Tough love: Flowers from Gaza – first exports Israel allows in a year

The IDF has announced that it is allowing the export — apparently to Europe only — of 25,000 flowers from Gaza.

These flowers are the first exports allowed from Gaza in more than a year…

Just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Maan News Agency reported that the flower exports — carnations, it seems — were permitted “at the request of the Dutch government. According to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the flowers will leave through the Kerem Shalom cargo terminal on Friday and arrive in Europe in time for Valentine’s Day”. Last year, Ma’an noted, many flower farmers destroyed their crops in protest of Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip and their inability to ship their blooms, Maan said, while this year some 60 flower farms did not plant any crops, “having received no guarantees that their products would reach the market”. The Ma’an report can be read in full here.

Amazing that there are 25,000 flowers which survived the three-week IDF Operation Cast Lead. Flashback: On the desk of the Director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, there were two stacked cardboard trays that held small boxes of strawberries, packed in plastic boxes, with printed labels — as if ready for export to Europe. Most of the fruit has apparently already been distributed. But there were a few boxes of bright scarlet berries still left in the cartons on his desk. He was heading to Friday prayers, he said, and didn’t have time to talk to journalists.

It was the first day journalists were allowed into Gaza in nearly two months — it was Friday 23 January.

Some areas — homes. businesses, agricultural fields — were totally dug up. Others appeared unscathed. But everything was — inevitably — dirtier and dustier, with at least small debris everywhere.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, UNSG BAN Ki-Moon twice mentioned the urgent need to reopen the crossings into Gaza.

They have remained closed as Israel keeps up the pressure to conclude an agreed cease-fire to replace the two unilateral cease-fires (Israel’s, and Hamas’s) that halted Israel’s military operation just in time for the inauguration of Barack Obama as new American president.

Sources suggest that a big deal is near completion, and Hamas will be part of everything — the PA, the PLO, and a new regime at all crossings — including Rafah, where there will be a Hamas presence along with the required Palestinian Authority presence, and European Union observers.

The quiet that has generally reigned over the past week, despite provocations, suggest that things are moving well in this direction.

But, until the deal is done, the squeeze will be on, and the borders will be only open just a crack…

Otherwise, as Tony Karon and Jamil Hamad reported in Time.com today (in a piece that focuses more on Fatah and the West Bank, but it’s actually all intertwined), “the security situation is likely to see a perilous decline in the coming months” and “the Middle East could be in for a long, hot summer”.

The Time.com piece reports that “Much of the membership of Abbas’ Fatah movement, seeing themselves steadily eclipsed by Hamas, is urging a break from their president’s strategy of negotiating with the Israelis, and a return to confronting the Israeli occupation in the West Bank … Hamas could, in fact, use its majority to bring down the government of President Abbas, but it’s unlikely to do that because its own best interests lie in reconstituting a unity government with Abbas. Reports from Cairo, where Egypt is brokering truce arrangements, suggest that Hamas has accepted that forces loyal to Abbas be placed in control of the border crossings into Gaza to allow them to be reopened. And much of Fatah’s rank-and-file is pressing for a unity government … Abbas, in the eyes even of many in his own movement, gambled everything on the willingness of the U.S. to press the Israelis to deliver a credible two-state peace solution – and lost. Now, many of them are more inclined to bet on a ‘third intifadeh’. After all, in the short term at least, the status quo works for the Israelis – as long as there are no missiles raining down from Gaza. But for the Palestinians, the continued occupation in the West Bank is untenable. And it will not have been lost on Fatah activists that Hamas’ more confrontational stance has forced the Israelis, however reluctantly, to the negotiating table, as in the case of the Egypt-brokered Gaza truce negotiations … ‘Jump starting’ an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, then, or simply preventing a further deterioration of the situation, will demand a massive effort and some new thinking on the part of the Obama Administration. As far as the Palestinians are concerned, progress would, in fact, require a readiness by Obama to do something no U.S. administration since that of President George H. W. Bush has done: throw Washington’s weight behind positions at odds with those of the Israeli government. And few Palestinians are betting on Obama turning up the heat on Israel. Instead, they’re more likely to try and do so themselves.” This article can be read in full here .

Back in New York, in the meantime, the UN SG on Wednesday appealed for Palestinian unity — but within the lopsided framework of the Quartet positions and the UN Security Council resolutions adopted at U.S insistance, which say that the Palestinian Authority (only) should be bolstered, meaning that Hamas should be further marginalized — unless, of course, they cave in and submit without any quid pro quo, or anything in exchange, to Mahmoud Abbas’ persistent demand for a return to the status quo ante. That is, the situation before the mid-June 2007 Hamas rout of PAlestinian security forces in Gaza.

