Panelists examined the claim that Gaza is the “world’s largest prison” at an event hosted by the Arab Students Association that tackled a variety of issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a packed Hamilton 702, students and faculty gathered to hear experts from Columbia’s Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department and other institutions discuss the idea of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The first event organized by the ASA this semester featured MEALAC professor Rashid Khalidi, professor Idith Zertal of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and Andrew Whitler, director of the representative office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Barnard anthropology professor Nadia Abu El-Haj moderated.
Whitler called the blockade—which was imposed on Gaza by Israel with the intent of preventing rocket fire into civilian territory—“immoral, illegal, and counterproductive.” He spent most of his time on U.N. humanitarian efforts, citing that such programs manage to feed 75 percent of the Gazan population while meeting only 60 percent of their caloric requirements.
To further communicate the impact that the conflict has on the lives of Palestinian casualties, Whitler showed a short documentary about a young Palestinian girl caught in Israeli crossfire and wounded in the head in 2003.
Khalidi approached the problem from another perspective. In his view, the Palestinian leadership is responsible for the crisis, yet he nonetheless called on the United States and the international community to also take the blame. He said Palestinian leaders have failed to understand that attacks on civilians are “illegal, immoral and politically stupid,” before conceding that Palestinian responsibility does not “vitiate the other responsibilities.”
“Israel is still exhibiting many signs of an occupying power,” he said about Israeli control of airspace and sea in the areas around Gaza.
Zertal spoke about the nuanced situation, pointing to the way Jewish history—especially the Holocaust—has shaped the Israeli psyche. “Traumas are bad advisers,” she said.
The contentiousness of the topic also manifested itself among the attendees, many of whom asked provocative questions. One audience member expressed a sentiment that likely was on the minds of many when asking if the conflict would reach a solution within our lifetime, a question to which Khalidi could only reply, “I have no idea.”
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