By Carlos Elbirt and Martin O’Hara
The conversation created around the conflict is full of basic assumptions which are widely believed yet bear little or no resemblance to reality. This is the result of a combination of the political rhetoric coming from all sides, political influence particularly on reporting and, in many cases, outright censorship.
For all practical purposes, Gaza is part of Israel. It is a sealed area subject to special rules but it is, nevertheless, part of Israel. The conflict is presented as a military confrontation between two sides, two countries or “almost” countries. It is not! Israel is a powerful state. Its economy has full access to the USA and European markets. Its income per capita is now similar to, or even larger than, that of some EU Mediterranean countries. It turns out high tech products and services. The productivity of its agricultural sector is well known. Gaza, on the other hand, is a small piece of land 41 km (25 miles) long and from 6 to 12 km (3.7 to 7.5 miles) wide. The area of Gaza, 365 km2 (141 square miles), is half that of the City of New York and with 1.7 million Palestinians living there, it is the most densely populated territory in the world. This restricted and crowded strip of land has been sealed and is fully controlled by Israel, which also collects taxes on the goods that are imported into Gaza. A fee is charged for this collection service and Israel decides if and when such tax revenues will be transferred to the Palestinian authorities. They have been used as a tool to pressure the Palestinians on controversial matters. Israel also supplies and therefore controls the electricity, water and communications. The Shekel is the Gaza currency. Due to repeated bombings, Gaza’s infrastructure is seriously degraded and the water and electricity supplies are always inadequate for the population’s needs and living conditions go progressively from bad to worse. To make matters worse, whenever they can, people with a decent level of education and marketable skills leave the place for somewhere safer, as is perfectly understandable. Gaza has been under this control by Israel for the last 47 years. The State of Israel is 66 years old and the average age of its population is about 30 years. Among Israeli Jews, 30 % were born abroad. Practically all Palestinians were born either in Israel itself or in the occupied territories, including Gaza.
This is not a confrontation between two comparable adversaries. It cannot be. Israel is an atomic power. It has unconditional support from the USA, which makes the most modern means of warfare available to Israel. Moreover, Israel is an advanced country in its own right, particularly in the military and technological fields, and has a huge, modern arsenal of its own to begin with. Gaza, on the other hand, has no helicopters or tanks or sophisticated armaments of any kind although it can produce rockets that inflict some limited damage. Israel is superbly well-equipped to block these rockets, defend its civilian population and repair damage from the occasional random hit. Gaza has no such protection: there are no sirens to alert the population or shelters where they can take refuge. The fight between Gaza and Israel would resemble a “war” let’s say, between the USA and El Salvador. There can be no fight in military terms. One side can attack practically at will with devastating power while the other has no such capacity. This is plainly seen in the statistics. At the time of this writing, there have been more than 220 Palestinians killed. That is the equivalent, in relative population terms, of 37 thousand people being killed in the USA. Israel to date has suffered only one fatality. Granted, the killing of one person is equally important, equally painful; human life is an absolute value.
It is said that Israel is simply exercising its right to self-defense. This is disputed. After the killing of the three young Israelis, the Government accused Hamas of their murder. Hamas has denied this. Israel has claimed that it has identified certain suspects but no evidence or details have ever been provided. Israel arrested hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank, including some who had just been freed from jail in an agreed exchange of prisoners and the Israeli Army destroyed the houses of the families of some of those suspects. Israel also attacked Gaza and five people were killed. A Palestinian boy was kidnapped and burned alive. The police arrested several suspects (nationalist Jews). Civil disturbances took place in East Jerusalem. Harsh repression followed and one demonstrator, an American cousin of the Palestinian burned alive, was brutally beaten by the police while unconscious. This beating was caught on tape and received some limited exposure in the mainstream press. The beaten teenager was then placed under arrest. The exchange of rockets then started. The only effective attack has been the Israeli one. So, it is difficult for any impartial observer not to conclude that what Israel is doing in Gaza is collective punishment. Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians as shields. In reality, Israel targets the houses of Hamas activists which are located, by definition, among civilians; in tall building in most cases. Israel considers targeting the private houses of militants as legal. Hamas also launches rockets towards Israeli towns as most homes have members in the military. It seems to be true that in many cases rockets are launched by Hamas from areas surrounded by civilians. Israel also initiates attacks from military bases which are located in many cases very close to towns.
Our conclusion is that the attacks were initiated by Israel as a form of collective punishment. It may have had other more strategic objectives. But that is a central topic which demands a separate analysis.