In Gaza

Three years ago when we sailed, Free Gaza was largely unknown. The original committee of volunteers worked hard for a couple of years before actually even sailing, then were the first to brave isolated waters, no functional live streaming (blocked), and comparatively little media interest.

Amazingly, in retrospect, they made it, then the boat I was on made it, thanks to Free Gaza’s samoud (steadfastness).

Those organizers and original activists also endured threats from Zionist agents, direct threats with calls to they and their family, as well as boat sabotage attempts.

The same Zionist games, sabotages, political maneuverings and threats are being fired at the current Flotilla. The activists on board –the large majority over 40, over 50, a good number Jewish, all trained in non-violence –are being dubbed “violent”, “terrorists” and as some sort of mortal threat to the heavily armed, highly trained Israeli commandos who will be lurking in international or Palestinian waters, likely to try to stop the flotilla as they did one year ago. post continues

strange how one can be used to the sound of Israeli warplanes training (playing?) overhead, and how equally one can forget it and be startled anew.

*Nasser street, before repairs

blog posting for New Internationalist   By Eva Bartlett

I am back in the Strip.  I left Gaza via the border at Rafah in June 2010, after an 18 month stay. My exit through the Eygpt frontier crossing was a result of pressure put on authorities there to open its border to Gaza. Hosni Mubarak’s regime apparently felt the need to play down the siege a bit as Israeli commandos had just massacred nine Turkish civilians on the Mavi Marmara solidarity flotilla.

The border opened, yet life in Gaza went on as it always has done under siege: functioning, but only just.  post continues

*of the limited medicines found in Gaza, many have come via the tunnels and most are too expensive for the 80% of Palestinians in Gaza dependent on food-aid to live. Other medicines are simply unavailable, particularly in hospitals. 

GAZA CITY, Jun 19, 2011 (IPS) By Eva Bartlett- “During the first years of the siege, we could still manage, but nowadays we have no alternatives,” says Dr. Hassan Khalaf, Deputy Health Minister in Gaza. “It is a major crisis: many health services have stopped, and I’m afraid this will spiral out of control, because Gaza doesn’t have the essential medicines and supplies needed.” post continues

*an Israeli gunboat douses a Palestinian fishing trawler in Palestinian waters with a heavy-powered water cannon [photo: David Schermerhorn, October 2008]

A June 16 Reuters article on Israel’s vow to stop and preparations for the Freedom Flotilla 2 quotes an Israeli unnamed source as saying the blockade and siege on the Gaza Strip is legal:

The source, who declined to be named, said Israel’s maritime blockade would only be deemed legal if it imposed a total exclusion zone around the small Palestinian enclave and urged the flotilla organizers not to challenge the navy.

But, under international law, including the much-touted United Nations (isn’t the UN the scapegoat reason for bombarding Libya?) the blockade is illegal post continues

GAZA CITY, Jun 12, 2011 (IPS) By Eva Bartlett- In Gaza’s main port, beyond the newly-built memorial to the Freedom Flotilla martyrs, Gaza’s fishermen prepare to go out trawling at shallow depths in Palestinian waters. Other fishers stay on land to mend nets and fix boats damaged or destroyed by Israeli navy gunfire, shelling, water cannoning and even ramming. Such moves as the opening of Rafah have done nothing for Gaza’s fishermen. post continues

I was recently forwarded an email with numerous photos of Gaza, most of them old, pre-siege, late 90s even.  A few photos included Palestinians at the sea, as if to say since they are under siege they should not take advantage of the one resource left to them, albeit massively polluted by their own sewage.

The point of the photo email was to accuse Palestinians in Gaza of lying: “you are not under siege, you have 3, 4, even 10 storey buildings, there are hotels and nice cafes… how dare you lie to us and pretend you are suffering”.

I’m sitting now at one of the cafes the general public attend, a palm-thatch-roofed, barebones beachside cafe serving Arabic coffee, tea, juices, sodas smuggled in via the tunnels, and shisha (aromatic tobacco water pipe).  My coffee costs me 5 shekels (about $1.5) but I can afford it.

The 80% of Palestinians surviving on food aid (oil, flour, sugar, rice, pasta) and subsequently eating a vegetable, fruit and protein absent diet (relying highly on carbohydrates and oil) could not afford the coffee I’m drinking. post continues

*Palestinian farmers, fishermen and workers are regularly subjected to Israeli soldiers’ gunfire and shelling on Palestinian land and sea.

Two years ago, just after Israeli soldiers showered myself, my international colleagues and the 6 or 7 farmers we accompanied on land in Abassan Jadida, with continuous and dangerously close machine gun fire for roughly 45 minutes, the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv told me that the Israeli firing on me was not a problem for Canada. post continues

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip, Jun 6, 2011 (IPS) By Eva Bartlett- It is a scene replayed weekly in Palestine. In Gaza, groups of chanting demonstrators walk towards the border with Israel, singing, chanting, dancing. Ayat el Masari, 20, walks with the masses. An English major at Gaza’s Aqsa University, the young woman is among many women who regularly attend Palestinian protests. post continues

– The memorial at Gaza port marks the Israeli massacre of the Freedom Flotilla in May 2010.

GAZA CITY, May 31, 2011 (IPS) By Eva Bartlett- A gleaming new memorial towers in the centre of Gaza City’s battered port. Flanked by flags of various nations whose citizens have sailed to the Gaza Strip to highlight the all-out siege on Gaza, the memorial’s inscription bears the names of the Turkish solidarity activists who died one year ago when Israeli commandoes firing machine guns air-dropped onto the Freedom Flotilla, killing nine and injuring over 50 of the civilians on board.

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