fence, rocket … these may construct the
typical perception in the minds of many
when it comes to Gaza; yet, what exactly is
myth and what are the realities about the
humanitarian and militant turbulence in the
Gaza Strip. Are Gazans no more than a militant group shouting rockets at
civilians in Israel? How did it all start, and where is the situation now heading?
1. Is Hamas a terrorist organization?
Until today, there is no agreed upon definition for terrorism that
groups and actions can be measured upon. Thus, the label
"terrorist" can easily be abused for political gains and interests.
The famous quotes: "One man's terrorist is another man's
freedom fighter" can apply here perfectly. While 62% of
Palestinians hold a favorable view of Hamas, as the Pew
Global Attitude Survey found in 2007, and given that Hamas
was democratically elected for parliament in 2006, it has been
listed by Canada, Israel, Japan, and the US as a
"terrorist" organization.
In an interview with the Der Spiegel, Khaled Meshaal,
Hamas' political leader, affirmed, "we are a national
resistance movement, not a terrorist organization.
We have the right to resist the occupation."
Mahmoud Al-Zahar, prominent Hamas leader,
wrote in the Washington Post, "our movement fights on
because we cannot allow the foundational crime at the core
of the Jewish state — the violent expulsion from our lands
and villages that made us refugees — to slip out of world
consciousness, forgotten or negotiated away." (Washington Post)
2. Was Hamas' takeover of Gaza justified?
To the surprise of Fateh and international observers,
Hamas was able to secure the majority of votes in the
first elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council
(PLC) since 1996. Accordingly, Hamas was legally asked
to form the majority government and rule over Gaza
and the West Bank. However, since its victory in
January 2006 till mid-2007, the internal scene was
not stable with confrontations between Hams and
the Fateh movement. In addition, international pressure
played on the side of Fateh to alienate the democratically
elected members of Hamas, which is considered as a
terrorist organization by the US, Israel, Japan,
and Canada.
failure of the anticipated
unity government was the international attitude.
Sanctions were imposed and foreign aid
was held away from the Palestinians, who
depend mainly on it, by the main donors —
the US, EU, and several Western states.
In February 2007 the Saudi government spent
significant efforts to unite the Palestinian factions
under one government in order to end the sectarian
division. Ministerial positions were distributed among
the different factions and a Palestinian national unity
government was was on its way to succeed. However,
among the main reasons that helped in the failure of
the anticipated unity government was the international
attitude. The US announced its boycotting of the
Hamas members in such government, Israel did not
recognize it, and the EU hanged its position on the
new government's actions. (Aljazeera)
Clashes erupted once again and Hamas took over control
of Gaza. Legally, the government in Gaza in not considered
a legal one, nor the one in the West Bank — emergency
government — formed by Fateh, is, according to
Dr. Ahmed Mubarak Al-Khaldi, the former Minister
of Justice of the Palestinian National Authority.
3. Does Hamas have a complete control over Gaza?
A recent report (March 2008) by the International Crisis
Group found that the Hamas has almost a complete
monopoly over the use of force and political activity in
the Gaza Strip. Hamas has also been able to refashion
the legal and legislative systems and now "enjoys freer
rein to shape society through management of the health,
education and religious sectors," the report stated.
Within little time after seizing control over Gaza in
June 2007, Hamas was able to fill in the gaps left behind
as a result of the absence of Fateh in the Strip; its mission
was to defend Gaza from internal and external threats.
4. Are Gazans held hostage in the hands of Hamas?
Analyzing the current situation, it is very clear that the1.5 million Gazans along with Hamas are held hostage
by external forces through the complete control of the
borders mainly by Egypt and Israel.
The 365-square-kilometer Gaza strip is bounded by the
Mediterranean sea from the north, state of Israel from
the east, and Egypt from the west. Such geographical
characteristics of the Gaza strip make it more or less
the "world's largest open-air prison"
with multi-party prisoners.
Every now and then, Egyptian-Israeli negotiations —
or unilateral action — allow some injured victims to pass
out of Gaza, yet other vital humanitarian needs are held
in many times from getting inside the strip.
the boarders for Gazans. The Gaza-Egypt borders were
breached by Gazans with the help of the Hamas forces in
January and hundreds of thousands of Gazans poured into
Sinai, Egypt to buy consumer goods; 10 days later, the
borders were sealed with less hopes for an agreement that
would release Gazans out of their prison.
5. Are all Gazans Hamas members?
In April 2008, some Israeli reports estimated the number
of the Hamas forces in Gaza to be up to 20,000 armed
men, nearly half of them from in Hamas' military arm,
Izz-Eddin Al-Kassam group; such claims were refuted by
Sami Abou-Zuhri, the spokesman of Hamas in
the Gaza Strip.
