Israel Approves Gaza Power Cuts
Israel’s defence minister has approved sanctions against Gaza, including cuts in the supply of electricity and fuel to try to halt rocket attacks.Ehud Barak authorised the cuts, which are expected to follow immediately after rocket attacks are launched.
Palestinian leaders say the measure amounts to collective punishment.
Israel supplies 60% of the electricity for Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants - but last month Israel declared Gaza a “hostile entity”.
By formally declaring Gaza “hostile”, Israel argues it is no longer bound by international law governing the administration of occupied territory to supply utilities to the civilian population.
But the position accepted by the international community is that Israel remains legally responsible for the coastal strip, despite withdrawing two years ago, because it still controls Gaza’s borders, airspace and territorial waters.
Israel imposed an economic embargo on Gaza after the Islamist militant group, Hamas, seized control from the rival Fatah group in June. It is also limiting the movement of people in and out of the territory.
‘No choice’
Mr Barak is authorised to implement the sanctions, but it is not clear when they will come into effect or whether he will seek the further approval of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the security cabinet.
We are left with no choice but to take these steps
Matan Vilnai
Israeli Deputy Defence Minister
Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai, who led the team which formulated the plan, said Israel would “dramatically reduce” the power it supplied to Gaza over a period of several weeks.
“We are left with no choice but to take these steps. I assume they will have an effect, even if not immediately,” he told Israeli Army Radio.
“The recommendation is to start disconnecting gradually, without causing anything that could create a humanitarian problem, like hospitals.”
Officials said the electricity would be cut at first for 15 minutes after each rocket attack and then for longer and longer periods.
Gen Vilnai said he hoped the gradual disconnection would encourage Gazans to produce their own electricity and no longer be dependent on Israel.
It is unclear how big an effect the power cuts will have, since many buildings have back-up generators.
About 120 megawatts out of the 200 megawatts of electricity used annually in Gaza are bought from and supplied by Israel directly. A further 17 megawatts are supplied by Egypt, while 65 megawatts is produced by a power station in Gaza.
‘Exploiting human needs’
A spokesman for Hamas in Gaza said it would be unbowed by any further sanctions.
“International law requires that occupation forces take care of the needs of the occupied peoples,” Sami Abu Zuhri said.
“Exploiting human needs to blackmail our people will never weaken us.”
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas also reacted angrily to the plan.
“This decision is a form of collective punishment against our people in Gaza,” Cabinet Secretary Saadi al-Kronz said in a statement.
The UN has previously warned Israel that it must not inflict collective punishment on Gaza’s civilian population by cutting vital supplies and services.
In other developments on Thursday, two Palestinian militants were killed in a clash with Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip.
The armed wing of the Hamas, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said the two men were its members.
© 2007 BBC
Meanwhile Israel will portray itself as the victim, suppress the truth or any discussion not on script and American Jews will either be silent or blame the Palestinians for sabotaging the peace process.
How can anyone respect that?
I think right-wing Zionists’ days are numbered. But they will do as much damage as possible to the Palestinians before the Zionist reign ends.
Gaza is a Jewish made ghetto for Muslim Arabs. How WW2 of them.
The Warsaw ghetto, redux.
In the meantime the Israeli courts are presently ruling in cases that say Jews can sell their land to a non-Jew and avoid the religious law that says land must lay fallow every seventh year and therefor the law has not be violated. So the question is, can Israel come to honor the spirit of the law? Or is law something merely to be deconstructed when it suits?
International law demands the Right of Return. The real question comes down to whether the United States can convince the people living or holding property in Israel that their personal, long term, interest requires that the Right of Return be honored with respect to the Palestinians. It is the extreme of irony that Jews’ in Israel only claim to be there at all is predicated upon the Right of Return, though in more nearly mythological dimensions. They claim their rights are superior to those of the Palestinians who were driven off in the 20th century and who await return. Civil law most everywhere says that property rights can be maintained over the lifetime of the survivor of some specified group of persons living plus 21 years thereafter.
How can any group claim the mantle of being a Democracy, when they hold in detention, the deciding votes in any election, held or to be held or hold them, at the borders, refusing them entry on election day.
The matter would be resolved immediately if the United Nations sent election monitors permanently to Israel to assure that all those persons, that the United Nations says are awaiting Right of Return, be given absentee ballots in Israeli elections forthwith and until the matter or Right of Return is settled.
There would be a flood of attempts to buy out those Rights.
Palestinians may increase their independence by adjusting the Palestinian lifestyle to meet Palestinian production. Local self-sufficiency with land rights should be the primary goal of all groups.
