What the Gaza Strip really needsBy: Juliane Von Mittelstaedt | Published: July 10, 2011
The Gaza Strip flotilla is stuck in Greece, blocked by the coast guard. Activists are increasingly unlikely to make it to Gaza,
but questions remain. Do people there really need 3,000 tons of aid supplies? Does Israel's blockade make the lives of
the 1.7 million residents there so unbearable that health, security and the well-being of society are endangered?
Debate over these questions has become increasingly heated in recent weeks, but everyone has a different answer.
In Israel's opinion, of course there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. To prove it, the country releases rows of numbers
and statistics. For example, they say that imports have increased by 87 percent since the blockade was eased a year
ago, and that more than 15,000 sick people and their attendants have been allowed to travel from Gaza to Israel and
the West Bank.
Israel has also brought in 1,271 cars, almost 28,000 tons of electrical equipment and 163,000 tons of building materials.
The list of things permitted for import also now includes bonzai trees, chandeliers, ice cream machines and printing presses.
These figures have been released by the Israeli Defence Ministry. They are used to back the Israeli argument - and they do
sound convincing. But do they hold up? With a population of 1.7 million people, it means a new car for one in every 1,337
residents, and one new electrical device per family. Meanwhile, after years of the blockade, demand is enormous.
Anyone who travels through Gaza sees police officers on chic white BMW motorcycles and mountains of
watermelons, tomatoes and peaches piled up in front of stores. Brand-new cars drive through the streets,
and a five-star hotel and shopping centre are scheduled to open soon. New restaurants and small recreation
parks dot the beach.
Indeed, at first glance, there is no humanitarian crisis.
DOES GAZA NEED SUPPLIES? "Of course there is a humanitarian crisis," says Ramadan al-Hayek, general secretary on a committee to
end the blockade. "About 120,000 workers have no job," he says, "more than 300 sick people have died
due to insufficient medical supplies, and another 200 died in the tunnels." Al-Hayek is standing beneath
a memorial to the nine Turks who died in the Israeli operation against an aid flotilla last year. A nearly
10-meter high cement tower crowned with an iron globe, it's not
exactly evidence of a cement shortage.
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