World Beyond Hope

As Israel gets its way with Washington, Gazans mobilize despair

- Karl Vick

IT IS POSSIBLE, IN THEORY, THAT THE parallel events of May 14 might affect the sympathies of Americans watching them unfold on the split screens of cable news channels.

In Jerusalem, the ceremonial opening of the new U.S. Embassy proceeded at a stately pace, President Trump’s daughter Ivanka unveiling a plaque that announced not only the new address for U.S. representation in Israel but also a new, snugger alignment with the host nation. A few miles away, cameras captured the chaos as Israeli soldiers methodically cut down some 2,700 Palestinians, 60 fatally, as they marched toward the fence that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip.

That patch of land, which hugs the Mediterranean Sea between Israel and Egypt, is home to some 2 million Palestinians, most of whose families once lived on land that is today Israel. They are stubborn refugees with no prospect of return, physically confined in an area only twice the size of the District of Columbia and with no prospect of improvement. Last year a Gaza home had four to six hours of electricity a day and water for six to eight hours every 28 TIME May 28, 2018fourth day. Youth unemployment is 60%.

“People are almost dead here,” says Amal Murtaja, a teacher at the American International School in Gaza, explaining why thousands have gathered at the border over the past six weeks. “They have zero money to support their families. So they thought, ‘We’re dead anyways.’”

The idea of assembling at the fortified fence, both to protest the embassy move and to assert a right to return, first took root on social media. Political factions soon glommed on, including Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip. Inside Gaza, that brought a level of official organization to the project. Outside Gaza, it made an emotionally complex undertaking easier to condemn.