Art Reception “Dreams and Nightmares” this Friday, Nov. 11th

I have to say I regret that I haven’t been able to post for a while.  There’s been little time as I’m finishing my final semester at USC.  I wanted to take a moment to quickly post an update for an readers in the Los Angeles/Southern California area.  This Friday, November 11th, {Open} in Long Beach will be hosting a reception showcasing the paintings done by the Samouni kids in Gaza.  I planned on doing something with the paintings when I was working with the kids over summer but after MOCHA’s cancellation of their Gaza Children’s art exhibit (see full story here: http://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-childrens-images-war-censored-under-pressure-us-israel-lobby/10373) I was especially driven to get these paintings shown (see flier below).

On the state of the State of Palestine

Friday, September 23^rd de facto president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, approached the United Nations to request their recognition and acceptance of a Palestinian State that would include the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  Of course the bid has received opposition from the U.S. as it stubbornly stands by Israel whose alliance has garnered distrust for the American activity in the region.  It’s expected that the U.S. will utilize its veto power on the Security Council against this move.  This would be a safe expectation regardless of what Israeli lobbyists say or do but a superfluous AIPAC campaign removed all doubt with its success in pressuring the House and Senate to overwhelmingly pass resolutions H. 268 and S. 185 (links: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2011-524 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=sr112-185) that affirmed Congress’s opposition to the bid.

In the Palestinian camp there’s been a debate over whether or not the bid is a wise decision for Palestinians, not for the reasons cited by the West that it “would poison the environment for restarting peace negotiations” but for its other problems such as the preclusion of refugee eligibility for citizenship in the new state.

The negotiations, which the U.S. claims the bid threatens to ruin, haven’t seen true progress in years.  Nearly the entire “peace process” has been a charade of stalling and low-ball offers by Israel to the Palestinians with the U.S. “balancing” all of this in Israel’s favor by maintaining what they consider to be non-negotiable items such as the compulsory “demilitarization” of the would be Palestinian state with international oversight to ensure that it remain so.  Other items include ceded control of Palestinian airspace to Israel and recognition of Israel as the Jewish Homeland.  For those in the Palestinian camp that are opposed to the unilateral declaration, these terms are no longer requisite if Israel and the U.S. are not part of the move for statehood.

It was Israel’s Ehud Olmert who rejected the last of the Palestinians’ offer for 2 independent states based on the 1967 borders which also included their greatest concessions to date in terms of land annexation by Israel and the number of Palestinian refugees that could return to their homes.  It was Abbas who had made this offer but has clearly had enough and in doing “180,” stepped up to, at least symbolically assert Palestinian dignity and the right for his people to be a recognized nation in the U.N.  Despite Israel’s opposition to the bid and the Obama Administration’s claims that it will be bad for peace negotiations, this is the only way that any true peace negotiations can ever take place between the 2 sides–that is to say that these past peace negotiations were never sincere and therefore leave nothing to “poison” or protect.

Shamefully the U.N. has moved to push resuming direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian politicians in lieu of taking a vote on the request by Abbas.  Recognizing the Palestinian state and resuming direct talks are not necessarily mutually exclusive and shouldn’t be treated as such.  Although some 140 countries have expressed their support for the bid, the contention with the U.S. isn’t something they’re ready to face has led them to participate in furthering the charade.  With all of the proposed state’s problems (primarily regarding the status of refugees, see this article for more context: http://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/who-would-be-a-considered-citizen-in-a-new-state-of-palestine.html) it will likely only have symbolic importance and seeks to give the Palestinians a slightly better platform for negotiation.  If nothing else all of the press preceding Abbas’s address to the U.N. has served as a mechanism that called the issue to light on an international level.  Egypt and Turkey have departed from being prevailing allies of Israel in the region and even the centrist U.S. news media outlet NPR has acknowledged “Israel’s growing isolation in the world.”  The U.S. is the only significant ally that Israel still has.  The publicity this debate has received in the media served to draw attention to the issues faced by Palestine.  People who have not or would not have otherwise thought about the conflict are now starting to raise questions especially in regards to the unwavering support the U.S. affords to Israel.

The truth is that it is hard to justify U.S. alliance and its $3billion annual aid contribution to Israel.  However the U.S. is likely to remain allied with Israel for as long as it exists.  The upside is that the Zionist Project, as we know it, is finite.  This is no big secret or surprise and it is a fact that every Israeli leader in history has understood and has acted on.  They have shaped their policies in such a way that preserves their legacy, knowing that Israel’s era of power and expansion to date is not sustainable but ensuring that they will not be the leader with which it passes.

Through his advancement of illegal settlements in the West Bank (something that truly “poisoned” the peace process) Benjamin Netanyahu must face this moment in time that he helped to construct.  His failure to stop the settlements (partially to preserve his image as a “strong” Israeli leader) has ironically turned against him.  A real 2-state solution isn’t viable due to the extensive number of Jewish settlements that weave their way throughout the West Bank.  The Palestinian Authority has said that there should be no Jewish citizens in the new state (not a surprising response to Israel’s bill stating all new citizens must pledge an oath to a “Jewish” state).  It’s not likely that the world will be witnessing any modern-day exodus in the near future of the Middle East.  Little will change in terms of the reality of peoples’ daily lives.  Israel will continue to exercise force as an occupying power, the difference will be that they will be occupying a nominal “state” rather than a “territory.”  This is yet another reason why the bid is symbolic but wholly necessary not as a means to an end but as a game changing step towards progress.  The bid leaves out refugees and Hamas and does not represent all Palestinians.  However Israel has only been negotiating with the PLO thus far and if this gives the Palestinian Authority more grounds to insist on the inclusion of Hamas and rights of refugees then it should be done.  Of course this is a gamble but it’s one for the Palestinians to make and not one that the U.S. can weigh in on in any moral capacity.

