Published: Thursday, 4th March, 2010 2:40pm

Tolson demands end to siege of Gaza

Comments (1) | Print | Email

DUNFERMLINE West MSP Jim Tolson has called on the Israeli Government to end the siege of Gaza after witnessing first hand the destruction caused to the Palestinian people.

The Lib Dem politician visited the 'war zone' recently. This is his full account.

"Today, more than one year after the land and air attacks on Gaza by the Israeli Government, there is death, destruction and danger of an uprising by desperate people.

The Israeli government have now ignored over 100 United Nation mandates seeking redress for the ten years of siege and the 22 day war.

I visited Gaza as part of the largest cross-parliamentary delegation ever to visit a war zone.

We witnessed buildings that had been damaged by small arms and artillery fire, and others that were completely destroyed by heavy artillery fire and bulldozers.

We spoke with people who had lost loved ones, suffered injuries and those who had simply lost all hope.

The ten year siege on Gaza resulted in the blocking of mutual border crossings and sea ports by the Israeli Government.

Now, Gaza's one remaining lifeline, the border with Egypt, is now being blocked above and below ground!

The cross-parliamentary delegation was organised and funded by the 'European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza'.

It consisted of around forty Parliamentarians from the European Parliament, individual European states, House of Lords and devolved parliaments, and led by Sir Gerald Kaufman former senior MP and now member of the House of Lords.

The delegation had taken months of planning by the organisers and at the last moment, due to a major upset caused by George Galloway to the Egyptian government, was under threat of cancellation.

We were dependant on the Egyptian government providing access and security at their border with the Gaza Strip.

We left Cairo in the early morning on a five hour bus journey escorted by Egyptian armed security officers, both in the coach and in accompanying 'pick up' trucks, to the Rafah Crossing into Gaza.

Upon reaching the border, we experienced significant unexplained delays whilst our passports were checked and stamped - it seems that this is just the way it is in this part of the world.

However, upon clearing the border, we were met by a large welcoming committee and a large group of photographers and TV reporters.

After the first of many photo calls and press statements, we boarded two buses and were again escorted by armed guards, only this time on behalf of the Palestinian government.

It was very soon apparent on the drive towards Gaza City, just how much damage had been caused to the infrastructure of the area.

The level of destruction of buildings, the squalor and the armed guards in every street served to demonstrate this.

We learnt later that 90% of businesses have closed due to lack of availability of raw materials.

In particular, it was tragic to see that many pharmacies have now closed due to shortage of drugs.

As we drove through the rural areas, there were encouraging signs of development where irrigation pipes were being laid out in the fields and crops being grown in some areas.

On entering Gaza City, the scale of devastation was much more profound!

Whilst some buildings survived virtually unscathed, these were very much the exception.

Many buildings showed the signs of war with large holes in walls, others half or totally destroyed.

Often all that remained of a building would be a sandy plot with the base of reinforced concrete pillars protruding out of the ground.

Rebuilding the infrastructure has not been possible for the Palestinians, either before or after the Israeli attacks, as amongst the many items the Israeli government do not allow into the Gaza strip are basic building materials such as cement.

We arrived at the Palestinian parliament in the late afternoon to take part in a meeting with the Palestinian Legislative Council.

This allowed speakers from the Council and delegation to exchange views and comment upon the situation in Gaza today.

After a lunch in the dome chambered meeting room of the parliament, we were shown around the parliament building or rather, what remained of the parliament building!

With much of the reinforced concrete roofing missing and pillars protruding from the ground, we walked around what remained of the parliament building - whole floors of the building simply missing!

The democratic institution of Palestine had been almost totally destroyed in the bombing and now cleared away to leave a cleared but surreal scene.

Many of the delegates commented on what our response would have been if our parliaments had suffered such devastating damage - we would be absolutely outraged!

Palestinian MPs accused western governments of hypocrisy!

When Palestine held democratic elections; they were accused of electing the wrong party - Hamas. European court rulings on treaties were not applied and British Prime Ministers have not been willing to engage with the European Parliament to seek a resolution.

