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Israel Chokes Gaza Despite Announced Easing
RAMALLAH - Israel has received international praise for its decision to ease its crippling blockade on Gaza following the country's deadly assault on a humanitarian flotilla trying to bring desperately needed humanitarian aid to the coastal territory. But according to the UN and human rights organizations, the easing of the blockade is insufficient in meeting Gaza's needs.
Palestinian women paint ships on a wall to show support for attempts to break the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza, at the sea port in Gaza City, Thursday, July 15, 2010.
(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) "Even if the blockade is eased it remains illegal under international law as it is a collective form of punishment on a civilian population," Chris Gunness from the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) told IPS.
"Eighty percent of Gaza's population is aid-dependent. Allowing more aid in is perpetuating this dependency and not addressing the issue of self- sufficiency or the root causes of the crisis," added Gunness.
Israeli commandos shot dead nine activists aboard the Mavi Marmara, one of the flotilla boats, when they raided it in international waters at the end of May. The killings sparked international outrage but also drew global attention to the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza as a result of Israel's, and to a lesser degree Egypt's, hermetic sealing of the territory.
Following international pressure Israel decided to ease the closure. Towards the end of June the government of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu issued a six-point plan to facilitate increased access for civilian goods entering Gaza and to expand economic activity, reports the Israeli human rights organization Gisha.
The plan stated that all commercial products -- other than a list of banned dual-purpose goods -- would be permitted entry to the strip; 250 daily truckloads of goods would enter; the entrance of construction materials would be better facilitated; and the movement of humanitarian cases and international NGOs would be streamlined.
Gisha reports that there has been a moderate rise in the volume of trucks entering Gaza and an increase in imports of consumer goods, but that this volume still falls way below pre-embargo days, and isn't sufficient to meet the daily needs of Gaza's 1.5 million civilians.
During the week after Jun. 20, 695 trucks of goods entered Gaza. This compares with 2,400 per week prior to the closure, and meets only 30 percent of Palestinian needs. Over the past three years 2,328 trucks entered Gaza on a monthly basis compared with 10,400 trucks monthly prior to the blockade.
Additionally, items which could be used for industry and manufacturing and which present no security threat are still being restricted. There appears to be "no change in the policy of inflicting economic warfare or by preventing entry of goods necessary for production," says the Gisha report. "Textiles, industrial-sized buckets of margarine, glucose, packaging boxes and other raw materials are still banned.
"Permitting mayonnaise and potato chips into Gaza is really irrelevant in dealing with the underlying issues," says Maxwell Gaylard, UN Deputy Special and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Middle East.
"What we need to see is an improvement in Gaza's water, sanitation, power grid, educational and health sectors. Gaza's economy is shot to pieces and its infrastructure is extremely fragile," Gaylard told IPS.
"What have not been addressed by the easing of the closure are the issues of exports as well as the limited number of crossings open to facilitate the flow of goods," said Gunness.
A major step towards helping to rehabilitate Gaza's economy would be permitting exports on which Gaza's economy is heavily reliant. A 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access, signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2005, agreed to 400 daily truckloads of exports. In the last three years 295 export trucks have exited Gaza.
Gisha reports that "critical manufacturing sectors such as furniture, clothing and textile, and food production are dependent upon revenues acquired by selling their goods outside the strip."
The near collapse of these industries has been aggravated by restrictions on Gaza's banking ties with the outside world, making the legal transfer of money almost impossible.
These industries have been further decimated by the ban on the entrance of raw materials and spare parts.
"Operation Cast Lead destroyed at least 60,000 homes and structures which need to be urgently repaired and rebuilt. The easing of the blockade is not addressing this adequately," Gunness told IPS.
One of the biggest humanitarian issues remains the continued restrictions on movement, including Gazans trying to leave for medical treatment, to continue their studies, or to visit family in the West Bank.
In 2000, 26,000 Palestinian laborers traveled to Israel on a daily basis to earn a living and support large families. Revenue from Israel provided a major boost to Gaza's economy. In the last few weeks a daily average of 95 people have been permitted to pass through Gaza's Erez crossing into Israel. Students wishing to pursue their studies in the West Bank have been repeatedly turned back.
Twenty-nine-year-old Fatma Sharif, a lawyer with the Gaza human rights organization Al-Mezan which is strongly critical of Hamas, had her application to enter the West Bank to study for her masters degree at Birzeit University near Ramallah turned down by Israel's High Court of Justice.
The decision of the judges was not based on Sharif being a security threat but rather that her application did not meet Israel's guidelines on travel restrictions imposed on Gaza's residents under the blockades.
30 Comments so far
Show AllYes, Israel's "guidelines". Designed to slowly make life for Palestinians untenable... So disconnected from heart and ethical intelligence, one has to wonder if there's some sort of sadism lingering in the victim/victimizer cycle of the Israeli psyche. And the rest of the world so obtuse and distracted and imprisoned by pathological norms of viewing the entire planet as commodified with so little recognition of brotherhood/sisterhood... our interbeing on this miraculous earth. Hope is there, however... if we can just open our eyes and hearts and stop plundering and obsessing on our relative advantages/hierarchies.... So ironic there are such displays of ignorance as Palestinians are ousted from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem with nary a peep in the world's press, let alone the gumption required of 'leaders' to call Israel on its illegal occupation and human rights violations. Business trumping humanity... we are really blowing it. Until a tipping point of caring and recognizing the harm being done to ALL gets us to act very very differently, called more by our consciences than by 'bottom line' dominator strategizing, and getting it that 'all' includes oneself and excludes noone.
