Whenever the siege is mentioned, Gaza as a word is flashing through the mind. Siege and Gaza. Extraordinarily, Gaza is the perfect paragon of the blockade, if the historians want to teach the history of the blockades to their students. After the military coup carried out by the Hamas forces in Summer, 2007, which leads to the loss of Fatah's control on Gaza Strip, Israel, in cooperation with the neighboring countries, has been tightening the blockade on Gaza. Consequently, humanitarian supplies are proscribed, which prepares the bells to be rung to warn Gaza people of the forthcoming umbrella of destruction. Quite quickly, the thrilling voices of the Humans are raised to extricate Gaza from this debacle. On May, 2010, Gaza Freedom Flotilla, stored with the humanitarian aid and construction materials, is launched to break the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip as a peaceful step to left the blockade. To welcome the peace activists, Gazans were waiting for the flotilla on the shore, gazing at the horizon to glimpse the sail. Yet-- Desolate and empty the sea. They did not know that Freedom was invaded. The Israeli navy killed nine activists on the vessel the Mavi Marmara, as a reaction to the tinny baseball bets hitting the heads of the Navy. The flotilla used the bats to protect their life and the life of 1,657,155 people; the Israeli Navy was attacking them with fire to save its security.
As a second peaceful step, "Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human" decided to sail towards Gaza on July 5, 2011, yet prevented internationally by the United States and United Kingdom. The momentous goal of these flotillas is not only to provide Gaza with the humanitarian needs, but also to break the blockade imposed on Gaza. But on the contrary, the western countries want to provide Gaza with aids through the authorized channels within the Red Cross/Red Crescent, without considering the lifting of the blockade. For them, Gazans deserve to be besieged, to be prevented from the freedom. As if, Gaza is a store of food.
They do not know that we are humans like them, not animals desiring food. We do not want food only.
We want to be like others living in USA, in UK. We want to move, to study abroad, to build our community by ourselves, to practice all freedoms, freely as well as peacefully without stealthy censorship. "Want" is the word we want. Though, they do not give us what we want but what they want. Because of the "want", the children are dying in the hospitals beds, the adults losing their lives in the tunnels, the old waiting besides the crossings, sometimes the roads devoid of cars which are lacking gas, the cities in sheer blackout like dark caves, the boys queuing in about 10-meter organized line before the gates of the gas stations, the hospitals suffering from the shortage of medical materials, the shelves of the libraries vacant... The empty Gaza.
The voice of "I want to be free" is silenced by the international support for Israel. As an international fact, Israel has the right to self-defense, but the Palestinians have not the right to be free. Oh, my friend, do not cry, the UN investigative committee legitimizes the blockade. Asking for freedom is illegal now. Before, their mouths dried while advising the developing countries to practice the freedom as one of the Human Rights. The White House interfered in Saudi Arabia to "support" the women's freedom to drive cars, entailing pressures on the Saudi government. Please, Obama entail pressures on Israel (while we are murdered slowly here), do not show your presidential competency before Arabs while you are not having the American courageous charisma before Israel.
And what's the worst is United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the guard of security, who is strengthening the blockade on Gaza. Assiduously, he called the political leaders to prevent the flotilla towards Gaza. I do not know where was the violence in this flotilla? Where does the violence come from? From Israel or from the peaceful flotilla. Definitely, for him the violence is from the peaceful flotilla. Instead of saying these unreasonable words, he is supposed to raise the awareness of the disaster in which we live and denounce the blockade effectively.
Justly speaking, Ki-moon should have censured the excessive and violent reaction to the peaceful strategies, not charged the flotilla. The United Nations should encourage such nonviolent approaches to settle the conflict, not stimulating the other trends at the expense of frustrating the diplomacy. Otherwise, the nations are united against Gaza. It is known the United Nation is the institution of democracy, yet unfortunately heading towards the way of the institution of hypocrisy.
Mohammed Monifi is 21 and lives in Gaza. His title is taken from The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot.
Desolate and empty the sea
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