These points were agreed by many of our delegates!

Later that day, the delegation met with a number of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) who were able to outline in great detail how the Palestinian people fear a new massacre by the Israeli government.

They have breached humanitarian rights under the pretext of security measures.

Some speakers claimed that justice was the most important issue for Palestine however I felt that removing the siege and rebuilding the infrastructure were more important.

Others felt that the siege has given Palestinians only one option - to be more radical!

The parliamentary delegates were urged to put pressure on President Abbas of Palestine and the Israeli government to find a solution to the crisis and to help stop another war on Gaza.

The NGOs stated that they had lost confidence in the international community and that their government is now aiming to try the Israeli government in The Hague!

The NGOs outlined their main areas of concern, these included;

Health, Significant problems since the war. There are currently 43 health industry groups, 6 hospitals and other establishments, some of which were targeted during the war; Shortage of specialists in some fields; Severe shortage of modern equipment, and unable to obtain spares to maintain equipment ; Maintaining drug availability to some areas is impossible because of the siege; Problems bringing money into the Gaza Strip to provide services ; Use of internationally banned weapons by the Israeli government e.g. white phosphorous cluster bombs, are causing birth defects for the new generation

Economy, Large numbers of factories have been destroyed - sanctions needed by the international community including boycott of Israel ; 65 NGOs are holding donating conferences ; Black Economy is flourishing ; 3,000 of 3,900 small businesses have closed down due to the siege ; 2/3 of the population of Gaza have never been outside of the country ; 30% of the population of Gaza would be willing to emigrate to escape the siege

Women's Rights, Torture of women is 'part and parcel' of life and their rights have regressed ; 115 women killed in recent war

Reconstruction of Gaza will need to deal with 5,000 demolished houses ; 15,000 partially damaged houses ; 1.5 million tonnes of rubble ; 75 damaged government buildings ; damaged air and sea ports ; Badly damaged wastewater systems.

To rebuild the country, the following are required; $1 billion for materials ; 70,000 housing units ; 1.2 million tonnes of cement ; 3 million tonnes of aggregates ; 0.5 million tonnes of steel ; 100,000 square metres of wood ; 2 million square meters of glass ; Works and management co-ordination.

Agriculture, Grain houses, water wheels, irrigation systems and other infrastructure damaged by the war.

Land within 200 to 500 meters of the Israeli border has been closed to farmers

Water supply to area is being limited by Israel

Unable to export vegetables, fruit and flowers from Gaza whilst under occupation/siege

The presentations by the NGOs was followed by a video of a children's play in which children acted out the roles in a trial of an Israeli soldier.

Unfortunately, rather than impressing upon the delegates just how concerned Palestinians are about the effects of the Israeli war on Palestine, the undercurrent was very much on how the Palestinian government has 'brainwashed' children to hate the Israelis.

At the end of the film, some of the children in the play were brought in to meet the delegates.

This was a PR disaster for the Palestinians, and certainly made many delegates feel uncomfortable!

Continuing the 'breeding of hatred' is making any hope of peace all the more difficult to achieve.

There is no doubt that Palestinians have been terribly treated by the Israeli government but the behaviour of the Palestinians have not been exemplary either with the firing of Palestinian rockets into Israeli civilian areas being the main example of this.

When being driven through downtown Gaza, one becomes acutely aware of the abject poverty.

Most of the shops are shuttered off, many building damaged and uninhabitable with litter and decay everywhere.

It was amazing to see even a few people smiling and waving at us as we past.

The delegation visited an area at the edge of the city where a large swath of homes had been completely destroyed by the bombing.

The bombing had also flattened the local orchard and, quite horrifically, the local graveyard - blowing bodies and body parts of the buried all around!

The delegates were followed around by film crews as we witnessed the devastation in an area where there had been once hundreds of homes.

Through interpreters, we spoke with many of the people now living in tents.

One elderly couple talked of how they were made to strip naked by the armed Israeli soldiers, supposedly to ensure they did not have any bombs strapped to their bodies, but the couple felt it was simply to humiliate them.

