Slow death everywhere
Israel's continued siege is taking Gaza back to the Stone Age, reports Saleh Al-Naami
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A Palestinian farmer delayed at an Israeli army barrier in an attempt to reach his land near Bethlehem (photo:AFP)
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Armed with a sharp axe, Jihad Abu Hamam creeps about once a week into the woods on the eastern border of Al-Qarara village in the southern Gaza Strip. He cuts tree branches there and pulls them to his house two kilometres away. Jamila, his wife, uses these branches as kindling that she lights to cook their food each day, ever since the family's store of gas for cooking ran out a month ago due to the Israeli decision to bar the entry of gas to the Gaza Strip.
"My wife and I agreed to light a fire once a day to cook on so that the firewood would last as long as possible," Abu Hamam told Al-Ahram Weekly. Going to the woods once a week is a major risk, he admits, for they are close to Israeli army positions where soldiers do not hesitate to open fire and kill any Palestinian they see nearby. Many Palestinians have lost their lives after entering this wooded area.
Abu Hamam is not the only one who goes to the woods, olive orchards, and orange gardens to collect firewood. Many Palestinians have begun to search for firewood due to the lack of gas. Kanaan Abid, deputy head of the Palestinian Energy Authority, told the Weekly that the amounts of gas that Israel has allowed to enter the Gaza Strip recently have been minuscule, meeting no more than 10 per cent of the population's needs. Abid points out that firewood cannot serve as an alternative to gas in an area no larger than 360 square kilometres and with a population of one and a half million.
Yet gathering firewood is not the only illustration of a return to primitive life in the Gaza Strip. Due to Israel's decision to bar the import of fuel, more than 90 per cent of cars in Gaza do not run, which forces people to walk long distances on foot. Adel Selasil, 42, a sheep trader from Al-Qarara village, cannot let himself miss the opportunity of attending the sheep market every Tuesday morning east of Deir Al-Balah city. So he is forced to cross the seven-kilometre distance between his home and the market on foot. Many merchants and buyers reach the market in the same way.
Ghassan Ibrahim lives in Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in central Gaza and works as a teacher in Beit Lahiya in the far north. He told the Weekly that he is sometimes forced to contact the school director and excuse himself from attendance because he can't find a vehicle to transport him to work. "Sometimes I am forced to take three forms of transportation to reach the school," he said. But Ibrahim says that he has discovered another means of transport that allows him to move -- the use of carts drawn by donkeys and mules. He says that he and seven of his colleagues from the school are forced to travel daily in a donkey- drawn cart from the school to the main road that connects the northern and southern Gaza Strip in hope that they find a vehicle there to take them home. The flourishing of such carts is another sign of a return to primitive life in Gaza.
Anyone who stands at the entrance to Al-Maghazi camp on an early morning will witness immense caravans of donkey-drawn carts arriving from all directions, transporting the goods of vegetable vendors. Donkey-drawn carts have also in many cases become the primary means for transporting the injured and dead from Israeli raids, since 70 per cent of ambulances have stopped working due to the lack of fuel. Even when one ambulance is available in an area in which there are a number of injured and killed, those who are certainly dead are transported on carts while the injured are transported in the ambulance in the hope of treating them as quickly as possible. Hassan Khalaf, deputy minister of health in the dismissed Haniyeh government, says that the lack of fuel makes it impossible to make ambulances available in all locations in Gaza.
The siege crisis has forced Palestinians to invent other creative solutions also. Taxi drivers who still have some fuel have realised that if they mix it with sesame oil it will suffice for driving longer distances. Salem Hamad, a taxi driver who does this, told the Weekly that if unleaded fuel is mixed with cooking oil, five litres of fuel is enough to make the distance between Gaza City and the central region of the Gaza Strip, whereas a vehicle needs 10 litres of fuel if it is not mixed with cooking oil. Yet cars that use cooking oil produce noxious odours. Majid Ibrahim, a lecturer at the Islamic University, could not bear the wretched smell emitted from the taxi transporting him from the central region to the southern area, where he works in Khan Yunis. He had to cover his nose with his hand and his clothes retained the smell of the noxious odour thereafter.
Suleiman Al-Awawdeh, who owns a car mechanic shop, told the Weekly that some drivers have stopped using unleaded gas altogether for running due to its severe shortage and prohibitively high cost. He says that some drivers mix kerosene with sesame oil, pointing out that cars can't run on kerosene alone. He adds that in any case, using sesame oil gradually damages the engine's starter, and that the cars his workshop has received to fix has increased due to the use of sesame oil.
Another sign of the return to primitive life due to the siege is the flourishing of shoe repair shops. Because of the siege, shoes do not enter the Gaza Strip. Saleh Haboub, the owner of a shoe repair workshop on Al-Zawiya Street in Gaza City told the Weekly that his customers have multiplied many times since the siege. He and his brothers, who own other workshops beside his, work from early morning until evening to meet the growing demand. Maher Mehanna was standing in a long line of people outside Haboub's shop when he told the Weekly that he had gone to most of the shoe shops in the city but didn't find any shoes to buy, forcing him to fix his old shoes. He added, laughing, "I'm afraid that if the situation continues in the end I'll be forced to walk barefoot."
Due to the crisis, the police in Gaza have taken a step not taken by any police agency in the world. To lighten the burdens on people, police vehicles are taking on passengers who can't find any means of transport. The spokesperson of the Ministry of the Interior of the dismissed government, Ihab Al-Ghasin, told the Weekly that orders were issued two weeks ago for police patrols to transport passengers who want to reach areas the patrols are heading to as long as doing so does not affect the patrol's ability to carry out its mission. These orders were executed first in the northern Gaza Strip and the Rafah governorate, and then generalised for all patrols in all regions. Al-Ghasin says that the order has been welcomed by the people.
Yet there are many consequences of the siege whose effects cannot be mitigated. The Palestinian Ministry of Health has announced the halt of surgery in all hospitals in the Gaza Strip due to the depletion of nitrous oxide, which is used as anaesthetic prior to surgery. In statements made to the Weekly, Khaled Radi said the ministry has retained a very small amount of nitrous oxide for use in extreme emergencies.
Radi holds that Israel's refusal to allow the entrance of nitrous oxide effectively issues a death sentence to hundreds of patients who need surgery. He said that in event of a full-scale Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, hospitals and the health sector wouldn't be able to perform surgery for most of those injured by the Israeli army.
Radi also warns that the Israeli blockade will be disastrous for pregnant women in need of Caesarean deliveries, noting that hundreds of women need such operations every month. He adds that the health sector is being methodically destroyed by the siege, with most medicine depleted and Israel refusing to allow the import of vital medical equipment or even to allow experts to enter to repair existing facilities. Finally, Radi says that the lives of hundreds with cancer, heart disease and kidney disease are threatened until they are permitted to travel abroad to receive treatment.
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Like it is "ours" to do what we please with it? Ah. The imperialist comes out.
Wouldn't it be preferable to solve problems - like rational people, like people with knowledge and values and respect for others - using things like rule of law, representative government, protecting rights of the many from abuse by the few?
Israel's first President, Chaim Weizman, wrote that "the world will judge the Jewish state by how it will treat the Arabs".
Feudalism, occupation, militarism, religious superiority, and separating races are not approaches that have solved many problems in the past. Perhaps we could try integration, secularism and democracy?