Israel’s Air Raids Over Gaza: Psychological Warfare in Gaza and Litmus Test for Egypt

Last week Israel carried out a number of terrifying and lethal raids over the marooned Gaza Strip.  In the weeks preceding the attacks, signs of deteriorating conditions were surfacing with cuts to communication outlets in Gaza.  The first few days of Israel’s leafleting and air raid campaigns spurred a brief media frenzy with reports from western media such as this one from the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14577593

The initial coverage can likely be attributed to the bitter aftertaste of Operation Cast Lead that still hangs in the mouths of many in the international community as well as to the upcoming vote to recognize Palestine as a member of the United Nations.  Such a recognition, however incomplete it may be, would give Palestinians a voice in the U.N. and would recognize the territories of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem as territories of a Palestinian state.  Israel’s offensive also resulted in the closing of the border at Rafah and the killing of 2 Egyptian border guards.  Some of those who have been following the events unfolding in Egypt since the start of the revolution in January perceived this expense to be a test or challenge to the intentions of Egypt’s protesters regarding future relations with Israel.

On Monday Netanyahu announced that Israel would not continue to escalate the raids:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-08/22/c_131067019.htm

Time will determine whether or not this proves to be an empty claim but it presumably means that Israel will return to it’s previous campaign of waging a slow war over Gaza.

Below are some testimonies and reactions to last week’s events from people who are currently based in Egypt and Gaza:

Joe Catron of ISM-Gaza wrote on August 18th: Other than today’s deaths, everything seems all right at the moment, but a lot of us are apprehensive about what the night could bring. Zionists are dropping leaflets in Rafah and other places, Egypt has closed the Rafah border, the US embassy in Tel Aviv has asked its citizens to leave Gaza, and the UN has imposed a curfew on its employees. None of those usually come before anything good. But we’ll see.

He wrote again on August 24th: Being here during airstrikes is rather frustrating. I spent a lot of time listening to booms in the distance, hovering over Twitter, Facebook, and Ma’an, trying to separate rumors from facts, doing what I could to keep the rest of the world informed, and wishing there was something else I could do, beyond showing up later to record the damage. And while most of the destruction I personally witnessed affected physical infrastructure, it was particularly infuriating to meet children in Shifa who had been injured when their home was demolished.

Hussien A.-Gaza wrote on August 19th: They started bombing everywhere in a crazy way after what happened yesterday and before a moment they bombed in our area the third one and there were at least two killed.

He later wrote on August 25th: Today we went to a “sport club” in Biet Lahya which was bombed yesterday. It was totally destroyed and next to this club there was a school which was also totally destroyed…two people were killed in this attack, one of them 17 years old and his friend was 22 years old.  They were hanging out with 8 of their friends in the first one house next to the club and 12 people nearby were injured…we went also to a mourning tent in Buriej for a farmer who was bombed on land where he was working at 5:00 PM At 3:00 PM the owner of this land came and found the trees destroyed, covering that farmer’s dead body.. His name was ” Ismail Nimer Amoom” and he was 62 years old.  His father had already been killed during Cast Lead while he was working on another plot of land.
So as you read, first they hit a place for sport, then place for children and then old farmers at work…this is Israel’s doing and who knows what will be next?!

Medo Saleh, a student at the Misr University for Science and Technology, was visiting his family in Gaza for Ramadan and now is unsure as to how or when he will be able to re-enter Egypt or if he will be able to reach Cairo in time for school once classes resume.

Noor H.-Gaza wrote on August 24th: the situation is better than 3 days ago*

*I’m still waiting for additional information from her about the attacks, deaths, and some families that she and 2 ISM members visited.  She is experiencing difficulty with her Facebook account and her response will be updated upon receipt.

Amr S.-Cairo, Egypt wrote on August 24th: There is nothing new about the attacks on Gaza, they are brutal and omnipotent as we sorrily are used to seeing. But the reason behind them I guess, is to monitor how the Egyptian government and people  will respond.  Are we going to open the gates?  Transport medical and food supplies to the Palestinians?  Officially denounce the attacks internationally?  The response was clear from the people’s side by the demonstrations in front of the embassy that combined not only the need of revenge from shooting our soldiers on the borders, but also the call for freeing Palestine; they (protesters) were strongly denouncing the attacks on Gaza.  Some believe this is a normal reaction from Israel to the protests they witnessed regarding their own economic problems suffered by the middle class and to their over population problems due to the immigrants who come from Latin America and leading them to extend their lands and build new settlements; however I am not strongly with this opinion.  The people here are extremely angry.  What happened also could be a game played by the Egyptian SCAF from one side and the IDF from the other side to drag the peoples of both countries into a state of congestion and anger with each other.  They might do this to take control of the inner issues as they will claim that it’s not the time to address them because they have to “secure the borders and stand behind the army!”  What happened can be interpreted in many ways.