No surprises; this is how it always goes down. The PR propaganda machine spews forth and Gaza remains the world's largest concentration camp prison.
Meanwhile in the West Bank sector of the occupied territories, the bulldozing and ethnic cleansing proceed at break-neck speed.
This Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing was brought to you buy...
The Empire Inc. bringing death and destruction to millions and obscene profits to a select few.
Cindy Sheehan's internet radio show is back on. This week's guest was Edward Peck, who was on the flotilla.
All past shows can be played from the site:
http://www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com/
With such atrosities as this how much longer before we are all Palistinians? An injustice to anyone can easily become an injustice to everyone. Our government continues to send money and military aid to Israel whether Israel does what is asked of them or not. As our own government seems to treat it's citizens like secound class people more and more on a daily basis. Just look at what government aid if any is helping the millions of people in the Gulf states. Hell, if you can't see it now, just wait till the new healthcare bill actually takes effect. There will be rationing and many will be left to die of their demise to save money for what the government deems more appropiate. Don't beleive me? Read the bill!!! There are many other issues along the same lines where ones worth will be of essence. Change this mind set... Free the Palistinians from this aparthiede regime or soon we will face a similar fate here in America. THINK about IT!!!!
The countries praising Israel for throwing a few crumbs to the Palestinians are afraid they will be next. The Jews only threw the crumbs to make them selves look good. All countries, including our own, are guilty for allowing the Jews to continue the treatment of the Palestinians, for at least 60 years or more.
Right wing Israeli Likud and its theocratic allies do not represent "Jews".
Apparently they do. The proof is in the pudding.
Shouldn't your ID be "tiredofbeingatroll"?
q
Nope. Thanks for playing, though.
It bears repeating: Apparently, they do.
Its only a matter of time until the words spoken 2000 years ago are fulfilled, and Jerusalem is surrounded by troops. That is what will get the World Court of Daniel 7 to sit...to give the kingdoms to those who have stood for Peace.
There is a very strong parallel between the Warsaw ghetto and the Gaza ghetto. In the first the Jews were the victims and the Nazis were in control in the second the Gaza-Palestinians are the victims and the Zionists are in control. History does have a way of repeating itself.
History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme alot. -M. Twain
No more charity! The next flotillas need to be "export" ones, where they exchange outside goods for Gaza's products.
Gaza And The Warsaw Ghetto
same place
different time
while the world stood by
genocide
live
BRILLIANT !
Two good things are coming out of this. the first is that countries which have a vested interest in embarassing Israel now have a non-violent way of keeping them on their toes by sending aid to Palestine instead of rockets or gun boats. It also gives Muslim countries a project in which any of them can participate without harming each other and may contribute to solidarity in the Middle East.
The second good thing is that the commission that Israel set up to investigate the incident has asked for two more members and is starting it's investigation asking why Gaza has been blockaded in the first place. I'm sure everyone will be interested in the way that question is answered.
The problem of crippling Gaza by stopping exports is indeed another way of imposing collective punishment and should be the next issue to be challenged.
Every other nation in the whole world not only has a vested interest in embarrassing Israel, they have a vested interest in making a better world by de-countrifying Israel now.
it is more than the likud, etc., it is a form of mass psycho-pathology where an abstract entity, the zionist created state (hiding behind the name, "israel") has its own kind of life, and, much like a cancer cell or tumor, or a magnet and iron filings, turns "israelis" and its other supporters into new cancer cells....
from a spiritual standpoint, what is being described is an idol...
Israel announced "an easing" of Gaza for as long as it took to mollify Obama. Is the world suffering from dementia, that we keep believing Israel's words??? Israel has absolutely no intention to quite its barbaric behaviour until the entire area has been ethnically cleansed. The stench of Nazi-tactics is getting stronger and stronger. What on Earth have Palestinians done to deserve this?
And loyalty tests for the "Israeli" arabs. The apartheid state is alive and well.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/07/15/israeli-cabinet-set-for-first-loyalty-oath-decision/
Israeli policy will only be changed if an international boycott similar to that which altered Apartheid South Africa were put into effect. Comments and/or appeals have had little effect, although over the decades increasing numbers of world citizens have become critical of the treatment of the Palestinians by Israeli governments.
U.S. voters should not elect any candidate who receives or has received contributions and backing by AIPAC, which continues to support the Israeli hard-line despite its standing in the world today (economic success, acceptance as a member of OECD).
Unfortunately, Obama, like every president since Truman, is dependent on AIPAC to win elections because of its financial clout...and there is another election coming soon.
It is taboo in America to criticize Israel. The fundamentalists in America will never criticize Israel for fear that they are going against God. Israelis are just enjoying all the land that they have now. There is a slight pest control problem in the Palestinians, but they keep building anyway.
So, we have this problem going on in the middle east, the same situation that the 9/11 commission stated first thing as the reason why Qutb's boy bin Laden hit the twin towers. I'm not saying to throw Israel to the wolves, but let's not throw ourselves to the wolves for such an un-admirable purpose.
Surprised that the UN did not mention that a naval blockade is an illegal act of war unless authorized by the UN Security Council...which it has not been.
Zionist Israeli Jews doing their best imitation of the 1930s German Gestapo. It was a wise person who pointed out that history repeats itself.
World cheers Israel's promise to strangle Gaza at a slower pace.
the supporters of the cancer called "israel" become cancer cells themselves...