Gaza: Open Air Prison?
David Frankfurter
http://dfrankfurter.livejournal.com/122589.html
British Prime Minister, David Cameron, exploited
his visit to Turkey to curry favour with his hosts, using Palestinian propaganda hype,
saying that Israel’s blockade turned the Gaza strip into a “prison
camp”.
Every last Israeli left Gaza long before Hamas'
bloody take-over. Closing the borders and even war has not stopped the incessant
rockets and terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens and border checkpoints. More than 30 terrorist attacks come out
of Gaza each month.
Applying international law, Israel inspects the
constant flow of goods through its borders into Gaza, in an attempt to exclude
war material. Propagandists (and it seems European politicians) conveniently
ignore the rules of war and international law, and claim these actions to be a
form of occupation. They declare that Israel ruthlessly keeps Gazans in
poverty.
Visiting international politicians and aid agency
representatives are taken to view the deliberately unrepaired damage of the war
Hamas provoked. Poverty stricken areas, including families living in plastic
tents since their houses were destroyed in the war, are all on the carefully
pre-arranged agenda. Israel is obligingly condemned. And more western tax payer
money is pledged to the highest ever per capita aid program.
Although of little interest to the mainstream
media, Gazan "poverty" is strongly questioned in the blogosphere. No
accumulation of facts seems to be able to stop the constant flow of lies,
cynically manipulated into very effective anti-Israel (and often anti-Semitic)
propaganda.
Even the Palestinian media reports a very
different picture. There is an abundance of both basic and luxury goods. It is
not clear if it comes via the Egyptian border, underground tunnels, or the
thousands of trucks that the Israelis officially allow to stream through their
border crossings. But the fact is that there is plenty, and often at very
attractive prices.
Ordinary Palestinian citizens say that there is
enough to go around - but the Hamas apparatchiks steal it.
And what of building materials to house those
wretched families? Somehow, they don't seem to rank in the Hamas list of
priorities. A brand new shopping mall replete
with luxury goods, aluxury hotel
fancy restaurant, an olympic size pool and
a fancy jail to
lock up prisoners accused of crimes such as "passing information to the
Palestinian Authority" do make it into the list of latest completed
projects, though.
Electricity shortages? Also an internal problem.
Seems that Hamas collects electricity bills from the end user & then steals
the money - expecting the Palestinian Authority and international donors to pay
the Israeli suppliers. When the suppliers want their overdue money before
providing more goods, who do you guess is blamed?
But those wretched Palestinians are suffering.
Then again, life expectancy, infant mortality, and even cell phone penetration statistics show Gaza to be better off than other Muslim
countries – and in many cases better than most places on
earth!
Forgotten is the Economist report of 2004 that the
West Bank and Gaza rank amongst the most obese populations in the world.
Clicking on the links embedded above will bring
you to lots of reports and pictures showing the truth.
But what about the charge that Israel has turned
Gaza into a large open-air jail? We all value freedom of movement. We want to
be able to leave our country of residence either permanently or temporarily for
vacation, to receive better medical care, to advance our education or business.
But of course, we all know that no-one can get in or out. Don't we?
Israel can be forgiven for being very cautious
about allowing enemy aliens through its territory - after all Hamas has
officially and openly declared its intent to wipe Israel off the map and sends
regular rockets across the border to remind us all. Nevertheless, many people
do cross the border - usually for humanitarian reasons, often to receive
medical treatment in Israeli hospitals.
But what everyone seems to forget is that Israel
is not Gaza's only border. Fellow Arab country Egypt, which has supported the
Palestinian cause since it was first invented, is linked to Gaza with a little
more than 11 km of border, and an official crossing at Rafah.
So why an open air prison? The Palestinian
Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) regularly exposes the real
problem in its monthly reports. Here it is from this month's bulletin:
Violations of the Right
to Travel and Movement
Gaza residents are still
suffering from the unavailability of passport books since November 2008 until
the end of this current month. According to ICHR information obtained from
officials from the Ministry of Interior of the Deposed Government, the MOI in
the West Bank does not send passport books for citizens in Gaza Strip which
entails depriving them from the right to travel and movement. In addition, it
affects most of those in urgent need for traveling abroad for seeking medical
care, university education, students and thousands of expatriates whose
passports have expired and require renewal.
International travel, even via Egypt, requires a passport. The PA won't issue Gazans with passports. Gazans can't travel. That's Israel's fault. Clear?
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