Who is taking hostages?

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaze was quieter than I expected it to be. The sand storm that engulfed the whole area, from Cairo to Rafah, maybe partially to blame but it is clear that the refusal to grant passage to Gaza to most of those who seek it is the major reason for the dwindling number of attempted crossings.

A French delegation of medical workers and activists from “La Campagne Civile Internationale pour la Protection du Peuple Palestinien (CCIPPP) have followed the Egyptian recommendations and obtained a letter supporting their attempt to cross to Gaza from the French embassy in Cairo yet all eleven of them have been waiting in Rafah by day and al-Arish by night for days. Tomorrow, again, they plan to pack their bags and checkout from their hotel rooms in the morning and head to the border crossing (forty kilometres away) in hope to enter Gaza.

A Jordanian delegation left today after three days of waiting. Before the end of the “gate work day”, at 4:00 PM, they set up a protest art exhibit: a few photocopies of political cartoons secured by rocks on the asphalt a few meters away from the gate. This was quickly dismantled and confiscated by the Egyptian security forces.

The Jordanians will not be back tomorrow. They left for Cairo this evening.

A few Gazan Palestinians were also present at the gate for hours, none of whom got through. Why? The border is closed. But why is the border closed? This is the million dollar question.
I asked many people and the clearest explanation came – unofficially of course – from one of the gate’s guards. Not a high ranking officer, actually not an officer at all but a simple solider. The closure is to force and pressure Hamas to accept the conditions of the latest Israeli proposal.

Let’s get this clear, Hamas has been accused of taking the people of Gaza hostage in the war with Israel (or was it Israel’s war against the people of Gaza?). But what is happening now is that Israel, Egypt and all their allies are taking the people of Gaza hostage and have no shame about it, starving them, barricading them and restricting all kinds of assistance or access to them till they have their way.

When will the hostages be released?

Ehab Lotayef at the Rafah border crossing, Feb. 19, 2009

(also see http://picasaweb.google.ca/lotayef/RafahBorderCrosiing#)