Talk:Gaza

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:

Contents

[edit] Israeli pull-out

I have removed the following from the article as there is no obvious relationship between this information and Gaza City (as opposed to the Gaza Strip):

In 2004, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that Israel would unilaterally withdraw its army from Gaza. According to the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, Jewish settlements in Gaza would be dismantled. Execution of the disengagement plan began in mid-August 2005, amidst many Israeli protesters who burned their belongings, wore orange, and resisted unarmed Israeli troops. The evacuation of Israeli citizens, whilst heavily protested, was a success and no serious incidents hampered the IDF.

Palmiro | Talk 16:31, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of section

I've removed from the article the following section, inserted a couple of days ago by 130.111.137.19 (talk · contribs):

Gaza, like any other city in the occupied terrotories, suffered many hard hits by the Israel Defense Forces IDF and the Israeli Air Force IAF. Starting from the first intifada until the second intifada, Gaza went through hard times especially because Gaza Strip and Gaza city in particular is well known of a strong held of many Palestinian resistance groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who had many clashes with the Israeli troop outside the city which caused in many events death and devastation. Now after the Israeli had ended some of its occupation in Gaza Strip for exeption the control over the sea and air, Gaza is starting a new era of rebuilding the destruction that IDF left in the city not only that but also a new era of a democratic experience, like the elections of Januray 25th 2006. see Hamas wins Palestinian election. The elections proved that the Palestinians had passed the test of democracy in that region and they are building their new state.

It seems nothing more than a poorly-written POV unsourced essay or opinion piece. Jayjg (talk) 19:05, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

While some historical information, including regarding the years of the two intifadas, would be welcome in the article, I agree that this material is not particularly good. Palmiro | Talk 15:14, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
Look people.
It doesnt take a genius with Wiki-Gaza entry, to compare languages, and see the more balanced attempts in any of the European Wiki pages, in French, in German, and suddenly the English language (i.e. American-slanted war readership) going totally Zionist.
So just the fact that you all have agreed on a section called "NAMING" where there is NO OTHER city or nation entry that has such a section, tells you alot. Let alone the attempt for five different Hebrew pronunciations, the Hebrew history first, the attempts at starting with "gaza is unclear" origins and all that.
How it was finally agreed that this Gaza entry is considered a "neutral", unbiased reading is telling of Wiki system fallacies in general. It started with the attempt to muscle in with "the origin of Gaza is unclear"... and the many explanations of Hebrew history, Hebrew naming, and now, we have to always acknowledge ISRAELI PALESTINIANS - ha, really, that is good. That means, no Palestinians exist, because Israelis are Palestinians. This stuff is Zionist 101 level. I assumed Wiki should eventually start flagging something on this page, or is better than that.
There is a check and balance, and it isnt Wiki: This page has started to be used by University reading groups, as a textbook example of how bad English language (American) wiki is with geopolitics, and why in essence, it fails.
Enjoy and keep adding "Israeli Palestinians" as it only helps teaching courses. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.73.69.163 (talk • contribs) 13:44, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Israelis and Palestinians

...confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians

Does "Palestinians" here refer to Palestinian Arabs? Or is the contributor trying to express the point of view that Israelis aren't "Palestinian" but that only Arabs are? If so, this POV should be sourced. --Uncle Ed 14:23, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Israelis are not Palestinian. Nowadays (and please nobody try to front, we have way too many sensitive Westerners trying to be politically correct so peoples' feelings don't get hurt) if you are not Palestinian Arab, you are not Palestinian. To say Palestine would not refer to Israel because they are not one in the same. Therefore, if you are Israeli, you are not Palestinian. It's time we got more specific and stopped using general terms like that. We need to get specific; the Jews are Israeli and the Palestinians are Palestinians. They were the first there (the Philistines) and therefore they were the natives. The natives get the name of the land according to the people who originally changed it from Philistine to Palestine (I forgot, it might have been the Greeks). If you were there first, you get the name, end of story. I was born in the United States but I don't get the term Native American, so why should Israeli Jews get both Israeli and Palestinian? Simple: you don't get both. You're one or the other. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.35.11.39 (talk • contribs) 19:16, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Problems with your arguements:

1) Please read the history of the Palestinians. A majority of Palestinians are Arabs, but it does not make all Palestinians Arabs. Palestinian officials consider all Jews (and their descendants) living in pre-1948 Palestine as Palestinians.

