Strangled in Gaza

[Englander]

By Amira Hass

In the elections, Israelis will not be voting just for themselves. Not only will they choose parties that affect their own lives for four years, but also those of 3.5 million occupied Palestinians - as they have done for 39 years now. The winners in Israel will form a government that will determine the most minute details of every Palestinian's life.

This is the essence of occupation. One people casts its votes and thereby authorizes its democratic government to be a dictator in a place that it rules by military hegemony. In that place there lives a separate nation that is entirely excluded from any rights in this democratic game.

For the past two months the dictator democratically elected by the Israeli public has determined that Gaza's residents should go on a "diet," as Attorney Dov Weissglas advised the cabinet, immediately after Hamas' election victory.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz decided that Gaza's residents should eat less and less fresh produce and dairy produce, then less and less rice and then no bread.

By closing the Karni crossing to merchandise for prolonged periods, Mofaz intervened (as a cabinet representative) not only in the Palestinians' eating habits. He also sent tens of thousands of Gazan Palestinians on unpaid leave. Drivers, merchants, porters, sewing workshop workers, farmers, construction workers and contractors, whose materials are not arriving, are all out of work. The already large number of people dependent on charity in Gaza will grow. The chain reaction will affect every family's life and choices: the children's education, medical treatment, visiting relatives, building an additional room to alleviate the crowded conditions at home.

More at;
Haaretz

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. The blindness of folk who don't know or care who else their vote affects..

As long as they're okay, the outside world becomes invisible in the same way that those who voted for Bush didn't seem to comprehend or care that their vote affects a lot of people around the world...

Violet...

[pelsar]

3. thats why the voted for Hamas...

i assume thats what your writing about correct?

[Violet_Crumble]

4. No, I'm talking about what the article was talking about...

Israelis, pelsar. Though the same applies to the reasons why Palestinians voted for Hamas...

Violet...

[pelsar]

12. which is actually...

the same reason why americans voted for bush and anybody votes in their own PM......in fact the article is attempting to say just how "bad" the israelis are for doing what every other nation does...vote for their own self interests...

[Tom Joad]

14. Was W. Bush in the self-interest of the US?

Even if many percieved him to be?

Many of us do not see Bush as being in the self-interest of the United States, and in fact is really the worst thing that could happen to the United States (and the world).

[pelsar]

15. obviously to most he was...

thats how he got elected...as did Hamas...as will the next israeli PM.....called the will of the people, the majority.....and if you dont like what the majority voted for...you get to try again in a democractic country.

but all vote for they believe is in the best interests of their country...the article makes no sense in the larger context of what all nations do

[Behind the Aegis]

5. I can't wait for the day...

...that Amira Hass and others report FROM Gaza!

Why don't they move there? Then, they can have the real scoop! Hass seems to be having troubles, of late, with the new government in the PA, per her last rant...er...journalistic "nugget of gold."

[Violet_Crumble]

6. Amira Hass lived in Gaza...

And she filed many reports from Gaza....

Violet...

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Let her go back now!

She hates Israel so much, why live there? It is such a paragon of evil, why does she even bother? (that's rhetorical, unless, of course, you are Amira Hass.)

[Violet_Crumble]

10. Amira Hass doesn't hate Israel...

Unlike you, she's actually an Israeli and like quite a few Israelis she doesn't feel that actually giving a shit about Palestinians and being critical of some of the policies of her own country make her someone who hates Israel. That sort of 'argument' is the exact same as US conservatives use on liberals who oppose the war in Iraq or criticise Bush...

Violet....

[Tom Joad]

13. I think she loves Israel more than the people who defend its

worst policies.

The Free Republic types say this: "If they hate America so much, why don't you go live with Saddam. (used to be "why don't you go live in the Soviet Union", thought sometimes they still use North Korea). In fact, those that love their country (and for those who care beyond their country) care about what it is doing to its neighbors, care about what this is doing to the long-term and long view not only for others on the planet, but also for peace for themselves.

I think these brutal policies are good for no one, especially Palestine, no good for the planet, but also are no good for Israel. A lose-lose-lose situation there. Time for a real friend to intervene. In Contrast, a co-enabler would be applauding from the sidelines, half a world away. Like a "friend" who sends bottles of Scotch to someone in detox.

You think those who criticize Bush policies in the Middle East have no business living in the United States? Love it or Leave it? Same for Israeli Jews who criticize Israeli policies that create perpetual war?

