Gaza: Israel's 'Open-Air Prison' at 15

[al bupp]

From Human Rights Watch (HRC): https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/14/gaza-israels-open-air-prison-15

Subtitle: "Israel, Egypt Movement Restrictions Wreak Havoc on Palestinian Lives"
June 14, 2022 12:01AM EDT

(Gaza) – Israel’s sweeping restrictions on leaving Gaza deprive its more than two million residents of opportunities to better their lives, Human Rights Watch said today on the fifteenth anniversary of the 2007 closure. The closure has devastated the economy in Gaza, contributed to fragmentation of the Palestinian people, and forms part of Israeli authorities’ crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians.

Israel’s closure policy blocks most Gaza residents from going to the West Bank, preventing professionals, artists, athletes, students, and others from pursuing opportunities within Palestine and from traveling abroad via Israel, restricting their rights to work and an education. Restrictive Egyptian policies at its Rafah crossing with Gaza, including unnecessary delays and mistreatment of travelers, have exacerbated the closure’s harm to human rights.

“Israel, with Egypt’s help, has turned Gaza into an open-air prison,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “As many people around the world are once again traveling two years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gaza’s more than two million Palestinians remain under what amounts to a 15-year-old lockdown.”
...

Since 2007, Israeli authorities have, with narrow exceptions, banned Palestinians from leaving through Erez, the passenger crossing from Gaza into Israel, through which they can reach the West Bank and travel abroad via Jordan. Israel also prevents Palestinian authorities from operating an airport or seaport in Gaza. Israeli authorities also sharply restrict the entry and exit of goods.

Can't leave, sharply restricted movement of goods, sounds like a prison to me.

[lapfog_1]

1. yes, open a seaport or airport in Gaza

and there will be much more death and destruction.
Hamas will import many more weapons and materials to make weapons of war.
Increased rocket attacks from inside Gaza will cause Israel to react with more bombings.
The cycle continues and accelerates.

If Palestinians give up Hamas, recognize Israel, and end the "From the river to the sea" call for genocide against Israelis... then it might be possible to open borders via the sea or air. Egypt has their own issues with opening their border... You cannot expect Israel to let anyone from Gaza into their nation so long as the government of Gaza, such as it is, calls for the destruction of Israel.

[al bupp]

6. If fear of attack is the justification, then...

It seems that historically Israel has been much more of a threat to the Palestinians then the Palestinians have been to them:



There are many other reckonings readily available online. This one goes up to this year:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/12/israel-hamas-war-data-shows-human-cost-of-conflict-through-the-years.html

The one here goes back to 2000:

https://israelpalestinenews.org/how-to-make-sense-of-the-palestinian-call-for-freedom-and-justice-gaza/

Maybe it's Israel's ports and airports that need to be blocked?

[lapfog_1]

9. Only one side has the stated goal as policy of the ruling authority

to kill everyone on the other side.

It's not fear, it is certainty of increased attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Get rid of Hamas, install a different government that will arrest terrorists instead of celebrating them, recognize Israel, turn over all of the current members of Hamas... then Israel will be under pressure to let Gaza exist with normal travel and import / export ability. Perhaps the Palestinians can operate a large tourist destination with all of their beach front property, maybe even with casinos or something.

sort of like the UAE but without the oil money.

[al bupp]

11. And only one side is the colonizer and the other the colonized.

I choose to stand w/ the oppressed and not the oppressors.

Slava Ukraini

[lapfog_1]

12. so you stand with Jews in their old homeland

It was the Arabs that "colonized" Israel... after the Egyptians and the "sea people".

well documented. Caused an event call The Diaspora ( actually one of many ). Jews were terrorized to leave their homeland. The Palestinians were the last colonizers... they just lasted as a colony a lot longer than other latter day colonizers around the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_diaspora#:~:text=The%20Jewish%20diaspora%20(Hebrew%3A%20%D7%AA%D6%B0%D6%BC%D7%A4%D7%95%D6%BC%D7%A6%D6%B8%D7%94,other%20parts%20of%20the%20globe.

BTW, if you live here in the USA... would you kindly get off my land? That is unless you are actually Native American. You all are colonizers... Spanish and English and French... and the rest of Europe, and the derivative immigrants from the Spanish colonization of South America and Central America ( don't forget the Portuguese colonizing Brazil ).

I happen to be about 1/2 Native American... so I will move to the reservation with my cousins... and then launch rockets and terror attacks on the "colonizers"... starting with those entitled assholes protesting at the colleges around the nation... all complaining about "colonizers" without ever looking in a mirror. Well actually no... while I might be 50 percent Native American, I am also 50 percent English, Irish, and Dutch. I suppose I could shoot myself because I am the victim of colonization and a colonizer.

Or is there some magic time limit on colonization that I wasn't taught in the history books?

[RockRaven]

3. "What happens to a dream deferred?..."

[Beakybird]

4. This is how I see it:

Hamas to Israel: "Open the door so we can kill you."
Israel to Hamas: "Um, no."
Hamas to the world: "Help! They locked us in!"
I agree that Gaza must suck. I hope both sides can find a way to peace so that innocent Gazans can live in dignity. 10/6 was a major step backwards.

[Beastly Boy]

5. If Gaza is an open air prison, who is running it?

An army of terrorists being financed by Iran?

HRW's analogies are off the wall, as usual. They don't seem to care much what this does to their credibility.

[al bupp]

7. What would you say if the situation was entirely reversed

And is was millions of Israelis confined to 18 square miles, for generations, largely without access to the outer world? It's an honest question.

[Beastly Boy]

13. I would first look for reasons why such confinement exists in the first place

If the Israelis alone were responsible for it, I would say that the situation needs to change from within, and I would call it a self-inflicted confinement.

If the Palestinians alone were responsible for it, I would say the situation needs to change from without, and I would call it a blockade.

If both sides were equally responsible for it, I would seek dialogue between the sides, and I would call it a regional conflict.

Of course, your proposition and my responses are equally simplistic: the status of Gaza has changed at least four times in three generations, and there are additional regional players other than Palestinians and Israelis involved in determining the fate and status of Gaza.

But in no event would I call Gaza a prison of any kind. By obfuscating the status of Gaza in such terms, one only deflects from seeking a solution to the conflict. And there had been several regional players that never wanted Gaza to be stable or prosperous, and who were only interested in destabilizing both Israel and Gaza (as well as Lebanon and Syria, among others) in pursuit of their own regional ambitions.

[Tomconroy]

8. Why do you call it 'Israels open air prison'

When the story also references Egypts restrictions on Gaza?

[al bupp]

10. True, there's also a border w/ Egypt

But it's also not blockading the coast or controlling the airspace and largely preventing the movement of people, goods or cargo through those means.

So, I think the characterization made by HRW is reasonable.