HOW GAZA BECAME UNDER ISRAELI CONTROL

Before the Israelis started to "control" Gaza it was under Egypt until that war when the Israelis seized the strip along with several other important areas of land. The Israelis then began to expand their territory beyond the internationally recognized borders of their territory. 

There were 21 settlements in Gaza under the occupier's administration of the Hof Aza Regional Council. The land was allocated in such a way that each Israeli settler disposed of 400 times the land available to the Palestinian refugees, and 20 times the volume of water allowed to the peasant farmers of Gaza. The first settlement was Kfar Darom, which was originally established in 1947, and reformed in 1970.

However, in 1956, the then president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the French-British Suez Company that controlled the Suez Canal. Paris and London wanted the strategic water way back but were eager to start a war themselves. Both countries sought contact with the Israelis to ask them for help. In fact, France and Britain were asking the Israelis to start a war for them. That's how Gaza became into Israeli hands.

In 2003, Ariel Sharon proposed the withdrawal from Gaza in the wake of a peace agreement between the Israelis and Egypt. That agreement have led to the dismantling of settlements in the Sinai.. Sharon's proposal came into effect in 2005 with the dismantling of the 21 settlements. The dismantling didn't take place without resistance by settlers.

In 1987, several Palestinians were killed by an Israeli driver. The car attack, not an accident as altered by CAMERA in WIkipedia, triggered the First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli West Bank and Gaza occupation. led Yassin and six other Palestinians to found Hamas.

In 2006, Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections and assumed administrative control of Gaza Strip and West Bank. In response, Egypt and the Israelis blockade Gaza by closing the land borders, preventing air traffic from and to Gaza and by stopping all maritime traffic into the territorial waters of Gaza.

Hamas supposed to be viewed the way the Zealots from the 1st-century are described: resistance as they assassinated collaborators with Roman rule in the province of Judea. 

So, the first terrorists were East European Jewish migrants from Poland and Belarus who formed the Stern group to attack the British. The group is also responsible for the ambush and murder of the UN diplomat, the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte. The terror attack is the roots of the rush invention of "Israelis" in 1948.

The definition of 'terror' is extreme fear. 'ism' at the end of the word 'terror' is a suffix to indicate that 'terror' represents acts and activities related to causing extreme fear, while 'terrorizing' is the act with the aim to cause extreme fear. The word 'terrorism' refers to methodologies on which the use of terror is based. Anyone who resort in acts and activities with the intention to cause extreme fear, that person is a terrorist. But, when two or more people form, or people join the forming of a group with the intention to cause extreme fear, they are members of a terror group, not a terrorist group as that is a political popularized term.

Political popularization of "terrorism" have led to misuse, even to exploit since US President George W. Bush on September 20, 2001 introduced 'war on terror' during his speech to the Congress.

Canada, the European Union, Israelis, Japan and the United States have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. Australia, New Zealand, Paraguay and the United Kingdom have designated only its military wing as a terrorist organization (as of 2021). It is not considered a terrorist organization by Brazil, China, Egypt, Iran, Norway, Qatar, Russia, Syria and Turkey. In December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly rejected a U.S. resolution condemning Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The question rises when is it legitimate to label an entity as an terror organization?

Well, Hamas is not residing in the Israeli territory nor is that territory in a time of peace as the Israelis never lifted the stage of war since 1967. That is why the United Nations still consider the Israelis as war belligerent. So, labeling Hamas as a "terrorist organization" is purely based on policies which hallmark support to Zionist politics against Hamas, not with criteria as written above. Israelis are simply known for their chronic lack of distinction as distinction is a threat to their policies in how to engage public relation (hasbara) .

Now let's go back to the question: is it a blockade or an occupation?

Blockade is an act, normally carried out in times of war whereby one party blocks entry to or departure from a defined part of an enemy's territory, most often its coasts.

However, we have seen that there can be a blockade in time of peace like Qatar had to face by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE who started it all by launching a smear campaign that was mastermind by its ambassador to the US, Youself al-Otaiba. The issue? Qatar's regional policies which aren't those of the other GCC member states.

Blockades are regulated by international law and custom and require advance warning to neutral states and impartial application. In international legal language:

Well, Gaza does no longer have an operational airport since the radar station and control tower were destroyed on December 4, 2001 and the runway was cut by Israeli bulldozers on January 10, 2002. Then, there is no Israeli presence at any port entrance of Gaza's harbors. So, what is it? A blockade?

Compare it with preventing everyone from entering and leaving a house (means Gaza) as you do that by positioning yourself outside the house and in front of the garden (means Gaza waters) of the house in order to allow some free movement of those who are (still) inside. But that is not what the Israelis do. Just watch this example filmed by the Italian activist Rosa Schiano on September 3, 2012. She wrote:

Her writing reveals that the Israelis were not outside the garden and blocking the entrance to the house. They're in the garden (means Gaza waters) with the fence (means Gaza's maritime border) behind them. That what she mentioned as "Jericho Agreements" is a set of paperwork of something that is just a simple line drawn across the garden to limit the movement of people who live in the house (means Gaza). That is not blockading while you're in the garden. You just do two things: occupying the garden (means Gaza waters) while limiting the movement in the garden. On the clickable map it is actually this:

In fact, the created situation, even with agreements and accords, is similar to the occupation in the West Bank but without annexation. So, in our view it is scalable maritime border occupation. The motive to falsely name it a blockade is to prevent Hamas from exploring a gas field that is in their waters but behind the Jericho Agreement Line.

• This article has a related article