Community | February 17, 2010 | Comment on this video (15)

The Silent War: Israel's Blockade of Gaza

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Israel's blockade of Gaza has been in place for almost three years.

Building on existing closures and restrictions, the blockade means the delay or denial of a broad range of items - food, industrial, educational, medical - deemed "non-essential" for a population largely unable to be self-sufficient at the end of decades of occupation. The blockade prevents access by sea, land and air, effectively closing off a population of 1.5 million Palestinians from the outside world.

This short film examines what the blockade means for the people of Gaza, as they struggle to rebuild their lives over a year after Operation Cast Lead.
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15 comments // The Silent War: Israel's Blockade of Gaza // Video

  • jimmysemens
  • jimmysemens
    • 0
      jimmysemens [removed]  

    • Palestinian propaganda's strategy of deceit: 90 lies -- and growing

      1. No Jewish claims to Israel, Bible (Jewish and Christian Scriptures) forged
      2. No Jewish presence in Holy Land (Archaeology & Assyriology irrelevant)
      3. Moslems and Jews got along fine before Zionism
      4. Moslems always showed religious tolerance to Jews and Christians
      5. Islam is a religion of peace, respects other religions
      6. Arabs here "from time immemorial", original occupants of the Holy Land
      7. Palestinians open to Jewish immigration if it had been peaceful
      8. Zionism was a scheme concocted to steal Arab lands
      9. Zionism is Colonialism. Zionists stole our land. drove us out
      10. Zionism is imperialism: Zionists worked with/for UK imperialists
      11. Palestine verdant paradise and widely populated before Zionist invasion
      12. Arabs lived in Palestine for thousands of years (Jericho, Canaanites)
      13. Zionism has always sought to marginalize the Palestinians
      14. Zionism is Racism as in South Africa
      15. Zionists 1881 invasion, used terror to hound Arabs from homeland
      16. Arabs owned 92.7% of land in 1947, Jews only owned 7.3%
      17. Truman forced UN to vote partition, due to Jewish pressure in USA
      18. UN gave Israel the best lands in 1947, favored Jews betrayed Arabs
      19. UN partition plan illegal, Palestine not UN's to give
      20. Arab states forced to invade to save local Arabs from Zionist genocide
      21. Zionists purposefully created refugee problem
      22. Israel invasion 1967 was offensive aggression
      23. Israel invasion 1967 left Arab world no choice for 1973 war
      24. Israel destroyed Kuneitra (Golan Heights)
      25. Zionism seeks to subjugate all Arabs, all Arab lands, all Moslems
      26. illegal occupation, illegal settlements
      27. brutal oppression in Nazi-like occupation for 35 years
      28. No Holocaust, just de-licing chambers (but Mein Kampf best seller and "too bad Hitler did not finish the job")
      29. Israel refuses to obey UN and in wholesale violation of international law
      30. Israel is apartheid state, racist state, not democracy
      31. Israel is rogue state, supports genocide, imperialism, racism world-wide
      32. Israel is a rogue state, does not deserve to be in UN, EU, family of nations
      33. Israel subjugates Israeli Arabs who are "refugees in their own homeland"
      34. Israel is a theocracy
      35. Israel perpetrates genocide "in slow motion" on Palestinians
      36. Zionists planned ethnic cleansing in 1947, Israel doing it now
      37. Israel raped Lebanon, carpet-bombed Beirut
      38. Israel attempted ethnic cleansing and genocide in Lebanon, 1982
      39. Israel tries to pervert Moslem morals with poison chewing gum
