Gaza Palestinians Speak Of 'World's Biggest = Prison'

From: Subject: Gaza Palestinians Speak Of 'World's Biggest Prison' Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 09:43:45 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_01B6_01C24440.3F80DA40"; type="text/html" X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_01B6_01C24440.3F80DA40 Content-Type: text/html; charset="windows-1256" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: file://F:\Mette\Web%20site\articles\'World's%20Biggest%20Prison'_Reurters.htm Gaza Palestinians Speak Of 'World's Biggest = Prison'

Rense.com=20
Gaza Palestinians Speak
Of 'World's = Biggest=20 Prison'
By Paul = Holmes
8-19-1

RAFAH, Gaza = Strip=20 (Reuters) - Ibrahim al-Masri lives about as close to the wire = as you=20 can get in what he and his fellow "inmates" call the world's = biggest=20 prison.=20
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Around it run an Israeli-built security = fence,=20 ditches and searchlights, except down one side where the = Mediterranean=20 laps at the sand and Israeli gunboats patrol the waters=20 offshore.=20
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Inside, clustered in dusty towns and = villages and=20 squalid refugee camps, live the 1.2 million Palestinians of = the Gaza=20 Strip, struggling under a blockade Israel has imposed since = the=20 Palestinian uprising against occupation erupted last = September.=20
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Israel calls the closure a security = measure dictated=20 by the threat from Palestinian gunmen and suicide = bombers.=20
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Palestinians call it collective = punishment. Few feel=20 the effects quite so closely as Masri, his wife Maha and their = seven=20 children, aged two to 15.=20
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Their home in Brazil Camp at the far south = of the=20 densely populated, desert strip is bang on the frontline, 40 = yards=20 over open ground from a wire fence and Israeli-patrolled = security=20 corridor before the border with Egypt.=20
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"This is worse than prison," said = 42-year-old Masri=20 outside his house, its walls pockmarked and broken open by = bullets and=20 heavier rounds fired, he says, by the Israeli army at = night.=20
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"In prison, you can be safe. Here you are = in danger=20 all the time."=20
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HOUSE NOT SAFE
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Nine months ago, the family moved into the = garage,=20 too afraid to use the upper two stories or their front = door.=20
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When Masri ventures upstairs, he gets to = the=20 stairwell by scrambling through a hole he has made in the = workshop=20 wall.=20
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Israeli tanks and bulldozers have come = through the=20 fence and entered Brazil Camp at least twice to demolish = buildings the=20 army says Palestinian fighters had used for cover in the = uprising that=20 began after peace talks stalled.=20
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An expanse of rubble to the right of = Masri's house=20 used to house 22 families. Masri lives with the fear that the = Israelis=20 will come back without warning and flatten his home = too.=20
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"All I have is this house. If it goes I'll = be on the=20 streets or in a tent," he says between sips of the pungent = coffee his=20 wife has brewed on a camping stove as some of their children = stand=20 barefoot by the workshop's bullet-scarred metal doors.=20
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Masri stays awake at night, on the alert = to move his=20 family to safety deeper inside the camp when the shooting = starts or to=20 deter any Palestinian, gunman or child firecracker-thrower, = who comes=20 along to mess with the Israelis.=20
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"I won't allow anybody to go upstairs and = use my=20 house. If they asked, I would refuse. I built this house with = my=20 blood."=20
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NO MORE WORK IN = ISRAEL
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Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the = West Bank in=20 the 1967 Middle East War. It handed much of Gaza, a rectangle = about 28=20 miles long and five miles wide, to Palestinian self-rule in = 1994 under=20 the Oslo interim peace accords.=20
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Israel retained Jewish settlements inside = Gaza and=20 kept control over all movements of people and goods in and out = of the=20 strip. It also built the fence along the Gaza-Israel = border.=20
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A similar closure is also in force in the = West Bank,=20 though there it has been slightly less biting. There are back = routes=20 and hill crossings that avoid Israeli army checkpoints and no = fence=20 separating the territory from Israel.=20
