This Sunday the 12th October 2008, the Israeli navy continued its violent harassment of Palestinian fishermen. A fleet of seven fishing boats from the port in Gaza City initially spotted two Israeli gunboats operating in Palestinian territorial waters at 08:45. The gunboats began circling some of the fishing boats at the rear of the fleet, and demanding that they turn around and head back towards Gaza City. Some minutes later one of these gunboats opened fire with a deck mounted machine gun – none of the fishing boats were however hit.
By 10:30 the fishermen and some of the six Human Rights Observers (HRO) present on their boats observed a large Israeli naval vessel quickly approaching from their rear. Reaching the two fishing boats at the back of the fishing fleet, the Israeli boat then proceeded to mount two sustained attacks on them with a high powered water cannon. It also opened fire with a machine gun during one of these attacks. It was unclear what the intended target of the machine gun fire was. The wheelhouse of one of the fishing boats did however sustain significant damage – several wooden panels were either punctured or ripped from their framework by the water cannon.
The Israel vessel, upon reaching a further four fishing boats that were hauling in their nets, began assaulting them with the water cannon. The jet from the water cannon knocked one o the HROs off their feet, propelled them across the deck and almost into the sea. As a result of this attack the nets of three of the fishing boats became entangled with each other. Despite the obvious difficulty these boats were now in, the Israeli vessel continued its assault with the water cannon.
For the next several hours, the large Israeli vessel continued its series of attacks on the Palestinian fishing boats. As a result, the windows of two of the fishing boats were broken. One fishing boat sustained further damage to its wheelhouse.
No one was seriously injured on this occasion by the Israeli water cannon. It should be noted however that the use of this weapon against civilian fishing boats, severely endangers the safety of all those on-board. Clearly, there is a significant risk of someone being swept overboard, or sustaining severe injury by either being propelled into some object on board, or having some object propelled into them. In recent weeks the lower back of an Italian HRO was badly lacerated after a water cannon shattered a window in the wheelhouse in which he was standing, and propelled the glass shards at him.
In order to highlight the impact of the siege and closure of the Gaza Strip on the civilian population, PCHR is publishing a series of “Narratives Under Siege.” These short articles are based on personal testimonies and experiences of life in the Gaza Strip, and we hope they will serve to highlight the restrictions, and the violations, being imposed on the civilians of Gaza
To view all narratives published by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) click here
Photo by PCHR
A section of the warehouse at Badreddin El Redaisi & Partners, the largest plastics and polystyrene manufacturer in the Gaza Strip, which remains chronically short of vital raw materials.
The date, understandably, is etched on his mind. “Our last delivery of raw materials from Israel was on 28 August, 2007,’ says Rafat Redaisi. “But for more than a year now the imports we need have been banned. Before the closure [of Gaza] we used to buy a ton of raw plastic for $2,500. Now we’re forced to rely on the black market – and we have to pay twice as much for the plastic.”
Rafat Redaisi is Head of Marketing and Sales at the Badreddin El-Redaisi & Partners polystyrene and plastics factory in Gaza city, the largest plastics manufacturer in the Gaza Strip. The factory opened more than two decades ago, and until recently there were sixty five full time staff, plus another thirty five at several other smaller subsidiary workshops and factories owned by the same company. But the workforce has now been halved, and the remaining staff have had their hours cut back. “Our problem is we don’t have enough raw materials to work with” says Rafat Redaisi. “We have an order of four hundred and twenty tons of plastic and polystyrene waiting over the border, in Ashkelon [in Israel]: it has been in storage there for more than a year, because we can’t get permission to bring the materials across the border into Gaza – but we still have to pay storage fees: so instead of making money, we are losing it.”
Redaisi says plastic and polystyrene are in such short supply in Gaza that his staff have been forced to ask customers to supply their own raw materials for the factory to manufacture into finished plastic and polystyrene products. Badreddin, El-Redaisi & Partners have also been forced to drastically cut down on the variety of items they produce; going from almost a hundred different types of plastic and polystyrene containers and packaging to half a dozen basic models, including water carriers and olive oil containers.
The Gaza Strip has six border crossings, five of which are directly controlled by Israel. The sixth crossing, at Rafah on the Egyptian border, has been almost continually closed since June 2006. Israel therefore controls the movement of goods into and out of Gaza. Its illegal siege and closure of the Gaza Strip has included mass restrictions on imports and exports, including imports of vital raw materials for the construction, manufacturing, textile and furniture industries, as well exports of manufactured products. Chronic shortages of vital raw materials, plus the continuing widespread ban on exports from Gaza to the outside world, have both been major factors in the near collapse of the Gazan economy.
Between June 2007-2008, approximately 42,000 Gazan construction workers lost their jobs due to the Israeli ban on imports of construction materials, and the construction sector sustained overall losses estimated at $58 million. Out of 120 registered construction companies across the Gaza Strip, just five are still operating. During the same period, wood and furniture manufacturers and retailers sustained losses of around $110 million, forcing 600 local furniture workshops and factories to close. In addition, 624 textile and clothing workshops and factories have also shut down, at the cost of more than 25,000 local jobs. Many of these furniture and textile workshops and factories were small, family run businesses, which supported and employed entire extended families. Prevented from traveling outside Gaza, local people have no viable work alternatives, and unemployment, and chronic poverty, have subsequently spiraled.
