Wat pro-Gaza activisten werkelijk beleven

Amira Hass wordt vaak en graag door de Anja Meulenbelts en de Stan van Houckes van deze wereld geciteerd. Stoer, om met een bootje naar Gaza te gaan en dan bij terugkeer door de Israelische politie gearresteerd te worden. Het is wel dezelfde Israelische overheid die haar moet vrijkopen mocht ze door de Hamas gegijzeld worden.

Nu heeft Amira Hass voor Haaretz.com een opmerkelijk artikel over de Free-Gaza-March geschreven. De demonstranten, veelal afkomstig uit democratisch geregeerde landen als VS, Groot-Brittannie en Frankrijk,  wilden op 31 december de Gazanen een hart onder de riem steken, als herdenking aan de oorlog van een jaar geleden. Vaak zijn het mensen die basis-democratisch zijn georganiseerd en gewend zijn over alles te discussieren. Nu merkten ze echter dat hun tocht door Hamas werd gekaapt.

Hamas bepaalde vooraf dat er maar 5000 demonstranten naar binnen mochten. Met wie ze mochten praten en wat het programma zou zijn. Gewone mensen kregen ze niet te zien. Gazanen die met de demonstranten wilden praten werden weggejaagd. Alleen een kleine groep van anti-Israelisch georienteerde Joden werden gepresenteerd aan de pers als een relikwie. Die foto kwam ook in de Westerse media. Wat bijzonder. Amerikaanse joden die tegen de staat Israel zijn.

Ze mochten zich niet vrije bewegen. Bij wandelingen dor Gaza was er steeds een security man achter hen. Toen ze eindelijk een paar Fatah aanhangers spraken, bleek dat die angst voor Hamas hadden. "Nu begrijp ik eindelijk wat de kreet "Free Gaza" betekent", schrijft één van hen.

Veel pro-Gaza demonstranten zijn teleurgesteld over het dictatoriale optreden van Hamas. Uiteindelijk zijn er maar 80 activisten Gaza binnen gelaten, na bemiddeling van mevrouw Mubarak. Opvallend weinig berichten achteraf. Ook het Nederlandse Wijblijvenhier-meisje heeft er niets meer over geschreven.

Het begint ook op te vallen dat Anja Meulenbelt de laatste tijd wel over Israelische homosexuelen schrijft, maar heel weinig over haar "familie" in Gaza. Ze is er al een tijdje niet meer geweest. Misschien beginnen de extreem-linkse activisten eindelijk in te zien dat Hamas helemaal niet links is en ook geen mensenrechten respecteerd.

(Zie ook Engelse tekst hieronder:)

Hijacked or poorly organized?

The march was not what the organizers had dreamed of during the nine months of preparation. The day before the trip to Gaza, they already knew that the non-governmental organizations had backed out. Some people said that Hamas government representatives had found the NGOs did not have a clear, organized plan for the guests and therefore had taken the initiative. One Palestinian activist insisted: "When we heard there would only be 100, we canceled everything."

Another said, "From the outset, Hamas set conditions: No more than 5,000 marchers, no approaching the wall and the fence, how to make speeches, how long the speeches should be, who will make speeches. In short, Hamas hijacked the initiative from us and we gave in."

Hamas, or its Popular Committee, brought 200 or 300 marchers. The march turned into nothing more than a ritual, an opportunity for Hamas cabinet ministers to get decent media coverage in the company of Western demonstrators. Especially photogenic were four Americans from the anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jewish group Neturei Karta, who joined the trip only at Al Arish. There were no Palestinian women among the marchers - a slap to the many feminist organizers and participants, both women and men.

After the march, the guests voiced protests to some of the official Palestinian organizers. "We came to demonstrate against the siege, and we found that we ourselves were under siege," they said. Their variegation and the transparency of their behavior did not suit the military discipline the official hosts tried to impose. The officials listened, and after the reins were loosened a bit, I set out to visit the homes of friends.

There people described the lingering fear from the Israeli onslaught. Saturday afternoon, at 11:30 A.M. - the time of the first aerial bombardments - remains today a sensitive hour for many children. Just as thunderstorms, or electricity failures (an everyday occurrence) or a persistent drone flying above cause anxiety and evoke nightmarish memories.

Some of the marchers were now allowed to go out on their own, with Gazan acquaintances they had previously known only via telephone and e-mail. Some, especially the Arabic-speakers, complained that "a shadow in the shape of a security man" continued to accompany them. In quick "safari" tours of bombed neighborhoods, through bus windows, they saw ruins that had not yet been cleared, like the complex of bombed-out government buildings that are still standing - ugly concrete skeletons with empty rooms and no walls, like screaming mouths.

In meetings without the security men, several activists got the impression that non-Hamas residents live in fear, and are afraid to speak or identify themselves by name. "Now I understand that the call for 'Freedom for Gaza' has another meaning," one young man told me.

The participants spent Thursday and Friday in the Gaza Strip. Friday, January 1, was the 45th anniversary of the establishment of Fatah. The Hamas government does not allow the rival organization to assemble, just as the PA does not allow Hamas to assemble in the West Bank. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh congratulated Fatah on its anniversary, but at the same time the Hamas security services did all they could to deter the movement's activists from even thinking about a celebration.

Hundreds of Fatah activists were summoned by the police and kept in semi-detention for several hours, until evening. Security officials entered homes where candles were burning or Fatah flags were being flown to mark the anniversary. In one home, the security officials tried to arrest two people, and the mother tried to block them. One policeman allegedly hit her - and she had a heart attack and died.

I wondered: Were the restrictions an order from above, or an unwise interpretation by lower ranks? Does Hamas think it can entirely prevent the few visitors - clearly pro-Palestinian - from hearing non-official versions? Don't the people giving the orders realize what a bad image they were creating? Or was there really a security concern?

Someone who, to put it mildly, is not a Hamas fan explained to me that young men who quit Iz al-Din al-Qassam for the amorphous Jaljalat militia are a genuine headache. They are a convenient excuse for restricting contact with "just anyone," but the fear that they might try to harm the visitors in order to damage Hamas is real.

These are devout young men who, officially, criticize Hamas for not enforcing Islamic religious law in its entirely. However, as the critic said, "Unwittingly, because of their lost lives, our lost lives, they are angry at the whole world."

Postscript: After two days all the visitors, journalists included, had to leave Gaza. According to Hamas, this was an explicit Egyptian demand. Egyptian officers confirmed this.