Time Spent at Rafah and Israel’s New Attacks in Gaza

I’ve been back in the U.S. for 3 weeks now and although the people and places in Gaza have daily presence in my thoughts I have not managed to really down and write about them.  Since returning to the U.S. I’ve been living an urban nomadic lifestyle (couch surfing at the homes of friends who are kind enough to have me) and working so finding the time to write about this subject, giving it the full attention it deserves has been difficult.  Whenever I’ve tried to put words together to address everything I saw there, the people I met and the conclusions I’ve drawn, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed.  Nothing written in this space could do justice to all that can be said about Gaza.  I guess I’ll begin where I last left off—with the border in Rafah.

It took three days past my registration date for me to be able to leave Gaza and the means by which I was able to get out had nothing to do with the “necessary protocols” initiated by Hamas this summer.  According to the ministry of internal security, international visitors to Gaza must complete the following steps in order to leave; first they must go to the ministry of interior in the Remal neighborhood of Gaza City to register for an exit date.  For Palestinians the process to register to leave can take several hours of waiting in line but for foreigners it may take up to an hour at the most, especially if they are working with a fixer.  Hamas has also started requesting that internationals apply for and obtain a temporary Gaza residency card of at least 3 months before attempting to leave through Rafah.  On the exit date assigned by the ministry of the interior, travelers are told to show themselves at the border and if all things have gone smoothly the traveler’s name should be printed on a list of no more than 300 or 400 individuals.  Either a Hamas military officer or border security guard (both are present at the gate) will call the names of the people who are to be “granted” exit that day.

This is the system, including the new protocols and it simply does not work.  This line of action leaves room for error, assuming that the registration is even processed properly, there is no guarantee that one can expect to pass through on their assigned date and more often than not, your registration isn’t processed properly and your name might not even be printed on the list.

As it turns out there are 2 primary ways in which people are able to pass through the gate at Rafah and both have to do with luck.  The first method described above can work if you are lucky enough to have all of your paperwork processed properly and if you’re lucky enough to have all other variables aligned for your exit; these include but are not limited to the gate being open on the Egyptian side, the gate being open on the Hamas side, registrants for your assigned date being on schedule and not delayed for an indefinite period of time depending on political and bureaucratic activity and the assumption that all 300 or 400 names will be called as opposed to the fraction of 100 out of the 300 or 400 people that are typically allowed through.

The other method, which proved to be effective in my case, bypasses all of the Hamas protocol besides a current passport.  This seemingly more effective method is more of a “hands-on” approach.  Rather than sitting by, watching incompetent bureaucrats foul up your exit arrangements, you can show up to the border around 6 or 7am (but no later!) and wait alongside hundreds of other people for the processing hall to open at 8am.  When the doors open, people flood the building, trying to secure seats for themselves and their families.  At this point people are usually scrambling and as the guards enter the room there’s confusion as to whether or not it’s better to stay seated or run right up to the desk and shove your passport(s) in the guards’ faces.  Since there are so many people in the hall, you’ll find a good number doing either of these two things.  In my case, I took my passport along with the passports of a Palestinian-American family and fellow ISMer that I met a couple of days before at the border and followed suit by elbowing through the crowd to hand them to the guards.  At first they told everyone to back up and sit down and many were reluctant, some even refused and continued to stand at the front of the room.  One guard took in a few passports at random which angered a lot of people and the crowd reformed around the desk.  I elbowed my way through again and this time, out of sheer luck, was able to hand them to a guard who proceeded to take them into a room behind the front desk and “process them” by hand-writing all of our names onto a new list for that day.  Of the hundreds of people who were there that morning, only 2 busloads carrying a total of 97 people were able to pass through the Hamas side of the border and continue on to Egypt.

As if the palpable tension and misery at the border weren’t already enough—this scene in particular was both painful to watch and to be a part of.  The border is a humiliating place where people are desperate.  They are reduced to being treated like wild animals and in turn begin to behave like wild animals.  This is true at Rafah where Israeli guards are not present.  The border at Erez is humiliating and degrading in other ways as people are forced to face their occupiers.  In either case, the obstruction of mobility in and out of Gaza spells disaster for many.  I spoke to one man who had been trying to leave for six months.  When I met him he had reached a point where he was driving an hour every day from Gaza City to Rafah in an attempt to reach Egypt and catch a flight back to his job as a hotel security guard in Dubai.  He told me that if he didn’t get out in the next few days from when I met him, he would miss his flight and almost certainly lose his job.  He deeply resented those at the border who were able to get through because they had coordination on the inside, however ISM supposedly has coordination for its members but this proved to be useless in my case.

On the day that I left, a girl and her mom were separated from two of their relatives that were trying to leave with them for Egypt.  While most people appear happy and relieved to be able to leave, these two women were in tears.

For the moment I had felt relieved to get out, but only because I had a non-refundable flight to catch from Cairo back to the U.S.  I would have gladly forfeited the flight to stay in Gaza to live and work however getting back to the U.S. was imperative for me at this time as I still have 1 semester left to finish at USC which will be starting this Monday, August 22.

