Why a Gaza ceasefire isn’t enough
The death and destruction being inflicted on the Gaza Strip is
impossible to describe. Sitting here in Gaza, it is hard to even
understand what is happening.
Last week, we witnessed another attack on a United Nations compound
where civilians were sheltering — 17 dead, 120 injured — and an attack
on a market in Shujaiya during the hours of what was supposed to be a ceasefire — 18 dead, nearly 200 injured.
Today in Rafah, Israel shelled another school run by UNRWA, the UN
agency for Palestine refugees, where thousands were sheltering, killing
ten. Even the US State Department issued a rare condemnation of Israel, calling the attack “appalling” and “disgraceful.”
This is a nightmare. But it is one we know we cannot wake up from.
Israel’s Gaza Doctrine of illegally targeting densely packed civilian areas and homes is inflicting untold horror.
Israel is deliberately punishing civilians in order to exert political pressure on Hamas. They are collectively punishing the 1.8 million citizens of the Gaza Strip. How else do you explain the statistics?
The most recent figures collected by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
(PCHR) indicate that 1,817 Palestinians have been killed. Of these,
1,545 — an incredible 85 percent — are civilians: the so-called
“protected persons” of international humanitarian law.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced. Ordered to
flee, but with nowhere safe to go: UN shelters housing civilians have
been repeatedly targeted. The Gaza Strip lies in ruins. The destruction
of Shujaiya is difficult to comprehend. Even the power plant has been
destroyed. How will our hospitals operate? How will the sewage treatment
centers run? How will we access safe water?
to this horror, to this suffering. Too many children have died. War
crimes have become our daily reality.
But a ceasefire is not enough.
We demand justice. We demand accountability. We demand to be treated
as human beings, to have our inherent human dignity recognized. We
demand an end to the closure of the Gaza Strip.
For the last seven years, Israel has subjected the Gaza Strip to a strict closure. By shutting the borders, Israel has slowly suffocated Gaza, subjecting us to a process of deliberate de-development.
Before the current offensive, 65 percent of the population were
unpaid or unemployed. Eight-five percent of the population depended on
food aid distributed by international organizations. Patients requiring
life-saving treatment unavailable in the Gaza Strip were denied
permission to leave. They died.
Life under the closure is not life. We cannot go back to this
reality. I cannot imagine another seven years. The closure signifies the
absence of hope. It means that Gaza’s youth have no future. No jobs. No
opportunity to leave. Even when the war comes, we cannot flee.
But the closure is only one half of the reality of the Gaza Strip.
The other is the total absence of the rule of law. War crimes are
committed with complete impunity. The closure itself is a war crime and
it is official policy of the government of Israel.
Beside this there are the constant attacks and the frequent
offensives. This is the third major offensive since the closure began.
Literally thousands of civilians have been killed. Thousands more homes
and livelihoods have been destroyed.
Operation Cast Lead — the 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009 offensive —
PCHR submitted 490 criminal complaints on behalf of 1,046 victims. In
the five years that followed, we received only 44 responses. The Israeli
authorities decided that 446 cases didn’t even warrant a reply.
The results?
One soldier was convicted for the theft of a credit card and received a seven-month sentence.
Two soldiers were convicted for using a nine-year-old boy as a human
shield. They each received a three-month suspended sentence.
One soldier was convicted for the “misuse of a firearm” in relation
to the shooting of a group of civilians carrying white flags, which
resulted in the deaths of two women. He was sentenced to 45 days
imprisonment.
This is not justice. The impact of these constant war crimes, and the
resultant impunity denies our very dignity, our worth as human beings.
It says our lives are not sacred. That we don’t count.
Faced with this existence, our demands are not excessive. They are not unrealistic.
We want to be treated as equals. We want to have our rights respected
and protected. We ask that international law be applied, equally, to
Israel and Palestine, to Israelis and Palestinians. The rule of
international law must be adhered to, and all those responsible for its
violations must be held to account.
We ask that suspected war crimes be investigated and those responsible prosecuted. Is this unreasonable?
We want an end to the closure. The illegality of Israel’s closure
policy is not in doubt. In a rare public statement the International
Committee of the Red Cross explicitly stated
that Israel’s closure policy constitutes collective punishment in
violation of international law. The consequences of the policy are
evident in the reality of the Gaza Strip.
We ask that the closure be lifted. We want the opportunity to live a life in dignity. Is this unreasonable?
These are not political demands. They are a demand to be treated as human.
A ceasefire is not enough. It will not end the suffering. It will
only move us from the horror of death by bombardment to the horror of
death by slow strangulation.
We cannot go back to being prisoners in a cage that Israel rattles when it chooses with brutal destructive offensives.
