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Gaza Is Not an Open-Air Prison
An aid convoy’s trucks loaded with supplies send by Long Live Egypt Fund are seen at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, in this handout picture obtained by Reuters on May 23, 2021. The Egyptian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
When Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, the “pro-Palestine” propagandists could no longer plausibly refer to it as occupied territory. So they came up with another trope that has become a cliché: Gaza is an “open-air prison.”
The jailer in this dubious metaphor is only Israel, (even though Gaza also borders Egypt) and the Jewish state has been accused of imposing a “16-year blockade, depriving the people there of food, water, and the other necessities of life, especially healthcare” — or so goes the tale.
According to Ilana Feldman, the term “open-air prison” was first used in 1997 in the Philadelphia Inquirer and quickly found currency among Irish and Canadian journalists in the early 2000s. It became a staple of anti-Israel rhetoric in the US in 2009 after Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) claimed (in a campaign video and on Iranian television) that “The Palestinians are virtually in a concentration camp.”
In 2010, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that “People in Gaza are living under constant attacks and pressure in an open-air prison,” adding that “Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.”
From politics to pop-culture, the term grew like an infectious meme in 2015, when the graffiti artist (pardon the oxymoron), Banksy, went to Gaza to spray-paint on some walls. He photographed them for his website, and added witty captions, like: “Gaza is often described as ‘the world’s largest open air prison’ because no-one is allowed to enter or leave.”
Of course, people leave and enter Gaza all the time. Prior to October 7, thousands of people left Gaza every day, crossing into Israel to work at jobs that paid them five times more than they could earn in Gaza. That arrangement is over, thanks to Hamas.
There is also a border with Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. And, lest anyone forget, there is a maze of underground tunnels that one recently-freed Israeli hostage calls “Lower Gaza,” which presents numerous illegal exit opportunities.
As Ari Zivotofsky observed in the Jerusalem Post, a September 19, 2023, episode of the Palestinian television show Emigration claimed that, “in the past 15 years a quarter of a million young Palestinians left for abroad.” In 2022, over 15,000 of them who lived abroad (having apparently escaped the “prison”) willingly returned to it to celebrate the feast of Eid al-Adha.
This is not how prisons work.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has been running a series on “Gaza Before October 7” refuting the “concentration camp” and “open-air prison” claims with pictures and videos.
The first two episodes follow Palestinian “influencer” Yousef Alhelou as he travels around Gaza, showing off the top spots for tourists, including a gold market. Subsequent episodes include an Al-Jazeera feature of the economic boom in Gaza, Turkish television reports on the markets of Gaza, and various Arab media outlets covering the many sporting events in Gaza.
Hamas propagandists argue that Gazans are denied goods and services that they are entitled to because of Israel’s “land, water, and sea blockade,” but Israel only blocks weapons from entering Gaza. Even after October 7, Israel has continued to supply electricity, food, and medicine.
What the “pro-Palestine” luminaries will never admit is that Israel has been forced into controlling Gaza’s ports by the long history of weapons shipped there.
In 2001, two vessels, the Calypso and the Santorini, were seized with weapons destined for Palestinian terrorists, and in 2002, a Palestinian ship called the Karine A was seized with 50 tons of Iranian weapons destined for Gaza. Since then, Israel has acted to prevent further shipments of weapons from reaching Gaza by sea. In 2007, after Hamas took over Gaza completely, Israel imposed an inspections regime and began more aggressively searching ships for smuggled weapons. Food and medicine are not prevented from entering Gaza.
Poor access to healthcare is another complaint about life in the Gaza “open-air prison.” In April 2023, the Jerusalem-based anti-Israel activist group B’Tselem faulted Israel for preventing Palestinians from leaving Gaza in order to be treated in Israeli hospitals. But Israel treats plenty of Palestinians.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh sends his entire family to Israel for medical care. In 2013, his 1-year-old granddaughter was treated in an Israeli hospital; in 2014, his daughter was treated at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital and his mother-in-law was treated at Jerusalem’s Augusta Victoria Hospital; in 2021, his niece was treated at Ichilov Hospital.
Just this month, it was reported that Haniyeh’s grandniece was being treated at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. But why should any Gazans be treated in Israeli hospitals? There are 36 hospitals in Gaza, many of which are run by foreign nations (Indonesia, Turkey, Jordan, Europe countries) serving a population of around two million.
Of course, hospitals in Gaza are dual-purpose buildings, offering both healthcare and camouflage for the entrances to Hamas’s elaborate subterranean infrastructure. An IDF spokesman said that “Hamas systematically built the Indonesian Hospital to disguise its underground terror infrastructure.” The Al-Shifa hospital, where IDF soldiers found a stash of rifles, ammunition, and ballistic vests, also sits atop a major tunnel junction. IDF soldiers recently found unopened boxes of medicine for Israeli hostages at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
If Gaza is a prison, Hamas is the jailer.
