"But Israel gave them prime waterfront land!". A life in Gaza thread.

Netanyahu has let Hamas be funded and grow stronger so as to keep Abbas out. Turned out that was a very bad idea.

The problem now is 7th Oct is being used to excuse anything and everything.

Why should what Israel has done prior and since then not receive the same outrage?

Oct 7th attacks, absolutely vile. But not an excuse.

From 2021

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/07/07/scenes-of-daily-life-in-gaza-peter-van-agtmael

That is thank you. Interesting how all of Qatar's money goes through Israel for screening.

The whole world is full of leaders of majority world countries who are worth a shit ton of money while their people suffer. Idi Amin anyone? Amelda Marcos? The Perons?

We don't tend to murder all the children in those countries because their currently unelected leaders are scumbags. Mainly because most of them have been backed by the US at various points, rather than hated.

https://wearenotnumbers.org/am-i-dead-a-diary-from-the-israeli-aggression-on-gaza/

Yes, and fishermen’s boats are regularly confiscated, or destroyed. This graphic is as of Oct 2022.

Israel wasn’t stopped in any of the areas where they violated the Oslo Accords. The UN has no teeth. The US has acted as facilitator/mediator but has been completely biased towards Israel since day 1. I think peace would require a mediator that is truly neutral. Perhaps the Swiss?

I just looked up the Honest Reporting Canada site and found several online opinion pieces saying that they report propaganda and twist the truth. I can't obviously verify this but thought it was worth pointing out.

Please note I do not condone the atrocities or existence of Hamas.

This is an interesting read

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-cash-to-crypto-global-finance-maze-israels-sights-2023-10-16/

Meanwhile Hamas’s leaders are worth literally billions.

Funded by money given as aid, and by Iran.

here is an article giving more info on the support of the UK and how it plays into the situation in palestine:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/13/british-backing-israel-unbearable-status-quo-palestinians

I think it is because Israel has the explicit support and backing (as well as financial backing) of the USA, also support of UK and other nations that hold massive geopolitical sway.

To add to this, Israel has imposed restrictions on how far the fishermen can go to fish (not very far, basically). This limits the supply of fish they can catch for themselves.

From my understanding, Israel's occupation of Gaza is seen as illegal but WHY were they not stop? I've always suspected that countries are afraid to be labeled anti semitic but surely there's more to this?

Verifiable link to the food situation in Gaza and how the lack of water and sewage treatment is part of the problem.

Written before the current conflict. (But I did see video footage of Israeli tanks destroying crops this past weekend- nothing new).

https://theconversation.com/gazas-food-system-has-been-stretched-to-breaking-point-by-israel-188556

and plenty of similar stories here:

https://wearenotnumbers.org/category/story/

I have just come across this site which tells the stories of young gazans. Here is one about the recent loss of the universities:

https://wearenotnumbers.org/lament-for-the-universities/

The weapons were likely smuggled in. For years they did that through tunnels into Egypt. But Egypt and Israel worked together to shut it down and collapse the tunnels. Not sure how they do it now, but the rockets had to come from somewhere.

Israel controls & inspects the humanitarian aid going into Gaza. This includes food, water, medicine,- everything. It’s not like Hamas could have ordered a container ship of food and had it dock at their bombed out docks. There were Free Gaza Flotillas of NGOs full of food and aid that attempted to run the Israeli sea blockade and the Israeli navy intercepted, boarded and killed a few sailors and activists which understandably caused them to turn back. Nor could Hamas have ordered up truck loads of food either.

The lack of food is due to lack of employment, constant bombardments, and the blockade limiting the food that can go in. Imagine if France decided how much food got to Britain from mainland Europe and they had a sea blockade around the entire island- no boats in or out. And they’d bombed all our airports and flew F-16s over to ensure no planes in or out. And food only came through the Chunnel and if France felt a bit grumpy with us, there be no food trains that day….

Yes the language in Wikipedia that I posted is biased.

When the Jewish settlers dismantled and took lock, stock and barrel 4,000 greenhouses of the 8,000 they were supposed to leave behind it’s written down as “dismantled” and not theft or looting- no it is excused because the settlers being evicted by Israel had “despaired of getting compensation” for the greenhouses - even though the compensation was still paid to them for the greenhouses they took with them that they were supposed to leave intact and in place. So they got to keep half of the greenhouses they’d sold.

But after handover, when a few Palestinians take bits and bobs from 800 of the 4,000 greenhouses left, damaging them. It’s written up as “looted” and “destroyed.” Even though the program head got the 800 fully repaired and up and running in a few months and it didn’t affect the growing or harvest of produce. Although the once promised & paid for 8,000 greenhouses was now only 4,000.

This bit of Palestinian vandalism is not only exaggerated into looting and total destruction of all 8,000 greenhouses by Hamas, it is then propagandised as the cause for the failure of the entire project. But in fact it was the Israeli blockade closing off the gates to Israel so that Gaza could not export their harvest that killed the industry. The vegetables and fruit rotted in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade, the investors lost all their money and with Israel basically not caring there was no point trying to grow and export fruit and vegetables from those greenhouses. Israel basically decided if their settlers couldn’t grow for export in Gaza, then no one can.

Let’s put Gaza o the side for a sec,

The majority of people have zero basic knowledge about the region,
so many factions , Geopolitical conflicts , Sectarian Violence all of that in a relatively small area , the whole region :Syria, Lebanon , Palestine have seen unrest and conflicts for decades . I’ve been to Lebanon and Syria in a time both< who were always enemies > were enjoying some sort of prosperity and stability , it just it took the assassination of Rafiq Harriri to throw the whole region back into turmoil , and it hasn’t recovered since.
and the Palestinian issue was always persistent,
to solve the Palestinian Israeli conflict is not as easy as saying well they refused so many solutions.
many Palestinians lands were illegally taken from them , so many displaced refuges in Lebanon , Jordan, Egypt, and then there is the Palestinian Diaspora, how could you solve that ? They literally have no place to return to.

"I have to assume that with the camera on, they are all on their best behaviour, which makes me wonder how it is when nobody is filming."

My thoughts exactly! I shiver to think about it.

It's pure documenting. The film maker does not interview anyone,, or impose his opinion at all. I think it does reveal the humanity of all concerned actually. There are brief moments when the politics are dropped and the soldiers and Palestinians meet on real human terms.

I re-watched it recently. I found it eerie that even back then a soldier states 'we are the humans, they are the animals,' in the light of recent political rhetoric. You are so right in your analogy! I can't imagine living under such capricious bureaucracy and deliberate cruelty. I have to assume that with the camera on, they are all on their best behaviour, which makes me wonder how it is when nobody is filming.