From a protest in Brussels to memorialize those killed in Gaza. Picture by Monasse Thierry/ANDBZ/ABACA/ABACA/PA Images. All rights reserved. Recent disturbing images from the Gaza border have created a terrible anguish in the public’s imagination, as Palestinian men and women, young and old, headed to the Israeli border. The protest campaign, ‘The Great March of Return’, declared the right of Palestinian refugees to return to the land they were forced to flee in 1948. At least 118 protestors were killed, as Israeli soldiers fired on the crowds using live ammunition, tear gas and rubber bullets. The question now is not only how to respond to recent conflict on the border, but to address the underlying causes that produced these disturbing events.
The head of the Israeli military had warned that conditions in Gaza were so severe they were likely to implode. Little attention was paid, and decisions made in air-conditioned offices in Jerusalem were totally disconnected from the desperation of Palestinian lives. Politicians at the top echelons of power chose to keep their heads in the sand.
Palestinians face ecological and humanitarian disaster. A special UN report issued in September 2015 warned that by 2020, the Gaza Strip could become uninhabitable, stemming from a decade siege by Israel and Egypt. Unemployment is at 44%, the water is undrinkable and raw sewage pours into the sea. More recently, President Abbas has imposed sanctions on Gaza halting the shipment of medicines and cutting payment for electricity. Many parties are implicated, and the resistant politics of the Hamas government prevents easy solutions.
