Israel to use small crossings to get aid to Gaza

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Israel to use small crossings to get aid to Gaza

By Adam Entous Reuters - 1 hour 37 minutes ago

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will use two small border passages,
not the main Karni crossing that is Gaza's economic lifeline, to
bring in basic supplies, officials said on Sunday, citing security
concerns with Hamas in control of the territory.

The Israeli officials said their plans would allow around 3,000
tonnes of emergency food and medicine to enter the Gaza Strip
through two small border passages five days per week.

Israel believes this amount, even without reopening Karni, will be
enough to avert a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished coastal
strip.

Some aid groups said the plan may head off a food shortage, but
cautioned that the closure of Karni would cripple the moribund Gaza
economy. Karni is the only functioning passage for Palestinian
exports from the territory, which is home to 1.5 million people.

-snip-

Read more: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070624/tpl-uk-palestinians-israel-aid-81f3b62.html

[Tom Joad]

1. The prison doors will not be opened. Israel has kept the screws on tight

for years on Gaza, and is mostly responsible for its economic crisis.

http://www.counterpunch.org/roy10042006.html

"79 Percent of Gazan Households are Living in Poverty"
The Economy of Gaza

By SARA ROY

In one of many reports and accounts of economic life in the Gaza Strip that I have recently read, I was struck by a description of an old man standing on the beach in Gaza throwing his oranges into the sea. The description leapt out at me because it was this very same scene I myself witnessed some 21 years ago during my very first visit to the territory. It was the summer of 1985 and I was taken on a tour of Gaza by a friend named Alya. As we drove along Gaza's coastal road I saw an elderly Palestinian man standing at the shoreline with some boxes of oranges next to him. I was puzzled by this and asked Alya to stop the car. One by one, the elderly Palestinian took an orange and threw it into the water. His was not an action of playfulness but of pain and regret. His movements were slow and labored as if the weight of each orange was more than he could bear. I asked my friend why he was doing this and she explained that he was prevented from exporting his oranges to Israel and rather than watch them rot in his orchards, the old man chose to cast them into the sea. I have never forgotten this scene and the impact it had on me.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Irony. n/t

[Tom Joad]

3. Iron Walls. n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

4. No, Tom, "irony."

In your repetitive posts blaming only Israel, you post an article about the economic situation, not the humanitarian issue. The "irony" is that your post is about a man throwing perfectly edible food into the sea in a post about 3000 tons of food and medicine being brought into Gaza.

[pelsar]

5. how to blame israel..

its getting tougher and tougher ....the egyptian/gaza border is only hamas and egypt...no israelis, no europeans. How many times when the posters here want to blame someone for 'gazas prison camp, concentration camp, occupation, will they conveniently forget about the southern border?

and will they call hamas an occupying force as did Abba and Egypt?.....

and will those posters even enter a discussion about the past events and how it affects their view of the conflict?

and why doesnt egypt transfer any food and supplies to the palestenians anyway, i thought they "cared"

[Tom Joad]

9. the humanitarian crisis, that has been part of a fact of life for Gazans for years

is caused by the economic crisis, caused by the 40 year occupation of Gaza.

Reporting the reality of the situation.
What needs to happen is much more than donation of some food, but a real end to occupation, and real reparations from Israel for its crimes against the people of Gaza.

Instead, we have PR moves by Israel and no real change.
How about permitting Gaza fishermen to fish... just for a start.

There are some 433 boats registered at Gaza's port, but only a few of them are seaworthy; fewer still risk the Israeli-imposed ban on Gaza's fishermen. Collectively, Palestinian fishermen have seen their monthly catch drop from 823 tones in June 2000 to as low as 50 in late 2006.

The number of registered fishermen has also dropped significantly, from as many as 5,000 in the 1980s to less than 3,000 today, according to the UN. At least 35,000 Gazans directly rely on the fishing industry for subsistence, amid poverty levels that the UN pegs at more than 80 percent in Gaza.

