Forward Thinking Director Oliver McTernan: What’s really going on in Gaza
Forward Thinking Directer, Oliver McTernan has been closely involved with trying to get negotiations going between Israel and the Palestinians, including Hamas in recent years. He has visited Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on numerous occasions, and as you will see, was there just days before the beginning of the vicious Israeli attacks on Gaza on December 27, 2008. Here is a sample of his emails from that time in my husband’s inbox:
I would liked to have wished you a happy Muslim New Year 1430 but given the terrible atrocities we are witnessing in Gaza I fear such greetings would be in appropriate. Let us pray instead for the people of Gaza and for a year in which the international community may rediscover its conscience based on true spiritual values.
I was in Gaza this time last week and I met with a group of civilian policemen who were taking a course in crisis management at the Institute we helped to establish with the support of the Swiss government. These were mostly young men who were committed to serve their communities to the best of their ability. We had a very good discussion.
I learnt yesterday that less 15 minutes after finishing their class and leaving the Institute two days ago twenty of them were killed by the Israeli bombing.
The events of the past few days and the apparent indifference of many Western governments to condemn such a disproportionate response by the Israelis underlines the importance of our work together to create a new world order in which all human life is regarded and respected as sacred.
You may have heard on the news today the accusation made by the Egyptians that Hamas are stopping seriously wounded people from leaving Gaza to get medical treatment in Egypt. This is not true. For the past two days I have been in regular contact with the senior Hamas people in Gaza responsible for the Rafah Crossing and with officials at the highest level of the Turkish and Swiss Governments to ensure that the seriously wounded in Gaza are given the medical attention they need. Over two hundred people are in danger of death unless they are treated. Both governments are anxious to help but were wrongly informed by the Egyptian authorities that Hamas officials would not co-operate. On the contrary the officials at Rafah have repeatedly asked the Egyptian authorities to send ambulances to collect the most seriously wounded and they refused. Yesterday they allowed a few ambulances supplied by the Turkish and Qatari governments to cross but permission was refused to allow any of their own ambulances that were queuing on the Egyptian side to cross and to assist [with evacuating] the wounded despite repeated requests from those responsible for the crossing. The Turkish Government told me that they prepared a plane especially equipped to evacuate the wounded. It would fly to El Arish, the nearest Egyptian airport to Gaza, but the Egyptians refused permission on the grounds that the airport was closed for safety reasons. The Swiss are ready to fly in medical supplies but also require Egyptian permission.
May I ask you to take immediate action to help the wounded by:
Writing to or calling Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, demanding the UK put pressure on the Egyptians to co-operate and that we help to evacuate the wounded.
Writing to or calling the Egyptian Ambassador demanding that they stop playing games with peoples’ lives and to send ambulances to evacuate the wounded and to open El Arish immediately to receive air ambulances and medical aid.
Please get as many people to act immediately as the longer the delay the more lives are at risk!!!
Dear Friends,
I would like to share some thoughts on the escalation of the violence on the people of Gaza: I am in daily contact with Hamas officials as well as independent Palestinian journalists living in Gaza. I feel humbled by their courage and their faith which sustains them as they face unimaginable vulnerability each day. When I told close friend Dr Ahmed Yousef to keep safe as Israeli jets bombed close by, his immediate response was there is no such word in our language; in these present circumstance he explained ‘save’ could only mean “being with your family so if we die we all die together”. I received an email today from the young recently married man who is the secretary of the Centre we recently established in Gaza with the support of the Swiss government. He wrote: “This is the day 8 of the aggression on Gaza, it is the most horrible assault that I have ever witnessed in Gaza. Here no place is safe, as every area contains an official building. I had to leave my apartment and I am now in my parents’ home. There is a lot of damage in my apartment because it is close to the Presidential compound. Actually I have a lot to write about this war, but I have no time because the electricity is not stable.”
Government
The moral paralysis of our own government is frightening to witness.
We have a government that appears incapable of stating unequivocally that what is happening to the people of Gaza is wrong on both moral and legal grounds. We have a repeat of the Lebanon fiasco when the Blair government was found morally wanting. The excuse for this apparent moral indifference is the fact that rockets are still being fired. Having been on the receiving end of one of these rockets when it fell close by as I crossed as Erez less than a month ago I can testify that it can be a frightening experience. But that said there is no comparison whatsoever with what the people of Gaza have been suffering from for the past three years. [In] calling for a ceasefire no one seems to ask how can Hamas agree to a ceasefire when the leadership are not allowed to meet together for the simple reason they will be assassinated. The government are aware of this fact and yet they seem to have chosen to ignore it. Besides the rockets are being fired by a number of groups some of which are affiliated to the Fatah group; this does not stop UK ministers engaging in direct talks with Fatah.
Action:
We need to encourage people to write to Gordon Brown, David Miliband, and their local MP’s stressing the lack of moral integrity for Britain’s failure to condemn unequivocally the excessive and indiscriminate use of force by the Israelis.
We have joined Crisis Action in asking the Foreign Office for David Miliband to meet with a representative group from the Muslim community to discuss their concerns. As to date there has been no response.
Media
There are no western media correspondents inside Gaza. The lack of direct information and objectivity particularly on the BBC is deeply disturbing. Time and again we have witnessed Israeli officals and supports to present a one-sided view or even to distort the facts deliberately and to go unchallenged. In particular there has been no effort to put in context the reason for the rockets in the first place. The fact that Gaza has been under an economic blockade since Hamas were elected to power is being ignored. In the past three years I have spent many a night without light in Gaza. For the past 18 months they have lived in virtual isolation imposed by the Israelis and Egyptians. Simple commodities like cement were forbidden so the whole construction industry grinded to a halt over a year ago. According to the latest UN figures 80% of the people living in Gaza are dependent on humanitarian aid. Hamas observed a unilateral cease fire for almost two years but were given no credit for this achievement.
We are told that the media in the US is even worse in the bias of the presentation. The UN organization the Alliance of Civilizations gave my name as someone who could provide objective comment to no less than 700 US media outlets and yet we had not one single response. This is a story in itself.
Action:
We have expressed our concerns to the head of BBC News.
We have asked the Arab Media Watch to do an analysis of the coverage in our media.
We need [to] encourage as many people as possible to respond immediately to stories or comments that are clearly biased or lack objectivity .
It is essential that people are encouraged to do this otherwise the current imbalanced output will continue.
International
The plight of the seriously wound remains a major concern. We have been keeping the Swiss and Turkish Governments closely informed of the situation at the Rafah crossing.
The Swiss Foreign Minister wrote a very tough letter to the Egyptians demanding more co-operation. The Turkish government sent a high level delegation to Cairo to demand a more humane response.
Both government have shown a remarkable clarity in their position on the excessive use of force and the need for a more immediate response from the Egyptians. The situation we are told has improved but insufficient medial aid is getting through to Gaza. The Health authorities in Gaza would prefer doctors to come into to Gaza to help them. We have approached the Swiss and French on this. The Turkish government are ready to send medical experts.
It would seem inappropriate to end this short update with words other than an expression of deep concern for the people of Gaza.
Oliver
Director
Forward Thinking