- On June 9, McClatchy and other publications revealed
some of what's rarely, if ever, acknowledged in the press - that Israel's
blockade of Gaza is "economic warfare," not for security as most
commonly reported, based on an Israeli document the Gisha Legal Center
for Freedom of Movement's lawsuit obtained.
-
- Gisha's director, Sari Bashi, said the document shows
the siege is collective punishment, in violation of Fourth Geneva's Article
33 stating:
-
- "No protected person may be punished for an offence
he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise
all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."
-
- For over 43 years of occupation, Israel has willfully
and maliciously violated this and virtually all other Fourth Geneva and
other humanitarian rights law provisions.
-
- In the wake of the Flotilla massacre, a Gisha June 9
press release headlined, "The Pyrrhic Victory of Jam and Halva,"
saying:
-
- Israel agreed to let these items, razors, coriander,
cardamon, and cookies enter Gaza, after banning them for three years. However,
it "continues to prevent the transfer of purely civilian goods, such
as fabrics, fishing rods, and food wrappers, as part of what it calls "economic
warfare" aimed at crippling Gaza's economy, (and by doing so) denies
1.5 million human beings the right to engage in productive, dignified work,"
let alone rebuild and survive under unending harshness.
-
- The day before on June 8, the London Daily Telegraph's
Adrian Blomfield and Alex Spillius headlined, "Israel to accept British
plan to ease Gaza blockade," saying:
-
- Its government is willing to do it "in exchange
for international acceptance of a watered-down investigation into last
week's deadly raid," massacring humanitarian activists in international
waters. In other words, a whitewash, along the lines of a June 10 Haaretz
Barak Ravid and Amos Harel report saying Washington and Tel Aviv agreed
to let former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Yaakov Tirkel head an internal
investigation into the matter, an idea the Obama administration proposed
to include international law jurists (nationalities not named, but very
likely will be Israelis) and two observers - one American, the other European.
-
- The legality of the blockade will be examined and whether
Israel's Flotilla massacre violated international law. On June 9, "A
team of (Israeli-appointed) military experts headed by Major General (res.)
Giora Eiland began its own examination of the flotilla incident."
-
- On June 11, the neoconservative Weekly Standard's William
Kristol headlined, "Sources: Obama Administration to Support Anti-Israeli
Resolution at UN Next Week," saying:
-
- Obama officials "have been telling foreign governments
that the administration (will) support (a UN) independent commission....to
investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident" - what
Kristol called "an extraordinary singling out of Israel, (a biased)
investigation, (and one that will set) a terrible precedent, (perhaps leading
to) outside investigations of incidents involving US troops or intelligence
operatives (in) our war on terror."
-
- On June 11, Haaretz writer Natasha Mozgovaya headlined,
"US denies pushing for Gaza flotilla probe," quoting State Department
spokesman Philip Crowley, saying:
-
- "We are not aware of any resolution that will be
introduced at the UN next week....We support an Israeli led investigation
and we are open to the potential ways in which the international community
can participate in it;" that is, with individuals acceptable to Israel
and Washington, ruling out independent judgments - in other words, assure
whitewash, the usual practice by both countries to keep sensitive information
suppressed.
-
- These investigations won't reveal the purpose of the
siege or attack, let alone their illegality. Israel needs Hamas, and would
invent it if it didn't exist as a pretext to hype fear, impose harshness,
and conduct repeated assaults against bogus security threats - without
challenge the way Israel's done it for decades, the Flotilla attack the
latest atrocity after thousands of others previously.
-
- Why so this time was to maintain an oppressive siege,
keep 1.5 million Gazans trapped, cause enough harm to deter other aid missions
from coming, and assassinate designated activists on board, the commandos
given names and photos in advance. The death toll - 9 confirmed dead, another
6 or 7 missing, likely dumped overboard to perish at sea.
-
- OCHA's Report on Occupied Palestine
-
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
occupied Palestinian territory issued a May 2010 report titled, "Impending
Assistance: Challenges to Meeting the Humanitarian Needs of Palestinians,"
citing "obstacles to the movement of staff and goods and other restrictions
impacting day-to-day operations that limit its ability to efficiently and
effectively respond to existing needs."
