This is John Ging, the head of UNWRA, the United Nations Works and Relief Agency, in Gaza. Today two western delegations comprising nearly 60 people met with him in Gaza City compound. Ging was surprised by the turnout, but thanked us for coming.
And then he began his remarks with a few blunt statements about the propaganda the west is fed on Gaza:
“Overall the situation is that we are facing the consequences of a deficit of truth in decision-making and in policy-making, and an absence of justice, and everything else flows from this.”
Even well-meaning leaders are misinformed. They describe humanitarian aid as the answer. “That’s not where it’s at,” Ging said with feeling. “It’s about a reason to live, it’s about a life, it’s about dignity, it’s about justice.”
I wondered what Ging meant by a deficit of truth. He soon made it clear. He meant the picture of the Palestinian people as extremist.
“There’s far too much in terms of rhetoric and propaganda, and it’s very powerful, it’s having a lot of influence. Many of the policies have noble objectives, but the actions taken to counter extremism are actually counterproductive, because [they] are disconnected from the reality.”
Ging soon threw the room open to questions, and I got one.
I said, “People in my group who have been here before tell me that conditions here have gotten steadily worse over the years. But it seems to me that the deficit of the truth in global capitals may be improving. Do you see it that way? And if so, why?”
Ging said it was improving, and the Gaza war of 2008-09 was the reason. For the first time in years, “senior political figures are coming to Gaza” after having disconnected themselves from the situation. The Secretary General of the UN had come to visit, and many European leaders, and American politicians.
“Without exception they’ve all been struck by the reality that they have seen. They are well-informed, but when they interact with ordinary people, they engage with civilized people. And this is the first truth that is not fully understood. Because the propaganda goes that this is a hostile entity, ruled by terrorists, populated by terrorists. But the rockets don’t reflect the people, they are an aberration, and the engagement these political figures have with ordinary people is humbling.
“The ordinary people are civilized to their core. That’s the first thing they see.”
The second thing the politicians see is that it is propaganda that Israel made the war to destroy the infrastructure of terrorism.
“Whose infrastructure of terror is that American International School, [at right], destroyed by missiles, by bulldozers, obviously deliberate?”
And on Ging went down the list. The juice factory. They biscuit factory. The cement factory. The politicians have met the owners of these destroyed businesses. Articulate people, well-spoken people. The leaders have seen the president’s compound, destroyed, a compound that is essential to the hallowed two-state-solution.
And meanwhile the alleged terrorist tunnels continue to operate in the south, with Israel’s full knowledge.
“These decision makers–they’re being taken for a ride in terms of their good intentions. We all cheer when we hear that the infrastructure of terror is being destroyed. Who could not be against the infrastructure of terror? But the infrastructure of education and industry?”
And that is why Ging is confident that justice will prevail. Because the number of people who are coming and going here now is so great that the truth can no longer be suppressed. For the first time the propaganda can be countered by people's real experience of Gaza.
And as we left he urged us to send out others after us!
