Yesterday I posted an important blogpost from a friend of my wife's who is in Gaza now. I emailed her and asked her a few questions. Her response. I urge all to read to the end:
Getting in is incredibly difficult. During the war hundreds of
requests were submitted by international, NGOs, journalists, etc. COGAT is
the office that it goes through, part of the Israeli military, and
they had to hire extra people just to handle the load.
So of the first orgs that applied, some got permits, some didn't, and it was just based on luck-- Amnesty was, Human Rights Watch wasn't, etc. But the orgs that have applied from late Feb onwards have for the most part not gotten permits. For example, Christian Aid, TroCaire, major international NGOs--they cannot get the permit for a single person to come in. A friend from Emergency Aid was only given a 3 month permit and then needs to leave and they wont give someone else from his org another one.
I was incredibly lucky to get it, especially because I applied through an international NGO but for a permit to work here at a local human rights NGO, it is a definite fluke that I got it, though it took 6 weeks of calling the COGAT office every single day. And once I was told I had coordination I went straight to Erez [border crossing] to be informed that they had made a mistake and that I did not have coordination.
So of the first orgs that applied, some got permits, some didn't, and it was just based on luck-- Amnesty was, Human Rights Watch wasn't, etc. But the orgs that have applied from late Feb onwards have for the most part not gotten permits. For example, Christian Aid, TroCaire, major international NGOs--they cannot get the permit for a single person to come in. A friend from Emergency Aid was only given a 3 month permit and then needs to leave and they wont give someone else from his org another one.
I was incredibly lucky to get it, especially because I applied through an international NGO but for a permit to work here at a local human rights NGO, it is a definite fluke that I got it, though it took 6 weeks of calling the COGAT office every single day. And once I was told I had coordination I went straight to Erez [border crossing] to be informed that they had made a mistake and that I did not have coordination.
After waiting several hours I convinced the soldiers to call the COGAT office, and the guy there told me he had simply forgotten to update my status in the computer, but I finally got in. I need to leave Israel next week and come back in because my tourist visa is expiring for Israel, and though technically, according to the Israeli Supreme Court, this is unoccupied territory and therefore there is no reason I should need to have a valid tourist Israel visa the whole time I am here, but in reality the Israelis said that if it expires they might not let me out through Erez, and so I would have to wait until Rafah opens to leave through Egypt.
Being in Gaza is great, no one hassles me, I drive around alone with no problems, Hamas soldiers have never stopped me or asked any questions, and I walk around at night alone and never feel unsafe. I cant say that it reminds me of any book or movie, because nothing can capture the feeling of living in a giant open air prison, and you really feel it, you feel so cut off here, the siege is so tangible. Life is as normal as it was before the war, but since 2006 life here has been very tense. Everyone I have met hates Hamas and feels so suffocated, and wishes that they would just give up Shalit and stop this nonsense. I wanted to write a long entry on my blog about Hamas, what they are doing here, because it is really horrific, the torture rate is extremely high, and they have a practice of shooting people in the knee caps that object to them, it is really awful.
If you can wait I will sit down this evening and write it, but at the moment at the office we have tons of work so cant do it now. Have I cried? I have not cried here, tho my eyes have definitely welled up at certain points.
israel monitors their own prison cell very closely… what else is new??
Hopefully this will help undercut colonial Zionist propaganda that Hamas and the Palestinian people are indistinguishable.
Interesting. How can everyone she met hate Hamas? It seems to have maintained popular support despite Gaza. I wonder if people just say that to visitors, no matter what they think.
At least Hamas seems to be maintaining order. I have read about their brutality, but in their defense, they lost a whole class of police academy graduates and probably many other "militants" (i.e. police). It's hard to keep public order humanely with few cops and probably a mostly smashed judicial/prison system.
I'm actually quite impressed that Gaza is still orderly and safe after Cast Lead. It speaks well for the Gazans.
One thing I noticed in two opinion polls since the IDF attack on Gaza is that the comparative levels of support for Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, has been reversed. That is, support has always been traditionally much higher in the Gaza Strip, but currently it is lower in Gaza and higher in the West Bank. Maybe they're popular when they are identified with resistance to Israel, but not so popular when you find yourself living under them.
And yes, I know phone polls in the Occupied Territories are historically a bit unreliable because people don't necessarily want to reveal their true opinions to some stranger over the phone.