In the name of God
RTDRURY: The Palestinians cannot increase their dependence by adjusting the Palestinian lifestyle: you make it sound as if the Palestinians are living in some extravagant, over-the-top manner. They are already starving, have no civil rights, have no human rights, have little access to jobs or money, have little access to education, have little access to medical care, and the list goes on.
That is like saying, “well, if the African Americans worked harder, they wouldn’t be so poor.” And that is a completely ignorant and racist comment.
The only way Palestinians can increase their independence is by ousting the ZE. Pure and simple.
I have no faith in the UN, the UN is what elected the Zionist Entity, and thereby legalized this genocide and mass displacement we see today.
“Israel imposed an economic embargo on Gaza after the Islamist militant group, Hamas, seized control from the rival Fatah group in June.”
RESPONSE: That’s rich: Hamas was DEMOCRATICALLY elected!!!!!!!!! And then “Israel” decided not to recognize them AND punished them for actually taking their rights as the political leader of the area!!!!!!! But no one seems to care about that, for some reason.
“It [the Zionist Entity] is also limiting the movement of people in and out of the territory.”
RESPONSE: That is just a watered-down understatement…”limiting the movement”..puleeze, it’s a prison for God’s sake!!!!!!!
salaam
Isreal is the real menace to the world and their so called democracy is a joke. They have violated more united nations resolutions than Iran or any other country ever will and they treat the palestinians like animals in a zoo and then they are on their moral high horse and wanting the world to believe that Iran is a threat.
I always wonder, “How do they get away with this?” If any other country in the world did this, there’d be a huge and immediate outcry similar to that over the repression of protests in Myanmar. You cannot compare the psychological impact of miscellaneous rockets to that caused by huge bulldozers pulling your house down on your head in the middle of the night or fighter jets targeting supposedly “known militants” in the middle of a crowded market. Give me a break…
Israel needs to stop their collective punishment of the Palestinians. They need to remove their boot-heel from the necks of these people.
With the advent of the internet, the world now sees both sides of this issue. Israel’s propaganda campaign against the Palestinians no longer has credibility. Israel needs to realize the whole world is watching and sitting in judgement of what they are doing; and judging from the number of complaints filed against Israel by the international community-the world is not happy with what they are seeing. Regarding Gaza; the United States and Israel are delusional-they live in their own reality. They need to wake up and smell the international complaints.
Who trains these people?
Before the invasion of Iraq there were reports about how the Iraqi military was firing at the USA and UK war planes doing their attacks on Iraq. The reports were that 800-900 times the Iraqis fired at the ‘anglosphere’war planes. Yet not one single war plane was hit. Not even by accident!
Same in Gaza with these rockets being fired into Israel. They land in the desert, they land in empty lots, they land in a field at night when nobody’s up. If they were trying as hard as they could to miss hitting anything or anyone could they do any better? These bad guys have got to find some arms suppliers and training contractors who can give them what they need.
What if we good guys got our weapons and training from the same people? We would likely have to keep our militaries at home.
Isn’t there talks just starting? The extremists win again and before any talks begin, they throw a monkey wrench in the works. This is terrible. Those people are a captive population and this is shameful. I’m not excusing the extremist palestinians either but this coming ahead of the talks is a kind of sabotage. I pity the innocents who would rather live in peace. One can almost imagine the gaza extremists throwing this in their faces. One can only ask why Israel provides them with excuses for rejecting peace… and the world should make Israel answer to why just now?
littlem85,
So true! Such common zionist remarks regarding Palestinians resemble, almost exactly, the way USAns and white Afrikkkaners talked about Black people in the jim crow/apartheid days, respectively.
where is the courage
the minimum style?
attack the most vulnerable to death
and being boastful about it?
rather revolting.
“I always wonder, “How do they get away with this?” If any other country in the world did this, there’d be a huge and immediate outcry similar to that over the repression of protests in Myanmar.” - katiedid
Exactly. Countries such as Afghanistan, India, and even Pakistan tend to face sanctioning just to get rid of the real terrorists. Can’t imagine how worse they’d be if they were as nasty as Israel. The FAKE “left” and “right” obviously don’t get it !
By the way, if Europe is against atrocities being done to Palestinians and Iraqis, then why are they sitting like a bunch of ASSes? Never mind, Europe was this pathetic back during WWII and the US had to save its ASS or the entire continent would be speaking German and wearing LEDERHOSEN ! No, I’m not pro-war by the way.
Actually, it seems like this would be a good time for Gaza to go solar.
They should see about getting foreign aid to buy huge quantities of solar panels and install them. They could become energy independent.
