War On Gaza Anniversary

Published: December 28, 2009 11:52 by Beth McGrath

The ghost of a crisis past, present and yet to come

Gaza lies in ruins. With the ongoing blockade preventing any reconstruction, the small strip of land remains littered with rubble and the residue of assault, an uncomfortable museum of the war that started a year ago. Against the backdrop of this destruction, Gaza has now another landmark for its potholed legal, political and emotional landscape. The 27th December will be mourned by those who lost, those who witnessed and those who are left to pick up the pieces. A ‘year on’ from that first day of aerial assault and the increasingly scored timeline of the conflict has another sad anniversary in a long line of sad anniversaries. One year on from the assault sits heavily on three years on from the start of the siege and ten years on from the violence of the second intifada, and beyond all these, those now ancient eroded pillars of 1948 and 1967.

An understanding of the present crisis in Gaza must be sought alongside the ghosts of the past and the future; the ghost of the recent past will show a population already on its knees from military siege when the first bombs fell a year ago, and a civilian people who were unable to flee when there was nowhere safe to go in Gaza. The ghost of crisis past will lead us further back through years of systematic denial of the most basic human rights, through streets of violence during the intifada and will peer through windows of opportunity for dialogue and peace only to find them quickly frosted with shortsighted political agendas.

If the ghost of the crisis past illuminates a dark reminder, the ghost of the crisis yet to come suggests an even darker horizon. A trip to Gaza in August offered me a chance to bear witness to the unraveling of a young civilian population. Over half of the Palestinians in Gaza are under the age of eighteen. Visiting during summer holidays, it was easy to get a sense of both the natural optimism and vulnerability of this youth, negotiating their need for play and the damage lying before them. I spent time with Medical Aid for Palestinians and their local psychological health partner CTCCM who are working with hundreds of children faced with loss, poverty and the disorientation of conflict. In the quieter corners of their play sessions down on Gaza’s beach, where 80 million tones of sewage daily infect the waters and patrolling gunships smash the fishing industry along with hopes of leaving the Gaza Strip, I was haunted by the two Dickensian specters of Want and Ignorance, which flourish on the destruction of schools, homes, livelihood and identity and follow those have no refuge or resource.

One year on and we have a moment to reconsider our actions as a nation and as witnesses to this crisis past, present and yet to come. Unfortunately for the tens of thousands of Gazans waiting to return to their homes, waiting for permits for medical referral outside of Gaza that may never come, and waiting for lifesaving drugs that are being held on the other side of the blockade, there is unlikely to be a sudden change of heart overnight. However, this anniversary of the war on Gaza offers a moment of reflection at a time when so many of us are taking such pleasure in the security of home, family and comparative affluence. The shadows of the things that have been can be mourned but they cannot be changed. The humanitarian crisis that grows stronger daily in Gaza can be prevented by a change in attitude and a strength of resolve that the young civilian population of one of the most densely populated areas of our world will not be left to face this crisis alone.