Mercury News Op-Ed: Israeli blockade of Gaza amounts to occupation by Darlene Wallach

Opinion: Israeli blockade of Gaza amounts to occupation
By Darlene Wallach
Special to the Mercury News
Posted: 12/12/2008 08:00:00 PM PST

On Nov. 18, the Israeli military kidnapped me — a Jewish American leaving behind the comforts of San Jose — and 17 others from three Palestinian fishing vessels plying Gaza's coastal waters. Two other international human rights workers and I were accompanying 15 Palestinian fishermen to provide witness to and documentation of the frequent harassment and attacks by the Israeli navy. Our seizure belies Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza and its 1.5 million people.

Israel's military occupation of Gaza did not end with the withdrawal of its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005. Israel still controls access of people and goods into and out of the Strip. It controls Gaza's airspace, borders and, as my capture attests, territorial waters.

Last year, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza, hoping to turn Gazans against Hamas. In early November, it tightened the blockade and is denying an entire population access to trucks laden with humanitarian provisions, food and gas.

I was held for several days in an Israeli prison before being deported against my will on an El Al flight to New York City. But my case is insignificant compared to the hardships faced by the 1 million Palestinians — most of them refugees — dependent on the food supplies of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the World Food Programme.

Children make up 56 percent of Gaza's population, and credible reports of stunting are emerging.
According to Karen AbuZayd, commissioner-general of UN agency: "There is a chronic anemia problem. There are signs that's increasing. What we are beginning to notice is what we call stunting of children, which means they are not eating well enough to be bigger than their parents."

This collective punishment is illegal under international law. Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, for example, states that "to the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate."

The grim humanitarian situation in Gaza led me to join the Free Gaza Movement, a collection of concerned citizens from around the world intent on nonviolently breaking the Israeli siege that is suffocating the Palestinian economy. We show the power individuals have to act when governments around the world fail to protect the subjugated.

To be a part of the collective embrace of Palestinians as we set foot on the Gaza beach confirmed for me the injustice of Israel's blockade that has turned Gaza into what many refer to as the world's largest open-air prison. In talking with Palestinians, it is clear they long for the right to travel freely — to leave and return to their country, to pursue their education and build their economy.

The fact that I, an American citizen, could be kidnapped at sea by the Israeli navy is a clear indicator of the difficulties Palestinians endure. Meanwhile, the Palestinian fishermen, supporting over 20 families, lost income while their fishing boats were impounded. Israel stole the GPS units from each boat, and one boat's engine was damaged.

Palestinians have a right to live free of Israeli occupation. That will not be possible, however, until Palestinians control their land borders, air space and coastal waters. Until then, Gaza will be little more than a Bantustan over which Israel exercises control.

The incoming Obama administration should withhold financial and military aid to Israel until it ends the blockade and should demand the free flow of people, goods, and services in and out of Gaza. Then I would feel my ordeal had been well worthwhile.


Darlene Wallach of San Jose is a participant in the Free Gaza Movement. She wrote this article for the Mercury News.