Middle East Report 218: "Gaza Agonistes," by Graham = Usher

Morocco in Transition

(Middle East=20 Report 218, Spring 2001)

Back to 218 = Table of=20 Contents

Gaza=20 Agonistes

Graham=20 Usher

(Graham = Usher, a=20 contributing editor of Middle East Report, is author of=20 Dispatches from Palestine: The Rise and Fall of the Oslo Peace = Process (London: Pluto Press, 1999).)

3D"Beach

Beach refugee camp, Gaza City. (George = Georgiou/Panos=20 Pictures)

To walk=20 through Gaza is to penetrate the heart of the Palestinian = uprising, to=20 realize why it happened and why, sporadically, it endures. This is = not=20 simply because you sometimes have to enter Israel's vast, = fortress-like=20 Erez crossing into Gaza under fire from Palestinian guerrillas or = stones=20 thrown by Palestinian children. Or even because a trek along the = Strip's=20 45-kilometer length can take three hours on a good day and eight = on a bad=20 one. Rather, it's because in Gaza you come up against the vast,=20 omnipresent system of control Israel has created -- in and through = the=20 Oslo accords -- over every facet of Palestinian life, from work to = walking. Here you understand why Palestinians are fighting to = death to=20 destroy every last vestige of that system.

Gaza=20 City

Israel's = economic=20 control is evidenced by a stroll through the deserted streets of = Gaza=20 City. Eighty percent of Gaza's trade is with Israel, with 95 = percent of=20 its exports going to or through Israeli markets. Gaza's economic=20 dependency has been made more -- not less -- acute through = agreements=20 signed with Israel under the promise of "turning Gaza into = Singapore." In=20 time of conflict, these protocols become Israel's most lethal = weapon of=20 mass destruction.

The first = four months=20 of the uprising resulted in a 13 percent decline in the = Palestinian gross=20 domestic product, due to Israel's activation of a calibrated = regime of=20 "external," "internal," "full" and "partial" blockades. "That's = the=20 economic impact of a natural disaster or a prolonged civil war," = comments=20 Salem Ajluni, a UN economist based in Gaza. The only difference is = that=20 earthquakes and wars do not happen as frequently as Israeli=20 "closures."

In = October 2000,=20 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak banned 25,000 Gazans from their = jobs in=20 Israel, denying at a stroke 63 percent of revenues for the = Palestinian=20 Authority (PA), the largest employer in the Strip. Then he closed = all of=20 Gaza's border crossings with Israel and Egypt except the = commercial outlet=20 of al-Mentar (Karni). In December and again in January, he = prohibited all=20 imports into Gaza excluding food and medicine but including = cooking=20 fuel and gas. The political purpose is to squeeze the PA so hard = that it=20 will desist from "violence," which is how Israel describes the = uprising.=20 If that fails, the aim is to so demoralize Gaza's Palestinians = that they=20 will give up the fight "out of despair," in the phrase of former=20 Palestinian delegation head Haidar Abd al-Shafi. That has not = happened=20 yet, though some Gazans are getting perilously close to it. What = has=20 happened is a "severe humanitarian crisis," in the view of Peter = Hansen,=20 Commissioner-General of UNRWA, the U N agency responsible for the = welfare=20 of Palestinian refugees, who make up around 700,000 of Gaza's 1.2 = million=20 inhabitants.

In the = first two=20 months of the uprising those in need of food assistance from the = agency=20 rose from eight to 85 percent of the overall refugee population in = Gaza,=20 or some 127,000 families. Unemployment hit 45 percent and the = poverty rate=20 is on a rising curve that could reach 50 percent if the blockades = continue=20 into the middle of next year, and sooner if UNRWA does not get a = cash=20 injection of $40 million before February. The World Bank is = already=20 predicting that 2001 will see Palestinian income per capita = decrease by 27=20 percent across the Occupied Territories as a whole, with a greater = fall in=20 Gaza.

