"It was meant to be a historic non-violent protest in Gaza against Israel’s blockade. But forces are quick to converge in the Middle East against those who work for peace."
The author of the following report, Barnabe Geisweiller, a Canadian student at the Columbia Journalism School who has lived in Palestine, went to Egypt and Gaza with the Gaza Freedom March. He spent weeks reporting on the organization of the march. [There will be reports on the march this week, on Thursday in NYC, and on Saturday in Woodstock, NY].
Security forces watch over marchers in Gaza. (Photo: Barnabe Geisweiller)
When Tighe Barry, a Gaza Freedom March coordinator, saw that the bus had not yet gone he pushed through the group of armed Hamas men in Gaza city and lost it.
“Why has this bus not left yet?” he yelled. “I’ll start this bus myself! It has to go now!”
Barry stormed on to the bus, startling the confused driver as he turned the key in the ignition. He came back out and pounded the windshield with his right hand.
“Get this bus out of here!” he bellowed. “The rest of us will take taxis!”
Barry, regularly clad in a suit and sneakers, hair slightly disheveled, eyes puffy from lack of sleep, always looked as though he had not yet stumbled home from a previous night’s excitement. But the short American with mysterious reserves of energy now seemed at his breaking point.
Tighe Barry interviewed by Al Jazeera.
The Hamas men had watched his antics dumbfounded. Then the eyes of an imposing man, meticulously dressed with a thick beard, hardened with irrepressible rage. It was his turn now to shout and he went straight for Barry, whose own anger now seemed dwarfed by the man’s menacing demeanor.
Yousri Alghoul, the affable director of the Palestinian National Authority’s Department of Creativity Support who speaks fluent English, now had to do more than act as liaison between the foreign activists in Gaza for the Freedom March, whom he smilingly described as pesky, and the rigid Hamas security forces. He flung himself in front of Barry who was by now facing down the much taller Hamas man, and somehow eased the tension with some rapidly spoken Arabic. Minutes before, he had been telling me how he and his wife loved to watch the American television series Lost, about a group of plane crash survivors trapped on an inhospitable island.
Barry’s frustration was not hard to comprehend. For the past few days he and hundreds of other international activists had been holding protests throughout Cairo, corralled by Egyptian riot police and their even more intimidating plainclothesmen counterpart, after Egyptian authorities had announced they would not allow the activists to travel to Gaza.
Six month’s work was threatened by the decision. Groups from all over the world had held fundraising events, organizers had endeavored to plan out the logistics of the march, and activists from around the globe had coordinated their efforts. The march was billed by organizers as a historic peaceful march in the Gaza Strip to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Israel’s 22-day offensive there, which left around 1,400 Palestinians dead and much of the coastal strip in ruins.
But the Egyptians forbade private bus companies from transporting foreigners, threatening to revoke their operating licenses. People who tried to make their own way to the border with Gaza were detained and turned around. Those who managed to make it to Al-Arish, a city on the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai Peninsula not far from the Gaza border town of Rafah, were placed under hotel arrest.
Riot police in Cairo.
After days of protests, the Egyptians announced they would allow only one hundred of the over 1,300 marchers from around forty countries to enter Gaza, and this only after a delegation had appealed directly to First Lady Susan Mubarak, the Egyptian president’s wife and head of the Egyptian Red Crescent.
The Freedom March participants quickly turned on one another as many, if not most, were opposed to accepting an Egyptian proposal that excluded them. If the Egyptians had planned to be divisive they were successful. The scene in Cairo where two busloads of activists were supposed to depart for Gaza turned chaotic as people held up signs urging the chosen few to not leave them behind.
The urgings soon turned to insults and tears. People disembarked while others pushed or negotiated their way onboard. It was announced that no buses would leave, and that Palestinian civil society, apparently represented by Haidar Eid, had said not to come. Then one bus with aid was to go. Finally both buses left after several hours of arguing under the watchful stares of riot police, who had threatened to move in on the noisy crowd.
Of the 86 who did leave on board the buses, many naively expected Gaza to be their oasis of freedom after days of restricted movement in Cairo. But when they arrived, civil society was conspicuous only in its absence, and Hamas took charge of the foreigners.
Hamas said it was guarding the internationals from potential attacks from extremists. Some of the marchers accused it of hijacking the march and preventing them from mixing freely with ordinary Gazans, perhaps for fear they may harbor harsh words for its regime. Hamas may have wanted to limit the foreigner’s contact with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the leftist, secular Palestinian political and paramilitary organization. Thousands of Palestinians had rallied in Gaza in the Palestine Stadium earlier in December to celebrate the PFLP’s 42nd anniversary.
The following day the disappointment inside the buses transporting the activists from the morning’s march was palpable. People wanted to be taken back to their hotels. Barry was passing out in complete exhaustion.
Hamas officials, for their part, had to deal with exasperated foreigners determined to ditch the overbearing armed guards who blocked the entrances of the hotels and followed them around. Government officials claimed to have taken over the organization of the march only after they realized civil society had done nothing to prepare for the arrival of potentially over a thousand internationals.
On the night of Dec. 31, an outdoor gathering was organized to celebrate the coming of the New Year with performances by Palestinian artists including a rap group. Gazan university students took advantage of the event to meet outsiders and practice their English. Some recounted horrific war stories from Israel’s offensive. A young man’s neighborhood had been virtually destroyed. A child with deep, doleful eyes clung to her father’s leg. He rolled up her sleeve to reveal the massive scars left by an Israeli bomb all along her right arm. The air filled with the aromatic smoke of narjilehs—large waterpipes—their incandescent bits of charcoal glowing over bowls of flavored tobacco. Waiters rushed with glasses of sweetened tea.
The night’s celebratory mood was dampened by the presence of Hamas security forces who forbade people from leaving the party on their own. A bus was meant to transport those who wanted to return to their hotels while those who stayed on would take taxis. When the bus had not moved half an hour later and a few grumpy activists began to complain vociferously, Barry lost his cool.
Hamas officials had needed to deal with angered foreigners only a couple hours earlier, when the delegation of orthodox Jews from Neturei Karta became enraged at the sight of women and men celebrating the New Year together. They oppose the existence of the State of Israel because they believe their religious texts prohibit Jews from having a state of their own until the arrival of the messiah.
Freedom March in Gaza Strip.
It seemed lost on Hamas officials that these orthodox Jews would forget all about Palestinian rights if the messiah were to suddenly appear, when both Hamas and Neturei Karta had looked pleased to use each other for photo ops earlier in the day. Now Hamas needed to quickly organize to have the pale, robed men driven back to their hotel.
In the meantime, most of the marchers remained stuck in Cairo, their protests broken up with increasing harshness by Egyptian authorities who tried to paint them as somehow more extreme than those who had been allowed to board the buses. Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said: “Those who tried to conspire against us, and they are more than a thousand, we will leave them in the street.” A group of activists, including 85-year-old Hedy Epstein, whose family perished in the Holocaust, were on hunger strike.
