Oppenheim Arts & Letters

On Gaza's Blockade, Question Authority

The sustained blockade that has been enforced in and around the Gaza Strip has had significant repercussions for the people of Gaza. They have been deprived of adequate supplies of essentials such as food and fuel. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says that a large proportion of families lack the means to purchase even the most basic items, including food, soap, school materials and clean drinking water. According to Amnesty International, the overall blockade on Gaza has led to mass unemployment, extreme poverty and food price rises caused by shortages. Eighty percent of the population remains dependent on humanitarian aid, but the UN says that as a result of the blockade, only one quarter of the necessary aid is able to reach those who need it. [1]

After reviewing the "law of armed conflict" into which fit Israel's operations to maintain its sea blockade of Gaza, researcher Katherine Iliopoulos moves on to the effects of the blockade on Gaza's residents.  The above paragraph, as with much rhetoric on the subject on the web, bears close reading.  In fact, take it sentence by sentence:

1. The sustained blockade that has been enforced in and around the Gaza Strip has had significant repercussions for the people of Gaza.

A fair topic sentence, it includes the possibility of forestalling the development of Gaza as a forward operating base for Iran and the strip's transformation again into an active combat zone.

2. They have been deprived of adequate supplies of essentials such as food and fuel.

Israel's overland throughput of constructive goods and consumer supplies has been as substantial as it has been relentless. 

Factual data reported out by Israel include a 2009- 2010 shipping report --  http://www.scribd.com/doc/32598706/Gaza-Strip-Merchandise-and-Humanitarian-Aid-2009-2010 -- and a weekly update, e.g., http://www.scribd.com/doc/32650677/Gaza-Strip-Merchandise-and-Humanitarian-Aid-May-30th-June-5th-2010

In addition, one may find on the web photographs of swelling market stalls and productive agricultural business as well as the lively and modern "Roots Nighclub" video. [3]

By the numbers, Gaza would seem awash in food and fuel aplenty. 

3. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says that a large proportion of families lack the means to purchase even the most basic items, including food, soap, school materials and clean drinking water.

" . . . lack the means to purchase . . . ."  -- that should signal the presence within Gaza of a distributive economic issue.  No less than in, say, Somalia, aid may flow into a country by the thousands of tons, but once in may not reach its intended recipients or reach them in optimal ways.

4. According to Amnesty International, the overall blockade on Gaza has led to mass unemployment, extreme poverty and food price rises caused by shortages.

It's understood that with the exception of fishing, the seaport cannot operate, but the emphasis on missing imaginary port operations and jobs as a panacea for what ails Gaza obscures economic potential elsewhere in the society, both in terms of gross earnings as well as in the social structure undergirding the distribution of proceeds. 

Focusing on the sea blockade scratches a certain itch, usually anti-Semitic or knee-jerk monkey-see-and-do, but the body would seem larger than the one irritant and worth separate independent study within the discipline or practice of economic development.

5. Eighty percent of the population remains dependent on humanitarian aid, but the UN says that as a result of the blockade, only one quarter of the necessary aid is able to reach those who need it.

The UN has been saying a lot of things about Israel for years, much of it similarly unreasoned.

I've mentioned this to Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others in the information trade: I want "clear, accurate, and complete" factual data--photographs, reports, videos--on such as Gaza, scrupulously authenticated and captioned, so that it may be seen through other than the prismatic slits of Internationalist and Islamist ideology as well as state interest.

Moreoever, I wish to see--to obtain and collect--multiply sourced and redundant primary information, so that one's impression, which may when relayed contribute to public impression, becomes corroborated, tested, and increasingly valid and reliable as well as properly interpreted, by which I mean empirically grounded and thoughtful and reasoned in every aspect.

That life may well be uncomfortable for most in Gaza--I don't doubt it: however, what part of domestic economic and social discomfort lies with Hamas and its administration would seem an as yet unasked,  unanswered, and particularly unexamined question.

