Israel Matzav

'Palestinians' are imprisoned in Gaza and no one cares

When does the World not care that 'Palestinians' are being 'imprisoned' in the 'World's largest concentration camp'? Of course, when they are being imprisoned by other 'Palestinians.' Haaretz's Amira Hass, who loves the 'Palestinians' so much that she has spent years living among them (she is one of the very few Israelis who can move freely among the 'Palestinians' without fear of being murdered), reports that 'Palestinian' passports have become an object of dispute between Fatah and Hamas.

In some cases, one document separates people from their ability to leave the Strip - a passport. For about 30 of these individuals, the reason is clear: They are members of the Fatah movement whose passports the Hamas authorities have simply confiscated. There are also Fatah members who occasionally receive transit permits to the West Bank from Israel, on the basis of their special connections with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, but the Hamas government prevents them from leaving.

Independent sources in Gaza believe these practices are a reaction to the policy of the Interior Ministry in Ramallah, which neglected to issue passports to dozens of Gazans in recent months who sent in applications. Since January, the Interior Ministry in Gaza holds, the Palestinian General Intelligence service (the Mukhabarat ) has been checking every passport application before it is approved or refused.

At the human rights organizations in Gaza, which confirm this claim, complaints are piling up from residents whose requests have been denied. Some of the people who have been denied passports are associated with the Hamas government, like Fiza Za'anin, a member of the elected council in Beit Hanoun, a midwife who won a United Nations prize for her work with women and children during the IDF offensive in Gaza in the winter of 2008-9. Although she received a permit to take a course in East Jerusalem, she told Haaretz by telephone, her request for a passport so she could attend the prize ceremony in October in the United States was denied.

Some of those being denied passports are actually Fatah members, the apparent victims of false reports alleging they have connections to Hamas. One such person, from the Khan Yunis area, told Haaretz that after his request for a passport was denied he used all of his connections with Gazans now living in Ramallah - members of the PA security services - whose intervention finally brought him a passport, six months later.

You got it? Fatah members in Gaza have their passports confiscated by Hamas, and Hamas members in Gaza (and probably in Judea and Samaria as well) cannot get the Fatah-dominated 'Palestinian Authority' to issue passports. It goes without saying that Hamas does not issue passports - they would not be recognized anyway.

Hass comments:

The same government that includes a call to end the blockade on Gaza in every one of its statements, in practice aids in imprisoning the Gazans by preventing many of them from holding valid Palestinian passports. Not only does the Fatah government refuse to send blank passports to Gaza to be filled out, thus forcing Gazans to use the services of special go-between agencies which send the applications to Ramallah, but its general intelligence service even intervenes - as has been revealed lately - and in many cases vetoes passports for Gaza residents.

Now, with Egypt easing the restrictions on entry through its border with Gaza, this arbitrary cruelty has become even more pronounced. The feeling of imprisonment, and the lies accompanying it, generates bitterness toward the government in Ramallah - even among those who are not Hamas supporters.

But to get anyone interested in this story, you'd have to find a way to blame it on Israel. Hass is trying.

These are the same security authorities that have won praise from the occupier for the quiet they've achieved while the occupier acts: confiscating land, demolishing homes, expelling people, arresting children, preventing free movement and killing. The lies that accompany these activities and their close affiliation with Fatah cast a shadow over the trustworthiness of the leadership in the eyes of its people.

Does anyone really think it would be different if Israel were - God forbid - not in the picture? Does Iran issue passports to opponents of its government? Does Syria? Does 'moderate' Egypt? The 'Palestinians' are behaving the way every government in the Arab Muslim world behaves. But the 'Palestinians' are not used to no one caring about them. This time, Israel is really not involved so no one cares. If - God forbid - there is one day a 'Palestinian state,' this sort of occurrence will be routine, and so long as Israel cannot be blamed, no one will care.

Evelyn Gordon reports this story and then adds:

And then there’s that new mall in Gaza. As the Jerusalem Post’s Liat Collins perceptively noted, a two-story, 9,700-square-foot shopping mall must have required huge amounts of cement and metal — all presumably smuggled through tunnels from Egypt, since Israel wasn’t allowing building materials across its border. And Hamas controls the smuggling tunnels.

But according to Hamas, thousands of Gazans whose houses were destroyed in its war with Israel 18 months ago remain homeless. So what kind of government would allocate scarce construction material to a mall instead of homes for its people? Clearly, one that doesn’t care about their suffering — and indeed, actually prefers perpetuating it, to fan anti-Israel sentiment. And the world, naturally, plays along.

If Hamas and Fatah both spent less time and effort on anti-Israel incitement and more on improving their people’s lives, Palestinians would be much better off. But that would require them to actually care more about their people’s welfare than they do about undermining Israel. And despite the world’s willful refusal to believe it, neither faction ever has.

Indeed.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:48 AM