Commentary on the recent Gaza event...

Here’s a blog I forgot I had started to write and never posted regarding the situation with Gaza. Since it’s been almost a week since the fighting has halted, at least temporarily, and since I started my internship and have been briefly looking into a few aspects about Gaza I figure it’s worth updating and sharing.

For the last two days my boss had me look into psychosocial work in Gaza. It’s been quite depressing to come across a lot of the information about the casualties and how everyone else suffered, especially the kids. Psychosocial work addresses the trauma faced by living in a war zone. As a result of witnessing one or even all of their family members being beaten or killed, or their house- which should be a symbol of safety and security- being demolished by foreign forces, a large percentage of children have displayed signs of post traumatic stress syndrome and/or depression. I came across some pictures drawn by children in Gaza, when asked to draw by therapists, which displayed military aircraft or soldiers gunning/bombing people. I can’t even imagine the additional signs that the psychosocial workers find in the children.

On the January 20 World Health Organization Cluster Bulletin, it was estimated that 1300 people were killed, with around 5300 injured during the Israeli operation (lasting from December 27, 2008 – January 18, 2009). The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that up to 100,000 people were displaced. Also, as of January 14 approximately 500,000 people had no access to running water, and the rest of the population only had access for a few hours each week. The destruction was far worse, as the already infrastructure, already weakened by the blockade that was set up, was damaged even more.

While I was always safe here, especially with Jordan’s strong security, the situation with Gaza was pretty sad and had a lot of negative reactions. To share some perspective, here is a brief description of what I experienced here related to the situation in Gaza. People are really upset and the mood is down and hopeless. Since the initial air strikes there were several organized peaceful demonstrations throughout Amman. New Years parties were cancelled throughout the Amman (as well as other cities, such as Dubai) and the overall mood during the holiday season was rather solemn. I've had Jordanians here tell me they don't support Hamas and would not mind seeing them destroyed/disappear. But with the amount of collateral damage and the number of innocent deaths, people find this act as horrifically brutal, unjustifiable and often come to believe that Israel does not want peace at all with the Palestinians. I have had numerous graphically disturbing emails sent to me with pictures of some of the innocent casualties, among them babies, youth and women. When the argument that Israeli is defending itself against the rocket attacks of Hamas, people will often respond how ineffective the rockets have been. Compared to damages, the rockets have really done nothing compared to what this recent bombing of Israel has done to the entire Gaza population, which is estimated to be 1.5 million. Others have expressed that the desperate situation in Gaza leaves nothing else for the Palestinians to do. Since Israel left Gaza for the Palestinians, they put up a blockade where they were severely restricting what goes in and out of Gaza (including supplies and people). During the ceasefires, which I have been told rockets were still being fired, albeit in much less frequency, no progress was made to ease the blockade and allow for an improvement of life within the walls around Gaza. In my opinion I feel the rockets are still wrong and only hurt the Palestinian cause, but I also see the response of Israel was far too strong and in the end very destructive to the path to peace.

Overall the people here feel helpless and don't feel they can really do anything for their 'fellow brothers'. The Arab culture is unique in that the identity of being Arab exceeds national borders. There are so many cultural similarities between those all throughout the various Arab countries which I have witnessed in Egypt and Lebanon and among those from other Arab countries that I meet here. Since the Palestinians are part of the Arab culture, hurting them affects the rest of the Arabs in one way or another. For the more liberal Arab countries, Jordan specifically, a situation like this puts the government in a really tough spot where they must weigh their choice of actions carefully in siding with the West for the continued, essential economic support, and with the cries of the people for some type of action to help their fellow Arab brothers in dire need.