High Court rejects bid to open Gaza crossings to humanitarian aid

[Poll_Blind]

From Ha'aretz:

The High Court of Justice on Tuesday rejected a petition to open all crossings between the Gaza Strip in Israel for the transfer of gasoline supply, medication and humanitarian aids.

The petition was submitted by six human rights organizations, including The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights, Hamoked Center for the Defense of the Individual, B'Tselem, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and Gisha.

--snip--

PB

[Tom Joad]

1. Genocide In Gaza, by Ilan Pappe

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5656.shtml

A genocide is taking place in Gaza. This morning, 2 September, another three citizens of Gaza were killed and a whole family wounded in Beit Hanoun. This is the morning reap, before the end of day many more will be massacred. An average of eight Palestinian die daily in the Israeli attacks on the Strip. Most of them are children. Hundreds are maimed, wounded and paralyzed.

The Israeli leadership is at a loss of what to do with the Gaza Strip. It has vague ideas about the West Bank. The current government assumes that the West Bank, unlike the Strip, is an open space, at least on its eastern side. Hence if Israel, under the ingathering program of the government, annexes the parts it covets – half of the West Bank – and cleanses it of its native population, the other half would naturally lean towards Jordan, at least for a while and would not concern Israel. This is a fallacy, but nonetheless it won the enthusiastic vote of most of the Jews in the country. Such an arrangement can not work in the Gaza enclave – Egypt unlike Jordan has succeeded in persuading the Israelis, already in 1948, that the Gaza Strip for them is a liability and will never form part of Egypt. So a million and half Palestinians are stuck inside Israel – although geographically the Strip is located on the margins of the state, psychologically it lies in its midst.

The inhuman living conditions in the most dense area in the world, and one of the poorest human spaces in the northern hemisphere, disables the people who live it to reconcile with the imprisonment Israel had imposed on them ever since 1967. There were relative better periods where movement to the West Bank and into Israel for work was allowed, but these better times are gone. Harsher realities are in place ever since 1987. Some access to the outside world was allowed as long as there were Jewish settlers in the Strip, but once they were removed the Strip was hermetically closed. Ironically, most Israelis, according to recent polls, look at Gaza as an independent Palestinian state that Israel has graciously allowed to emerge. The leadership, and particularly the army, see it as a prison with the most dangerous community of inmates, which has to be eliminated one way or another....

[Shaktimaan]

4. I must have missed that vote

This is a fallacy, but nonetheless it won the enthusiastic vote of most of the Jews in the country

Maybe because it never took place. Oh, wait! Was this that imaginary vote where most of Israel voted to ethnically cleanse the west bank? Right, right... now I remember. The imaginary vote. What a clever author.

disables the people who live it to reconcile with the imprisonment Israel had imposed on them ever since 1967. There were relative better periods where movement to the West Bank and into Israel for work was allowed, but these better times are gone.

You know what I also hate? The way America has imprisioned Mexico. It's disgusting. Sure Mexico controls their other borders, just like Gaza, but facts like that should never stand in the way of heartfelt yet incoherent indignation such as the sentiments expressed in this article.

[breakaleg]

5. Gaza doesn't control it's borders. nt

[Shaktimaan]

8. Gaza and Egypt do. That's how a border works. There's 2 countries.

[Tom Joad]

11. Egypt and Gaza are two countries???

I can't believe this.

Gaza is a country? since when?

There should be a Middle East literacy test somewhere to begin posting in this section.
I mean this is just pathetic.

[Shaktimaan]

13. give me a break.

you know what I mean.

There should be a Middle East literacy test somewhere to begin posting in this section.
I mean this is just pathetic.

Look at that! You finally got in a shot. Your mom must be proud.

[Tom Joad]

14. No, i do not know what you mean.

in what way is Gaza a "country"?

Do you not know that it is a territory under military occupation?
Do you not know the difference between that and a independent nation?

[The Magistrate]

16. He Seems To Have Written This, Mr. Joad, Before The Recent I.C.C. Decision

The International Criminal Court's rulings on genocide in Bosnia leave no doubt at all that nothing being done in Gaza comes close to meeting the actual legal standard for the crime of genocide, and thus relegates such effusions as this to the dust-bin of shabby hyperbolist propagandas....

[Englander]

2. From Haaretz;

Palestinian trade group: Exports crossing Karni are not enough to restart Gaza Strip economy
By Aluf Benn

The Karni crossing, the lifeline of the Palestinian economy in the Gaza Strip, does not meet the minimum requirements of the Palestinian economy there, according to Paltrade, the Palestinian trade association. In its monthly report monitoring activity at the crossing, Paltrade concludes that there is insufficient commerce passing through Karni to successfully restart the Palestinian economy in the Gaza Strip.

The Peres Peace Center is publishing a joint program with Paltrade later this week on a reorganization of the crossings between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

According to the monitoring report, the crossing was open for 22 days in February and was closed on two days for security reasons - once by Israeli authorities and another time by the Palestinians. The traffic of goods at the crossing, measured in truckloads, reached its peak during the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Jerusalem on 19 February.

On average in February, a total of 56.3 truckloads of exports crossed during a working day, and 407.8 loads of imports entered Gaza through Karni.

During the days Rice was visiting the region, 73 truckloads were exported from Gaza and a new monthly record of 81 trucks was achieved several days earlier.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/836464.html

[Shaktimaan]

3. In that case

it might be a wise idea for the Palestinians to stop bombing the Karni crossing when it IS open. Because that is the reason it is often closed.