Hedy Epstein
“I’m determined to go to Gaza,” said Epstein. “It’s important to let the people of Gaza, who are terribly, terribly isolated, know that there are some people out there who know about what is happening and who care, and who support them in this dreadful, dreadful life they have to lead.”
On Dec. 31, the day of the march, some of the activists were barricaded in their hotel by police. When groups came together in front of Egypt’s national museum they were quickly encircled by riot police as they attempted to march down the road. They sat on the street to hold their ground and police began hitting and pulling them. Then protesters were once again corralled into a fenced area and allowed to continue chanting for the rest of the day.
This was not the turn of events organizers had anticipated. The march was supposed to be against Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. But it was Egypt that prevented the march from taking place as it had been envisaged, and even welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Cairo on Dec. 29, much to the consternation of many Egyptians and international activists.
Egypt increasingly became the focus of criticism both by participants and in the media. Shortly after the march, Egypt said it would allow 139 vehicles from a Viva Palestina aid convoy to enter Gaza but that 59 vehicles would have to pass through Israel. This decision came after the convoy had already been forced to change its route after spending three days stranded in Aqaba, Jordan, because Egypt had refused to allow it entry through the port of Nuweiba. Clashes erupted between Viva Palestina members and Egyptian police, leading the foreign minister to announce that “Egypt will no longer allow convoys, regardless of their origin or who is organizing them, from crossing its territory.”
In the United States months earlier, organizers of the march associated with the anti-war group Code Pink had been sanguine that they would pull the event off, and that it would involve 50,000 Palestinians all marching together to the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel. People had hoped the march would be historic, alluding to marches against colonial rule in India and apartheid in South Africa. But forces are often quick to converge in the Middle East against those working for peace.
Tunnel under Egypt/Gaza border. By Barnabe Geisweiller.
The generators powering lights and winches in the hundreds of tunnels beneath Egypt’s border droned in the night. There was no mistaking what was happening on the Gaza side of the border near the town of Rafah: a truck was being loaded with sacks of cement pulled from the ground. Egyptian guards in a watchtower took no interest in all the activity; there is plenty of money to be made on both sides from the booming tunnel industry.
All but the most basic of supplies in Gaza must go through the tunnels. Coke cans bought in stores must be wiped clean of their dirt. The price of goods and materials has spiked as the tunnels, reinforced with steel and cement, are costly to build and run. They have become a lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza. Some are also used to smuggle weapons.
Entrance to smuggling tunnel.
Israel has imposed a blockade on the strip since June 2007 when Hamas pre-empted a plan for forces loyal to rival Fatah to take control after Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections. Gun battles raged in the streets between Palestinian militants, and violence between Israel and Gaza escalated.
On June 19, 2008, Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire as Defense Minister Ehud Barak was ordering the Israel Defense Forces to plan for war. Hamas abided by the ceasefire despite Israel’s refusal to lift the blockade. Rocket fire from the strip was reduced by 97 percent. The rockets that were fired were from groups other than Hamas, and in response to the killing of Palestinians by Israel in the West Bank. Israel broke the ceasefire on Nov. 4, 2008, killing 6 Palestinians. Hamas resumed firing rockets after Israel broke the ceasefire.
On Dec. 27, 2008, Israel attacked Gaza. The first wave of bombings came at precisely the time when children were being let out of school and crowded the streets. Some 22 days later, around 1,400 Gazans were dead, including hundreds of women and children. Israel lost 13 people, including three soldiers accidently killed by its own military. More than 4,000 buildings were destroyed and more than 20,000 were severely damaged—representing around 15 percent of all buildings in Gaza. Around 50,800 Gazans were homeless and 400,000 were without water. Israel damaged or destroyed about 50 U.N. facilities, 21 medical facilities, 1,500 factories and workshops, 20 mosques and 10 water sewage pipes. Schools and universities had also come under attack. The estimated damages at the war’s end stood at two billion dollars. Hamas remained as strong as ever.
Building flattened by Israeli strike.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused Israel of war crimes, including the possible murder of unarmed civilians waving white flags. On Nov. 5, 2009, the UN General Assembly endorsed the Goldstone report, a U.N. investigation which found both Israel and Palestinian militants guilty of war crimes. The investigation was headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, a South African Jew whose daughter lives in Israel, and a former war crimes prosecutor at the U.N. tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The 575-page report accused Israel of committing war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. It also accused Hamas of war crimes for its indiscriminate rocket attacks, but the brunt of the criticism was reserved for Israel whose actions were far more extensive and destructive.
Gaza is a land of contrasts. Its potential is visible to all who visit: a beautiful Mediterranean coastline and scarlet sunsets, palm trees, pleasant cafés and hotels, and incredibly friendly people. But in the North of Gaza near the border with Israel, Palestinians have collected scavenged rebar from the buildings destroyed during the war to sell as scrap metal. On the coast, fishermen bring in nets with barely any fish—raw sewage has been pumped into the sea since the war. Boats that venture out more than a few miles from shore risk being attacked or harassed by the Israeli navy.
Fishermen struggle with poor catches.
Gaza has the highest unemployment rate in the world. Many Palestinians in Gaza, some 80 percent of who are not from Gaza but are the descendents of refugees from Southern Israel dispossessed in 1948, have become wholly dependent on U.N. handouts to get by. One year on after the war, the most impoverished of those who lost their homes live in tents or makeshift shelters, as did their ancestors when they fled from Jewish paramilitary groups to Gaza more than 60 years ago.
Smugglers importing pharmaceutical drugs into Gaza have profited from the psychological trauma of war, the hardships of life under siege and an uncertain political future. Palestinians searching for reprieve from stress and distress have turned to painkillers and tranquillizers, triggering a wave of addiction. Natural opiates were banned under Hamas rule, but the government failed to regulate synthetic opioids such as Tramal, a strong painkiller and now the drug of choice in Gaza, especially popular amongst high school students.
This is the dire state of affairs the activists came to protest only to be held up in Cairo by the Egyptian authorities or smothered by Hamas in Gaza. On their last day in Gaza, and as if to complete the picture for the peaceful activists, a rocket was fired into the Negev desert by Palestinian militants and Israeli jets bombed several targets across the strip, wounding two Palestinians.
Fishermen in Gaza. By Barnabe Geisweiller.
Yusif Barakat’s business card is adorned with flowers and butterflies. On the front of the card, there is a photo of a smiling and eccentrically dressed Barakat wearing a black and white keffiyeh, a Palestinian scarf. On the back of the card is written his motto: “Do no harm. Be of service. Cooperate not compete.”
“I was born in Haifa in 1935, and I spent the first 12 years of my life in Palestine,” Barakat said in a sonorous voice. “I used to cross the Jordan River on horseback as a child. I used to be a shepherd boy, lived a very peaceful life. I grew up with Muslim, Christian, Jewish children. There were never any problems. During the Nakba [the war of 1948] I found myself on a ship, crossed two oceans to Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, the New York skyline. There I was, a 12-year-old shepherd boy who couldn’t speak English, face to face with the Statue of Liberty, and it was very frightening. At that time I found that I’m going to spend my life helping humanity and stopping this kind of oppressive injustice.”
