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NEWS & LETTERS, Janurary-February 2010
World in View
Free Gaza!
by Gerry Emmett
A year ago, the world watched in horror as Israel's brutal "Operation Cast Lead" devastated Gaza. Aimed at crippling Hamas, the fundamentalist ruling party, the attack destroyed infrastructure and killed and injured thousands, many of them civilians. On Dec. 31, the Gaza Freedom March was held to oppose the continuing siege imposed upon Gaza by Israel. Made up of 1,360 delegates from 43 countries, it also drew attention to Hosni Mubarak's Egyptian police state.
Egypt is enforcing the blockade, to the point of building an iron wall underground to block tunnels used for smuggling supplies. The March and Viva Palestina aid convoy were denied entrance to Gaza by Egyptian authorities. There were skirmishes with security forces, and dozens of peaceful marchers were roughed up. Solidarity marches were also held in Ramallah and Nablus; and in Tel Aviv in Israel, sponsored by the Coalition of Women for Peace.
A further irony in a situation fraught with irony, an anti-smuggling fatwa issued at the behest of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas' West Bank rival, drew attention to the plight of many Palestinians who have nothing but their labor to sell. Up to 300 Palestinian laborers have been killed while working in the tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. Their lives were valued, in a Hamas fatwa, at $9,000 to $11,000 (for married men).
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