While the Palestinians had cleared away most of the rubble to allow tents to be erected on the site, they had saved the reinforced steel bars for future development - nothing is wasted in this society.

As with my recent trip to Syria to meet with Palestinian refugees, I took supplies of sweets, pens and notepads for the children.

Amongst this scene of devastation, the children eagerly accepted the sweets, and the pens and notepads also proved extremely popular.

We later learnt of how little educational facilities there are now in Gaza.

A short bus trip later, we were driven slowly through a former industrial estate where most of the factories had been completely destroyed in the bombing.

While the rubble had been cleared away from almost all buildings, one that had collapsed like a 'house of cards' was left untouched as a reminder of how things were in the aftermath of the bombing.

This was not unlike the scenes we are currently seeing on our TVs of the current situation in Haiti.

However, unlike Haiti, this was no natural disaster; this was a man-made disaster of truly massive proportions.

As we left the industrial area, we saw the once thriving United Nations school. It was now deserted with massive holes in what remained of the shell of the building.

A few miles further along the road, we halted at the site of a former home in a village close to the Israeli border.

At this point, about two kilometres from the Israeli border, we could see many Israeli buildings including a power station.

The lady whose home had formally stood on the site outlined to us through interpreters what had happened here.

The lady said that the soldiers and tanks entered their village. When her husband answered the door to the soldiers, he was asked for his identity papers.

These were shown to the soldiers and they immediately shot him dead on his doorstep. One of her young sons, aged about eight, ran to his dead father crying.

The soldiers turned the gun on the boy shooting him once in the head and twice in the chest.

The lady's daughter stood beside her throughout the ordeal.

The mother explained that her daughter was no longer able to speak due to the shrapnel in her head and that there were no medical facilities to treat her in Gaza.

Throughout the time the lady was telling her story she was holding up photos of her late husband and dead son's body to the assembled delegation and many press cameras.

It was a truly devastating tale - I just sat down in middle of where her house once stood and wrote an email back home to describe the absolute despair of the situation.

On our way back into Gaza City, we passed along part of the eastern Mediterranean sea-front.

Here too, for no apparent good reason, the Israeli bombers had been hard at work. The shell of a tourist hotel stood just 100 yards from the beach.

Many other waterfront attractions had been badly damaged including a water theme park. This area used to be one of the most popular tourist areas in the eastern Mediterranean.

Now, after the siege had taken hold, no one comes to visit the area and to ensure no one ever would, the Israeli government raised it to the ground!

In Gaza City, we stopped next to the site of the former American School.

There was absolutely nothing left of the school as it had been completely destroyed during the bombing.

The school came under heavy fire whilst it was occupied and many children died that day.

Murals painted on the wall showed images of the Israeli government ministers with blood on their hands.

Whether by accident or by design, some of the many children who came out to greet our delegation had suffered horrific injuries as a result of the war.

One girl of about ten had lost both her legs and two boys were blind and disfigured as a result of the blasts and shrapnel wounds.

One of our delegates (from the House of Lords) is blind and spoke, through an interpreter, with the younger of the blind boys (aged about 10).

The young boy wanted an electronic white stick so that he could get around more easily.

The Peer sought to persuade him that a normal white stick would be much more useful to him as he learnt to cope with his disability.

He also emphasised to the boy that being blind need not be a barrier to a productive and fulfilling life. This unusual engagement was, we were later told, shown many times on Al Jazeera TV.

After returning to our hotel in a somewhat sombre mood, we were given a presentation by the Palestinian Crimes Documentation Committee.

The Committee has been collecting, storing and maintaining evidence of war crimes committed by the Israeli government upon the Palestinians.

We were shown still and video images of the bombings and the aftermath including both aerial and ground shots of explosions.

One of the starkest of these images was of the white phosphorous cluster bombs which are banned under international law in built up areas.

These pictures showed the bombs exploding just above the rooftops of the city, breaking into many clusters that rained down on the markets and other heavily populated areas - remaining a danger once on the ground.

