Media coverage
taz (die tageszeitung) · 2018-05-15
Palestinian and Israeli analysts argue that despair in Gaza, including high unemployment, poverty, and the ongoing blockade, is pushing especially young people to join the border protests despite deadly risks. Palestinian researchers blame Israel for the bloodshed and call for an independent international investigation, while an Israeli analyst points to limited international solidarity and warns that a lack of change could lead to further violence.
Palestinian and Israeli analysts argue that despair in Gaza, including high unemployment, poverty, and the ongoing blockade, is pushing especially young people to join the border protests despite deadly risks. Palestinian researchers blame Israel for the bloodshed and call for an independent intern…
Even by an “optimistic estimate, on Monday there were no more than 50,000 demonstrators” taking part in the protests at the border from the Gaza Strip to Israel, says the Palestinian political scientist Mkhaimar Abusada. Around two million people live in Gaza. Hamas does call on people to take part in the “Great March of Return,” but in the end each person decides for himself. He himself forbids his sons from taking part in the protests at the border.
The political scientist explains the high willingness to take risks among the men who venture right up close to the border fence, fully aware that Israeli snipers on the other side are taking aim at them, by the hopeless situation in Gaza. “Young people in particular think they have nothing to lose. They experience life in the Gaza Strip as a slow death.”
The unemployment rate stands at around 40 percent, and fresh drinking water and electricity are available only sporadically. In addition, Israel and Egypt keep the borders closed. Palestinians describe the Gaza Strip as the largest open-air prison in the world. Many particularly religious men therefore prefer suicide to this miserable life. “Muslims assume that, as martyrs, they go straight to paradise if they sacrifice themselves for their homeland.”
Nevertheless, he says, Israel is to blame “for this madness,” which must be stopped immediately. Abusada calls for an international independent investigation, “whether the US likes it or not.”
Omar Shaban, economist and director of the Palestinian think tank Pal-Think for Strategic Studies in Gaza, also believes that high unemployment and poverty are what motivate young Palestinians in particular to take part in the demonstrations. “No one wants to die,” Shaban emphasizes; rather, people “want to draw attention to their distress,” which is becoming increasingly unbearable.
The main reason for this, he says, is the siege that began eleven years ago with Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip. Egypt must open the border, which would be possible as soon as Fatah once again assumes control over the Gaza Strip. The economist appeals to the Arab states to use their influence on the leaderships of Hamas and Fatah to settle the dispute, which is one reason for the hardship.
Despite the numerous deaths on Monday, international solidarity with the Gaza Strip remains limited and for the time being “predominantly declaratory,” concludes Barak Ben-Zur of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya. Only three countries, South Africa, Turkey, and New Zealand, recalled their ambassadors because of the army’s harsh action against the demonstrators. For Israel, that is “not a particularly frightening balance sheet.”
An investigation into the events, which members of the UN Security Council had called for on Kuwait’s initiative, was blocked by the US with a veto. Israel can rely in New York on “the absolute backing of the US,” says Ben-Zur, though he concedes that the lack of concrete international measures does not necessarily have to mean only good things. “If Hamas does not succeed in generating a new wave of support for its cause in the world, that could lead to even more violence.”
A war, however, is by no means desirable for the Palestinian Islamists. The lesson from the last war is that “Hamas’s power to hurt Israel is limited, whereas Israel, conversely, can inflict great damage on Hamas.” What is conceivable instead is new terrorism, whether in the border area with the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank, or within Israel itself. “It could happen anywhere.”
For the time being, even the solidarity of Palestinians in the West Bank remains limited. The demonstrations in East Jerusalem and in Ramallah, in which only a few hundred Palestinians took part, were not aimed at ending the siege of Gaza; rather, they were protests against US President Donald Trump’s decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which in turn gave Hamas additional fuel for the Gaza unrest.
Yahya al-Sinwar, head of the Hamas Political Bureau, spoke in advance of the bloodshed of his people’s emotional bond with Jerusalem. Under no circumstances should the symbolism be underestimated, warns terrorism expert Ben-Zur. After all, it was “only a new sign” that the Americans had attached to the former consulate building. But how explosive “feelings can be in a political context, we have known ever since (former opposition leader Ariel) Sharon visited the Temple Mount in September 2000” and thus set the Second Intifada in motion.
At present, the Palestinians lack Muslim support. “Even Morocco and Jordan did not protest strongly against Trump,” Ben-Zur notes. Only Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also recalled the ambassador from Washington for consultations back home.
Whether Israel could have prevented the high number of fatal shootings is something that “IDF (Israel Defense Forces) investigations must show,” Ben-Zur believes. From the outset, it had been clear that Hamas was aiming to have thousands of people break through into Israel. “How is that supposed to be stopped?” the terrorism expert asks himself. “Perhaps for 50,000 demonstrators we need to recruit 50,000 soldiers and arm them with clubs.” Sixty dead in one day, however, Ben-Zur admits, “is beyond all logic.” The bloodshed will create new anger.
The terror expert sees no way out. The government in Cairo had attempted dialogue and failed. Hamas was “not prepared for progress in small steps.” Islam “is black-and-white,” which was also demonstrated by last weekend’s arson attack at the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing. Radical Palestinians incapacitated the only channel for food and medicine. Only on Tuesday was the crossing restored sufficiently for 300 trucks coming from Israel with essential goods to reach the Gaza Strip.
Text © taz (die tageszeitung) — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source