Lift the Siege of Gaza / #Justice4Halabi Update
By Jonathan Kuttab
For the past 15 years, since June 2007, 2 million Palestinians have lived under a strict siege in a narrow strip along the Mediterranean Sea, 20 miles long and 3 to 5 miles wide. Israel withdrew its 7000 settlers from that strip in 2005 but then surrounded it with walls, fences, and guns. No person or goods can enter or leave the Strip without Israel’s approval. Egypt also controls the one remaining opening in the South, but it does so in coordination with Israel and according to its wishes. These restrictions have turned the Strip into an open air prison, and have led to a systematic de-development of the Gaza Strip, which today has an unemployment rate of 50% and only 4-6 hours of electricity per day. 98% of its water is undrinkable. And periodic attacks by Israel (referred to as “mowing the lawn” by Israeli generals) have left thousands of buildings destroyed and unlivable. Materials for reconstruction are carefully regulated by Israelis. Even foodstuffs are strictly controlled. Only about 100 items are allowed in (at one time even spaghetti was not on the list of permitted foods). When asked whether they were planning to starve the Gazans, an Israeli general replied, “No. We just want to put them on a strict diet.” He was not joking. A report leaked that the Israeli army had calculated the number of calories needed to keep people barely alive and used those figures to determine how many truckloads of food it would allow into the Strip.
A UN study concluded that the Gaza Strip would be “unlivable” by 2020. We are two years beyond that! How is it possible that such a situation could exist, persisting with no end in sight?! When Gazans do attempt to resist, with puny and ineffective rockets, they get bombed, smashed with devastating firepower—hundreds or thousands of tons of explosives landing for every puny rocket fired. When no rockets are fired, which happens for months on end, no one cares and the suffering continues. When Gazans attempted a peaceful “march of return” in 2018, 63 unarmed protesters were coldly and deliberately shot dead in one day by snipers who “knew where every bullet went.” The entire area is cut off from the rest of the world, with Israeli drones and jets flying overhead the whole time. It is no wonder that a recent Save the Children study found that 80% of all children in the Strip suffer from “mental health distress.”
What possible justification can there be for such cruel behavior?? Apart from being collective punishment for the violent acts of a few, such punishment makes no sense from a security standpoint. How does prohibiting exports from the Gaza Strip relate to security in any way? How is the prohibition on importing glass and building materials for reconstruction justified? Israel claims to prohibit imports of cement or steel so that such materials could not be used for building tunnels. Yet, an entire population of 2 million people still needs housing, construction, and repairs from repeated heavy bombing campaigns. Incidentally, Israel also prohibits the import of pipes greater than 1 inch in diameter, so the sewage system cannot function adequately.
Gazans constitute a significant percentage of the Palestinian population, with schools, hospitals, families and a vibrant society that is being cruelly punished, bludgeoned, and forced to live in utterly inhuman conditions with no relief in sight. Israel and Egypt are not the only ones to blame for this. The Palestinian Authority, with its enmity to Hamas, as well as the entire international community is responsible for allowing this hurtful siege.
The basic argument used is that Hamas is a nefarious terrorist organization, and that the entire population of Gaza needs to be punished for voting for Hamas and for allowing them to stay in power. Even if we accept that Hamas is a nefarious, evil organization, the truth is that the most recent election was held over 15 years ago, and most Gazans living today either did not vote for Hamas in 2006 or haven’t participated in any election ever. I may not like them or their philosophy, but regardless of what one thinks about Hamas, the siege of Gaza must be lifted.
Some brave activists have tried to physically break the siege by sailing boats, with medicine, food, and supplies to Gaza. They have been attacked, some killed, others imprisoned and had their boats seized by the Israeli Navy. On the 15th anniversary of the siege of Gaza, we need to renew our commitment and redouble our efforts to break the siege and bring an end to this inhuman misery.
#Justice4Halabi: An Update
Yesterday, the judge in the Halabi case issued a summary of his verdict. The full decision has not yet been issued, but the judge said it is hundreds of pages long and may be classified. In his summary, the judge states that Halabi is convicted on all charges listed in the charge sheet, except on the charge of treason (since he is a Gazan and therefore cannot be charged with lack of loyalty to the state of Israel). The judge says that he based his decision on a “confession” made by Halabi to a mole, after he was tortured during an interrogation, and which he later withdrew. The judge also said that he does not accept the evidence and testimonies brought up by the defense. Sentencing will take place sometime in the future, probably in July.
According to Maher Hanna, Halabi’s lawyer, this decision is on its face incredibly unjust, since the charge sheet contains a number of accusations that have been disproven as being patently false during the trial, by evidence derived solely from official Israeli sources. The following are but three examples:
The charge sheet claims that Halabi scoped out, photographed, and gave Hamas information about the Erez crossing in 2010, when official Israeli records show that between 2006 and 2011 Halabi never visited the Erez crossing.
The charge sheet accuses Halabi of diverting World Vision money from Britain to Hamas, when the records presented at the trial show that no World Vision money was sent from Britain at all.
The charge sheet alleges that Halabi diverted thousands of tons of cement and steel shipped through the Keren Shalom crossing to Hamas for the building of tunnels, when evidence was given at the trial that World Vision never used Keren Shalom and never even imported any steel or cement into Gaza at all.
Halabi’s lawyer is convinced that the judge had not even read his summation, otherwise he would have avoided such blatant misrepresentations. He will definitely be appealing this clearly unjust decision.
For those who have been following the case, it is worth noting that the alleged millions diverted to Hamas exceed World Vision’s entire $22 million budget in Gaza for the past 10 years, and that detailed forensic audits by World Vision, as well as the Australian Government, did not find any funds to be missing at all. Halabi refused several offers for a plea bargain that would have had him released years ago, but he has insisted on his innocence throughout 160 court hearings over the past six years. While much of the trial was held in secret, the conduct of the trial by the judge and the restrictions placed on the defense are enough to thoroughly discredit the Israeli justice system when it comes to Palestinians accused before it.
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