REPORTER: David O’Shea
Darwish Elasi has been fishing the waters of the Mediterranean his whole life.
DARWISH ELASI, (Translation): Ask me to make a net and fishing gear, and I can. Ask me to build a boat, ask me the names of fish, I know that. But other than that, forget it. I know nothing. Not only me, my father and grandfather had nothing whatsoever to do with politics. Nothing whatsoever. Nets and fish, that is all.
Darwish has taken my fixer, Raed, and I fishing just a few hundred metres offshore. It may look idyllic here, but for the past five months the Israeli navy has blocked the fishermen's access to the open sea. For all his efforts, Darwish only catches a couple of crabs and two prawns.
DARWISH ELASI, (Translation): There as you can see, I have workers to pay and petrol costs but that is all there is, not enough for anything.
But if we go out any further we risk being shot at by the Israeli navy. Darwish tells me that one fisherman was killed just two weeks ago in a hail of bullets.
DARWISH ELASI, (Translation): His name was Hani Najjar. God knows if it was intentional or if it just happened. The bullet went in his eye and exited out the back.
Israel says the blockade is to stop Corporal Gilad Shalit - the soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants in June - from being smuggled out and to stop arms being smuggled in.
MIRI EISEN, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: There is no question that they are trying to smuggle in weapons all the time and the land border between Egypt and the Palestinian Authority is the main smuggling route. The reason that they don't smuggle in from the sea is because we, in that sense, try to stop it and I will remind you they've tried to do so, both successfully and unsuccessfully, in the past.
DARWISH ELASI, (Translation): You can see us fishermen, we are poor, we just want to make a living, we know nothing about politics, Shalit or anything. All we want is to feed our families and raise our kids. That is what a fisherman knows and nothing else. All fishermen are just like fish, deny them access to water and they will die.
Darwish is forced to buy fish from another fisherman in order to feed his family on the last day of the holy month of Ramadan. His wife says life in Gaza has never been this bad.
DARWISH’S WIFE, (Translation): Because my kids have grown, it was the hardest Ramadan ever. Our situation was very difficult. We had nothing… I lost half my weight from worry.
The blockade has devastated the fishing industry and the tens of thousands of people who depend on it for their survival. The long siege and constant artillery attacks have also left infrastructure in tatters. Ever since Israel bombed Gaza's power station in June, the main sewerage plant here has been filling up, unable to pump away the waste. Gazans are concerned that soon they could literally end up wading in it.
DR NABIL SHA’ATH, FORMER PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: This is a horrible state of affairs. I don't think there is anyplace else in the world today which has been subjected to the kind of siege and torment that we have been subjected to here in Palestine in general but in Gaza in particular. This is a total war siege situation where very little is allowed, there's a trickle, to just keep us one little step away from total starvation.
Almost a million Gazans survive on handouts either from the United Nations or from a variety of charities like Al Ribat. But even here, they have trouble helping those in need when there's no electricity. Ever since the power station was bombed, Al Ribat's coordinator, Suleiman Abu Husa, has spent a lot of his time in the dark.
SULEIMAN ABU HUSA, (Translation): It’s so sad that this awful economic blockade by the Israelis and Americans against the Hamas government has caused a lot of harm to the work of the institutions, or rather it has destroyed them.
When the light comes on, I meet the poorest of the poor. On the eve of the Islamic feast of Eid Al Fitr, this old lady says there's nothing to celebrate.
OLD LADY, (Translation): Are we celebrating? Don’t we need money to celebrate and to eat? What Eid? There is no Eid. It is a sad Eid.
She'll only be eating this week thanks to handouts from friendly governments in the region, including Iran and Syria. The West condemns them as part of the so-called 'axis of evil'. But according to Al Ribat's coordinator, Suleiman Abu Husa, their support is literally keeping Palestinians alive.