What we know is Israel's sea blockade helps minimize the presence of war materiel in Gaza and consequently forestalls its progress as a platform from which to attack Israel:

This past week intermittent rocket fire from the Gaza Strip continued targeting the western Negev. Six rocket hits were identified in Israeli territory, three on May 31 and three on June 1. All the rockets fell in open areas. There were no casualties and no damage was done. The Popular Resistance Committees and Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, claiming they were in response to the events surrounding the flotilla.

On June 1 an anti-tank missile was fired at an IDF force engaged in routine security activity near the border fence in the southern Gaza Strip. The force returned fire (IDF Spokesman, June 1, 2010). The military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the missile (PIJ website, June 1, 2010. [2]

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center report, from which the above has been copied, includes charts illustrating both the quantity of material lobbed into Israel from Gaza and its distrubtion across time in the post-Cast Lead period.

My appeal to my fellows is general: we know the lingo pertaining to standards in journalism and social science research--may we with greater curiosity, diligence, honesty, and integrity look into claims made in passing.

Cited Reference

1. Iliopoulos, Katherine.  "The Legality of Israel's Naval Blockade of Gaza."  Crimes of War Project, June 8, 2010: http://www.crimesofwar.org/onnews/news-gaza9.html

2. Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.  "Rocket Fire Continues."  June 2-8, 2010: http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/ipc_e089.htm

3. OA&L.  "Israel - Gaza: Basics."  June 9, 2010: http://commart.typepad.com/oppenheim_arts_letters/page/2/

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Rubio on Israel

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Additional Recommended Viewing: Netanyahu's Speech - UN - September 2009

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Other Rachels, Not Protesting, Murdered Anyway

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co2X5LKH5n0

Tip Source: Facebook.

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Pierre Rehov: Counter-Witness, Counter-Propaganda

Source: YouTube poster "Occupation101".  "Gaza's Reality."  YouTube, April 3, 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0T3jMRNwV8.

I'm inclined to consider the "April 3, 2007" posting date a blooper considering what seems like the inclusion of winter 2009 combat footage in the piece.

The problem with propaganda is that it eludes authentication through triangulated corroboration, i.e., the observation of similar data from separate and separately interested (or disinterested) sources.

Whatever happened to simple "who, what, where, when, how, and why" plus the reading of many newspapers, now the query for many web searches and sites?

The problem on the Palestinian side: "collaboration"--what a loose noun is that one--continues to carry a death penalty in Gaza: look not yet on Flickr or Facebook for images associated with affluence, good health, and good spirits (not to mentioned good building repair and new construction) in Gaza.  It's not that they may not be there; it's rather that showing off the brighter side (like the Roots Restaurant and Nightclub -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJvvkXYD12U & http://www.rootsclub.ps/) would seem to undermine the impetus for "freedom flotilla" and suicide bombers (and not that Ahmadinejad should care to spare Gaza as a weapons depot or collateral target in a nuclear exchange).

As a reminder, here's that marvelously enticing and sexy and thoroughly modern and respectable Roots video:

Source: YouTube poster "Sadafdotps".  "Roots Club."  YouTube, August 9, 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJvvkXYD12U

Look again, and you may see a well known (and well dressed) dignatary or two.

The Roots Club owners, Cactus ("For Development and Investment"), have additional photographs posted at  http://www.rootsclub.ps/gallery.php.

It should come as no secret to any that southern American society may not be the only to feature "mill shacks and mansions," i.e., the poor and wealthy side by side.

Which side do you want to see in, say, Baltimore: "The Projects" or "Harborplace"?

A short documentary on Baltimore showing the urban nature of the city. We tried to document the current socioeconomic diversity within the city by capturing its true nature; it's poor, it's homeless, it's a mess. We even ventured into a homeless park where the city has allowed people to create tent shelters and develop their own little community within the area. It was nuts. [2]

Source: YouTube poster "stephenpeyser".  "Baltimore City."  YouTube, December 7, 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGBFd3X_hfs

You see at the end of Stephen Peyser's piece a reversion to a larger and more encompassing thing called "Baltimore".  Here's a more focused upscale view of the same city:

Source: YouTube poster "VickiPolin".  "Baltimore's Inner Harbor."  YouTube, January 10, 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAymLFq9NH0&feature=related

I didn't choose the above for its music track by Cat Stevens AKA Yusuf Islam (http://www.catstevens.com/) but would call it fortuitous given its adaptation in the visual promotion of one of America's greatest cities.

