Rafah hasn’t had running water for the now the third day, the electricity goes out for at least 6 hours a day; 6000 people are waiting to get permits from Israel to leave Gaza (whose names have been now been canceled), and Gaza just declared the Gaza Strip a “hostile territory,” including cutting off electricity and fuel. Wait!!! Did I miss something? So what were we before? Friendly territory? Or were we even free?? And compiling a list of sanctions to "lower the amount of goods and currency allowed to enter the Gaza Strip to the minimum needed to ensure the basic needs of the Palestinians?" And so the border closures, where people cannot leave or enter Gaza, or the denial of permits for leukemia patients, and the closing of 75% of Gaza’s factories because of limited resources leaving 30,000 workers unemployed, or that your human rights, including your dignity has been taken away from you….what was that, if not sanctions?
Shit, if we WERE JUST declared an "enemy entity,” then what else is left…how can it possibly get any worse?
Will they cut off the electricity? Because there are already frequent power outages. Will they cut off fuel? Again, pretty sure there’s an shortage there too? And they’ll only allow supplies considered “humanitarian,” as if they have let in “non-humanitiarn” supplies in the last three months. Or will they control out borders by ground, air and sea? Again, their planes roam our skies, the sea is covered from that end and the tanks are sitting on Rafah and Beit Hanoun’s border. So what else can they do?
The news didn’t make much of a difference to us here; people have been stocking up on food and preparing themselves for months. Declaring Gaza officially a “hostile territory,” just means now Israel has an excuse and a green light to continue with the sanctions, not that anyone in the world questioned them before, but now what is has been doing to 1.4 million people in Gaza for the past 18 months has just been legalized.
But we were very very relieved to hear that the US has no intention of, "abandoning the innocent Palestinians in Gaza."
1 comment:
Yasmin, I feel for you with my heart, and wish that you will find the power to overcome the troubled times. For all the non-extremeist people in Gaza shout out to your government, Hamas should realize that Israel is a neighbour and livig with Israel can be good for the region. Stay safe and keep strong. Thanks for a great blog. Dan.
Post a Comment