{"id":9293,"date":"2018-05-16T13:06:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T19:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=9293"},"modified":"2018-05-16T14:13:38","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T20:13:38","slug":"there-are-literally-no-words-for-whats-going-on-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2018\/05\/there-are-literally-no-words-for-whats-going-on-in-gaza.html","title":{"rendered":"There are (literally) no words for what’s going on in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
Gaza in more ordinary times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Is what\u2019s going on in Gaza at the moment a \u201cprotest\u201d?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 \u00a0Protestors march around yelling chants in order for those whom they\u2019re angry at to see their anger and their numbers.<\/p>\n

Is it a \u201criot\u201d?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 That\u2019s uncontrolled chaos with the goal of causing destruction, either truly for no reason at all, or as a means of causing harm to some disfavored group (Korean shopkeepers, for instance).<\/p>\n

Is it a military incursion?\u00a0 It\u2019s a challenge to use this vocabulary when there is no organized military leading a charge, and when the attackers seem to have no realistic expectation of breaching the barrier, but, rather, have the objective of creating sympathy by deaths of some among their number.<\/p>\n

Is it a mass suicide endeavor?\u00a0 That would seem to require that those involved, not just the planners, have suicide in mind.<\/p>\n

Should we just be vague and call it an \u201caction\u201d at the border?\u00a0 No, the Germans used that label for their Aktions already.<\/p>\n

I am coming to believe that the lack of a label for what they\u2019re up to, is a real problem.\u00a0 Since we can\u2019t adequately describe it, we fall back on words that fail to appropriately capture what\u2019s going on.\u00a0 It\u2019s not far removed from newspaper headlines like \u201ctrain kills man\u201d which turn out to be suicide-by-train but suggest to the casual reader that the engineer \/ train line is somehow at fault.\u00a0 And so, too, we have headlines such as \u201cIsraelis kill more than 50 Palestinians in Gaza protests, health officials say<\/a>,\u201d in Monday\u2019s Washington Post<\/em>, which gives the impression that Israel was somehow the instigator.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some text from that article:<\/p>\n

Some young men brought knives and fence cutters. At a gathering point east of Gaza City, organizers urged protesters over loudspeakers to burst through the fence, telling them Israeli soldiers were fleeing their positions, even as they were reinforcing them. . . .<\/p>\n

A truck rolled past carrying young men chanting: \u201cTo Jerusalem we go with millions of martyrs\u201d and \u201cDeath rather than humiliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drones dropped canisters of tear gas, sending crowds fleeing. Other drones dropped leaflets that urged demonstrators to say back from the fence. . . .<\/p>\n

While some said they would abide by official calls to keep the demonstrations peaceful, others talked about their enthusiasm to break into Israel and wreak havoc.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to storm and get inside,\u201d said 23-year-old Mohammed Mansoura. When asked what he would do inside Israel, he said, \u201cWhatever is possible, to kill, throw stones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two other young men carried large knives and said they wanted to kill Jews on the other side of the fence.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military brought two extra brigades to the Gaza border in preparation for the demonstrations and added additional \u201cdefense lines\u201d in an effort to prevent any mass invasion into Israeli communities near the border.<\/p>\n

The military said at least 40,000 people protested in 13 places along the fence \u2014 more than twice as many locations as in past weeks of protest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other reports say that Hamas itself is claiming 50 of the 62 dead as Hamas militants<\/a>, that Gazans used Facebook to encourage young men<\/a> to come to the border prepared to kidnap Israelis, and that rioters damaged a border crossing<\/a> and gas line used to provide materials and heat to the people of Gaza.\u00a0 And, as a reminder, this has nothing to do with the opening of the US embassy, but rather with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel; it was merely that the US embassy\u2019s opening was timed to coincide with these celebrations.<\/p>\n

New York Times<\/em> columnist Michelle Goldberg writes<\/a>\u00a0alongside a chorus of others, that the response of the Israeli army is \u201cdisproportionate\u201d because those attempting to cross the border don\u2019t \u201cpose an imminent threat.\u201d\u00a0 But what is Israel to do?\u00a0 Wait until individual Gazans rush Israeli soldiers?\u00a0 Or chase after them if they rush into the neighboring villages?\u00a0 Is there some sort of obligation to wait for these men, who have already proclaimed their intention to kill, to start stabbing, before they can respond?\u00a0 And before you say, \u201cyes, they should no more be shot than an American police officer should shoot someone,\u201d consider that this is an attack, even if it\u2019s one we don\u2019t have the right vocabulary and concepts for.<\/p>\n

Now, as a side note, I\u2019ll admit that it does seem a bit peculiar that Israel has built a literal wall to prevent incursions from the West Bank area, but that the border with Gaza appears to consist of extensive barbed-wire fencing.\u00a0 It stands to reason, after all, that a barbed-wire fence at least gives the illusion of being breach-able, in a way that a concrete barrier wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 But, on the other hand, Hamas\u2019s response up to this point has been tunnelling, not wire-cutting.<\/p>\n

And, as a further reminder, no, I don\u2019t have an answer on the larger question, and, in particular, Gaza seems to be particularly ****ed.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:\u00a0 here\u2019s a link to share with you, \u201cThe Unfixable Tragedy of Gaza<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Can they govern themselves?\u00a0 Not likely.\u00a0 Does someone else want to govern them?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Can they just all be located?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Hence, the \u201cunfixable\u201d of the headline.<\/p>\n

Ideally, since it is cut off physically from the West Bank, Gaza would become an independent, self-sufficient nation-state of its own \u2014 a goal that Hamas claims to desire. But its small size, poverty, dysfunction, and radicalized population all make that a dim prospect for the foreseeable future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0\u00a0image: https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AGaza_Beach.jpg; By Gus at Dutch Wikipedia (Transferred from\u00a0nl.wikipedia\u00a0to Commons.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is what\u2019s going on in Gaza at the moment a \u201cprotest\u201d?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 \u00a0Protestors march around yelling chants in order for those whom they\u2019re angry at to see their anger and their numbers. Is it a \u201criot\u201d?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 That\u2019s uncontrolled chaos with the goal of causing destruction, either truly for no reason at all, or as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[519],"class_list":["post-9293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gaza"],"yoast_head":"\nThere are (literally) no words for what's going on in Gaza<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is what's going on in Gaza at the moment a "protest"?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 \u00a0Protestors march around yelling chants in order for those whom they're angry at to see their\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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