Over half the population of the Gaza Strip has left for Egypt in the past three days, a stark illustration of the extent of the deprivation imposed on them by the Israeli government and the “international community”. When Palestinians smashed through the wall separating Gaza from Egypt earlier this week, liberating themselves from Israel’s brutal siege, the reactions around the world were quite interesting. Far from expressing joy and exhilaration at the sight of hundreds of thousands of starved Palestinians flooding out of the Gaza prison camp, enjoying what for many of them was the first taste of freedom in their lives, one could instead sense a tangible whiff of fear and even panic underlying much commentary on the breakout.
To take the most execrable example, the Washington Post interpreted the Palestinians’ heroic efforts as merely another illustration of Hamas’ “ability to disrupt any movement toward peace between Israelis and Palestinians.” Resorting to flat-out fraud in its apology for Israel’s collective punishment, the Post‘s editorial board maintained that there was never a “real humanitarian crisis” in Gaza – “no one is starving”, we are told, Gazans just have to pay a little more for “food, fuel and cigarettes”. Thus, for the Washington Post, the Palestinians’ desperate scramble to load up on food and fuel supplies after the wall was breached was akin to Brits who take the ferry to France to stock up on cheap booze – an attempt to save a bit of cash, nothing more. Needless to say, even the briefest look at the facts is sufficient to dispel such claims as dishonest, callous propaganda (.pdf). “This is how pathetic the situation has become that people have to literally break out of Gaza just to get food and fuel,” said John Ging, the director of the United Nations refugee agency (UNRWA). “There is no dignity for anybody.”
The reaction of the Washington Post and others to this brief moment of humanitarian respite for the relentlessly pummeled population of Gaza revealed a lot about their priorities, but it wasn’t completely unfounded. The successful breach of the wall, apparently under preparation for months by activists in Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees, has indeed dealt a severe blow to Israel’s explicit policy of collectively punishing the civilian population of Gaza to turn them against Hamas. Put simply, the siege of Gaza has failed. The Palestinians have not been crushed into submission and Hamas is going nowhere.
Whether the ‘biggest jail break in history‘ will prove to be anything more than a deep breath before the siege is renewed and Gaza goes under again depends to a large extent on Egypt’s response. After Palestinian militants blew up the wall in at least 17 different places in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Egyptian border police stood aside while floods of desperate Gazans travelled to Rafah and El Arish to stockpile supplies and re-unite with relatives. Although Mubarak has cooperated with the U.S./Israeli blockade by keeping the Rafah crossing shut, on this occasion the immense public sympathy for the Palestinians’ plight together with increasing domestic political tensions meant that initially it would have been impossible for him to do anything other than let the Gazans through. However, Egypt has made clear that it wants the border rebuilt, and yesterday began efforts to close the breaches and turn back the tide of incoming Palestinians. Despite deploying water cannons and riot gear, Egypt’s ‘clampdown’ has so far proved unsuccessful – even as a few border openings were being closed, Palestinians used a bulldozer to destroy another section of the wall.
There’s little doubt that Mubarak wants to see Gaza re-sealed. Whether that will be possible is another matter entirely. Either way, the destruction of the wall has effectively killed the ‘Annapolis process‘, which was at its core about isolating and weakening Hamas. Recent events have clearly demonstrated that Hamas isn’t going away, Gaza can’t simply be ignored and the Palestinians will not be starved into submission. The prison break was a dramatic reminder that if any progress is to be made, Hamas and the people of Gaza will need to be given a stake.
It is therefore unfortunate that Hamas’ recent offer to share control of the Rafah border with Fatah and Egypt’s proposal, accepted by Hamas, for talks in Cairo to end the inter-factional conflict met with flat rejection from Ramallah. Abbas’ rejectionism is primarily motivated by the U.S. and Israel’s explicit conditioning of aid and diplomatic engagement with the PA on his continued refusal to negotiate with Hamas. Essentially, the message we’re sending to Abbas is: cooperate with the isolation of Hamas or the West Bank will become another Gaza.
This is a real problem because without a minimum level of Palestinian unity the prospects for any significant political progress are bleak, to say the least. As veteran observers of the conflict Robert Malley and Hussein Agha write,
“There can be neither Israeli-Palestinian stability nor a peace accord without Hamas’s acquiescence. Intra-Palestinian reconciliation will not last without Israel’s unspoken assent and willingness to lift its siege.”
The Financial Times agrees. Describing Israel’s siege as not only “illegal” but also “almost wholly counterproductive”, the radical left-wing journal noted that the attempt by Israel, the U.S., their allies in the Gulf and Fatah nationalists to “isolate and topple Hamas after its 2006 election victory” has failed, and concluded by calling for a ceasefire, an end to the blockade and a return to the government of national unity:
“Arab and international mediators should immediately seek an armistice from Hamas and an end to the Gaza blockade from Israel.
They should then seek to revive the year-old Hamas and Fatah unity agreement and set up a joint caretaker government prior to eventual new elections. The Islamists should be brought into talks – on condition they are ready to work for a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza with east Jerusalem as its capital. Only when that is achieved should Hamas, and all Arab countries, be required to recognise Israel – an Israel with fixed borders, not the moving frontiers it keeps pushing into occupied Palestinian land.”
Hamas has been pushing for precisely this for months. The only obstacle blocking the way is U.S./Israeli rejectionism, in collusion with the Fatah leadership. This approach looks like unlikely to change in the near future, unfortunately, and it is certainly possible that the blockade of Gaza will be resumed. The humanitarian consequences of this would be atrocious. According to the ICRC’s Head of Operations for the Middle East, Béatrice Megevand-Roggo, “the humanitarian situation [in Gaza] remains critical” and the “infrastructure is close to collapse”. Amnesty International comments,
“The 1.5 million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip have been virtually imprisoned there since June, most of them in abject poverty as fuel, food and medicinal supplies run out as a result of the Israeli blockade. They must not be left to live in the same conditions after the re-closure of the border…
More than 40 deaths have occurred in recent months because patients in need of urgent medical treatment not available inside Gaza, were refused passage out. Hospitals in Gaza lack specialised staff and equipment, power cuts mean they’re having to rely on generators, and the blockade has made it difficult or impossible to get parts to repair them when they break down. In the meantime Gazans continue to die and this is unacceptable.”
The U.S. and the EU have thus far backed the Israeli siege to the hilt. Those of us wishing to avoid a return to the humanitarian disaster described above have a responsibility to do what we can to change this. Meanwhile, the Palestinians will continue to resist. The Gaza breakout dealt a dramatic blow to the U.S./Israeli policy of isolating Hamas whilst engaging, at least superficially, with Abbas. Annapolis is dead, and a good thing too.
Cross-posted at The Heathlander