No, the Gaza Strip is not on the moon. It is very close to us, on the other side of the Mediterranean. An active, inventive, and educated population that shares our desire to live, study, create, and have fun. A population that is locked up, under blockade; a population that has had enough.

For 50 years now, the Gaza Strip has been under total control of the Israeli occupation; for 20 years, Israel has been destroying Gaza’s economy; and for 10 years, Israel has been pushing Gaza to desperation via a total blockade. All the while, Israel has made Gaza completely dependent on Israeli supplies… for which it charges a high price.

The Israeli decision to further reduce Gaza’s electricity supply is one more step in the strangulation of this population. How can one possibly live on two hours of electricity per day? Daily life has become impossible for this courageous population. What remains of Gaza’s infrastructure – water, sanitation, hospitals – risks operational collapse in the short term.

Some might say that the situation is complex, because of the Palestinian divisions fanned by Israel as well as the role that the various parties have played for years in paying for electricity supplied to the Gaza Strip. The situation is made even more complex by the dangerous game played by Trump in the region, the constantly increasing pressure on the Palestinian Authority, and the desire to isolate Hamas after having accepted its participation in the 2005 elections.

But in fact, the situation is very simple. There is an occupying power that has done its best to ruin the Palestinian economy, especially that of the Gaza Strip. The sophisticated system set up to make the Palestinians and their international funders pay the price of the occupation has reached its limits. As the occupying power, Israel has an obligation to provide for the needs of the occupied population. It must restore Gaza’s electricity supply to its previous level and accept the ensuing financial consequences.

France and Europe must remind Israel about this, with utmost firmness. And likewise, they must now work, with force and sincerity, far beyond the usual declarations, for the lifting of the blockade of Gaza, by exerting real pressure on the State of Israel to put an end to this illegal and inhumane blockade endured by the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip.

The AFPS Executive Board