We were also shown video footage of a piece of phosphorous being prodded with a stick which then sizzled, glowing bright white and burning areas around it as well as images of children burnt by these materials.

Many of the delegates were strongly of the opinion that the Israeli government should be tried for human rights abuses.

From the evidence I saw, both with my own eyes in Gaza and the images I was shown on this day, there certainly seemed to be plenty of evidence to secure a conviction!

The next leg of our trip required the highest level of security, that of meeting with Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian Prime Minister.

This extra level of security was not for the delegates (we had armed security wherever we went) but to protect the Prime minister from possible assassination attempts.

After a lunch in the courtyard, the delegation was taken inside to speak with the Prime Minister. He spoke through an interpreter for over half an hour describing the siege and the war inflicted on the Palestinian People by the Israeli Government.

He described how previously before the siege, a whole range of goods were purchased from Israel and imported through relatively open border crossings.

The siege of Gaza is not only from the land border with Israel but also from the sea. Israeli gun ships restrict the fishermen from the one remaining port by not allowing Palestinians to fish more than two miles from the shore.

Outside this two mile limit, the fishermen will come under fire despite the fact that these are Palestinian waters - Israel is preventing the Palestinian fisherman from fishing in their own deep water.

The sewerage system in Gaza is broken and cannot be repaired due to the lack of spare parts. Much of the inshore water is now contaminated with raw sewage resulting in the contamination of the fish - the fish are being caught by the fishermen with the result that contaminates are entering the human food chain.

The Palestinian Prime Minister then described the situation when the siege began and imposition of restrictions on the crossings into the Israel and how many Palestinians turned to Egypt to the south to buy their goods.

However, it seems that Israel's influence in the region extends well beyond its own borders and now the Egyptians have followed their example by restricting their border crossings with Gaza.

Out of desperation, the Palestinians have now constructed a series of tunnels in order to maintain a link with Egypt. These tunnels are, in some cases, big enough to take a vehicle and are said to be very unsafe.

These tunnels have proved to have been the main lifeline for many Palestinians over the last few years, enabling them to bring in food, fuel and maybe, as some say, weapons.

The Egyptians are currently building an underground steel wall, driving large corrugated steel panels down to a depth of 30 metres along the length of its 50 mile border with Gaza with the aim of blocking off the tunnels.

The Prime Minister stated he felt that the siege was now at a critical point and that if the tunnels are closed off by Egypt then there would be no future for his people.

Before questions were taken by the Prime Minister, a mobile telephone link was established to one of the Palestinian MPs held in prison by the Israelis for over a year.

I was then given the opportunity to speak to the Prime Minister and outlined how I felt that the Israeli Government had 'shot themselves in the foot' by attacking Gaza just over a year ago.

Instead of proving themselves strong, they have lost friends and influence in the Middle East and throughout the world. Conversely, the Palestinian people have won many friends and have much support from around the world, including Scotland!

I urged the Prime Minister and his people to exercise restraint if Israel engaged in armed conflict again so that Palestine would not lose its many friends around the world.

The Prime minister responded by confirming that he would not begin any offensive against Israel and further assured me that any weapons his people had were limited and certainly no match for the Israeli F-15s, gun ships, tanks etc. He is working hard with the various factions within Palestine to try to keep the cease fire intact.

Our next meeting was with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and proved to be probably the most useful meeting of the entire trip.

John Ging, Director of Operations in Gaza gave a presentation to the group followed by a Q & A session. Mr Ging is a robust and straight talking Irishman who gave an impartial and insightful assessment of the situation in Gaza.

He described the counter productive nature of Israel's hostility and siege (similar to the point I made to the Palestinian PM earlier) and confessed that this point had been highlighted by many, including UNRWA before the ten year siege even began.

He stated that the 1.5 million people in Gaza helped by UNRWA are decent, civilised and intelligent people. The UNRWA is helping the Palestinian people to have a decent but basic life.

Mr Ging reiterated that six decades of conflict must have a political end. A new generation of people are growing up in Gaza knowing nothing but the conflict.