SULEIMAN ABU HUSA, (Translation): So Iran and Syria specifically support terrorism. Right? That is an important issue. To us, the governments of Iran and Syria and all the Arab governments but especially Iran and Syria, they offer most support and services to the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank. The people of Iran and Syria offer magnificent services at all levels. Syria offers services related to students and Iran offers treatment abroad for the wounded and they also provide food parcels.
Wasfiyah Hasunah is collecting a coupon to get her food parcel. Her husband is an engineer who used to work in Libya, but has now been unemployed for six years. These days, they survive on charity.
WASFIYAH HASUNAH, (Translation): Our circumstances are difficult so I do feel ashamed because of all that. It alleviates our suffering a little bit.
At the Al Ribat depot, she uses her voucher to collect her rations. It's enough food to feed her family for 10 days. Each person is brought here to collect their package on their own for fear a crowd could mob the depot. I travel with her back to the crowded refugee camp that has been home to her family since 1948. What started out as tents on the beach has now become a sprawling suburb of Gaza City. Wasfiyah lives in this tiny house with her husband and eight children.
WASFIYAH HASUNAH, (Translation): Open the window Muhammed, see, it’s dripping? It is full of water. Empty it, and the other one too. It’s dripping everywhere. It is dripping everywhere, even here. Everywhere, all over the room. See the mattresses? They are soaking wet. Where can I put them to dry, I really don’t know.
REPORTER: Do you feel sorry for the people there? I mean surely the vast majority of the Palestinians in Gaza are not militants, and yet they're suffering for those that are?
MIRI EISEN: David, I am a mother, I have three kids, and when I look at those pictures, I feel very strongly for them. It's definitely a tragedy and the tragedy of the Palestinian leadership that allows their people - instead of building jobs instead of having schools - all they do is fire rockets, all they do is plan violence, and it's coming from the top.
Today, Gaza seems more bleak than ever and not just because of the constant pressure from Israel. There are grave fears that clashes between Fatah and Hamas militants could reoccur at any moment. A photographer and aid worker have just been kidnapped and then released. Eid al Fitr is the biggest event in the Muslim calendar. Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Haniyah arrives to address the faithful and lead the prayers. He's the leader of a democratically elected government. But with all funds blocked because of its refusal to recognise Israel, his ministers have been reduced to carrying in suitcases of cash from sympathetic governments. But today, Haniya vows that Hamas will not back down.
ISMAEL HANIYAH, HAMAS PRIME MINISTER (Translation): It is the first siege we do not surrender to, give in to, or yield to its pressure. It is the first siege where we keep our heads high, where our victory resonates in the sky. The first siege where people unite and resort to God, to Whom Perfection and Majesty are ascribed. It is the first siege where we tell the Americans “No, a thousand times, to ceding Palestine or forsaking our rights and principles.”
MIRI EISEN: They don't have to bend back and say, "We love Israel." That's not the expectation. But can he actually say that terrorism is a bad thing? OK, that's too much for him. Can he actually say, "I recognise that there is such a thing as the state of Israel even if I don't like them." Whoa, there are different things they can do, small things. They can stop the rockets firing into Israel. It would bring about a world of difference.
But even one of the chief negotiators of the Oslo accords says that recognition of Israel got the Palestinians nowhere.
DR NABIL SHA’ATH: And even when President Arafat recognised the Israeli state and respected the agreements that he signed with that state and condemned every violent act against Israel and stopped all confrontations with Israel on every side. Even then, the Israelis keep at their siege of this part of the world. Even then, the Israelis violated all the agreements they signed with us.
ISMAEL HANIYAH: The world deals with our cause as if it’s just about money going to the Palestinian people on a monthly basis, but its dirty money. Politically grubby. Our cause is not merely about money, it is about being liberated from the occupation. It has pillars, Jerusalem, the land, the state, the borders, the hostages, the refugees. That is what our people have to say.
REPORTER: Isn't it ironic though that the world demanded democratic elections down in the Palestinian Territories and when the results came through, nobody seemed to like the results? It's ironic.
