19th January
Bethlehem.
Yet another ridiculous statement from Israel regarding Gaza has emerged. Shlomo Dror, spokesman for the Israeli military’s civil administration has said that it is “unacceptable that people in [the Israeli town of] Sderot should live in fear every day while people in the Gaza Strip are living life as usual.” Is his implication that the residents of Sderot are actually worse off than those in Gaza? Or is this an indication that he considers Israeli fear to be worse than Palestinian death? His comment also overlooks the fact that Gazans actually have a great deal more to be fearful of than the residents of Sderot. A glance at some facts tells you this –a total of two people in Sderot were killed in all of 2007 by Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza. If two people are killed in a day in Gaza, it is now regarded as a good one.
The reality is that in Gaza, things are terrible. Although it is just a few miles south from here, since moving here nearly five months ago, I have not spoken with anyone here who has been able to go to Gaza recently, or with anyone from Gaza who has been able to come here to the West Bank. Gaza istotally isolated, and is having it’s life-blood (often literally) drained from it while it’s oxygen supply of Israeli dependent trade is choked. We are watching the death of a nation – but the nation is not just Gaza, it is Palestine.
