Airstrikes, Chickens and Economic Warfare

It has taken me a while to get around to writing this post, as frankly, I just didn't know where to start. 

Last week it got serious here- the 7 days between 31 May - 6 June saw more attacks by Israeli Occupational Forces (IOF) than the previous 2 months combined. During 10 separate airstrikes, in which at least 19 missiles were fired, the body count was 3 dead (all resistance fighters) and 13 wounded, including 7 children. The strikes are in retaliation for the death of an Israeli soldier at the hands of a resistance fighter, killed too in the encounter, but part of a wider policy of economic warfare. However they are ridiculously and disingenuously being dressed up as a strike against weapons manufacturing and storage facilities, which in one instance has given rise to the hilarious JihadiChickenBrigade hashtag that is trending on twitter worldwide.

While it was a blessing that there were no more people killed, the airstrikes have done untold damage to the livelihood of many people. This is part of the deliberate Israeli policy of "Economic Warfare", designed to inflict crippling hardships on a community (80% of which is dependent on food aid from UNRWA) in direct contravention to their obligations under international law as an occupying force.

The easiest way for me to illustrate the attack on the frail and less-than basic economy of Gaza is to give a digest of some of the IOFs activities in Gaza during the week.

Friday: IOF forces opened fire on agricultural areas and smoke bombs were fired into a field in a small village east of Khan Younis. The bombs set fire to the crops of wheat and barley, but the Palestinan Fire Fighters managed to put out the blaze and save some of the crops. The village was the home of the resistance fighter killed earlier that day.

Saturday: Israeli gunboats fired on Palestinian fishing boats- the terrified fishermen were forced to sail back to shore and give up their fishing for the day.

Sunday: Israeli warplanes fired fired 3 missiles at the small (470 square meter) livestock holding of Hussein Abu Rabee whose farm lies less than a kilometer from the border. The farm was utterly destroyed, along with the vital resource that is the local water-well. Abu Rabee's 29 sheep and 5,350 

chickens were killed. 

Later:

2 missiles destroyed a 500 square meter carpentry workshop in Deir al Balah, 

An airstrike did serious damage to an agricultural plot in the small village of Wadi al Salqa 

Missiles were fired on a small agricultural plot belonging to  the Fannouna family in Nussairat refugee camp.

Monday: 3 missiles were fired at a 250-square meter chicken farm North of Rafah belonging to Mohammed Mahmoud al-Qahadi. As a result or the attack, his farm, his home and agricultural buildings were destroyed.

Wednesday: Israeli gunboats stationed near Rafah surrounded 3 Palestinian fishing boats that were sailing 4 nautical miles away from the beach. The Israelis arrested 3 fishermen and confiscated their boats. 

Incensed by the carnage and destruction, targeting a civilian population and their means to support themselves, I scoured the international media for accounts of what had happened. This was a revelation in itself. What I found were many stories  based on statements by the IOF - giving their version of events. 


" Israeli aircraft targeted three weapons manufacturing facilities and the central Gaza Strip, as well as two terror tunnels in the northern and southern Gaza Strip." 


" Military sources said that the sites that had been targeted belonged to Hamas, which rules the territory, and the radical Islamic Jihad group." 

It seems that the majority of news editors are happy to take statements from official Israeli sources, and to trot out the whitewash and propaganda verbatim, without expending the time or energy to check the facts or seek alternative perspectives.

In this way, the prevailing narrative is reinforced, the narrative of  a brave and noble Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, trying to peacefully exist, but subject to attacks from Palestinian terrorists, from whom it must defend itself. 


This version of events seems to satisfy the international community who are then happy to turn their faces away from a people whose land has been and continues to be stolen, along with the its precious resources such as water; whose children are attacked and beaten and murdered, whose people are imprisoned and killed with impunity, whose homes and farms are razed and whose ancient olive, lemon and orange groves are uprooted. 


There is no single aspect of life here unaffected by the occupation. And yet, despite all this, to quote my father, former journalist and newspaper editor, Tony Bradley: 


"....set against the abject misery (of their circumstances), there is something wonderfully uplifting in the resilience of a dignified and determinedly undefeated people. Their ability to endure the brutalisations of the past six decades is, in terms of human achievement, a greater victory than their enemies ever won."