As the blockade of Gaza enters its fourth year, the younger generation of Palestinians living in the coastal enclave faces a bleak future. Despite Israel’s decision to slightly ease the blockade, opportunities for young people remain in short supply, leading to anger, frustration and dwindling hopes among Gaza’s youth.
In pictures: Gaza’s youth: Breaking the cycle
To mark International Youth Day, Eitan Reich, Oxfam’s Civil Society Officer, and Tania Hary, Director of International Relations for Oxfam’s partner Gisha, speak about the plight of Palestinian students trapped by the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Gisha is an Israeli not-for-profit organisation, founded in 2005, whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents. Gisha promotes rights guaranteed by international and Israeli law.
Podcast: Gaza’s Trapped Youth
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Transcript
Interviewer
How does this blockade affect students specifically?
Tania Hary, Director of International Relations, Gisha
Well I think you can say young people everywhere need opportunities. I think that’s something we all recognise. And in Gaza we’ve seen the opposite of that. We’ve seen limited opportunities for work and limited access to educational opportunities, and certainly a loss of hope and motivation. On the flip side of that the tunnel economy is prospering and youth are turning increasingly to other kinds of black market activities to earn a livelihood. So again it’s not in our interest. I think the thing that is most troubling for me is to see a lack of motivation – that people don’t try any more to leave Gaza for school or work, or are not hopeful that they’ll be able to. So they’re not submitting applications to the [Israeli] army or to travel. [This means that less Gazans are applying for a permit to leave Gaza, as their motivation and hopes to study abroad are being lost year by year...]. That’s really troubling for me. I want to see youth being youth, being inspired, being motivated, being passionate, to create and develop, to learn and study and all the things that youth has to offer.
Interviewer
Can you both give us examples of stories or incidents that you’ve witnessed that can help highlight the severity of the situation?
Tania Hary, Director of International Relations, Gisha
We’ve really seen the severity in how draconian the closure policy has become. We’re faced with many students who would like to travel especially between Gaza and the West Bank. There’s been a complete ban on travel between the two areas for the purposes of study since 2000. We had the case of a woman who had managed to get to the West Bank and study there at Bethlehem University. Her name is Berlanty Azzam and in late October 2009 she was stopped at a checkpoint between Ramallah and Bethlehem inside the West Bank and when the soldiers saw that in her ID card she was from the Gaza strip they “>blindfolded and handcuffed her and took her back to Gaza.
We filed a court petition at the time in the Israeli supreme court and were not able to get her back to the West Bank. She just had one or two months to finish her degree. And her case really points to the very strict separation between Gaza and the West Bank. There’s never been any security claims made against her. It was just a policy that Israel has that people can’t travel between the two areas – residents of Gaza can’t live in the West Bank. And for the purpose of the study also, this is something we’re continuing to challenge. I think it’s important to note that even though there has been some relaxation in restrictions since the end of June, especially on goods coming into the Gaza strip, restrictions on movement for people remain completely in place. [These] were especially highlighted in a court petition we brought up on behalf of another young woman who wanted to travel from Gaza to the West Bank to study, where the state said to the court its position was that restrictions on movement haven’t been eased – and certainly not for people seeking to do masters degrees. And again as I said, in our opinion it’s completely illegal, and certainly not in Israel’s interest to prevent people from just studying.
Eitan Reich, Civil Society Officer, Oxfam
I think from our perspective as Oxfam we often meet very skilled and professional people who have actually lost everything. They built everything with their own hands. For example, one man used to employ 200 people in a textile factory exporting clothes to the West Bank and Israel, and now he’s actually selling second hand clothes in the Gaza market because there is no export market for his goods and no materials for him to operate his factory. So we’re not just talking about people who lost their jobs but people who built up their own industry with their own hands or saved all their life for becoming a successful career person and then lost everything in the past year.
Interviewer
How would Israel benefit from lifting the blockade?
