Tuesday, November 03, 2009

The Gaza Chronicles: Part 2 – What a Siege Looks Like

By: Aditya Ganapathiraju, Palestine Monitor, October 31, 2009

“Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution,” Sara Roy wrote in July. It has led to “mass suffering, created largely by Israel,” and aided by the active participation of the United States, European Union, and Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. [1]

The Israeli policy of isolating Gaza from the West Bank has been a gradual process that started in the early 1990s. It tightened soon after Hamas’ electoral victory in 2006, and turned even more devastating after Hamas’s 2007 takeover, degrading the society to the point where 96 percent of Gaza’s population of 1.5 million is dependent on humanitarian aid for basic survival. [2]

This “perverse” situation is unique in international affairs in that humanitarian groups are sustaining the Israeli occupation by providing care for a civilian population and territory whose humanitarian needs and economy are being deliberately decimated for political reasons, with full backing of the Israeli High Court, Roy explained. [3]

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1 comment:

Yesh Prabhu said...

These three articles by journalist Mr. Aditya Ganapathiraju represent the finest examples of good journalism: powerful articles that provoke, and move the hearts and minds, and force the readers to stop and think and ponder and wonder, and feel astonished that the world has not yet succeeded in plodding Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza. After reading these three articles, a fair-minded reader can not help but wonder why the new Nobel Peace Laureate in the White House has not done much to relieve the suffering of the children of Gaza, and why he hasn’t asked Netanyahu to allow the basic materials needed for survival. Has the world become blind to the plight of the Palestinians? Has the White House become deaf to the wails of the Children of Gaza? Is there any person with a beating heart who will remain unmoved after reading these three articles? These three articles are: The Gaza Chronicles: Part 1 – The Forgotten Story; The Gaza Chronicles: Part 2 – What a Siege Looks Like; and The Gaza Chronicles: Part 3 – Shattered Mind And The Children Of Gaza.

I hope these three articles, together as a group, would be nominated for a prestigious international journalism award. I hope the editors and publishers of major magazines would nominate them for the awards. These articles deserve international recognition.

I have been wondering since the arrival of fall here in New Jersey, and the nights have been getting colder by each passing day, how the destitute and ill-equipped people of Gaza will survive the bitter cold winter of Gaza. I shiver even in my sheltered home, and I wonder how will the Gazans survive in drafty, leaking tents that provide so little shelter? None of the houses bombed by Israel in Gaza has been rebuilt because of Israel’s embargo of building materials. I have not heard President Obama talk about Israel’s embargo of even basic materials necessary for survival, and I now wonder whether he will intervene and ask Netanyahu to lift the embargo. From what I have observed, it seems to me that President Obama’s ears are quite open to Netanyahu’s arrogant words, but they are shut to the cries of the Palestinians’ suffering children.

Thank you very much, Mr. Aditya Ganapathiraju, for writing these articles. I can not describe in words how much moved I was when I read these articles. As I read these articles I thought of the great Indian writer Arundhati Roy. She is also well known for her powerful prose.

Yesh Prabhu, Plainsboro, NJ