Besides the estimates of the Hamas armed members, the
number of civilian sympathizers is way far from estimation.
It is important to mention that Hamas is originally a
social/political movement and not a militia; along
with several branches and arms, Hamas has its
military wing Izz-Eddin Al-Kassam.
In 2004, 300,000 Palestinians marched in the
funeral of Abdel-Aziz Al-Rantisi —
who was Hamas' leader in Gaza.
As mentioned above, 62% of Palestinians hold a
favorable view of Hamas, according to a
2007Survey by the Pew Global Attitude Project.
In addition, a recent study by the Ramallah-based
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research
noted the increase in Hamas' popularity as the siege
went tighter. "Findings show continued decrease in
the level of satisfaction with the performance of
[ President Mahmoud] Abbas and a greater positive
evaluation for the performance of Haniyeh’s
government over the performance of Fayyad's
government," the study said.
Hence, it would be fallacious to include the number of
the Palestinian civilians that sympathize with Hamas
in the members' count. Out of the 1.5 million Palestinian
in Gaza, very minute percentage are actual
members in Hamas.
6. Is Hamas accepting no peace deals with Israel?
"A 'peace process' with Palestinians cannot take even
its first tiny step until Israel first withdraws to the
borders of 1967; dismantles all settlements; removes
all soldiers from Gaza and the West Bank; repudiates its
illegal annexation of Jerusalem; releases all prisoners; and
ends its blockade of our international borders, our
coastline and our airspace permanently,"
Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a prominent Hamas leader,
made it clear in his Washington Post opinion piece.
In a live chat session with IslamOnline.net's readers,
Dr. Ahmed Bahr — the current head of the legislative
council in Gaza — said in response to a question about
Hamas' willingness to negotiate with Israel,
"there are the five Nos that they announce and consider
as strategies; No for the establishment of the
Palestinian state on the 1967 boarders,
No for Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state,
No for the return of refugees, No for the stop of the wall
and the settlements, No for the release of prisoners ...
So what shall we negotiate about with the Israelis?"
After the recent efforts exerted by the former
US President Jimmy Carter, Carter said that Hamas
told him that "they would accept a Palestinian state on
the 1967 borders if approved by Palestinians ...
even though Hamas might disagree with some
terms of the agreement."
between Hamas and Fateh?
Several failing attempts have been conducted to
bring along a unity government that would solve
the Gaza-West Bank division. Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
Yemen, and other parties were faced with the
conditions that the two parties, Hamas and Fateh,
place ahead of negotiations.
Fateh, currently controlling the West Bank and
led by President Mahmoud Abbas, condition
negotiations with Hamas on the return of Gaza
under the former's rule, while Hamas desires
negotiations with Fateh while keeping the
status-quo as is.
In the midst of the mediation efforts, tensions
rose on both sides as a result of the several
provocative announcements by leaders and
media stations. Imprisonment of the other's
group members also contributed much to
entangling the agreements' efforts.
8. Who represents the Palestinian people now?
With 1.5 million in Gaza and 2.5 million in the West Bank,
Hamas was chosen democratically to represent
Palestinians in the 2006 Parliamentary elections.
Hamas was able to secure for itself more than the
minimum required 50% of seats in a
78%-turn-out-election that was described as fair
and clean by observers. ( Guardian)
However, that does not give Hamas the full legitimacy
to speak for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,
especially after the recent division of powers
between the two territories.
Currently, President Mahmoud Abbas
(leading Fateh figure) holds on to that role; he did it in
Annapolis despite Hamas' firm rejection of him
representing the will of all Palestinians. After all,
his party did not win a majority in the 2006 elections.
One main resolution that former President Jimmy
Carter was able to achieve in his recent (April 2008)
visit to the Middle East was that Hamas agreed to pass
over the representation of Palestinians to President
Abbas to be able to negotiate a peace agreement with
Israel; Hamas' decision was conditioned on the
approval of the majority of Palestinians to negotiate a
1967 Palestinian state through a mass referendum.
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them, and now Palestinians, especially Gazans,
are being more and more deprived of their basic
human rights, which is pushing them into a bigger
"shoah" or Holocaust, as described by Israel's deputy
defense minister Matan Vilnai on Army Radio on
Friday, February 29, 2008.
Besides the mounting death toll of the direct
Israeli attacks on civilians in Gaza, 136
Palestinian patients died for not being allowed
by the Israeli forces to leave Gaza to get treatment
outside. "The right to health appears to be optional
for Palestinians," Ambrogio Manenti, the head of the
WHO's West Bank and Gaza office, told a press
conference in April 2008.