The denial of basic human rights by the Israelis is destroying the 'mindset' of children (around ¾ of a million children in Gaza) and their daily experiences are convincing them that 'taking up arms' is the only way ahead.

Today's Palestinian children will be in political positions themselves in a few years time. It requires a very high degree of discipline not to react to the siege situation.

As a nation, the Palestinians are facing the endless prospect of their hopes not being realised - only opening the area up will change things for the better for both the Palestinians and the Israelis.

This is a significant security challenge and needs international law to be upheld - otherwise it is the 'rule of the gun'!

There is despair at the lack of international law and Mr Ging, Director of Operations, is very concerned as to where this might lead in the future. He felt that the issue of security is just an excuse given by the Israeli government for imprisoning the Palestinian people.

Mr Ging commended the cross-parliamentary delegation for visiting Gaza to face the political reality of the region and felt that if other groups would visit the area as well then the desperately needed political change would happen. Only two Ministers from abroad had visited Gaza in the last year!

The UNRWA would like more to visit, and not just Gaza, but also places such as Jerusalem.

Mr Ging stated that a new policy for the area had been drawn up at the highest level some 18 months ago but this has not been delivered.

The women and children of Gaza are suffering the most.

Over 1 million dollars of aid has been raised for the area but so far nothing has been delivered!

At the moment they can import a sack of flour from Israel but are not allowed to import a sack of cement to start to rebuild the broken economy! With no jobs available, the people have to suffer the indignity of living on charity.

The UNRWA can only afford to give the children a little food - a yogurt and biscuit or a juice and biscuit - it is not nearly enough!

There is a crossing open from Israel into Gaza for UNRWA and other organisations but they are very limited by the Israeli government as what and how much they can bring in.

Currently 80 to 100 trucks per day, five days per week are transporting goods into Gaza.

Previously when the border crossings were fully operational, 500 to 600 trucks per day were permitted to cross the border.

The materials, some bought from Israel, are delivered to the crossing; fork lift trucks unload them in the crossing compound and transfer them onto other trucks on the Palestinians side.

Palestinians are not allowed to import cement with the Israeli government claiming the cement would be stolen by the Palestinian government. However, the Palestinian government manages to import cement, fuel etc using the tunnels from Egypt with some of the tunnels being big enough to allow cars and trucks to pass through.

The Israeli government restrictions are not credible with, for example, wood being allowed in to build desks but not the steel to fix them together -steel is banned.

UNRWA is seeking $250 million of aid per year but currently they only receive about have 60% of this. Most of the financial burden is borne by European states with the Arab states reducing their share from 5% to 1% for the last five years claiming that the Gaza problem is a European and US issue.

This was an independent and open view from the UNRWA chief which gave the delegation a much clearer, unbiased vision of the problems of Gaza! Ultimately, our taxes which help fund UNRWA help prevent wars and extremism!

The delegates left this meeting with a much greater understanding of the situation in Gaza and very impressed both by Mr. Ging and the work carried out by UNRWA. Without them, Gaza would simply fall apart.

For our final day in the Middle East, the delegation had planned discussions with the Egyptian Officials and the Arab League in Cairo. The first meeting was to be with the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister.

The Minister had agreed only to meet with a small number of the delegation - representatives from the different countries were selected with Alan Smyth MEP representing Scotland.

Previously, the Egyptian officials had threatened to cancel this meeting and it was only due to hours of telephone negotiations by Dr Arafat Shoukri that the meeting was able to go ahead as planned. Unfortunately, when the team returned a few hours later, we were informed that the meeting had been very disappointing with the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister 'talking at them' for 90 minutes and did not allow any questions from members of the delegation.

With this disappointment 'ringing in our ears', we met with the Secretary General of the Arab League. He stated that he was very sad about the situation in Gaza and had hoped that the election of President Obama would change the situation; however, this optimism has now changed to pessimism.

He commented that the Israeli government does what it wants, they are not afraid of sanctions etc. The Secretary General felt that sanctions are futile - Israel feels that the occupied territories and Gaza have been assigned to them by God!

