I read in today's news that the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, says his current measures against the Gaza strip will continue because " there is no justification for demanding we allow residents of Gaza to live normal lives while shells and rockets are fired from their streets and courtyards at Sderot and other communities in the south ".
It seems to me that that rather bland statement glosses over a number of significant points.
The majority of Gaza's inhabitants still live in eight refugee camps which have been in existence now for 60 years. 80% of the inhabitants live below the poverty line. That is not a normal way to live.
The refugee camps are dependent on the United Nations for education, healthcare and humanitarian aid.The UN said that Israel's current blockade of the territory was jeopardising deliveris of food aid to some 860,000 civilians. That is not a normal way to live.
About one fifth of the dwellings in these camps have no mains sewage services. That is not a normal way to live.
The borders of the Gaza Strip are controlled by Israel, not by the elected administrators of the territory itself. All imports to the Strip are controlled by Israel. The Rafah border crossing, which is on the border between Gaza and Egypt and is operated by Egypt, may be used to export goods from Gaza but not to import them - a constraint imposed by Israel, which operates video surveillance at this crossing. Israel operates the Kerem Shalom border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border, and the other two crossing points through which it allows the import and export of goods. That is not a normal way to live.
70% of Gaza's energy is supplied by Israel, and the fuel which allows the gerenation of the rest is either supplied by Israel or its import into Gaza controlled by Israel. The current Israeli blockade resulted in a power black-out in Gaza, condemned by the UN and the EU as 'collective punishment'. That is not a normal way to live.
The United Nations Office fof Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, published a monthly fact-sheet last December which provides a cross-agency analysis of the extent of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It looks at the status of Gazans' access to healthcare, food, watter and sanitation, shelter and relief aid, drawing on data from each of the principal UN agencies in those domains.
All I can conclude is that Mr Olmert is either genuinely unaware of the true nature of 'normal life' in Gaza, or he has no qualms at perpetuating the fiction that life in Gaza is in any way normal.
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