Dimensions of Crisis

Political: 

The Gaza crisis has different interlocking political dimensions. In the outermost ring, Gaza, from the point of view of international actors, is seen as a battle of confrontation and the front line for the Russia-Syria-Iran front against the plans of the US-Israel-West front to tailor a role for the region in accordance with their interests. From the point of regional dynamics, the territory is a battlefield for the policies of the resistance-minded Hamas and negotiation-minded al-Fatah. These two concepts (achieving the goal through resistance or negotiations), which have quite different ideological foundations, are the diverging point on how to respond to Zionism’s projects within Palestine. Parties in the internal struggle have established dependency relations with regional countries and external powers to challenge rival domestic groups. All groups are involved in those regional relations, but this situation fuels political division in Palestine. The widening division is the primary reason behind the separation of Gaza as “Hamasistan” and the West Bank as “Fatahistan.” The continuing division between rival Palestinian groups over the last three years, despite all mediation efforts, causes delay in the resolution of more vital issues such as independence, the al-Quds question, and the release of detainees.            

Military activity and security:  

The rockets fired into Israel from Gaza, which have a maximum range of 10km, are put forward as the main justification for Israel’s aggression, blockade and embargo. The Palestinians say they use rockets in retaliation to Israeli strikes, while Israel says it launches operations into the territory in retaliation to rocket attacks. Israeli strikes that have killed large numbers of Palestinians are overshadowed by this inconclusive debate. Leaving aside the argument over whether Palestinian rockets, the first of which was fired in 2002, pose any serious threat to Israel (when compared to Israel’s powerful military and its nuclear weapons), Israel’s argument that it has launched its strikes in retaliation to Palestinian attacks during its 38-year occupation is simply not realistic.                  

In addition to announcing a comprehensive cease-fire and suspending armed actions, the Hamas government has abstained from carrying out provocative actions inside Israel since 2006. However, Israel has continued to carry out bombardments and detentions, and has exploited the tension in the region to justify its security concerns on the international platform. The number of civilians killed in the last three years shows the true extent of violence in the region:      

Legal

Violations of law, that include breaches of human rights, form a fundamental dimension of the Gaza crisis. Although Israel agreed in the 1993 Osolo Accords to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, including the Gaza Strip, by the year 1999, it failed to implement any of the agreements it signed up to. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but retained its unlawful control over the region’s borders, territorial waters and airspace. Israeli control over the region paved the way for all kinds of arbitrary actions against the Gazan people, and the declaration of Gaza as a “hostile region” in October 2007 provided a framework that could legalize Israeli strikes against it. Setting an example that contradicts universal interpretations of law, the Supreme Court of Israel approved sanctions against Gaza, a clear indication of how Israel intertwines law with military concerns, and endorses collective punishment.

Israel keeps around 1000 Palestinians as “administrative detainees” without bringing any charge against them, and has detained 40 Palestinian lawmakers and ministers as bargaining chips, although none of them have been involved in violence. These are further serious breaches of international law.  

Preventing the Palestinian Parliament from functioning, and refusing to allow Gazan delegates to attend the parliament in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank, show the true extent of the unlawful practices Israel employs to block the democratic process in Palestine. Security pretexts are used as a justification to overlook violations of law; however, viewing events only from the point of security, and overlooking the fact that the number of civilians killed in Palestine has quadrupled over the last three years in the strikes carried out under the pretext of security, cannot be rationalized in any way.      

Economic

Economic punishment is the toughest consequence of the Israeli blockade. The economic embargo has been incrementally tightened since Hamas came to power in early 2006, and the embargo has been turned into a policy of revenge since June 2007. Policies of systematic impoverishment have meant that Gaza, where the main sources of income are farming, fishing and other small industries, now produces less than it produced a decade ago. The Palestinian economy loses $1.5 billion each year, and the GDP per capita in Gaza has dropped to $385, half of that in famine-hit Somalia. 80 percent of the original 180,000 civil servants and 210,000 workers and tradesmen have been made jobless; consumer purchasing power has dropped and prices have soared as the entry of goods into the region is not allowed. Israel also dismissed 21,000 Gazans working inside Israel in 2005, which caused over $1 billion in losses to the Palestinian economy.     

The restrictions on the entry of pesticides and fertilizers into Gaza has caused a 40-percent drop in agricultural production and an 80-percent drop in exports. Gaza is allowed to export only about six to seven percent of its strawberry production, the most significant source of income for the region. The rise of food prices in parallel with the drop in incomes has engendered the risk of undernourishment and the outbreak of epidemic diseases, and has raised the number of underweight infants by 60 percent. Deterioration of economic conditions has made Gazans dependent on foreign aid, and made food security hostage to politics and external pressure.           

The destruction of the Egyptian border in January of 2008, when Palestinians blew a hole in the wall and poured into Egypt to stock up on food and vital supplies, was an indication of the sheer desperation they face. But it was also akin to giving painkillers to a comatose patient. The real disaster facing Gazans is not food shortages in the short-term, but long-term impoverishment and a decline in the level of humanitarian development, which will have a decade-long impact.    

Although the Gazan people have managed to survive so far, thanks to foreign aid and goods smuggled in through tunnels under the Egyptian border, sky-high prices have drastically reduced the impoverished Gazan peoples’ purchasing power. Prices of many items are 3-4 times higher than normal. 

Table: Food security and the economic situation in Gaza   

Border Crossings and Control 

There are five border gates that connect the besieged and blockaded Gaza Strip to the outer world. The Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border is the most significant gate for Gazans. Only pedestrians and small amounts of exports are currently allowed through this gate - imports are not allowed. Commercial products coming from Egypt enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, while those coming from Israel enter the region through the Karni and Sufa crossings. The last two crossings have been shut down by Israel since Hamas took the control of Gaza. Only transit patients are allowed to pass through the Erez crossing in Northern Gaza. Gaza’s access to financial institutions, political diplomacy, contact with international quarters and all vital ties with the external world are dependent on the daily decisions of Israel and Egypt. Turning crossing the border into an exercise in torture, Israel charges $600 from patients for an ambulance journey, and $1,600 from patients it doesn’t trust to allow them to travel in the company of private security firms.