John Prusinski, a Massachusetts activist, minced no words as he spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a recent pro-Palestinian protest. “Right now, the people in Gaza are basically in an outdoor concentration camp,” he declared, despite never having been to Gaza.
Such polemics are nothing new. Academic Norman Finkelstein embraces the description, as do former presidential candidates Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul. Peter Beinart, a prolific pundit, and television anchor Mehdi Hasan appear to agree. Even former British Prime Minister David Cameron once likened the Palestinian territory to a “prison camp.”
Gaza’s situation is tragic, but not how so many progressives think.
In 2010, against the backdrop of the Turkey-sponsored Mavi Marmara flotilla, Washington Post columnist George Will noted that, in Gaza, even under Israeli blockade, “infant mortality rate is lower and life expectancy is higher than in Turkey.” When it comes to Gaza, such statistical surprises are more the rule than the exception. A decade ago, Gaza outperformed not only Turkey but also Brazil, Bulgaria, and Egypt in key health and welfare metrics.
Key indicators continue to show a disparity between political polemics about Gaza and reality. As of 2017, for example, life expectancy at birth in the Gaza Strip was 75.14 years, higher than Brazil, Peru, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Russia, or Ukraine. There are strains to living in Gaza, and so the territory has a high migration rate, but not quite as high as Lithuania or Latvia. Per capita income in both Gaza and the West Bank is $6,220 per year, far below Israel, but still above much of Central America, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and a number of Pacific islands. Gaza and the West Bank are dense in terms of urban population but far less than Singapore, Kuwait, and Belgium. Even if statisticians separated the West Bank and Gaza in their findings, there remains significant open space and farming in the strip. Unemployment is very high but not as high as in South Africa or Kenya.
Food, medicine, and construction supplies flood the Strip, even if Israel first scans and inspects trucks entering the zone. In 2017, the 19,000-square foot Capital Mall, an indoor shopping center that would not be out of place anywhere in the Middle East or Europe, opened its doors, and it continues to do booming business. Wealthier Gazans also visit beach resorts, the equestrian club, or posh coffee shops and restaurants.
This is not to downplay misery nor ignore residents yearning for a normal life, but simply to point out discussions of Gaza’s woes need nuance. Locals may complain about the difficulty of traveling to Israel, which withdrew from the territory more than 15 years ago, but the Egyptian border is more difficult for Gazans to get through, especially after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power and flooded many of the tunnels Gazans once used.
Then there is the issue of resources. Gaza, like Singapore, has little natural wealth. While Singapore’s rulers chose butter over guns, Hamas did the opposite. Every concrete and steel-reinforced tunnel represents material diverted from schools and hospitals. Every homemade explosive represents fertilizer diverted from farms. Propagandists can complain about restricted imports, but if Hamas can smuggle rockets and their components into the Strip, why do they find it so difficult to smuggle flour or penicillin?
All this hints at the real problem: governance. Hamas has repeatedly prioritized the bidding of Turkey and Tehran over the needs and desires of the Palestinians it claims to represent. U.N. and foreign aid to operate schools, run medical clinics, or build housing only allows Hamas to escape accountability for its own choices.
Every few years, conflict erupts after Hamas targets Israel with rockets, seeks to burn Israeli fields with incendiary balloons, or kidnap Israelis via new tunnels. The Israeli military “mows the grass,” Hamas seeks sympathy, and the cycle restarts.
It is racist for the international community not to acknowledge that Palestinians have agency. They and the international community should hold Palestinian leaders to account. If the international community truly wants to break the cycle of violence, let Hamas fail so that a new, better leadership might emerge. The tragedy Gaza faces is not its neighbors but international condescension and poor governance. In the meantime, Brazil, Egypt, and Lithuania need some serious help.
Michael Rubin (@Mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