More than 60 years later, Barakat had come to Cairo and then to Gaza to protest this “oppressive injustice.”
Child collecting scavenged scrap metal.
The march was the brainchild of scholar and activist Norman Finkelstein, author of Beyond Chutzpah and The Holocaust Industry. The idea came to him when he was in Gaza after the war with a Code Pink delegation.
“Gandhi was of the opinion that non-violence was much more courageous than violence,” Finkelstein said. “The bulk of the march by far will be Palestinian, we would be there to act as human shields, more or less what happened in the American South during what was called Freedom Summer, where privileged northern students came down and risked their lives, knowing that if a black person were killed no one would give a darn but if a privileged student from Harvard or Yale gets killed, the press, the country, would pay attention.”
Finkelstein, a kind of superstar in the world of activism for Palestinian rights in North America, was supposed to be the march’s spokesperson. His speaking engagements were needed to drum up support and media attention, but he along with several other key players resigned after a bitter dispute within the Gaza Freedom March steering committee over the march’s statement of context.
Finkelstein believed the statement should be simple and inclusive. It should focus on the illegality of Israel’s blockade and the collective punishment of Gaza’s population, he said. But two influential Palestinians, Omar Barghouti representing the West Bank and Haidar Eid from Gaza, wanted the statement to be a comprehensive manifesto dealing with everything from the right of return of Palestinian refugees and Israeli settlements in the West Bank to the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement as a preferred mode of resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Omar Barghouti is a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, completing a master’s of philosophy at Tel Aviv University. Haidar Eid, an associate professor in the Department of English Literature at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, is a proponent of the one-state solution and also a member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
Gaza City port.
The two contacted Palestinian organizations that had endorsed the march, encouraging them to disassociate themselves from it until there was more of a focus on BDS. In their letter, the two wrote that: “While over-emphasizing Gandhian non-violence, the statement ignores the most effective, home grown, non-violent form of resistance advocated by most Palestinians today: BDS.”
Organizers and members of the steering committee were receptive to the duo’s complaints, and draft statements began to go back and forth, eating up time and energy. Email exchanges eventually became increasingly bitter.
“The intervention of E&B [Eid and Barghouti] has created unnecessary division,” wrote Abie Dawjee. “Things have turned ugly. I don't like such ugliness. Hence, with great sadness, I quit as march coordinator for South Africa.”
Thomas Woodley, director of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East and a member of the working committee, said the pressure placed on Palestinian organizations that had already endorsed the march was "unprofessional," and it put organizers in a difficult position. It "would have looked strange" if no Palestinian groups were aboard. "We were trying to get internationals involved and felt strongly that the ‘lowest common denominator’ approach was the only way to go.”
Woodley thought strong leadership was lacking and that too much time had been spent trying to satisfy Eid and Barghouti, so he resigned. (Eid passed along my emailed questions to a media representative, who did not respond.)
Finkelstein resigned publicly with a statement posted on his website. In it he wrote:
“During the week beginning August 30, 2009 and in a matter of days an entirely new sectarian agenda dubbed ‘the political context’ was foisted on those who originally signed on and worked tirelessly for three months. […] It should perhaps be stressed that the point of dispute was not whether one personally supported a particular Palestinian right or strategy to end the occupation. It was whether inclusion in the coalition’s statement of a particular right or strategy was necessary if it was both unrelated to the immediate objective of breaking the siege and dimmed the prospect of a truly mass demonstration. In addition the tactics by which this new agenda was imposed do not bode well for the future of the coalition’s work and will likely move the coalition in an increasingly sectarian direction.”
The steering committee voted 8-5 in favor of changing the statement of context to include BDS. Eid and Barghouti sent out their letter of support.
“We were just informed that the organizing committee of the Gaza Freedom March has finally adopted the statement of context that takes into consideration the key constructive suggestions expressed by both of us weeks ago,” they wrote. “[…] Accordingly, we fully endorse the Gaza Freedom March […].”
But days before the march was planned to take place Eid told the government in Gaza that civil society would not partake, guaranteeing that the march would not be a success.
Eid had repeatedly requested over the months that the steering committee based in the United States send letters to Hamas, “reminding them that we were a civil society to civil society initiative and to please let the civil society representatives coordinate our visit and the march,” according to Ann Wright, one of the main organizers.
Members of civil society contended that Hamas had taken too important a role in the march.
“The government decided to take the control of the designing and way of the march so most of the civil society, NGOs and their representatives decided not to be in the same line as the government to ensure the neutrality of the march itself,” said Moheeb Shaath, the Gaza director of Sharek Youth Forum.
Civil society had spent months preparing for the march, according to Shaath, and had asked Hamas only to provide security.
“One week ago they came and said they will take the lead,” he said on the day of the march.
When the government announced it wanted to give a speech at the march, Shaath said civil society took this as a sign that the event had been hijacked.
“They just want to embarrass us,” said Ahmed A. Alnajjar, director of international relations at the Ministry of Education, who gave a speech at the march.
Civil society had done a poor job of coordinating with the government, said Alnajjar, and Hamas’ main concern was for security.
“I’m not sure whether you know, a few months ago, some people were killed in Rafah, some people who claimed they were part of Al Qaeda,” Alnajjar told me. “So that’s why we were a little bit worried about the safety of foreign people.”
Hamas was fighting the War on Terror.
Tighe Barry, the American coordinator with Code Pink who went to Gaza, believed civil society had done little to actually prepare for the march and the arrival of potentially over a thousand foreigners, and that this prompted the government to take control.
Yousri Alghoul, who served as liaison between Hamas and the activists, said Hamas was concerned because elements bent on destabilizing the government could kidnap or hurt foreign visitors to make Hamas look bad. But he opined that the gruff security forces could probably have benefited from courses on how to deal with foreigners more amicably.
Police surround French protesters in front of their embassy, Cairo. By Geisweiller.
Retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat Ann Wright met with Egyptian officials and diplomats early on to inform them of the plan to have over a thousand activists shuttled through Egyptian territory and into Gaza. Since Egypt is the only country to share a border with Gaza aside from Israel, having the support of the authorities was crucial.
“We put together the database of all the people who have signed up and we contacted the Egyptian embassy in person,” she said in October in New York City. “We meet with the ambassador or the deputy ambassador and the political officer which is our point of contact.”
Organizers gave the authorities the names of all participants, which were then sent to the foreign ministry in Cairo. Wright believed past Code Pink delegations to Gaza had been successful precisely because of this diplomatic and cooperative approach.
But in December, when the Egyptian foreign ministry, citing escalating tensions along the border, announced the activists would not be allowed into Gaza days before the bulk of them were due to arrive in Cairo, the list of names became a weapon. The authorities were able to use their database of names to profile foreigners traveling to the Sinai and detain them.
“We feel devastated that this government thinks that for some crazy reason we shouldn’t be allowed to go there,” said Medea Benjamin in Cairo, an organizer and co-founder of Code Pink, days before the march was due to take place. “I think that Israel has put its foot down and said ‘you better not let this march happen to the Israeli border.’”
