IDF still shooting at Gazans

Ceil Lavan

We visited a farming community in Gaza, where just days before Israeli planes dropped leaflets announcing that Palestinians were not to enter within 300 meters of the Israeli green line. This buffer zone, the entire western and northern perimeter of Gaza, includes 30% of Gaza’s agricultural land. Palestinian homes, schools and farms are within the buffer zone. The leaflets warned the Palestinians that they’d be shot if they entered that section of their land.
Palestinians were already being shot at as they tried to farm their land or harvest a crop near the green line. From the porch of the home we visited, which was 500 meters from the green line, we could see where the tanks patrolled back and forth in Israel, shooting randomly at the Palestinian farmers. Nestled in the field across from the home was an innocent looking tower. We were told that Israel has many towers armed to shoot at Palestinian farmers. This particular tower had a bulb-like top, which opened like a flower to automatically fire at the farmers. The firing is remotely controlled from Israel!

How are Palestinian farmers to make a living, and how are Gazans to feed themselves with a blockade and farmers not allowed to farm?

The beautiful Mediterranean Sea hugs the entire eastern shore of the Gaza Strip. The area is presently receiving international attention since June 30th, when the FreeGaza boat, the Spirit of Humanity, was captured at gunpoint and towed to Isreal by the Isreali navy, while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. Many of the 21 hijacked activists on board are still being detained. This naval blockade is part of the Israeli effort to seal off the coastal Gaza Strip, and is devastating one of Gaza’s key industries, fishing.

The Oslo Accord gave Palestinians the right to fish within 20 nautical miles of their shores, which Israel never observed. At first Israel limited the fishing area to 10 nautical miles, then 6 and now 3. Fishermen who go farther out risk being arrested, shot, killed, or having their boats destroyed or confiscated. However, even those fishing within the 3 mile limit have the same risks.

We could see Israeli speed boats patrolling back and forth on the sea, and we heard their gunfire in the distance. Before the massacre, the Israeli boats would shoot around the fishermen to intimidate them, or Israeli ships would sail round and round a fishing boat and then leave it not looking back to see if it was capsized. Water cannons, as well as guns, are used to damage fishing boats and threaten and /or hurt fishermen.

Since the massacre, Israeli naval vessels fire directly at the fishermen, and several have been hit. They routinely confiscate Palestinian fishermen and their boats. When the fishing boats are returned they are damaged and stripped, and because of the blockade there are no parts to repair them.

Fishermen have seen their catch drop by two-thirds since 2007. And to make matters worse, because no fuel is allowed through the blockade, fishermen are forced to pay excessive black market prices for fuel that comes through the tunnels from Egypt.

Cut off from the heavily populated shoals of fish beyond the 3 nautical mile limit, paying more for fuel to go to sea, and facing attack every time they go out to fish, it is not hard to see that the once thriving fishing industry in Gaza is being destroyed. An industry that once employed 45,000 Gazans, not only cannot sustain the fishing industry workers, it can no longer provide the needed fish for a people with a critically deficient diet due to the blockade as well as the IDF bulldozing of the citrus and olive groves, the shooting at the farmers, and the burning of wheat ready for harvest.

This unbearable treatment of the already suffering Palestinian people is greeted with a resilience beyond my imagination. We met some of the fishermen at the sea the morning we left Gaza. The face of the fisherman who addressed us was actually joyful, as were the faces of the people we met in the farming community.

I asked Jenny (International Solidarity Movement) why she thought the fishermen were joyful in such dire circumstances. Jenny told us, “Palestinians have a great sense of humor.” She described being on a Palestinian fishing boat as Israeli boats were speeding toward them. The unarmed Palestinian fishermen started heckling the Israelis singing out comments like,”Come and get us.” One of the fishermen started dancing, and soon all the men on his boat joined him; then those on a nearby boat started dancing too, and then those on another boat . . . as they waited to be attacked by the Israeli vessels!

One of the fishermen told Jenny that he’d rather risk his life fishing to feed his family than stay home and not be able to feed them.

While the resilience of the Palestinian people is inspiring, not allowing Gazans to farm or fish to feed themselves or make a living is one more Crime Against Humanity that Israel needs to be held accountable for.