Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, after an Israeli air strike in 2014. Ahmed Hjazy/Demotix. All Rights Reserved.
In her seminal book, The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein described the geopolitical situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories as “a warning to the world”. This warning was of a creeping ‘disaster apartheid’ characterised by safe ‘green zones’ which look like Israel, and militarised, disaster-stricken ‘red zones’ which look like Gaza. When Klein wrote The Shock Doctrine in 2007, Israel had just pulled out its ground troops and settlers from Gaza following Hamas’ election to the Palestinian Authority in 2006. The land, air and sea blockade of the densely populated Gaza Strip, which is home to 1.8 million Palestinians, 80 percent of whom are registered refugees, had just begun. Since 2006, Gaza has suffered four large-scale military attacks, leaving thousands dead, many more thousands injured, bereaved, and destitute. In 2009, Israel’s Operation Cast Lead destroyed 80 percent of the Gaza Strip’s civilian infrastructure. Reconstruction, largely paid for by EU and US aid, has been difficult and slow, as each subsequent military attack has put waste to previous effort.
The World Bank announced on 22 May 2015 that Gaza’s economy was on the verge of collapse, with 43 percent of residents unemployed and 40 percent of Gaza’s population considered living below the poverty line. What makes the situation even more desperate is that 44 percent of Gaza’s population is under the age of 14. The situation is worsening, and with Gaza’s borders closed to trade and population movement heavily restricted increasing numbers of people are attempting perilous journeys across the Mediterranean. On the other side they find themselves face to face with Europe’s hostile and unwelcoming borders.