Code Pink offered to reimburse half of the fees participants had paid; either $250 or $400 depending on the type of accommodation in Gaza and to cover transportation from Cairo to Gaza and back. Everyone had paid for their airfares separately. Many of the marchers now needed the money to afford their extended stays in Cairo.
Shopkeepers, Jabaliya, Gaza Strip.
Participants speculated on Egypt’s true motives for derailing the march. Some pointed to the congressionally-appropriated military financing grants Egypt receives each year from the United States, and to the influence Israeli lobby groups have in the U.S. congress. Others pointed to the fact that Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the main political opposition, and that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak wanted to limit its influence in his country. Others thought the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah who presides from the West Bank, had put pressure on Egypt to keep Hamas isolated. Possibly all these assertions had some truth to them, but the Egyptians were not forthcoming with explanations.
When the Egyptians announced a hundred marchers would be allowed to enter Gaza, many saw this as affirmation that Egypt’s claim that security concerns were behind its decision was bogus. After all, if it were true, why were the authorities so determined to limit or prohibit any shows of solidarity with the people of Gaza on the streets of Cairo? When activists had wanted to set candles afloat in the Nile’s murky waters on the night of Dec. 27, police threatened to revoke the operating licenses of boats that took foreigners on board. When activists tied commemorative ribbons and flowers to the 6th October Bridge, police ripped them off.
But on Jan. 6, as if to redeem Egypt’s security claim, Hamas loyalists rallied on the Gaza side of the border to protest Egypt’s construction of an underground steel wall that will block the hundreds of smuggling tunnels that make life in Gaza possible, and its restrictions on the Viva Palestina convoy. Stones were thrown, shots were fired, and an Egyptian soldier was killed.
Freedom Marchers gather near roadblock on the way to Israeli border, Gaza.
Historically, peaceful movements have been successful inside countries where the protests disrupt or disable the functioning of government.
“If a non-violent protest has the ability to stop things, to make it difficult for the established powers to function, then it’s exercising what a lot of sociologists call leverage,” said American sociologist Michael Schwartz, professor of sociology at the State University of New York. “That’s the lens I think needs to be applied, does this protest generate leverage of some sort?”
Many amongst the crowd that gathered on Ramses Street in Cairo at 7 a.m. on Dec. 30, felt their leverage was in numbers, and that the Egyptian proposal to allow a hundred people out of over 1,300 to travel to Gaza was divisive and unacceptable. Many were there to convince the activists heading to Gaza not to board the buses.
“We all need to take a unified stance as the Gaza Freedom March delegations, and say that if we all do not go, none of us should go,” said Sarah Mahmoud of the Canadian delegation. “Not a hundred people, not two hundred people, that’s not the Gaza Freedom March. That’s a hundred people going on two buses with aid.”
Organizers had only had a few hours to compile a list of one hundred names for the authorities, and had tried to include representatives from as many countries as possible. A lot of the marchers were upset, and felt the selection process had lacked transparency.
Gaza civil society, represented by Omar Barghouti and Haidar Eid, sent a message to organizers which was read aloud to all those present.
“After a lot of hesitation and deliberation, we are writing to call on you to reject the ‘deal’ reached with the Egyptian authorities,” the email read. “We […] are unambiguous in perceiving this compromise as too heavy, too divisive and too destructive to our future work and networking with various solidarity movements around the world.”
When people started disembarking the buses, the Egyptian authorities became more flexible, allowing new names to be added to the list. Those who were determined to leave on the buses, despite the urgings of so many of the marchers, believed they could serve an independent purpose in Gaza. Some had NGO business to tend to, while others were journalists, photographers or bloggers. Some had aid to deliver. Others had relatives they hadn’t seen in years to visit. All had their reasons for wanting to go.
“My dad worked in Gaza in 1949 with the United Nations and Quakers in charge of tents, food and medicines in a refugee camp by Rafah”, said David Hartsough, executive director of Peaceworkers and co-founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce. “His being willing to come into a war zone halfway around the world to meet the needs of people he had never met impressed me. In addition to that, I’ve heard about what was happening in Gaza, people living there imprisoned, the terrible destruction from a year ago from the Israeli attack, and I just felt that it’s time the world wakes up and says that this is unconscionable.”
The buses left with a motley crew, some in tears, some angry, most feeling the need to voice their justifications for being on board. To some, the march had already lost its historic potential—it was clear the marchers would not disrupt the functioning of the Israeli or Egyptian governments—but many hoped to still put a dent in Israel’s shield of public opinion.
This optimism shrank on the day of the march when activists were bused to the road leading to the Erez crossing with a police escort leading the way. One young woman remarked bitterly that the police car’s siren was more likely to attract unwanted attention if the government was genuinely concerned for the activists’ safety. Palestinian media were waiting near the drop off, and the marchers on board the buses were filmed like animals in a zoo before being allowed to disembark by their Hamas overseers.
Marchers were flanked by armed men.
Palestinians and foreigners began their march up the road together. There were very few women and children on the Palestinian side, and the crowd could not have numbered more than a few hundred people—a far cry from the 50,000 Palestinians anticipated by the Freedom March organizers. The marchers were flanked by armed security men, who herded stragglers forward.
Eid and Barghouti may have suddenly decided that the 100 marchers should not accept Egypt’s offer, but they had chosen to remain mute regarding civil society’s apparent decision to no longer participate.
“We in Cairo were as surprised as those who went to Gaza that Hamas had taken over the march,” said Ann Wright, who did not travel to Gaza, in an email. “From what we heard in Cairo, our delegates in Gaza realized that Hamas had taken over the march when they were at the march site.”
The Palestinian media darlings of the event were the group of orthodox Jews from Neturei Karta who marched waving Palestinian flags. Hamas, for its part, kept its promise to organizers not to have any of its own green flags visible at the march.
Some paraplegics in the march.
Protesters walked to about a mile from the Israeli border where a high concrete wall with watchtowers and an observation balloon marked the beginning of Israeli territory. There were a few speeches, a short-lived sit-down far from the Erez crossing, and then participants were ushered on to buses by curt security men.
The marchers’ efforts were not in vain. The march and protests in Cairo did attract the attention of the Egyptian and international press. For many activists, the main goal of the protests was to build global support and pressure to force an end to the blockade of Gaza.
“I think we made our voices heard, and will continue to make our voices heard,” said David Hartsough. “From my point of view, unfortunately Hamas kind of took the leadership away from the nongovernmental organizations. Just last night I finally met some of the nongovernmental organizations. They’re some really great people that are struggling under very difficult circumstances.”
Many of the protesters in Gaza and Cairo felt the friendships and connections made alone were worth the trip.
On Jan. 2, all the marchers were told they would have to leave Gaza. Many had planned to stay on, but Hamas said it feared Egypt would keep the Rafah border crossing closed if everyone did not return. Indeed, the Egyptians did temporarily open the crossing the following day, allowing some of the hundreds of medical patients, students and people with visas to leave, and some Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side of the border to enter. But as it was Saturday, the holy day of Shabbat, the orthodox Jews could not travel, and Hamas had to wait until sundown to send them off.
