Clashes In Gaza

Filed under: Arab Societies, Media, International, Palestine — Eman at 5:43 pm on Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Watching the heart-breaking news of violence in Gaza, showing Palestinians fighting each other and causing the death of so many innocent people, it’s so easy from the comfort of one’s own home to “condemn”, or call Palestinians different kinds of things such as “stupid”, or “uncivilized” or “savages”.
But what did we really do to prevent this from happening? did we at least support Palestinians with regard to the sanctions they’re suffering from? Did we help them convince the world to respect their elections and their choices? Did we ask to give them a chance? no, we only wait and watch and then comes our favorite part: condemning.

Clashes broke out following the Palestinian president’s decision to have early presidential and parliamentary elections.
And now we have Fatah and Hamas fighting… such a big mistake!
This reaction is so wrong, yet as disappointing, as wrong, and as saddening as their reaction is, I can’t but find myself understanding it.
I mean, what do we expect of people suffering under occupation, starving because of stupid sanctions that took place only as collective punishment to teach people a lesson: democracy is just a theoretical term, used only as an excuse to interfere in your own affairs and to fulfill our own interests, but if you apply this term in a way that contradicts our interests then there’s a high price to pay, and then we’ll be ready to watch your society fall apart and starve to death.

Few months ago, when no Palestinian-Palestinian fights took place, and when Palestinians were suffering from sanctions to the extreme, no damn country interfered to support or to help the starving people, no one including the Arab World.
But now, when there’s a chance that the sanctions have proven themselves “useful” and there is finally “hope” that new elections will take place and will be as undemocratic as the –you know who- wish them to be, then the current situation has immediately became of interest to the whole world, including the Arab world, and is now considered “a matter of security”, as they prefer calling it, and so we find everyone interfering to “calm Palestinians down” and to “urge Palestinians to work as one hand” and to “find a solution”,well, at least they’re finally interfering… positively.

Fact 1: Few care whether Palestinians have no work, no food, no water, no electricity, no freedom or no dignity, and those few do nothing but watch or throw speeches, and rarely make a difference.
Fact 2: No democracy allowed to be applied in Palestine (or elsewhere in the Arab world unless it meets the interests of certain democracy-making-countries).
Fact 3: No one cares if Palestinians exterminate themselves as long as they elect the “right” ones, those being the ones who are ready to cooperate with outer interference anyway this interference wishes, even if it contradicts the interests of Palestinians or deny them their most basic rights on any level of life.
Fact 4: Those fights are understood as a reaction, but are not accepted as a solution and are SO WRONG and should stop now. But in order to make them stop, Palestinians should be supported: a) by canceling the unfair sanctions, and b) by letting Palestinians practice democracy the way its occupier and the rest of the “democratic” world practice it.

6 Comments »

Comment by Napo

December 19, 2006 @ 6:48 pm

I absolutely and categorically reject putting the blame on the ‘other’ when it comes
to the palestinian ‘issue’. First, most recently Hamas came to power not because they’re
popuplar but due to a discontent and resentement of fatah’s PLO which did not improve
the well being of its people, its management practises. Corruption was rampant, and
accountability was virtually non existant.

The average person is not interested in grabbing the ancestor’s land anymore (that of 48) but
he is interested in peace, better living standards and prosperity for himself and his kids.
They elected Hamas on the promise to improve their daily life and cleanup the
corruption in the PA bureaucracy. That didn’t happen.

Hamas tricked them, Hamas was never a political force and will never be, it’s a militia
and it can not govern a regular state, let alone an embattled nation, and in palestine what we
need right now, is good governance.

Imposing sanctions on the Hamas led government is legit in the eyes of the super-powers because
these nations feature a strong jewish elite that helps make policy. I can see how it would be hard
for a lobbyist to favour pouring $$$ to the PA authority, when the latter is determinated to
wipe out Israel from the map or not even recognize it.

When a line on your balance sheets reads ‘AID’ and this line represents 80% of your receivables,
then no matter what you carry on internally, be it a democratic exercice or war games, you will
always be at the mercy of your donors.

The first thing to do, in my opinion, is to get out of this unfortunate, yet predictable imbroglio
in order to create the conditions for sustainability and viable statehood…and among these conditions
is stability and peace, not with Israel but among themselves first.

Elections is the way to go here. Because Hamas failed to ‘dance’

I pray for the average palestinian !