Hopefully, this technological advancement would not be declared illegal and dangerous to the international community by the US State Department; since apparantly in today’s world some cultures are allowed to have access to modern scientific and technological advance and others are not.
But, I would advocate the use of solar technology for energy independence in the Palestinian territories.
And in this, I see an area of improvement and activism that is available to the populace there to gain greater freedom and independence.
Actually, the wealthier surrounding Arab community should immediately finance the entire population’s purchase of solar panels. Germany and India are among the world’s leading producers.
When they buy the Solar panels they should insist on receiving a guarantee on the panels and also on seeing to it that the companies involved get the governments in question involed in a scheme to provide insurance for the panels in case of damage caused by bombardment.
This is feasible since the Israelis tend to bomb and destroy limited groups of houses, making it possible to insure the larger group. But, at the same time this insurance brings financial pressure to bear limiting the use of bombardment as a political tool. The solar panels become energy producers and actually “peace shields” at the same time.
Am I being partisan in this discussion?
Not at all. I am simply trying to invent a kernel of an idea that could grow peace, using crystals in solar panels as the cells.
What do you think would have happened if the positions were reversed, that is, if it were the Palestinians who were doing all these atrocities to the Israelis?
The cries of the so-called international community would have been deafening. The Congress would have passed a thousand resolutions condemning the Palestinians and calling them anti-Semitic. The UN under the auspices of the US would have held emergency meetings, and finally,the manish boy in the White House would have nuked the Palestinians without a second thought.
Now, come back to reality–nobody is doing anything. You can hear more sound from a cemetary. What happened to the human right charlatrans?
Like Bill Hicks already said: “Adolf was just an under archiever”
should have let him finished the job, would have saved a load of trouble and likely WWIII; Armageddon and the end of life on earth as we know it.
because pretty soon the PNACc and their Zionist masters will start the nuclear distruction of earth and if you think shit was bad right now, well; you ain’t seen nothing yet, dude.
any people that calls themselves “Gods’s chosen people” is exactly the same as any people calling themselves “the Ubermensch” and deserves to be made utterly extinct.
we can’t live with nuclear armed agressive shitheads believing themselves a whole notch better than everyone else just because of a bunch of badly translated fairytales written by drunk unwashed shepherds thousands of years ago.
no, Adolf was just an amateur that botched the job.
badly. very badly.
Early on, Bush washed his hands of the Palestinian people after signaling to Israel that it would not play even the simulacrum of a third party that it was nominally doing under previous administrations. The quintupling of the Lebanese military aid and planning for US bases in Lebanon is a sign that a US/Israel attack on Hezbollah is the long range goal.
If Bush/Cheney attack Iran, Israel/US may go ahead and and attack Hezbollah who has deputies in the government of Lebanon. If not, then the proximity of the bases to Hezbollah and the Lebanese border with Israel will mean any future president, especially a Democrat, will feel that they have no choice but to “render assistance” to an Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon.
Any attack on Lebanon, or Syria for that matter, will probably serve as an opportunity for the Israeli defense force to march into Gaza. If a middle eastern WWIII does break out because down the road, then Israel will probably forcibly relocate the entire Gaza population, well, those that survive after Hamas is neutralized.
Meanwhile, the West Bank will have shrunk.
Hows cutting power have any thign to do with rocket attacks do rockets run off electricity and extension cords? And further more can anyone tell me why we still have the United Nations its not like any country pays attention to what it says anyway
“The recommendation is to start disconnecting gradually, without causing anything that could create a humanitarian problem, like hospitals.”
What!?! Without electricity you can’t refrigerate food, and therefore you can’t have food security. Gaza is a hot, dry region with a huge population. Not a humanitarian problem!?!
Changing the attitude of the US government is simple (but not easy).
The Palestinians need to buy some Congressmen just like the country that shall not be named does.
My spokesperson will now announce that I was, of course, speaking rhetorically.
In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-giving
This talk of solar panels and alternative energy uses for the Palestinians is completely besides the point. The energy IS NOT the issue guys! The issue is, like others have said in their posts, the ZE is trying it’s utmost to utterly control (and hence smash) and already impoverished and displaced group of people.
I think it’s more than 60% of Gaza is refugees. Gaza is one of the poorest, if not the poorest, region on the face of the earth. More poor than war-ravaged places in Africa.
Solar panels would be a great idea….If the Gazans had roofs to put the panels in!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are there solar panels for cardboard huts? for make-shift tents? I think not.
When your thinking about where to get your next meal and if you will be shot by a Soldier Terrorist Israeli when you walk onto the street, the last thing on your mind is Solar panels.