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Gaza was economically depressed even = before the=20 start of the Intifada (uprising). Only 40,000 Palestinians had = permits=20 to work inside Israel, but their earnings were Gaza's=20 lifeblood.=20
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Now the permits have been withdrawn and = some=20 estimates put the unemployment rate in Gaza at 60 = percent.=20
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Masri is a human face behind the = statistics.=20
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Until the uprising, he would head north = each day=20 before dawn to the workers' crossing at Erez.=20
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Beyond was a job as a welder in the = Israeli town of=20 Rishon Lezion and a 5,000 shekel (831 pound) monthly wage. Now = Masri=20 lives off the money he had saved for "the black days".=20
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No assistance is available from the = Palestinian=20 Authority, its own coffers severely depleted by the crippling=20 squeeze.=20
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"Four days ago, I went to see the governor = in Rafah.=20 I said I had seven children and asked him to give me some = help, give=20 me some work. He said he didn't even have the money to buy = coffee for=20 his staff," Masri said.=20
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NO WAY OUT
=20
Now the Erez crossing is closed to=20 Palestinians.=20
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So is Gaza's airport, opened in 1998 amid = heady=20 Palestinian optimism that it would presage an independent=20 state.=20
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So too, when Israel determines that its = security=20 requires such a step, is the Rafah crossing to Egypt, the only = other=20 way out of Gaza for Palestinians.=20
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And so, intermittently, are the recently = fortified=20 Israeli military checkpoints inside the strip at junctions = with the=20 Gush Katif settlement bloc and Netzarim settlement.=20
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Even when the checkpoints are open, = Palestinian cars=20 have to wait in lines, sometimes for well over an hour at busy = times=20 of the day, to cross. When they are closed, Gaza is cut in=20 three.=20
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"We are all in jail now," said Khaled = al-Husari,=20 patriarch of one of Gaza's most prominent and wealthy merchant = families.=20
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"Town is disconnected from town, village = from=20 village," the devout Muslim said. "The closure has slaughtered = us."=20
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=20
STRAIN TELLING
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Husari, 76, has lived through the British = Mandate,=20 Egyptian administration of Gaza and then Israeli occupation. = Never, he=20 says, has the situation been as grim as it is now.=20
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The wholesale food business Husari runs = with his=20 five sons has cut imports from foreign suppliers by 90 = percent. His=20 costs have climbed because the goods have to wait longer in = the=20 Israeli port of Ashdod for stringent security checks.=20
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The shopkeepers the family supplies have = no money to=20 pay him, so he has had to take out bank loans to meet his own=20 bills.=20
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"The only thing keeping us in business is = our=20 reputation," Husari said at his home in Gaza City.=20
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Psychologically too, Gazans are under=20 pressure.=20
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Anxiety, depression and domestic violence = are on the=20 rise as the closure, loss of livelihoods and the fear of = Israeli raids=20 on Gaza following Palestinian attacks take their toll.=20
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"It is like something is suffocating me,"=20 psychologist Fadel Abu Hein said of the closure. "Your chest = feels=20 tight, just like when you are trapped in a small room." =
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This month, Abu Hein said, one Palestinian = in the=20 Jabalya refugee camp who had lost his job in Israel forced his = wife=20 and children into a room and tried to gas them.=20
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"He said he wanted to kill them because he = could no=20 longer stand hearing the children ask him for things he could = not=20 provide. He said it made him feel weak."=20
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Ibrahim al-Masri's wife Maha says she has = lost 33=20 pounds since the violence started and complains her children = have=20 become disobedient and aggressive.=20
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When the shooting starts at night, they = huddle in a=20 corner and cry "we want to get out, we want to get out", she=20 said.=20
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"If we had an alternative we wouldn't be=20 here."=20

=20

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