Rafah Newsreel

By Greg Dropkin

A child plays inside a pockmarked garden wall. A boy clutching a goblet looks up as his parents evacuate the house. An old woman sits in the rubble of her demolished home. Some kids flash their eyes and smile broadly, others find junk on what could be an adventure playground, but isn't. A young girl and her baby brother stare close into the face of their older brother, who lies surrounded by flowers.

These are recent photographs from Rafah in the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine. During 2002, fifty children under the age of eight were shot dead or blown up in Gaza by the IDF, or Israeli Occupation Forces as they are known locally. Some were 'collateral damage' in missile attacks targeting other Palestinians.

Rafah is home to 100,000 people, mainly living in refugee camps. Like most of the 1.14 million Palestinians in Gaza, their families became refugees from the ethnic cleansing which accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948. Grandparents can remember their homes during the British Mandate, a period supposedly leading to independence. Egypt then administered Gaza until the 1967 war - when Israel illegally occupied and then settled on the territory in defiance of the 4th Geneva Convention and many UN Security Council resolutions.

Whatever the history, Rafah's present can only be called a nightmare. Over the Christmas period, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported an incursion into al-Salam neighbourhood on 11th December when Israeli forces killed five people (including four civilians), injured twelve people and destroyed nine houses. A week later military vehicles moved into Rafah refugee camp and opened fire, killing a sixteen-year-old. On 23 December the Israelis re-invaded the camp at 2:30 am with forty heavy vehicles and two helicopters. The military moved into camp blocks adjacent to the Egyptian border. Soldiers entered houses and turned them into military posts. Nine Palestinians were killed, some whilst trying to resist. One was a Palestinian police officer heading to his job at the Rafah border crossing when he was shot in the head.

Why did it happen? Well, according to the Israeli government, the Rafah Christmas operation was intended to destroy tunnels used, 'to smuggle cigarettes and weapons under the border wall with Egypt', Gaza's equivalent of the 'Apartheid Wall' under construction in the West Bank. Back in October, Israel claimed to have intelligence that surface-to-air missiles were about to come through the Rafah tunnels. According to the UN, two hundred homes were destroyed in an invasion that lasted two weeks, and two thousand people were made homeless, eighteen Palestinians were killed, including three children under fifteen years old, and more than one hundred and twenty were wounded. Were any missiles discovered? No.

Palestinian health workers were on the front line. On 11 October Dr. Mona El-Farra wrote: 'Ambulance drivers resort to rough unpaved roads to try to evacuate the seriously injured casualties, they are under threat of Israeli army tank and machine gun fire against anyone trying to circumvent checkpoints. Medications from the central Ministry of Health drug supply stores in Gaza city are running out. Oxygen cylinders and emergency drugs are amongst the most urgent needs. The Union of Health Work Committees appeals to you to spread the word about this ongoing unbearable situation.'

While coping with emergencies, the UHWC has also started an imaginative arts project for children and teenagers, using painting, drama, music, poetry, and fiction as well as sports, day-trips, and computer training. 'We strongly believe,' Dr. El-Farra wrote at New Year, 'that psychological support of Palestinian children through entertainment and playing is extremely necessary in a society where over 90% suffer from some psychological complaint…directly related to the current political situation.'

Manchester photographer Tom Hurndall was already in Rafah. One of his images was that child playing by the pockmarked wall. When Tom went to rescue some other Rafah children being targeted by Israeli machine gunfire, he was shot in the head by a sniper and remained in a coma until he died on January 12th this year. The soldier who killed him has been taken into custody after finally admitting that he knowingly shot in the head an unarmed man - wearing a fluorescent coat - as he tried to pull children to safety.

On World Press Freedom Day - 3 May - the British cameraman and NUJ member James Miller was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers whilst waving a white flag during filming for a documentary.

So did the UK government erupt in outrage? According to the Parliamentary database the Foreign Secretary has yet to utter the word 'Rafah' in the House of Commons. He did mention Gaza a few times last year, when denouncing suicide bombings and the death of three US officials at the hands of unknown assailants. He regretted that Palestinian security forces had an unclear chain of command. Back in July, he claimed Israeli forces were withdrawing from Gaza. Almost a year ago Straw managed to mention "forty-one deaths of Palestinians, principally at the hands of the Israeli Defense Force, and one death within the state of Israel itself", he claimed to "regret the deaths whatever side they are on" before calling on the Palestinians to "condemn terrorism and control terrorists", whilst Israel should "act proportionately and in accordance with international law". Whether that includes the 4th Geneva Convention and UN Security Council resolutions, he did not say. Israeli atrocities in Gaza since February 2003 drew no condemnation from the Foreign Secretary. Meanwhile Israel continues to deploy F-15 and F-16 fighters and Apache helicopters incorporating components manufactured by the UK arms industry, including sites in the North West.

And what exactly can anyone do? Here is something small. Liverpool Friends of Palestine - a solidarity campaign including Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others of us simply appalled by this tragedy - are supporting the Union of Health Work Committees in their emergency medical work and to help establish the Rachel Corrie Centre. Merseyside & Cheshire Fire Brigades Union donated £750, and we hope that other union branches and community organisations throughout the North West will get involved, both financially and by inviting speakers. It's not enough, but it's a start..

Liverpool Friends of Palestine, c/o 29 Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BQ
Tel: 0151 427 1725 or 07771 791024
E-mail: rosemary@lfop.fsnet.co.uk