Gaza's darkness
A few months ago, I spoke about the plight of ten Gaza students of occupational therapy in Bethlehem University. Except they've never been to Bethlehem. How, then, do they study, one might wonder? Try: videoconference, remote control, and out of country lab work.
And of course, without electricity, well, you can bet there are no classes.
Like almost everything else for Gaza's besieged population, welcome to the twilight zone.
Its all part of a long-standing sweeping Israeli-imposed ban that prevents residents of the Gaza Strip from studying at institutions of higher learning in the West Bank-and from traveling to the WB or Jerusalem in general and which predates the democratic election of Hamas's Change and Reform Party.
I've talked a lot about the various ways the laws affects people, from my brilliant neighbour B. who had to forfeit her masters degree in engineering because her permit continued to be denied, to her neighbour who went blind waiting for his health permit, and of course, my own continued denial to travel to the WB to attend press and academic conferences and meet friends and relatives.
GISHA, along with the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and Bitona, continues to fight the students' legal battle, and Haaretz has published a detailed article about their case today, interviewing the occupational therapy students (an artticle I started myself, and never finished!).
As part of the public campaign, the organizations published a quarter-page ad in today's Haaretz , signed by 200 Israeli professors and lecturers, asking the defense minister to undo the ban.
Of course, the ban is in the context of the larger Israel matrix of administrative control, also affecting the lives of people like my dear friend Sam Bahour, A Palestinian-American from el-Birah who has lived there for the past 15 years, and is now being expelled from his own home because suddently the powers that be say his permit is no longer valid. See Amira Hass's article, THE SLIPPERY SLOPE OF EXPULSION, here.
Sam tells me he's fighting it out in the courts till his final breath.
Meanwhile, check out Gideon Levy's GAZA'S DARKNESS in yesterda's Haaretz, lest we forget, well, Gaza's darkness.
posted by Laila @ Wednesday, September 06, 2006
17 Comments:
Steve, I think the Palestinians would like to build there own society, but with the Israeli government illegally occupying and selling their land to foreigners, there isn't much to build on. Palestine also has a government, but Israel's military walked in to the occupied territories and illegally detained many of the MPs. Explain that one to me. How do you expect Palestine to have a stable society when the IOF routinely de-stabilizes it? Please, offer me some actual plausable routes the Palestinians may take, there's no point in just getting angry and throwing fiery comments every which way.
Steve you make yourself sound like an uniformed bigot, to be frank.
Israel's 'success' is based upon MASSIVE US taxpayer donations (interest free - while Katrina victims are defaulting on LOAN payments & interest!), the destruction of indigenous people, and the appropriation of foreign property and resources for the purposes of occupation and expansion.
Stop the Palestinian Occupation and hold your judgement of their elections, choice of government until a sovereign nation has been allowed to develop. After a decade passes, THEN see what a fruitful society there might come to.
It never failst to amaze me how Palestinians expect to wage war on Israel (missiles, kidnappings, suicide bombings...), but for their lives and travel plans to be unaffected.
Steve, I am inspired by Israel's work ethic and contributions to scientific journals. They are definitely some of the most hard working and learned people on the planet. Their acheivements are definitely something to marvel at. But you haven't addressed my concerns.
Palestine would like to emulate Israel. They would like to have good relationships with their neighboring countries. They used to export crops and food stuffs to other countries but can't do this anymore because Israel has closed the crossings/main export routes. They used to make a killing on olive oil exports but Israel, despite UN opposition, illegally uprooted many of the Westbank's olive trees and has not compensated the owners. Please raise this issue the next time you get the chance, and hopefully this will be the first step to peace. Identify, apologize, and rebuild, this is what both sides need to do.
Yeah, funny how people living in their ancestral land in homes built by the hands of their forefathers will get all funny like that when their farms are destroyed, their land appropriated and their lives put in constant peril by the control of heavily subsidised and politically spun Occupiers who claim Perpetual Victimhood their reason for anything.
I guess that's what suprises the psychopathic supporters of Zionist expansion.
Intel has a design group in Israel that designs its leading edge microprocessors.
Does any microprocessor design company have a similar design group in any other ME country?
BTW until the start of stupidfada II the Israeli and Palestinian econmies were integrating. The stupidcide bombers put an end to that.
Why was it in Arafat's interest to destroy the Pali economy? Well people who have enough to eat and incomes independent of the government do not make good cannon fodder. One of Arafat's Lieutenants said as much.
BTW American government largess represents less than 10% of Israeli government expenditures. A lot of that goes into joint weapons development programs.
Hizballah has been extrodinairily effective in throwing the Israelis out of Lebanon. How did they do it? They stopped fighting. A word to the wise.
