November, 14 2008, 11:13am EDT
Israeli Blockade Worsens Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza, Charges Amnesty International
Amnesty International urges
the Israeli authorities to allow the immediate passage of humanitarian
aid, medical supplies and fuel to the Gaza Strip, where the situation is
nothing short of a disaster.
"Israel's latest tightening of its blockade
has made an already dire humanitarian situation markedly worse. This is
nothing short of collective punishment on Gaza's civilian population and
it must stop immediately," said Philip Luther, deputy director of Amnesty
International's Middle East and North Africa Program.
WASHINGTON
Amnesty International urges
the Israeli authorities to allow the immediate passage of humanitarian
aid, medical supplies and fuel to the Gaza Strip, where the situation is
nothing short of a disaster.
"Israel's latest tightening of its blockade
has made an already dire humanitarian situation markedly worse. This is
nothing short of collective punishment on Gaza's civilian population and
it must stop immediately," said Philip Luther, deputy director of Amnesty
International's Middle East and North Africa Program.
Even the trickle of humanitarian aid previously
allowed into Gaza, on which 80 percent of the population depends, has now
been stopped for nine days by the Israeli army. The delivery of medical
supplies and the industrial fuel donated by the European Union and needed
to power Gaza's power plant has also been blocked. This has led to a blackout
in large parts of Gaza.
Abu Khalil, a resident of Gaza City, told
Amnesty International this week: "Today I went to look for bread in several
bakeries but couldn't find any. There is no electricity, it's pitch dark.
A few months ago we bought an electric cooker because cooking gas is difficult
to find and very expensive, but now without electricity we can't even
cook. We are sitting at home in the dark; the children don't know what
to do with themselves. We can't do anything. Until when can we live like
this?"
Other residents of Gaza told the human rights
organization that they could not even find candles in the market anymore
and that the few people who have back generators in their homes and who
still have fuel do not dare to use them because nobody knows until how
long the blackout will last.
On Thursday, the United Nations Relief and
Work Agency (UNRWA), the main U.N. aid agency that provides humanitarian
assistance to approximately one million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, announced
that its supplies had run out.
At the same time, the Israeli authorities
have been denying international journalists access to Gaza for a week.
On Thursday, a convoy of European diplomats was refused entry as well.
"Gaza is cut off from the outside world.
Israel is seemingly not keen for the world to see the suffering that its
blockade is causing to the one and a half million Palestinians who are
virtually trapped there," Luther said.
The breakdown last week of a five-and-a-half-month
ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in Gaza has
generated a renewed wave of violence. The killing of six Palestinian militants
in Israeli air strikes and ground attacks on November 4 prompted a barrage
of Palestinian rockets on nearby Israeli towns and villages. Five other
Palestinian militants have been killed by Israeli forces and others injured
in recent days. Palestinian rocket attacks have continued. No Israeli casualties
had been reported until earlier today, when one Israeli was lightly wounded
by shrapnel in an attack on the Israeli city of Sderot.
"This dangerous spate of attacks and counterattacks
must be swiftly halted. Both sides know from past experience that their
actions are putting the lives of civilian populations of Gaza and southern
Israel at risk," said Luther.
Prior to the ceasefire of June 19, 2008,
some 420 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces, half of them unarmed
civilians, including some 80 children, since the beginning of the year.
In the same period, Palestinian armed groups killed 24 Israelis, 15 of
them civilians, including four children.
The five-and-a-half-month cease fire brought
a welcome respite for the civilian population in Gaza and southern Israel
from the daily attacks which had blighted their lives for the past eight
years, during which some 4,750 Palestinians and 1,100 Israelis were killed.
Most of the victims on both sides have been unarmed civilians, including
some 900 Palestinian children and 120 Israeli children.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning
grassroots activist organization with more than 2.2 million supporters,
activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human
rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates
and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice,
freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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Privacy Defenders Decry 'Spy Draft' in Section 702 Renewal Advanced by Senate
"It's not about who RISAA allows the government to spy on, it's about who RISAA allows the government to force to spy," explained one critic.
Apr 18, 2024
Civil liberties defenders on Thursday decried the U.S. Senate's advancement of the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which critics say lawmakers are trying to ram through without protection against warrantless surveillance and with a provision that would effectively make every American a spy whether they like it or not.
Senators voted 67-32 in favor of a cloture motion to begin voting on RISAA, a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on Friday. FISA—a highly controversial law that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times—allows warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens but also often sweeps up Americans' communication data in the process.
In a 273-147 vote last week, House lawmakers passed RISAA, including an amendment critics say dramatically expands the government's unchecked surveillance authority by compelling a wide range of individuals and organizations—including businesses and the media—to cooperate in government spying operations.
This so-called "Make Everyone a Spy" clause would allow the attorney general or director of national intelligence to force electronic communication service providers to "immediately provide... all information, facilities, or assistance" the government deems necessary.
"This bill would basically allow the government to institute a spy draft," Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, warned Thursday. "It will lead to significant distrust between journalists and sources, not to mention everyone else."
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In addition to the "Make Everyone a Spy" provision, civil libertarians have sounded the alarm over the House lawmakers' rejection of an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the legislation.
Critics accuse Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and colleagues including Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) of trying to rush a vote on RISAA while disingenuously claiming Section 702's powers will expire with the law on Friday. That's a misleading claim, as a national security court earlier this month approved the government's request to continue a disputed surveillance program even if Section 702 lapses.
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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—who
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In an attempt to tackle the warrantless surveillance issue, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) on Thursday proposed a RISAA amendment that would require the government to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before accessing Americans' private communications.
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"If the government wants to spy on the private communications of Americans, they should be required to get approval from a judge—just as our Founders intended," Durbin said in a statement. "Congress has a responsibility to the American people to get this right."
The Biden administration and U.S. intelligence agencies vehemently oppose the Durbin-Cramer amendment. The White House called the measure "a reckless policy choice contrary to the key lessons of 9/11 and not grounded in any constitutional requirement or statute."
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Since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has said is a "plausibly" genocidal assault of the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas-led October attack, the Biden administration has blocked three cease-fire resolutions at the Security Council. Under mounting global pressure, the U.S. finally abstained last month, allowing a cease-fire measure to pass.
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The arrests of dozens of Columbia University and Barnard College students on Thursday "galvanized" other supporters of Palestinian rights on the campuses, as hundreds of students occupied the school's western lawn after New York City police filled at least two buses with protesters who had been detained for setting up an encampment.
"Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest," chanted hundreds of students as they marched around the area where organizers had set up a tent encampment early Wednesday morning.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik informed the campus community on Thursday that she had authorized the police to clear the encampment.
As it has been in the past, the school has become a center of anti-war protests—and crackdowns by school officials and the police—since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October.
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In response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Columbia in November suspended the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine—an action that pushed the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal to file a lawsuit on behalf of the students last month.
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