The accusation that Israel withholds food from the “open-air prisoners” of Gaza is a common one.
In 2010, Sarah Leppert of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization said that “sixty-one percent of the Gaza population is food insecure.” A UN World Food Program’s country brief on “Palestine” for the year 2022 announced that Gazans account for 90% of the 1.84 million Palestinians “suffering from food insecurity.”
But media reports about the vibrant lives of people “under occupation” have long included photographs of Gaza showing bountiful markets with merchants whose stands are stocked with fruit and vegetables. As Robert Spencer pointed out recently, “The ‘open air prison’ of Gaza was actually quite opulent” before October 7. Spencer links to a video posted to X by a Gazan who complains that Gaza was beautiful before October 7. In the 42-second video, Gaza’s opulent markets, vacationing tourists, and shops of all sorts look like what one would expect in a tropical resort town.
In fact, there are shops of all kinds in Gaza, like any other city in the world, except perhaps for one — it’s hard to imagine a store named for Adolf Hitler anywhere other than “Palestine,” but in Gaza there’s one called Hitler2, which first achieved infamy in 2015. The store, with its knife-grasping mannequins, was reported damaged in recent fighting.
After October 7, the rhetoric heated up. When Israel briefly announced that it would cease supplying water and electricity to the people who had just killed over 1,200 Israelis and taken another 250 as hostages, the world flew into another outrage.
Human Rights Watch accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon. Israel denied the charges, pointing out that Hamas hijacks food and fuel for itself. Even The New York Times agrees that Hamas has long stockpiled the food and medical supplies meant for the people of Gaza. It quoted a Lebanese source to assert on October 27 that, “Hamas has hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel for vehicles and rockets; caches of ammunition, explosives and materials to make more; and stockpiles of food, water and medicine … enough stocked away to keep fighting for three to four months without resupply.”
That’s the reality of the situation in Gaza. The only people that ever made it an “open-air prison” were Hamas.
Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) Senior Fellow A.J. Caschetta is a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow at Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum where he is also a Milstein fellow. A version of this article was originally published by IPT.
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Syrian Leader al-Sharaa Holds Talks With Erdogan on Surprise Istanbul Visit
Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s interim president, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s president, met during al-Sharaa’s first diplomatic trip since the fall of the al-Assad regime. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was holding talks with Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday, local media reported. No further details were available.
This comes one day after the US administration of President Donald Trump issued orders that it said would effectively lift sanctions on Syria in order to help the country rebuild after a devastating civil war.
The Treasury Department issued a general license that authorizes transactions involving the interim Syrian government led by Al-Sharaa, as well as the central bank and state-owned enterprises.
The general license, known as GL25, “authorizes transactions prohibited by the Syrian Sanctions Regulations, effectively lifting sanctions on Syria,” the Treasury said in a statement.
Syria welcomed the sanctions waiver early on Saturday, which the Foreign Ministry called a “positive step in the right direction to alleviate the country’s humanitarian and economic suffering.”
Syria is keen on cooperating with other countries “on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs. It believes that dialogue and diplomacy are the best path to building balanced relations,” the ministry said in a statement.
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‘It Was Just An Accident’ by Iran’s Jafar Panahi Wins Cannes’ Top Prize
Director Jafar Panahi, Palme d’Or award winner for the film “Un simple accident” (It Was Just an Accident), reacts, during the closing ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 24, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
Revenge thriller “It Was Just An Accident” by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who was last at the Cannes Film Festival in person more than 20 years ago, won the Palme d’Or top prize on Saturday.
Panahi, who has been arrested several times for his filmmaking and was under a travel ban until recently, last attended the festival in person in 2003, when “Crimson Gold” was screened in the Un Certain Regard category.
“Art mobilizes the creative energy of the most precious, most alive part of us. A force that transforms darkness into forgiveness, hope and new life,” said jury president Juliette Binoche when announcing the award.
“It Was Just An Accident” follows Vahid, played by Vahid Mobasseri, who kidnaps a man with a false leg who looks just like the one who tortured him in prison and ruined his life.
Vahid sets out to verify with other prison survivors that it is indeed their torturer – and then decide what to do with him.
An emotional Panahi, wearing sunglasses on stage, thanked his cast and film crew during his acceptance speech.
The Grand Prix, the second-highest prize after the Palme d’Or, was awarded to “Sentimental Value” from acclaimed director Joachim Trier.