Were it not for Uncle Sugar the Israelis would not have such a high standard of living.
Imagine how robust the Palestinian economy would be if the USA gave Palestine between 3 and 6 billion USD every year and the Israeli government didn't control the ports, airspace, and roads.
Not even talking about the wanton destruction of thousands and thousands of dunams of orchards and groves.
It never failst to amaze me how Palestinians expect to wage war on Israel (missiles, kidnappings, suicide bombings...), but for their lives and travel plans to be unaffected.
Well said.
On one hands arabs are obsessed with Israel.
Since 1948 they launched various wars against Israel.
On the other hand they keep complaining Israelis makes their lives living hell.
At last but not the least..., when Israel does want to withdraw from palestinian lands , Palestini shout : No no, dont go away.
Actually Arafat and pali oficials criticized Sharon dismantling of the setlements.., and pali oficials criticized Olmert withdraw plans from west banks.
Arabs love to hate Israel.
(Its like a marriage . I hate you but never dream leaving me alone).
Unbelievable.
And I do not criticize just the arabs.
British are getting the same disease.,the hate against Israel disease.
(And hitler had a virulent disease against jews).
Sorry - Israel is no innocent victim in perpetuity. You cannot oversimplify the withdrawal situation as though Israel could be entitled to walk away like they don't want to play anymore. That scenario is MUCH more complex and your suggestion otherwise surely must be disengenous.
If people hate Israel it might be the best course of action to attempt an understanding of WHY they hate the implementation of occupation.
Well well. Look who's come back to join us-if its not our old friend Peter and all his multiple stalker personalities. Welcome back. Looking forward to more of your personal attacks everywhere I write.
Laila, does this "Peter" use other names, or just the one above?
It's good to 'out' the trolls to save everyone's time - effort is wasted on those who's minds are closed but continue to open their mouths.
Steve,
You say: "...A hate-filled whining stone-age mentality is a permanent dead end."
On this we agree. Now how about Israel and the US giving this a try? I think te situation might work out well if given the opportunity.
The only "hate" I have, is for those who would presume to curtail the lives of those whom they deem as "others". Beyond that, I have dislikes, differences of opinions, etc., but not hate. There IS a difference.
Quick but important comment for Steve. The Israeli army has NOT pulled out completely from Lebanon, and especially Gaza. They have never left south Lebanon and their unexploded mortar rounds are waiting for the returning Lebanese. And as for Gaza, they at first surrounded Gaza and controlled it like a prison, and now they are back in to play the wardens. They have been criticised repeatedly by the UN for both actions and have turned a blind eye. But when the Palestinians do something, every pro-Israeli is writing articles and beefing up the story. If they did a fraction of the same for the atrocities by the IDF, this would be a whole other ball game.
These completely incorrect statements have to stop being perpetuated. These are false statements and blur the right and wrong, making situation more complicated.
The Israeli army completely pulled out of Lebanon in 2000.
gotta love all that bureacratic red tape=/.
Sheba farms and the Golan Heights are disputed portions of Syria that were captured during the 1967 war.
When Syria is serious about a peace treaty, then the status of those territories will be discussed.
However, Syria has never ceded that land to Lebanon. The UN has declared that the land is not Lebanese.
First, the Palestinians suffer because it is in their interest to suffer. If they really wanted to get on with their lives, they would have pulled their fingers out a long time ago. Suffering creates sympathy and the world is so pathetic that it believes every single tear that is shed. The Palestinians had it so good before the first intifada. The worked in Israel, earned a living and provided for their families. If they do not want to suffer and want to live decent, respectable lives again, all they have to do is stand up and be counted. They need to revolt against Hamas and all the other terrorist organizations and demand their rights. And not live in fear from their own people. Three quarters if not more of the Palestinians would be thrilled to be rid of the terrorist groups that murder, rape, isolate, threaten and deceive the average man in the Palestinian street. Why don't they spend money on parks, amusement centres, libraries, etc., instead of spending their money on terrorist training camps for 6 year olds and on printing school textbooks that preach hatred from kindergarten age up? Why haven't any other Muslim countries (22 to date and who's counting) provided food, clothing, housing on a regular basis for their brethren? Why have the Palestinians not done a thing with the land the Israelis returned in August 2005? Because they don't want to. Pictures flashed across tv screens worldwide of the poverty and neglect create sympathy and more misunderstood hatred towards Israel. How is it that after WW2, the Jews of Europe with absolutely nothing managed to convert the swamps and the barren land of The Middle East into a developed, modern Western nation? And after 56 years the Palestinians are still in square one?
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