-
- According to John Holmes, UN Under Secretary-General
for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, "When the
delivery of humanitarian access is restricted, lives are lost and misery
prolonged needlessly."
-
- OCHA discussed needs throughout the Territories, but
highlighted them in Gaza. Besides sweeping import restrictions, UNWRA reported
its 24 construction and infrastructure projects are frozen and can't begin,
including for schools, health facilities, housing units,
- sewage, and sanitation.
-
- In the West Bank, free movement and access restrictions
impede efforts, including the problems of getting permits. As a result,
the needs of vulnerable Palestinians go unmet, a trend OCHA calls vital
to reverse.
-
- "A complete lifting of Israel's (Gaza) blockade
and improved (West Bank) access....are just (two) examples of measures
that could significantly improve Palestinian livelihoods through a reduction
in unemployment and poverty."
-
- Israel's modest Gaza relaxation is woefully inadequate,
and largely cosmetic. It's a welcome baby step provided much more follows,
including international community pressure to enforce change as well as
political and financial support.
-
- The General Assembly's February 2004 Resolution 58/114
"Strengthen(ed) the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance
of the United Nations," stating:
-
- "All governments and parties in complex humanitarian
emergencies, in particular in armed conflicts, and in post conflict situations,
in countries in which humanitarian personnel are operating, are called
upon in conformity to relevant provisions of international law and international
humanitarian law to: cooperate fully with the (UN) and other humanitarian
agencies and organizations; and to ensure the safe and unhindered access
of" personnel, supplies and equipment to aid civilians, refugees and
displaced persons.
-
- Israel refuses to honor this and dozens of other UN resolutions.
As a result, humanitarian missions are severely impeded, especially in
Gaza under siege. Since its onset, "the UN has literally spent thousands
of staff hours attempting to secure entry of goods....with only limited
success, and virtually none for reconstruction.
-
- "Since 2007, UNWRA has been unable to complete any
of its construction projects, including those projects meant to re-house
14,200 people, many of whom had their homes destroyed by Israeli military
operations between 2000 and 2004," let alone from Cast Lead.
-
- A 2007 Khan Yunis project, funded by the Arab Emirates
Red Crescent Society, planned to build 600 housing units for 3,575 individuals.
Yet it was suspended after Israel prohibited entry of necessary construction
materials, including for related infrastructure.
-
- Prior to the blockade, 151 units were partly built, and
only after months of negotiations did Israel agree to let in some materials
to complete them - as of May, enough only for about 13, "completely
inadequate to address" the enormous need.
-
- A new UNWRA poverty survey showed how Palestinian refugees
are "completely unable to secure access to food and (lack) the means
to purchase even the most basic items" like soap and safe drinking
water - a population that tripled since June 2007.
-
- Overall, the UN and other relief agencies face enormous
obstacles throughout the Territories that negatively impact their operations
or deter them altogether. For example, in the West Bank's Area C, home
for 60% of its population, Israeli control caused years of neglect.
-
- As a result, a recent West Bank UNICEF, WFP, and UNRWA
survey found severe restrictions on Palestinians' access to range land
and water, raising herder communities' food insecurity levels up to 80%,
compared to 25% overall in the Territory.
-
- Construction is also impeded for needed schools, medical
clinics, dwellings, and vital infrastructure as a result of the permit
approval process, taking years, and discouraging funding as a result.
-
- One example involved an ambitious 2010 plan, focused
on meeting urgent West Bank water, sanitation, education, and housing needs.
The proposal includes 15 projects in 17 Area C communities for 52,000 people,
and for a moratorium on home demolitions for lacking permit permission
to build them.
-
- Three months after the plan's submission, the UN and
its partners still await an official Israeli response, and may wait months
longer before hearing anything.
-
- Besides numerous obstacles impeding the movement of goods
and day-to-day operations, humanitarian agencies face a range of restrictions,
including West Bank checkpoints and permits (taking 3 - 6 months to obtain),
entry into East Jerusalem, and access to Gaza under siege, besides invasive
searches and other measures to enter through Erez crossing.