The jury prize was split between the intergenerational family drama “Sound of Falling” from German director Mascha Schilinski and “Sirat,” about a father and son who head into the Moroccan desert, by French-Spanish director Oliver Laxe.
Brazil’s “The Secret Agent” won two awards, one for best actor for Wagner Moura, as well as best director for Kleber Mendonca Filho.
“I was having Champagne,” said Mendonca Filho after he ran up to the stage to collect his award after celebrating Moura, who previously made a name for himself in hit TV series “Narcos.”
Newcomer Nadia Melliti took home best actress for “The Little Sister,” a queer coming-of-age story centered around the daughter of Algerian immigrants in Paris.
Belgium’s Dardenne brothers, who have the rare honor of already having won two Palme d’Or prizes, took home the award for best screenplay for their film “Young Mothers.”
Twenty-two films in total were competing for the prize at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, with entries from well-known directors Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson and Ari Aster.
Saturday’s closing ceremony officially ends the glamour-filled festival that began on May 13.
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Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Admin From Revoking Harvard Enrollment of Foreign Students
US President Trump speaks to the media at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, Washington, DC, April 21, 2025. Photo: Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
A US judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from revoking Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign students, a policy the Ivy League school called part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to retaliate against it for refusing to “surrender its academic independence.”
The order provides temporary relief to thousands of international students who were faced with being forced to transfer under a policy that the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university called a “blatant violation” of the US Constitution and other federal laws, and said would have an “immediate and devastating effect” on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders.
“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the 389-year-old school said in its lawsuit filed earlier on Friday in Boston federal court. Harvard enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, equal to 27% of total enrollment.
The move was the latest escalation in a broader battle between Harvard and the White House, as Trump seeks to compel universities, law firms, news media, courts and other institutions that value independence from partisan politics to align with his agenda. Trump and fellow Republicans have long accused elite universities of left-wing bias.
Harvard has pushed back hard against Trump, having previously sued to restore nearly $3 billion in federal grants that had been frozen or canceled. In recent weeks, the administration has proposed ending Harvard’s tax-exempt status and hiking taxes on its endowment, and opened an investigation into whether it violated civil rights laws.
Leo Gerden, a Swedish student set to graduate Harvard with an undergraduate degree in economics and government this month, called the judge’s ruling a “great first step” but said international students were bracing for a long legal fight that would keep them in limbo.
“There is no single decision by Trump or by Harvard or by a judge that is going to put an end to this tyranny of what Trump is doing,” Gerden said.
In its complaint, Harvard said the revocation would force it to retract admissions for thousands of people, and has thrown “countless” academic programs, clinics, courses and research laboratories into disarray, just a few days before graduation. It said the revocation was a punishment for Harvard’s “perceived viewpoint,” which it called a violation of the right to free speech as guaranteed by the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
The Trump administration may appeal US District Judge Allison Burroughs’ ruling. In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “unelected judges have no right to stop the Trump Administration from exercising their rightful control over immigration policy and national security policy.”
Since Trump’s inauguration on January 20, his administration has accused several universities of indifference toward the welfare of Jewish students during widespread campus protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Harvard’s court challenges over the administration’s policies stand in contrast to its New York-based peer Columbia University’s concessions to similar pressure. Columbia agreed to reform disciplinary processes and review curricula for courses on the Middle East, after Trump pulled $400 million in funding over allegations the Ivy League school had not done enough to combat antisemitism.
In announcing on Thursday the termination of Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, effective starting in the 2025-2026 academic year, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, without providing evidence, accused the university of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.”
Harvard says a fifth of its foreign students in 2024 were from China. US lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns about the influence of the Chinese government on US college campuses, including efforts by Beijing-directed Chinese student associations to monitor political activities and stifle academic speech.
The university says it is committed to combating antisemitism and investigating credible allegations of civil rights violations.
HARVARD DEFENDS ‘REFUSAL TO SURRENDER’
In her brief order blocking the policy for two weeks, Burroughs said Harvard had shown it could be harmed before there was an opportunity to hear the case in full. The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, scheduled hearings for May 27 and May 29 to consider next steps in the case. Burroughs is also overseeing Harvard’s lawsuit over the grant funds.
Harvard University President Alan Garber said the administration was illegally seeking to assert control over the private university’s curriculum, faculty and student body.
“The revocation continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence,” Garber wrote in a letter on Friday to the Harvard community.
The revocation could also weigh on Harvard’s finances. At many US universities, international students are more likely to pay full tuition, essentially subsidizing aid for other students.
“It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Harvard’s bonds, part of its $8.2 billion debt pile, have been falling since Trump first warned US universities in March of cuts to federal funding.
International students enrolled at Harvard include Cleo Carney, daughter of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Princess Elisabeth, first in line to the Belgian throne.
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