The Siege of Gaza: Blunder of the Decade?

Ten Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs), including three from South Africa, were amongst the 1 000 Palestinian and international activists who gathered at the Erez crossing on December 31, 2009 to express solidarity with the besieged population of Gaza.  Even normally pliant Arab members of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) voiced their anger at the ongoing oppression of 1.5 million people in the territory.

Television broadcasts around the world documented the ferocity of the three week onslaught in 2008-9 in which about 1 400 people died.  Israel’s reputation has been further shredded by its furious reactions to an UN investigation into possible war crimes.  Judge Richard Goldstone, a South African Jew with admitted Zionist sympathies, declares himself to have been appalled and embarrassed by the behaviour of the Israeli Defence Force.  Paragraph 1335 of the Report declares that a competent court (such as the International Court of Justice) could find that the government of Israel committed “crimes against humanity.”

The United Nations-sponsored report accuses both Israelis and Palestinians of having resorted to war crimes, but concludes that Israel’s actions were totally “disproportionate.”  Israel’s goals to undermine Hamas and to block supplies into Gaza via the tunnels from Egypt have failed dismally.  In violation of international law, the purpose of the siege has patently been punitive; collective punishment.  

Israeli analyst Bradley Burston believes that the siege of Gaza since 2006 and subsequent bombardment during December 2008/January 2009 was the Israeli government’s worst diplomatic, humanitarian and military blunder of the past decade.

It is reported that almost everything -- including even new cars albeit at hugely inflated prices -- is available in Gaza thanks to smuggling through tunnels.  Such supplies are however, beyond the financial reach of 80 percent of the people who live in dire poverty.  There are people in Gaza and Egypt who are profiting enormously from the tragedy. 

Given the failures of the siege to stop supplies reaching Gaza, the Israeli, Egyptian and United States governments have now embarked upon a truly barbarous scheme. Reinforced metal sheets, 20 metres long, are being sunk into the ground to block the tunnels.  In addition, pumps are being installed to flood the tunnels with sea water, and so cause their collapse.

Almost everything may be available in Gaza, but even fish and citrus fruit are now imported. Fishermen are limited to a three nautical mile zone from the coastline, or else risk being fired at by Israeli gunboats. The sea is contaminated with raw sewage following destruction of the sewerage treatment works.  Agriculture has also collapsed.

Gaza faces an ecological disaster.  Israeli settlers in Gaza prior to evacuation in 2005 so abused and polluted the aquifer that hydrologists believe it may never recover.  Amnesty International reported in October 2009 that 90 to 95 percent of the water in Gaza is now unfit for human consumption.  The consequences of nitrate pollution include abnormally high incidences of methaemoglobinaemia – blue baby syndrome

The World Health Organisation and other medical experts also report sharp rises in kidney failure because of existing salination of the water supply.  That these human catastrophes are now to be deliberately compounded and worsened by pumping seawater into the aquifer confirms that the Israeli government has become a menace to both the international community and itself.  What is the “tipping point” before Gazans die in tens of thousands?  Could it be as early as the end of the current winter, when the rains stop and Gazans can no longer collect rainwater?

As Burston notes: “the siege corrupts the moral values of all Israelis, who, whether or not they are aware of what is being done to the people of Gaza, bear ultimate responsibility for all acts being carried out in their name.”  South African-born Rabbi Brian Walt is another Jew who is deeply ashamed of what Israel is doing in Gaza.  Now living in the United States, his Hannukah message was about the dangers of military power:

Human beings tend to believe that conflict can be resolved by military force. Operation Cast Lead is based on the belief that overwhelming military force will provide security for the people of Israel. They are now less secure than before the operation. There is no military solution to this or any other human conflict. The only solution is political and direct negotiated settlement. As the prophet Isaiah said justice is the only way to create peace and security.  Hannukah is a rejection of power and military might and an affirmation of the Spirit of God that inheres in every human being. And it is this connection to the Spirit of Life that must be the centre of our lives.

Read Rabbi Brian Walt’s blog in full here.