(21 August 2007)

Thousands of Palestinian prisoners remain locked in Israeli cages

On 20 July, 250 Palestinian prisoners, just freed from their Israeli jails, were greeted by their friends and family in a boisterous homecoming in Ramallah, in the West Bank. That’s 250 out of almost 10,000 being held. All those released were members of Fatah, Israel’s favored Palestinian political party. Big media across the board referred to this with the curious phrase, “a gesture of good will toward the new Palestinian government” or some version of that. Here’s my question, though. If Israel can just arbitrarily pick a number (say, 250) and release that many prisoners “as a gesture of good will,” then just how legitimate is their detention in the first place?

USA opens up its bottomless coffers and generously gives to the less fortunate

So, the latest round of US aid to the Middle East will shortly begin. Saudi Arabia is getting a significant package of military aid, which will hugely improve their weapons systems. Israel, consequently, had to get more. Just last week, USA announced a huge $30billion military aid package to be given to Israel over the next ten years. That’s $3billion a year. An article in The Fresno Bee paraphrased US Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, who said that the package is intended to support “peace-seeking countries like Israel.” Maybe I’m totally daft, but it seems a tad odd to refer to a country that has never had a prime minister that didn’t, at some point, send soldiers off to war as “peace-seeking.” In fact, given the military aid they always graciously accept from USA, I’d say Israel is more of a piece-seeking country.
Additionally, Condolleeza Rice signed an $80million aid package for Fatah, ostensibly for the reform of their security forces. Incidentally, the aid package given to Israel is 375 times bigger than the package given to Fatah. And both packages are military aid packages, which is just what the Middle East needs: lots and lots of brand-new weapons. That ought to solve the region’s problems. Good work, USA.

Hamas’s financial woes

In early August, over 3,000 members of Hamas’s security forces were mistakenly given paychecks by the Palestine Islamic Bank. The mistake was noticed shortly after it occurred, and most of the payments were reversed. Some lucky soldiers, however, cashed their checks quickly and perhaps thought they had beaten the system. However, on 13 August, under pressure from Abbas and the Palestinian “Authority,” the bank froze the accounts of over 3,400 Hamas members, leaving them and their families high and dry.

Israel continues its campaign of slow genocide against the Palestinians (or, as our leaders would call it, its “peace-seeking” behavior)

It’s important to remember that, while Israel’s leaders don suits and talk abstractly about peace, the IDF has not relented in its ceaseless campaign of airstrikes and ground incursions against the civilians of Palestine.

On 8 August, two alleged militants were shot and killed by Israeli troops east of Gaza City. On 14 August, six Palesitnians were killed near Khan Younis (in southern Gaza) by Israeli airstrikes. Among the dead was a 60-year-old woman. On 20 August, another six were killed by Israeli airstrikes near the Bureiji refugee camp in central Gaza. Also on 20 August, a lone alleged militant was shot and killed near the al-Ein refugee camp in Nablus (in the West Bank). The IDF claimed that he belonged to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (a secular militant group). Also on 20 August, three militants were killed east of Khan Younis near the Gaza-Israel border. Islamic Jihad said that the men were militants on a mission against Israel. And, finally, also on 20 August, two Palestinian kids, ages 13 and 14, were shot and killed by Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip. They happened to be playing in an area from which Palestinian militants had launched Qassam rockets in the past.

A rare bit of good news

On 7 August, Israeli police forcibly removed dozens of Jewish settlers from their illegal squats in the West Bank town of Hebron. They had been evicted by an Israeli judge, but had refused to leave. A court order issued last week forced the police action. Five settlers were arrested. Interestingly, 12 soldiers were jailed for a short period for refusing to participate in the action. Apparently, it’s only permissible to their consciences to force Muslims—not Israelis—out of their homes and off of their land. I don’t say this with regard to Israel very often, but justice has been served.

Unexploded weapons are not toys

An 8-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, brother and sister, were killed when the mortar they were playing with exploded. This happened in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, on 7 August. This sort of thing happens pretty often in Gaza.

Uncle Abbas’s cabin

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas met on 6 August in Jericho, in the West Bank. According to Saeb Erekat, longtime official Palestinian spokesman, neither of them brought their “magic wands” to the meeting. In other words, they chatted for a while and absolutely nothing changed. Remarkably, both Olmert and Abbas described the talks as “constructive,” in spite of the fact that they, uhh, weren’t.

However, a couple hundred Fatah militants belonging to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade handed their weapons over to Israeli troops and promised Papa Israel to be good little boys from now on (which could be described by some as progress).

My oh my, how Abbas has emasculated the prideful soldiers of Palestine.

We’ve abandoned the civilians of Gaza. We’ve failed them miserably.

With the borders closed, Gaza’s economy is falling apart. Apparently, Gaza’s 600 textile plants have shut down because they can’t import raw material. Across the board, only 10% of industry in Gaza is operating. Almost every Gazan receives food from the UN. Both borders (with Israel and Egypt, respectively) are shut indefinitely. Gaza is a teeming prison.

The EU, which had been paying for fuel for the Gaza Strip’s only power plant, the Nusseirat power plant, announced it would cut off payment for fuel. Their reason for stopping the payments (of around $9billion per month) is that Hamas, they said, has announced plans to tax Gazans’ electricity bills. How dare they? A government taxing electricity? It’s unheard of. At any rate, after Hamas sufficiently proved to the EU that no such plans for any such tax were in place, the EU agreed to resume the fuel aid.

Nevertheless, Filippo Grandi, deputy commissioner general for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said, “Gaza risks becoming a virtually 100% aid-dependent, closed down and isolated community within a matter of months, or even weeks, if the present regime of closures continues.”

Food presently makes up almost 90% of the goods imported into Gaza. The Nusseirat power plant, even with fuel aid resumed, is still operating at only 50% of its capacity, because they can’t import the materials needed to maintain the plant’s turbines.
Total losses to Gaza’s private sector since the borders were sealed in June amount to $35 million.

Japan gets in on the peacemaking

Japan has unveiled an effort to revive the Middle East peace process by bolstering economic ties between Israel and the Palestinian territories. They announced an $11million aid package for Palestine (some even going to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip), with an additional $9.5million in humanitarian aid. And Japan’s effort has already borne some fruit. Israel foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian spokesman Saeb Erekat have signed an agreement to build a plant for processing Palestinian fruits and vegetables, which will be sold on the Jordanian market, with Israel providing security and technical assistance.

Fascism in Gaza?

On 13 August, Hamas security personnel broke up an anti-Hamas protest in Gaza City. As civilians waved Palestinian flags and chanted, “Hamas! What is happening in Gaza is not acceptable,” Hamas forces beat back the crowd with batons. Their official statement said that their reason for dispersing the crowd was because the protesters did not attain a permit for the march. The fact that they happened to be anti-Hamas protesters was just a curious coincidence.

Israel too busy with its own genocide to help refugees from Darfur

Israel announced, on 20 August, a new policy by which all further refugees from Darfur (beyond the 500 or so already in Israel) will be turned away. They put this new policy into action that very day, turning away 48 Sudanese nationals who had fled the genocide in Darfur and handing them into Egyptian custody.