The situation of the Gaza Strip can be described as a humanitarian disaster but completely man-made - more concretely, Israeli’s policy-made. A high poverty rate hits its population in inhuman conditions, since the access to necessary goods and services for basic survival are limited by the blockade. A report from the UN [1] described Gaza situation as hopeless to recover and irreversibly driven to disaster if there is no policy change (B’tselem, 2017).
The implementation of the blockade by Israel in the Gaza Strip was initiated during the 90s establishing a rigid system of permits to enter or exit Palestinian territories. Once the Second Intifada broke out, the restrictions in mobility and transportation were completely limited, reduced or even prohibited. When Hamas got into political power of the territory in 2007, the Israeli response was brutally strong “turning almost two million people into prisoners inside the Gaza Strip, effecting an economic collapse and propelling Gaza residents into dependency on international aid” (B’tselem, 2017). Starting from the understanding that it is a highly and notably complex situation, this article will try to understand roots and causes of the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, as well as the main economic and political challenges in order to end the blockade.
The Gaza Strip: the culmination of Israeli occupation
The State of Israel for Palestinians meant the tragic episode of Nakba in 1948- or “the catastrophe”, as Palestinians hold it in their collective memory. Almost 80% of the population that lived in the territory became refugees and those few who remained became second category citizens in a Jewish state separated politically, military and geographically (Sa'di & Abu-Lughod, 2007). Among other consequences, this lead to a completely disintegrated society that was “irreversible changed” (Sa'di & Abu-Lughod, 2007). Because of the Nakba, Gaza entered in its first big economic crisis, since it was a region based on agriculture and commercial exchanges with neighbour regions (Western, 2009). At that moment, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) was established, which made the region highly dependent on international aid for basic survival. Furthermore, the dislocation of refugees caused the development of a national displaced identity which, in a way, created a divided but strong cultural root. Also, internal division in the Palestinian resistance movement emerged, given the fact that other political options, such as Hamas – an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood -, appeared as a contra-power to Fatah and strongly rooted in Gaza (Western, 2009).
Gaza’s situation was increasingly devastated because of the occupation, clashes and rebellions (or intifadas) war, economic difficulties, lack of political interest in a solution for the region - locally and internationally - and inhuman living conditions in the territory as well as lack of a health or education system. Any attempt for political organization – violent or non-violent - in Gaza was heavily smashed and boycotted through the imprisonment of activists, tortures, collective sanctions and many social, political and cultural restrictions.
Systematic bombings on Gaza were an expression of an explicit Israeli policy to isolate and suffocate the region. For instance, the military operation “Cast Lead” (from 2008 to 2009) executed by Israeli forces caused the death of more than 5000 Palestinian civilians and almost half of them were children (Western, 2009). During the operation “Protective Edge” (2014), with a high-tech military, economic and political superiority, the State of Israel deployed a massive operation in Gaza with a clear political aim: to disarticulate Hamas and demonstrate domination responding to its arising political influence in the territory (Joronen, 2016). Only until 2008, more than 4600 Palestinian houses have been destroyed and 3000 partially demolished (Western, 2009).
Any attempt for political organization – violent or non-violent - in Gaza was heavily smashed and boycotted through the imprisonment of activists, tortures, collective sanctions and many social, political and cultural restrictions.
Gazan’s streets, shops, public properties, agricultural land, infrastructures, and a long list of basic needs, have been smashed by bulldozers [2] with weak plans for further reconstruction and efficient planning defined as “infrastructural violence” to the day to day life (Western, 2009) constituting clear human rights violations. However, beyond direct and colonialist violence – direct, structural and cultural, using Galtung conceptualization – it is possible to identify a clear Israeli mediatic, cultural, political and social hegemonic discourse inverting the roles and victimhood.
Current living conditions are not better off. For instance, in 2017, unemployment rates are notably high, with a 71.5% among women and 61.9% among young people under 29 years old. 92.2% of pumped water is unpotable or contaminated and electricity is available only in specific hours because of Israeli restrictions, which creates further problematics in schools, in medical equipment, or in sum, daily life (B’tselem, 2017). The dependency on this limitation provokes that Gazans cannot develop a normal routine and it is not difficult to imagine the frustration in the younger layers of society for a hopeless future.
The Israeli impact on the socioeconomic structure of the Gaza strip is obvious and it created a status quo difficult to break, given its dependency to international aid and Israeli military and political policies. Just for instance, after the Oslo Accords, Israeli military authorities reduced the authorization for Palestinian fishermen of nautical miles from 20 to only 3 miles which affected the fishing sector, an important resource of survival for many Palestinian families (Jaime & Córdoba 2012). In relation to housing, for example, the Israeli Government has applied explicit policies against Palestinian reconstruction programmes applying demolitions orders or refusing to give permits arguing that they are “agricultural” land, but later being used as settlement lands.The economic situation of the Gaza Strip has been defined as a “de-development” process characterized by a low level of private and public investment, discrimination to Palestinian producers locally and internationally, limitations and constrains for trade and access to international market, weak job market and lower opportunities for well-educated Palestinians, among others structural restrains (Roy, 1987).
Israeli military authorities reduced the authorization for Palestinian fishermen of nautical miles from 20 to only 3 miles which affected the fishing sector, an important resource of survival for many Palestinian families.
