Maybe because Israel has restricted numerous things from being allowed into the place - anything that could be deemed to be used by terrorists. Which includes a long list of building and construction materials.
I would be more surprised if solar panels weren't on a restricted list tbh!!
Your OP really highlights the lack of understanding of how the Israeli state has oppressed the Palestinians for years and why it's lead to radicalised Palestinians.
Neither party is free from responsibility.
I saw a comment about how we are forgetting our humanity over the situation - we are told to cry for one party over the other because 'terrorism'. We are told about how Israeli have died whilst Israel use phosphorus bombs on one of the most densely populated places on earth (phosphorus bombs are 'banned' under international treaties for their violations against humanity - treaties that Israel has refused to sign up to. Why because you can't control who you hit, they burn through structures and if they don't kill you they leave you with horrific injuries). A densely populated area where 50% of the inhabitants are children.
It's all fucked in the head.
I saw this comment on twitter which is one of the most balanced, I've seen. It's from an opinion piece in an Israeli newspaper from someone who is Jewish.
Glenn Diesen AT glen_diesen
Gideon Levy writing about our common humanity in Haaretz: "We now have to cry bitterly for the Israeli victims, but we should also cry for Gaza":
"Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance; the idea that we can do whatever we like, that we’ll never pay the price and be punished for it. We’ll carry on undisturbed. We’ll arrest, kill, harass, dispossess and protect the settlers busy with their pogroms. We'll visit Joseph’s Tomb, Othniel’s Tomb and Joshua’s Altar in the Palestinian territories, and of course the Temple Mount – over 5,000 Jews on Sukkot alone.
We’ll fire at innocent people, take out people’s eyes and smash their faces, expel, confiscate, rob, grab people from their beds, carry out ethnic cleansing and of course continue with the unbelievable siege of the Gaza Strip, and everything will be all right.
We’ll transfer half an army from the Gaza border to the Hawara border in the West Bank, only to protect far-right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot and the settlers. And everything will be all right, both in Hawara and at the Erez crossing into Gaza.
It turns out that even the world's most sophisticated and expensive obstacle can be breached with a smoky old bulldozer when the motivation is great. This arrogant barrier can be crossed by bicycle and moped despite the billions poured into it and all the famous experts and fat-cat contractors.
We thought we’d continue to go down to Gaza, scatter a few crumbs in the form of tens of thousands of Israeli work permits – always contingent on good behavior – and still keep them in prison. We’ll make peace with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinians will be forgotten until they’re erased, as quite a few Israelis would like.
We’ll keep holding thousands of Palestinian prisoners, sometimes without trial, most of them political prisoners. And we won’t agree to discuss their release even after they've been in prison for decades.
We’ll tell them that only by force will their prisoners see freedom. We thought we would arrogantly keep rejecting any attempt at a diplomatic solution, only because we don’t want to deal with all that, and everything would continue that way forever.
Once again it was proved that this isn’t how it is. A few hundred armed Palestinians breached the barrier and invaded Israel in a way no Israeli imagined was possible. A few hundred people proved that it’s impossible to imprison 2 million people forever without paying a cruel price.
Just as the smoky old Palestinian bulldozer tore through the world’s smartest barrier Saturday, it tore away at Israel’s arrogance and complacency. And that’s also how it tore away at the idea that it’s enough to occasionally attack Gaza with suicide drones – and sell them to half the world – to maintain security.
On Saturday, Israel saw pictures it has never seen before. Palestinian vehicles patrolling its cities, bike riders entering through the Gaza gates. These pictures tear away at that arrogance. The Gaza Palestinians have decided they’re willing to pay any price for a moment of freedom. Is there any hope in that? No. Will Israel learn its lesson? No.
On Saturday they were already talking about wiping out entire neighborhoods in Gaza, about occupying the Strip and punishing Gaza “as it has never been punished before.” But Israel hasn’t stopped punishing Gaza since 1948, not for a moment.
After 75 years of abuse, the worse possible scenario awaits it once again. The threats of “flattening Gaza” prove only one thing: We haven’t learned a thing. The arrogance is here to stay, even though Israel is paying a high price once again.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears very great responsibility for what happened, and he must pay the price, but it didn’t start with him and it won’t end after he goes. We now have to cry bitterly for the Israeli victims, but we should also cry for Gaza.
Apparently this guy is hated in Israel for saying this. But he speaks the truth - the unsayable.
Wars are the product of failed policy. They are what happens when politicians have failed.
Terrorism is usually the product of desperation. Where we get large numbers of people working together and taking it to the extreme it's because of a total loss of hope and lack of self determination through politics. Because of policy which has deliberately sort to exclude.
The West has a problem here with how we view ourselves and talk about democracy.
Democracy has failed the Palestinian people. Even with the voting in of Hamas' control of Gaza. Hamas were voted in, in 2007. There haven't been elections since. And Palestinian have no democratic influence in Israel which controls their border (and so much more of what happens to Palestinians).
I have no time for western politicians who are now cheerleading Israel 'because terrorism'. But equally I have no time for those who cheer on Hamas and condone what's it's done and doing because it is barbaric. Rape, beheadings, burning people to death, executions all barbaric.
The Israeli and Gaza leadership are rotten. I understand why they've done things but it's so fundamentally wrong in application. The Rest of the world has done fuck all to challenge the situation because it suits their own interests to do fuck all.
It's all so desparately appalling. It's children who bare the brunt of this. It doesn't matter how you die once you are dead. There is no 'humane' way to kill children.
Today's rhetoric from Israel: soon Gaza will be a tent city and they've released all restraints from troops.
What does that actually mean? Cos that doesn't really sound a lot like it's considering human rights or civilians does it?
They are all monsters.