The Rafah crossing nightmare

Comment By Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

"On Saturday, 30 June, Taghrid Abed, 30, died while languishing in unbearable heat on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, Gaza's only gateway to the outside world. Another Palestinian had earlier died in similar circumstances as the world community, enslaved by American Zionism, stood powerless to end this disgrace.

Abed was one of more than 5000 Palestinians stranded at the border crossing for two weeks as a result of Israel's refusal to allow them back to the Strip.

Israel, which is shamelessly telling the world that it has ended its occupation of Gaza, is still in tight control of the Rafah crossing, effectively turning the entire Gaza Strip into the world's largest concentration camp......

First and foremost, Israel, with its characteristic Nazi callousness is the main culprit because it refuses, without any logical reason, to allow these tormented Gazans back to their homes. In truth, sadism is the only explanation of what is happening. There is simply no other explanation......

The second culprit is the western-backed government in Ramallah which claims to represent all Palestinians. It is shameful, to say the least, to watch Abbas and Fayyad and others basking in their false glory and appearing flamboyantly on the screens of Zionist-controlled western TV networks, babbling about the virtues of peace, while showing utter indifference toward the nightmarish plight of these helpless Palestinians......

More to the point, if your friends and allies in Washington and Brussels can't help you in your time of need, then what is the good of having friends as such? In fact, your inaction and silence are more than suspicious. And the writing is already on the walls of Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron......

Finally, the Egyptian government could do much to alleviate the suffering of the stranded Palestinians. Egypt could go as far as opening another border crossing with the Gaza Strip. It is unacceptable and shameful that 80 million Egyptians allow themselves to be enslaved by American Zionism in such a humiliating manner.....

Undoubtedly, the nightmare at the Rafah border crossing is a sad reflection of the moral degeneration now engulfing the Arab world as much as it is an expression of the criminal-minded discourse and moral callousness permeating through the aisles of western governments. Needless to say, these governments have apparently chosen to accommodate Israeli Nazism rather than uphold the human ideals they mendaciously claim to espouse....."