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Gaza Still Waiting for Pledged Aid: UN Official
BRUSSELS - None of a $4.5 billion package of reconstruction aid recently pledged for the Gaza Strip has got through because of border restrictions, a top U.N. official said on Thursday.
A Palestinian boy eats bread near the ruins of destroyed houses in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, February 2009. (AFP/File/Mohammed Abed) International donors pledged the aid money in March to help the Palestinian economy and rebuild Gaza after a three-week Israeli military offensive.
But John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, said Gaza had still not benefited from any of the aid because of restrictions on the flow of goods into the territory.
"There is no prospect of recovery or reconstruction until we can get access for construction materials," Ging said.
"Billions of dollars were pledged for recovery and reconstruction and yet none of that can actually connect with those whose lives were destroyed," he told a news briefing during a trip to European Union headquarters in Brussels.
Israel has said it had opened Gaza's border to larger amounts of food and medicine since the December-January offensive against Hamas militants who control the Palestinian enclave and were firing rockets against Israeli towns.
The war destroyed some 5,000 homes and, according to figures from a Palestinian rights group, killed over 1,400 people.
Since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in a 2007 civil war with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction, Israel has tightened its blockade of the 30-mile (45-km) strip in an effort to weaken Hamas's hold on power.
Egypt has also restricted crossings at its border with Gaza.
Ging said the international community should find a solution to the border crossings issue and provide more access to goods and services for the inhabitants of Gaza.
"Today the money is out there in pledges and the people of Gaza continue to subsist in the rubble of their former lives and the attention of the world has sadly moved on, which compounds the despair that people feel," he said.
Robert Serry, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said on a visit to Gaza on Thursday the situation was alarming and warned that issues such as Palestinian reconciliation and secure borders had to be addressed.
"In the absence of real progress on issues like Palestinian reconciliation, open crossings, secure borders and a prisoners exchange, the potential for renewed violence is ever-present," Serry said in a statement.
(Reporting by Bate Felix; editing by Mark John and Charles Dick)
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18 Comments so far
Show AllGaza And The Warsaw Ghetto
same place
different time
while the world stood by
genocide
live
Yourstruly “Gaza And The Warsaw Ghetto same place different time”
Let’s examine that claim:
Warsaw Ghetto - 99% of the Jews were killed.
Gaza – 99.9% of the Palestinians survived.
Warsaw Ghetto – The Jews didn’t want to replace Germany with a Jewish republic.
Gaza – the Hamas wants to obliterate Israel and replace it with an Islamic republic.
Warsaw Ghetto – The Jews didn’t claim that have natural right to randomly kill Germans.
Gaza – The Hamas claim they have natural right to randomly kill Jews.
Warsaw Ghetto – The Jews didn’t fired rockets on German civilian targets.
Gaza – The Hamas fired 10,000 rockets and mortar bombs on Israeli civilian targets
Warsaw Ghetto – The Nazis wanted to exterminate the Jews.
Gaza – Israel wanted only to convince the Hamas to stop firing rockets on Israeli civilian targets.
Warsaw Ghetto – Jews were sent to extermination camps
Gaza –Palestinians were NOT sent to extermination camps
Conclusion A: "Gaza And The Warsaw Ghetto same place different time." is NOT an accurate claim.
Conclution B: Yourstruly didn’t know the above facts, or he did yet he deliberately lied for some hidden agenda.
Your obvious self-serving agenda is showing.
Perhaps the original posting, was referred to the situation in Warsaw -- leading up to the ultimate solution of nearly all killed __ as that is what the setup in Palestine is equivalent to today.
Your extremity over 10,000 mostly dud diversions is pathetic and disingenuous distortion of reality, because the entirely disproportionate number of Palestinian dead shows the true nature of who is killing who. More IDF soldiers have died from friendly fire than civilians from rockets. More have IDF soldiers commit suicide every year than have died in 10 years from rockets.
You assert standard Hasbra justifications about "Israel wanted only to convince the Hamas to stop firing rockets on Israeli civilian targets," when the majority opinion in Israel is that the rockets were a ruse and camouflage the official policy of Apartheid, collective punishment, and hate war crimes against a captive and profoundly suffering people.
be_nspired: “Perhaps the original posting, was referred to the situation in Warsaw -- leading up to the ultimate solution of nearly all killed”
Perhaps this was on his mind. Even so – it's still incomparable.
A. No one is planning the extermination of Palestinians.
B. Unlike the Jews in the Ghetto who could do nothing to change the Nazi’s mind, the Hamas can end the partial blockade anytime they want. (By accepting the reasonable requirements set by the UN, Russia, the EU and the USA.)
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be_nspired: “Your extremity over 10,000 mostly dud diversions is pathetic and disingenuous distortion of reality, because the entirely disproportionate number of Palestinian dead shows the true nature of who is killing who.”
The difference in casualties is NOT because the Hamas is extra careful not to hit civilians, or because the IDF wants to kill civilians. The difference is because the IDF is better equipped and better trained than the Hamas.
Tell me, be_nspired, what would you, be_nspired, do if someone had fired 10,000 mostly dud pathetic and disingenuous diversions rockets and mortar bombs on your house over a period of 8 years?
