HOPE AS PALESTINIANS USE NONVIOLENCE IN THEIR STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOM
COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 8 Nov 2008
Mairead Maguire (Nobel Peace Prize laureate)
REPORT: Journey to Gaza, 28th October-lst November, 2008
On 28th October, 2008, the Free Gaza Movement set sail on SS Dignity from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Gaza. On board were 27 internationals from 13 countries, including Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, five physicians, human rights lawyers, and others.
On this second boat journey into Gaza the siege breakers brought with them six cubic meters of medicine and their hope that by going to Gaza across the sea (only the second boat to do so in over 41 years) they would give hope to the people of Gaza. Also, that the outside world would break their silence to the tragedy of Gaza’s suffering, acting to get the siege lifted.
It is hard to imagine that in the 2lst century a country may be so cut off from the outside world. Sixteen months ago, when Gazans voted Hamas in free and fair elections, the reaction of Israel was not to open up dialogue with the elected representatives (as they eventually must do), but rather to put in place a policy of collective punishment of the entire population, which has lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel said it was ending the occupation of Gaza, but in truth it maintained it by closing all border-entrances and isolating Gazans from the entire world. Gaza is like an open-air prison with Israel holding the keys. But it is worse, for at least in prison the inmates are fed and taken care of. The people of Gaza are drinking polluted water and have not enough food, medicines and materials for existence. In the words of a Gazan, “We are slowly choking to death with this siege.”
Before we started, the Israeli government warned that we would not be allowed to sail into Gaza. However, we were determined to do so and just 20 miles off the coast of Gaza we held our breath as two Israeli navy gunboats stalked us – but took no action. Common sense had prevailed – hopefully a sign for the future that in the final analysis those in power in Israel will realize that dialogue, not gunboats and F16s, is the only way to solve this too long and painful Palestinian occupation.
We arrived in Gaza exhausted and sea sick, being met by dozens of heavily armed Palestinian police, although before leaving Gaza I had requested not to be so guarded. We were informed that the Hamas government wanted to ensure our safety and throughout the entire 4-day visit armed Palestinian police escorted us.
Our reception by the people of Gaza was deeply moving. Their gratitude to the Free Gaza Movement was shown by their great warmth and hospitality. They were particularly grateful that Dr. Barghouti had come from the West Bank, and that Gideon Spiro, an Israeli from Tel Aviv, had also arrived with the boat. (On his way back home through the Erez crossing he was arrested by Israeli authorities, held overnight and charged with illegally entering Gaza).
The following 4 days were filled with events ranging from pure joy (like the concert with the children singing, and one member of our group, an Italian opera singer, holding everyone in awe by the magic of his voice), to events of deep sadness such as our visit to Shifa hospital. Here the doctors explained that they have shortage of basic medicines and no parts for machines, as they are blocked by Israel, and we met patients dying from cancer and preventable diseases, if only the medicines and equipment were available. A half-built new hospital stands disintegrating slowly, as cement, wood and basic materials are not allowed into the Gaza strip for over sixteen months now, and everything is slowly falling apart.
The next day we visited the airport, which had been bombed from the air and from land by Israeli tanks over two years ago. We visited the electricity plant and saw the huge generators, bombed by Israel and still not repaired due to a shortage of parts and to a legal debate as to who is responsible for the repairing. The Israeli bombing of the electricity plant brought it down to only 50 percent capacity, so each day the electricity goes off for seven to eight hours at a time, including in hospitals.
The sewerage plant too has been damaged and Israel will not allow the pipes in to replace those destroyed, so raw sewerage is pumped into the sea every day, causing an environmental disaster waiting to explode.
In Jabalia there have been heavy rains, which washed away the road, exposing broken sewerage pipes. A pool of raw sewerage filled the street and the children played oblivious to the danger of disease. We visited homes flooded by rain and sewerage whose owners had to flee and are now living with relatives in already overcrowded poverty stricken homes. There is a dreadful poverty in this area. The people have nothing, many hungry, malnutrition reaching 80 percent of the population. Still, the international community remains silent as the Israeli government collectively punishes 1,5 million people, 50 percent under 21 years of age.
Some of our human rights colleagues went out on the boats with the Gazan fishermen. They were attacked by Israeli navy boats that bombarded them with water canons and fired live ammunition over the bow of their fishing boats. Many fishermen have been shot dead by the Israeli navy simply trying to catch fish six miles from shore to feed their families.
