguably to Prime Minister Menachem Begin – about the nature and magnitude of the Palestinian threat.
    Sharon expected a quick and easy military campaign, and he got one: the IDF raced to Beirut in only six days, confirming Israel’s vast military superiority. Once they got to Beirut, though, things bogged down. The horrific siege of Beirut followed, and then the litany of tragedies which we all associate with the Lebanon war – the Sabra and Shatilla massacres, the Hizbollah bombing of the US Marine barracks, the collapse of the society into an unbelievably vicious cycle of senseless violence. Gemayel was assassinated before he could take office. Hizbollah, which many Israelis now consider to be Israel’s most dangerous enemy, was born in the 1982 invasion, and rose to prominence by virtue of its military effectiveness in the long struggle against the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon.
    The results of an unnecessary, illegal, and misguided war? Well, the PLO was in fact expelled from Lebanon – the one success cited by Sharon and his defenders. But the PLO reconstituted itself abroad, Palestinian nationalism continued to thrive, and the PLO’s weakness allowed the spread of Islamic politics in Gaza and the West Bank which soon gave birth to Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Meanwhile, Lebanon descended into chaos and horror, Hizbollah thrived, and Israeli soldiers became easy targets (flypaper!) for Hizbollah attacks in the security zone. To Israel’s vast credit, a massive peace movement protested the war, leading to Begin resign in disgrace.
    You see the similarities, even if I don’t spell them out: a war on terror, fought on false pretenses, expectation of a rapturous Shia welcome and the quick creation of a friendly pro-Western proxy, quick military victory followed by long, slow, painful guerrilla war, a steady bleeding of the occupying military force, the rise of a militarily effective and radical Islamist resistance, and finally a withdrawal in 2000 from what was widely seen as a senseless quagmire. The only – really the only – cause for hope in this whole sordid tale is Begin’s fall from power in the face of an outraged public which demanded answers.”
    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=2604

  6. The Beating Heart of Prophecy
    “How has Israel survived? Principally, two ways. The first is its historically famed spitfire toughness—its determination to shoot any attacker at the knees; this has brought every war in Israel’s history to a swift and decisive end. The second is the support Israel has enjoyed from the mighty United States, which has often deterred potential Arab aggression.
    What we can expect in the years ahead—in fact, what we already see—is both of these protective walls crumbling, bringing a shocking end to the modern nation of Israel!”
    http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?page=article&id=557

  8. It just kills me to see what is being done with US backing and encouragement in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, etc. Thanks for keeping the human costs in sight, though it is painful.

  9. Joshua, as i’ve pointed out before, it’s not true that “the overwhelming majority” of Arab and Muslim nations now refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist in peace. Look at robust peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, strong relations with Turkey, the content of the 2002 Beirut Declaration to which all Arab governments and the PA all subscribed.
    I don’t know why you continue posting this misleading (or even, actively dishonest) little mantra here.
    It seems you don’t want to engage– either morally or intellectually– with the actual content of the post in any way. I guess repeating your little mantra is a whole lot easier for you. Just writing “om” might serve the same mind-numbing purpose for you while being less misleading for the rest of us.
    In the future, I shall delete comments like this, since you have now posted it enough times that if you have a point it has been made. If you want to put a daily count like this up on the web, go ahead, but not here. Cyberspace and its eager readers await your contribution with bated breath.
    Meantime, I think it’s more useful to comfort the afflicted (of all nations), and focus on ways to end the cycles of violence in the Middle East and help the peoples there– who will all still be living next to each other once these current escalations subside– to build relationships that are mutually respectful and informed by principles of basic human equality, and are therefore sustainable over the long term.
    Or do you have a better idea? If you do, please tell us what it is.

  10. Helena,
    Is it just wishful thinking, or is there such a thing as “reverse megaphone” software. Which would enable each of your readers to filter your blog to their personal preferences. So, e.g., if I wanted to zap X’s oms – or Y’s witterings – I just hit the zap it button and hey presto from there on out I’ve got my own personal, om-free or Y-free version of JWN.
    So basically they’d be busily talking to themselves. And for that matter, maybe I’d be talking to myself. But let the market decide…

  12. Helena,
    I post the statistic of non-recognition for the same reason that you post your cute “watches” on the front page. I think it highlights an extremely relevant fact which gets to the root of the problem.
    And my statistic is not at all misleading. The only Arab countries that have recognized Israel’s right to exist are Egypt, Jordan, and Mauritania. The other Arab countries have refused to do so. Some Muslim countries, such as Turkey and some of the central Asian countries, have relations with Israel. But again the overwhelming majority fail to recognize it’s right to exist in peace.
    The Beirut proposal is not acknowledging such right to exist. It is the potential to do so if Israel satisfies certain demands. I will not discuss the Beirut proposal at length, only to say that there are legitimate concerns with what its substantive demands are, as well as whether it was backed by adequate guarantees. I do think the Beirut proposal was important in that it signaled a departure from the hardline and extremist positions of the past. Nevertheless, it does not amount to those countries acknowledging Israel’s right to exist in peace.
    It’s your blog, so you can choose to delete such posts or (gasp!) ban my posting if you do so. But as long as your counter is up, then I think that mine is equally relevant to the discussion. If you want to show yourself to be so intolerant of anyone who does points out facts inconvenient to your worldview, then that is your decision. I have noticed that although advocates for Palestinians complain about the “censorship” they feel at the hands of the “Israeli lobby” that it is in fact the Palestine-Uber-Alles crowd that will often engage in actual tactics to suppress what other people say.
    In the meantime, I fully agree that we need “to build relationships that are mutually respectful and informed by principles of basic human equality.” To that end, I think we can all agree that Arab and Muslim states without territorial claims against Israel should immediately offer full recognition of that country’s right to exist in peace, and to do so by establishing fully normalized relations. Not to do so is inconsistent of your oft quoted mantra “human equality now.”

  13. It’s as if we are giving Democracy a bad name. Just as Crime is a codeword for Blacks, Immigration Reform is code for Mexicans-Democracy is code for regime change, military occupation and privatization of the economy. Oh yeah-and terrorism is the codeword for anyone standing up to Israel or disagreeing with the US administration.
    My opinion.
    Joe Osorio

  15. Joshua, re your it is in fact the Palestine-Uber-Alles crowd that will often engage in actual tactics to suppress what other people say: As I said, go ahead and post your ‘non-recognition watch’ thing in cyberspace wherever you want.
    But you’ve already posted it here, any number of times. Point made– and explained, and dissected– any number of times.
    Continuing to try to post this here expressly violates my long-posted request that comments should be “fresh” and “to the point”.
    Thank you and good night.

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