2) Although there was a group of people known as Philistines (non-Arab), the name Palestine was actually given to the land as an insult to injuries for the defeated Jews. The Romans named the area Palaestina in an attempt to erase Jewish past from the land. It also happen to be named after an enemy in Jewish history.

[edit] Gaza Buffer Zone

I added important link to the Gaza article, somebody can write more on it. The links says a lot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.99.0.230 (talk • contribs) 20:45, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I moved the passage to the Gaza Strip article, but have excluded it for the moment until as it is unsourced. TewfikTalk 17:19, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AD/CE - BC/BCE

Wouldn't it be nice with some consistency in the use of these? Is there a general wiki policy on this? Benjaminmyklebust 10:00, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gaza Airport

I removed Gaza Airport from the "by air" section on how to get there, seeing as the airport is closed and is accessible only by birds. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.104.199.236 (talk • contribs) 02:56, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Jewish communities in Gaza

I see no need for this paragraph....it is inserted for extermist right-jewish pro-israel propaganda there is no citation to what is written in there...and the "jewish community" in these days were very few to call them even a community...if 500 jews lived among 300000 arabs...I would not call that a community?!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.128.247.47 (talk • contribs) 17:05, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

500 is definately a community. If the Jews of Hebron are mentioned countless times throughout that article, I think that the Jews of Gaza are notable enough to be mentioned here. I've added an {{unreferenced}} tag to the section, but it would be better if you add {{fact}} tags to the specific sentences needing sources instead. —Khoikhoi 21:05, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

I seriously doubt the information given in this section. In whole, during the 1929 Palestine riots, 133 Jews were killed, notably 65-68 in Hebron and 18-20 in Safed. This section claims that more than 150 Jews died in Gaza, which I find hard to believe. The footnote gives a reference that is not particularly reliable, so does anybody have a more serious reference? Regardless, the phrasing of the section is POV (echoing the tone of the given reference).--Doron 08:59, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

A direct reference would of course be best, but the Jewish Virtual Library is generally considered a reliable source. TewfikTalk 20:13, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

By whom? I should think that such a big massacre would be mentioned in other sources, don't you? Anyway, the JVL is so reliable, that it contradicts itself, mentioning a total of 135 Jews killed in the 1929 riots here, which make the 150 figure in Gaza impossible.--Doron 23:12, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

I didn't notice that the 150 was limited to Gaza; I thought you were questioning their number. That seems to be an obvious typographical error on their part that was copied to here, but in general they are treated as an RS, especially since they usually cite the primary and secondary sources used for their entries. Cheers, TewfikTalk 06:24, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
Fine. I NPOV'ed a bit ("1929 massacres" -> "1929 riots", same as the linked article; removed "and the death of more than 130 Jews" which makes it look like 130 Jews died in Gaza, I don't mind the 130 figure if you have a better phrasing though; removed obvious POV "and appease the Arabs"). I also removed the bit about Kfar Darom, which is not in Gaza but rather near Deir el-Balah.--Doron 09:42, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

I kept "massacres" since most of the casualties were from the Safed massacre and Hebron massacre that were part of the riots. I expanded the sentence to explicitly make the connection, but I feel that the previous wording was both more concise and accurate. I'm not sure if you intentionally removed "appease Arabs", but that is the continuation of the sentence in the reference, and is in line with the Hope Simpson Royal Commission. I've in the past had mixed feelings about the Kfar Darom line, since it isn't in Gaza city, but it does seem like an important postscript, so I included a shortened version. TewfikTalk 03:38, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I removed the "appease" passage intentionally, because it is POV. I found no justification in the Hope Simpson Royal Commission article for this wording. We're not obliged to be faithful to the reference, especially to its POV wording. By the way, was there a "Gaza Strip" in 1946?--Doron 08:30, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