Gaza can feel claustrophobic at times and where people are promised a centimeter, they’re granted a millimeter.  As if a stated limit of 300 to 400 permitted travelers per day isn’t bad enough—the reality of a mere 100 is even worse, just like the 3-mile limit for the fishermen that is often enforced at 1 mile and just like the hundreds of meters of farmland near the border where people are often killed or arrested without cause.  The frustration that is felt at the border comes from everywhere.  People, many with high stakes to lose, are trying desperately to get out.  Operations do not run smoothly and it’s hard to tell who deserves the blame—Hamas?  Egypt? It’s more likely Israel and the U.S. even if there isn’t an Israeli guard stationed at the Rafah border.  Israel’s actions can have an instant impact on the entry and exit of people to and from Gaza.  Today Israel killed 6 people in Gaza.  One of my friends, Joe Catron of Crown Heights, NY is in Gaza right now.  He told me today that the IDF has been leafleting all over the strip “warning” people of upcoming air strikes; these “warnings” are actually serving to terrify the population because the reality is that people are trapped there—they are subject to the will of the Zionist military and have no where to run.  In addition, he informed me (and reports by NPR confirm) that Egypt has closed its side of the border and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv has asked for all of its citizens in Gaza to evacuate yet they refuse to do anything to assist in this evacuation and are well aware of the implausibility of escape.

Even before this heightened level of tension, the U.S. has been party to punishing its own citizens for traveling to Gaza.  There were at least 50 other American citizens in those three days that I spent waiting at the border and when it was said that problems were coming from the Egyptian side, all of us tried contacting the embassy in Cairo.  All they could say was that “they have no authority there.”  That was all.  They were unwilling to make any other calls to help people get out.  One Palestinian-American family paid $6,000 additional fees to have their flights from Cairo changed.  This is the United States we’re talking about.  I’m not one to pull that card but at the same time I don’t consider myself to be an idiot so how am I to believe that a government that has unilaterally overthrown state leaders cannot make a few simple phone calls to arrange for its citizens to cross a border?  I can’t.  As I said before, they are punishing us.  One of the women on the phone from the embassy said, “We told you not to go there, it’s dangerous, you signed a waiver.”  While yes, I did pay $50.00 to sign the embassy waiver that excused them of their duties to me; there were other American citizens who had not.  The U.S. is trying—hard—to aid Israel in keeping Gaza invisible.  They want Gaza (and Palestine for that matter) to be ignored and forgotten and for Israel’s crimes to go unnoticed.  With the exception of few reports such as the ones that appeared today in NPR, they’ve seen a lot of success with this tactic.  I still meet many people who could not tell you where Gaza is on a map, others who think that Gaza is Israel or who have no idea that Gaza is Palestine or that the people living in Gaza are Palestinian or what in the world Palestinians are!  I only wish I were exaggerating!

Now I’m here and they’re there—stuck there with nowhere to run.  My stomach aches when I think of all the people I care for who cannot leave and whose fates are being decided by one of the most brutal occupying forces in the modern world.  Israel is funded by the U.S. government, but I cannot say that they are funded by my government, living here forces me to fund their vile actions and affirms my decision to leave the U.S. following graduation.  The Israeli air force has been terrorizing the airspace over Gaza all day and reports say that attacks will follow—they might have even started though I can only hope they haven’t.

If it wasn’t clear before that the disproportionate war in 2009 has yet to end but simply de-escalated for a short 2 years, this should make it crystal.  My heart and mind go out to all of my loved ones in Gaza who circumstances separate me from at this time.

Back in L.A. — Gaza Analyses, Interviews and Cairo Info. Coming Soon

I’ve been back in L.A. for 6 days now but have not had a chance to update.  I’m asking that my readers be somewhat patient with me!  I have literally not stopped moving from place to place since I was able to make it out from the border in Rafah last Tuesday. As poor of a plan as it might have been, I returned to the states just a few days before the lease on my place by school ended.  I wasn’t too concerned because all of my belongings fit in my car and I planned on staying a few days here and there with different friends.  This would have worked out perfectly fine had I not returned to the U.S. with a Staph infection courtesy of the Zionist siege over Gaza and the frightfully contaminated water.  I made the mistake of washing a cut out with tap water and voilà–infection.  It’s made finding a place to crash understandably more difficult, but I’ve finally found a friend to stay a few days with and have half-a-second to sit down to write but will dedicate more time soon to a full fledged post about Gaza and the border.  From L.A. I plan to post other analogies of international and political affairs until returning to the Middle Easst, as planned, in January.  Readers, please stick around!

I have a lot to say about the border–the misery that’s there–the meaningless protocol that is “required” to leave–the lack of a working system and tons of wasted time.  I’ll expand on this later but basically those few days of waiting at the border made me feel as if I was “stuck” in Gaza.  Now that I’m back in L.A. the only thing I want is to be in Gaza again.  It turned out that all of the new protocol of registering for a date to leave and getting a temporary residency card is useless.  I got out of the border by pure luck and aggression.  I took my passport, the passport of a fellow ISMer from Denmark, the passports of a Palestinian-American family and of their Palestinian-Saudi aunt and cousin and elbowed my way through a crowd of people to finally have them taken by a guard to be processed.  There is nothing fair about this process and while waiting my first day at the border I spoke with a Palestinian man who said that he had been trying to get out for months.

