Reply to Gaza war and College Campus Protests

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Mustafa (not his real name), an anti-Hamas activist in his mid-30s living in Gaza who agreed to speak to The Times of Israel by email on condition of total anonymity, described life in the isolated enclave under the rule of Hamas and the Israeli blockade as an “open-air prison.”

Mustafa said that with over 70% youth unemployment and an average per capita income per day of NIS 20, or $5.5, intermittent access to electricity, and undrinkable tap water, life in the enclave is barely livable for the vast majority of citizens who are not somehow tied to Hamas.

Leaving the Strip requires at least $10,000 to be smuggled out illegally, with high chances of dying on the way to freedom, he added. This is all because “Gazan civilians are exploited as a pawn in a struggle between regional forces, and Hamas uses its citizens as human shields to defend its project of ‘Islamic resistance’ while it silences and threatens to kill any opposition,” he continued.

A professional who describes himself as a “liberal and a democrat” interested in “humanitarian issues and free citizenship,” Mustafa estimated that the current wave of demonstrations has only just begun, since in his view the protesters’ demands are not limited to electricity, but aimed at ultimately overthrowing “the military regime and the rule of the clerics.”

With regard to relations with the neighboring Jewish state, Mustafa expressed his wish for a Palestinian government with “new, clear and rational policies toward Israel and the occupation army, without regional alliances,” referring to Iran’s support for Hamas and other radical groups.

“The Israeli side looks at us as terrorists, not as people with dreams and aspirations,” Mustafa said. “But the reality is quite different: Most of the people of Gaza are innocent civilians living in dire humanitarian conditions. They only dream of a decent life, freedom, justice, peace and democratic elections.

“This is why people took to the streets. To demand their most basic rights, an improvement in their living conditions, an end to poverty, unemployment, the lack of water and electricity, and to protest the imposition of power by force, being silenced and spied on,” he said.

“You can divide the people of Gaza in two: a large majority living under the poverty line, and a small ruling elite affiliated with Hamas and other Islamist factions, who live off the funding received by the ‘resistance,’” he added.

From his personal perspective as a peace activist, Mustafa said that “these demonstrations do not come out of thin air.” In his words, they express the “conviction of the Gazan people that peace is the solution. Gazans want an end to the occupation and the Israeli siege, and they want an end to the bloodshed that has been going on for so many years.”[/quote]

I don't really understand the relationship between Gaza and the West Bank. before this conflict, could Gazans have opted to live in the West Bank?[/quote]

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