The following day we were received by Ismail Haniyah, the Hamas prime minister, who announced we would be given Palestinian passports, and presented the Free Gaza Movement with a gift. There is a real desire here for peace, people have suffered enough, but they want a just peace, an end to occupation, a right to determine their own and their children’s future. The next day the prime minister announced the release of Fatah prisoners and a promise that there would be no more political arrests. (They awaited a response from President Abbas regarding the Hamas prisoners being held in the West Bank).
Later that evening, in the School of the Holy Family, we had the privilege of witnessing over 100 politicians representing all political parties, including Fatah and Hamas, pledge to work for a Palestinian national unity, promising to send their leaders to attend the National Unity Conference in Cairo in early November. Dr. Barghouti (a true man of peace) addressed his political colleagues whom he had not met for 2,5 years, due to the closure and separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank. (An apartheid policy of Israel dividing the Palestinian people into Bantustans and making the possibility of a viable Palestinian state very difficult). This meeting took place under the watchful gaze of a huge wall picture of President Arafat. I was invited to address the political parties and supported their nonviolent campaign for an end to occupation and a free Palestine. I also encouraged the national unity of Palestinians, reminding them that ‘in a Palestinian unity there is strength; divided you will be conquered.’ I also appealed for them to ‘keep your struggle nonviolent and the world will support you.’
The next day we visited the Palestinian Parliament (Hamas). The speaker of the parliament thanked the Free Gaza Movement. He spoke of the suffering of the Palestinians under the siege and occupation and paid tribute to the suffering also of the Palestinian political prisoners (over 40 elected Hamas politicians now in Israeli jails). I addressed the parliament about the need to release political prisoners and made an appeal for the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli corporal captive in Gaza for almost two years now. (There are a total of 11,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including parliamentarians, sick and disabled people, women and children, and before leaving Gaza I appealed for the release of the Palestinian political prisoners – immediately to be released children, women, the sick, those under administrative detention, and elected parliamentarians). I stressed the need to keep the struggle nonviolent and spoke of dialogue, forgiveness and reconciliation, and the lessons learned in our own peace process in Northern Ireland.
We visited also the Rafah border crossing, between Gaza and Egypt, which remains closed, cutting Gazans off from their families and friends just down the road. One of the Palestinian women (who had flown from Jerusalem to Cyprus and sailed along with us because she had no other way to enter Gaza) banged on the Egyptian gate crying, ‘open up! I want to get to my family!’ Egypt too plays its part in cutting off Gaza residents from the outside world, not only from their loved ones (and not to be able to touch those you love is the cruellest form of torture, not even letters or newspapers get into Gaza), but also basic needs such as medicine, food and materials to rebuild the infrastructure purposely bombed by Israeli jets (paid for by American taxpayers, 10 million dollars a day). The Palestinians, in a desperate attempt to feed their families and/or escape this open air prison, are digging dozens of underground tunnels from Gaza to Egypt, but on the day we left three men were killed and another still missing as the soft sand collapsed on them.
Thousands of Palestinian women are cut off from their husbands in the West Bank, and 700 students who are enrolled in foreign universities are not allowed to leave Gaza to continue their studies.
The greatest tragedy is that world governments in general, and the western media in particular, remain silent in regards to the slow destruction of the Palestinian people. Israeli policies are in breach of the Geneva Conventions and of the Apartheid Conventions with their apartheid and racist policies.
Yet, in leaving Gaza I felt great hope. Hope due to the tremendous resilience of the Palestinian people. One of our great Irish poets, W.B.Yeats, once wrote, ‘too long a sacrifice makes a stone of the heart,’ but then a prayer of the Irish also says, ‘take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of love.’ In my journeys to Israel and Palestine, and in Gaza, I found many hearts of love. A Palestinian man asked me to carry his message to the world: ‘We love our Israeli brothers, we have lived with them, we want to, but we do not believe that the Israeli government wants peace, as their policies are destroying the Palestinian people.’
Another request from a Palestinian father to some of our group will remain with us: ‘If I give you some money will you bring some milk for my children in the next boat? We have none.’
I believe there is great hope for peace in the Middle East, as this is a political problem, with a political solution. The Israeli government and the USA, with a real political will, can solve this historical conflict whose roots are in the occupation. We recognize the state of Israel and its need for security. We recognize there is a deep fear of ethnic annihilation amongst many Israelis; but we, as the human family must all learn to deal with our fears non-violently, and realize that the best hope for human security is not in occupation and siege, but in reaching out to make justice, turning our enemy into our friend.
Salaam Palestine, Shalom Israel.
4th November, 2008
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 8 Nov 2008.
Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: HOPE AS PALESTINIANS USE NONVIOLENCE IN THEIR STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOM, is included. Thank you.
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