Who -- or What -- Occupies Gaza?

June 7, 2021 By Lev Tsitrin

The article of faith that unites all who condemn Israel's response to Hamas rockets in the latest escalation with Gaza, from the most rabid Islamists to the hyper sophisticated (or so they think) pundits from the New York Times and dwellers of the ivory tower of academia, is captured by a single word "occupation." We keep hearing from them that Gaza is occupied, that Gaza is an open-air prison, that Gaza is a "penal colony." Gazans are oppressed, the theory goes, and Israel is the oppressor.

But let's take a closer look at the occupation of Gaza: like so much else, the term "occupation" is very relative. While under occupation, Gaza's rulers -- Hamas -- managed to amass huge military infrastructure, complete with weapons manufacturies, with thousands of trained soldiers, with a vast network of underground tunnels hundreds of miles long which the Israelis dubbed "the metro" to allow for undetected movement of weaponry and soldiers, with a huge arsenal of rockets, and even with a navy commando unit. Hamas' police control the day-to-life of Gazans. It levies taxes and pays salaries to its followers.

Given that the "occupiers" are so lenient as to let the locals do what they want, isn't it unreasonable to ask whether the "occupation" only allows militarism to thrive? Are peaceful activities forbidden? Would the "occupation" let Gazans build houses, toil the land, educate their children if they wanted to?

Clearly, it allows that, too, as long as Gazans are willing. In fact, there are some who argue that for all practical purposes, there is no occupation at all. Gaza is self-ruled. Gaza's strategic choice of its policies -- to funnel taxes, international aid, and materiel like concrete and pipes towards military use, to pay its fighters, and to build rockets and tunnels -- is determined by Gaza's Hamas rulers. That Gaza has its own rulers is highly atypical of an occupation -- the "occupation," by any definition, being the rule by an external power, which clearly does not apply in the case of Gaza, making the whole idea that it is "occupied" suspect -- to say the least. But this is an aside. Gazans say that they are occupied, so let's take their word for it. Yet given that Gazans follow their own policies and chart their own destiny, and that it is not the Israelis who occupy Gaza, since they pulled out fifteen years ago (and besides, if Israelis occupied Gaza, none of its military development that threatens Israel would have happened), who, or what is that "occupier"?.........To Read More....