Yusif Barakat, the Palestinian refugee from Haifa, had stood with the marchers only a mile from Israel. On the other side of the border wall, up the coast, was the plot of land where he was born, the fields in which he had galloped amongst the olive trees.
“This is the highlight of my life,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to return.”
But this man of peace was not filled with joy.
“It’s being back home but unfortunately it’s not the home that I left,” Barakat said. “It’s not the atmosphere that I left. Everything is more oppressive here. Everything is tightly controlled. So the Israelis are aggressive, and the Palestinians are oppressive. And it’s all for security, I suppose. But still, it’s not what I remember as a child. I want to wish peace for all the world. I believe we are all one people. We are all one humanity.”
The leaders of the Middle East seemed to differ.
Thanks for this report, Barnabe, and for shedding more light on the stifling role of Hamas inside Gaza.
What a devastating report, both because simple divide and rule tactics are shown to work so well and because Palestinian civil society outside the iron grip of the leadership seems be a thing of the imagination. A bad event carrying bad omens.
Thanks Barnaby. It’s a pity–well, we all know Norman’s “impatience”– that he couldn’t convince Omar Barghouti and Haidar Eid. Their insistence sounds like the first nail in the coffin. I wonder if they will be more adaptive, are able to learn from this. …
… so sad. Would Norman’s vision have made the difference? We’ll never know.
.
It seems obvious with hindsight that there would be a significant degree of obstruction from the Egyptians, who are pretty complicit in the Gaza siege. It seems strange that there were no pre-agreed plans for dealing with the obstructive tricks when they were played.
my experience of hamas inside gaza was very different than what the author portrays.
when i disembarked inside gaza there was lots of palestinian media, hamas was always present and at no time did i deel as tho i was an animal in a zoo.
i recall marching at the gop convention and the security there was quite gruff! ok, i know it is different. during my delegation there were some differences of opinion wrt the CP organizers and hamas as to the proper amount of security afforded us. personally, i appreciated the guards and completely deferred to their judgment. i recall clearly when a member of our delegation begged and pleaded for our bus driver to pull over so everyone could get out for an ‘awesome’ photoshoot of the wall. they simply would not accept it was a completely dangerous place to pull over. our buses were constantly escorted by small pickup trucks w/armed soldiers riding in the back. it was not until the last day any of them betrayed a sense of approval we were there or betrayed any individual personality at all. they were completely professional all the time. on the last day i passed a card to one of our UN guides to pass along to them stating my appreciation for our security and hrs later as we were about to cross over the rafah border one of the translators said to me he was going to translate for a man standing there. i recognized this gentleman in the suit. very tall and formal and stern looking. the translator said how grateful they all were for the card. this was the head of security. i tried to give him a hug but he wouldn’t let me! then i tried to shake his hand forgetting that is not done in this culture.
i think it is a big mistake to make assumptions about what kind of security is necessary in a war zone where there are infiltrators with extremely nefarious goals. one kidnapping of an american would run endless cycles on the msm. it is completely naive to assume there might not be people in gaza with an aim to hurt hamas by any mans necessary, the bigger the better. does it surprise me militants (not hamas) fired off rockets into the negev that day? no, it does not.
i was at the parliament meeting when norm presented the idea to the hamas government. the recording is available. there are certainly cultural differences but i think it is a mistake to think the march was ever somehow divorced from hamas. i think it is likely civil society backed out when they heard moat or the marchers were not allowed to attend in an act of solidarity.
i’m wondering when the author writes ‘chosen to remain mute’, does that mean he asked barghouti who refused to answer? i’m wondering why the framing of ‘suddenly decided that the 100 marchers should not accept Egypt’s offer’ when everything about the decision to allow the 100 marchers was sudden was it not? i met barghouti, a very amiable expressive communicative person. my understanding of the willingness of most of palestinian civil society to endorse this march was connected to the march organizers affirming the stated goals of palestinian civil society, all of whom endorse the BDS campaign and all of whom signed on to endorse the march after the stated goals were endorsed. yes, there were palestinians who endorsed the march prior to the additional politicized goals being added and lots of contention arose ( i was privy to some of this). but i think blaming barghouti or eid is inappropriate. i attended the out of occupation conference in chicago and all this was hashed out prior to the vote for the organization to endorse the march (which includes over 400 groups in itself). barghouti spoke at that time. the unification of the endorsement by all segments of palestinian civil society is something that should be applauded in itself tho one can appreciate that unification was not extended thru all segments of the many peace groups (jewish or other) who support the free gaza movement.
considering the palestinian civil society organizers, as a whole made an unambiguous stand towards solidarity it appears the people who remained on that bus did so out of some other commitment.
I certainly don’t want to share in the demonisation of Hamas – but is it your view, annie, that a real civil society can be expected to emerge from a situation where solidarity depends so much on religious commitment and where there is a siege, so things are, I presume, pretty militarised?
I also presume that any event like the Freedom March would be infiltrated by people whose mission would be to spread dissension and disruption.
It would be naive to assume that Hamas is pacifist or libertarian. But we can’t forget that Hamas’s enemies aren’t imaginary and there are forces who would be very happy to cause an incident that would make them look bad, not to mention setting off a coup. Fatah authorities wouldn’t even let Mohammed Dhalan enter Gaza for his mother’s funeral, even when Hamas said they would allow it [and I won't speculate if they actually would have].
Oh potsherd, it wasn’t Fatah’s call, it was Dhalan himself who refused to enter Gaza:
Dahlan accused the Islamist movement of exploiting his mother’s death for political gains by inviting him to participate in her funeral if he makes a formal request to enter Gaza with the de facto government and enters in the custody of Hamas.
link to maannews.net
Dahlan is a thug with a badge like Yuval Diskin.
While Dahlan was torturing Palestinians in Fatah’s gulags, Bush was calling him “our guy” and sending him CIA personnel to train him.
thanks, annie, for illustrating some key points and also for providing an important context: in my time in cairo, and also in gaza (i was in gaza a few months back, not during the gaza freedom march), i NEVER saw police or military behave in the ways i’ve seen american police behave toward demonstrators and other citizens on a regular basis.
barnabe, i definitely appreciate the challenge of pulling all of the events of the gaza freedom march into a single article while simultaneously providing context–a herculean task, to be sure. but i’m curious: why no mention of the cairo declaration to end israeli apartheid? many gfm participants, including internationals and palestinians in gaza, would point to this document as the biggest success of the gfm. yes, marchers were never permitted to leave cairo, and yes, the march in gaza was complicated by some of hamas’ decisions, but the overarching success of the march is that while our bodies could not break the siege, our minds and spirits went to work on a clear plan to end not only the siege, but the occupation, as well.
