{"id":170,"date":"2011-06-24T19:33:39","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T23:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cstuart.ca\/?p=170"},"modified":"2011-06-24T21:30:06","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T01:30:06","slug":"gaza-what-the-flotilla-and-the-tahrir-is-all-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/?p=170","title":{"rendered":"Gaza – What the flotilla and the Tahrir is all about"},"content":{"rendered":"

A naive and somewhat biased friend first writes:“Tell me if someone wishes to go to Gaza – why not go to Cairo and take a bus?” <\/em>and later attempts to remind me that Gaza is, in his words “Egyptian territory” and castigates the Egyptians for “holding them [Palestinians in Gaza] hostage to Islam’s agenda against the Jews for 3 generations”<\/p>\n

I find this appalling and ignorant. \u00a0 The previous Egyptian regime certainly has a lot to answer for to the Palestinians. \u00a0However, apart from the obvious stereotyping of Islam, he ignores the fact that most of the people living in Gaza are Palestinian refugees, or their children, forced to Gaza as a consequence of the Nakhba and the occupation. \u00a0He conveniently forgets that it is the Israelis who continue to hold the Palestinians hostage and under occupation and who closed the gates in Rafah<\/p>\n

My answer:<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wish it were so simple.
\nIt seems that the Egyptians, for whatever reason,\u00a0 are making it difficult for Palestinians\u00a0to leave, though exit is somewhat easier than before Tahrir.\u00a0\u00a0 The flotilla is intended to break an Israeli\u00a0 blockade in a non-violent\u00a0manner. [ A blockade is defined by the\u00a0Encyclopedia\u00a0Brittanica<\/span> as “an act of war by which a belligerent prevents access to or departure from a defined part of the enemy\u2019s coasts] If it were simply a matter of delivering humanitarian\u00a0assistance, then the Egyptian port of Al-Arish could be used, and has been used for this.\u00a0\u00a0 It is as much about\u00a0Palestinian people being able to travel and move freely and meet others in this world, a basic human right, as it is about goods coming in and leaving, although there are still many issues around the latter. \u00a0 \u00a0Being dependant on Egypt for exit and entry is a bit like Rosa Parks being required to sit at the back of the\u00a0bus. It doesn’t matter that she can now ride the bus or who the driver is; it is about basic human\u00a0decency.\u00a0 Gaza remains a kind of colonial prison for many of its people.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.atimes.com\/atimes\/Middle_East\/MF18Ak02.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.btselem.org\/gaza_strip\/rafah_crossing<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/english.ahram.org.eg\/NewsContent\/1\/64\/12063\/Egypt\/Politics-\/Egyptian-authorities-trying-to-stop-Gaza-march,-or.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/thedailynewsegypt.com\/other-top-stories\/al-arish-port-prepares-to-receive-gaza-aid-flotilla.html<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A naive and somewhat biased friend first writes:“Tell me if someone wishes to go to Gaza – why not go to Cairo and take a bus?” and later attempts to remind me that Gaza is, in his words “Egyptian territory” and castigates the Egyptians for “holding them [Palestinians in Gaza] hostage to Islam’s agenda against… Continue reading Gaza – What the flotilla and the Tahrir is all about<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel-palestine","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uTkF-2K","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cstuart.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}