If there is such a charge in the international legal framework that covers the wanton, deliberate and wilful destruction of a country, then Israel is surely guilty. A report released last week by the United Nations in Geneva lays out that the Gaza Strip will become uninhabitable in five years’ time unless urgent action is taken.
That there are 1.8 million Palestinians held in what is effectively an open-air prison in an enclave of land just 382 square kilometres in size, making it one of the most densely populated places on this planet. An open-air prison? Absolutely. Sandwiched between Egypt, the Mediterranean and Israel, the people there suffer at the whims of Israeli authorities. A blockade by land, where everything coming in and out of the Gaza Strip — people and material — is scrutinised carefully. Israel controls access and severely limits what goods enter.
And when Israel strikes, as it has done with hatred and venom all too often this past decade — the last murderous invasion killed more than 2,000 Palestinian men, women and children just over a year ago — there is nowhere for those 1.8 million people to run and hide. And even if they do seek sanctuary under the flag of the United Nations, there is no guarantee that refugees will not indeed be targeted by helicopter gunships, artillery or laser-guided bombs dropped from fighter jets — subsidised and delivered by Washington.
The UN report says that the Gaza Strip is untenable as a result of the destruction wrought by Israel. Few houses are undamaged, businesses struggle to remain open and there is little if any work for those who remain in the enclave. Depressingly, more than 70 per cent of all who live there have to rely on outside agencies for some form of humanitarian aid. Unless a concerted effort is made to rebuild and re-energise the enclave, it is doomed to a slow and agonising economic death. And the blame for that and all of its fallout rests solely on the government of Israel, which cares not one iota.