Here's the question: which Baltimore do you believe exists?  Which is the propaganda?

If I asked "Which Gaza do you believe exists?" would the question not be every bit as absurd as the two about Baltimore?

Where access to information is open and robust, as it is with a high bandwidth connection on the Internet in an open society such as exists in the United States and much of Europe and elsewhere, we're sooner or later simply going to see the dirt streets beside the paved highways, the look of poverty beside the brimming grocery markets, for such have nothing to do with America, Jews, Israel, or Danish cartoonists but with economic behavior and public policy the world over.

Here I return to culture, language, and conflict (and the subject of this roundabout post):

For Pierre Rehov, life only took on true meaning when he began putting it at risk. He had been a movie producer, a novelist, a journalist and a lawyer. But none of those professions satisfied his searching soul. In moments of deep personal introspection he questioned himself, “Who and what am I really?” For him, the answer came when he turned on the news on October 6, 2000, and saw the images of the shooting of Mohammed al-Dura, the 12 year-old Palestinian boy, whom Israel was summarily accused of targeting. “I was in shock,” says Rehov, who rarely watches the pro-Arab French broadcasts. “In this case, I knew as a producer that there was something very fishy about the images. The angles just weren’t right.” [1]

French filmmaker Pierre Rehov has enjoined the media war involved with Gaza, the Palestinian cause, and the immense but unreasoning anti-Semitism of Israel's surrounding Arab world (and much of the world beyond).

As most know who have had the least curiosity about it, the "Muhammad al-Durra incident" as it has been titled on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_al-Durrah_incident) has ranked among the most contested footage for validity.  It and other pieces have given rise to the term "Pallywood" to describe scripted agitprop put together to impress the world with the horrors of Israeli services (contribution of electricity, water, humanitarian aid throughput, and with the QIZ's--see previous post--plus construction activities, the facilitation of jobs).  Wikipedia features a page for that also (and "Hezbollywood" too): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallywood.

On the Israeli side, there's no need to play the same game.

As noted here in "Israel - Gaza: Basics" (http://commart.typepad.com/oppenheim_arts_letters/2010/06/06-1630.html), Gaza's own photojournalists (and as with the Roots Club, businessmen) must inevitably record what exists even if it's a good thing (like the delivery of concrete and steel to a hospital for post-war repairs).  Until proven somehow inauthentic, I'm accepting the following as perfectly true (and I hope to have more of the basic "where, when then who, what, and how" on it soon).  For now, it's another portrait of Gaza as recorded and put together by French documentary filmmaker Pierre Rehov, and it includes a little bit of Palistinian flag waving in New York City followed by an ending telling what the bother's really about--simple, simple blinded, disingenuous, habituated, irresponsible, and thoughtless hate.

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Only in blogging may one get away with this--not propaganda, not cause-related, not purposeful: only beautiful and sweet, and, aw, heck, I'm just an ol' Maryland boy at heart, and if you grow up in the "Corridor" (Baltimore-Washington), this is one of the places to go when the time for going out has come and there's a little spare change to cover the visit.  Again by Vicki Polin:

Source: YouTube poster "Vickipolin."  "Inner Harbor (Baltimore, MD)".  YouTube, November 21, 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7FT1qvq8OU&feature=related

Gaza.  Jerusalem.  Baltimore.  Might as well add Islamabad, Mumbai, Mogadishu, Jakarta, Montreal, Riyadh, Beirut, Tehran, and so on: whatever the city or country, no matter the demographics and with hardly a care for rabid clerics anywhere, we are sooner or later going to see all of it honestly, as it is, and from both sides and then some.