Regardless, the Jews in Warsaw Ghetto didn’t fire 10,000 mostly dud pathetic and disingenuous diversions rockets and mortar bombs on German civil targets.
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be_nspired: “the majority opinion in Israel is that the rockets were a ruse and camouflage the official policy of Apartheid”
A small minority of Israelis does say so. That's the nature of plural society and free speech, which is a good thing. I would hardly call it majority though. Please show us a survey that proves your claim.
The reason why Israel went to the war in Gaza is because the Hamas declared the seize-fire over, and increased the number of rocket attacks on Israeli civilian targets from 1-2 a day to 60-70 a day.
Israel is carrying out a slow-motion holocaust of the Palestinians, while Israel continues to steal the Palestinian land and water resources.
Israel planned the slaughter in Gaza for several years, and broke the cease-fire in November, during the U.S. preoccupation with their elections, and then massacred the Palestinians in Gaza, 50% of whom are children, for three weeks, stopping the slaughter just in time for the U.S. presidential inauguration balls.
Frankly, Israel has become the Nazis. And before you cry antisemitism, I remind you that Zionists represent Jews in the same way that the Ku Klux Klan represents Christians.
A bright note for me: I rarely see any products from Israel to boycott, but yesterday I almost bought some toys that turned out to be made in Israel, so I didn't buy them. I am glad to be able to support the movement to boycott/divest/sanction Israel.
There are none so blind as those who will not see. Zionists have no integrity whatsoever. None. I find it hard pressed to believe ANYTHING they say.
It's time to recognize Israel for what it is -- an immoral and brutal invasion. I don't begrudge the victims for resisting.
Israel.... The worst country in the World!
If Israel is the worst country in the world, please explain why so many people want to live there? (instead of remaining in better places such as Sudan, Gaza or Iraq?)
No answer is owed to you, and I agree with the original poster.
Israel has its hand in most of the problem spots of the world. 'Nuff said.
This is so heartbreaking that I shall refrain from voting for any Zionist candidate of either party, Republican or Democratic, until all this aid is inplace AND Israel makes repairs and reparations to the Palestineans for more that half a century of genocidal atrocities.
Why not establish an Israeli State in Texas? At least it is land that is ours to give away, unlike in Palestine.
I'm willing to bet they could improve the place.
Hell, then we could be a chummy as we liked with the Zionists.
Texas should go back to the people it was stolen from. The English-speaking immigrant-invaders stole the land north of the Rio Bravo del Norte so they keep their African slaves. Like the rest of the civilized world, slavery was, of course always outlawed in Mexico.
The Spanish who founded Mexico stole it too - the land originally belong to native Americans.
I'm sure the Mayan and Aztec slaves of the Spanish would be intrigued to learn that- as would, I imagine, the slaves and human sacrifices of the Mayans and Aztecs before the Spanish arrived.
Having the power, the people of Israel have the opportunity to practice compassion. This is not what Israel is doing. Why? Because the Israel national psyche (projected by the people) is driven insane by guilt feeding fear feeding violence, greed, fear, guilt, violence, greed, fear, guilt, violence, greed, fear, guilt, violence, greed, fear, guilt, violence, greed, fear, guilt, violence, greed, fear, etc.
It's a pretty sad society, sad people, sad sad people supported by "The West" (as in modern industrial knowledge based culture that grew out of a tradition of colonialism, the tool to plunder weaker societies) ... which grew into a potentially interesting culture with some glaring deficits, namely guilt, violence, greed, fear, guilt, violence, greed, fear, guilt, violence, greed, fear, guilt, violence, greed, fear, guilt, violence, greed, fear, guilt, violence, greed, fear, ...
Poor, poor, sad bunch of phucks.
An immediate way to get this $4.5 billion of aid moving would be to withhold $4.5 billion in weaponry to Israel. I feel sure that would work like a dose of Ex-Lax.
The UN has condemned the demolitions in East Jerusalem.
"The attention of the world has sadly moved on."
What if 1000 people refused to pay their Federal Income Taxes until Aid to Israel stopped or a solution was manifest.
Arabs live in America, Palestinians-The media could be manipulated to their advantage. They must start a group with a catchy name,-organize-1000 Palestinians demanding change and doing a sit-in on the Santa Monica Freeway once a weekwould make the news around the world. Relate it to the checkpoints in the West Bank where people cannot travel.
Zionism has become a rabid dog fixated on expansion and ridding itself of Palestinians altogether. Which does no good for all the Righteous Jewish people who must feel conflicted by Love for Israel but disagreement with it's policies. To Love.
Notice the tone of the MSM reportage " according to figures from a Palestinian rights groups, killed over 1,400 people".
Eight word used to qualify the death toll and an unnamed rights group to boot.
Maybe no one really died.
MSM would report rocket attacks as "today Hamas rockets made an extremely dangerous and vicious hole in the ground. Aided by the extremely LAWLESS TRIBAL AREAS and Iran whose nuclear missiles are at this moment falling from the skies onto sweet israel and the Taliban has forced israeli women to wear the deadly evil BURQA".