What Is Not Allowed In Gaza: A Poem

BY RICHARD TILLINGHAST For The Irish Times
Richard Tillinghast is an American poet who lives in Co Tipperary. He is the author of eight books of poetry, the latest of which is Selected Poems (Dedalus Press, 2010 ), as well as several works of non-fiction.

No tinned meat is allowed, no tomato paste,

no clothing, no shoes, no notebooks.

These will be stored in our warehouses at Kerem Shalom

until further notice.

Bananas, apples, and persimmons are allowed into Gaza,

peaches and dates, and now macaroni

(after the American Senator’s visit).

These are vital for daily sustenance.

But no apricots, no plums, no grapes, no avocados, no jam.

These are luxuries and are not allowed.

Paper for textbooks is not allowed.

The terrorists could use it to print seditious material.

And why do you need textbooks

now that your schools are rubble?

No steel is allowed, no building supplies, no plastic pipe.

These the terrorists could use to launch rockets

against us.

Pumpkins and carrots you may have,

but no delicacies,

no cherries, no pomegranates, no watermelon, no onions,

no chocolate.

We have a list of three dozen items that are allowed,

but we are not obliged to disclose its contents.

This is the decision arrived at

by Colonel Levi, Colonel Rosenzweig, and Colonel Segal.

Our motto:

‘No prosperity, no development, no humanitarian crisis.’

You may fish in the Mediterranean,

but only as far as three km from shore.

Beyond that and we open fire.

It is a great pity the waters are polluted –

twenty million gallons of raw sewage dumped into the sea every day

is the figure given.

Our rockets struck the sewage treatments plants,

and at this point spare parts to repair them are not allowed.

As long as Hamas threatens us,

no cement is allowed, no glass, no medical equipment.

We are watching you from our pilotless drones

as you cook your sparse meals over open fires

and bed down

in the ruins of houses destroyed by tank shells.

And if your children can’t sleep,

missing the ones who were killed in our incursion,

or cry out in the night, or wet their beds

in your makeshift refugee tents,

or scream, feeling pain in their amputated limbs –

that’s the price you pay for harbouring terrorists.

God gave us this land.

A land without a people for a people without a land.

Belfast Protest Against The Seizure Of The Rachel Corrie By Israel

The Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness described the Israeli intervention as a "raid" and said it was a "completely unacceptable and unjustified use of force".
"The Rachel Corrie should have been allowed to proceed to Gaza without Israeli aggression," he said.

"This is an attack on an Irish flagged vessel and it demands a strong response by the Irish government."
Mary Hughes, one of the founders of the Free Gaza movement, which has been organising aid shipments, condemned Israel's actions.
She added: "We are totally outraged that they have once again gone into international waters and violently boarded the boat, and force people to go to Israel when all we wanted was to be left to get to Gaza."

Irish Aid Boat Rachel Corrie Heading For Gaza

UPDATE, June 3: Pressure is building on Israel to not intercept the Rachel Corrie. Irish nationals who are on the ship are strongly backed by their government who threatened Israel of unspecified consequences (bad) if it intercepts the ship. And today Irish are calling Irish americans to put pressure on Israel via the US government. Irish are sensitive to this issues having starved under colonial occupation.

UPDATE, June 3: The Free Gaza Movement will load the Rachel Corrie with celebrities and journalists and send it to Gaza with a support ship.

UPDATE on the boat, June 2: The Guardian is reporting that the boat, which was originally due to join the flotilla, stopped in Crete today to see whether it will be delayed to join a new flotilla or whether it is going to sail tomorrow. The Guardian gives no link to this news item, it cites Steph Oliver. We don't know who is Steph Oliver and the Guardian coverage of the whole affair is appalling and propagandist for Israel. One thing is sure, from now on, the Free Gaza movement should not publicize the timing of its boats heading for Gaza.

''We will not stop, we will go again...'' read the Twitter page of the Free Gaza Movement yesterday.

This time, the Irish government is closely monitoring Israel's intervention and warned that any attempt to intercept the boat will result in dire consequences for Israel.

We are all Irish...

Irish bishops: Israel has turned Gaza Strip into a 'large prison'

The Associated Press via Haaretz, 27-02-07

''A group of Irish Roman Catholic bishops on Tuesday called into question Ireland's commercial ties with Israel, saying Israel has made the Gaza Strip "little more than a large prison" for Palestinians.

"Where there is evidence of systematic abuse of human rights on a large scale, as in the Occupied Territories, there are questions that must be asked concerning the appropriateness of maintaining close business, cultural and commercial links with Israel," said auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Raymond Field.
Field, chairman of the Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs (ICJSA), which advises Ireland's top Catholic clerics on social issues, described travel restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza as an "injustice.""We are calling for an end to restrictions on family reunification, and an end to humiliating treatment of people at checkpoints," Field said in an ICJSA statement ahead of a meeting with Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern.Field said restrictions, which Israel says protect it against Palestinian attacks, also make it difficult for Christians to worship at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem."In effect, the communities of Bethlehem and East Jerusalem are forced to live divided by a 25 foot wall," said Field."We also intend to raise with Minister Ahern the intolerable situation that is the daily lot of the Palestinians who live in Gaza," Field said.

The ICJSA's statement also questioned the way in which the European Union handled its dealings with Israel."While we welcome cooperation between the EU and its neighbouring countries, nevertheless such cooperation should not be at the expense of a large segment of the indigenous population - in this case the Palestinians."

Occupied territories are a large lawless prison where Israel can enter any time, destructs, assassinates, demolishes, and shoots anybody it wants to shoot, and it has been doing so since the second intifada under the watch of the international community.

Read here the report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs which monitors the Israeli occupation for movements of people, casualties, land theft, restrictions, demolitions, and damage to property, for the only month of November 2006.

See here a map of Gaza access as of march 2006, the situation has been worsening since.
Here you can find resources for other reports and maps monitoring the Israeli occupation and colonisation of what is left of Palestine.

The Segregation Map in the West Bank

Monitoring Israeli colonising Activities in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza