Madison-Rafah Journal

Photos: Sherif Mahmoud, AFP, AP and Reuters
Al-Ahram Weekly, 24 - 30 August 2006

Thousands of Palestinians on both sides of the Rafah crossing, the only exit/entry point for the Gaza Strip, have been stranded for weeks, waiting for Israel to end the closure imposed on the port which links Egypt and Gaza. Top: the vacated Rafah crossing, and images of despair from the previous weeks.

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Palestinians flood to Rafah crossing in a bid to escape the
hell that is life in the Gaza Strip, writes Erica Silverman
Al-Ahram Weekly, 24 - 30 August 2006

Scores of buses overflowing with passengers, so tightly packed that bodies are pressed against glass windows, approached the gates of Rafah Terminal along the Gaza-Egypt border Saturday in a desperate bid to exit the Gaza Strip. Luggage and people piled high on top and on trailers dragging behind, some precariously balancing themselves even on metal hitches in between.

Mohamed, 17, clung to the side of one bus by his arms, trying to make his way into Egypt for medical care. One mother grasped the side of a trailer with one arm and her crying little girl with the other as suitcases were rapidly hurled on top of them.

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At the Rafah crossing point, Dina Ezzat stands
witness to a nightmare caused by Israel
Al-Ahram Weekly, 24 - 30 August 2006

"Nobody can imagine the torture one has to go through. Only a Palestinian would know the cruelty of having to be here in Al-Arish, only a few kilometres from my family and to be unable to cross," Samir said. He added that the fact of the matter is that he cannot have a one-way crossing because if he was to get stranded on the other side it would be a financial disaster. "If I entered Gaza and failed to exit early enough to go back to Bahrain then I would lose my job which is the only source of income not just for myself and my family but also for my extended family in Gaza that has been rendered jobless due to the economic closure imposed by Israel." [More]

Ted Rall, 8-26-06

Including three Nobel Prize recipients
The Nation, August 28, 2006

The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner–and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis–there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.

That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources–most particularly that of water–by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.

Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly–who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?

Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, 23 August 2006

Amnesty International today published findings that point to an Israeli policy of deliberate destruction of Lebanese civilian infrastructure, which included war crimes, during the recent conflict.

The organization's latest publication shows how Israel's destruction of thousands of homes, and strikes on numerous bridges and roads as well as water and fuel storage plants, was an integral part of Israel's military strategy in Lebanon, rather than "collateral damage" resulting from the lawful targeting of military objectives.

The report reinforces the case for an urgent, comprehensive and independent UN inquiry into grave violations of international humanitarian law committed by both Hizbullah and Israel during their month-long conflict.

"Israel’s assertion that the attacks on the infrastructure were lawful is manifestly wrong. Many of the violations identified in our report are war crimes, including indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks. The evidence strongly suggests that the extensive destruction of power and water plants, as well as the transport infrastructure vital for food and other humanitarian relief, was deliberate and an integral part of a military strategy," said Kate Gilmore, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International.

The Israeli government has argued that they were targeting Hizbullah positions and support facilities and that other damage done to civilian infrastructure was a result of Hizbullah using the civilian population as a "human shield".

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Amira Hass, Haaretz, 09 Aug 2006

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station would dismiss as feminine and sentimental the view that peoples don't win wars. Like other Arab analysts, they regard attacking Israeli civilians and engaging the IDF in fierce battles as an Arab victory. But where's the victory for the 1,000 Lebanese the Israeli army has killed? Where's the victory in a million people fleeing homes that were bombed and destroyed? Are such losses worthwhile just to demonstrate that a guerrilla group can entangle a regular army and expose such an Israeli weakness?

On the other hand, the non-victory of the other side is not an Israeli victory, even if Israel triples the number of Hezbollah fighters and doubles the number of Lebanese mothers that it has killed so far. Even if the Israeli Air Force wipes out a thousand villages, it would still not bring back to life the Israelis who were killed.

The trauma and economic damages will continue to affect many people's lives. Even if the cease-fire agreement is closer to Israel's positions than to Lebanon's, it would still not be a victory. Israel's insistence to unilaterally lay down the rules in the region perpetuates and deepens its character as an alien element within it. Israel's future generations will continue to pay for this obstinacy.

It comes as no surprise that this war has not yet been finished in one fell swoop. For six years, the Israeli army has accustomed its soldiers to regard their assaults in the occupied territories as "fighting" and "battles." They fostered the myth that there was symmetry between the advanced regular Israeli army and groups of Palestinians armed with light weapons and homespun bombs, scurrying among the tanks and helicopters that are demolishing their houses and fields. Indeed, on a few occasions, the Palestinians succeeded in guerrilla operations that killed or wounded the troops. But these were the exception. The suicide attacks inside Israel attest to the "military" weakness of the Palestinian organizations.

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