i’m also disappointed to not see more information about the south african, french, and scottish delegations, who provided such tremendous leadership in cairo. for me, one of the major lessons of the gfm is that the american solidarity movement must recognize that it’s years behind our allies in europe and south africa, and we ought to take a backseat as we learn from them. furthermore, like annie, i also watched the back-and-forth between codepink and civil society voices in gaza around the statement of context for the gfm several months ago. this division was an early sign that the american solidarity movement, and especially the american solidarity movement as represented by codepink (of course there’s a great argument to be made that codepink doesn’t at all represent that movement), needed to change their focus from one of “bringing nonviolence to civil society in gaza,” to one of “acting in solidarity with civil society in gaza,” particularly when it comes to honoring the long history of palestinian non-violence, and the bds call that so many voices in palestine have clearly called on the solidarity movement to actively support. i know finkelstein and others have complained that this dialogue and the resulting decision to adopt the new statement was unfair to activists who had poured months of work into the march prior to the decision, but i would love for them to explain why they spent months planning a march without inviting civil society in gaza to the table.
why no mention of the cairo declaration to end israeli apartheid? many gfm participants, including internationals and palestinians in gaza,
Indeed this calls into question Barnabe’s main theme regarding Palestinian division (and those e-mail exchanges with professor Finkelstein). I’m not saying he’s got an agenda, I’m just saying that given the Cairo declaration, it seems to me that something is missing from Barnabe’s thesis.
needed to change their focus from one of “bringing nonviolence to civil society in gaza,” to one of “acting in solidarity with civil society in gaza,”
well put unverified. i think originally it was conceived as a way to break the siege, once palestinians started getting on board i think they wanted their priorities addressed and the affirmation the efforts were in solidarity with those priorities. unfortunately some of those priorities meant making commitments and personal decisions some of the organizers had yet to make. i support norm for being honest and stepping back under the circumstances although i realize how difficult it must have been for him.
is it your view, annie, that a real civil society can be expected to emerge from a situation where solidarity depends so much on religious commitment and where there is a siege, so things are, I presume, pretty militarised?
mhugh, having a slight knowledge of the way counter intellegence works i can assure you extreme elements are sometimes introduced and empowered in societies to disrupt civil societies. but what can be expected to emerge is irrelevant. palestinian civil society already exists, and all signs lead me to believe it will continue to exist. there is a reason hamas came to power and i believe it is because the majority of palestinians are not willing to give up the option of armed resistance, or defense. in this regard they are no different than most people.
I also presume that any event like the Freedom March would be infiltrated by people whose mission would be to spread dissension and disruption.
naturally in a delegation the size of the one i went on (around 70 people) i naturally assumed there were spies amoung us. it would be foolish to assume otherwise. inflitration isn’t only to spread dissention or disrupt but more importantly to gain information, to spread information (covert ops include journalism for example), to pass information..make contacts. lots of reasons. i had already identified who i thought were agents before i even met people on our delegation by the propaganda a certain poster put up on our listserve. it had a section that was an obvious lie, no one in the movement could be such an idiot as to believe it, later when i met him i had total certainty. naturally intellegent agencies are creative enough to insert agents into these trips. why would they not?
as for the militarization of gaza, nothing compared to israel. perhaps they have agents around all over the place but you don’t see them on the street everywhere, or in restauraunts. in israel the kid in back of you in line at a fast food joint is wearing a huge machine gun ak47 type thing. thats militarized. every establishment you enter you get searched by people w/guns.
wrt ‘solidarity depends so much on religious commitment’, no it doesn’t. that’s silly.
Is this fact relevant: Since 1992 the US has give the total equivalent (3 bill) to Haiti of USA direct aid to Israel in any one year (excluding the matrix of other aid to Israel, itself way more than to any other country, especially when you consider the many Memos of Understanding).
3 billion over 18 years according to Bill Clinton–to Haiti. As I said, that’s just the starting point annual for USA taxpayer aid to Israel, after all it’s so poor and needy.
That’s why it has no military-industrial-tech-IT complex to speak of, right? I mean, hey any Haitian is living like an average Israeli, yes?
It is profoundly despicable that US security turned away a Doctors without Borders aid plane yesterday due to Clinton’s visit to Haiti.
There are people within the US military and civilian apparatus whose job it is to coordinate and oversee such relief efforts, the last thing anyone needs on the ground is a bumbling politician looking for a photo op.
And who put the US military in charge, anyway?
Regarding infiltration of peace and/or solidarity movements: annie is right. It would be ridiculous not to assume that there would be a fair number of infiltrators, with all kind of agendas. Some are there to sow discord. others have the job of not making hamas look good, no matter what. Still others are there to inform and keep tabs on leaders and plans of the various organizations. It is not a surprise that most of infiltration will come through american and canadian channels and some may be palestinians too. I’d expect fewer to show up among the french and scottish delegations, for example. Most of the infiltrators and informants do not even likely know each other, and are not likely to act in concert. But there’ll definitely be a few whose job it is to look for targets of opportunity, however these materialize, whether before, during or after the main event.
For future acts of solidarity with palestinians – be they in gaza or the west bank, it is important to keep in mind who the enemy is – and what it is capable of – at all times. And it really is an enemy – of NGOs, of human rights, of anything that can benefit palestinians or any other middle eastern power. People may have great israeli friends. they may have israeli family. They may know fellow israeli warriors in the battle for human rights and freedom from oppression. It doesn’t matter how wonderful the good guys are because it is the bad guys who rule the roost.
let us remember that most recently the mossad probably murdered an Iranian physicist, one who supported reform, one who did not even specialize in nuclear energy. Somewhere a decision was made to “neutralize” this individual to send a message or to sow discord – most likely both. That this seemed to be a perfectly good man, a supporter of moussavi, a man with family, a researcher and a decent scientist – that was all beside the point. Collateral stuff, as they say. A sacrificial lamb. A hagiography os the mossad’s leader was just published in Egypt. Full of admiration for tactics and consequences. Not a word about the pathology of it all. The end justifies the means. of course the end is corrupted so the means can only get more brutal.
Let us also remember that the majority of israelis were perfectly capable to close their hearts to the murder of hundreds of children, to massacre and destruction, to endless suffering. The majority in Israel – as Phil and many others described care selectively about suffering. haitians this way. palestinians that way. quite simple, really.
My advice to the good people who go out on a limb to support the oppressed people of palestine is to never forget they are dealing with mafia mentality. For the decision makers in israel – and their supporters in the US – it’s about ‘us’ and ‘them’. That realization is, I believe, what made hamas as cautious and disciplined as it is. and probably helped entrenched them in fundamentalism since deep faith is the only weapon available to those who have nothing else to protect them from subversion. In this kind of conflict where one side has all the cards and will stop literally at nothing, hamas really has little choice. They happen to be a religious authority. could just as well been trotskites or maoists. When under siege, it’s best to have a siege mentality.
I honestly expect things to get a lot worse for human rights groups – be they in israel or outside. the more BDS spreads, the more the demonstrations in israel get publicity, the more brutal the eventual response. I especially expect leaders in the US and elsewhere to come under increasing pressure. They – and every one in the movement – will need all the resilience and conviction they can master.
” most recently the mossad probably murdered an Iranian physicist”
Is that what your intelligence sources told you? It’s more likely an anti reformist group in Iran killed him.
