Gaza Headline Absurdly Inaccurate

Letter to the Editor, July 19, 2014

Re: Palestinians flee Gaza as ceasefire pleas fail

This headline on the front page of the Star is absurdly inaccurate. The people of Gaza, the majority of whom are already refugees and 60 per cent of whom are children, have nowhere to flee.

Living in what some have described as the world’s largest open air prison, in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, they are already suffering from the effects of a longstanding blockade that has resulted in precarious water and food supplies, dangerously inadequate sewage treatment, and a 75 per cent poverty rate. The health care situation is in total crisis, made immeasurably worse by Israel’s bombing of clinics and other civilian infrastructure.

Why have hospitals, schools, homes and water treatment facilities been targeted? Why were spices, some foods and other necessities part of the blockade?

Targeting civilians is always wrong. We speak out against Hamas when it does so, but our Canadian government applauds the Israeli government when it does so on a much greater scale.

As human beings, as Canadians, as a Palestinian and Jew, we condemn this horrific collective punishment.

Miriam Garfinkle and Reem Abdul Qadir