GUEST BLOG: Lois Griffiths – Gaza on my mind

Why not say it as it is! Not an open air prison. It’s a concentration camp, a death camp. Now, today. The 21st century. A death camp for roughly 2 million men, women and children. Don’t forget the children.

The UN will go so far as to say that the tightly enclosed  strip of land called Gaza is approaching the stage of being  ‘unlivable’.  ‘Unlivable’, is that phrase meant to protect our delicate sensitivities  from comprehending the meaning of ‘a place of death’ ? Is ‘unlivable’ meant to imply, not so bad really?

Israel has cut the power supply to Gaza to such an extreme low that  most residents face long stretches without any power at all amid the sweltering summer heat. 

Loss of power has forced hospitals to cut back.  Loss of power means

that sanitation systems are unable to treat sewage and therefore sewage is flowing ino the sea untreated. Visiting the beach used to be  the only outlet for enjoyment for Palestinians living under siege in Gaza.

 People who live in high-rise buildings have no access to water, as there is not enough electricity to pump water from the ground level to people on the higher floors. 

Reports tell us that 97 percent of Gaza’s water is reported as undrinkable anyway.  

Israel’s 3 major offensives since 2008 have left a whole generation of children traumatized. Gaza’s youth unemployment, around 60 percent ,  has reached “world-record levels,” according to United Nations data. Is it  surprising  that the levels of depression are acute?

Rates of cancer are rising in Gaza.   Israeli weaponry may be a contributing factor. Israel is known to have experimented with a number of weapons during its major  offensives, including  a US-supplied “bunker buster” missile, white phosphorus and depleted uranium. Doctors suspect that Israel’s use of depleted uranium is linked to increased levels of cancer, as is Israel’s  practice of  spraying pesticides on farms in Gaza .

Gaza does not have the facilities to provide the treatment needed by cancer patients. Facilities to treat cancer and other serious conditions are available in Israel. But before being allowed to enter Israel, patients and people accompanying them are interrogated by the IDF who demand that people become collaborators. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel reports  “Israel is unethically and immorally exploiting the medical needs of Palestinian patients….” More than 1,400 patients were delayed from reaching healthcare appointments in December last year, according to the WHO. Among those affected were 323 children. The most recent death of a Palesinian denied medical treatment outside Gaza was that of  3-year old  Yara Ismail Bakhit, who needed a heart operation.

There is so much more that could be said. Reliable  sources of information include electronicintifada.net and kiaoragaza.net.

Israeli officials wash their hands of any reponsibility for the rapidly deteriorating situation, claiming that the PA determines which patients can receive treatment outside of Gaza, claiming that Mahmoud Abbas himself has demanded the electricity shut-down.  Oh, so Natanyahu and his regime take orders from Abbas! Pull the other leg!

Yes Abbas is so determined to see Hamas destroyed that he is prepared to sacrifice the people of Gaza.  Abbas, hated by the majority of Palestinians who want him to resign, was elected President in 2005, to serve a 4-year term. He  is now in the 12th year of that 4-year  term. He is unelected and unpresentative but able to stay in power because of his backing by the West and Israel. The PA takes orders from Shin Bet (Secret Police).  Abbas has described  collaboration with the Israeli  occupation forces as a “sacred” duty.

According to the Geneva conventions, Israel is responsible for the war crimes being committed in Gaza. The Israel regime, the politicians and military, and the Israeli media are the guilty parties. The PA under Mahmoud Abbas is definitely a collaborator. But so is the West by its financial , military and political support for Israel, by its stifling of any criticism of Israel, by the silence of the mainsteam media.

New Zealand is guilty too. Why was the Israeli ambassador allowed back in? Why are we, too, determined the look the other way? Where is there any moral leadership?  In the media, the political establishment, the academic establishment, the Churches?

A Palestine Expo  was held very recently in London, inspite of Zionist efforts to stop it.

Over 15000 people attended. John Pilger was one of the speakers. His heartfelt message is “PALESTINE REMAINS THE GREATEST MORAL ISSUE OF OUR TIME.”

 

Lois Griffiths is a Human Rights Activist and Palestinian Rights Campaigner