      40. Israel tries to poison all Egyptians with imported vegetable seeds
      41. Sharon is war criminal (Sabra & Shatilla)
      42. Sharon visit to Temple Mount caused 2nd Intifada (see below)
      43. Israel is a militaristic state: an army with a state (vs state with army)
      44. Oslo was trick to deprive Palestinians of their fondest aspirations
      45. Palestinians are poor, have only their bodies to fight with
      46. Palestinians are not terrorists, otherwise G. Washington was terrorist
      47. Goal of Palestinian "armed resistance"=regain homeland, "right of return"
      48. PLO legitimately and democratically represents Palestinian nation
      49. Israel uses excessive force, massacres
      50. Israel tries to destroy Palestinian culture
      51. Road blocks, curfews, oppression, humiliation
      52. Just give us our state, if you want security, end the occupation
      53. We cannot make peace without parity
      54. We cannot make peace while settlements are expanding
      55. We hate you for what you do, not for what you are
      56. you offer us 28% of what was rightfully ours and expect us to be happy
      57. Camp David II frustrated Palestinian aspirations
      58. Israel has eviscerated Arafat, so how can they expect him to make peace
      59. The White House is "Israel-occupied territory" (vs "white tent")
      60. Jews control USA (world?) media and pro-Israel reportage proves that
      61. USA involvement in Iraq war was because of Israel
      62. USA gives Israel "trillions" of dollars in unmerited aid
      63. Post-Zionist historians prove that Zionist plan was ethnic cleansing
      64. Israel, not Iraq, should be attacked because of massive nuclear arsenal
      65. B'Tzelem, AI, HRW, et al prove that Israel massacres Palestinian civilians
      66. Israel's response to the Intifada is a slow-motion genocide of Palestinians
      67. Endless documentation of fabricated Israeli horrors (cf. infra)
      68. Why can't we just have a secular democratic state with freedom for all?
      69. Arafat offers Israel most generous solution: one state with peace and justice and freedom for all
      70. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter
      71. Arab terrorism does not present an existential threat to Israel
      72. Palestinians cannot halt terror until settlements are gone
      73. divestiture/divestment
      74. Israel's occupation designed to be degrading, humiliating
      75. Israel forces Arabs to do menial, degrading, humiliating labor
      76. Home destructions are victimization and violation of human rights
      77. IDF intentionally targets civilians as part of genocidal activity
      78. Jenin, Jenin
      79. Right of Return of Arab refugees "canonized" in international law
      80. Sharon convicted of war crimes by his own country (Kahan commission?)
      81. Zionism: a failed ideology (because it is racist, apartheid, and soon overrun by the Palestinian demographic time bomb)
      82. Palestinian terrorists target only European (Ashkenazi) Israelis
      83. Israel has never offered an olive branch (if only Israel would....)
      84. "I am a rebel and freedom is my cause" (Arafat,UN 11.13.74)
      85. The Palestinian narrative has been ignored/trumps Zionist narrative
      86. Arafat, 1/2001: "we cannot hold elections due to Israeli occupation"
      87. Poor Palestinians have no choice but terror to free their land
      88. Israel poisons Palestinians by distributing Sweet'n'Low (FPMag 6/16/05)
      89. Israelis poisoned land in Gaza (7.1.05)
      90. Israeli army has special unit to distribute drugs to Palestinian children to make them addicts and destroy their ability to fight the "occupation"