The Border at Rafah, Analyses & Future Posts

Today will be my third attempt to leave Gaza for Egypt through the border at Rafah.  I followed all of the new Hamas protocol for foreigners trying to leave Gaza.  I registered for a registration date 3 weeks ago and was assigned to the 24th.  On the 24th I was at the border for 10 hours in the heat only to be turned away.  While being crowded togethers with about 100 people at the gate, one man saw an opportunity to make a “grab” at me.  I felt something and looked down to find his hand on my waste which he then pulled away as I turned around to give him the dirtiest look I could manage.  If were covering my hair I don’t think anyone would have tried to pull something like that.

On Monday, the 25th, I returned to the border and again was turned away.  They were claiming that they had met their quota for people with international passports for that day.  It’s hard to pinpoint the blame.  Hamas will say the fault lies with the Egyptians and that it’s Egypt who says they’re going to close the border for the day.  If you call the U.S. embassy in Egypt they will tell you this isn’t true and that the border is open for the day.  Nothing about the system here works–it’s broken.  It’s impossible to tell what’s really going on and what you should be doing–who you should be talking to.  As it turns out, the U.S. embassies in Egypt and the U.S. are totally useless as far as making any progress towards your exit.

I’m returning the the border today.  It’s 5:30 and I’ll be leaving Gaza City momentarily; the cab ride to Rafah takes around 1 hour.  Hopefully I’ll pass today, I have to catch a flight out of Cairo Thursday morning–however I quickly learned that lots of people at Rafah end up missing their flights.  It’s really a miserable place, everyone is unhappy and stressed out and the tension is palpable.

I’ll provide further analysis for the situation at Rafah after passing.  I also plan on some putting together analytical reflections of my time in Gaza after I get back to the U.S.

I plan on returning to Cairo and Gaza in late winter/early spring and of course writing while in these places.  Until then my future posts will have to do with my experiences in Egypt and Gaza as well as some analyses of domestic and international political events that I will be following from the U.S.  Please keep reading.

IDF Shoots Live Ammunition at ISM Activists at Sea

On Saturday the ISM crew for CPS Gaza rode out on the trawler that rescued us during the second attack on the Oliva on Thursday, July 14^th.  As I mentioned before, the Oliva project is currently on an indefinite hiatus.  Nils, Joe and I went to the port at 7:10 am and we rode out to sea around 7:30.  There were 3 adult Palestinian men on the boat and two young boys.  Joe, Nils and I sat on the deck of the ship’s bow and the captain and other passengers stayed in the middle and back of the vessel. Around the 2 to 2.5 mile point we spotted the Israelis coming towards us from the north.  When they were still about a mile’s distance from us I called them over the radio and said that we were “Unarmed international observers on board, 2 United States citizens and one Swedish citizen.”  I repeated this a number of times but they continued to approach us at a high speed.  Joe and I were on the bow of the boat when we noticed that the Israeli Navy was now about 100 meters from us and had fired 2 shots into the water.  We retreated to the center of the boat where the steering cabin is and I repeated again over the radio that we were “unarmed international observers.”  This did nothing to sway their actions and they fired live rounds both in the water and directly at the boat for around 15 or 20 minutes.  Joe returned to the front of the boat and tried speaking to them over the megaphone, repeating the fact that we were internationals and that the boat had no hostile or military intentions and the captain and his crew were just going to fish.  By this point the trawler had reached the 3-mile limit.  The captain desperately wanted to go further out to 4 or 5 miles because the 3-mile area is completely overfished and he said “it’s better to return home than to even bother fishing here.” While the shooting was still taking place, we decided to have Nils speak to them over the radio so they could hear someone with a Swedish accent.  We were holding out desperate hope that our status as internationals would save the boat and allow the men to fish.  At one point the gunboat retreated slightly—only to double-back and continue harassing us.  Nils repeatedly said over the radio, “Israel, why do you do this?  We are peaceful people, we mean you no harm.”  After at least 30 minutes of creating turbulence and shooting live rounds at us the boat retreated again, this time for good.  I jumped back on the radio and told them to “let us go, we are not hostile and the captain only wants to fish.”  The Israelis responded and claimed that we were past 3 miles and were somewhere between 4 and 5 miles out to sea and insisted that I tell the captain to go back to the 3 mile mark.  The captain said that we were basically 3 miles, then he corrected that we were 3 miles and about 700 meters.  He asked me to tell them that he wouldn’t go past this point and only wanted one hour to fish here because there wouldn’t be any fish within the 3-mile limit.  He said they need to fish for food for Ramadan and there would be no food if we were to move further in to shore.   I said this to them in English several times awaiting a response since it had only been a few minutes since they had communicated with us directly.  After this the captain and his friend took the radio and begged them in a broken mixture of Arabic and Hebrew to let the boat stay where it was for one hour—just to fish—just to get food for Ramadan.  It was heartbreaking to watch.  It’s perverse that the Palestinians should have to beg for this right from an illegitimate occupying force.  Although it seemed that the Israelis weren’t concerned with the status of the international passengers as they were shooting at us, I have to assume that it would have only been worse had we not been on board.  The captain seemed used to this procedure and was firm in his decision to stay at sea to fish—in the face of Israeli violence.  After about 10 minutes had passed and the captain was still on the radio begging to be allowed a few extra hundred meters for just one hour, the gunboat left and another warship equipped with the water canon took its place.  The intensity of the water pressure seemed stronger than ever and the hit the boat for 20 or 30 minutes before we were able to get away.  Unfortunately at this point the captain saw no use in staying out there and brought the ship back to the port.  While we were riding back I leaned over the edge of the bow and saw the new bullet holes from the day’s attacks. 

