Gaza. A concentration camp?
"Over the years the Israelis have essentially turned
The Gaza Strip from a Ghetto to a kind of Concentration Camp. In this small
area today live more than 1 million Palestinians, a large number of whom
have never been able to leave and reenter. Today the Gaza Strip is fully
surrounded by an electrified fence with all entrances and exits controlled
by the Israelis military. Call it an Israeli created Warsaw Ghetto,
if you will, complete with a kind of kapo internal "VIP" police force today
known as the "Palestinian Authority"." That was how Gaza was described by MID-EAST REALITIES © -
www.MiddleEast.Org. for example.
Google Gaza and you will be met with many references to "concentration camp". Click on any of those references and you will invariably be treated to long dissertations comparing Gaza to the Third Reichs infamous concentration camps and ghettos. If, you however click on the links offering photos or videos, you will be treated to an entirely different picture of daily life in Gaza.
For example, British journalist and peace activist Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of former British premier Tony Blair was photographed at a Gaza grocery store in Sept 2008. Readers may remember when she went to Gaza aboard a protest boat "smuggling" in "much needed" food supplies the Israelis were preventing from entering Gaza.
photo courtesy of Getty Images
The images captured in video are far different than those used to describe Gaza as a ghetto or concentration camp.
For example here is a video shot on 3 December 2008:
Are there ghettos in Gaza? No doubt. Find a city that doesn't have one.
Has Israel instituted controlled borders on the Gaza strip? Certainly. As is their right to institute controls over a region and whose political systems charter calls for the elimination of the state of Israel and the eradication of an entire people, whose inhabitants on a daily basis fire rockets and mortars into Israel. Does this mean Gaza is an isolated strip of land? By looking at a map anyone could easily see the entire Southern border of Gaza abuts Egypt. Plenty of access to those products a region needs to survive can easily be shipped through Egypt. Citizens could just as easily cross into Egypt. If the Egyptians would let them. They however, have elected to shoot refugees crossing into Egypt. Egyptian authorities have also stopped supplies from entering the country from Egypt. One could easily ask why has Egypt not permitted fuel for Gazas' power plant to cross their border when Israel shuts off the supply in retaliation for bombings?
Am I implying Gaza is all Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows with little silver unicorns scampering around in play? No, and I am not going to insult anyones intelligence by stating life there may not be tough. But referring to the entire Gaza strip as a "concentration camp" or "ghetto" only minimizes those words and marginalizes the hard working average citizen seen in these videos going about their lives.
Has Israel instituted controlled borders on the Gaza strip? Certainly. As is their right to institute controls over a region and whose political systems charter calls for the elimination of the state of Israel and the eradication of an entire people, whose inhabitants on a daily basis fire rockets and mortars into Israel. Does this mean Gaza is an isolated strip of land? By looking at a map anyone could easily see the entire Southern border of Gaza abuts Egypt. Plenty of access to those products a region needs to survive can easily be shipped through Egypt. Citizens could just as easily cross into Egypt. If the Egyptians would let them. They however, have elected to shoot refugees crossing into Egypt. Egyptian authorities have also stopped supplies from entering the country from Egypt. One could easily ask why has Egypt not permitted fuel for Gazas' power plant to cross their border when Israel shuts off the supply in retaliation for bombings?
Am I implying Gaza is all Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows with little silver unicorns scampering around in play? No, and I am not going to insult anyones intelligence by stating life there may not be tough. But referring to the entire Gaza strip as a "concentration camp" or "ghetto" only minimizes those words and marginalizes the hard working average citizen seen in these videos going about their lives.
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