But you = don't need=20 fine print to witness this thoroughly planned impoverishment, this = wholly=20 political economy. You need only walk through Gaza City's Fares = market,=20 where idle men gather with nothing in their pockets except their = hands.=20 One man who used to work in Israel barters an old TV set for a = sack of=20 flour to feed his 12 children. Women hock the family silver with = gold=20 merchants in Gaza's Old City to get their hands on some ready = cash. Around=20 the back of a donkey cart there is a scramble for kerosene bottles = being=20 offloaded at knockdown prices. "There is no cooking gas left in = Gaza other=20 than what we have in our homes. So people are starting to stock up = on=20 kerosene," says Imad Heikal, a worker with an international NGO. = "We=20 expect the kerosene will run out at some point."

Salah = al-Din=20 Street North and South

But the = siege is not=20 simply economic. It is territorial, colonial in the classic sense = and=20 enabled under Oslo through the army's control of Gaza's stretch of = borders=20 with Egypt and Israel and over the three "south," "middle" and = "north"=20 lateral roads that connect the Strip's 17 Jewish settlements to = Israel.=20

Throughout = the=20 uprising, the army has "secured" these bridgeheads by razing = nearly 5,000=20 dunams of Palestinian land, and annexing some 468 extra dunams to = the=20 settlements proper. For most Gazans, this is beyond collective = punishment,=20 and far beyond what is required for "security." It is the future: = readying=20 the infrastructure for a unilaterally imposed Israeli demarcation = of=20 Gaza's borders, one, naturally, that will leave the settlements = and their=20 6,000 inhabitants in place.

You get a = sense of=20 the future by approaching Gaza's Netzarim junction, at the = northern end of=20 Gaza's arterial road, Salah al-Din Street. The junction -- known = to the=20 Palestinians as Shuhada (Martyrs) -- was immortalized on September = 30,=20 2000, when 12-year old Mohammed al-Durra was filmed being killed = in his=20 father's arms by Israeli fire. Prior to the uprising, it was a = small=20 residential and industrial neighborhood. It had 32 apartments, an=20 iron-processing factory and five acres of orange groves. Today all = are=20 buried under a mound of brick, glass and splintered wood topped by = an=20 Israeli flag and an army eyrie bristling with machine guns. The=20 three-kilometer long road connecting the junction to the Israeli = border=20 was "swept" on October 23, demolishing olive trees, a brick = factory, three=20 greenhouses and almost everything else that fell within 40 meters = of the=20 road. The army's purpose was to "clear" the land because = "violence" had=20 "disrupted the daily life" of the 291 residents of Netzarim = settlement.=20 Secure the concrete and sandbagged homestead now is: a step too = far on the=20 scorched earth around it and an Israeli tank fires at=20 you.

"I=20 can't be precise but I'd say between six or seven people = have been=20 killed by the army on this street alone and maybe 200 = wounded," says=20 Ibrahim Shatat.

Another new = demarcation can be seen in the south, at Rafah's Salah al-Din = border gate=20 to Egypt. This was once the road that led to Rafah's Canada = refugee camp,=20 before it was cut in two by a border made permanent by the 1979=20 Israel-Egypt peace agreement. Today it is a lethal cul-de-sac of = seared=20 houses, boarded-up shops and a white mosque scarred with bullet = holes and=20 the occasional crater from Israeli tank shells. The gate has been = one of=20 the flashpoints in the uprising, with scores of schoolchildren=20 ritualistically trying with stones to prise open a door Israel and = Egypt=20 has slammed shut on them.

"I can't be = precise=20 but I'd say between six or seven people have been killed by the = army on=20 this street alone and maybe 200 wounded," says Ibrahim Shatat, who = lives=20 beside the gate. He and his 13 children live in a two-story house = barely=20 20 meters below an Israeli military observation post that sprays = the gate=20 with machine gun fire whenever the children get too close or = Palestinian=20 snipers take up position in one or other of the abandoned houses. = One of=20 the fatalities was a neighbor of Ibrahim, Eyad Abu Jazzar. "Small = clashes"=20 were happening at the gate at the time, he remembers. But Abu = Jazzar was=20 not involved in them. He was sitting outside his house, some 150 = meters=20 from the post. Nor could he have been involved, says Ibrahim. "He = was=20 mentally and physically disabled."