When I went out today, one of my intentions was to observe the situation in the absence of the Oliva, and after this experience I can say two things with confidence.  My first conclusion is that this harassment is a frequent, if not daily occurrence for Palestinian fishermen.  The second is that Israel’s claim that the Oliva is a “constant provocateur” has not a shred of validity (not that it did before, but this confirms it) as the Israeli Navy is equally if not more violent without the Oliva and its observation crew at sea. 

 

The ISM crew was highly unprepared today.  Since this was an ISM mission and not CPS Gaza we did not have anyone in the office to communicate with at shore.  Our cell phones did not have service during the attacks and since our official cameras were being used to upload footage from attacks on the Oliva, the only camera we had with us was Nils’s small Sony Cyber-Shot, which gave a message of “System-Error” when he tried using it to document the attacks. 

 

I have to go pack now.  I’m leaving early in the morning to go to the border at Rafah.  I can’t believe I’m already leaving Gaza.  I’m not done with this place, I have a lot of unfinished business here and I will return.

Gaza’s Tunnels: An Inside Perspective

I was finally able to finish the story about my trip to the tunnels and submit it today for publishing by Palestine Note.  I’ll add the link to this post when it’s available.  Here’s the story w/ photos:

“Complimentary tour of the Rafah tunnels.”  I received this offer a few weeks after arriving in Gaza.  In a conversation I was having with my colleague, Joe Catron, it came up that a friend of ours from Gaza City had given an open invitation for us to tour the tunnels.  For the purpose of this article we’ll refer to her as “X.”

After reading about much of the controversy of the tunnels and the political obstacles they have posed for Hamas since officially taking over the operations in 2007, I jumped at the proposition.

Actually managing to get into the tunnels was not such an easy task and ended up taking Joe and I two separate attempts.  Our first venture to Rafah was with X, who had initially invited us.  Our other colleague from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) joined us and brought a friend of hers who was visiting Gaza from Egypt but was not officially affiliated with ISM.

Our first trip was on Sunday, July 10^th.  When we arrived in Rafah and approached the tunnels, a few of us were able to snap some photos of the outside of the tunnels before having our car stopped by Hamas Security.  The guard first asked for our cameras.  I was ready to remove my memory card and forfeit the camera, as was the other girl from ISM, however her friend was very reluctant and did not want to hand hers over to him.  Our tour guide tried to explain that we were with ISM and could be trusted, but this was ineffective.  The guard grew agitated and took down the license plate number and color of our vehicle.  His reaction was completely reasonable given the fact that we were a group of foreigners attempting to enter a high security area, some of us with cameras in hand.  Joe and I were quite upset with our guest’s behavior.  The driver tried to leave the area but the guard followed us by motorcycle and stopped us again.  This time he asked for the car driver’s I.D. who was a 3^rd party, completely unrelated to the organization of the trip.  Our tour guide tried to give the man her I.D. instead but he refused to take it, insisting on having the driver’s I.D.  The guard returned the man’s card to him and we abandoned the idea for the rest of the day.

After this initial failure, Joe and I arranged a separate trip through a different friend of ours who had a contact in Rafah that used to work in the tunnels.  This contact was our tour guide for our second visit to the tunnels; we’ll call him “Y.”  Our second trip to Rafah was on July 13^th.  After our run-in with the Hamas official a few days before, Joe and I decided to employ some “color-coding” on our second journey.  Joe wore a green Hamas baseball cap and I wore a green and white Hamas keffiyeh.  This seemed to work to our advantage as our tour guide remarked after about an hour of touring the tunnels that it was “amazing no one has asked us any questions, I usually get asked lots of questions when I come here with foreigners.”  The only point at which we were stopped was when we were walking to the last tunnel that Y wanted to show us, the tunnel he used to work it.  A guard that spotted us walking towards this particular tunnel stopped us and asked to see our passports, thinking that we were actually trying to cross into Egypt.  Our guide explained to him that we just wanted to see it for a minute and the Hamas officer laughed and let us pass.

We visited two different tunnel zones, the first one, Salah Din Gate, is right at the border with Egypt.  The Egyptian side is visible and the tunnels in this area are short, on average ranging a distance of only10 to 50 meters before reaching the Egyptian side.  We visited two working tunnels in this area and one tunnel that was still being built.  There are different types of tunnels, most of them are well-like structures covered by tents that are 10 to 30 meters deep.  Men and goods are hoisted up and down the shaft by a cable with a rope seat that is run by a small motor.  If there is no electricity the lift cannot–one of the many dangers involved in working in the tunnels is that the electricity may cut while someone or something is on the lift.  Once inside the well-like tunnels it is extremely hot and there is a palette system running on a similar motorized cable as the lift that carries things through the tunnel.  We visited two tunnels that were like this.  The first one was being run by two teenaged-boys.  I spoke briefly with the owner-operator of the second tunnel who was a middle-aged man.  He told me a little bit about himself and how he became involved in the tunnel business.  He studied in New Delhi and has an MMA in Microbiology.  Before Operation Cast Lead, he was working with NGO’s in Gaza City.  After the economy took a downward turn he bought this tunnel with a partner for 50,000 USD.  When his tunnel first opened he was making 500 to 600 USD per day.  These days he finds it hard to make this much money over the course of an entire month.

