On Saturday (October 21, 2023), the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened for the first time since Gaza was sealed off by Israel. Only 20 trucks were let into Gaza at the first opening, which is not enough for the territory's 2.2 million inhabitants. 200 trucks have been waiting at the border for days, but only another 14 were let in as of the 22nd. According to Egyptian authorities, trucks carried medical supplies, food, and water, which are essential considering that Israel shut off water, electricity, food, and fuel to Gaza. They serve as a small hope for the millions of residents, but they aren't enough.
The situation has been described by the World Food Programme as "catastrophic due to the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and called for more aid to be allowed into the territory." However, Egypt isn't too keen to re-open the Rafah crossing. The country already hosts millions of migrants, and feels uneasy to handle the hundreds of thousands of prospective Palestinians leaving Gaza. Some hundreds of foreigners are also stuck at or near the border, waiting for it to open.
Humanitarian aid crossing Rafah into Gaza (Credit: NYT)
In terms of public opinion, I feel that pro-Palestine sentiment has been rising. In England, 100,000 people participated in "National March for Palestine" (October 21), which was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The march was relatively peaceful, with the police only making 10 arrests. Prior to the event, the police had stated that any support for Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group, would be arrestable, and that any hate crime would not be tolerated. According to Reuters, on Friday (October 22, 2023), there had been a "1,353% increase in antisemitic offences this month compared to the same period last year, while Islamophobic offences were up 140%." While both numbers went up, the anti-Semitism is significantly higher than Islamophobia, likely because of how Israel is handling the situation at hand.
2 comments:
I'm interested in the phenomenon of the public shift away from Israeli support. What caused this phenomenon? According to ABC (see link below), from 2001 to 2023, there's been a decline in Democratic party support for Israel (51% --> 38%) and a increase in Palestinian support (16% --> 49%). On the other hand, within that same period, Republican support for Israel has only risen (59% --> 78%). I was wondering if this had any tie to the recent shift you mentioned. Biden is currently still supporting Israel and sending aid. But, with the majority of Democrats slowly leaning more sympathetic with Palestine, support for Biden doesn't look too great. Curious to see if this will translate into the 2024 presidential elections.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hamas-attack-us-attitudes-israel-palestinians-shifted-party/story?id=103892349
I am wondering if this change in Israeli support is due to any propaganda shared online. I have seen many instances of videos shared that are from different events and claims of falsified details about the war. As we went over in class, most of the public does not fact-check every news they see online, especially when strong emotions are involved like in this war. While propaganda heavily influences the public's opinion, I believe accusing another of sharing propaganda impacts opinions as well which is what some are accusing Israel of. On another note, I wonder if the increase in support for Israel from Republicans that Chin-yi shared could be due to withstanding sentiment from the War on Terror. As Republicans tend to be more patriotic, this situation with Israel may have reminded them of events in America, leading to their support as they feel a connection to Israelis. On the other hand, the left tend to be more critical of the War On Terror and the invasion of privacy and battles that sparked from 9/11 which I believe may be why Democrats do not support Israel in the same way Republicans do.
Post a Comment