Life Under Lockdown

[polly7]

By Jamal Mahjoub

Source: Guernicamag.com

Friday, August 17, 2012

http://www.zcommunications.org/life-under-lockdown-by-jamal-mahjoub

As we pass under the “Welcome to Gaza” sign, a ripple of excitement goes through the bus and everyone grabs their telephones to record the moment. After three hours spent killing time at the Rafah Border Crossing while the Egyptian officials decided whether they would allow us through (the Egyptian Ministry of Interior didn’t grant us permission to travel to Gaza until the day before our scheduled departure) and eight hours of driving from Cairo, it feels like a victory to have made it through at all. Two writers from our group were refused entry and have had to drive back to Cairo to find the necessary papers. All of us were aware when we agreed to come that there was a strong possibility that we might not be allowed into Gaza at all. This was my third trip with PalFest, the literary roadshow that began in 2008 with a journey to the West Bank. The aim of the Palestine Literary Festival is to break the isolation of ordinary Palestinians, to make contact through cultural events, readings, recitals, and workshops.

Escerpts:

In Gaza, a narrow strip of land forty kilometers long and on average less than a quarter of that in width, the military presence is not visible but it is there all the same. From the rooftop terrace of our hotel in Gaza City I stare at a row of harsh white spotlights far out at sea. It takes me a while to work out that these banks of lights are marker buoys. Over the years the distance a Palestinian fisherman can go in search of a decent catch has been whittled down from the twenty-nautical-mile limit established in the Oslo Accords to the three-mile limit imposed by the Israelis as of January 2009. This makes 85 percent of Gaza’s waters inaccessible to local fishermen. Of the ten thousand local fishermen in 2000, there are only around 3,500 today. The lights have the effect of drawing the fish to the surface, which means that the best fishing is as close to the line as possible. It’s a dangerous task. Israeli patrol ships run circles around the smaller fishing boats so as to tip them over. They regularly fire upon fishing boats with live ammunition.

The historian Ilan Pappé described what is happening in Gaza as “slow-motion genocide.” In theory, the occupation ended in 2005 when twenty-one settlements were dismantled and the Israelis withdrew from the strip. Most of the buildings were demolished during the withdrawal, though some settler houses and even part of a university remain. The blockade of the Gaza Strip, though, is in its fifth year. The import and export of goods, the movement of people by air, land or sea, fuel, medicine, and water, are all severely restricted in reaction to Hamas’s gaining control of the Palestine Legislative Council. Israel has been aided in this by the Egyptians who are still reluctant to be seen supporting Hamas, although this may change under the newly elected Muslim Brotherhood president.

The New York Times has described the blockade as amounting to “collective punishment.” Certainly it has made life difficult for the 1.5 million people living in Gaza, 49 percent of whom are officially unemployed. According to the United Nations, living standards have dropped to 1967 levels. The irony is that the blockade has strengthened Hamas. The near complete ban on exports and the fuel shortages have led to a shrinking economy, and in turn to more revenue from clandestine trade done through tunnels running under the Egyptian border, all of which are controlled by Hamas. More...

[oberliner]

1. Fascinating insights into the fascism of Hamas

This paragraph is especially chilling:

On our last evening the closing PalFest event is shut down by security forces. It’s not clear who we have offended, but everything points to an accumulation of distrust. Gatherings in which men and women congregate in the same public space are frowned upon by Hamas. Two nights before, in what was the highlight of our roadtrip, the hugely popular and highly talented Egyptian group Eskenderella, who are traveling with us, gave a concert that was rapturously received. Eskenderella’s songs of revolution have been a fixture in Cairo over the last year, providing a soundtrack to the events in Tahrir Square. The local PalFest organizers were asked to split the concert hall, men on one side, women on the other, but they refused. Many of our authors are Egyptian, and the anti-authoritarian spirit has been running high at reading events and in interviews. It is perhaps not surprising that Hamas was made uncomfortable. In any case, on that last evening on the little stage at the Qasr al-Basha cultural center, the power is suddenly cut and the mic dies. A moment later a plainclothes officer runs across to snatch a camera from a young woman. What follows is a charged confrontation with an absurdly large crowd of armed police and plain-clothed security officers. In the end we are escorted back to our bus and allowed to return to the hotel. We take as many of the audience as we can manage. Many of them are nervous about possible repercussions, especially after we depart. Security men photographed much of the audience. Back at the hotel the terrace is converted into an impromptu venue and the concert continues long into the night with poetry readings and songs.

<end of excerpt>

What a disturbing series of events. Hopefully those audience members who were photographed (!) don't end up being arrested (or worse) simply for attending an event that made Hamas "uncomfortable" because <gasp> men and women were possibly mingling with one another!

[shira]

2. Welcome to Hamastan useful idiots! n/t