What most of the viewers of TV Channels and social media don’t understand about Palestinian people and Gaza strip population in specific, is that the logic that people living in normal cities use to daily life choices don’t apply to Gaza population.
To live in a sieged area that doesn’t get enough of basic life requirements for 17 years makes the logic of assessing options a bit different than what people use in other parts of the world.
And that logic can be summarized in a Palestinian poetry by Abraheem Mahmoud
فأما حياة تسر الصديق واما ممات يغيظ العدا
translated to:
“We either live in dignity that pleases our friends or die trying to get our dignity and upset our enemies”.
And if you look at the UN reports and statistics about conditions of life in Gaza between 2007 and 2022 you will conclude that it wasn’t a dignified life, eighty-one percent of Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip live below the national poverty line, with 33 per cent of families extremely poor. With 44% of the population unemployed in 2022, 66 percent of Gaza population had limited access to primary healthcare, 934,000 children in the Gaza Strip were already in need of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services.
All these numbers according to UN report 2022 describes the conditions of life during what is considered peaceful times which means the truce announced between Israel and Hamas after the last exchange of fire in 2021. So, to understand the results of the 6 wars is around 10 thousand victims and expected to double during the current war.
All of this construct a different set of priorities and different decision-making process in Gaza by leaders of all political and military wings, when you live in inhuman conditions for more than a decade the least you will do is to try to break the barriers and make some noise to make people hear your concerns.
But the situation in Gaza did not start 16 years ago when Israeli forces withdrawn from Gaza, it started more than fifty years ago when Israel occupied Gaza and forced thousands of Palestinian citizens from the surrounding areas of Gaza out of their houses, towns and villages to refuge to Gaza. So, when few men of a group of Palestine went to attack Israeli soldiers on seventh of October, it was just a form of expressing that despite all inhuman conditions there are some people alive and trying to liberate their grandfathers land, either you disagree with their methods or disagree with their ideology.
None can claim that you don’t see how their feelings and thoughts were building up and generating a discourse that sees a life in death. When people ask Palestinians why you people even try? Can’t you see there is international military, political, economic support to Israel while what supporters of Palestinians offer for decades was limited to the extent of not worth mentioned compared to the other side.
The Palestinians response have been always that we can see but because we can see we can’t keep silence about it, because either our struggle for liberation succeeds or not this Israeli occupation has to be costly for Israel and every one supporting this occupation in terms of military, political, economic aspects. And if the price of making this occupation expensive for Israel.
This will cost Palestinians few more thousands of causalities. The logic of Gaza concludes that it is worth it, maybe that doesn’t sound logical for people living in other normal cities around the world, but again the logic of Gaza is different. And if we look at the recent past, we find that American war on Iraq caused 120 thousand direct causalities while American war in Afghanistan caused 150 thousand direct causalities.
So, when Gaza scarifies 20 thousand over last 16 years to force occupation hear the voices of Palestinians it is not only worth it. It is logical and expected, which reminds me of what my grandmother used to say about Palestinian mothers’ calculations. They used to calculate their role in facing the occupation by giving birth to 5 kids minimum two dedicated to Palestinian land, two to get education and travel to earn enough to support the family and one to live with parents and take care of the elders and kids of his other brothers and sisters.
Islamic and regional countries didn’t stand with Palestinians enough in 1948 and 1967 wars that the wars to come will be Palestinian bodies against war machines by Israel. So, we as Palestinians get why it is difficult for other nations to understand, but for people living under occupation for 75 years this is our logic, and certainly this is Gaza logic.
