By David Halpin
“The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. Freedom and slavery are mental states.” Mahatma Gandhi
20/08/08 “ICH” — – The rain has ceased for a while. The splendid purples of the heathers are in harmony with the grey of granite and the greens of lichen. Only a few thousand humans share the wide open spaces of the Dartmoor National Park on this sabbath.
Sleek bodies are being oiled against the Mediterranean sun in Netanya. There is music murmuring from I Pods; there is affluence and even opulence. But beneath the satisfaction there is deep unease.
Thirty miles south-west along that crescent meeting blue-green sea is Gaza. The briefly clad of Netanya fear this as a nest of black snakes seeking gaps beneath the prison fence. They have little knowledge of this untermenschen cooped up within 360 square kilometres and they care even less. The population of this ghetto is 1.5 million, so their lebensraum is 4000 persons per square kilometre compared with Israel’s 270 persons per square kilometre. Some are on the beach but wary for another bomb from wherever came the last. There is a strong whiff of black sludge from south of Gaza City. The fishing boats are making off to be corralled within three miles of the shore by the fast patrol boats of the Israeli Navy with sophisticated guns at ready.
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