U.N. envoy says Gaza a prison for Palestinians

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians where life is "intolerable, appalling, tragic" and the Jewish state appears to have thrown away the key, a U.N. human rights envoy said on Tuesday.

Special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory John Dugard said that the suffering of the Palestinians was a test of the readiness of the international community to protect human rights.

"If ... the international community cannot ... take some action, (it) must not be surprised if the people of the planet disbelieve that they are seriously committed to the promotion of human rights," he said in a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The South African lawyer, who has been a special U.N. investigator since 2001, repeated earlier accusations that Israel is breaking international humanitarian law with security measures which amount to "collective punishment."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26120946.htm

[Tom Joad]

1. It is time for the world to act. This is unacceptable.

[breakaleg]

2. It is inconceivable that we allow Israel to get away with this.

[Poll_Blind]

3. No surprise there. But there is little confusion about why they do it:

  They want the land. The Palestinians aren't leaving their land so Israel makes it as ugly and nasty to live there as it can. Destroy homes, destroy crops, reapportion Palestinian land and water, until the situation becomes so bad they eventually leave.

  In this report from the NSSC at the University of Haifa from May, 2005, almost 40% of the Jewish Israeli respondents agreed to the following statement:

48. I prefer the concept of the “Greater Land of Israel” to the democratic character of the state

  I recommend looking over the whole report. While this particular ideological point is not surprising given Israel's history of expansion since '67, there are some very interesting responses from both Israelis Jews and Israeli Arabs.

PB

[nicoll]

4. gaza strip and west bank

Yes I would agree they are both prisoners of there stronger neighbour Israel.