JVL isn't unique in its use of that language for this subject matter. What exactly would you need to see to accept those words? As for the "Gaza Strip", while I was probably guilty of using an anachronistic term, I did see the term in use for the coastal strip up to Majdal in literature discussing the period, and so it may well be an accurate phrasing. If you can think of better wording, than by all means try your hand. Cheers, TewfikTalk 02:24, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, if the Gaza Strip was a reference to the coast up to Majdal, then Gaza City is "central Gaza Strip", isn't it? Well, I suppose you can just drop "Gaza Strip". Kfar Darom is about 15km away, so if you still think it is close enough to Gaza City (which is the subject of this article) to be relevant, you could just leave "nearby" or "15km away" or whatever.
As for "appease", I'd like to see a quote from a British official policy or report indicating that it's purpose amounts to appeasement, otherwise it seems to me a POV interpretation. A policy that is beneficial to the Arabs can be regarded as an attempt to appease them or as an attempt to address their grievances, if the purpose is not stated, then either interpretation is POV.--Doron 21:33, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't think this issue has been satisfactorily dealt with in the article. PatGallacher (talk) 19:24, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Is this article about Gaza or Jews? In order for this page to have any credibility, the content has to change so that it actually reflects the subject matter more fully and doesn't give the impression that it is merely a vehicle for a narrow agenda. --manchester me 23:10, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

The issue of casualty figures in massacres can often be an awkward and sensitive issue. See the Wikipedia articles on Oran massacre of 1962, Revolt in the Vendee, and Khleminitsky Uprising for similar problems, where although nobody disputes that large numbers of people were killed in these incidents casualty figures vary wildly. However while it is not disputed that several dozen Jews were killed in attacks in Palestine in 1929, every other source I have seen indicates that the most serious incident was in Hebron, if there really had been a more serious incident in Gaza we would have heard more about it than this one partisan source. The Encyclopedia Britannica article on Hebron mentions the 1929 massacre, there is nothing similar in its article on Gaza. I suspect that as a result of a badly worded piece somewhere a figure of 130 Jews killed in Palestine as a whole was mistakenly taken as referring to a single incident in Gaza. (It is possible even this figure is a slight overestimate.) PatGallacher (talk) 16:24, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sister Cities

Is Barcelona really a sister city of Gaza? The Barcelona entry on wikipedia makes no mention of Gaza being one of its sister cities. Haluk 25.8.06 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.42.21.75 (talk • contribs) 12:02, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Biblical references

A section on Gaza in the bible should probably be included. I am not qualified to do it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.48.59.72 (talk • contribs) 20:37, 24 January 2007.

[edit] Population

Gaza itslef has a population of 1.3 million people and is one of the most densley populated areas on the planet. Can i add this in the article? (Ssd175 22:37, 13 June 2007 (UTC))

I believe that such information would be more appropriate for the article on the Gaza Strip, which has such a population, rather then this article. --Credema 23:14, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Ahh. Thank you for pointing that out i did not realize that this article was Gaza city rather than the Gaza strip. My mistake. (Ssd175 00:22, 15 June 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Ghazw

Is the name related to Ghazw or Ghaza? Mallerd 21:29, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I believe that The conquest of Gaza by Alexander the Great should be included in the introduction —Preceding unsigned comment added by S.P.A.O. (talk • contribs) 00:47, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Some good reference Information on Gaza

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199405/gaza-contested.crossroads.htm Sunniestday (talk) 10:26, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Why was the picture removed?

There used to be a wonderful picture of gaza city somewhere at the top of the page and it seems that it was removed. Can someone please explain to me why it was removed? I've posted this 3 times before but it keeps getting removed for some reason.-NamesR4chumps (talk) 13:38, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Horid Wording

"Impasse

Hamas leadership now in control of Gaza will not recognise Israel's right to exist nor cease its use of terrorist tactics, including the deliberate targeting of civilians and the use of suicide bombers. This effectively causes an impasse since Israel, and many Western nations including Canada and the United States, refuse to deal with Hamas and will only deal with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank."

this fails to mention the crimes Israel has commited against the Palestinian people, as well as being sourcless. i'm going to delete the above passage, until both sides are addressed.--Aristotle58 (talk) 01:09, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Agreed that statement was extremely biased, and needed to be removed.NamesR4chumps (talk) 01:52, 25 April 2008 (UTC)