As readers may be already aware, two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian gunmen were killed in clashes just inside the Gaza Strip today. Writing in El País Juan Miguel Muñoz says that the dead Israeli soldiers were killed “during one of their habitual incursions into Palestinian territory”. He also parrots a Hamas statement that the fatal clash occurred when the IDF “invaded” Gaza.
Now Muñoz, the paper he writes for and the great bulk of nice and well-meaning people in the world subscribe to the psychedelic fantasy that Israel continues to occupy Gaza. How do these people manage the cognitive dissonance between, on the one hand, believing that Israel occupies Gaza and, on the other, talking about its soldiers being killed during an “incursion”, or an “invasion” into that same piece of land?
Many terms used in the Middle East political discussions need to be examined more closely. Occupation, intifada and illegal settlements are some examples. What do they really mean and what is the political agenda behind them?
Eamonn, what term would you apply to the pehnomenom of a nation forcing control over a peice of land, entry and egress (oh and btw Eygpt is simply following orders, as evidenced by the Viva Palestina convoy being told by Eygptian auhtorities to seek Israeli permission to cross into Gaza from Rafah), and not to mention airspace and territorial waters?
What term should we use Mr McDonagh?
“seige” comes to mind:
http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Seige#Post_Second_World_War
also “blockade”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade#Legal_status
This is a recognized tactic of warfare between belligerents.
“Unfortunately”, to acknowledge that Gaza is in fact under blockade requires that the Hamas be recognized as a “belligerent”, that is a de-facto government in control of a piece of territory.
This would imply that they had some kind of responsibility for their situation, for the welfare of civilians under their rule,and that they had more options than just shooting.
I would suggest “open city”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_city