A few days ago I read in the French newspaper "Le Monde" (22.12.2009) about a group of 16 NGOs (some of them well known, such as the UN, Oxfam, Amnesty International, etc.) claiming that "the international community had "betrayed" Gaza's inhabitants". The article includes a list of complaints, about which I had heard from someone working in one of those organizations, stating, among other things, that Israel was not allowing construction materials to be imported into Gaza. The articled described also the toll of this blockade on the citizens of Gaza - 40% of the active population being jobless, daily electricity cuts, tap water not being suitable for drinking, and more.
What I would like to discuss here is not the political decisions taken here in the Middle East, but the way Israelis relate to the situation and live with it. Most Israeli citizens sense they have no impact on the decision making in this area, and yet they have to live day by day with their consequences - something very hard to imagine for someone in Europe or anywhere else in the world.
As I was reading this article, I happened to receive a phone call from a friend; I immediately decided to share the news with him and gave him a simultaneous translation of this article. The man I was talking to, let's call him Chaim, is a very well informed person reading newspapers on a daily basis, including a news portal providing unpublished news. He had not heard about this claim until now. Haim's response was sarcastic: "Does the article also mention who is responsible for this deadlock?". I answered: "Sure, Israel is being blamed for this, that is, Israeli is being held responsible." Chaim sighed and said: "O, yes, sure, we are to be blamed for everything and that happens to the Palestinians! Why would they mention how Hamas is treating its citizens? Why would the Europeans bother to find out who is the real culprit! I guess we are expected to bow down and allow those Hamas people to keep shooting at us without responding. I believe that deep inside, they all wish us dead and would be happy to have the Hamas do the job for them".
