A plea for the people of Gaza

THE AREA of the world where the right to water is perhaps most severely abused is the Gaza Strip. The facts speak for themselves: Since 2003, no piped water has existed in Gaza. Out of Gaza's 145 wells, only 55 are functional.

The sources of water that are available are hardly ideal. The World Health Organization has reported that 80 percent of the "drinking" water in Gaza is unsafe for consumption. Since the closure of Gaza's Public Monitoring Facility in January 2009, the monitoring of water quality has stopped.

This lack of one of the basic necessities for life has--as expected--created an ongoing public health disaster. Gaza has seen rises in typhoid fever and cholera--two diseases that occur when water supplies are contaminated with fecal matter and, in the case of cholera, are not properly treated.

The situation of water in Gaza is but one example of the many hardships that the people of Gaza are forced to endure. With a population of 1.6 million, 80 percent of the people are reliant on foreign aid, with roughly 50 percent of the population unemployed, and roughly 50 percent of the population living in extreme poverty--meaning they live on less than $2 a day.

The root of these hardships goes back to Israel's ongoing policy of displacing and excluding the Palestinian people from their own land--the most recent example of which is the brutal economic siege on Gaza.

Waged after Hamas won elections in the Palestinian Authority--which Jimmy Carter's Carter Center validated as free and fair--the blockade on Gaza has been a deliberate attempt by Israelis to wage "economic warfare" on Gazans. By controlling Gaza's borders, airspace and seas--in addition to regular invasion by the Israeli Defense Force--Israeli elites have managed to prevent all but the most essential necessities from flowing into Gaza, and put its economy on life support.

Again, the numbers speak for themselves: The United Nations Human Rights Council reported that before the 2007 blockade, in one year, Gazans exported 1,380 truckloads of goods. After the blockade, from 2007 to 2009, only 134 truckloads of goods were exported out of Gaza. After the 2009-2010 invasion of Operation Cast Lead until September of 2010, there was only one export of flowers out of Gaza.

While Israeli officials clamor and condemn international efforts at a boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, they themselves have been engaging in their own BDS campaign against the people of Gaza; it is a BDS campaign that is bald violation of both the laws of war and international human rights law.

FORTUNATELY, THERE are two rays of hope out of this morass of despair.

The first is the announcement by Egypt to no longer support the former Mubarak regime's policy of enforcing the blockade on the Egyptian border. Egypt's interim Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi described Egypt's support for the blockade as "disgraceful," and has agreed to allow the free flow of goods return between the two countries.

The second is the effort by international activists to break the siege on Gaza by sea. Last year, international solidarity activities sailed to Gaza with supplies and words of support. Their attempts to reach Palestinian shores though were thwarted when activists on the Mavi Marmara were attacked with an "unacceptable level of brutality," killing activists in "summary execution" style, according to the United Nations Human Rights Council, which investigated the matter.

Despite this brutality, people have not given up, and there are plans to set sail again. In mid-June, a U.S. boat to Gaza--fittingly titled the Audacity of Hope--is headed towards Gaza with other internationals. This freedom flotilla plans to break the illegal and immoral Israeli blockade, sending a message to not only to the people of the region, but also the world, that human rights will be protected and international laws will be followed.

Currently, the organizers of the Audacity of Hope are looking for people to write personal letters of solidarity to the people of Gaza. The campaign is called "To Gaza With Love"; it is a reference to author Alice Walker's idea that the radical power of love can create social change.

It is the hope and desire that by tapping into to this "radical power of love," the people of Palestine will be able to realize their long dream of a just peace on their own land, of being able control of their own lives and of having the power to write their own futures.

Send letters of support to: Letters to Gaza, 119 West 72nd St. #158, New York, NY 10023.