November 11, 2010
The Israeli Government, together with the IDF, coordinates the delivery of a variety of humanitarian aid and development assistance to the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. This report details the humanitarian measures taken during the month of October 2010, as well as general transfers of goods and services to the Strip.
4,356 truckloads weighing 93,487 tons of food, fuel, and other materials, including construction materials entered the Gaza Strip last month. During the month, there was a 21% increase in the volume of truckloads entering the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Karni Conveyor compared to last month, and an 86% increase in the number of businessmen that exited the Gaza Strip. In addition, 223 truckloads of cement, iron, aggregates, and other building materials have been transferred for the purpose of a variety of humanitarian aid projects in coordination with international organizations. These include water treatment plants, greenhouses, agricultural plots, schools, a medical center, and housing units.
After an Israeli Cabinet decision in June 2010, the capacity of the Kerem Shalom Crossing was nearly doubled so that 250 truckloads could enter the Gaza Strip on a daily basis.
The Global BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement wants to abolish the Jewish state of Israel - it descends on our communities, proposing that stores boycott all Israeli products. BDS leaders want to destroy Israel and vilify Jews in the process. They will leave us divided in their wake unless we organize!
Showing posts with label Current Issues: The Blockade of Gaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Current Issues: The Blockade of Gaza. Show all posts
(Another) New Mall Planned for Gaza
Hamas has announced that a new mall will be built in the Gaza Strip. Yusuf Mansi, Minister of Housing and Public Works of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, told Gaza-based news agency Safa on Thursday that his office is currently on a plan to build a new mall. The 44-acre mall will be located in Gaza City and will be the largest shopping center in the Strip, said Mansi.
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The Blockade
Illegal Blockade?
International Piracy?
Israel???
Come on, get real!!
Israel Only Stops Materials That Can Be Used to
Build Weapons or Tunnels to Smuggle Weapons
Israel transfers over 15,000 tons of humanitarian aid each week into Gaza. That’s approximately one ton of humanitarian aid for every man, woman and child in Gaza over the course of the past 16 months.
In spite of what you’ve heard, the living standard of the average resident of Gaza is higher than the living standard of the average Egyptian, Jordanian or Syrian or Lebanese.
Israel does not permit combustible fertilizer that can be used to build explosives, for example, but it does permit non-combustible fertilizer. Same with other materials. If it can be used to make a weapon, Israel won’t let it through. If it cannot be used to make a weapon or to build a tunnel to smuggle weapons, Israel permits its passage.
Anyone who tells you that Israel is stopping humanitarian aid from getting through to the people of Gaza doesn’t know what they are talking about, or is lying.
Israel’s Blockade of Gaza is Not Illegal
Let’s make this simple. Under international law, a nation has the right to deny its opponents access to weapons and to materials that can be used to make weapons.
Let’s look at just a two examples:
1. During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the US completely blockaded Cuba – all ships in international waters heading to Cuba were first to be boarded and inspected by the US Navy.
2. During World War II, the US and England intercepted, stopped and boarded all ships in international waters that appeared to be heading toward Germany, Italy or Japan.
The United State and the EU identify Hamas, the government of Gaza, as a terrorist organization. Since 2001, more than 10,000 missiles and mortars have been fired from Gaza into Israel, aimed intentionally at civilian targets.
Each of these missile launches is a violation of international law and a war crime. Israel has the right under international law to protect itself from these attacks and to deny Hamas access to materials that Hamas uses to make these missiles.
Anyone who tells you that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is illegal doesn’t know international law or is lying.
Goldstone Report Author Rethinks Findings On Israel And Gaza War Crimes
DANIEL ESTRIN 04/ 2/11 02:52 PM ET AP
Israel Gaza Goldstone Report
Israeli soldiers are seen at a staging area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. (AP Photo)
JERUSALEM — The head of a U.N.-appointed expert panel that investigated the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas in the winter of 2008-2009 said in a newspaper article that new accounts by Israel's military indicate that it did not deliberately target civilians, his report's central and most inflammatory accusation.
Israel's prime minister said the military was vindicated by Richard Goldstone's acknowledgment in an op-ed piece published Friday by The Washington Post that his conclusion appeared to have been wrong. The Goldstone Report's findings, released in September 2009, triggered outrage in Israel, which refused to cooperate with the investigation on the grounds that the panel he led was biased.
"We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war," Goldstone wrote. "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document."
The Goldstone Report concluded both sides committed potential war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
It accused Israel of using disproportionate force, deliberately targeting civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, and using people as human shields. It also accused Hamas of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through its rocket attacks.
The report called on each side to conduct independent investigations into the allegations.
