@shado.mag Sara breaks down what was happening in Gaza before October 7th 2023. It’s important for us to recognise that in a way the scale of the violence we’ve seen was bound to happen as it’s an escalation of a process that has been ongoing for decades. We didn’t do enough to stop it sooner. In 1947, the modern Jewish etho-state of Israel was created. The UN partition plan, however unfair it was, assigned the city and region of Gaza as part of the sovereign Palestinian state. Israel however wanted to seize and expand its territories beyond UN-sanctioned borders. The Nakba saw the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians. Tens of thousands of them were forced to seek refuge in Gaza. Today, over 2/3 of the Gazan population are refugees. Between 1947-1967, Gaza was placed under Egyptian military rule. The Palestinian ongoing resistance provoked retaliation from Israel and in 1967 Israel seized Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and placed them under military occupation. Between 1967-2005 Israel started building Jewish-only settlements in Gaza, building a military presence to guard these settlements as well as to police the Palestinian population. It was in this context that the First Intifada broke out in 1987. Hamas was created during this period as one response to Israeli settler colonialism. In 2000, the Second Intifada grew out of discontent following the 1993 Oslo Accords (a so-called ‘peace process’ which was a total sham and let Israeli settlement building contiue). By 2005, the Intifada forced Israel to evacuate settlements and hround troops in Gaza. Israel used the election of Hamas in 2006 to justify fencing Gaza off from the world. They imposed a blocakde by land, air and sea and routinely launced military assaults into Gaza. Gazans have faced food insecurit, water crisis, power outages and more as Israel controls the flow of good and the ability of people to move in and out. What about Gaza’s other neighour, Egypt? The Egyptian president al-Sisi has supported Israel by closing the border and destroying tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. With all this in mind, it is clear that a ceasefire while necessary is not a long-term solution. What Gaza needs is for the blockade and military occupation to be lifted, the right of return for its enourmous refugee population (to alleviate the pressure of being one of the most densely populated regions in the world) and the ability to live in freedom, dignity and self-determination. #shadomag #palestine #palestinehistory #nakba #palestinianhistory #righttoreturn #gaza #egypt #alsisi #refugee #refugeecrisis #palestinianrefugees #palestineexplained #fromtheriverstothesea #southafrica #icj #internationalcourtofjustice #thehague #genocide #liberation #blm #ceasefire #ceasefirenow