Forty five percent of working age adults in the Gaza Strip are now officially unemployed, and Gaza has de-developed into one of the most aid dependent communities on earth. Investors have been forced to either suspend or else simply cancel projects, including major reconstruction projects, due to lack of raw materials. Overall investment in Gaza from donors and corporations has dropped from $250 million in 2005 to a current estimate of approximately $10 million.
The Tahdiya, or ‘Period of Calm’ agreed between Israel and Gaza on 19 June this year has made precious little difference to the stunted economy of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have permitted the entry of limited amounts of construction materials, like concrete and aggregate, to enter Gaza in the last three and a half months; but other materials, including plastics, polystyrene and textiles remain either banned or else available only in miniscule amounts. The IOF continue to hold the entire Gazan economy hostage, forcing manufacturers to turn to the now-thriving black market in order to obtain basic raw materials at inflated prices so they can stay in business.
“We need about 30 tons of raw materials a month to run the factory at full capacity” says Rafat Redaisi as he shows us around the factory floor and adjoining warehouse. “This is one of the busiest times of the year because of the olive harvest, so we need even more raw materials to make the olive oil containers. But now we are buying ready-made containers from Israel, and just selling them on, because we can’t make our own products.” As Israel profits from its illegal siege of Gaza, Rafat and his colleagues are desperately trying to keep the factory open. He invites us to see the almost empty two-storey warehouse, with its straggle of finished products waiting to be delivered across the Gaza Strip. “More than a year ago, this warehouse was full of manufactured goods” he says. “But now we have so much empty space in here, we can play football.”
On the 9th October, members of ISM Gaza supported an action organised by a Palestinian youth group called The Local Initiative.
Olive farmers were accompanied onto their land, situated extremely close to the Green Line, under the shadow of several Israeli watchtowers. Palestinian and international activists worked alongside local farmers to bring in the 2008 harvest. Farmers in this area have been denied access to their land by Israeli occupation forces and vast numbers of their trees (150,000 – 200,000) have been destroyed.
However, on this day farmers were able to reach their groves and successfully harvest their olives, fulfilling their basic human right to produce food for their families and their communities.
Many farmers in the Gaza Strip are being denied access to their land by Israeli occupation forces. An arbitrary ‘buffer zone’ is being imposed hundreds of metres deep long the Green Line. Agricultural land has been destroyed in these areas and massive numbers of olive and fruit trees have been bulldozed, devastating the livelihoods of entire farming communities.
According to the PCHR, approximately 31.503 dunums/31.5 million square metres of land in the Gaza Strip, most of it agricultural, has been razed by the Israelis. This represents at least 10% of the total arable land base of the Gaza Strip. This statistic was published in 2005 but much more destruction has been carried out since. The Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights quoted 31,845,815 square metres of agricultural land levelled by the end of 2007. This does not include lands confiscated more than once; the area confiscated being nearly 10 million square metres.
Gazan farmers have also been impacted by the illegal Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip. Fuel shortages have hampered their ability to power their irrigation systems and closures have made crop exports impossible. As food supplies are severely restricted, it is more urgent than ever for Gaza to be as self-sufficient as possible in food production. The Israeli attacks on farmers and their property are yet a further escalation of the collective punishment suffered by the population of Gaza on a daily basis under this siege. They are akin to the atrocities endured by Gazan fishermen as they struggle to access local food sources in the face of arrests, injuries and even killings. The plight of these farmers and fishermen goes unnoticed by the international community, despite blatant violations of the current ceasefire, which would make headline news if the tables were turned.
ISM Gaza is pleased to be participating in the 2008 Olive Harvest Campaign. We will be accompanying farmers working along the Green Line ‘buffer zone’ to harvest their olives. We have established relationships with farmers in Abassan Al-Kabeera in southern Gaza and are liaising with them regarding their olive harvest. In the meantime, a newly formed group in Beit Hanoun, The Local Initiative, established contact with us to join them and others to harvest olives in the ‘buffer zone’ in their area. The olive harvest in the Gaza Strip has just begun and will continue for a couple more weeks. We look forward to joining farmers in various areas of the Gaza Strip as they harvest their olives and show Israeli Occupation Force soldiers that they will continue to work their land.
On Wednesday 8th October, international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) accompanied Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Gaza.
In the morning, while sailing about 7 nautical miles from shore, Israeli gunboats approached the Palestinian fishing boats. After request from Palestinian captain, one of the internationals talked on VHF radio. Despite that fact, Israeli gunboats continued to harass the fishing boats and at some point fired shots (something which also constitutes a breach of the ceasefire agreement).
In the afternoon while sailing always at about 7 nautical miles from shore, internationals observed an Israeli gunboat sailing between 3 Palestinian fishing boats. When the fishing boat that the internationals were on approached the area, again the captain requested one of the internationals talk on VHF radio to make clear that there was international presence on board. The fishing boat continued its course, but later it was intercepted by another Israeli gunboat. After following the fishing boat for sometime, the Israeli gunboat started to sail in front of it and shooting with its machine-gun several meters in front of fishing boat’s bow.
In the middle of the fishing day, we realised that a giant turtle was blocked in our nets. Unlike others, the fishermen of Gaza do not kill when it is not absolutely necessary. The rare sea turtle was immediately assisted back to the sea, free and alive.
After sunset, the internationals again observed an Israeli gunboat sailing without using their lights (apart from a strong spotlight) in clear violation of international nautical law.