The tunnels have been and can be very lucrative for people however there is no doubt that the work is dangerous.  Israelis target the tunnels with rocket attacks; this was especially true during Operation Cast Lead.  There are also dangers of rocket attacks after crossing into the Egyptian side.  The heat and the risk of injury on the lift and the possibility that a tunnel may collapse are also problematic.

Our guide, Y, shared some of his personal knowledge of the tunnels since working in one of them 4 years ago.  The first tunnel opened in 1999 and tunnels used to be built under houses, now they’re built outside and are covered by tents.   Today there are thousands of tunnels, he estimates close to 6,000 and there are still more being dug.  Somewhere between 30-40,000 people are employed directly by the tunnels.  In every home, every building in Gaza you fill find something that was brought through by way of these tunnels and anything found in stores that does not have Hebrew writing on it (typically Turkish or Egyptian products) have entered Gaza from the tunnels.  Without having the option to purchase these other products, the Israeli blockade over the passage of goods in and out of Gaza essentially forces the population to help finance their own occupation.

However, Y sees the tunnels as a double-edged sword for Palestinians.  He finds the risk of Palestinian lives and the number of people who have died while building and working in the tunnels to be a problem, but admits that people have become better at dealing safety issues over time.  He also believes the tunnels are dangerous for bringing things into Gaza that, according to him, “shouldn’t be here.”  After the reported death of Vittorio Arrigoni, Hamas proved that they are only able to maintain partial control of the tunnels.  The tunnel area was supposed to have been “completely shut-down,” in order to prevent Vittorio’s killers from leaving.  Y said that the streets were crowded and chaotic and the security measures consisted of checking people’s I.D.’s before allowing them to pass.  He mentioned specifically, weapons, alcohol and other drugs.  He resigns that, despite these problems, the tunnels are a necessary means for survival.    The last tunnel we visited was further away from the Salah Din Gate area in a place called “Hay Salam.”  This was the tunnel that Y used to work in and was different from the well-style tunnels as it was not as deep and was wider.  A large palette of Doritos had just arrived.   This tunnel was just large enough for 1 or 2 people to crawl through side-by-side but there are some larger tunnels that have been built recently to transport cars and can fit 4 adults walking upright and side-by-side.

Risks and reputation aside, the tunnels seem to be functioning as a legitimate and important economic mechanism in Gaza, providing for all sectors imaginable.  Without the tunnels the people of Gaza are entirely subject to the will of Israel which has both economic and social psychological consequences.  As Hasan Zeyada of the Gaza City Mental Health Center said to me in conversation, “When living in a prison, the guards may decide after good behavior that you can have more clothes, more food, maybe a television, but it’s still a prison.  A prison is a prison even if you make it into a 5-Star Hotel.”

After our first run in with Hamas Security I decided not to take my camera along for our second try, especially fearing that they would stop us and recognize us.  After going inside to see the tunnels I regretted not bringing it since I think that, depending on the owner of the tunnel, I might have been able to convince a few of them to let me photograph it from the inside.  The photos provided along with this article are from our first “failed” visit.

Oliva and other News

7am

The Oliva was supposed to sail Thursday and when we couldn’t confirm media to join us it was said that we would sail Saturday (today).  The people who manage the CPS Gaza NGO, mostly living in Spain and the U.S., decided that with the rapidly dwindling manpower (2/3 of the crew will be gone after Monday) it isn’t worth the expenses to fix our engine at this time.  The Oliva project has gone on an indefinite hiatus.  Captain Salah has also resigned indefinitely–we were going to recruit Nils as captain but he will be leaving in a couple of days.  A few ideas as to how CPS Gaza could change its approach were discussed in a meeting on Wednesday evening but most of these plans require a greater number of volunteers.  Since the Oliva cannot sail today, Nils, Joe and I have decided to go out to sea today as ISM activists rather than as CPS Gaza and we’ll be accompanying fishermen on their own boats instead of the Oliva.  It should be interesting to see how the Navy behaves without the Oliva present.

In other news I’m leaving Gaza on Sunday (supposedly–this is my registration date but I’ve heard it’s possible I won’t get out.) It was announced that the border in Rafah will be closed today because of protests in Tahrir.  Either way, I can’t believe my time here is almost through.  I’m certain that I’ll be coming back after I finish school.

4:40pm

The trawler that ISM rode out to sea on this morning was shot at despite communicating to the Israeli Navy the fact that there were 2 U.S. citizens and one Swedish citizen on board (I hate the international privilege thing but it’s kind of the point on missions like this).  I’ll have more details of the attack in a later post.

Report for CPS Gaza Mission 20/07/11 — Attacked Again by Israeli Navy

The Oliva left the port at 8:20 am this morning.  There were 3 press teams accompanying us and their members were divided amongst the Oliva and 2 hasakas.  When we set out for sea we had 10 other vessels with us, 8 of which were carrying fishermen and the other 2 were carrying the media crew.  Representatives from The Guardian, Egyptian Satellite Channel (ESC) and Malaysian Television documented today’s events.

