Word: gaza
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Unfortunately, however, in Israel, international law does not carry much weight. Israel's practices during its occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip violate several Geneva Convention articles and United Nations resolutions. For example, U.N. Resolution 194 calls for the return of any Palestinians made refugees in 1948 and for the compensation of those who do not wish to return. But Palestinians driven from their land in the 1948 and 1967 wars with Israel are forbidden from returning by the Israeli authorities. Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights is another glaring violation of U.N. resolutions...
Such reasoning has particular appeal in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas was born and remains strongest: there 780,000 Palestinians live on a cramped, barren swath of sand where jobs are few and living conditions harsh. Says "Omar," the 30-year-old product of a Gaza slum and now a Hamas activist: "I am a man with no home, no land, and so I have no identity. Islam gives me that identity...
...pervasive is Hamas' influence that nearly all the women in the Gaza Strip have taken to covering their head in the Muslim fashion. Hamas enforces Islamic prohibitions against prostitution and drug use by killing people accused of such transgressions and leaving their bodies in public places. In the beginning the executions were justified as "collaborator" killings -- the elimination of Palestinians supposedly cooperating with Israel; these days the fundamentalists have dropped that pretense and enforce Islamic law as they...
Hamas' strength has made the Israeli army's job of policing the Gaza Strip more difficult than ever. Soldiers are constantly stoned and more and more frequently shot at; several deadly attacks on civilians inside Israel itself have been committed by religious Gazans. Many Israelis have begun to argue that Israel should unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and leave it to its misery...
Four Ministers in Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's Cabinet recently proposed considering precisely that. Rabin refused even to discuss a move that would create an immense security threat along the Gaza border. But Hamas clearly has the Israeli government's attention -- a sharp departure from the past, when security officials believed the fundamentalists to be more interested in spiritual matters and social work than political or military struggle. The Israelis treated the movement with benign neglect and hoped that it would erode support for the P.L.O...