Palestinians blaming Israel for closing the Karni crossing is like an abusive parent blaming child protective services because they can't see their kids anymore.

[Englander]

15. More justification for collective punishment?

Because that's what that nonsensical stuff is trying to justify, the collective punishment of 1.3
million people.

[Tom Joad]

6. 6 Human Rights organizations petitioned for the Court to open its borders

The petition was submitted by six human rights organizations, including The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights, Hamoked Center for the Defense of the Individual, B'Tselem, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and Gisha.
______________________________

These groups don't carry much weight with Israel and the defenders of its policies.
Israel is free to continue its policy of creating hunger in Gaza.
Is it any wonder when aipac wanted to hear Christian support for Israel policies it had to choose Rev Hagee... a rightwing nutcase? What sane, rational person would support such atrocities that are happening before our very eyes?

[breakaleg]

7. How to Live with Hunger

Overlooking Palestinian Starvation

The UN report on Palestinian "food insecurity" was posted on Ynet too, in a fair synopsis headlined "Half the Palestinians Face Difficulty Getting Food" (Feb. 22), attracting about 75 readers' comments. With just a couple of exceptions (met with scorn and aggression), empathy and compassion are completely missing from the reactions. "Who cares?" one reader writes. "If my grandmother were alive, it might have interested her," says another.

Palestinian suffering is not perceived as a human catastrophe, but as a political argument. It's as if the Israeli propaganda machine managed to turn off the most basic human solidarity within the Israelis, replacing it by cynical sophistry devoid of any humanity. Hungry Palestinians are merely an attack on Israel's righteousness, and they are confronted as such.

An overwhelming majority of the readers' letters use one or more of the following ideological strategies:

(1) Outright denial of the suffering: "They look rather chubby on TV." And why not? Denying the facts is always the zealot's refuge.

(2) Palestinians do suffer, but it's good. "Pity, but that's the only way to put them on the right track"; "There will be peace when the other half is hungry too." Here one can clearly see seeds of support for a genocide. Similarly: " government of Israel: encourage them to get up and go!!!"

(3) Palestinians may be suffering, but it's none of our business. "We pulled out, haven't we? So what have I got to do with it?" one reader asked. The UN report, needless to say, concerns not only Gaza but the West Bank, too; there was no Israeli pullout from the West Bank, but many Israelis would actually like to believe that by caging West Bank Palestinians behind walls, Israel has nothing to do with them either. Interestingly, if this argument were true, one would expect to find a similar compassion to that expressed toward world hunger in general; but this is not the case. For many Israelis, a hungry child in Ghana is a stain on their collective conscience, whereas a hungry child in Gaza -- an hour's ride from Jerusalem or Tel Aviv -- is simply none of their business.

(4) Palestinians might be suffering, but we Israelis are the real victims. This is a perpetual Israeli propaganda line: the media is "unbalanced" (anti-Semitic, etc.), so our suffering is left out. Exposing its futility, one reader carried out the routine procedure mechanically, comparing the two peoples on an economic level: "One could have made the same survey in Israel and got the same results." Sure thing: Israel's GDP per capita is $26,000, compared with $1,000 in the occupied Palestinian territories.

(5) But this last argument is often combined with the most popular propaganda guideline of all, namely: Always use the magic word "Terror" to turn the Israelis into victims and the Palestinians into "terrorists." "Terrorists" are unworthy of human compassion, not even when they are starving; moreover, their suffering is always their own fault. Dozens of letters fall under this strategy: "Let them stop wasting their money on ammunition"; "Let them go to work instead of throwing stones"; "You support terrorism so enthusiastically -- I wish you success with other aspects of life"; "The fact that they've got no food doesn't mean they've got no money to buy it!!!"; "But getting weapons isn't difficult at all"; and so on.

--snip---


http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6597.shtml

[Pangolin]

9. Isn't Gaza on the coast?

Forgive my ignorance but why can't they just ship in food and supplies on, well, ships? Ships are easily searched and shipping containers can come from certified third party shippers like the US and then sealed.

You can't tell me that Hamas is capable of packing a random shipping container filled with rice from California or India with weapons and then sealing it. The same should go for any other supplies needed.

[breakaleg]

10. Ah, but they aren't allowed access to the sea. Israel controls that along with

their airspace and borders. So, nothing gets in without Israel's approval.

Take a look at what happens to Palestinian fishermen trying to eek out a living. It's not pretty.

[Englander]

17. Is there even a seaport?

Looks like there isn't, & the Occupier isn't going to allow one to be built;



Israel will not allow Gaza port without control: minister

Agence France Presse
21 September 2005

JERUSALEM Sept 21-- Israel will not allow a seaport to be built in
the Gaza Strip unless it can control all incoming and outgoing
shipments, said a junior minister responsible for economic
negotiations with the Palestinians.

`We will not let this port be an open port no matter what.

We want to control what comes in and what goes out,` Haim Ramon told
public radio.

`If we can`t reach an agreement on security arrangements, this port
will not be built,` said the minister from the left-wing Labour
party.

Discussions between the Israelis and the Palestinians, brokered by
international mediator James Wolfensohn, have yet to yield an
agreement on a port, re-opening Gaza`s airport and land crossings to
Egypt and the West Bank.

http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=8570

[Tom Joad]

12. Even Gaza Fisherman are restricted. And part of the problem is that

exports are difficult to get out. Some basic supplies get in... but Israel restricts exports... therefore when Gaza does produce food for export.. it often does not make it our before it rots.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x167983
Report: Israel Navy harassing and humiliating Gaza fisherman