Now into its 16th month, Israel’s blockade of Gaza has created a severe humanitarian crisis for the 1.5 million inhabitants. Food, medicines, and basic necessities are scarce. With 85 per cent of the population reliant on United Nations handouts, children are severely malnourished.
When Israel closed the Karni cargo crossing, hundreds of factories shut down, throwing 25,000 out of work. The Israeli military has even banned fishing off the Gaza coast, firing on boats that defy them. Seriously ill Palestinians are invariably refused permission to leave Gaza for treatment, so they die in agony, like 20 year-old Nail al-Kurdi, waiting at the border crossing.
The shipment of fuel needed to run water pumps and generators for hospitals is extremely limited by Israel. Close to 100 out of 150 petrol stations have shut down.
Gaza is entirely sealed off from the outside world by a fence guarded by watchtowers, snipers and tanks. Israel controls Gaza’s airspace, coastal waters and airwaves. Gazans are being starved, beaten and killed into submission. During the month of October alone, as many as 46 Palestinians were killed, including a number of children.
Annapolis: a new sell-out
None of this even made it to the table at the “peace” talks in Annapolis, USA. Hamas, which won the Palestinian elections in 2006 but faced economic sanctions from Western powers and Israel, was barred from attending. Instead USA’s man in Palestine, President Mahmoud Abbas, was the sole negotiator, strong armed by the US and Israel into accepting a 437 word resolution which places no demands that Israel would find unacceptable, while insisting that the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority crush all resistance to Israel as a precondition for any settlement.
The statement says that the “implementation of the future peace treaty will be subject to the implementation of the road map, as judged by the United States". At least this has the merit of acknowledging the true relationship between the Palestinians and US imperialism.
Annapolis was never about giving justice to the Palestinians. It legitimised Israel’s stolen Palestinian lands and its “Apartheid Wall", which will take even more. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied refugees right of return to their original homes. To underscore Israel’s dictatorship over the Palestinians, its parliament, Knesset, passed a bill barring any division of Jerusalem.
Both Abbas and Olmert are endorsing a “two-state” solution. Abbas’ position exposes him for what he is: a weak puppet of the US. Recognising Israel as an exclusively Jewish state and agreeing to crush any resistance to it and US imperialism is an arch- reactionary solution to the conflict.
The central demand contained in the road map is for Abbas to ensure the “security of Israel” by dismantling “terrorist organisations". To prove his complicity, the PA police force, which is controlled by Abbas’ Fatah party, severely repressed an anti-Annapolis demonstration in Ramallah. Over 200 protesters were arrested and one man killed. So Abbas is now doing the Israeli army’s job for them.
But Abbas’ popularity is diminishing, even in his stronghold, the West Bank, so he is in a very weak position to attack Hamas. Israel, of course, would be delighted to help him by launching a military operation against Gaza. The divide and rule tactics of the imperialists are starting to come to fruition.
The siege of Gaza must be broken, the declaration of Annapolis made a dead letter. This means supporting the resistance fighting the Israel’s occupation and the traitors under Fatah’s leadership, and demanding Britain and the EU recognise the elected Hamas government and supply aid to Gaza.