A walk east = along the=20 sand dunes that spill through the fence and you see the same = "buffer"=20 policy of pushing Rafah back from the border. We trudge through = furrowed=20 fields where scores of olive striplings have been uprooted. We = visit the=20 land of Omar Jaber Dhier. To connect a "secure road" between the = border=20 and the Moraj settlement, in November the army tore down his house = and=20 levelled 17 of his greenhouses. His house cost $50,000 to build, = each=20 greenhouse $7,000. At the end of one last blasted grove, we come = across=20 three tents, home now of Saha Abu Rish and her three children. The = tents=20 sit on the crushed roof of her house. "The army didn't give any = reason for=20 the demolition," she says. "They simply came one morning with two=20 bulldozers and a tank and said we had five minutes to leave. They=20 destroyed all the furniture, all our papers, everything." She = berates the=20 fact that the only thing she receives is "delegations" from the = Red Cross=20 and UN but no material to rebuild her house or money to purchase = it. She=20 doesn't even have blankets. "And what about my children? It's = winter, and=20 they're already catching eye infections because of the=20 desert."

According = to the=20 mayor of Rafah, Said Zaroub, Saha's is just one of the 289 = families made=20 homeless due to Israel's destruction of 784 houses within his = municipal=20 borders. Around 130,000 Palestinians live in the district, 83,000 = of them=20 refugees. According to the World Bank, it is the poorest area in = the=20 Occupied Territories, with a poverty rate five percent above the = mean. The=20 average family size is eight. That means 2,000 more people are now = without=20 permanent shelter in Rafah, he calculates.

Qarrara

The al-Fara = family=20 owns 76 dunams of land squeezed between the minuscule Kfar Darom=20 settlement in the center of Gaza and the vast Gush Katif = settlement bloc=20 along its southwestern finger. On November 21, army bulldozers = swept away=20 their guava trees. One week later, armored pile drivers pulled = down the=20 family house, well and water pump. In December, both arrived again = to raze=20 the remaining land of all woods, fences and gates. "We suspect the = army is=20 clearing the land to lay a new road, linking Gush Katif to Kfar = Darom and=20 both to the Kissufim eastern road," says Mushir al-Fara. He runs = through=20 his and his family's losses. "Apart from the land, there's the = well, pump=20 engines, irrigation systems, water tanks, the reservoir, = fertilisers,=20 furniture and family documents. At a conservative guess, I'd say = we lost=20 $200,000 in less than a month." Still, he admits, he, his 79-year = old=20 mother, five brothers and six sisters are "lucky." The al-Faras = are=20 comparatively wealthy and have "alternative addresses" in Khan = Younis,=20 Gaza City, Saudi Arabia and England. Others have no other address. =

Across the = way from=20 Mushir's there is a lunar landscape of craters and twisted metal. = This was=20 the western edge of Qarrara, a small Palestinian village of = 16,000. As the=20 army was ploughed through the al-Fara land, it destroyed 20 houses = in=20 Qarrara, damaged another 40 and uprooted 5,000 of its olive and = citrus=20 trees, all to "defend" the 242 residents of Kfar Darom. There are = at least=20 100 displaced Palestinians, squatting in three makeshift tent = camps. Hayat=20 Musallim Abu Azan is one of them. "No, there was no warning from = the=20 army," she recalls. "In fact, I was scared to death that my = 18-month=20 daughter was under the rubble. She wasn't, thank God." She is = utterly=20 "black" about the future. "Once the Israelis extend their = colonies, that's=20 it," she says. "They'll never let you back." But she and the other = displaced do return, every night and under fire, if only to = "assert their=20 presence" on the land. On November 29, the army shot and wounded = three=20 Qarrara residents for that assertion.

There are = other kinds=20 of resistance. Due west of Qarrara there are five tents decked = with a=20 Palestinian flag. The protest has been organised by Gaza's farmers = union.=20 "We want to show the world what Israel has done to the land and = protest=20 our economic situation," says Salah Abu Houli, a union leader. His = venom=20 is not directed solely at the Israelis. "The Authority hasn't = lifted a=20 finger to protect or compensate us," he snorts. "We estimate the=20 agricultural damage to be $127 million in Gaza. In the middle = area, some=20 farmers have lost 90 percent of their lands. The Authority says it = only=20 has a fund of $5 million for compensation. "$5 million!" scoffs = another=20 farmer. "That's less than was in Hisham Mekki's bank account." = (Mekki,=20 former head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, was shot = dead by=20 masked gunmen in a Gaza hotel on January 17, 2001. He was rumored = to have=20 embezzled $17 million of public funds.)