In Friday's article, the South African judge wrote that a follow-up report by a separate U.N. committee of independent experts found that Israel has carried out investigations into more than 400 allegations of misconduct in Gaza.
Those investigations, he said, indicate that "civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy," though they backed the validity of some cases involving individual soldiers. Hamas, by contrast, has not carried out any investigations, according to the follow-up committee.
In the article, Goldstone regretted the loss of civilian life in Gaza, even if it was not intentional. He also said "it goes without saying" that Hamas commits war crimes by aiming rockets at civilians and continues to do so.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Goldstone Report should be formally nullified.
"Everything we said has been proven to be true," Netanyahu said. "Israel does not purposely target civilians and its investigative institutions are competent, while Hamas intentionally fires at innocent civilians and doesn't investigate anything."
"The fact that Goldstone has backtracked means the report should be buried once and for all."
Israel launched its military offensive, known as "Operation Cast Lead," in December 2008 in response to years of almost daily rocket fire from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel. During the three-week campaign, some 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of civilians, drawing harsh international condemnations and the war crimes accusations in Goldstone's report.
Goldstone's team traveled to the Gaza Strip to collect evidence but Israel refused to cooperate with the investigation, accusing the panel of investigators of bias. Goldstone agreed in his op-ed that the U.N. Human Rights Council that set up the panel has a "history of bias against Israel."
In one example he cited of a new view of events, Goldstone recalled one of the most serious attacks his panel investigated, the killing of 29 members of the al-Simouni family by Israeli shelling that hit their Gaza home.
He wrote Friday that Israel's own investigation into the incident found the shelling was apparently the result of an Israeli commander's mistaken analysis of a drone image and that an Israeli officer who ordered the attack was under investigation.
"I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes," he wrote.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who also held the post at the time of the Gaza war, said Goldstone should "also publish his current findings before all the international forums where he showed the slanted and twisted report he authored."
Israel Gaza Goldstone Report
Israeli soldiers are seen at a staging area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. (AP Photo)
JERUSALEM — The head of a U.N.-appointed expert panel that investigated the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas in the winter of 2008-2009 said in a newspaper article that new accounts by Israel's military indicate that it did not deliberately target civilians, his report's central and most inflammatory accusation.
Israel's prime minister said the military was vindicated by Richard Goldstone's acknowledgment in an op-ed piece published Friday by The Washington Post that his conclusion appeared to have been wrong. The Goldstone Report's findings, released in September 2009, triggered outrage in Israel, which refused to cooperate with the investigation on the grounds that the panel he led was biased.
"We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war," Goldstone wrote. "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document."
The Goldstone Report concluded both sides committed potential war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
It accused Israel of using disproportionate force, deliberately targeting civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, and using people as human shields. It also accused Hamas of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through its rocket attacks.
The report called on each side to conduct independent investigations into the allegations.
In Friday's article, the South African judge wrote that a follow-up report by a separate U.N. committee of independent experts found that Israel has carried out investigations into more than 400 allegations of misconduct in Gaza.
Those investigations, he said, indicate that "civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy," though they backed the validity of some cases involving individual soldiers. Hamas, by contrast, has not carried out any investigations, according to the follow-up committee.
In the article, Goldstone regretted the loss of civilian life in Gaza, even if it was not intentional. He also said "it goes without saying" that Hamas commits war crimes by aiming rockets at civilians and continues to do so.
Story continues below
Advertisement
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Goldstone Report should be formally nullified.
"Everything we said has been proven to be true," Netanyahu said. "Israel does not purposely target civilians and its investigative institutions are competent, while Hamas intentionally fires at innocent civilians and doesn't investigate anything."
"The fact that Goldstone has backtracked means the report should be buried once and for all."
Israel launched its military offensive, known as "Operation Cast Lead," in December 2008 in response to years of almost daily rocket fire from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel. During the three-week campaign, some 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of civilians, drawing harsh international condemnations and the war crimes accusations in Goldstone's report.
Goldstone's team traveled to the Gaza Strip to collect evidence but Israel refused to cooperate with the investigation, accusing the panel of investigators of bias. Goldstone agreed in his op-ed that the U.N. Human Rights Council that set up the panel has a "history of bias against Israel."
In one example he cited of a new view of events, Goldstone recalled one of the most serious attacks his panel investigated, the killing of 29 members of the al-Simouni family by Israeli shelling that hit their Gaza home.
He wrote Friday that Israel's own investigation into the incident found the shelling was apparently the result of an Israeli commander's mistaken analysis of a drone image and that an Israeli officer who ordered the attack was under investigation.
"I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes," he wrote.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who also held the post at the time of the Gaza war, said Goldstone should "also publish his current findings before all the international forums where he showed the slanted and twisted report he authored."
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