Gazans link hands in protest at Israeli blockade
In Gaza yesterday, 5,000 people lined the wall in an attempt to remind the world that the Israeli blockade against them continues.
Yesterday's protests might not have reached the 40,000 number which it's organisers wanted but the protest still stands as a useful reminder of the disgraceful embargo which Israel is carrying out against the people of Gaza.While ordinary Palestinians protested peacefully, militants launched several rockets at southern Israel, badly wounding a nine-year-old in the town of Sderot.
Jamal al-Khadary, of the People's Committee Against the Siege, which organised the protest, said neither the low turnout nor the rockets marred their message to the international community. "The important thing is to tell the world about what's happening in Gaza," he said.
The organisers were hoping to repeat Hamas's success last month when it buoyed community spirit and drew international attention to the human effect of Israel's isolation of Gaza by blasting open the wall on the border between the impoverished territory and Egypt.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians streamed across to buy food, medicines, building materials and other items in short supply as a result of the blockade.
And, of course, all of this infighting came about because Israel, the US and the EU refused to accept the result of a democratic election and set about undermining Hamas at every stage.The pressure of the blockade, which has plunged Gaza into poverty, has also caused anger among those who voted for Hamas in 2006 in the belief that it would clean up corruption and improve services.
Some analysts said yesterday's protest was partially an attempt at rebuilding confidence among Gazans.
"In their election promises to the people, it wasn't [about] jihad, it was about change and reform, meaning a better life, better services, more freedom of movement," said Shalom Harrari at the Institute for Counter Terrorism in Herzliya. "But on the contrary, life has become 100% worse because of internal factional fighting and the closure of the borders."
At a time when the people of Kosovo are being encouraged to form their own state, the people of Gaza continue to live under seige, suffering under the longest occupation in modern history. Any reminder of that injustice is to be welcomed and the very fact that so many newspapers are carrying the story says the protest has achieved it's aims.
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