The Seige of Gaza and Ramallah Closure

I thought I'd write a quick situation report for those of you who had been asking for one...

The news from Gaza is very disturbing. The kidnapping of an Israeli soldier that resulted in massive buildups of troops and armaments around the Strip (roughly 10,000 soldiers) has also resulted in power and water being cut to the 1.4 million people who live in one of the most densly populated places on earth. I'm struggling with coming to terms with people around the world accepting that this has any sort of moral weight. Punishing 1.4 million people for the actions of a handful, runs counter to the values that I thought I was raised with. I'm so disappointed that this sort of thing is acceptable to the majority of governments in the world - and that people generally feel like they either have no culpability in this situation - or that there is nothing they can do about it. Ask Peter MacKay if there is anything hypocritical in how much we support Israel and what a fuss we made about cutting support to the democratically elected, yet "terrorist" Hamas-led government. Ask him if he had heard that a Palestinian man was killed by the Israeli army in Ramallah last weekend or about the two Palestinian workers who were shot dead when they took the wrong road trying to avoid the two hour wait at a random checkpoint last night. Ask him what his stand is on collective punishment and if he supports the Geneva Conventions. For those of you who don't know what I'm refering to you can read the text yourself...

From Convention IV, Art.33: "Civilians must not be punished for offenses that they personally did not commit. Collective penalties, intimidation and penalties against civilian populations are prohibited."

So thats the situation in Gaza - Tanks are about to roll into the narrow streets of the refugee camps there. While the Israelis may (very unlikely) find their missing soldier, I'm sure there won't be TOO TOO many Palestinian deaths, and if there are, we have already learned that one Israeli life is worth dozens of Arab ones. It's a sort of racial arithmetic that has allowed the supporters of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians to go unquestioned. And don't think that you support Israeli policies? Think again.

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As for the situation here in the Ramallah area, the IDF (Israeli army) has apparently sealed the city and closed the roads between here and Nablus. We stayed in town instead of heading to Ramallah today just in case we wouldn't be allowed back - but a number of my classmates live in the center of Ramallah, so I don't know if they will make it to class tomorrow.

Right now, here in town nothing, is different except for the rumours that are flying around amongst us foreigners. It's unlikely, I think, that anything will happen even in Ramallah, outside of a temporary curfew, when the Israelis seem so intent on an invasion of Gaza. Thats my take on the situation. I'll try and post the thoughts of my friends here as well...