He felt that Israel is only interested in their own point of view and dismisses all views from others including international law!

The Secretary General stated that the acceptance of a Palestinian state does not necessarily mean a divided Jerusalem - but there is no will for this from the Israeli government.

The continued building of Israeli settlements is making negotiations impossible with maps of the settlements drawn up during one day's discussions being out of date by the time discussions recommence just a few days later - such is the pace of the Israeli settlement building programme!

The pre-conditions that the Israelis insist on for negotiations, for example, delaying until later discussions topics such as refugees and Jerusalem means that no progress is being made. The Arab League feels that they have been 'made a fool of' for many years by the Israelis.

He stated that the area needs to be free of nuclear weapons, in particularly Israel. Israel considers all those under occupation as terrorists. If there is not a two-state solution there will be a one-state solution. That one-state will be Israeli!

Representatives of the US are meeting with the Secretary General of the Arab League next week. The Secretary General felt that if the promises are the same as the many before, there will be no progress.

The delegation was thanked for visiting Gaza and in turn thanked the Secretary General for his frankness and all agreed this was a most useful meeting.

The final meeting for the delegation was with the Egyptian Speaker and his officials.

The Speaker stated that he was annoyed at divisions between Hamas and Fattah, and that the Egyptians continue to help the Palestinians according to international law.

The Egyptians are also concerned at Iran's plans to build nuclear weapons. The Speaker spoke about George Galloway and how he had violated Egyptian law and that this would not be tolerated by the Egyptian government.

The Speaker stated that before June 2007, the borders between the countries had all worked well.

After this time, Hamas caused problems and this, he claimed, was the root of the problems within Gaza (referring to the military conflict between Hamas and Fatah that took place between June 7 and June 15, 2007 in the Gaza Strip).

The delegation found this view to be breathtakingly arrogant. He then further claimed that Egypt is working for peace.

He stated that the use of the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt to smuggle weapons was not good for Egypt.

When the subject of the closing off the tunnels was challenged by the delegation, an argument broke out - until Sir Gerald Kaufman interjected.

The Egyptians urged the delegation to put pressure on the European Parliament to force Israel to conform to international law. They said that Egypt will always help the Palestinians but that for the last six years, they have been alone in providing this help!

The delegation left the meeting very upset at the confrontation and aware that the Egyptians did not feel that the Israeli government was in any way responsible for the situation in the Gaza strip.

Summary

The visit to Gaza in January 2010 is one I will always remember.

It was a privilege to be invited to join the delegation and to have Dr. Arafat Shoukri and his team organise and accompany us on the trip; it would not have been possible without them!

The armed security guards that accompanied us throughout the visit were a constant reminder that we were in a 'war zone'.

The Palestinians were well organised with blanket press coverage from the moment we arrived covering every event.

The meetings with the Palestinians proved to be very helpful and I believe 95% of the information given. Unfortunately, I felt that the other 5% was doubtful - exaggerating the truth and teaching the children hatred.

The devastation and destruction is clear to see more than one year on from the Israeli onslaught. The 10 year siege on Gaza is close to crippling the area. The increased levels of restrictions for Palestinians and the aid workers are reaching a critical point.

The Egyptian's insistence on constructing a 30 metre deep steel wall along the entire length of their border with Gaza may well be the 'final straw' for the Palestinian government and its people. It is quite clear that they both feel very much let down by the international community!

The anger of the Egyptians with George Galloway is quite understandable, rather than helping the cause of the Palestinian people, he has done it more harm than good! The Egyptian government's intention to close off the border with Gaza both above and below ground is likely to lead to conflict!

Personally, I felt that the only voices speaking the 'real' truth and describing the situation with clarity were those of the representatives of UNRWA and The Arab League. These are two organisations with a real commitment to the besieged people of Gaza without any 'axe to grind'.

Having returned to Scotland, I will be writing to Ministers in the UK, Europe and the US to urge them in the strongest terms to act with human compassion for the besieged people of Palestine and to do all they can to force the Israeli government to End the Siege on Gaza!

Jim Tolson MSP