What Occupation, Toronto4Palestine?
What Occupation, Toronto4Palestine?
Israel pulled out of Gaza 19 years ago
By 22 September 2005, Israel's withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip to the 1967 Green Line, and the eviction of the four settlements in Samaria, was completed. — Israeli Embassies Website
Following the Intifada of the early 2000s, the Israeli government began to face high costs of defending Jewish settlers in Gaza. In 2005 Israel decided to bulldoze Jewish settlements and completely withdraw from Gaza, handing over security to the Palestinian Authority. Israel maintained responsibility for electricity and water, as well for maintaining airspace and maritime boundaries.
According to the Begin-Sadat Institute for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, during peacetime Israel supplies 50% of Gaza’s electricity and 10% of its water. Reservoirs contain additional water sources, however these sources do not meet the standards for human consumption, the water can only be used for irrigation. The Palestinian Authority received funding from the EU to upgrade Gaza’s water infrastructure, however Hamas dug up sections of water pipes to make homemade rockets with which to attack Israel—7 times in 18 years Hamas has waged major military campaigns upon Israel. Gaza has a diesel powered electricity station that provides 25% of of Gaza’s power. The rest of the electricity is generated through a wide array of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and private diesel generators in residential areas, government buildings, and hospitals. (BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2219, October 16, 2023). During the day PV panels provide electricity and at night private generators take their place.
Nonetheless, electrical infrastructure remains poor, largely due to Hamas’s longstanding unwillingness to devote funds it received from the international community for this purpose, with the specific objective of repairing damage sustained during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. The IDF reported in 2018 that Hamas rule had plunged Gaza’s people into suffering and hardship — the slowdown of reconstruction placed more economic pressure on Gazans, who suffered from a 46% unemployment rate. Reports of massive amounts of construction supplies earmarked for reconstruction never making it to construction companies became commonplace. Can you guess where those supplies ended up, dear reader? If you guessed a one word answer that begins with “t” and rhymes with funnel, you win the internet for 5 minutes!
In early 2017 Gaza’s power station ran out of fuel, then in June 2017 the Palestinian Authority (PA) stopped paying for electricity and so the grid plunged to 40%, leaving Gazans with about 5 hours of electricity per day. Leaving crucial pieces of infrastructure such as sewage plants unpowered for swaths of time added water pollution to an already precarious situation for Gazans. Payments resumed in January 2018 after negotiations with the PA. Hamas devoted 55% of its 2016 budget to military and 5% to investments in Gaza infrastructure + support. Vast amounts of humanitarian aid destined for Gazans never make past their Hamas gatekeepers. Israel documented this 7 years ago. Imagine how much worst the situation on the ground has become now, particularly after 7/10?
But wait, there’s more. Because of course there is, it’s Hamas, remember?
In 2016, Hamas implemented a 20% [tax] increase on hundreds of imported goods. According to Israeli figures, Hamas collects $14 [tax] for each electrical appliance, $27 [taxes] for each ton of fruit, and $1.5 [taxes] for every pack of cigarettes. As a result, merchants are forced to raise the prices of their products, including the most basic necessities such as food and medicine. In addition to the taxes on essential goods, Hamas began imposing a "solidarity tax" in 2015. This tax was touted as a mechanism to support the poor in Gaza but the money has actually been used mainly to pay the salaries of Hamas workers and militants. (Hamas Exploitation of Humanitarian Aid, IDF Editorial Team, 25.01.2018)
So, let’s recap all the ways Israel did not cause the present hardship of the Gazan people, who are only being occupied by Israel in an alternative, i.e. imagined, Toronto4Palestine-pseudoreality and not in real life.1
Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2005.
Israel pulled out of Gaza, dismantled all settlements and handed security over to Hamas/PA.
Hamas took over the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority (PA) in June 2007.
Hamas began to divert construction supplies earmarked for Gaza reconstruction to its construction of its terror tunnels.
Hamas diverted water pipes donated by the internal community to supplies for homemade rocket arsenal weapons.
Hamas used civilian buildings like schools and hospitals and other important places as military HQ, rendering them IDF targets and further contributing to the destruction of Gazan infrastructure.
Hamas added more taxes, it squeezes its people to fund the corrupt pigs at the top.
Hamas has infiltrated humanitarian aid organisations locally. These organisations funnel money to Hamas political and military activity. They also supported Hamas leaders and by assisting them in building their homes when the IDF bombed them in targeted attacks.
Read: on the ground humanitarian aid organisations, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) | World Vision | Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), have worked to actively thwart counterterrorist activities and participate in stealing aid + supplies + food + other necessities from the Gazan people.
Terrorism + political activity suck up the majority of funds managed by Hamas and the PA, who have no formal funding arrangement or have broken all preexisting funding arrangements that exist to serve the Palestinian people (you know, like the funding agreement between the federal government and the provinces and municipalities which keeps Canada running).
