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http://gulftoday.ae Sail of hope On Aug.26, Palestinians and Israelis agreed to halt the carnage and destruction in Gaza and to begin easing Israel’s siege and blockade that was the cause of the 50-day war. This deadly and costly conflict would have never happened if Israel had ended its cruel policy when on Aug.23, 2008, two rickety Greek fishing boats arrived in Gaza after a hazardous journey from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus. The boats, Free Gaza and Liberty, carrying 44 passengers and crew were welcomed by tens of thousands of Palestinians who thronged the strip’s tiny fishing port, went to greet the boats on local vessels or swam out to meet the visitors. Since no foreign vessel had docked in Gaza for 41 years, Palestinians had hoped Israel would be compelled, at least, to lift its naval blockade, opening a narrow window on the world for the isolated coastal strip. Israel had threatened to intercept the boats and arrest the activists to prevent them from reaching Gaza. Its navy shadowed them and cut their communications almost as soon as they left Cypriot waters. After a long sea-sick night on the rough Mediterranean, the sailors saw the coast of Gaza. Israel had relented and let them through. The spectacular celebration mounted on their arrival was broadcast round the world by Al Jazeera and other satellite television channels. The welcome lasted a week. The activists from the Free Gaza and International Solidarity movements toured the strip, were invited to lunch and dinner, and awarded honorary Palestinian passports. During five successful voyages, 28 Palestinians, trapped in Gaza, were taken to Cyprus. Most were students seeking to return to their studies at Western universities. The Dignity, a yacht which made the successful second journey at the end of October, carried doctors, lawyers, journalists and human rights activists, including Irish Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire and Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti. The Gulf Today met the boat as it landed in Gaza. In November, the Dignity made another voyage with distinguished members of parliament from six European countries and delivered urgently needed medical supplies. The yacht made two successful voyages in December but was rammed by an Israeli naval gunboat on Dec.30 — three days after Israel began its “Cast Lead” onslaught on Gaza. The yacht, ferrying medical supplies and doctors, was in international waters 145 kilometres off the coast of Gaza. It limped into Beirut harbour, was repaired and returned to its berth in Cyprus but sank mysteriously in port some months later. The Free Gaza movement attempted another three voyages but Israel hijacked the vessels, detained crew and passengers, and impounded the boats. Israeli naval commandos killed 10 passengers on a Turkish ferry sailing with a small flotilla at the end of May 2010, the ninth effort to break the siege and blockade. Israeli pressure on Greece prevented a tenth voyage. A new flotilla is being organised for this year, but cannot be expected to reach imprisoned and bludgeoned Gaza unless there is Israeli agreement to end the siege and blockade. The Free Gaza movement has been a dangerous irritant. The goal of the current Israeli campaign is maintaining not only the Israeli occupation of Gaza but also the cruel siege and blockade. Although Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, the Israeli military continued this policy, depriving the citizens of Gaza of a developing economy, a decent standard of living, a respectable future, freedom to travel and, above all, independence. Harvard University researcher Sara Roy pointed out in her book, The Gaza Strip, that while in direct physical occupation Israel followed a policy of “de-development” with the object of denying Gaza economic advancement. Since it physically pulled out of the strip in 2005, Israel has used the tightening — and occasional loosening — of the siege and blockade to maintain this policy. In addition, Israel has used resistance to its occupation as a pretext for carrying out periodic assaults which came closer and closer together: in 2006 following the Palestinian capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, in 2008-09, 2012, and 2014 on the pretext of halting Gazan rocket fire into Israel. Its 21-day 2008-09 war on Gaza slew 1,445 Palestinians, the 8-day 2012 assault killed 102 civilians, while the recent brutal all-out Israeli blitz on Gaza has slain 2,139 Palestinians, including multiple members of 90 families, and laid waste to the strip. In between these operations the Israeli army maintained pressure on Gaza, shooting farmers trying to access their fields near the border and fishermen straying out of coastal limits defined by Israel. The assaults were not only deadly but also highly destructive. Once ceasefires were agreed, Palestinians were obliged to focus on reconstruction of homes, factories, businesses and infrastructure, salvaging savaged farmland, and rehabilitation of the traumatised population. There was no time and no energy for economic development and state building. Gazans were not permitted to rebuild the bombed out airport at the north east corner of the strip or think of constructing the planned port south of Gaza city. By bombing Gaza Israel has prevented the emergence of the southern wing of the Palestinian state. Israel cannot afford to grant Gazans freedom, freedom to establish their state in Gaza, without also ceding freedom to Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories which Israel is determined to keep and colonise. Therefore, Gaza must be isolated and locked in by Israel which rejects the “two state solution” adopted by the international community and sabotages negotiations aimed at bringing forth a rump Palestinian state with a population of 4.3 million Palestinians. After all, this could mean the uprooting of a large proportion of the half million illegal Israeli colonists. Losing East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the latter regarded by Israelis as “Judea and Samaria,” the heartland of ancient Jewish entities in Palestine, would be Israel’s biggest nightmare and involve abandonment, even negation, of Zionism which has laid claim to all of Palestine.
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