[Englander]

8. From Amazon;

Drinking the Sea at Gaza : Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege
by Amira Hass

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In what is sure to be a controversial book, Israeli reporter Amira Hass offers a rare portrait of the Palestinians in Gaza. Very few journalists have lived in that troubled region; Jewish ones are rarer still. "To most Israelis," Hass writes, "my move seemed outlandish, even crazy, for they believed I was surely putting my life at risk." But Israelis desperately need to understand the plight of the Palestinian people, she writes, and few of them read the unvarnished truth in the Jerusalem press. This has made most of them ignorant of what goes on right next door, and inspired unduly "harsh" attitudes toward Gaza and its one million residents. Hass even quotes the late Yitzhak Rabin, who wished that Gaza "would just sink into the sea," shortly before he signed the Oslo Accords. Wishing away the problem, however, is no solution, and Hass delivers a detailed--and highly opinionated--diagnosis of what's wrong with Israeli policy toward Gaza. Strong supporters of Israeli will say that Hass is nothing but a mouthpiece for the Palestinians. Indeed, this book's subtitle could apply as much to Israel, surrounded by bitter enemies, as it does to Gaza. Yet it would be wrong to ignore Hass: the scene in Gaza is woefully unreported. The book is not likely to change many minds--this is one of those subjects where passions run deep and fierce. Those who already sympathize with Hass's pro-Palestinian views will find Drinking the Sea at Gaza an invigorating book. --John J. Miller

From Library Journal
In recent years, several Israeli scholars, journalists, and even a few individuals with ties to the Israeli military have written critical and pathbreaking books on the degradation of life in the Palestinian refugee camps and other areas under Israeli control. This book, written by an Israeli journalist for the daily Haaretz, belongs to that category of work. The author lived in the Gaza Strip and personally observed the events she so eloquently relates in this highly readable and lucid book. She describes in agonizing detail the hardship and deprivation experienced by ordinary Palestinians as they live their lives under Israeli rule. As the author points out, the unrelenting difficulties and humiliations experienced by ordinary Palestinians have not changed since the Oslo peace process and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Stories and moving testimonials gathered by the author add a much-needed human dimension to the Palestinian tragedy. Highly recommended for all readers interested in the future of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll., Mobile, AL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805057404/qid=1143116413/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-0105638-7090251?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Reporting from Ramallah : An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land
by Amira Hass

From Publishers Weekly
Hass, a Jewish Israeli journalist for the newspaper Ha'aretz, has chosen to live on the West Bank-and her intimate knowledge of the plight of the Palestinians illuminates this book. Culled from her dispatches during the past five years, these pieces offer a three-dimensional portrait of the daily experiences of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. The early pieces, written while serious peace talks were being conducted in the late '90s, shows the roots of the current violence: most notably, Palestinians' frustration that the Oslo peace accords hadn't produced many tangible results. As Hass presciently wrote: "The distance from here to private and collective acts of despair is not great." As the book wends its way through the outbreak of violence in September 2000, that despair is increasingly on display. Her pieces illustrate how Palestinian frustration-over detentions, house demolitions, a life so riddled with restrictions that "hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are criminals or potential criminals"-erupted into suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism. But what distinguishes this book is its emphasis on the personal-and how the conflict has created a logic that has driven both sides to violence. In an in-depth interview, an Israeli sharpshooter discusses the rules of when to open fire ("Every day, the regulations... change"). Members of Palestinian society discuss the difficulty of keeping children healthy and educated under the pressures of violence and occupation. Members of Palestinian terrorist groups discuss what drove them to their acts and the internal rivalries among competing factions. Anyone who wants an in-depth, humanizing portrait of the Palestinians should look no further.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This book is particularly timely given the current peacemaking efforts in the Palestinian territories. And with her experience as an Israeli journalist actually living in Ramallah, Hass brings particular insights into the social and political issues involved in the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians. In this collection of her news accounts from 1997 through 2002, Hass writes eloquently of the "violence of plenty," the hearty resentment and animosity between the haves and have-nots underlying much of the tension in the region. "Plenty draws the line between the worthy and the unworthy," she writes, noting the inequities in the administration of everything from land for farming and development to road construction and utilities. Hass provides a firsthand description of the day-to-day lives of the Palestinians under Israeli military occupation, the hypocrisy of administrative bodies that bend the law to the advantage of Israeli settlers, and the escalation of violence on both sides as Palestinians and Israelis lay claim to the territory. Readers interested in understanding this conflict will appreciate Hass' honesty and insight. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1584350199/qid=1143116413/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-0105638-7090251?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

[Behind the Aegis]

9. 2000 and 2003....brave woman....

:eyes:

[Violet_Crumble]

11. I've got Reporting From Ramallah...

It's a really good book...

Violet...