How Is Life For Palestinians In Gaza?

It’s pretty bad for most of them. Life there is extremely precarious as a result of the constant threat of retaliatory Israeli bombing, the extremely high rate of unemployment and the general lack of DEPENDABLE infrastructure both social, (i.e. schools, hospitals, etc.) and physical, (i.e. hydro, water, etc.).

But unlike what most of the world seems to believe it’s not the DIRECT RESULT of the Israeli, (and Egyptian), blockades. The blockades themselves are a DIRECT RESULT of the HAMAS DICTATORSHIP which apparently has only one over riding goal which is THE DESTRUCTION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL and THE ELIMINATION OF MOST OF IT’S JEWISH INHABITANTS. Much of the energy and of course the huge amount of aid delivered to Gaza goes into efforts to achieve that goal.

But it wasn’t supposed to happen that way. In 2005 when Israel forcibly removed around 6 or 7,000 Israeli citizens from Gaza in order to establish an autonomous “Juden Frei” Palestinian enclave that was to be ultimately connected to the West Bank by a “Berlin road” communicator such as existed between West Germany and West Berlin during the Cold War. The few Israelis who had lived there prior to 2005 had established a flourishing greenhouse industry and had built high quality housing, schools and hospitals which were left almost entirely intact when they were dragged unwillingly back to Israel. Most of those were compensated by free homes in the West Bank which, in retrospect, was not the most brilliant of solutions, certainly not if the goal was to placate the Palestinian population as a whole.

But back to Gaza. The ultimate “plan” for Gaza was to create what might be called an Arab Singapore. As most people know Singapore is home to over 6 million of the world’s most prosperous and healthy people on about the same amount of land that Gaza holds with only a third of the population. The idea was to create a duty free cruise port, an international airport and seaside resorts that would have rivaled any in the Middle East. Fair and democratic elections were scheduled for a few months following the Israeli withdrawal.

And in those few months everything fell apart. In the days following the withdrawal Hamas instigated mobs to ransack the abandoned Israeli settlements, smashing the greenhouses, burning the homes and desecrating the synagogues. At the same time they started sending low grade rockets into Israeli settlements adjoining Gaza. Because of the poor quality they caused more anxiety among the occupants of those settlements than damage but it was an ominous sign of things to come.

Because Hamas defeated the Palestinian Authority, (which has ruled the Palestinian controlled area of the West Bank since the 90’s), and has not held elections since then. So much for democracy in Gaza. From the outset Hamas has made clear that it has only one over-riding goal - i.e. the total elimination of Israel and the vast majority of its Jewish inhabitants. To that end it has used every tool in their tool box including anything they could take from the naive, (and maybe not so naive), humanitarian agencies to further that goal.

Concrete which was supposed to rebuild homes destroyed by Israeli bombs was used to build tunnels under Israeli, (and Egyptian), territory for purposes of infiltration as well as to develop bunkers for rockets that have grown increasingly efficient and can now reach beyond Tel Aviv. Money that was supposed to go to hospitals, schools and housing for the masses has instead gone to the Hamas elite and any google of Gaza city will show these luxurious shopping malls, hotels and homes partially hidden in among the horrid slums where the majority of people live. Were it not for the UN agencies there would probably be no schools, medical facilities or even basic necessities for the masses because what monies Hamas doesn’t siphon off to build there tunnels and smuggle in their weapons they use for the leadership’s comfort - at least that which isn’t sent to safe havens abroad.

And meanwhile they have convinced the world and the Palestinian common people that this is all the fault of Israel and the Jews and once Israel is destroyed and “the streets run with Jewish blood” there will be a world beyond their fondest dreams awaiting them. They glorify suicide bombers and no festival is complete with young children wearing mock suicide belts and singing blood curdling anti-Semitic songs. They convince the inhabitants that if only they can mass the manpower they can run across the border into Israel and start the slaughter that will reclaim “Palestine from the river, (Jordan) to the Sea, (Mediterranean)”.

I have stood by the northern border between Gaza and Israel and seen the armadas of trucks carrying food and medical supplies into Gaza. I’ve seen ambulances leaving Gaza taking patients who can’t be properly cared for to hospitals in Israel. Yes Israel has embargoed certain items that Hamas has used for their tunnels and weaponry like concrete and electrical equipment but somehow it still gets in, probably through the tunnels, because there is a huge and continuous build up of weaponry, more and more sophisticated rockets and the tunnels seem to get replaced as fast as the Israelis and the Egyptians are able to locate and destroy them.

So what’s life like for the common people of Gaza? Pretty damn bad!