Free Besieged: The Messolongi of Gaza

Along with Passion Week and the Jewish Easter, Palm Sunday is historically connected with the heroic Exodus of Messolongi, as it took place on the first day of Holy Week between April 10 and 11, 1826. This year, thinking about the sanctity of Holy Week and the events of the multi-year siege of Messolongi by the Ottomans, and towards the end in cooperation with the troops of the de facto independent Pasha Muhammad Ali of Egypt, by association the mind goes to the Holy Land and the ongoing war between Palestinians and Israelis in the Gaza Strip. Indeed, the similarities between the Ottoman siege of Messolonghi and that of Gaza by the Israelis are many.

A common element is the time span of the suffocating and relentless siege. In the case of Messolongi it lasted five years (20.5.1821-11.4.1826) and in the case of the Gaza Strip seventeen years.

The besieged Mesolongites and Palestinians of Gaza face technologically superior armies, but exploiting the space and using every means, symmetrical and asymmetrical, they make a successful defense. The tunnels of Messolongi and the more extensive and advanced tunnels of Gaza are common means of asymmetric warfare.

In both cases, the besieged, combatants and civilians alike, exuded unity and put up a stubborn defense and with their high spirit effectively faced both the opposing artillery and any attempts to invade their forts, as well as their tragic living conditions due to famine, of pandemics and lack of water and basic sanitation.

The heroic resistance and Exodus of Messolongi inspired solidarity inside and outside Greece leading to the establishment of an independent Greek state. Similarly, the successful Palestinian resistance until now, despite the destruction of the above-ground infrastructure of the Strip, aspires to change the geopolitical balance of power and create the conditions for the creation of an independent Palestinian State on the basis of the Two-State Solution so that Palestinians and Israelis can live in peace.