Palestinian Extremists? What’s a Palestinian extremist? A person who dared take up arms against an entity that stole his land, killed his family, bulldozed his house? Fighting against that is not extremism, that is natural and legitimate human behavior. If you think “peace” can be resumed any other way, that is naive.
I try not to piss off our liberal jews, but sometimes…
Anyone who wants to know more about Palestine, and the situation in Gaza, please watch this interview with Rachel Corrie, a peace activist from Washington State. She was protesting against the Israeli military’s demolition of civilian homes in Rafah, Gaza in 2003. She was deliberately run over by an Zionist bulldozer and killed. She was 23 years old. She is a hero of mine and I pray for her and her family every day. May God place her in the highest level of paradise.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=O3JI-axaRF4
NAMOSES: My God cure you! Keep up the fight, I’ll be praying for you.
Great idea, by the way, about having students read about Rachel Corrie instead of Anne Frank! Any luck? I think I’m going to try to do that too with our local schools…we’ll see how that goes
“If I were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. We come from Israel, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?”
David Ben-Gurion to Nahum Goldmann
Ehud Barak is a fascist pig.
Israel is a perfect case of how the oppressed becomes the oppressor.
A lot of this is the willingness on both sides to promote hatred of the other group, and do so with an extremely callous attitude. Palestinian parents promoting hatred of Israelis and Israelis promoting hatred of Palestinians. To teach your children to hate is a deliberate action so vile and repugnant, there should be a law against it. To take an innocent mind, and teach it to hate and despise is an incredibly evil act, done by someone filled with hate, and that is their prison, their torture, and they do not even see it, but they do torment themselves, and that is what God says will happen to such people. And what for? The Israelis and Palestinians are genetically closer than any other groups, according to studies done, they are related, and yet filled with such hated for each other by too many.
There is a God and He is just, and His laws are true and righteous, and what we do to ourselves is our own doing, but why bring children into those sick mindsets? These parents do not see how sick they are. Israel slowly tightens the rope around Palestinians necks more and more, treating them as animals, and when they react like animals condemns them, but they should take a good look at themselves first and see what their actions are creating, in a world owned by God, not them or anyone else.
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the genetic testing Israel is doing now. They are going one step further than the eugenics movements. From the brief mention I saw of it in the news, those desiring to emigrate to Israel must undergo genetic testing to prove their Jewishness. I could be mistaken but would love to learn more about this if anyone has read further on this subject.
If this is not racism I don’t know what is.
In the Name of God, the All Merciful, the Mercy-giving
PAULBL 1977: I think what you said is extremely off….to the point of being offensive. Palestinian families are not taking innocent minds and “teaching” them to hate…If there is resentment and hatred toward Israelis on the part of Palestinian kids, its ONLY because of what they’ve experienced directly at the Zionists hands: i.e. having their houses smashed in, seeing their fathers imprisoned, beaten before their eyes, seeing their mothers and siblings shot, being harassed all the time by Zionist soldiers. That’s where the hatred comes from.
I guarantee you, if there was no oppression, there’d be no hatred.
In a world owned by God, for your information, oppression is one of the MOST repugnant deeds…
I too believe God is Just, and I believe that there is no veil between God and the oppressed person (even, for your information) if the oppressed person is not a good person…And the Palestinians are extremely oppressed.
This conflict is not a two-way conflict: It’s a one way assault.
Extremists whether those in the Israeli Government or among those of the Palestians are winning. They do not want peace. It is not all jews in Israel or all Palestinians. Try to remember.
Is it possible that human societies behave much the same way as the enemy they vanquished.
Recent Example, Jews vs. Nazi
US vs USSR
US vs Japan
Japan vs US
India vs Britan
Serbs vs Ottoman Empire
If so Why?
Are they pretending to take the stratigies their enemy used against them and not make the same mistakes.
What are they smoking?
Little M, then was what I have seen a mirage? I am told I am delusional, but I did see children holding AK-47’s, Palestinian children that is. I have also seen young Israeli girls writing notes on bombs and missles to be sent into Palestinian areas. This is so sick, this is totally disgusting to do to any child, or to encourage them to do so. It is on both sides, and I will agree Israel is the more powerful, and has to take the first step towards a lasting peace, but refuses to do so, for their own advantage. But don’t try to convince me that these tactics are not used by parents on both sides, I have seen it, and it is an abomination to take a child’s mind, and instill in it hatred, or revenge, or death. This is just plain sick. Of all the nation’s involved, I blame those nations that have given Israel free reign over what they do to their enemy de jour, and without a whimper, or a serious protest, regarding Israeli warmongering.