What will you do when BDS totally fails? Resort to violence again? Suicide bombings? The “movement” was shown to be fatally incompetent and increasingly violent in the Gaza freedom March, eventually causing the death of an Egyptian Police Officer.
yawn. the bds campaign is not doomed to failure, far from it. obviously israel doesn’t share you views or they would not be arresting people and questioning them about their contacts and organizations.
The “movement” was shown to be fatally incompetent and increasingly violent in the Gaza freedom March, eventually causing the death of an Egyptian Police Officer.
oh please. you’re sounding a little desperate.
Sorry, Julian, your information is distorted by the lens used to frame the murder. You need to read justine Raymondo’s analysis of the many reasons it is not likely for people associated with the ant-reform to have murdered the scientist because they had very little to gain and the modus operandi is all wrong for it being carried out by, say, revolutionary guard or associates. But the operation does fit the mossad like a tee and panning on “anti-reformist” group is par for the course. In fact, this is one of the intended outcomes (sowing discord and all that). You spewing this scenario just confirms what kind of reading you do.
Not that I’d normally bother to reply to you, but it may be of benefit to others (nothing can benefit you Julian, since you fell off the edge ages ago – maybe at birth?)
How about Israeli sources. Yossi Melman in Ha’aretz: link to haaretz.com
prescient comment re the mafia mentality danaa. bottom line for me was hamas made me feel safe in that environment. they do not underestimate the enemy because that is all most of them know of the ‘other’, for generations. one of the things that blew me away was the incredible openness and generosity of people w/seemingly nothing to give, but they had so much. sort of an endless supply of vibes and all i had to do was look in their eyes and we connected as if..as if we both knew the truth although i know so little in comparrison to the pain they have endured.
The Hamas men had watched his antics dumbfounded. Then the eyes of an imposing man, meticulously dressed with a thick beard, hardened with irrepressible rage.
dunbfounded to irrepressible rage? hmm. but mr hamas apparently didn’t explode due to the translator? i know tighe berry. men will be men. tighe is awesome and has traveled to gaza manny times. it’s hard for me to imagine he could generate the kind of irrepressible rage that would result in any kind of violence from anyone, that would included hamas.
Hamas said it was guarding the internationals from potential attacks from extremists. Some of the marchers accused it of hijacking the march and preventing them from mixing freely with ordinary Gazans, perhaps for fear they may harbor harsh words for its regime. Hamas may have wanted to limit the foreigner’s contact with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the leftist, secular Palestinian political and paramilitary organization. Thousands of Palestinians had rallied in Gaza in the Palestine Stadium earlier in December to celebrate the PFLP’s 42nd anniversary.
yes, you can read about that rally here. not exactly at great odds w/hamas, to say the least.
some of our homestays in gaza were w/fatah supporters. i hardly think this would have been possible had hamas objected. the palestinian people are aware their unification is paramount, tho they have obvious conflicts. i clearly recall being surrounded by children (over 50 under 100) at one of the playgrounds asking me questions in their broken english (had they learned it for my visit?) they asked me fatah? or hamas? who do i like? i joined me hands together after calling one hand hamas and the other fatah, and i said both together as i clasp my hands. all the children spontaneously screamed with delight. this was not a new message for them, it was my test and i passed!
lots about this report i found odd. but the strangest aspect was the lack of response to the palestinian people.
On the night of Dec. 31, an outdoor gathering was organized to celebrate the coming of the New Year with performances by Palestinian artists including a rap group. Gazan university students took advantage of the event to meet outsiders and practice their English. Some recounted horrific war stories from Israel’s offensive. A young man’s neighborhood had been virtually destroyed. A child with deep, doleful eyes clung to her father’s leg. He rolled up her sleeve to reveal the massive scars left by an Israeli bomb all along her right arm. The air filled with the aromatic smoke of narjilehs—large waterpipes—their incandescent bits of charcoal glowing over bowls of flavored tobacco. Waiters rushed with glasses of sweetened tea.
practicing their english? they live in a prison. what to some is ‘practicing their english’ is actually speaking to someone outside that prison for the first time in their lives (and many palestinians in gaza speak perfect english since they have lots of time to study). the foreigners were ‘exasperated’, the guards ‘overbearing ‘ , civil society did ‘ nothing’ except prepare an outdoor new years eve gathering with performances by Palestinian artists including a rap group w/ gazan university students. bummer. only air filled with the aromatic smoke of narjilehs—large waterpipes—w/waiters rushing around with glasses of sweetened tea for the foreigners. just one mans story of his neighborhood destroyed and just one child with deep, doleful eyes who clung to her father’s leg. that was all he got. somethig tells me Barnabe missed out. something tells me the solidarity movement solidified. all that he didn’t see or feel exists. that’s the story he missed. i would have loved to have been there that night. i wuld have cherished every minute of it, but then i wouldn’t have been there. when egypt/israel and the US conspired to prevent the march i would have deferred to the decision of the palestinian civil society, to remain solidified.
annie, thanks for your comments. My experience too in Gaza in May/June was much closer to what you describe vis-a-vis Hamas. Yes, there were lots of armed guards with us, and they were sometimes controlling of our movement. But I found that if you interacted with them with mutual respect and the assumption that we were, in fact, on the same side, they were quite approachable. I didn’t feel that they were trying to “hide” any part of Gaza from us, and I did feel that they were trying to protect us. In fact, we were treated with a degree of respect by the Hamas-led government that I could only hope to one day receive from my own government here in the US!
I would have expected the author of this article, who seems from his bio to have lived and traveled quite a bit in the Middle East, to be a bit more astute about the political realities on the ground in Gaza. The situation there is extremely tense at the moment, perhaps the most tense it’s been since the end of Cast Lead. Unfortunately, fears about the safety of internationals and the risk of infiltration on the part of the government of Gaza are entirely justified. It does seem that some possibly undemocratic maneuvers went down between Hamas and civil society groups regarding the march, but frankly I don’t know the details and don’t feel that I can comment on that.
When I went to Gaza, one of the things I was struck by was not how closed and uniform the society was politically, but how open and diverse. Palestinians have a long tradition of political debate and diversity and are generally not shy at all about sharing their political alliances–whether they are with Hamas, another party, or no party. As for the PFLP, they have a de facto alliance with Hamas at this point; there are PFLP flags flown openly all over Gaza, and I’ve seen martyr billboards from joint operations with Hamas and PFLP flags flying together.
As for the dig at Omar Barghouti and Haidar Eid for disagreeing with Finklestein, I simply can’t let that slide. To back out of organizing a major international demonstration over political disagreements with two leading members of Palestinian civil society is not only petty on Norm’s part, it is breaking the first rule of international solidarity work, which is to listen to and agree to be led by the oppressed people you are supporting. Frankly I would not have felt comfortable participating in the Gaza Freedom March without the endorsement of Omar and Haidar. For an American activist not to respect the political positions of two leaders of the Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement living in Palestine–at least enough to work with them–is simply arrogant.
thanks for commenting, annie and laura. it really does seem like this writer misunderstood the context in gaza and is completely unaware of the herculean efforts of civil society members and leaders there. i learned so much on our may/june trip to gaza, and one piece of that knowledge that’s really ringing true for me now is that we have to be certain of all of the facts before we publish or speak publicly about our experiences–gaza’s situation is complicated, and it’s far too easy to misrepresent the reality there in very damaging ways.
for me, one of the most amazing stories to emerge from the gaza freedom march is that almost all of the gfmers refused mubarak’s sell-out deal of the buses. despite the pleading of some of codepink’s leadership, many of the original 100 refused their seats on the buses, and many more refused to take their place. when the buses left, only 84 were on board! 1,400 people came to cairo with their hearts set on going to gaza, but we watched the buses pull away with 16 empty seats because we had come to cairo to act in solidarity with the people of gaza, not to join another token aid effort.
