Gaza War 2023 Sally Campbell
Gaza is a tiny slice of land, slightly larger than Texada Island. Whereas Texada’s population is about 1,200, Gaza has a population of 2,375,000. It’s one of the most densely populated regions on Earth. 70% of Gaza’s population are refugees or descendants of refugees from the 1948 war, dispossessed by Israel and never allowed to return to their homes and land. Gaza has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, and under a full-scale blockade for 16 years now.
Israel controls every aspect of Palestinian life in Gaza. No one is allowed to enter or leave Gaza without Israeli permission. They control the type and amount of food allowed inside Gaza, and put Gazans “on a diet” with impunity. Electricity is severely restricted and has been for years. Now Israel has said it will cut off all food, water, and power to Gaza.
There is a wire fence between Gaza and the rest of Israel-Palestine, with a buffer zone, also known as an “automated kill zone”, whose dimensions vary, enforced with live fire. Concrete towers with 50 calibre remote control machine guns line the fence at intervals. In actuality Gazans moving within 1.5km. of the fence are targeted (International Middle East Media Center), so this puts 17% of Gaza’s total territory and 35% of its agricultural land off-limits. Every few years Israel performs a major air attack on Gaza; they have been unable to rebuild due to Israeli control over building supplies. Much of the territory is in rubble. The sound of Israeli drones and surveillance planes overhead is a constant.
Every Friday for 18 months in 2018-19, Gazans protested their imprisonment during the non-violent Great March of Return. Israel’s response was to set up sniper positions: 214 were killed and 36,100 were injured, 8,800 of them children. Many became amputees. The world barely noticed. Gazans are human beings who have tried to let the world know of their plight for decades now, and the world has not paid attention. Israel has treated them worse than we treat dogs.
What will a dog do if you keep it caged for years on end, severely limit its water and food supply, beat it regularly, ruin its cage and kill its puppies? What does it have to lose by attacking its cruel keepers? In the case of the Palestinians in Gaza,
plenty. Yet Israel’s military occupation and well-documented apartheid have caused this tragic situation. Both need to end.
Why is the world not seeing that this latest war did not begin with Gazans’ breakout from their cage? Partly because, according to American–Israeli anthropologist Jeff Halper: “Israel has diplomatic relations with 157 countries, and virtually all the agreements and protocols Israel has signed with them contain military and security components” (Halper, War Against the People, 2015 @ 3).
This intersection keeps the world from naming Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid for what it is, and from supporting Palestinians to end it. Halper shows in fascinating detail how Israel plays a pivotal role in enforcing control over populations and in suppressing human rights and dissent in many parts of the world, all in the name of “security”. Witness how Canada’s RCMP and Police Departments in Canadian cities issued statements supporting Israel on the Saturday of a long weekend! (Yves Engler, Canadian Foreign Policy Hour, 9 October, 2023)
Canada is deeply complicit, by its continual lip service to the Israeli State; its lopsided trade and security arrangements with Israel; its subsidization of illegal settlements in the West Bank through dozens of tax-free Canadian charities; its refusal to support the Palestinian call for non-violent boycott, divestment & sanctions (BDS); its support for the IHRA definition of anti-semitism – making criticism of Israel illegal – and its allowance of recruitment for the Israeli military in Canada. Along with the US, Canada has consistently opposed Palestinian appeals for justice to the UN and the International Court of Justice.
Many have spoken about the current warfare in words more powerful than mine:
“It is an undeniable truth that the time has come to change the situation. This region has endured too much pain, too much bloodshed, and too many tears. It is a moment for all parties involved to reflect on the senselessness of this continued conflict and to recognize the shared humanity that binds us all.” (Families Forum: Palestinian & Israeli Bereaved Families for Peace, 7 October, 2023)
“We talk about “normalization” with the UAE and now Saudi Arabia, while hoping the world will turn a blind eye to the open-air prison we built in our backyard.
Apart from the unfathomable violations of human rights, we’ve created a massive security liability for our own citizens… Israeli governments…talk about ‘security’, ‘deterrence’, ‘changing the equation’. All of these are code words for bombing the Gaza Strip to a pulp, always justified as targeting terrorists, yet always with heavy civilian casualties. In between these rounds of violence we make life impossible for Gazans, and then act surprised when it all boils over”.
(Avner Gvaryahu, Israeli Veteran, Director, Breaking the Silence, 8 October, 2023).
This violence is heartbreaking and from the look of it, more bloodshed and trauma are to come. Let it mean something. Let it engage us. Demand a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s occupation. No one will be safe until all the people in that troubled country know freedom, equality and justice.
