In my earlier post on this topic, I wrote this:
- Gaza needs to be open for normal commercial and human activity– not just for the trucking-in of international aid.
What I was writing about there was, of course, only the immediate, or very short-term goal. I wanted to stress that “lifting the blockade” should not consist solely of allowing more aid shipments in. Gaza’s 1.5 million, amazingly well educated and capable people need to have the normal economic activities and possibilities of any other of the world’s peoples, as they and their national leaders continue to work on getting the Palestinian-Israeli conflict finally resolved.
Indeed, the basic premise under the Fourth Geneva Convention is that, during the presumably short time that a territory comes under foreign military occupation– pending the speedy conclusion of a final peace agreement between the two warring parties– the occupying power is obligated to (a) interfere as little as possible in the ongoing civilian life and governance of the territory’s residents, and (b) to facilitate their access to those inputs necessary for continued economic wellbeing.
In the case of Gaza, the West Bank, and Golan, of course, the foreign military occupations of those territories have not been short. They have lasted almost 43 years! And conclusion of a final peace between Israel and Palestine still seems far away. Hence the need to pay attention to the continuing economic and development needs of those territories’ civilian populations. However, no-one should think for a minute that addressing those issues is on its own “enough”. The basic issues of sovereignty, self-determination, and the end of foreign military occupation also need– very urgently!– to be addressed.
In the case of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents, 75-80 percent of them are refugees from homes and farms within Israel: Their claims regarding those homes, both for restoration of their property rights over them and restoration of their right to return to them, need to be addressed. Gaza’s people also all have a deep and longstanding attachment to Jerusalem and other places inside the occupied West Bank, for religious reasons and because of the normal family and business ties that Gazans have with West Bankers (including the Palestinians of East Jerusalem.)
All those issues need to be satisfactorily addressed in the context of a final peace agreement. This peace agreement could be one that results in a two-state outcome, though that seems increasingly unlikely at this point. Or it could be one involving the establishment of a single, unitary, and binational state in which all Palestinians and all Israelis would enjoy equal citizenship and equal rights. But under one model of resolution or the other, the final peace has to be secured– and soon! Palestinians, Israelis, and the rest of the world have all waited for this final settlement for far too long.
The need for that occupation-ending final peace is urgent. It cannot be postponed another 43 years! But in the meantime, the siege of Gaza has to be lifted.