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| HOPE UNDER SIEGE: A Palestinian child flashes the victory sign during a demonstration calling on Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing |
As Al-Ahram Weekly went to press Wednesday Arab foreign ministers were convening for an extraordinary meeting against the backdrop of an explosive humanitarian crisis in Gaza where 1.5 million Palestinians are suffering the effects of Israel's 22-day long blockade.
Gaza's population has been systematically deprived of electricity, medicine, medical supplies, fuel and food. Over the past week Arab TV news channels have been transmitting live footage of the human tragedy, including scenes of critically ill Palestinians awaiting treatment in Gaza's hospitals pleading with the Arabs, and not Israel, for "mercy". One elderly woman suffering from heart disease and diabetes asked Al-Jazeera on Monday: "We are Muslims, why are the Arabs leaving us to die? Why isn't Egypt opening the [Rafah] borders?"
But in Cairo Arab foreign ministers are unlikely to offer anything of substance to the Palestinians. Diplomats who spoke to the Weekly on condition of anonymity say there are three reasons why the Cairo meeting will end with little meaningful help being offered to Gaza. First is the reluctance of the Palestinian Authority to solicit Arab support. "The issue has become strictly Fatah versus Hamas," commented one Cairo- based Arab diplomat.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah, will interpret Arab support for Gaza as indirect support for Hamas.
In the words of another Arab diplomatic source: "Abbas does not want Arabs to even talk to Hamas. He was furious when [Arab League Secretary-General Amr] Moussa met with [Hamas leader Khaled] Meshaal in Damascus on the fringe of Arab League meetings."
Abbas, the source suggested, complained to Cairo and Amman that Moussa was lending credence to Hamas at a time when Hamas should be forced to submit to Fatah.
Abbas has reportedly demanded that the PA, and not the Hamas government in Gaza, be credited for any assistance advanced to Palestinians living in the Strip. Otherwise, he argues, Hamas will emerge the victor.
The second problem is Egypt's reluctance to unilaterally open the Rafah Crossing, the only link Gaza has with the outside world that is not under Israeli control, for humanitarian assistance. The Rafah Crossing, says Cairo, is designed for the passage of individuals not commodities and it can only be operated after the PA, which left Gaza under Hamas control in the summer of 2007, returns to the Strip. This, Egypt argues, could have been achieved through the national reconciliation it was trying to mediate earlier this month but which Hamas abandoned after complaining Abbas was harassing its members in the West Bank and that the mediation process was biased towards Fatah.
Egyptian officials now say it is up to Hamas to end Gaza's misery, first by suspending Qassam rocket attacks against Israeli targets and denying the Israeli government any pretext to impose a blockade and then by pursuing national reconciliation that will allow for the Palestinian Authority to return to Gaza and the Rafah Crossing to be reopened.
The third reason the Arab foreign ministers meeting yesterday at the Cairo-based headquarters of the Arab League will fail to reach any agreement on a rescue package is that even those Arab countries sympathetic to Hamas and supportive of a more inclusive approach to Palestinian decision-making, remain unwilling to confront Cairo over the need to open Rafah.
"It is a matter of Egyptian sovereignty and there is not much we can do," said one Syrian diplomatic source.
The most that can be expected from the meeting is a resolution blaming Israel for the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip but containing no retaliatory measures against Tel Aviv should it continue with the siege. As one senior Hamas source said, "when the Palestinian Authority is encouraging the siege and coordinating with Israel it is hard to expect other Arab countries to worry much about the Palestinians".
The Wednesday meeting is certain to call for continued reconciliation efforts and demand that the incoming US administration prioritise a final peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, the lives of thousands of Palestinians are threatened. Palestinian Health Minister Bassem Naim told the Weekly that recurrent power cuts have paralysed health services and death "on a large scale" is expected. Central oxygen supply stations catering to the needs of patients with respiratory problems are barely operational. Sterilisation equipment for surgeries no longer functions and pasteurisation machines for milk are no longer operational. The entire system of intensive care in Palestinian hospitals is on the verge of collapse.
Israel opened border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Monday, allowing in limited amounts of food and fuel for the second time in three weeks after the United Nations warned of a looming humanitarian crisis. Aid groups say the one-day shipment will have minimal impact because border crossings have been closed for so long, depleting reserves of everything from flour to animal feed.
"It is just not enough," says Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Gunness reports that UNRWA cannot function normally without a steady stream of supplies, not only food but books for schoolchildren, also blocked by Israel for weeks.
Israel first imposed its siege on Gaza after the power struggle between Hamas and Fatah resulted in Hamas's takeover over of the Strip in June 2007. The aim of the siege is ostensibly to weaken Hamas and remove it from power yet it is Gaza residents who daily pay the price of an increasingly deadly political equation.Al-Ahram Weekly
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