Comment by mohamamd

December 19, 2006 @ 8:15 pm

sad but true , i wanted to write about this but since you did i won’t , today i was asked 3 times by three diffrent ppl , who do you think it right , hamad or fate7 , and what they don’t understand that i don’t give a crap about any of them , what i care about is my people , palestinians who are starving and can’t find food or water in some places .
the 4 facts you’re talking about are sooooo true , and this is depressing , i watch and watch and i can’t do anything about it , i live here and i can’t do a thing, god help them

Comment by refugee

December 21, 2006 @ 2:41 am

The whole Palestinian issue for the moment disturb me the way it is turning to ,let be the rest of the world verses Palestine ,our Palestinian rights a nation is in conflict with Zionism ,not Judaism ,to day the authority is at the lowest epitome !!!!!! and who to blame ?,no it is not Israel as much,as us Palestinians to blame and hold our selves accountable .After 70 years of classical non creative struggle we end up fighting one another !!!!!!,I am not only disturbed but more hurt about a lost focus on our cause ,I am 67 years of age years ago to date I am considered as one of many from the generation of the “Nakba” means in English the Catastrophe referred to the 1949 fall of Palestine , my status as a stateless in Diaspora , to day my status is far better than those warring at home in Palestine supposedly at home progressing , again who is to blame , over and above of the long list of those accountable to be blamed , the waring Palestinians fractions ,Hamas the so called elected democratically ,that caused through its theology mind yes religious thelogy ,to cause hunger and desperation of the people ,and I should stand and be commanded after having literary created hunger and chaos ,if HMAS democratically elected and failed to delver what promised , irrespective of the reasons after 8 months of hunger ,they should get off , but no they stand and emotionally using the slogans of the 1950’s ,Yet the opposition Fatah is as …….As Hamas , to days state of affairs is not to fight with Al- Jazzera style rhetoric ,But to days fight to higher an efficient economical and sociopolitical consultancy expertise to see how we can use many lost windows of opportunities to deal straight with the west , using same standards in a talk and thought , not by present diction that well chosen to please the people whom by now are fed up and want action from who ever can deliver . But what the west is after opportunities and gain in our area ,why not search and see what we can offer of such opportunities and create jobs and go towards being from aid , not by fighting a lost war in advance ,there is something wrong , the whole world advances and we are losing yards of land and rights every year .We moan and grown when we lose innocent people to the Israeli bullets ,but seldom we mention our killings , yes it is of lower count ,because we don’t have the arms to match , do we hold back and and think why is that ? no we go on repeating same mistakes again and again.To days wars are fought by building a structure that can invite and absorb Capital MONY ,to our territories ,I have not heard yet about a plan or a project that we can independently offer to investors to come on our ground and build and create jobs ,our working force still totally dependent on Israeli jobs .And we cant agree on a government that may get us out of this dilemma ,the world is changing so is the style of liberation .But I am afraid we are static and and no aim or a goal to go to .

Comment by refugee

December 21, 2006 @ 3:00 am

I have this quiz for the readers that may teach us how to maneuver and new ways to reach our goals : who was the real Hero in finishing the apertaite in South Africa ?
Frederik Willem de Klerk or Nelson Mandela ?
below you may find the clues to help solving the quiz:

Nelson Mandela was the first President of South Africa to be elected in fully-representative democratic elections. Before his presidency he was a prominent anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress. He was tried and imprisoned for his involvement in underground armed resistance activities. The armed struggle was a last resort; he had remained steadfastly committed to non-violenceThrough his 27-year imprisonment, much of it spent in a cell on Robben Island, Mandela became the most widely known figure in the struggle against South African apartheid. Although the apartheid regime and nations sympathetic to it considered him and the ANC to be communists and terrorists, the armed struggle was an integral part of the overall campaign against apartheid. The switch in policy to that of reconciliation, which Mandela pursued upon his release in 1990, facilitated a peaceful transition to fully-representative democracy in South Africa.

Frederik Willem de Klerk , was the last State President of Apartheid South Africa, serving from September 1989 to May 1994. De Klerk was also leader of the National Party (which later became the New National Party from February 1989 to September 1997.
De Klerk is best known for agreeing to end apartheid South Africa’s racial segregation policy, and supporting the transformation of South Africa into a multi-racial democracy by entering into the negotiations that resulted in all citizens, including the country’s black majority, having equal voting and other rights. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela in 1993 for his role in the ending of apartheid.
He was the Deputy President of South Africaduring the presidency of Nelson Mandela until 1996. In 1997, he retired from politics.

Comment by Hajar

December 31, 2006 @ 3:10 am

Eid Mubarak! May Allah accept your good deeds and bestow his mercy and blessings on you, iA. =)

Comment by Jordan Blogs

December 31, 2006 @ 4:19 am

Salam,

Happy Holidays !

Please visit us at the new Jordan Blogs portal: (http://jordanblogs.net)

Peace

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