Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · PalThink for Strategic Studies · 2014
Personal wartime reflection (Swedish edition on PalThink) on powerlessness under bombardment and the political background of the 2014 Gaza war.
We die a hundred times a day, while we sit at home in the pitch dark.
Omar Shaban, founder of the Palestinian think tank Pal-Think, writes about the background to the war in Gaza and about his own feelings about what is happening.
Hamas, i.e. the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, captured a majority of seats in the January 2006 parliamentary elections. Hamas then formed a government on its own, as other political groups, notably the Fatah party, which has ruled the Palestinian Authority since its establishment in May 1994, refused to cooperate with Hamas.
Eventually, the governments of Israel and the United States and most Western and Arab countries boycotted the Hamas-led government and set conditions for resuming relations and support. The conditions mean that Hamas must firstly recognize the state of Israel, secondly must recognize previously concluded agreements between the PLO and Israel and thirdly must condemn violence. Hamas rejected these terms, leading the international community to boycott the Hamas-led government.
Topic: Gaza Politics — 2014 war · personal testimony · Hamas · Fatah · siege — Original source