The Blockade of The Gaza Strip - A very Sad Story Indeed!
You will seldom find me poking my “two cents” into the dialogue between the Israelis and Hamas in The Gaza Strip. The way I see things there will never be an end to the conflict between the Palestinian people and the Israelis – ever! The news coming out of that region is usually depressing, but even for them the news this week was extraordinary.
Israel has in place a maritime blockade that disallows most cargo from being offloaded at any port in Gaza, with the exception of humanitarian supplies. The problem here is with the definition of what constitutes such supplies. Fundamentally, Israel fears that if they allow Gaza to have certain materials, such items may be reworked into armaments and thrown back into Israel, killing Israelis.
This week, beginning the first day of June, 2010 a convoy of six ships left Turkey to try and run the blockade, while the Israelis warned that they would hold fast. In the process the Israelis confronted the ships and boarded them, but in the case of one of the ships violence broke out that resulted in several people being injured and worse still, nine people were killed.
The outcome was that Israel has been roundly castigated, but no-one has called the action by the blockade runners foolhardy; but that, in my opinion is what it was. True, it was not all for nothing in that it has heightened world awareness to the fact that there exists a blockade, and to the effects of it upon Gaza. So, now that we know, what will change? Most likely nothing.
I took the opportunity to look at what life is like living without a great many of the basics that we in the free world take for granted, and it makes grim reading. Firstly, there is no definitive list of what is allowed and what is not. Sometimes certain everyday items may be allowed, and at other times they might be refused. Items such as candles, matches, books, musical instruments, certain foods, shoes, mattresses with sheets and blankets, writing materials and light bulbs have fallen under the entry denied grouping.
Cars, refrigerators, and building materials are almost always denied entry. I take no position as to the justification or not of the Israeli position regarding the items that they blockade, I simply have difficulty in getting my head around how it is possible for a modern day people to live without such fundamental materials.
Indeed, what can it be like for any ethnic group of people to live under such control of another power? We who are free to choose our own lifestyles and to buy whatever we can afford find this concept to be so strange in this modern world as to be outlandish.
This may explain the rash moves on the part of the blockade-runners. It seems futile from the start, not to mention dangerous to try and break the blockade set by such a determined country as Israel. At the least these are desperate actions in response to what appears to be a very desperate standard of living.
The part that particularly upsets me is that people sail their ships with their restricted cargoes into the Israeli hands, whereupon all is confiscated and the personnel are promptly deported leaving their cargoes to the Israelis. The Israelis say that they will deliver the goods, but if the items are embargoed they won’t be delivered to the Palestinians, but presumably they will be used as a gift by Israel.
Having seen what happened to the first ships, that has been followed up by another ship, with more ships promised. Stop the madness! This is a going-nowhere strategy at great cost and no gains to be had. I do feel great compassion for the Palestinian disadvantaged people, in isolation without considering past history and I can only hope for a better solution between the two groups.
First, there has to be a Will.
Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael
You will seldom find me poking my “two cents” into the dialogue between the Israelis and Hamas in The Gaza Strip. The way I see things there will never be an end to the conflict between the Palestinian people and the Israelis – ever! The news coming out of that region is usually depressing, but even for them the news this week was extraordinary.
Israel has in place a maritime blockade that disallows most cargo from being offloaded at any port in Gaza, with the exception of humanitarian supplies. The problem here is with the definition of what constitutes such supplies. Fundamentally, Israel fears that if they allow Gaza to have certain materials, such items may be reworked into armaments and thrown back into Israel, killing Israelis.
This week, beginning the first day of June, 2010 a convoy of six ships left Turkey to try and run the blockade, while the Israelis warned that they would hold fast. In the process the Israelis confronted the ships and boarded them, but in the case of one of the ships violence broke out that resulted in several people being injured and worse still, nine people were killed.
The outcome was that Israel has been roundly castigated, but no-one has called the action by the blockade runners foolhardy; but that, in my opinion is what it was. True, it was not all for nothing in that it has heightened world awareness to the fact that there exists a blockade, and to the effects of it upon Gaza. So, now that we know, what will change? Most likely nothing.
I took the opportunity to look at what life is like living without a great many of the basics that we in the free world take for granted, and it makes grim reading. Firstly, there is no definitive list of what is allowed and what is not. Sometimes certain everyday items may be allowed, and at other times they might be refused. Items such as candles, matches, books, musical instruments, certain foods, shoes, mattresses with sheets and blankets, writing materials and light bulbs have fallen under the entry denied grouping.
Cars, refrigerators, and building materials are almost always denied entry. I take no position as to the justification or not of the Israeli position regarding the items that they blockade, I simply have difficulty in getting my head around how it is possible for a modern day people to live without such fundamental materials.
Indeed, what can it be like for any ethnic group of people to live under such control of another power? We who are free to choose our own lifestyles and to buy whatever we can afford find this concept to be so strange in this modern world as to be outlandish.
This may explain the rash moves on the part of the blockade-runners. It seems futile from the start, not to mention dangerous to try and break the blockade set by such a determined country as Israel. At the least these are desperate actions in response to what appears to be a very desperate standard of living.
The part that particularly upsets me is that people sail their ships with their restricted cargoes into the Israeli hands, whereupon all is confiscated and the personnel are promptly deported leaving their cargoes to the Israelis. The Israelis say that they will deliver the goods, but if the items are embargoed they won’t be delivered to the Palestinians, but presumably they will be used as a gift by Israel.
Having seen what happened to the first ships, that has been followed up by another ship, with more ships promised. Stop the madness! This is a going-nowhere strategy at great cost and no gains to be had. I do feel great compassion for the Palestinian disadvantaged people, in isolation without considering past history and I can only hope for a better solution between the two groups.
First, there has to be a Will.
Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael
