By Joyce RavitzJoyce Ravitz is a Lower East Side resident living on Grand St. and member of Community Board 3. She visited Gaza in May at the invitation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza with the assistance of Code Pink: Women for Peace.
When I was growing up, my parents instilled in me the knowledge that Jews were hardworking people who would not stand for injustice. My Jewish education taught me that Jews were obliged to fight against discrimination and other wrongs whenever they occurred. And we met discrimination ourselves. My parents left the Lower East Side and I grew up in a small Pennsylvania town. My uncle, brother and I were the only non-Christians in the school system. A friend asked to see my horns. It was difficult. No wonder I returned to the Lower East Side...
...I am heartbroken and appalled by what Israel, the land I loved, is doing in Gaza today. On my trip in late May of this year, I witnessed physical and psychological damage from the Israeli occupation of Gaza...
...Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed during the December-January bombing. The number of deaths is disproportionate for Israel’s claim to be acting in self-defense...
...Israeli pressure is shrinking the actual area available to the people of the Gaza Strip further. I met fishermen who fear the Israeli gunboats because they are kidnapped and shot at while trying to make a living. These kidnapped fishermen are either taken to Israeli jails or returned to Gaza with their equipment and boats ruined. The Palestinian farmers are in a similar situation. The Israelis recently built automated (without soldiers) watchtowers along the border that open up when activated and fire machine guns toward Gaza, killing people...
...What can Americans do to change this? Encourage elected officials and others to travel to Gaza to discover what the area is really like; and be sure they talk to ordinary people who hope to lead ordinary lives but suffer attacks and privations. We must let our representatives know that we do not want our money to continue to support a government that attacks and kills civilians. We do not want our government to support a government that traumatizes and embitters the lives of survivors and a new generation. The continued hostilities directed toward Gaza undermine any hope of stability in the Middle East and the world. Read the full article here
Until now, the besieged Gaza Strip has stayed free of the novel coronavirus spreading across the world. As the Gaza Strip has been under a stringent Israeli-led blockade for nearly 13 years, the spread of the coronavirus - officially known as COVID-19 - has become the topic of discussion for many Palestinians, with some joking that the blockade was preventing them from being exposed.But as authorities in the coastal Palestinian enclave gear up to contain any potential outbreak, serious questions have arisen about the risks and implications of such a scenario. But given its already difficult humanitarian situation and high population density, an outbreak in the Gaza Strip could prove to be catastrophic, health officials have warned. "If the virus enters Gaza and spreads, it will get out of hand," Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Majdi Thuhair told Middle East Eye, as he explained that a severe shortage of resources and personnel would make it near impossible
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