Online conference discusses reconstruction of Gaza

By Iclal Turan

ANKARA (AA) - The denial of freedom of movement of the people of Gaza is a crime against humanity, a Jewish-American scholar told an online conference Monday.

Speaking at the conference, titled “Reconstructing the War-Torn Gaza,” Norman Finkelstein said: “The denial of the right of people in Gaza to freely leave and return to their homeland, namely Gaza, the denial of freedom of movement is a crime against humanity.”

The online event was organized by the ILKE Foundation based in Istanbul, Turkey and was also attended by the Deputy Chairman of Turkey's Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), Huseyin Oruc, Palestinian Journalist Jehan Alfarra and the head of the Pakistan’s Alkhidmat Foundation, Shaid Iqbal.

Speaking about the history of Palestine, Finkelstein said Israel first “conquered about 80% of what was called British-mandated Palestine'' in 1947-1949, while noting that “20%, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza, fell outside Israeli control.”

Adding that Israel later expelled about 90% of the Palestinian Arab population, he said about 70% of the population of Gaza today “consists of refugees and children and grandchildren of Palestinian refugees from 1948.”

Finkelstein said the 2006 Palestinian elections and victory of Hamas were a turning point before coming to the current situation in the region.

“The people of Palestine were punished for having participated in democratic elections and having elected a government that the US and Israel didn't support,” he stressed, adding this was the origin of the current situation in Gaza, namely the “blockade.”

“It's a criminal blockade in the literal sense,” Finkelstein said. “The systematic, methodical and sustained denial of the people’s right to leave their country and return to their country is a crime against humanity.“

He later slammed “the periodic massacres that Israel launches against the people of Gaza.”

Underlining that “one half or more of the population of Gaza are children,” he said “it's an overwhelmingly defenseless population.”

“The length of Gaza is one marathon,” he noted. “I do not believe it's correct and I do not believe that evidence supports the fact that Gaza possesses any kind of weaponry or armaments that can be regarded in any sense as sophisticated.”

“Gaza was a totally defenseless civilian overwhelmingly child population that this past week -- or I should say, two weeks ago -- came under a fourth brutal assault,” he added.

For her part, Alfarra asked: “What is the point of constantly trying to rebuild what Israel destroys?”

She pointed to the need for concrete actions.

“The root causes are still there, such as the ongoing brutal Israeli military occupation of Palestine, the suffocating siege of Gaza.

“We can certainly reconstruct the buildings, but nothing will bring back the lives of the children that were lost, or the memories that are attached to the places that were lost,” she added.

IHH’s Oruc spoke about the 11th anniversary of the Mavi Marmara incident, in which nine Turkish activists onboard the aid vessel, which was part of a flotilla traveling to the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid, were killed on May 31, 2010 when Israeli troops stormed the vessel before it reached the Palestinian territories.​​​​​​​

He added that the IHH did not stop after Mavi Marmara but continues its work on the humanitarian side.

“We have a big office in Gaza,” he said, adding they have a huge humanitarian operation going on in the region.