-
- At minimum, they delay work and raise costs. At worst,
operations can't meet the population's needs. For example, in March 2010,
UN staff reported 53 West Bank access incidents, costing 287 staff hours
or the equivalent of 38 days. Over two-thirds of the delays or denials
resulted from Israeli demands to carry out measures contrary to UN conventions
and guidelines, such as vehicle searches and requirement that staff exit
them at checkpoints..
-
- Entering Gaza was severely restricted after September
2000, the start of the second Intifada, and today it's much harder under
siege, requiring lengthy permit procedures, many denied on "security
grounds."
-
- Getting into Gaza is especially hard, including needing
visas, then delays, strip searches, whether entry can be vehicular or on
foot, and numerous other impediments affecting operations.
-
- In June 2009, Louis Michel, European Commissioner for
Development and Humanitarian Aid, called the Occupied Territory situation
"wholly unacceptable" with regard to access and security of humanitarian
workers, adding that:
-
- "The violation of International Humanitarian Law
is as deadly as any weapon. And no reason can justify it."
-
- Especially in Gaza under extreme conditions, including
up to 95% of its water contaminated, according to Amnesty International,
inadequate power, electricity, and sanitation, 60% of households food insecure,
chronic malnutrition rising, nearly all of the Strip's production capacity
entirely or partially shut down, construction at a standstill, the fish
catch down about 50%, unemployment and poverty at record high levels, the
health sector overworked and unable to function optimally, education heavily
impacted, and numerous other hardships unimaginable in the West.
-
- OCHA and other international agencies are concerned,
calling for the immediate, unconditional lifting of the siege as well as
improved West Bank access, including to and from East Jerusalem.
-
- Nothing should impede humanitarian organizations from
carrying out their mission effectively and efficiently. Israel, of course,
does it willfully, repeatedly, and illegally, a situation no longer to
be tolerated, and high time for world leaders to demand it unconditionally,
something few have the courage to suggest.
-
- A Final Comment
-
- Commenting on the OCHA report, the International Labour
Organization (ILO) said:
-
- "The longer the (Gaza) closure continues, the more
it undermines future prospects of workers and their families, in particular
of the younger generation.
-
- Restrictions on access and movement in the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem, which include the separation barrier, checkpoints
and other physical obstacles, together with an increasingly sophisticated
permit system, continue to strongly undermine economic activity, the Palestinian
social fabric, enterprises and the well-being of workers."\
-
- A lasting solution to the conflict rests on building
an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian State living in peace
and security with all its neighbors."
-
- In Occupied Palestine, that vision is unfulfilled, short
of international solidarity to enforce it, Israeli harshness firmly in
place.
-
- On his June 11 Killinghope.org posting, William Blum
said "The worst thing that ever happened to the Jewish people is the
Holocaust. The(ir) second worst thing...is the state of Israel," what
Palestinians have understood for 62 years with no visible letup to this
day.
-
- Besides innumerable daily hardships, on June 10, the
International Middle East Media Center reported that 25 fundamentalist
Knesset members "submitted a bill proposing that the (body) transfer
money allocated to the Palestinian Authority to Jewish settlements, to
punish Palestinians for their boycott campaign" as part of the Global
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement.
-
- The bill not only targets the Territories, it includes
Israeli Arabs, stating that "Israeli citizens must not encourage,
initiate or help the boycott campaign, (so those who) violate the new law"
must be obligated to compensate affected Israelis.
-
- Under the extremist Netanyahu-controlled Knesset, this
is what passes for governance, and what Palestinians have to endure - but
it's one example of many. Repression continues daily in the Territories
and against Arab Israeli citizens, resulting in arrests, torture and imprisonments
for nonviolent protests and other lawful forms of resistance.
-
- Gazans remain under siege, assaulted by regular Israeli
incursions, and West Bank Palestinians face similar hardships, repression
and occupation viciousness, what no one ever should endure, what no civilized
state would ever impose, what no world community should allow, yet it literally
lets Israel get away with murder by failing to hold its officials accountable,
what one day will end because what can't go on forever, won't, including
in Occupied Palestine.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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