MIRI EISEN: You know, David, I think that there's a discrepancy in the way we understand things. There are democratic elections, but we are not talking about a democracy. And the fact that - I commend those elections. They went out and they voted, what they voted in and what they chose, but right now you don't have a democracy there. So let's not talk about the democracy of Palestinian Authority even if they did have democratic elections.
Palestinians know that unless their government recognises Israel, they face the prospect of many more years of pain and suffering. Yet incredibly, people I spoke to here seemed prepared to pay that price.
MAN: Because he express our opinions.
MAN 2: Our feelings and opinions. Feelings. They want him to recognise Israel. If he recognises Israel, the world will give him thousands of the money that was coming here. Thousands times of the money or thousand amounts of money. But he will not do this and we don't want him to do this.
REPORTER: You don't want the money for that... that's too big a sacrifice, is it?
MAN 2: We will sacrifice for our country. We will not sell our country for little dollars. No-one will die of hunger, but we will die if we sell our country.
After the prayers ended, just a few kilometres away, Israeli soldiers kill seven militants, including two senior leaders. The next day, the funeral brings together all of the militant factions. Only a few months ago, they were shooting it out on the streets. But it seems the Israeli attacks are uniting Palestinians. The mourners march through Beit Hanoun. After I left Gaza, this town was besieged by the Israeli army for six days. Nearly 60 Palestinians would be killed. Israel says the loss of life in this conflict is unfortunate, but the ball is squarely in the Palestinian court.
MIRI EISEN: In September 2005, Israel gave the Palestinians all of the Gaza Strip - every single inch. The people in the Gaza Strip chose to fire out rockets. And I am say it may not have been every single person there - it wasn't every John, Tom and Harry, which there would be Ahmed and Fuad and Hajbi or whatever, but standing here and taking that choice by using the violence as a tool by trying to say, "We are not going to succumb." "What we are not going to do is to continue violence." They made this choice. They can choose other. Now, I can't do that instead of them. Israel can't solve that.
At 6am on the 8th of November, 10 days after I left the Gaza Strip, there was a bloodbath. Israeli tanks fired shells into several houses in Beit Hanoun. Most of the 19 mainly women and children killed were asleep when their homes were hit. One of the houses belonged to my translator and driver Raed al-Atamna. A friend of Raed's filmed him just hours after the missiles hit.
RAED al – ATAMNA, FIXER: I don't know. Just I go to see if anybody still alive. All of them is dead, all of them. I did not see anybody still alive. All of them is dead. That's it. I don't know...
Raed was not home at the time, but 17 of the dead were members of his extended family. Israel says it was a technical error. The Palestinians are calling it a massacre.
RAED al – ATAMNA: I lived here, you see. This is one, this two, this is three, this four. Over there my house. This one, do you see this window? Do you see it? This is my house. This is my family's house...
I knew Raed as a moderate. He had often worked as a guide for Israeli journalists. But after this terrible event, he was saying things I had never heard him say.
RAED al – ATAMNA: I hate these people. I hate America. I hate everybody that given to attack civilians, to attack people's houses, sleeping. You think these people want peace? Which peace, which peace with these people? Which peace with Nazis? You want peace with Nazis? No any peace with Nazi. No any peace with these people - nothing. Nothing! Nothing with these people. How I want to forget? 18, 18 dead! How I forget 18? How I forget 18? Most of them kids and women and old people. How - 18 years, 16 years, 17 years, 8 months, 1.5 months, how I forget that? No way, no way. No way to forget anybody. No way.
GEORGE NEGUS: An investigation by the Israeli Defense Forces into the massacre Beit Hanoun has been concluded, it found the radar of the artillery that fired the shell had a technical problem. Since the military assult began back in June, two Israeli civilians have died in Palestinian rocket attacks with hundreds of Palestinians killed, many of them civilians.
Reporter/Camera:
DAVID O’SHEA
Editor:
WAYNE LOVE
Executive Producer:
MIKE CAREY
Darwish Elasi has been fishing the waters of the Mediterranean his whole life.
