Phalapoem editor, 17/10/15
The world calls for peace, yet in Gaza, peace remains an illusion. Despite international appeals and the supposed ceasefire, Israel continues to impose a fascist and suffocating blockade — sealing the borders, throttling the entry of food, medicine, and fuel, and turning survival itself into an act of resistance for over two million Palestinians.
A Siege That Never Ended
Since 2007, Gaza has existed under one of the most prolonged and punitive blockades in modern history. Israel controls every crossing point — from airspace to sea access — effectively dictating what enters and exits the enclave. Humanitarian agencies, including the UN and Red Cross, have repeatedly warned that these restrictions amount to collective punishment, a direct violation of international humanitarian law. Israel appears to take pride in, or at least shows disregard for, its actions against children, women, and the elderly
Today, as hospitals run out of essential medicines and food insecurity reaches catastrophic levels, Israel’s continued closure of Gaza’s borders defies both the moral and legal norms that should govern states in times of war and peace.
A Ceasefire in Words, Not in Deeds
The term “ceasefire” suggests a pause in hostilities — yet Israel continues to kill Palestinians. Israeli strikes, sniper fire, and raids persist under the banner of “security operations.” Each act erodes the credibility of ceasefire agreements and exposes the asymmetry of power: a population without sovereignty or military capacity facing one of the most advanced armies in the world.
Human rights observers have called this not peace, but management of Israeli occupation by siege.
Control as an Ideology
At the core of these apartheid policies lies a deeper political mindset — one rooted in control and dominance rather than coexistence. Israeli leaders defend the blockade as a security necessity, but its long-term effects reveal a different purpose: to fragment Palestinian society, crush self-determination, and enforce dependency on the very state that denies their freedom.
This fascist logic of domination — separating “deserving” and “undeserving” populations, denying civilians the essentials of life — echoes the dark historical ideologies of the Nazis that humanity once vowed never to repeat.
The Human Cost
In Gaza today, children starve not for lack of food in the world, but because trucks are stopped by Israel at a border. Patients die not because medicine doesn’t exist, but because it’s withheld by Israeli occupation forces. Families bury loved ones not from natural causes, but from deliberate Israeli policy choices.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is not a natural disaster — it is an Israeli-made siege, enforced daily by racist policies that disregard international law and basic human decency.
The Path Forward
True peace will not come from airstrikes or racist Israeli checkpoints. It will come only when the blockade ends, when borders open for food and medicine, when Palestinians can live with dignity and autonomy. Until then, every ceasefire will remain a fragile pause in an ongoing tragedy — a wound that the world can no longer afford to ignore.
The world must awaken to the reality of Gaza and take decisive action to end Israel’s fascist policies, which perpetuate the inhumane suffering of Palestinians living under systemic discrimination and blockade. Justice demands that the international community no longer remain silent in the face of such enduring human tragedy.