“We have nothing left to lose. I would rather die with my family under the rubble of our house than have a humiliating truce’: Palestinian youth demand justice”

‘I'd rather die w/ my family under the rubble of our house than have a humiliating truce': Gaza youth demand justice http://t.co/ALaJYNKupE — Mondoweiss (@Mondoweiss) July 21, 2014

Palestinians in Gaza have been suffering a long blockade from the outside world, such blockade, was placed by Israel and enforced in part by Egypt by closing Rafah crossing, which it is the only other border to the outside world.

Palestinians in Gaza see the siege to the Strip worse than a direct war at them, the siege of Gaza is a slow death. A truce with Israel that does not include end of the blockade is only temporary cease of fire.

Fishermen are harassed everyday by Israel boats that illegally patrol Gaza’s waters. Fisherman are confined to a 3 nautical miles to fish.

Excerpt from 3 Miles to Fish or Die,

“Why did you break the 3 mile limit?” an Israeli soldier asked him. “During Oslo, we were allowed to reach 20 miles so why do you prevent us from going past 3 miles? These 3 miles not enough,” Al-Hesy responded.

Gaza is not a pleasant place to be. The Israeli occupation smothers and suffocates, it makes one highly attuned to one’s surroundings in unnatural ways, or ways that were once natural but should no longer be. Notes from behind the Blockade



Fire Water

I took a much-needed shower after a day of harvesting olives near the buffer zone and my skin still burns. My eyes itch as well. I’m not quite sure what this is about. Gaza’s water contamination is well-documented — Israel damaged the sewage facilities here during “Operation Cast Lead” causing sewage to penetrate Gaza’s coastal aquifer. There is a high level nitrates in the water here (nitrates come from waste and cause “blue baby syndrome”) as well as high saline levels (tap water is undrinkable), but I haven’t heard anything about this weird itching and burning. International Activist in Gaza

There’s a serious Israeli blockade of Gaza. You’ll notice Israeli fences, boundaries, and supervised crossings all around Gaza. Israel heavily controls the flow of goods through these channels, including food, medicine, construction materials, and the like. The state reason it does that is to limit Hamas’ ability to resupply itself militarily; for instance, Hamas and other militant groups often home-build rockets that get fired into Israeli towns and cities. These restrictions also severely affect civilians. To deal with the military and civilian effects of the blockade, Hamas built well over a thousand tunnels out of Gaza — mostly into Egypt. Israel’s stated reason for the ground incursion into Gaza is shutting down tunnels into Israel built for attacks, but it also may want to shut down Hamas supply tunnels into Egypt. Vox.com

Jerusalem Post published on last week an Egyptian proposed cease of fire that many in Gaza believes to be Israel crafted, such cease of fire agreement was rejected by Hamas for the simple reason that they were not invited to participate in the conversations and the cease of fire does not help to end the conflict in Gaza at all, it is simply temporary cease of fire.

Historically Israel has broke every cease of fire signed when continues with the target assassinations on Palestinian leaders in Gaza and around the world, the latest target assassinations during negotiated cease fire Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, on January 19, 2010 and Ahmed Jabari who Hours before to be assassinated, he have received the draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel, which included mechanisms for maintaining the cease-fire in the case of a flare-up between Israel and the factions in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza ask 10 very easy achievable points to end the rockets to Israel:

End completely Gaza siege including the 3-fishing-nautical-miles, release of all political prisoners including the prisoners re-arrested after Shilat deal exchange, release the 500 or so arrested in West Bank after the 3 Israeli soldiers were killed, including Hamas members of Palestinian parliament , stop the assassination of Palestinian political leaders and and international supervision of the Gazan seaport in place of the current Israeli blockade, which was suggested by Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Attiyah, on July 14, 2014

I leave you to reflect on the words of Benjamin Netayahu included in a book he co_authored in 1986, in his words he explain exactly why Israeli actions against the Palestinians are carried out. He is doing exactly what he said in 1986.

Benjamin Netayahu best known by Bibi in 1986 co-authored a book called TERRORISM How The West Can Win. In the Chapter “Defining Terrorism”, you find the following statement.