Homeless Gazans seize Hamas government building

[azurnoir]

Forty families whose houses were destroyed in conflict with Israel took over a building belonging to Gaza's Hamas rulers this week in a sign of dissatisfaction with the Islamist movement's failure to provide shelter.

Angered by living in tents for two winters and now baking in the midst of an intense heat wave, the squatters took over the unfinished apartment house and have already resisted one police effort to evict them.

"The heat and cold hurt our children. Where are you?" read a banner pasted on the wall of the building, in the first overt move against government property since Hamas seized power strip in 2007, ousting forces loyal to the Fatah movement of
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Bassam Jamil, one of the squatters, said 43 families had moved into the building which was still under construction in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip. It belongs to the Hamas-run housing ministry.

"We have lost faith that anyone will rebuild our homes. We have taken shelter in the building from the heat in the tents we've been living in," Jamil said.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/homeless-gazans-seize-hamas-government-building-1.309221

[DesertFlower]

1. good for them. they're homeless because hamas

kept sending missiles in to israel.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Huh? Did those missiles have really bad aim and end up destroying those homes? n/t

[DesertFlower]

3. you know what i'm talking about.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. I figured you were trying to blame anyone but the IDF...

Sorry, but the IDF destroyed those homes and they're responsible for it. And claiming retaliation does not make it the fault of anyone else. That's like saying suicide bombings were the fault of Israel because the suicide bombers were retaliating against Israel....

[DesertFlower]

6. the palestinian people have

suffered because of the actions of hamas.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. I'm not saying they haven't. But it was Israel who was responsible for the destroyed homes n/t

[CJvR]

5. No

No they are just enjoying the benefits of having a regime stupid enough to pick a fight with someone packing a thousand times more firepower. Combined with Hamas indifference to civilian casualties, except as photo ops, and total disregard for all rules of warfare and the results will be what we have in Gaza.

[Violet_Crumble]

8. I see. So Hamas just picked a fight for no reason?

It all just happens in a vacuum where it's all the Palestinians fault?

Combined with Hamas indifference to civilian casualties, except as photo ops, and total disregard for all rules of warfare and the results will be what we have in Gaza.

You just described the IDF really well...

[CJvR]

10. Fault?

I didn't say anything on who's fault it was. But even if we assume that Hamas was 110% right and justified in this case it still makes it monumeltaly moronic to get drawn into a shooting war. Finally if the IDF was half as nasty as you claim, which it isn't because then the bodycount in Gaza would be ten times higher, wouldn't it be extra important for Hamas to strictly follow the rules of war? At least if they gave a damn about the people they are supposed to govern...

[Violet_Crumble]

12. Yep, that's what the sub-thread was about...

Do you often appear and reply to posts and not address the issue they're discussing?

Finally if the IDF was half as nasty as you claim, which it isn't because then the bodycount in Gaza would be ten times higher, wouldn't it be extra important for Hamas to strictly follow the rules of war? At least if they gave a damn about the people they are supposed to govern...

I didn't say anything about the IDF being nasty. I said that the things you were so quick to accuse Hamas of is done by the IDF. But you appear to be denying the IDF has done that. Are you for real?

[Ken Burch]

17. Gaza would have been treated just as badly if all Palestinian resistance had been nonviolence

The Israeli government doesn't accept that Palestinians have ANY right to resist oppression by ANY means.

If it did, it would never use violence against nonviolent protests.

[Shaktimaan]

15. Clearly not for "no reason."

Hamas has an agenda that involves consistently attacking Israel whenever possible in pursuance of their unrealistic goal of dismantling Israel. So you could say that Hamas picked a fight for a stupid reason. However a reason does exist. And it was Hamas that began firing rockets into Israel, which eventually sparked Israeli retaliation, which destroyed the houses.

It is not as though Hamas' rocket attacks served any legitimate, practical or beneficial purpose. There was no discernible instigation beyond the overarching policy goals that have remained unchanged among Palestinian militants for decades. Several years passed, and several thousand rockets were launched before Israel exhausted all other avenues and turned to a military solution. Israel does have a responsibility to protect its citizens. So I would say that responsibility for any of the casualties or damage incurred during OCL can be attributed to Hamas.

Combined with Hamas indifference to civilian casualties, except as photo ops, and total disregard for all rules of warfare and the results will be what we have in Gaza.

You just described the IDF really well...

You don't REALLY think that, do you? Had Israel a real indifference to civilian casualties wouldn't you then expect a tremendous number of them? Particularly during operations in a place like Gaza, against an enemy like Hamas, which increases the likelihood of collateral damage even with the best of intentions.

A total disregard for the rules of warfare? Really? As compared to whom?

[Violet_Crumble]

16. You seem to be ignoring Israel's attacks on the Palestinians...

Let me refresh yr memory. Operation Cast Lead? The Occupation? Trying to pretend that things happen in a vacuum and the Palestinians only attack because they hate Israel for no reason is really quite silly...

Yes, I REALLY do think that they described the IDF really well. The indifference to civilian casualties, the total disregard for the rules of warfare aren't things you can pretend didn't happen, or that only one side does it.

I'm not at all sure why yr trying to turn the IDF's disregard for the rules of warfare into some comparison thing when you don't seem to feel the need to do so when the same thing is said about Hamas. I don't see any need for any comparison.

[shira]

9. Good for them! Maybe Hamas will now decide to put them in homes.

It's the least Hamas can do, considering they used the neighborhoods of these Gazans to attack Israel. If Hamas has the means to build nice apartment buildings for their leaders (as well as other nice accomodations throughout Gaza) then they can certainly house these people who they've been using for propaganda purposes.

[LeftishBrit]

11. Good for them.

No one (Israel, the Arab states, Hamas) gives much of a damn about ordinary Palestinians.

They need the building a lot more than their sorry excuse for a government does.

[hayu_lol]

13. Seems to me that it was just a week or so ago...

that Palestinian squatter's(on the land illegally)homes, about 180 of them, were bulldozed by HAMAS so that a mosque could be built on the site....

HAMAS cares nothing about the rank and file of Palestinians/Gazans. It is a terrorist organization without laws or other civilized controls. They seek world-wide media attention to anything that serves their purpose.

For all it's faults, essentially based on self-protection,Israel is a country of laws. HAMAS has no laws other than what is expedient for them at the moment.

Sometimes I wonder if we are all on the same page vis-a-vis the term 'homes'. I suspect that many think in terms of the 3 bedroom ranch style home in the suburbs...when instead, the homes being destroyed are much like the squatter homes that have sprung up around cities like TiaJuana. Just a thought.

[azurnoir]

14. Are you going on about this from last May ?

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/hamas-to-raze-180-gaza-houses-to-erect-islamic-religious-center-1.291347

yes Hamas did raze 20 houses