From the = ridge of the=20 camp, you can see a three-story house now commandeered by the = Israeli army=20 and a bypass road occasionally used by speeding army jeeps and = heavily=20 armoured settler coaches. Other than that there is a wasteland = stretching=20 all the way to Kfar Darom. This had been the al-Fara land. "Don't = ask me=20 where anything was," says Muna al-Fara, a doctor. "I can no longer = recognize the place. When the army destroyed the house, the = bulldozers=20 collected all the wreckage and dumped it somewhere. But I will = fight the=20 Israelis over this. I will get my land back and receive = compensation. I=20 will take it to the Israeli Supreme Court if I have = to."

Like her = brother,=20 Muna feels a patriotic as well as personal need to "rebuild my = house,=20 replant my land and re-dig my well." In the meantime, she draws = sustenance=20 from memory. She remembers her joy as a young girl in 1969 when = her father=20 divined a fresh water source on the land and dug the well. She = remembers=20 playing with her brothers and sisters beneath the ancient jomaz = trees,=20 thick-trunked giants with creepers that touched the earth, brought = to Gaza=20 from Kenya by the British during the Mandate. Some were 70 years = old. "The=20 Israelis felled those too," she says.

"For me = those trees=20 were a little bit of paradise." She bites hard on her lip. "I = wonder who=20 the Israelis think we are. We cannot possibly be human to them. = They=20 cannot see us as people with feelings, with love. Insects perhaps. = Numbers."

Walking=20 Home

How do = people=20 survive? "We don't have a choice," answers Imad, with a smile. He = is right=20 in a way, for survival has long and tenacious roots in Gaza. In = 1948 --=20 like the new refugees of Qarrara in 2001 -- his parents and = grandparents=20 lived in tents in Gaza after they fled from their villages on the = southern=20 coast. In 1967, they took squatting rights in the homes of = relatives after=20 Israel occupied Gaza for the second time in ten years -- just as = thousands=20 of other Palestinians are doing today.

"We pulled = through=20 the seven years of the first intifada. We'll pull through = this one=20 too," says Imad. Since they are prevented from launching their = boats on=20 the sea, Palestinian fishermen cast their nets from the shore. = Since there=20 is no fuel, women chop branches from broken olive trees in = readiness for=20 the winter. "Between 1948 and 1967 we lived on three things in = Gaza --=20 fish, oranges and UNRWA," recalls Jamal Zaqout, a leading figure = in the=20 1987 intifada and in this one. "And, believe me, the first = two were=20 more important than the third."

There is = only one=20 thing Palestinians in Gaza will never do. They will not leave = their homes,=20 lest Israel's "new borders" in fact become permanent. Following = the armed=20 attack on a settler school bus near the Kfar Darom Jewish = settlement on=20 November 21, and again after a car bomb in the Israeli town of = Netanya on=20 January 1, the army sliced Gaza into four separate cantons. At = such times,=20 the only way Palestinians can reach the south, north, middle and = west of=20 the Strip is via a mud track east of Qarrara.

They walk = across=20 fields, edge carefully along tree-lined avenues and stream over = the=20 Kissufim road guarded by two Israeli tanks. Occasionally -- when = the crowd=20 gets too close or too dense -- the tanks fire a shell. The = Palestinians=20 neither duck nor flee. They barely blink. They simply walk, from = their=20 homes in the north to their homes in the south to their homes in = the=20 middle and west. "It's a form of resistance, like the way we used = to walk=20 to our villages in Israel," says Imad. "We know Israel has cut us = up into=20 a thousand pieces for sake of the settlers. So we will walk for = the sake=20 of the Palestinians who live here and whose land this is. As long = as we=20 walk, we feel we are = winning."


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