Prison Break

24Jan08

It’s Prison Break, Gaza style. I haven’t the time right now to comment at length on this, although I will certainly return to it when I get the chance. For now, it suffices to say: big up the Palestinians!

“Some 200,000 Palestinians poured out of Gaza and into Egypt early Wednesday, after masked gunmen blew dozens of holes in the wall delineating the border.The Gazans rushed to purchase food, fuel, and other supplies made scarce by Israel’s blockade of the Strip, after militants detonated 17 bombs in the early morning hours, destroying some two-thirds of the metal wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt.”

For further info, see 3arabawy, lenin and Dave. 


Filed under: Activism, Israeli / Palestinian, News and politics   |  13 Comments
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13 Responses to “Prison Break”  

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  1. 1 joeturner on January 24, 2008 said:

    Apparently the Egyptians are under pressure to reseal the border, so it seems uncertain whether the relative freedom of Gazans will continue.

  2. 2 dksu on January 24, 2008 said:

    I’m wondering if the reluctance of the Egyptian police to use extreme force has anything to do with Hamas being a few feet away on the other side ;o.

  3. 3 Chris on January 24, 2008 said:

    More likely because when it comes down to it, they’re on the Arab’s side.

  4. 4 joeturner on January 24, 2008 said:

    At the moment they can honestly say that no Palestinians have crossed the Rafah crossing.

  5. 5 JamieSW on January 24, 2008 said:

    You gotta marvel at the audacity of these fuckers. Now they’re trying to claim that because the border with Egypt has now been opened Gaza is not Israel’s “responsibility” any more, and Egypt should now take over. Egypt isn’t buying it, so far.

  6. 6 JamieSW on January 24, 2008 said:

    Olmert again advocates collective punishment, and again misrepresents what “normal” means for the residents of Gaza:

    “We will not harm the supply of food for children, medicine for those who need it and fuel for institutions that save lives. But there is no justification for demanding we allow residents of Gaza to live normal lives while shells and rockets are fired from their streets and courtyards at Sderot and other communities in the south.”

    “Does anyone seriously think that our children will wet their beds at night in fear and be afraid to go out of the house and they (Gazans) will live in quiet normality?” he asked.”

    He’s also misrepresenting what Israel is doing to Gaza. Israel isn’t restricting “medicine for those who need it”? According to the UN, “[t]he proportion of deaths among hospitalized neonates at Gaza’s pediatric hospitals…increased from 5.6% during the period January-October 2006 to 6.9% during the corresponding period in 2007.” To take just one example.

  7. 7 dksu on January 24, 2008 said:

    “More likely because when it comes down to it, they’re on the Arab’s side.”

    That’s probably true. Though Mubarak’s police aren’t exactly know for being all that comradely. Hopefully the popular pressure inside Egypt and support for the Gazans will keep things on the move.

  8. 8 Kebz on January 24, 2008 said:

    Note how the BBC are continuing to repeat Olmerts blatant bullshit that they will not let Gaza residents suffer. In each and seemingly every bulletin, they also repeat, that Israeli seige is in retaliation for rockets. What a bunch of wankers!

  9. 9 JamieSW on January 24, 2008 said:

    Yep, it’s really disgraceful – particularly since prior to Israeli escalation Hamas was basically operating under a de facto unilateral truce with Israel. The idea that this massive collective punishment, which has been imposed relentlessly since Hamas entered office in early 2006, is in any way a “response” to Palestinian Qassam missiles that killed all of two Israeli civilians last year is absurd. The claim that it is justified – as, for example, the Washington Post appears to think – is just out of the sane moral universe. It’s far worse then proclaiming the legitimacy of suicide bombings, for example.

  10. 10 JamieSW on January 24, 2008 said:

    Good Financial Times editorial on the topic.

    “This siege is not only wrong; it is almost wholly counterproductive.

    First, Israel’s tactic of “collective punishment” is illegal. Targeting a civilian population is prohibited by international law: there is no debate to be had about it.

    Second, however, two decades of using this tactic, in the occupied ter- ritories and in Lebanon, should have taught Israel that it does not work. It actually strengthens organisations such as Hamas and Hizbollah.

    Indeed, this siege is visibly increasing Gazans’ dependence on Hamas as the only source of the means of subsistence.

    It is time that Israel, its Arab neighbours such as Jordan and Egypt, the US and the Fatah nationalists they are all backing against Hamas rethought their position.

    Their attempt to isolate and topple Hamas after its 2006 election victory – which included arming Fatah warlords in Gaza – has failed.

    Arab and international mediators should immediately seek an armistice from Hamas and an end to the Gaza blockade from Israel.

    They should then seek to revive the year-old Hamas and Fatah unity agreement and set up a joint caretaker government prior to eventual new elections. The Islamists should be brought into talks – on condition they are ready to work for a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza with east Jerusalem as its capital. Only when that is achieved should Hamas, and all Arab countries, be required to recognise Israel – an Israel with fixed borders, not the moving frontiers it keeps pushing into occupied Palestinian land.”

  11. 11 joeturner on January 25, 2008 said:

    Looks like the Egyptians are back to using water cannon again then.

  12. 12 Chris on January 26, 2008 said:

    How was the Finkelstein talk by the way? I couldn’t get tickets

  13. 13 JamieSW on January 27, 2008 said:

    It rrrawked. If you’ve watched videos of his talks on youtube then nothing he said would’ve come as much of a surprise, but it was still great and the Q&A’s were interesting also. There was a long discussion about the one state vs. two state settlement, and what stance we should take on it, that definitely helped clarify my thinking on the issue. I’m planning to do a very brief write-up of it at some point later today.


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