In the period between February 28 and
March 2, 2008, 104 Palestinians were
murdered and 215 injured by the Israeli forces
in comparison to only 3 Israelis deaths and 27
injuries for the same period of time, according
to an April 18 UN Report .
Children are among the victims of the bigger "shoah."
Ra'd Abu Saif narrates the last moments of his
12-year-old daughter Safa after she was shot
by an Israeli sniper: "I put my hand on her
chest to stop the streaming blood. She told me
that she could not breathe, her body trembled
and she closed her eyes." ( Electronic Intifada )
Safa was shot in the left side of her chest while
she was inside her home in Jabaliya, northern
Gaza. An ambulance tried to reach her but Israeli
soldiers opened fire at it, wounding a paramedic
and causing the tires to lose air, and so she bled
to death three hours after she was wounded.
"Dad, I cannot breathe, all of you leave me please,
let me breathe, enough, enough,"
were Safa's last words.
Speaking numbers, Hamas in the Gaza strip also
carries on regular missile attacks on southern Israel,
yet throughout the last four years, the less advanced
rockets killed 13 Israeli civilians.
Watch more about the "Palestinian Holocaust" here
10. What is the humanitarian situation in Gaza?
More than 1.1 million people, about 80% of Gaza's residents,
are now dependent on food aid, as opposed to 63% in 2006.
Unemployment is close to 40% and almost 70% of the
110,000 workers employed in the private sector have
lost their jobs, according to a report — entitled:
"The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion" —
released in early March 2008 by a coalition of
Human Rights organizations, Haaretz reported.
The current situation in the Gaza Strip "is worse
now than it has ever been since the start of the
Israeli military occupation in 1967. The current
situation in Gaza is man-made, completely avoidable
and, with the necessary political will, can also be reversed,"
the report stated.
According to the latest updates, educational services in
Gaza have gone down in capacity by 50% because of the
lack of the means to transport students to their schools
and colleges. Because of cutting fuel of the Gaza strip,
the Israeli government has caused 20% of the
ambulances to go off service and 60% to be
expected to park by the end of the week,
forcing patients and doctors to reach hospitals on
foot (Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights report).
For more about the humanitarian situation in
Gaza check IOL's special coverage:
Gaza: The World's Largest Open Air-Prison
11. Does Israel have the right to attack
Gazans to protect itself?
As mentioned before, by no means are all Gazans
Hamas members; those involved in rocket launching
belong mainly to the military wing of Hamas that is
at most 10,000 men, according to some Israeli sources.
Israeli raids in Gaza, claimed to be directed at rocket
launchers, leave children, women, and elders dead with
almost no noticeable affect on the frequency of rockets
launching on Israel.
Collective punishment, including siege and raids, that does
not differentiate between civilians and militants are clearly
against international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Israel's early raids in Gaza were described by the
UN as war crimes. "It violates one of the basic principles
of international humanitarian law that military action
must distinguish between military and civilian targets,"
John Dugard, UN special rapporteur on the human rights
situation in the occupied territories, said.
12. Is the current siege effective in halting
the missile attacks over Israelis?
Before using siege as a strategy to halt the rocket
firing on the Israeli areas near the Gaza boarders,
Israel was implementing direct air strikes on the areas
where rocket-launchers were believed to be hiding.
The older policy proved its failure and Israel was forced to
find some new effective tactics to "protect" itself.
Of the main indications of Israel's failure in the old
tactics was the fact that strikes were increasingly
killing civilians, which led to the rising sympathy with
Hamas and resistance in general among Palestinians.
Currently, under the siege strategy, figures still show
increasing popularity for Hamas; plus, rockets are still
being launched towards Israel. In fact, Hamas has
been able to develop more advanced operations that
drove the confrontation inside Israel.
On April 19 2008, Hamas underwent an operation near
the southern end of Gaza killing 13 Israeli soldiers.
"This is a far more complex attack than the incident in
which Cpl. Gilad Shalit was captured," said an Israeli
spokesman, referring to a soldier captured in June
2006 by Palestinian fighters in a cross-border raid
to use him as a bargaining chip to free Palestinian
prisoners held by Israel.
It seems that the only way out is for Israel to
start talking to Hamas.
Yossi Sarid wrote in Haaretz,
"The losses on the Palestinian side,mostly innocent civilians,
will only increase solidarity and the willingness to sacrifice.
Hamas rule will not be weakened; it certainly will not fall ...
There is no choice but to talk to Hamas, indirectly
or directly, and without preconditions. On the agenda:
a cessation of hostilities and a total, long-term halt."
According to a survey published in Haaretz newspaper
on Wednesday, February 27, most Israelis think their
government should hold direct talks with
Hamas to reach a ceasefire.
Middle East, Carter, the architect of the
1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, said,
excluding Hamas "is just not working."
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