[News] Gaza's Death Throes
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Fri Nov 28 11:23:47 EST 2008
http://www.counterpunch.org/karkar11282008.html
November 28-30, 2008
Is Anyone Listening?
Gaza's Death Throes
By SONJA KARKAR
What kind of government in the 21st century can
deny another people basic human rights - that is,
the right to food, water, shelter, security and dignity?
What kind of government imposes draconian
sanctions on another people for democratically
electing a government not to its liking?
What kind of government seals a heavily populated
territory of 1.5 million people so that no person
can enter or leave without permission, fishermen
cannot fish in their own waters, and world food
aid cannot be delivered to the starving population?
What kind of government shuts off fuel, water and
electricity and then rains down on the people, bombs and artillery fire?
The answer is - no government of integrity.
And yet, government after government in Israel
continues to demand recognition and accolades as
a first world democracy superior to all others,
despite Israels flouting of international law,
its human rights abuses and the criminality and
corruption of Israeli leaders. Worse still, the
world has acquiesced and has welcomed every
Israeli administration into its fold as a favoured guest.
This should give everyone pause to revisit our
noble declarations of independence and human
rights, ethics, morality, religious beliefs,
civil liberties and the rule of law. Are they
just for show or do they really mean
something? Are they intended only for some people or for all people?
Israels President Shimon Peres is just one of
the many leaders who have furthered Israels
aggressive policies and programs and yet he has
been honoured with a knighthood from the Queen
and is likely to be honoured with a lecture
series named after him at Oxford Universitys
Balliol College. Dubious honours indeed, for a
man who helped to forcibly expel 750,000
Palestinians from their homeland in the 1948 war.
Today, we are witnessing in Gaza the kind of
ghetto the world thought it would never see again
and the comparison was conjured up early this
year by Israels deputy defence minister Matan
Vilnai when he threatened a bigger holocaust
(shoah) against the Palestinians in
Gaza. Later, he explained away his use of the
word as meaning disaster, when in fact it has
emotional connotations well known to
everyone. Either way, the threat was ominous enough.
The slow death that is being visited on the
Palestinians in Gaza is finding its first victims
in more than 400 critically ill patients who are
being prevented from leaving Gaza for urgent
medical attention in Israeli or Arab hospitals.
Thousands of other patients are being turned away
from hospitals suffering from a severe shortage
of 300 different kinds of medicines.
The hospitals have been deprived of medicines and
equipment for so long now, that the trickle of
supplies finally being allowed through, can no
longer meet the minimum daily needs of the
Palestinian civilian population. Similarly, the
energy fuel being shipped in, is barely enough to
operate the Gaza power plant for one day.
This drip-feeding of aid was suggested by Israeli
Prime Ministerial adviser Dov Weisglas who said
in February 2006: The idea is to put the
Palestinians on a diet, but not make them die of hunger.
Such a malevolent policy has led to a steady
increase in malnutrition as people are being
starved of their staples of life. Not only have
the flour mills been forced to shut down because
fuel and power have run out, but now all wheat
supplies have been exhausted. Out of the 72
bakeries operating in the Gaza Strip, 29 have
completely stopped baking bread and others are
expected to follow. This means that even the
most staple of all foods bread - will soon not
be available for a hungry population.
A Red Cross report describes the effects of the
siege as devastating. Seventy per cent of the
population is suffering from food insecurity
while the suspension of food aid distribution to
some 750,000 refugees in the pitiful camps in
Gaza since 4 November, has further devastated
Palestinians with no recourse to other alternatives.
The United Nations, Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch have all called Israels
blockade cruel. Former president Jimmy Carter
makes no apology for describing the situation as
a heinous atrocity amounting to a war crime.
In Britain, Oxfams CEO Barbara Stocking has
strongly criticised the Foreign Secretary David
Miliband for not mentioning the human
desperation in Gaza on his recent trip to Israel and Palestine.
Israels tactics though may be unravelling.
So draconian has been Israels closure of Gaza,
the worlds biggest media organisations including
the New York Times are outraged that their
journalists have been banned from entering the
Gaza Strip and have protested in writing to
Israels Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Christian leaders have also been excluded from
Gaza. Last week, Israel prevented Archbishop
Franco, the Papal Nuncio in Israel, from
celebrating mass to mark the beginning of Advent
in the holy weeks leading up to Christmas.
And in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Minister
Ehud Barak has approved the building of hundreds
more illegal settlement units with a flagrant
disregard of the peace process agreements,
further frustrating the current US administration
eager to produce a solution before the end of its term.
What is truly astonishing is the worlds silence
in the face of all this. The shameful rush to
grant Israel every honour and recognition so that
it will be saved from the historical ignominy of
having orchestrated the destruction of
Palestinian society, is nothing short of unconscionable.
Sonja Karkar is the founder and president of
Women for Palestine and one of the founders and
co-convener of Australians for Palestine in
Melbourne, Australia. She is also the editor of
<http://www.australiansforpalestine.com>www.australiansforpalestine.com
and contributes articles on Palestine regularly to various publications.
She can be contacted at
<mailto:sonjakarkar at womenforpalestine.org>sonjakarkar at womenforpalestine.org
Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
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