Qassam rockets which landed in a street in Sderot (archive photo, 2007).

The shelling of Sderot continues. Numerous residents are in shock while others have been physically injured. The property of Sderot residents has been damaged, the city suffers from severe economic distress and many have already abandoned the area.

The ongoing failure of the Israeli government to assist Sderot does not stem from powerlessness, but from a cruel logic that mirrors the priorities of the Israeli political leadership. The sole happiness the government provides to Sderot in its difficult hour is schadenfreude—happiness from the suffering of others. Instead of assisting the victims, the government is creating new victims in Gaza: for every Sderot resident injured by a Qassam rocket, Israel’s military forces kill tens of Palestinians in Gaza. Does this situation provide any real comfort to the residents under attack in Sderot?

It is no wonder that the residents of Gaza elected a Hamas leadership. To date it is the sole body that has offered Gazans a way to resist the Israeli occupation. Hamas succeeded in making order on the streets of Gaza while Fatah acted as something akin to an additional arm of the Israeli government. The breaching of the border between Gaza and Egypt allowed the residents of Gaza a much needed infusion of goods and a temporary sense of freedom, and the Hamas thus gained additional points in the eyes of Gazans.

In June 2006, the Israeli Air Force destroyed the only power plant in the Gaza Strip.

The metaphor of the Gaza Strip as the world’s largest prison is unfortunately outdated. Israel now treats the Strip more like a zoo. For running a prison is about constraining or repressing freedom; in a zoo, the question is rather how to keep those held inside alive, with an eye to how outsiders might see them. The question of freedom is never raised. The ongoing electricity crisis helps to illuminate this shift, so to speak. 

Nearly all of Gaza’s energy is supplied by Israel, both directly, from its electric grid, paid for by tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and indirectly, through fuel supplied by the Israeli company Dor Alon to Gaza’s only electrical power plant, and paid for by the European Union.

Gaza has been experiencing a power crisis since June 2006, when Israeli helicopter gunships fired rockets at the power plant’s transformers following the capture of an Israeli soldier, rendering it inoperable.[1] Israel has subsequently hobbled repair efforts by blocking or delaying the entry of replacement parts and equipment into the Strip. The power plant now operates at a fraction of its former capacity, meeting less than a third of Gaza’s electricity needs. Even before the plant’s fuel supply ran out on 20 January 2008, most Gazans were enduring frequent power cuts of up to eight hours per day.[2]

One of many security cameras in Jerusalem's Old City. This one outsitde the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

This article is based on a presentation given by Lubna Masarwa, Social Movements Coordinator of the Alternative Information Center, at the third annual Alternative Conference to the Herzliya Conference, tilted “Security—For Whom? Security and Information Withholding Policies,” which took place on 22 January at the Cinematheque in Haifa. The conference was sponsored by Isha L’Isha: Haifa Feminist Center and the Coalition of Women for Peace.

Under the guise of security requirements, the Israeli government implements an intolerable chokehold upon East Jerusalem and interferes in the private lives of its Palestinian residents. Just last year alone, the Israeli government cancelled the “residency” status of more than 1,500 inhabitants of East Jerusalem for “security” reasons. This is a 200 percent increase from the previous year.

When we know this and yet keep quiet, we are an accomplice to injustice.

In this article, I will present a partial picture of the life of East Jerusalem residents. I will attempt to touch on the heavy price paid by Palestinian society in al-Quds due to Israeli defined “security considerations,” a designation trotted out by Israeli authorities on almost every possible occasion with intent to win battles in the demographic war over it sees itself engaged in against the Palestinians of East Jerusalem.

Family members of victims from the October 2000 Israeli crackdown on demonsrations in Palestinian citizens of Israel population centers (photo from Adalah, 2008).

Adalah: "We will Seek the Establishment of an Independent, Impartial Investigatory Committee with the Participation of International Experts in Response to AG Mazuz’s Decision to Close the October 2000 Killings Cases"

None of the police officers or commanders involved in the fatal shootings of Palestinian citizens of Israel in October 2000 will face criminal indictment, the Attorney General of Israel, Menachem Mazuz, announced yesterday, Sunday, 27 January 2008. His announcement officially closes the case against police over the deaths and injuries of Palestinian Arab citizens who demonstrated in towns and villages across Israel in October 2000 against the government’s oppressive policies towards Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The police used snipers, live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse the unarmed demonstrators, which led to the thirteen deaths and to thousands of injuries.

Mazuz argued in his decision that there was a lack of sufficient evidence to issue criminal indictments against the police officers and commanders. He further found that the police who shot the victims faced direct threats to their lives. This situation, he claimed, necessitated the use of operational judgment and negates criminal responsibility. Thus, even if it could be proven that police officers fired the fatal bullets, it nevertheless could be argued that the shootings were justified.