Gaza: Truth & Lies

As someone who used to work for a charity that ran an extensive Gaza programme, I get increasingly annoyed by the propaganda currently spewing out of Israel regarding the lack of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

This disingenuous line is currently at a zenith after the attack on the freedom flotilla at the end of May and with the possibility of several more aid conveys on the way. The whole purpose of this propaganda is to put doubt into the minds of the global public as to the need of aid to Gaza by releasing ‘ironic’ restaurant recommendations and claiming ‘luxury’ shopping centres and Olympic sized swimming pools are being built.

This is all designed to distract from the very real humanitarian crisis in Gaza that has been getting worse since Israel placed Gaza under effective siege in 2007 and especially since its bombardment of Gaza in January 2009. Poverty and unemployment has rocketed as has reliance on aid agencies for food parcels. Electricity blackouts are widespread often for as long as 14 hours a day. Houses, schools and other public institutions remain unbuilt due to the restriction of building materials into Gaza. Gazans are routinely denied access to leave for medical assistance or for study purposes.

But what annoys me even more than this blatant denial of the collective punishment of the 1.5 million Gazans is the idea that shopping centres and swimming pools constitute some kind of luxurious lifestyle. These are everyday realities that the majority of us take for granted. A restaurant operating in extreme circumstances is not proof that there is no humanitarian crisis, it is an example of human ingenuity in the face of a medieval punishment designed to destroy the spirit of Gaza.

It is the propagation once more that Palestinians are subhuman so do not deserve the same lifestyle as the rest of us. They should be punished for continuing to exist. It is this that gets my blood boiling.

~ by ummissa on July 19, 2010.