Last week, I saw the help to fall from the sky near my central district of Gaza in Az-Zawayda. Neither I nor my neighbors had the courage to continue because we knew that the moment he touched the ground, a battle would break out. If the help survived the air, it would not survive the looters.
It’s almost always the same scene. Shops burst the second where the plane drops the boxes. The armed gangs are already waiting on the ground, ready to take the goods forcibly. Whoever gets there first, the one who shoots first also takes place with food. They are never those who need it most.
Later, we would see these same “aid boxes” on the Deir El-Balah market, their content on sale at exorbitant prices.
Recently, my little brother wanted a cookie. I saw cookies of a market assistance package and I asked for the price. It was 20 shekels ($ 5) for a cookie, something we couldn’t afford.
The help fell from the sky, not only to feed the hunger, but it also kills them. On Monday, an Ardropped palette struck a tent for the moved and killed Uday al-Quraan, a doctor working at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. A week ago, 11 people were injured when another air palette struck tents in northern Gaza.
Last year, in other failed Airdrops, people also died. Five were killed in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City when the parachute of a palette was not opened; 12 drowned by trying to reach boxes that fell into the sea; Six were killed in a stampede after a crowd of people rushed to an aerial location.
The idea of the latter Airdrops came from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called on the world to help with the process. Many governments have praised the idea and some have joined the effort, including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and European countries.
But Netanyahu knows very well that the Airdrops will not stop the famine of the Palestinians, which is why he called them instead of opening the Terriens passages in Gaza and allowing the United Nations agencies to distribute aid in a fair and orderly manner, just as they have always done.
Although the global public can be deceived that something is done about hunger, within Gaza, these Airdrops are not considered a real solution or a humanitarian gesture. We consider them nothing more than a public relations program – a means of covering a crime that has not stopped: samping an entire population under tight seat by preventing thousands of trucks from entering while a few boxes fall from the sky for the cameras. All this is part of a strategy to extend famine and facilitate international pressure on Israel.
And therefore the famine takes place at full speed. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 180 people died of hunger, including 92 children.
It is not only in Gaza that paratroopers are considered ineffective and dangerous. In Afghanistan in 2001, Airdrropped Aid was packed in the same way as the bombes in cluster. The latter would be wrong with boxes of food by children who would be killed in the race after them. In Syria, helping Airdropped in a besieged area did not reach hungry civilians because it has been damaged or fell into the territory of Eiil needles (ISIS).
It is well known that the Airdrops do not work and when other options are available, there is no reason to use them. The UN has repeatedly said that this method was ineffective and that ground delivery is safer and much better. A truck can transport four to 10 times more aid than a parachute. It is also much cheaper. Thousands of trucks wait on the Egyptian side of the border, enough to feed people and prevent more death from famine.
And yet we see this futile show again in Gaza. Here we know not to look at heaven with hope. The same sky that drops the bombs cannot trust to drop food.
This “humanity with parachutes” is a figure leaf deployed to try to cover the shame of the world and its decision to look silently at famine.
Gaza is not only under siege by bombs but also by lies, by complicity, by a gentle language covering bloody massacres. All those who remain silent, who justifies, who treats the killer and the victim as equal is a partner of this crime.
And we, the Palestinians, are not only victims – we are witnesses. We see the world refusing to act, we see countries continuing to arm Israel, to exchange with him, to give him diplomatic coverage. We see governments think of pitiful apology so as not to impose embargoes – as they are forced to do under international law – to a nation committing a genocide.
And tomorrow, when history is written, it will not be in the language of diplomacy with euphemisms and excuses. It will be in the language of the facts with the names of those who accomplices in mass murder and the famine of the Palestinians written in clear letters.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
