Israel’s 2009 invasion of Gaza was an act of aggression that killed over a thousand Palestinians and devastated the infrastructure of an already impoverished enclave. The Punishment of Gaza shows how the ground was prepared for the assault and documents its continuing effects.
From 2005—the year of Gaza’s “liberation”—through to 2009, Levy tracks the development of Israel policy, which has abandoned the pretense of diplomacy in favor of raw military power, the ultimate aim of which is to deny Palestinians any chance of forming their own independent state. Punished by Israel and the Quartet of international powers for the democratic election of Hamas, Gaza has been transformed into the world’s largest open-air prison. From Gazan families struggling to cope with the random violence of Israel’s blockade and its “targeted” assassinations, to the machinations of legal experts and the continued connivance of the international community, every aspect of this ongoing tragedy is eloquently recorded and forensically analyzed. Levy’s powerful journalism shows how the brutality at the heart of Israel’s occupation of Palestine has found its most complete expression to date in the collective punishment of Gaza's residents.
I am currently living in Duluth, MN, USA, my home for the past 8 years on and off. My partner and love Angela and I just welcomed our first child, Berlin, to the world. I attended and graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2006 with a B.A. in history with an emphasis on the classical civilizations of the Mediterranean 'world' and German Studies. After gaining my degree I moved to Buenos Aires Argentina where I lived and worked for the year of 2007. Ostensibly I went to Buenos Aires to teach English and work on my Spanish, but ended up becoming involved with the MST party (Movimiento Socialista Trabajadores) and experienced a social and political awakening. It was during my time there that I was first introduced to the works and ideas of Trotsky and Lenin and that I experienced and witnessed the a wave of popular empowerment sweeping through the region. It was also where I got my first taste of community organization and militant agitation. I returned to the US a very different person from when I left, as if I was seeing the world through new eyes. I have spent the past three years engaging in studies in a range of disciplines and topics from history, political economy, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, language and religion. The past couple years has been incredible as it has seen Angela come into my life and the growth of our new family. They are my world.