DARWISH ELASI, (Translation): Ask me to make a net and fishing gear, and I can. Ask me to build a boat, ask me the names of fish, I know that. But other than that, forget it. I know nothing. Not only me, my father and grandfather had nothing whatsoever to do with politics. Nothing whatsoever. Nets and fish, that is all.
Darwish has taken my fixer, Raed, and I fishing just a few hundred metres offshore. It may look idyllic here, but for the past five months the Israeli navy has blocked the fishermen's access to the open sea. For all his efforts, Darwish only catches a couple of crabs and two prawns.
DARWISH ELASI, (Translation): There as you can see, I have workers to pay and petrol costs but that is all there is, not enough for anything.
But if we go out any further we risk being shot at by the Israeli navy. Darwish tells me that one fisherman was killed just two weeks ago in a hail of bullets.
DARWISH ELASI, (Translation): His name was Hani Najjar. God knows if it was intentional or if it just happened. The bullet went in his eye and exited out the back.
Israel says the blockade is to stop Corporal Gilad Shalit - the soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants in June - from being smuggled out and to stop arms being smuggled in.
MIRI EISEN, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: There is no question that they are trying to smuggle in weapons all the time and the land border between Egypt and the Palestinian Authority is the main smuggling route. The reason that they don't smuggle in from the sea is because we, in that sense, try to stop it and I will remind you they've tried to do so, both successfully and unsuccessfully, in the past.
DARWISH ELASI, (Translation): You can see us fishermen, we are poor, we just want to make a living, we know nothing about politics, Shalit or anything. All we want is to feed our families and raise our kids. That is what a fisherman knows and nothing else. All fishermen are just like fish, deny them access to water and they will die.
Darwish is forced to buy fish from another fisherman in order to feed his family on the last day of the holy month of Ramadan. His wife says life in Gaza has never been this bad.
DARWISH’S WIFE, (Translation): Because my kids have grown, it was the hardest Ramadan ever. Our situation was very difficult. We had nothing… I lost half my weight from worry.
The blockade has devastated the fishing industry and the tens of thousands of people who depend on it for their survival. The long siege and constant artillery attacks have also left infrastructure in tatters. Ever since Israel bombed Gaza's power station in June, the main sewerage plant here has been filling up, unable to pump away the waste. Gazans are concerned that soon they could literally end up wading in it.
DR NABIL SHA’ATH, FORMER PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: This is a horrible state of affairs. I don't think there is anyplace else in the world today which has been subjected to the kind of siege and torment that we have been subjected to here in Palestine in general but in Gaza in particular. This is a total war siege situation where very little is allowed, there's a trickle, to just keep us one little step away from total starvation.
Almost a million Gazans survive on handouts either from the United Nations or from a variety of charities like Al Ribat. But even here, they have trouble helping those in need when there's no electricity. Ever since the power station was bombed, Al Ribat's coordinator, Suleiman Abu Husa, has spent a lot of his time in the dark.
SULEIMAN ABU HUSA, (Translation): It’s so sad that this awful economic blockade by the Israelis and Americans against the Hamas government has caused a lot of harm to the work of the institutions, or rather it has destroyed them.
When the light comes on, I meet the poorest of the poor. On the eve of the Islamic feast of Eid Al Fitr, this old lady says there's nothing to celebrate.
OLD LADY, (Translation): Are we celebrating? Don’t we need money to celebrate and to eat? What Eid? There is no Eid. It is a sad Eid.
She'll only be eating this week thanks to handouts from friendly governments in the region, including Iran and Syria. The West condemns them as part of the so-called 'axis of evil'. But according to Al Ribat's coordinator, Suleiman Abu Husa, their support is literally keeping Palestinians alive.
