This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
Time – and the news – moves on. Quickly. So, with the war over, Gaza remains in the news but off the front pages. ISIS has now taken the lead.
Still every now and then an interesting reminder of the Gaza war surfaces. In this case, by drowning. At first it seemed that the boat deliberately sunk off the Malta coast last week was another case of human trafficking gone from bad to worse. Horrible but unrelated to Israel/Palestine. Now reports have it that 250-300 of as many as 500 drowned were refugees from Gaza. They were attempting to escape what is left of the prison walls in Gaza.
So says the EUobserver in a narrative that is a fitting continuation of Israel’s war on Gaza – without leaving out the world’s complicity in the war and its aftermath. As well, it is a story of corruption all around. Refugees trying to escape by sea can expect little else:
The Palestinian survivors told the International Organisation for Migration they paid a “travel office” in Gaza $2,000 each using money from grants to rebuild their homes.
Haaretz reports, citing one anonymous people smuggler, that some people pay up to $4,000. They enter Egypt through tunnels under the Rafah crossing point, where buses take them to safe houses in Egypt.
The sea crossing to Europe [from Damietta, Egypt] can take a week because they are forced to keep changing boats.
The smugglers bribe Egyptian officials. They also have agents in south Europe who help migrants get out of detention facilities. Some tell the Palestinians to claim they are Syrians fleeing the civil war.
The survivors told the IOM that their boat was deliberately rammed by smugglers in waters south of Malta on 11 September when the migrants refused to board a smaller vessel.
“After they hit our boat they waited to make sure that it had sunk completely before leaving. They were laughing”, one survivor said.
Some people floated in the sea for three days before bad weather set in. One survivor who made it to Crete was a two-year old girl.
Is this what the European Union meant by the sea route it proposed during one of the many Gaza war ceasefires? If you remember the EU hoped that in lieu of the seaport Gaza was demanding Israel might allow Gazans – under heavy security of course – to travel from Gaza to Cyprus by sea.
There isn’t much being reported on the seaport. Apparently, Gazans aren’t waiting any longer. They’re trying to get out any way they can.
A Gaza resident contemplating making the same voyage in a few weeks remarked: “We are thinking: It’s better to try and to drown in the sea than to stay at home and be killed by Israeli bombs.”
Even with the obvious danger, it’s hard to argue against the only sea route likely to open for Gazans who survived Israel’s onslaught.
Ceasefire in place, Gaza remains under siege. By land – and sea.
“A Gaza resident contemplating making the same voyage in a few weeks remarked: “We are thinking: It’s better to try and to drown in the sea than to stay at home and be killed by Israeli bombs.”
Nothing to do with Israel.
They chose to leave.
Hey , dust off that “Absentee Law” .
The reality is sad. The world did nothing while these poor people were slaughtered, in fact the US even handed over MORE deadly weapons to the killers so that they can continue their massacre, and now the victims are fleeing hell, and still the world does nothing but watches.
Exactly WHEN will someone step in and hold these ruthless zionist responsible? The US is an enabler, so who then, and when will enough be enough?
This is exactly GoI’s intended consequence of Cast Lead, Pillar of SomethingOrOther, Protective Edge, and whatever new one will come in mid-2015: produce so much killing and misery that rational Gazans are driven to consider drowning at sea as a valid alternative to staying in Gaza. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think any single bomb or attack during PE killed that many Palestinians.
The article doesn’t tell us how many Gazans have fled since the attack began. But one senses that this operation is up and running big time. There were 300 in one boat? How many boats have already left?
Those tunnels under Rafah will stay open as long as it takes to empty Gaza. GoI will put up neon “Exit” signs over the tunnel entrances next.
Once Gaza is cleared, which won’t take long, the IDF will begin pounding the West Bank. Picking off unarmed Palestinians one at a time is not that effective; besides, individual killings produce more blow-back than killing 1000-2000 at a pop.
250-300 of as many as 500 drowned were refugees from Gaza. – See more at: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2014/09/sinking-hundreds-fleeing#sthash.V0xm6eQe.dpuf
500 people drowned? omg, this is hideous. this is mass murder on the high seas if it came down the way it was described in the article.
Kindertransport.