Therefore, non-governmental organizations (and other charities such as churches or Islamic communities and political groups) are the ones who provide services such as health care, education, housing, legal aid and other technical assistance and are totally dependent on foreign aid (EU, US, UN, etc.). This sector is composed by almost 1500 organizations employing between twenty and thirty thousand people locally and other two hundred from international background collaborating with local NGOs (Sullivan, 1996). However, many issues can be identified in these networks such as lack of professionalism and accountability, duplication, lack of productivity and internal divisions because of different political alignments. Also, many of these organization consider their tasks as short-term activities and hope for the Palestinian Authority to take responsibility and transform them to governmental organizations but the lack of political and economic independence of the region make NGOs completely relevant for its basic functioning (Sullivan, 1996). Therefore, the status quo because of the bureaucratic network is also structurally rooted.
Nonetheless, the efforts from the Palestinian civil society to develop as an independent actor are worth mentioning through popular cooperation and civil resistance locally and internationally to end the blockade [3]. It is important to highlight women’s work committees in response not only to Israeli occupation but also patriarchal and classist structures within the Palestinian society in a cooperative way providing health care and education, kindergarten services and other activities to most vulnerable groups (Dajani, 1994).
Main challenge: ending the Blockade
The blockade of the Gaza Strip is a collective punishment by the Israeli military occupation forces with no ethical or moral justification, clearly violating human rights and humanitarian law. A sustainable development for the region is almost impossible if further actions against systemic and structural factors are not taken such as ending the blockade and letting Gazans to have total control over their natural resources (water and land), agriculture, borders or commercial trade, among others. Given the fact that, on the one hand, the internal status quo is strongly stablished and that, on the other, the international community does not seem to explicitly apply sanctions to Israel, what are the main challenges in order to enable a real reconstruction of Gaza?
Politically, Hamas has been democratically elected in the Gaza Strip in many occasions and recognizing its legitimacy as a political option for Palestinians is a conditio sine qua non, even if for many western countries this can be highly problematic (Grinberg, 2010). This could lead not only to further stable negotiations with Fatah – and a possible strong unification of Palestinian political options to, subsequently, be able to face Israeli boycott attempts, military repression and other foreign interventions – but also preconditions to an institutionalization process of “regular” democratic and trustful structures that will allow political autonomy and, in the long term, rooted democratic values – hopefully, giving channels to young Palestinians to funnel frustrations. Furthermore, free and safe movement of people is a must through a unified Palestinian territory (the Gaza Strip and the West Bank).
Economically, the Israeli occupation is strong enough to smash every possibility of independence of Gaza. For that reason, the international community must stand as a mediator and not only trhough wet paper agreements (Grinberg, 2010). Having economic independency, therefore, can lead to further political and socio-structural independence. Strategies such as improving small business capacities and promoting collective efforts can lead to a more viable economic sovereignty. Also, more diversity within the building market, for instance, can lead to a normalization of the production processes. The important agents of the reconstruction process, therefore, should be small business and the involvement of the communities in these projects in order to mitigate effects such as pressures from private-financed projects or housing shortages. There are, as a matter of fact, existing projects with these characteristics such as project Elkarama of the Palestinian Housing Council that is interesting to follow (Barakat & Jacoby, 2004).
In sum, the reconstruction process need to include not only an infrastructural process in Gaza but also an integral strategic plan to end the Israeli occupation in order to combine three necessary interacting elements: peace process, nation-building process and a stable transition to democracy (Shikaki, 1996).
Frist, in the Palestinian public opinion the peace process is well accepted, generally speaking, and opposing gradually to armed attacks against Israeli targets. But, even if Palestinians are in favour of the peace process does not mean that they are optimistic about it, since their economy, social and political spheres have been completely dependent on the Israeli conjunctures. However, they also see in it a profitable market since Israelis and Palestinians have been “forced” to live together for many decades. Therefore, it is not impossible to step into further peace agreements (Shikaki, 1996).
Secondly, national reconstruction is a highly complex issue with many red lines: Jewish settlements, the future of Jerusalem, the situation of Palestinians refugees or even the nature of a future Palestinian state. The recognition of the Palestinian State as an observer state in the UN General Assembly was an important step towards international recognition, but further steps must be done in this area since national reconstruction it is not possible without international integration and legitimacy.
Finally, transition to democracy is a crucial point. It is important to remember that Palestinians had already started to create – or attempt to – democratic and civil institutions during the 80s but got heavily debilitated because of many challenges and intrusions during the peace processes. Preconditions to democracy are basically socioeconomic development (such as, a strong middle class, urbanization, high literacy rate, etc.), as it is argued (Shikaki, 1996). However, it is a Western framework of liberal democracies that can be easy miscarried in an Arabic context as the Palestinian one. Nonetheless, the support for democratic institutions in Gaza is predominant and, therefore, it is singn that democratic and legit institutions in Gaza and Palestine have preconditions to develop and to accomplish national reconstruction.
To conclude, the current situation of the Gaza Strip can be described as the world’s largest open-air prison and human rights violations happen in a normal basis. Its current conjuncture is held by many structural challenges, from the Israeli occupation, military invasion and blockade to the political status quo stablished by Hamas and Fatah in front of the eyes of regional and international powers.
However, it is important to adapt realistic set of planning and reconstruction projects for the region, since what has been presented by many international organizations are basically big smoke screen discourses without concrete steps and millions of aid funds that only reproduce dependency and the illusion of capable institutions. Therefore, the importance of accepting the legitimacy of political options as Hamas in the Gaza Strip and an economic sovereignty linked to local ownership and cooperative development are a must. Clearly, the Gaza Strip and, in sum, Palestinians have the energy and the possibilities to do so.
[1] United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2015)
[2] To read more about the brutality of Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, consult: Sherwood, H, 2012, Rachel Corrie death: struggle for justice culminates in Israeli court. The Guardian. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/27/rachel-corrie-death-israel-verdict>
[3] If interested, read more about “Ship to Gaza”, initiative to end the blockade: <https://shiptogaza.se/>