Elbow to elbow, like cattle (Gideon Levy)

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Laila El-Haddad spent the last three weeks in a dismal apartment she was forced to rent in El Arish, Egypt, together with her son Yusuf, who is two years and nine months old. Every few days the two tried to travel to the Rafah border crossing, about 50 kilometers away, attempting to return to their home in Gaza. These were distressful efforts: Together with another 5,000 or so residents of Gaza, who have also been waiting in recent weeks to return to their homes, she was crammed with her toddler for hours in an endless line at the crossing. "Elbow to elbow, like cattle," is how she describes this in her blog, until being pushed back in shame once again.

El-Haddad, a young journalist who splits her time between Gaza and the U.S., can afford to pay $9 per night. But most of the unfortunate people around her, including cancer patients, infants, the elderly and students, the injured and disabled, cannot allow themselves such luxuries. Some of them rent a tent for 1.5 Egyptian pounds per night. The rest simply sleep out in the open, in the chill of night, or crowd together in local mosques.

These people want to return home. Israel does not even allow them this. They are human beings with families, plans and commitments, longings and dignity, but who cares. In recent weeks, even the Palestinian Minister of the Environment, Yusuf Abu Safiya, was stuck there. El-Haddad tells of how the minister could be seen one evening collecting twigs on the beach of El Arish to light a bonfire. During the summer, at least seven people died of heat and dehydration while waiting at the border. For many of those who are ill, the wait is a nightmare that threatens their lives. For students, it means losing an academic year. There is almost no mention of this cruel abuse in the newspapers: After all, the occupation in Gaza has ended.

Without anyone paying attention, the Gaza Strip has become the most closed-off strip of land in the world - after North Korea. But while North Korea is globally known to be a closed and isolated country, how many people know that the same description applies to a place just an hour away from hedonist Tel Aviv?"

more

[Violet_Crumble]

1. Here's a link to her blog...

Raising Yousuf, Unplugged: diary of a Palestinian mother

[UndertheOcean]

2. The IDF left Gaza only to turn it into a giant prison where they can safely launch their..

anti-tank armour missles into.

The delegates controlling the rafah border on Israels bahave should open the gates and send Israel a big F&%CK YOU

[breakaleg]

3. This is most telling: "And Israel also admits that the closure is solely intended to exert pressure

on the residents."

[Tom Joad]

4. Depriving a people of the basic necessities of life in order to create

a particular political outcome = Terror. In this case, State Terror.

[IntiRaymi]

5. Oh, but the situation is so complex, Tom.

You couldn't possibly ever understand....

[Tom Joad]

8. Yep, that's the shit we get from the apologists for state terror.

Whenever peace activists start talking about US support for the Israeli occupation we get this line, and desperate attempts to stick to other issues, and just stay out of involvement on the issue of Palestine. Problem is, too many US peace activists are not buying this anymore. The success of Carter's book is just an example of that.

Once they lose peace activists, they start losing larger sectors of the public. And it just snowballs as people take a hard look at this issue and decide this is not what the US should be supporting.

Should supporters of Israeli policy be concerned. Yes. In a panic? Maybe not quite yet.
That day may come soon, however.

[IntiRaymi]

9. It annoys the hell out of me, as well.

The implication is that I am too stupid to have an opinion, and should therefore just shut up. When outright reason fails, the only thing left to do is to engage them in silly word games - play their own game of 'Gotcha!!' against them. It is so ridiculous.
And especially so, because the idea is that there is this sense of gross entitlement on their part, an entitlement that in no way grants them any rights to abuse, dispossess or ethnically cleanse their equals.

[pelsar]

11. your not stuiped...

you just either ignore facts and timelines that suit your point of view. Instead of forming an opinion based on the overall environement and the evens that take place you focus on the few that works with your belief.

the simple proof of this is the inabilitly to answer questions that i put forth....and are never answered in full......mainly because, as far as i can tell, they put your core belief into question and you dont want to go there.

but i am just guessing since no here has ever actually engaged in real discussion of some possible scenarios and what are the options....stuff that us israelis tend to worry about.

[Englander]

6. Yes, "collective punishment".

That's the policy of the Israeli govt;

'No way home

>snip

There is simply no other way into Gaza for residents of the Gaza Strip: our only airport's runway was destroyed in 2001, and Israel denies Palestinian residents of Gaza access to other border crossings through Israel or the West Bank.

An internal Israeli military document leaked to the Israeli daily Haaretz in late August suggested that the closure was intended "apply pressure" on Gaza residents until progress is made in returning the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Indeed, the closure of Rafah constitutes nothing short of collective punishment in every sense of the phrase.

The closure continues despite this week's joint Palestinian-Israeli truce - a Palestinian commitment to cease firing rockets into Israel from Gaza, and an Israeli vow to stop aggression against the Palestinians

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/laila_elhaddad/2006/12/post_734.html

[breakaleg]

7. How can anyone claim that Israel has ended the occupation of Gaza given this?

And there are many here who claim they have daily. If your citizens are stuck in another country, sleeping in tents or outside, then they hardly have control over their borders. And please don't tell me it's their own fault. I doubt seriously the woman in this story and her two year old child are to blame.

[Englander]

10. Quite easily, really.

All anyone has to do is the usual, the abuse of logic/language/history.