Abbas F. Zuaiter, IMEU, Feb 19, 2010
 A Palestinian in the West Bank city of Nablus practices during a break-dancing class. (Maan Images) |
A thoughtful and measured letter from members of Congress to President Obama calling for easing the siege on Gaza has recently been subjected to unfair and misleading criticism. The letter, signed by Congressman Jim Himes and over 50 other members of the U.S. Congress, has been maligned as pressuring "Israel to loosen security measures implemented to counter the threat from terrorism originating from the Gaza strip."
The letter does no such thing. In fact, Rep. Himes and his colleagues take scrupulous care to acknowledge Israeli security concerns. "We recognize that the Israeli government has imposed restrictions on Gaza out of a legitimate and keenly felt fear of continued terrorist action by Hamas and other militant groups."
What the members of Congress find troubling, however, is that over-stringent Israeli measures are harming innocent Palestinian civilians. "This concern (for Israeli security) must be addressed without resulting in the de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip."
Tipping unfairly in Israel's favor while it continues to repress Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza -- the future Palestinian state -- serves only to undermine our nation's moral authority. A sensible U.S. policy toward Israel and a future state of Palestine can provide for Israeli security without reducing the Palestinians to economic desperation, rampant unemployment and educational and physical degradation.
With 80 percent of Gaza's population dependent on food aid, it is little surprise that last year the Lancet, one of the world's leading medical journals, reported childhood stunting in pockets of northern Gaza at 30 percent with an overall rate of 10 percent throughout Gaza. Such chronic malnutrition (half of Gaza's population is comprised of children) damages cognitive and physical development. A society of stunted bodies and minds results in stunted aspirations.
Israel is no "light unto nations" when it supervises the infliction of such pain on children. Hunger and parental despair serve only to fuel desperation and resentment of Israel and the United States - and increasingly Egypt with its move toward limiting trade and travel from Gaza. This humanitarian crisis is created by Israeli policy, not by tragedy.
Any forward-thinking American policy must address the struggles of Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, where 70 percent of residents are refugees whose families were forced from homes and land in Israel in 1948 and prohibited from returning. Instead, they are confined to a spit of land 25 miles long by six miles wide. To ease Palestinian hardship, the letter specifically calls for "immediate improvements" in access to clean water, plentiful and varied food, medicine, sanitation supplies, construction materials, fuel, and spare parts. The letter also supports "Movement of people, especially students, the ill, aid workers, journalists, and those with family concerns, into and out of Gaza."
The case of Zohair M. Abu Shaban is a microcosm of the harm being caused to the educational aspirations of Palestinians by the siege. Accepted on a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Connecticut, but turned away at the last instant because of secret information provided by the Israeli government that he could not contest, Mr. Abu Shaban wrote in the Hartford Courant at the time: "I wonder what hopelessness all children in Gaza suffer when they learn that Gaza's best students are confined by Israel to the cramped Gaza Strip? And how are they to succeed when this week their parents discover local stores are empty of study essentials such as pencils, pens and notebooks because of the economic blockade of our small parcel of land?"
I do not believe that we benefit Connecticut or our country when talented individuals are prevented from achieving their educational dreams. I wonder often how my life and attitude towards America - and the views of many foreign students who come to our shores for education each year - would have developed had I been denied the opportunity to pursue an education in the United States.
Palestinian children in Gaza today can scarcely even imagine an American education. Palestinians, unable to import construction materials, have been bombed back into using mud for home-building. Electricity is intermittent and imposes real limits on evening study time. Palestinian families that long prided themselves on insisting on educational excellence from their children are now scrimping to survive. More than 300 Palestinian children killed by Israel in last winter's invasion will never even get the chance to pursue higher education. Israel's apartheid policy painfully divides a Palestinian child's aspirations from those of an Israeli child.
Rather than wrongly castigate Rep. Himes for ignoring Israel's security needs, he should be applauded for recognizing that "fulfilling the needs of civilians in Israel and Gaza are mutually reinforcing goals."
Abbas F. ("Eddy") Zuaiter is the Chief Operating Officer of a global macro hedge fund. He is also a member of the Boards of Directors of the Institute for Middle East Understanding and the Middle East Institute. He lives in Greenwich.
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