Exactly who is holding civilians hostage?

BAN told the Palestinian rights committee that “Some 90 per cent of Gaza’s population now require food aid … Another critical challenge is the re-opening of all Gaza crossings in order to allow full access for humanitarian goods, and eventually commercial traffic, based on the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access … Gaza needs to be brought back to a level of normality. There must be unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance, as called for by Security Council resolution 1860 (2009)”.

BAN told the Committee about his recent to Gaza: “What I saw left me shocked, but more determined than ever not only to address Gaza’s humanitarian and reconstruction needs, but also to achieve the end of the occupation that began in 1967, the establishment of a Palestinian State, to coexist alongside Israel in peace and security, and a comprehensive, just and lasting peace between Israel and all its Arab neighbours”.

In his statement, BAN weighed in on the polemic about the number of casualties that had been caused during Israel’s 22-day Operation Cast Lead, and gave these figureshe was : “This year began with the rapid escalation and conflict in Gaza, which has caused tremendous suffering and hardship. We all know the tragic results. At least 1,300 Palestinians lost their lives and some 5,300 were injured. Fourteen Israelis were killed and more than 530 were injured“.

He added that he had initiated a UN Board of Inquiry into the casualty and damage at facilities of UNRWA and UNSCO in the Gaza Strip, and said that “I have also raised with the Security Council the issue of an inquiry into the broader question of the conduct of the parties to this conflict during the hostilities“.

This statement can be read in full here on the UN website.

A day earlier, BAN spoke to journalists at a press conference at UNHQ/NY, and said that he had returned to New York after nearly a month of travels around the world “determined to work harder than ever for peace in the Middle East”.

He mentioned Sri Lanka, and then stated: “I remain no less concerned [i.e., that is, gravely] about the situation in Gaza. I saw, with my own eyes, how difficult life has become for ordinary people. These difficulties have not diminished since my visit. All but one border crossing remains closed. Nearly 1 million refugees depend on daily UN aid. Yet we are getting in supplies for only 30,000“.

He confirmed that aid taken by “Hamas militants” on two occasions in Gaza from UNRWA supplies had been returned — but, he added, “I have demanded that it not happen again”.

BAN noted that it was election day in Israel (10 February) — and said that “I understand that again today, because of the election in Israel, the crossings ?- all but one ?- are all closed. We are having serious difficulty, particularly our office in UNRWA, which has been taking care of all humanitarian assistance on a daily basis to three quarters of the total population of the Palestinians in Gaza. We are experiencing serious difficulty in getting all the materials, humanitarian assistance. So it is absolutely necessary that they open the crossings“.

BAN also spoke about the steps he had taken to establish a UN Board of Inquiry into incidents involving death and damage at UN premises in Gaza. “The Board will be headed by Ian Martin of the United Kingdom and will include legal advisers and a military expert. It should start work immediately and report to me within a month”.

In response to a question, BAN noted that this Board of Inquiry, the UN’s own independent investigation, was in addition to the Israeli inquiry — whose results he was still expecting. “When I met Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert, when I was in Israel, I urged [them] strongly to investigate and look into this matter thoroughly. He promised me that he would look into this issue and investigate and will come back to us. And I am awaiting that report … On this inquiry, I have informed both the Israeli Government and Palestinian Authority. I do not have any doubt that they will cooperate fully. I hope they will fully cooperate on the conduct of this inquiry commission. And this is their responsibility. And since Prime Minister Olmert has promised me to look into this issue himself and his Government, then I can expect smooth operation of this commission inside Gaza and with other concerned parties“.

There was then this exchange with a journalist:
“Question: In terms of reference of the Commission of Inquiry. What are you going to do with the report that you are going to get from your experts? And, also, why limit it to the UN facilities only, and not what happened in Gaza in general, considering that the United Nations presents its assistance to three quarters of the Palestinian people? Shall we expect asking Israel to pay, for example, for the damage that happened to the UNRWA premises?

Secretary-General: The report will first of all be examined by the United Nations and myself, and the future course of action will be determined, will have to be determined, by myself and the United Nations. As for a broader issue, involving investigating what has happened, in fact over the last three weeks, unacceptable and very serious things happened, involving human tragedies and casualties, destruction of properties. If there are any serious allegations of violations of international humanitarian law, then there must be, I think, a thorough investigation. But these issues should be dealt with by proper judiciary organizations, agencies, at first at the national level, and then I think we will have to see what course of action should be taken.”
This press conference can be read in full here.