    • 2 years ago
  • jimmysemens
    • 0
      jimmysemens [removed]  

    • "The Palestinian people do not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism.

      "For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan." (PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, March 31, 1977, interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw.) [The Palestinian leadership has openly admitted Palestinian "peoplehood" is a fraud

    • 2 years ago
  • IngloriousBitch
    • +1
      IngloriousBitch [removed]  

    • I am not sure why the bigoted ideaology that allows posts like this which NEVER mention all of the ARABS on "Palestine's" borders who discriminate and blockade Palestinians, as in Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq, stil exists as a valid form of journalism on current. What are you saying? That all these countires are ok for what they do but Israel isn't because it is Jewish? Palestinians were nomads, they roamed much further than just Israel, but they now are not allowed further East. In fact they have a better chance of getting into Israel than Iraq. And getting an education is easier in Palestine than Egypt. Some people have no sense of relativity.
      Some people watch a genocide in Sudan and ignore it but claim Gazans are starving and dying at unusual levels.
      YET
      Life expectancy in Gaza is better than pre-1948 for sure.
      In Sudan, not so much.

    • 2 years ago
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • IngloriousBitch
  • jimmysemens
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  
    • jimmysemens:

      It's difficult for me to comprehend how much of a tool you are.

      You've clearly studied this issue, you know what you just posted is blatant propaganda and yet you don't care?

      Is the truth really an acceptable victim in your support of Israel? Is it really impossible for you to admit that anything at all unfair happens to Palestinians.

      Yeesh.

    • 2 years ago
  • jimmysemens
    • 0
      jimmysemens [removed]  
    • Saladin:

      I stopped practising victimology sometime ago and took a bite of reality sandwich. Give it up and come back to the real world. But it means letting go of bigotry and irrational thinking. Go on...try....you'd be surprised how good it feels to live in the fresh air of truth.

    • 2 years ago
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  
    • jimmysemens:

      Oh do tell, what IS reality hyper-nationalist?

      Clearly you see the world through a cynical, realpolitik lense right? No silly idealism for you, just straight hard facts and compromises with a harsh world.

      Surely you don't believe in things like "good and evil" or that "the free market always work" or that "our enemies hate freedom" or "the military is always right and never lies."

      There is no one more idealist in the world than jingoist conservatives. Gimme a god damn break. Children can see with clearer eyes than you do.

      You're BLINDED by self-righteous hatred which your biology literally compels you to believe is "common sense" when it is in fact the DEFINITION of bias.

      Truth is NOT easy and comfortable, -ever-.

      What you've done is given up truth in favor of authoritarian, tribalistic groupthink. That doesn't impress me in the slightest since you've literally evolved to think that way.

    • 2 years ago
  • Nephwrack
  • IngloriousBitch
  • IngloriousBitch
  • jimmysemens
    • 0
      jimmysemens [removed]  
    • Nephwrack:

      At the inception of the [Israeli] occupation [of Gaza and West Bank], conditions in the territories were quite dire. Life expectancy was low; malnutrition, infectious diseases, and child mortality were rife; and the level of education was very poor. Prior to the 1967 war, fewer than 60 percent of all male adults had been employed, with unemployment among refugees running as high as 83 percent. Within a brief period after the war, Israeli occupation had led to dramatic improvements in general well-being, placing the population of the territories ahead of most of their Arab neighbours ... During the 1970's, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world -- ahead of such "wonders" as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself. Although GNP per capita grew some what more slowly, the rate was still high by inter national standards, with per-capita GNP expanding tenfold between 1968 and 1991 from $ 165 to $1,715 (compared with Jordan's $1,050, Egypt's $600, Turkey's $1,630, and Tunisia's $1,440). By 1999, Palestinian per-capita income was nearly double Syria's, more than four times Yemen's, and 10 percent higher than Jordan's (one of the better off Arab states). Only the oil-rich Gulf states and Lebanon were more affluent. Under Israeli rule, the Palestinians also made vast progress in social welfare. Perhaps most significantly, mortality rates in the West Bank and Gaza fell by more than two-thirds between 1970 and 1990, while life expectancy rose from 48 years in 1967 to 72 in 2000 (compared with an average of 68 years for all the countries of the Middle East and North Africa). Israeli medical programs reduced the infant-mortality rate of 60 per 1,000 live births in 1968 to 15 per 1,000 in 2000 (in Iraq the rate is 64, in Egypt 40, in Jordan 23, in Syria 22) … Even more dramatic was the progress in higher education. At the time of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, not a single university existed in these territories. By the early 1990's, there were seven such institutions, boasting some 16,500 students. Illiteracy rates dropped to 14 percent of adults over age 15, compared with 69 per cent in Morocco, 61 percent in Egypt, 45 percent in Tunisia, and 44 percent in Syria.
      Of course, much of this progress has been squandered since the Palestinians embarked on their mass-suicidal Intifada in 2000.

    • 2 years ago
  • markbt116
    • 0
      markbt116  

    • why don't you post a piece on the other side of the "israeli" blockade? Egypt does the same thing and smoke bomb's smugglers in the tunnels, often killing them.

      Do you want to post about the truth, or do you want bash Israel?

    • 2 years ago
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