Gaza, a cornered and extremely vulnerable people
Extreme scarcity and
desperation define life in the Gaza Strip today. The population has
been subjected to a cruel blockade by the Israeli government since
2007. Before the current crisis, after the Hamas attack on Israeli
territory with taken of hostages, Gaza had already been bombed by
Israel several times, killing hundreds of people and destroying many
buildings. and structures. It must be remembered that the 2 million
residents who live in the small territory of 375 km2 have been
suffering multiple hardships. Before the current total lockdown they
had lived on four hours or less of electricity a day. It had been the
case for a long time that most families did not have access to clean
water because the supply system was contaminated with sewage: For
some school children, breakfast was a cup of hot water flavored with
a pinch of salt. Today not even that. Said Omar Ghraieb, a journalist
and digital media manager who lives in Gaza. "Despair is not
even the right word to describe what is happening here because things
are getting worse," he said. "We wake up to a world of
fighting every day." For more than a decade, Palestinians living
in Gaza had suffered major escalations of violence and an
Israeli-imposed air and sea blockade that has decimated
infrastructure, stifled economic growth and living conditions so
bleak that United Nations officials They said, before the Israeli
bombings, that a humanitarian disaster was inevitable.
"We
are really seeing a collapse on the ground," said Matthias
Schmale, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, which
provided humanitarian assistance to more than 1.3 million refugees in
the autonomous Palestinian territory.
You
can imagine that some reaction from the population was inevitable.
The Hamas attack, as well as other reactions of Palestinian rebellion
in Gaza, were predictable.
To all of the above we must add that
there are nearly 3 million Palestinians in the Western Bank of the
Jordan, constantly dispossessed of land and homes due to the advance
of Israeli colonies in their traditional lands. In their jobs and
transfers they are permanently humiliated with controls on all the
main routes in the territory. As if that were not enough, something
similar is happening in the Arab and Muslim sector of Jerusalem. The
Palestinians themselves, who have been incorporated into Israeli
citizenship for decades, are constantly discriminated against and
their rights are not taken into account. Added to the above is that
there are several million Palestinian refugees in neighboring
countries. Jordan, which in practice has been and is a country with a
majority Palestinian population, is threatened both politically and
militarily by the Israeli state. Something similar happens in the
south of Lebanon and in the southwest of Syria, a country that has
already lost the Golan area since the 6-day war and Yon Kippur in
1967 and 1973. Something similar can be said of Egypt, particularly
on the peninsula. of Sinai, which was already occupied by Israel in
1967. There are also several million Palestinians who were forced to
migrate to different countries in the world.
In this situation it
seems difficult that the solution of eradication of the Palestinian
population from their former territories becomes impracticable.
Netanyahu's policy of taking advantage of the reaction generated by
the Hamas attacks on his territory to annihilate the Palestinian
population, both those actively involved in the resistance struggle
and the civilian population made up mainly of women and children, has
generated and is generating rejection in Arab and Muslim governments,
as well as in numerous social and political organizations throughout
the world. It would be easier for Netanyahu to reach an agreement
with Palestinian Hamas leaders to achieve the release of hostages
captured by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinian
political prisoners in Israeli prisons. This would allow time for
Israel's political forces to rethink their relationship with the
Palestinian political leaders, and advance the constitution and
demarcation of an internationally recognized independent Palestinian
state. While that would be the solution, it is not likely that due to
the racist and Islamophobic reactions that have developed in a part
of Israeli society, it can happen in the near future.
Israeli
decisions are influenced by the United States, which constitutes the
main economic and military support of the Israeli state, but American
positions are influenced by a very politically strong pro-Israeli
sector that prevents the United States from changing its
position.
Meanwhile, the death toll of thousands of Palestinian
victims, most of them civilians, including tens of thousands of
children, seems set to continue.
At the same time the world
watches with a lot of anger and a lot of helplessness.