Reference

1. Rehov, Pierre. "PIERRE REHOV and the "Contre-Champs" project: Inspired by Aliza Davidovit's article in Lifestyles Magazine." (abstracts): http://www.pierrerehov.com/about.htm.

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Freestyle on the Gaza Boat Show

"The goal is to use the international law on our side to enter Gaza. If Israel wants to resist, like a pirate state, it can resist. If we are detained, more ships will come in a month or two."

Israeli expatriot Dror Feller as quoted in "Cyprus bans Free Gaza boats," YNet News, May 27, 2010: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3895287,00.html

Perhaps I'm having a little fun here, not really writing or searching (although I searched and waited for the Cyprus story to break after reading a short note on it elsewhere on the web), but reading where a timely curiosity takes me, grabbing a zinger, and pasting it up for readers to chase back to the journalism from whence it came.

In the inverse mirror that becomes the internationalist's cause, the still handful of boats with crews intent on running Israel's blockade of Gaza ports, a sort faux blockade because Israel, after inspection of cargoes for war materials and supplies, trucks tons of aid through to Gaza weekly, has given itself the banner "Freedom Flotilla".

I'm calling it the "Gaza Boat Show."

Other boats (and submarines) have been floating into the neighborhood, and if not so close, close enough given moving landing strips and guided missiles.

The Gaza Boat Show makes a pretty ribbon for fastening to an explosive package that includes recently targeted missiles in Syria (for a more up-to-the-minute brief in a Janes-like wrapper, head to www.debka.com).

The belief in some kind of sadistic Israeli siege or Gaza has had its own zany religious mysticism for decades. 

What started with profitable Arab land sales to Jewish interests and the tedious draining of swamps, not to mention successful efforts to reduce the incidence of malaria in the neighborhood, and has gotten to the point of sharing electrical grid and water system infrastructure, not to mention provisioning an as yet politically angry and incoherent neighboring population (well, probably not really, but at least several of those, including Hamas, who claim to speak for it) has been flipped through the dark mirror of language and come out as a display of naked "Zionazi" aggression: shame on the Jewish state for opening more border crossings this year, improving the transit of tourists into Bethlehem to facilitate their spending their money there, and hosting a slew of political and religious organizations critical of the state in its own capital!

The carte blanche given to Israel by the United States has been dangerous for Israel's national security as well as for the national security of the United States.

Wright, Ann.  "The Audacity of the Free Gaza Flotilla: Breaking the Israeli Siege of Gaza May Lead to an Attack at Sea, Detention Camps and Deportation."  Common Dreams.org, May 27, 2010: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/27-1

I believe "depotation" in this context refers to the return of foreign nationals, including several Americans, to their native countries.

Sounds scary.

Wright's article goes on to note, "Those passengers include Hedy Epstein, an 85 year old holocaust survivor, Parliamentarians from Germany and Ireland, two former diplomats from the United States, a retired U.S. Army Colonel, authors, journalists, activists, businesspersons and clergy."

My suggestion: after diverting the Gaza Boat Show and sorting through its coterie of passionate attention seekers, Israel should refrain from sending any home, but rather release them into Gaza with the mission of providing its 1.5 million souls with an accountable, fair, inclusive, responsible, responsive, tolerant, and transparent democratic government.

Given all that the boat show's good hearts have done so far for Gaza, I should think that Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria's President al-Assad, and Iran's President Ahmadinejad will be ever so happy, no Christian need doubt this, to receive them and provide the imprimatur for 700 experienced western activists, bureaucrats, businesspersons, clergy, diplomats, former military, politicians, and so on to takeover and show the world how much better they can do with the same community and its associated social, political, and religious legacies, loyalties, and resources.

Other Reference

Ann Wright Palestine Journal: http://www.route-online.com/read/ann-wright-palestine-journal.html

Sherman, Martin.  "The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War." Review of James L. Gelvin's book bearing the same title (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2007).  The Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2007: http://www.meforum.org/2609/the-israel-palestine-conflict

Wikipedia.  "Ann Wright": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Wright

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