In June 2016, Hamas operative Muhammed Halabi, who was working in the Christian aid organization World Vision, was accused of diverting funds to Hamas. The case against him states that Hamas recruited Halabi in 2004. He succeeded in transferring $7.2 million annually, amounting to approximately $36 million total to Hamas' military wing and accounting for about 60% of World Vision's Gaza resources. (Source: ibid)
In July 2016, it was revealed that a Hamas operative had infiltrated the UN Development Agency (UNDP), the agency responsible for rebuilding the homes of residents whose houses had been destroyed. In reality, the operative ensured that Hamas commanders received priority for such rebuilding projects. He also used the organization's funds to aid in the building of a small seaport for Hamas' military wing and to install weapons stores in buildings throughout Gaza. (Source: ibid)
In March 2017, Muhammed Faruq Sha'ban Murtaja, who was serving as the Gaza branch manager of the Turkish humanitarian agency Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), was arrested on charges of diverting money to Hamas. In his confession, he admitted to exploiting his high-ranking position in the organization in a number of incidents. Under Murtaja's instruction, $13 million donated for the construction of 20 new apartment buildings was used exclusively to build housing for Hamas operatives. (Source: ibid)
[Murtaja] was also responsible for designating a fabricated list of poor Palestinians and students as aid recipients as a cover for three million dollars that he transferred to Hamas operatives. In another incident, he collected four million dollars for a mass wedding for poor couples in Gaza, when in reality the event was for Hamas members only. In total, Murtaja managed to divert nearly $23 million in aid money to Hamas members and families of terrorists. (Source: ibid)
Approximately two thirds of the money Hamas raises from international sources is spent on military buildup. Of its total budget, 55% goes to the military wing, a significant increase from 15% in 2014. Meanwhile, Hamas' civil affairs budget has decreased by nearly 50% in that same period. Hamas' financial reports further reveal that tens of millions of dollars designated for rebuilding Gaza were actually being invested in real estate projects in Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Dubai. (Source: ibid)
On visiting the official website of the Government of Palestine one meets a headline with the words the Israeli occupation, an indication of the mindset that this faction of Arabs see Jews as their eternal scapegoat.
Iran, Qatar, Lebanon and Turkey are all home to senior leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization. While keeping their distance from the ongoing war, they manage budgets, direct terrorist activities and incite violence among the international public. (Pulling the Strings: Senior Hamas Leaders Who Direct Terrorism in Gaza Without Living in It, IDF, 7.11.2023)
Hamas has instigated 7 military conflicts with Israel since taking over Gaza in 2006.
In August 2020 Hamas committed environmental terrorism via balloon arson, setting fire to thousands of acres of Israeli land, including forests, destroying crops, machinery, and livelihoods.
DO ISRAELI FORESTS MATTER TO ENVIRONMENTALISTS IN NORTH AMERICA, OR NAH?
Perhaps Dr Natalie Knight and the cult of enviro-colonials who support Hamas as decolonial resistance could explain why they feel the need to protect the environment by destroying the AB tar sands industry and yet they feel its okay to trash the environment to promote “Palestinian resistance”, a thing that has laid fiery siege to vast swaths of the environment and ecology in Israel Judea/Samaria and Gaza, including wildlife and forests? Maybe I’m not smart enough to grasp the logic that pipelines are bad for forests and Hamas exploding balloons dropped onto forests are not bad for forests— you know, without a fabulous PhD degree like Dr. Knight has, perhaps that’s the problem?
So, once again, I will ask the question. Of what occupation in Gaza does Toronto4Palestine speak? I see and have seen only HamasNazis occupying the Palestinian territories.
HamasNazism dominates Gaza —Hamas operates an IslamoNazi regime, a genocidal regime—whose leaders have publicly expressed the wish for as many Palestinians as possible to meet a martyrdom fate, i.e. death. Hamas occupies Gaza. The IDF launched a military operation to rescue the hostages Hamas kidnapped and holds in inhumane conditions. Hamas refuses to return the hostages. Hamas or Islamic Resistance has violated ceasefire agreements. Hamas continues to prolong the war, whilst its leaders continue to exploit and pilfer from the Palestinian. It sounds like Toronto4Palestine has confused Israeli rescue of hostages + retaliation for the October 7th invasion and pogrom with genocide and colonial occupation.
Imagine committing the worse progrom of Jews since the NSDAP atrocities of the 1940s in Europe, and then pretending you’re the target of genocide when the Jews rise up to defend themselves and rescue their hostages.
Imagine lying and saying that an arrest of military-aged Palestinian men in a military zone of Gaza is the Israelis taking Palestinians hostage.
Imagine being so delusional you think an arrest in a military war zone equals a kidnapping.
The mind who creates these demented perceptions clearly has a derangement and we should regard the group of individuals who expresses these distortions as well as the true believers—a vocal and obnoxious and mental unstable minority to be sure—as unreliable narrators.
Maybe this is a really trippy episode of Sliders and Toronto4Palestine landed on the wrong timeline and y’all need to figure out how to get back to your own timeline, the one where Israel occupies Gaza, cuz this reality that we are presently in, is NOT it. When Israel pulled out in 2005, it went back to the green line, 1967 borders.