SULEIMAN ABU HUSA, (Translation): So Iran and Syria specifically support terrorism. Right? That is an important issue. To us, the governments of Iran and Syria and all the Arab governments but especially Iran and Syria, they offer most support and services to the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank. The people of Iran and Syria offer magnificent services at all levels. Syria offers services related to students and Iran offers treatment abroad for the wounded and they also provide food parcels.
Wasfiyah Hasunah is collecting a coupon to get her food parcel. Her husband is an engineer who used to work in Libya, but has now been unemployed for six years. These days, they survive on charity.
WASFIYAH HASUNAH, (Translation): Our circumstances are difficult so I do feel ashamed because of all that. It alleviates our suffering a little bit.
At the Al Ribat depot, she uses her voucher to collect her rations. It's enough food to feed her family for 10 days. Each person is brought here to collect their package on their own for fear a crowd could mob the depot. I travel with her back to the crowded refugee camp that has been home to her family since 1948. What started out as tents on the beach has now become a sprawling suburb of Gaza City. Wasfiyah lives in this tiny house with her husband and eight children.
WASFIYAH HASUNAH, (Translation): Open the window Muhammed, see, it’s dripping? It is full of water. Empty it, and the other one too. It’s dripping everywhere. It is dripping everywhere, even here. Everywhere, all over the room. See the mattresses? They are soaking wet. Where can I put them to dry, I really don’t know.
REPORTER: Do you feel sorry for the people there? I mean surely the vast majority of the Palestinians in Gaza are not militants, and yet they're suffering for those that are?
MIRI EISEN: David, I am a mother, I have three kids, and when I look at those pictures, I feel very strongly for them. It's definitely a tragedy and the tragedy of the Palestinian leadership that allows their people - instead of building jobs instead of having schools - all they do is fire rockets, all they do is plan violence, and it's coming from the top.
Today, Gaza seems more bleak than ever and not just because of the constant pressure from Israel. There are grave fears that clashes between Fatah and Hamas militants could reoccur at any moment. A photographer and aid worker have just been kidnapped and then released. Eid al Fitr is the biggest event in the Muslim calendar. Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Haniyah arrives to address the faithful and lead the prayers. He's the leader of a democratically elected government. But with all funds blocked because of its refusal to recognise Israel, his ministers have been reduced to carrying in suitcases of cash from sympathetic governments. But today, Haniya vows that Hamas will not back down.
ISMAEL HANIYAH, HAMAS PRIME MINISTER (Translation): It is the first siege we do not surrender to, give in to, or yield to its pressure. It is the first siege where we keep our heads high, where our victory resonates in the sky. The first siege where people unite and resort to God, to Whom Perfection and Majesty are ascribed. It is the first siege where we tell the Americans “No, a thousand times, to ceding Palestine or forsaking our rights and principles.”
MIRI EISEN: They don't have to bend back and say, "We love Israel." That's not the expectation. But can he actually say that terrorism is a bad thing? OK, that's too much for him. Can he actually say, "I recognise that there is such a thing as the state of Israel even if I don't like them." Whoa, there are different things they can do, small things. They can stop the rockets firing into Israel. It would bring about a world of difference.
But even one of the chief negotiators of the Oslo accords says that recognition of Israel got the Palestinians nowhere.
DR NABIL SHA’ATH: And even when President Arafat recognised the Israeli state and respected the agreements that he signed with that state and condemned every violent act against Israel and stopped all confrontations with Israel on every side. Even then, the Israelis keep at their siege of this part of the world. Even then, the Israelis violated all the agreements they signed with us.
ISMAEL HANIYAH: The world deals with our cause as if it’s just about money going to the Palestinian people on a monthly basis, but its dirty money. Politically grubby. Our cause is not merely about money, it is about being liberated from the occupation. It has pillars, Jerusalem, the land, the state, the borders, the hostages, the refugees. That is what our people have to say.
REPORTER: Isn't it ironic though that the world demanded democratic elections down in the Palestinian Territories and when the results came through, nobody seemed to like the results? It's ironic.
