Life's a bitch in Gaza

The last year, since Hamas took over, has been a very difficult time for me and my family. Hamas accused my brother of injuring some of their men in a shootout. They surrounded the house, but he escaped and managed to get out to the West Bank. Me, my parents, his wife, and his children haven't seen him since.

The BBC carries a story on life for ordinary Palestinians in Gaza one year after the Hamas take over. On the surface it gives an insight into life for ordinary people. But reportage like this does more harm than good because it totally decontextualises the situation. It basically gives the reader the impression that life is bad in Gaza, but this is just the way things are. There's no real sense of cause and effect, apart from that Hamas is really bad and oppressive. Which in several ways they are. But oppression is usually a product of oppressive conditions. And Gaza is under oppressive conditions because of Israel's blockade, occupation and constant murder of the Palestinian population.