Raji Sourani is the director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
The death and destruction being inflicted on the Gaza Strip is
impossible to describe. Sitting here in Gaza, it is hard to even
understand what is happening.
Last week, we witnessed another attack on a United Nations compound
where civilians were sheltering — 17 dead, 120 injured — and an attack
on a market in Shujaiya during the hours of what was supposed to be a ceasefire — 18 dead, nearly 200 injured.
Today in Rafah, Israel shelled another school run by UNRWA, the UN
agency for Palestine refugees, where thousands were sheltering, killing
ten. Even the US State Department issued a rare condemnation of Israel, calling the attack “appalling” and “disgraceful.”
This is a nightmare. But it is one we know we cannot wake up from.
Israel’s Gaza Doctrine of illegally targeting densely packed civilian areas and homes is inflicting untold horror.
Israel is deliberately punishing civilians in order to exert political pressure on Hamas. They are collectively punishing the 1.8 million citizens of the Gaza Strip. How else do you explain the statistics?
The most recent figures collected by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
(PCHR) indicate that 1,817 Palestinians have been killed. Of these,
1,545 — an incredible 85 percent — are civilians: the so-called
“protected persons” of international humanitarian law.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced. Ordered to
flee, but with nowhere safe to go: UN shelters housing civilians have
been repeatedly targeted. The Gaza Strip lies in ruins. The destruction
of Shujaiya is difficult to comprehend. Even the power plant has been
destroyed. How will our hospitals operate? How will the sewage treatment
centers run? How will we access safe water?
Our demands
In the middle of this we want an end to the violence. We want an endto this horror, to this suffering. Too many children have died. War
crimes have become our daily reality.
But a ceasefire is not enough.
We demand justice. We demand accountability. We demand to be treated
as human beings, to have our inherent human dignity recognized. We
demand an end to the closure of the Gaza Strip.
For the last seven years, Israel has subjected the Gaza Strip to a strict closure. By shutting the borders, Israel has slowly suffocated Gaza, subjecting us to a process of deliberate de-development.
Before the current offensive, 65 percent of the population were
unpaid or unemployed. Eight-five percent of the population depended on
food aid distributed by international organizations. Patients requiring
life-saving treatment unavailable in the Gaza Strip were denied
permission to leave. They died.
Life under the closure is not life. We cannot go back to this
reality. I cannot imagine another seven years. The closure signifies the
absence of hope. It means that Gaza’s youth have no future. No jobs. No
opportunity to leave. Even when the war comes, we cannot flee.
But the closure is only one half of the reality of the Gaza Strip.
The other is the total absence of the rule of law. War crimes are
committed with complete impunity. The closure itself is a war crime and
it is official policy of the government of Israel.
Beside this there are the constant attacks and the frequent
offensives. This is the third major offensive since the closure began.
Literally thousands of civilians have been killed. Thousands more homes
and livelihoods have been destroyed.
Complete impunity
These war crimes are committed with complete impunity. AfterOperation Cast Lead — the 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009 offensive —
PCHR submitted 490 criminal complaints on behalf of 1,046 victims. In
the five years that followed, we received only 44 responses. The Israeli
authorities decided that 446 cases didn’t even warrant a reply.
The results?
One soldier was convicted for the theft of a credit card and received a seven-month sentence.
Two soldiers were convicted for using a nine-year-old boy as a human
shield. They each received a three-month suspended sentence.
One soldier was convicted for the “misuse of a firearm” in relation
to the shooting of a group of civilians carrying white flags, which
resulted in the deaths of two women. He was sentenced to 45 days
imprisonment.
This is not justice. The impact of these constant war crimes, and the
resultant impunity denies our very dignity, our worth as human beings.
It says our lives are not sacred. That we don’t count.
Faced with this existence, our demands are not excessive. They are not unrealistic.
We want to be treated as equals. We want to have our rights respected
and protected. We ask that international law be applied, equally, to
Israel and Palestine, to Israelis and Palestinians. The rule of
international law must be adhered to, and all those responsible for its
violations must be held to account.
We ask that suspected war crimes be investigated and those responsible prosecuted. Is this unreasonable?
We want an end to the closure. The illegality of Israel’s closure
policy is not in doubt. In a rare public statement the International
Committee of the Red Cross explicitly stated
that Israel’s closure policy constitutes collective punishment in
violation of international law. The consequences of the policy are
evident in the reality of the Gaza Strip.
We ask that the closure be lifted. We want the opportunity to live a life in dignity. Is this unreasonable?
These are not political demands. They are a demand to be treated as human.
A ceasefire is not enough. It will not end the suffering. It will
only move us from the horror of death by bombardment to the horror of
death by slow strangulation.
We cannot go back to being prisoners in a cage that Israel rattles when it chooses with brutal destructive offensives.
Raji Sourani is the director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
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