I do think the gaza freedom march offers a lot of lessons for our movement, beginning with finkelstein’s refusal to give up ownership of the march (so well put, laura!!), climaxing with the decision around the buses, and now being teased out by writings like this one and walden bello’s ridiculous rant in foreign policy in focus. we had so many successes in cairo, including of course the cairo declaration to end israeli apartheid (it’s still absurd to me that that document is not even mentioned in this piece), but we must also examine our weaker moments, as well. as you mention, laura, we have a lot to learn about solidarity work.
Some of the comments here are perplexing to say the least. The article gave all points of view on what happened in Gaza, including Hamas’ security claim. No judgements were made on whether or not it was true. Some have said that I am unaware of civil society’s efforts. Yet I quoted civil society and its detractors. Amusingly, people want to defend Hamas and civil society at the same time, while these two were clearly at loggerheads. Civil society, represented by two individuals, had approved of the plan to have a 100 people come to Gaza, only to change its mind the next morning when buses were already being boarded. Perhaps, it would have been a good time to also inform organizers that the march was off. It is my opinion an opportunity was squandered, though you will not find that opinion express in my article. Had civil society shown up in droves as had been expected by organizers, the march would have been historic regardless of whether Hamas had taken too big a role in its organization. Internationals may have been blocked from traveling to Gaza by the Egyptians, but it is Palestinian civil society and Hamas that ultimately served as its death-knell.
I wrote about the march in Gaza, which was what the Gaza Freedom March was always meant to be. Some would like to have the Gaza Freedom March recast as the protests in Cairo and a declaration written in Egypt which equates Israeli policies with apartheid, barely mentions Gaza or the siege and lays out a plan for future, hypothetical work quite apart from the blockade of Gaza. The march was meant to be against the siege in Gaza. The declaration and future work focuses on BDS, to the great pleasure, I am sure, of two individuals.
Some commentators seem to believe they know what happened on this trip because they have been to Gaza before. Those who came on this trip and had been on past delegations said they had never been under such tight surveillance before. One commentator rather oddly surmises that a Hamas man she was neither there to see or to meet could not have lost his temper after a quarrel with foreign activists.
I can only say that those who accuse me of not comprehending the complexities of the political situation in Gaza, only to go on to say that the PFLP and Hamas are not at odds, discredit themselves. Because Hamas and the PFLP are not engaged in gun battles in the streets, as they have been before, does not mean they see eye to eye. Anyone who thinks that the secularist, leftist PFLP and Islamist Hamas do not have serious differences needs to re-examine their own understanding of the politics of Gaza. The PFLP has, unsuccessfully, acted as a mediator between Hamas and Fatah. It is the strongest party in Gaza after Hamas, and it would be folly for Hamas to attempt to take it on. This means the two tolerate each other, but it is not hard to see that the unveiled women clad in military fatigues at PFLP rallies do not fit in well with Hamas’ religious and political conservatism.
I have also been accused by one commentator of missing the human story in Gaza. Perhaps the person missed my entire section dedicated to explaining the human dimension of the geopolitical struggle of which Gaza is a pawn. The ordinary Gazans I spoke to had harsh words for Hamas’ regime. The article laid out, in detail, the issues all the actors faced in the organization and carrying out of this march. Yet leave it to Western activists to viscerally defend those they want to see as allies in a struggle against a pure evil. Unfortunately, understanding the complexities of the Middle East requires more than a chaperoned visit to Gaza. It requires a pragmatic scrutiny that some here have demonstrated they hopelessly lack.
“understanding the complexities of the Middle East requires more than a chaperoned visit to Gaza. It requires a pragmatic scrutiny that some here have demonstrated they hopelessly lack.”
couldn’t agree more, barnabe. hope you can take your own lesson there. this article would benefit from quite a lot of scrutiny in its next draft. you may want to consider talking with some of the civil society and pflp leaders, as some of these commentors have, to get their perspectives before claiming to “give all points of view” and offer an analysis that is sorely lacking.
You might want to read the article again Emi, I did speak to civil society. Strangely enough, Israeli journalist and Gaza expert, Amira Hass, reached the same conclusions I did. But, clearly, you must have an understanding of the situation that we just can’t grasp.
Amira Hass in Haaretz:
“The story gradually became clear. The international organizers of the march coordinated it with civil society, various non-governmental organizations, which were also supposed to involve the Popular Committee to Break the Siege, a semi-official organization affiliated with Hamas. Many European activists have long-standing connections with left-wing organizations in the Gaza Strip. Those organizations, especially the relatively large Popular Front, had organized lodging for several hundred guests in private homes. When the Hamas government heard this, it prohibited the move. “For security reasons.” What else?
Also “for security reasons,” apparently, on Thursday morning, the activists discovered a cordon of stern-faced, tough Hamas security men blocking them from leaving the hotel (which is owned by Hamas). The security officials accompanied the activists as they visited homes and organizations.
During the march itself, when Gazans watching from the sidelines tried to speak with the visitors, the stern-faced security men blocked them. “They didn’t want us to speak to ordinary people,” one woman concluded.
Hijacked or poorly organized?
The march was not what the organizers had dreamed of during the nine months of preparation. The day before the trip to Gaza, they already knew that the non-governmental organizations had backed out. Some people said that Hamas government representatives had found the NGOs did not have a clear, organized plan for the guests and therefore had taken the initiative. One Palestinian activist insisted: “When we heard there would only be 100, we canceled everything.”
Another said, “From the outset, Hamas set conditions: No more than 5,000 marchers, no approaching the wall and the fence, how to make speeches, how long the speeches should be, who will make speeches. In short, Hamas hijacked the initiative from us and we gave in.”
Hamas, or its Popular Committee, brought 200 or 300 marchers. The march turned into nothing more than a ritual, an opportunity for Hamas cabinet ministers to get decent media coverage in the company of Western demonstrators. Especially photogenic were four Americans from the anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jewish group Neturei Karta, who joined the trip only at Al Arish. There were no Palestinian women among the marchers – a slap to the many feminist organizers and participants, both women and men.
After the march, the guests voiced protests to some of the official Palestinian organizers. “We came to demonstrate against the siege, and we found that we ourselves were under siege,” they said. Their variegation and the transparency of their behavior did not suit the military discipline the official hosts tried to impose. The officials listened, and after the reins were loosened a bit, I set out to visit the homes of friends.”