Cairo, February 2, 2010 (Pal Telegraph, by Pam Rasmussen) -Â And then there were 10...Ten of us from the Gaza Freedom March still in Cairo or elsewhere in the region, trying to get into Gaza. It has been 36 days.
We are all Palestinians now. Not by blood line, but by a shared experience of frustration, anger and pain as we are denied basic human rights - the right to be with family and loved ones, to obtain employment, to move about without looking over your shoulder.
Don't get me wrong...I don't for a moment think our experience is anywhere close to that of the nearly 1.5 million people imprisoned in Gaza for the past three years, or of the 2.3 million residents of the West Bank and East Jerusalem whose lives are defined by checkpoints. But we are getting a little taste of what it must feel like.
Consider the plight of Linda Todd Gharib. Forty-four and a divorced mother of five, the Canadian woman married a Palestinian journalist six months ago, when she entered Gaza through Egypt with a CODEPINK delegation. She and Hamoudi met eight years ago through an online chat room and fell in love via Webcam. Their first in-person meeting was everything they hoped it would be, and they married three days later. She had no choice but to return to Canada because of her children and job at home, but she left her heart in Gaza. Bringing Hamoudi to Canada is proving time-consuming, and it has now been more than six months since she has been able to see him, much less begin to build a life together. Yet despite three weeks of trying every possible way in, Linda had to pack up her bags and return to Canada - without seeing her husband.
Like most of us, Linda tried multiple ways to get into Gaza. First, she joined my group of 12 who have letters of invitation from NGOs in Gaza - in her case, a Baptist church to which she was bringing children's long johns and a much-needed laptop. Linda hopes to establish a partnership between her church and the Gazan institution. We filed our request to enter Gaza with Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and were turned down just three days later. The reason: "Security concerns." The real reason, I suspect, is President Mubarak's displeasure with the international protests over his repeated border closures. Egypt isn't America or France (despite the fact that a friend here tells me that the U.S. State Department is the Egyptian government), and Western-style demonstrations are suppressed - often violently. (Mubarak reminds me of a childish bully throwing a temper tantrum - only with serious weapons at his disposal.)
Following that failure, Linda brought her marriage certificate to the Ministry of the Interior and pled her case. Armed with a letter in Arabic asking the border guards to allow her into Gaza with Palestinians returning home, Linda tried again. But once more, she was turned away. This time she was told that her marriage didn't count, that only a letter from her own, Canadian embassy would get her in. I'm sure the officers knew, though, that Canada - like the United States - would never provide such a letter, thus helping one of its citizens enter a "terror zone." (I felt safe and welcomed both times I stayed in Gaza. Any uneasiness I felt was due to the Egyptian or Israeli border guards.)
Still intent on reaching Gaza, Linda tried to enter Israel. The Bible Society that runs the church in Gaza she was scheduled to visit was trying to put her name on the "access list" - individuals whom Israel has approved to enter Gaza through its Erez crossing. But at the Taba entry into Israel, Linda was turned away, after an eight-hour detention, with a big red "x" in her passport to make sure she doesn't try again. The reason? When the border guards saw the Rafah (Gaza) stamp in her passport, and she told them she was there to visit a church (heaven help her if she told them she is married to a Palestinian!), they simply refused to believe her. "There is a church in Gaza?!" scoffed the guards. They concluded that even if that were true, someone like Linda (??) wouldn't go all the way there to visit it. So, they accused, she must be from an "idealist organization." And...that's a bad thing? Apparently so, at least in Israel.
Later, in an email to a Palestinian leader in Gaza, Linda's husband Hamoudi wrote:
"How can the Western world proclaim they believe in democracy and equal rights, but stand by and let this happen? My wife is a peace activist; she never started any riots, she was always peaceful. Me too; I'm a peaceful Palestinian who never believed in violence. I resent violence because I believe that it won't achieve anything but more bloodshed and tears -- whether it's on our side or on the Israeli side... I don't know where to go to seek help ; my wife has been on the road since the 27th of December. Today, it's the 22nd of January and we are not getting any closer to being together.
I know I shouldn't expect much, but I write to you, because I am frustrated and no one seems to listen. What crime have I committed to be denied the chance to hold my wife's hand? Even dangerous criminals are entitled to at least a visit while they wait in jail!!! Questions that keep popping up in my head, but I get no answers..."
Ever since the Goldstone report was issued, calling Israel to account for its barbaric behavior during last year's attack on Gaza, Israel has clearly been running scared. And it has lashed out by becoming even less of the democratic country it is supposed to be. Consider just a few events from the past few weeks:
- The apartment of a Czech national who was working as the International Solidarity Movement's media director, but keeping a low profile, was raided by the Israeli army at midnight and she was later deported. Mind you, her apartment was in Ramallah, a city located well within territory that is supposed to be firmly under Palestinian Authority control. So if you were laboring under the impression that the Palestinians sort of have their own state in at least some parts of the West Bank, think again.
- An American journalist - and a Jew to boot -- who has worked as English-language editor of the Ma'an news service for the past two years was deported dto the States when he tried to re-enter Israel following a vacation in Prague.
- Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon turned Belgian Development Minister Charles Michel away when he wanted to enter Gaza through the Erez Crossing, claiming his visit would "bolster Hamas and legitimize it." (Keep in mind: Hamas earnedauthority in a free and fair election, and it took control over the Gaza Strip only after the international community refused to deal with it, while arming its opponents. I don't mean to imply that the movement has distinguished itself in Gaza, but the international community bears a lot of the responsibility.)
- Employees of international humanitarian NGOs are no longer being granted work permits for the West Bank and Gaza. Rather, they are being issued tourist visas, which limit both the amount of time they spend in the Palestinian territories and what they do/where they go. "In taking this step, Israel is declaring its contempt for international aid organizations, as well as its ingratitude, because it is these bodies that put out the fires ignited by Israel's discriminatory policies against the Palestinians in the territories," writes Amera Hass in the Israeli daily Haaretz. "It is the governmental, public and private foundations from those friendly countries, mostly in the West, that fix the damage done by the occupation, both in the past and present."
What has been the response of the international community? Nothing. As Hass so colorfully concludes, "Israel, via the Interior Ministry, continues to spit in the face of friendly countries, and those countries continue to admire the falling raindrops."
By Pam Rasmussen, an American who is still trying to get into Gaza for her third time
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Tuesday, 02 February 2010
© 2010 - The Palestine Telegraph
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