MIRI EISEN: You know, David, I think that there's a discrepancy in the way we understand things. There are democratic elections, but we are not talking about a democracy. And the fact that - I commend those elections. They went out and they voted, what they voted in and what they chose, but right now you don't have a democracy there. So let's not talk about the democracy of Palestinian Authority even if they did have democratic elections.
Palestinians know that unless their government recognises Israel, they face the prospect of many more years of pain and suffering. Yet incredibly, people I spoke to here seemed prepared to pay that price.
MAN: Because he express our opinions.
MAN 2: Our feelings and opinions. Feelings. They want him to recognise Israel. If he recognises Israel, the world will give him thousands of the money that was coming here. Thousands times of the money or thousand amounts of money. But he will not do this and we don't want him to do this.
REPORTER: You don't want the money for that... that's too big a sacrifice, is it?
MAN 2: We will sacrifice for our country. We will not sell our country for little dollars. No-one will die of hunger, but we will die if we sell our country.
After the prayers ended, just a few kilometres away, Israeli soldiers kill seven militants, including two senior leaders. The next day, the funeral brings together all of the militant factions. Only a few months ago, they were shooting it out on the streets. But it seems the Israeli attacks are uniting Palestinians. The mourners march through Beit Hanoun. After I left Gaza, this town was besieged by the Israeli army for six days. Nearly 60 Palestinians would be killed. Israel says the loss of life in this conflict is unfortunate, but the ball is squarely in the Palestinian court.
MIRI EISEN: In September 2005, Israel gave the Palestinians all of the Gaza Strip - every single inch. The people in the Gaza Strip chose to fire out rockets. And I am say it may not have been every single person there - it wasn't every John, Tom and Harry, which there would be Ahmed and Fuad and Hajbi or whatever, but standing here and taking that choice by using the violence as a tool by trying to say, "We are not going to succumb." "What we are not going to do is to continue violence." They made this choice. They can choose other. Now, I can't do that instead of them. Israel can't solve that.
At 6am on the 8th of November, 10 days after I left the Gaza Strip, there was a bloodbath. Israeli tanks fired shells into several houses in Beit Hanoun. Most of the 19 mainly women and children killed were asleep when their homes were hit. One of the houses belonged to my translator and driver Raed al-Atamna. A friend of Raed's filmed him just hours after the missiles hit.
RAED al – ATAMNA, FIXER: I don't know. Just I go to see if anybody still alive. All of them is dead, all of them. I did not see anybody still alive. All of them is dead. That's it. I don't know...
Raed was not home at the time, but 17 of the dead were members of his extended family. Israel says it was a technical error. The Palestinians are calling it a massacre.
RAED al – ATAMNA: I lived here, you see. This is one, this two, this is three, this four. Over there my house. This one, do you see this window? Do you see it? This is my house. This is my family's house...
I knew Raed as a moderate. He had often worked as a guide for Israeli journalists. But after this terrible event, he was saying things I had never heard him say.
RAED al – ATAMNA: I hate these people. I hate America. I hate everybody that given to attack civilians, to attack people's houses, sleeping. You think these people want peace? Which peace, which peace with these people? Which peace with Nazis? You want peace with Nazis? No any peace with Nazi. No any peace with these people - nothing. Nothing! Nothing with these people. How I want to forget? 18, 18 dead! How I forget 18? How I forget 18? Most of them kids and women and old people. How - 18 years, 16 years, 17 years, 8 months, 1.5 months, how I forget that? No way, no way. No way to forget anybody. No way.
GEORGE NEGUS: An investigation by the Israeli Defense Forces into the massacre Beit Hanoun has been concluded, it found the radar of the artillery that fired the shell had a technical problem. Since the military assult began back in June, two Israeli civilians have died in Palestinian rocket attacks with hundreds of Palestinians killed, many of them civilians.
Reporter/Camera:
DAVID O’SHEA
Editor:
WAYNE LOVE
Executive Producer:
MIKE CAREY