As usual, we were well within the 3 mile limit when we saw the first warship.  They paced us for a few minutes and then started circling us, similar to what they had done on Sunday, except they made sure to keep a further distance today.  Although this was supposed to intimidate us, we stayed in the area, hoping  that maybe a few fishermen would be able to do some fishing.  Realistically, we were too close to shore and the turbulence was disrupting all fishing operations.  Another warship showed up to join in the intimidation charades and both ships started sounding their sirens at us for no apparent reason other than to scare us away from the area.  After a few minutes of this, the hasaka boat carrying the reporter from Malaysian TV and the ESC crew decided to go back to the port.  The cameraman from Malaysian TV was on the Oliva along with me, Joe and Captain Salah and the hasaka carrying the crew from the Guardian remained at sea with us.  Reporter Harriet Sherwood from the Guardian-Jerusalem Office was live-tweeting everything as it happened, you can follow her and read her tweets here:

http://twitter.com/#!/harrietsherwood

After the two warships circled us for about 30 minutes, one of them turned west and started to move away from the area.  We saw a third ship appear to the north of us, heading south with it’s water canon running.  It drove towards us quickly and once reaching a distance of about 200 meters the other ship that had been circling us turned and drove south.  The two warships that were originally harassing us watched from approximately 1 mile away as the third boat moved towards us and began hitting the Oliva and crew with its water canon.  It’s clear the Israeli Navy is after the Oliva, they’ve had enough of us.  As I said in a previous post I wasn’t sure how sustainable the project would be.  For a while we were able to offer some sort of protection to the fishermen and they were encouraged to defy Israel’s illegal blockade.  I know for a fact that Oliva’s presence was making some kind of a difference at sea because several fishermen have told me that there were days where the Oliva would head back to port and they would stay at sea longer to continue fishing and the Zionists had waited until after the Oliva left to open fire on their boats.  For a few days it seemed that the press was providing the Oliva with some form of protection from attacks but having the press present for every mission is even less sustainable than the CPS Gaza/Oliva project itself.

The ship that was attacking the Oliva today steadily pelted us with high pressure streams for about 20 minutes.  We’ve known since Thursday that their intention is to sink or capsize the Oliva, either for the purpose of arresting the crew or simply putting a hitch in our operation in the hopes that we will not return to sea or at least will not be able to return to sea until the boat can be replaced.  It became very difficult to steer the boat, the crew, captain and cameraman were ducking.  The Zionists were aiming the water canon directly at the head of anyone who tried to stand up and take control of the wheel.  At one point the Zionists rammed its side into the Oliva–still pelting us with water.  After this the captain ordered us to exit the boat and we all boarded a hasaka. From the new point of view, away from the forced of the water, I was able to see a large maniacal clown poster on the side of their ship–another twisted form of intimidation.  The captain stayed on the Oliva for a while longer.  The boat was half-way full with water when we exited it and back at the port we found out that the fan of the engine had fallen off, presumably when the warship knocked itself into us.  Some Palestinian fishermen took over the Oliva and Captain Salah boarded a different hasaka.  We stayed at sea observing the warship and waiting to escort the Oliva back to the port.  The Israelis shouted repeatedly in Arabic for the Oliva to stop, “wa-qef Oliva! wa-qef Oliva! Oliva, wa-qef! wa-qef al-safineh!”  This translates to “Stop, Oliva! Stop, Oliva! Oliva, stop! Stop the ship!” The Palestinians that had boarded the Oliva and had taken control over it did not stop but rather helped to tie ropes attaching the boat to two hasakas which proceeded to tow it away from the Israelis.  Salah re-boarded the Oliva and all of the men on board started bailing out the water as the smaller boats towed them to the port. The crew and the Oliva managed to escape once again.

It’s interesting that after the crew left the boat, the Israeli Navy seemed more concerned with the Oliva itself than with the people that were on it.  We already know from previous interactions with them that they would like to arrest us, however some of us think that they prefer to drive us off of the boat and simply destroy the boat or tow it to Ashdod without having to deal with arresting and deporting internationals.  If they arrested us they would be forced to deal with explaining why the arrests took place in territorial waters that they do not claim jurisdiction over in their weak attempt to pretend that it’s “no longer occupied.”  There’s no doubt about it, the Israelis want the Oliva gone.  They know that our presence has helped to empower the fishermen and encourage them to defy the illegal blockade.  They know what we do out there and they’ve made it clear that they don’t like it and they’ve had enough.  Several press representatives have asked if our intention is simply to antagonize the Israeli Navy.  I don’t care what it appears that we are doing, the fact is that when this campaign started we had very little up-close interaction with the Israelis and were somewhat effective in helping to make the fishermen feel like they had a safe area to fish.  We do not go out to sea to antagonize the Israelis, we don’t even have to reach 3 nautical miles before encountering them; they wait for us and taunt us along with the fishermen, hoping that we will do something antagonistic that might excuse the use of force against us.  Our goal in continuing to go out to sea is to try, in spite of the Zionists’ actions, to provide our service in documenting their crimes at sea in the hopes of deterring their harassment against the fishermen.  The Zionists seem to be less and less concerned with people observing and reporting their crimes as they had no problem attacking us today in the presence of media.  It raises the questions of to what extent will we actually be able to continue to help the fishermen and how CPS Gaza might improve its tactics.  The crew and some project supervisors will meet tonight to discuss our next mission and what should be done from here.  If we can manage to fix the engine fac and some other damage to the gears then we will go out to sea tomorrow morning.

I know I’m late on updates about the tunnels and the mental health center but whenever these things happen to the Oliva, my attention and work time gets monopolized.  I’ll have that other stuff up within the week.