Eitan Reich, Civil Society Officer, Oxfam
Well I think the youth in Gaza is growing up into a reality that is really putting Israel at risk. I mean I have reflections from colleagues living and working in Gaza, the middle aged generation in their 30s and 40s, some of them know Hebrew, some of them used to work for Israel, with Israelis, they know what Israel is. And for the young generation, for the ones growing up at least in the last four or eight years in Gaza, Israel is very far away and very demonised and Israel is not building a future for its neighbours. And I have a four-year-old son and I often think that this thing is not sustainable. And some day the 800,000 youth of Gaza will need to live side-by-side with Israelis and what can we expect of them, what can we expect them to think about Israelis? I don’t think Israel is building a very pleasant neighbour or very peaceful partner.
Tania Hary, Director of International Relations, Gisha
We really all hope that there will be a swift and peaceful resolution to this conflict soon but we certainly can’t count on it; we’ve all been waiting a long time. So my feeling also personally as an Israeli, is in the meantime we have to do everything in our power to encourage the development and foster a healthy and prosperous civil society in Gaza.
Interviewer
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview.
Tania and Eitan
Thank you very much.
Tags: gaza, International Youth Day, occupiedpalestinianterritories
Last summer we hosted a group of Israeli teenagers from Sderot the Israeli border town next to Gaza.
Nineteen year old Liron told us how one of his best friends was killed in a Kassam missile attack and how they are unable relax in a shower, the shower room/bathroom being employed as a “safe” room for his family in the event of a missile attack.
Together with his friends they expressed their excitement at listening to music in a car as they drove. In Sderot they have to drive with the radios on an windows open to listen out for the Missile Attack Red Alarm.
We also talked with Liron about relationships with the neighbours in Gaza. Liron spoke about how his father(who was born an Algerian Jew) would tell him that 20 years ago he would invite Gazan workers to eat in his house, and he would travel to Gaza and visit his Arab friends in their homes.
Then came the intafada of 1988, the bus bombings in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and elsewhere following the Oslo Peace accords resulting in the Israelis deciding that if their neighbours were unwilling to live with them in peace, they were unwilling to continue to risk further attacks by allowing the Gazan population to enter Israel.
Sadly the people of Gaza have to live with the consequences of their actions. They have embraced the move to a branch of Islamic fundamentalism that seeks to eradicate Israel.
Shortly after Israel unilaterally left Gaza in 2005 the local population chose in their elections to support a movement that disavowed the Oslo Peace Accords and sought to eliminate Israel.
Its time you all recognised this basic fact - the Gazans are sadly having to live with the consequences of their failure to seek the path of peace
August 12th, 2010 at 1.21 pmWe are all at Oxfam very saddened to hear about the death of Liron’s friend. Oxfam has repeatedly condemned indiscrimate rocket fire from Gazan armed groups. These attacks constitutes a war crime and must stop.
A number of Oxfam staff have visited families in Sderot. These families spoke about their Gazan friends and colleagues with whom they worked for many years. We are saddened that these human bonds have broken down.
It is ordinary people - civilians , including children- on both sides, that have suffered the most from years of conflict. They like Liron’s friend bear no responsibility for the actions of armed Palestinian groups. Oxfam provides humanitarian assistance to civilians solely based on need. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ethnicity, sex, political affiliation or any other factor. Ensuring the basic rights for ordinary women, men, and children is fundamental to the success of any peace process. Indeed, the security of Israelis and Palestinians is indivisible: one depends on the other.
Richard
August 24th, 2010 at 4.22 pmFor the actions of a few you condemn the whole nation? We could just as easily turn this around and say that the brutal treatment of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli Army is what led to the development of extremist organisations in the first place. Gaza is essentially a very overcrowded ghetto. The Palestinian people have been suffering for decades now and none of their previous goverments did much to help that so this time they voted for the candidate most likely to benefit the nation as anyone in any nation would. In 2008 Israel declared war on Gaza using overly excessive force and there is evidence to suggest the use of illegal nuclear weapons. When you compare the number of deaths and the weapons and resources each side has its not difficult to see which side is out to eradicate the other. Over 400 women and children were killed during the war aparently as collateral damage but there is evidence of the IDF deliberatey targetting civilians. However this is all a matter of opinion. Putting all that aside do you think innocent children who had nothing to do with the politics and the wars, should be made to suffer like this? Would you accept it as a ‘consequence of your actions’ if that was you and your children/ family suffering in Gaza?
August 28th, 2010 at 6.53 pm