In 2000, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics valued the industry at 10 million dollars; today it is a mere shadow of that productivity.

The World Bank cited Israel's closure, restrictions and ban regime as "above all" responsible for the economic crisis. More...

[The Magistrate]

10. Had There Been No Smuggling Of Arms By Sea, Mr. Joad

Nor attempts at water-borne attacks against Israel, the fisherman would be working their nets as we speak....

[Shaktimaan]

15. I'd be more inclined to believe IA,

if they were able to spell simple words that their spell-checker might have skipped over.

How does one misspell "ton" anyway?

And you seem to not notice that the people trying to leave Gaza now are not doing so because they can't fish, or because of mere poverty. They are leaving because their elected government has been going on a killing spree. Would Hamas have stayed their triggers if Israel allowed fishing? I tend to think that Hamas would have spent some of their lavish security budget on imported fish if that were the case.

I find it interesting that you are actually blaming Israel for not protecting Palestinians from their own government. Especially since you blamed Israel for not recognizing Hamas' legitimacy after the elections. You can't have it both ways, you know.

[pelsar]

16. I'm confused....

What needs to happen is much more than donation of some food, but a real end to occupation,

abbas and the egytian govt have declared hamas an occupying force....abbas had dismissed the hamas PM.....so isnt the hamas militia...the one that did all that killing the occupying force now?....

or are they the legit govt of gaza?

[pelsar]

17. tom...your getting "sillier and sillier"

first you used an article that was way way way out of date...so to be irrelevant now your making a statement which is simply not true (40 years of occupation caused the econ crises). I dunno either you dont know or dont want to know (which i tend to believe the latter...you prefer not to know).

but the facts are that until intifada I the gaza economy was growing very fast

During the 1970's, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world -- ahead of such "wonders" as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself......

and your going to have a problem blaming the occupation since its now hamas that is doing the occupying and egypt that has closed the doors.....and i do believe you have double standards. one for israel and a lower, lesser one for the palestenains and their arab brethren....

[henank]

6. Nonsense

Your own OP negates what you say in your comment. If Israel was "screwing down tight" on Gaza there wouldn't be any food or humanitarian aid getting through at all. Israel is to be commended for being creative in a very difficult and dangerous situation, using different crossings, where using the Karni crossing would invite terrorist acts, as has happened in the past.

Besides which, have you ever heard of any other country which supplies its (literally) mortal enemy with food and energy? It seems that you are unable to give Israel any credit at all, ever. Damned if she does, damned if she doesn't.

[ShortnFiery]

7. Damned but she DOES the wrong thing - play sides off against each other far too often. n/t

[The Magistrate]

8. The Irrelevance Of This, Mr. Joad, Is Startling

Gaza has recently come under the control of Hamas, literally the 'Islamic Resistance Movement', which has commenced a civil war against Fatah, that has been marked so far by wholesale murder of political opponents, and shows promise of escalating to worse in coming months. You reply to notice that Israel is using a sort of 'back channel' to pass some humanitarian aid to the populace of Gaza in the current discord, despite the fact that the place is now under the unchallenged armed control of a body that is utterly hostile to Israel, is to trot out, for perhaps the hundredth time, an old article on unemployment in Gaza. It is rather as if a comment on fuel economy in automobiles were replied to by a dissertation on the difficulty of obtaining fodder for horses on an arid plain.

Utterly unexamined in the article, of course, are any of the actual causes underlying the dire economic straits complained of by its author, though one or two hints slip through for the knowledgeable reader, most noteably this "Yet the closure policy proved so destructive only because the 30 year process of integrating Gaza's economy into Israel's had made the local economy deeply dependent. As a result, when the border was closed in 1993..." and this "particularly since the start of the current uprising six years ago, and more recently of the international aid embargo imposed on Palestinians after the election and installation of the democratically elected Hamas-led government earlier this year...."

The fact is that the destitution of Gaza is inseperable from the violence directed against Israel from it. No state is under any obligation to allow persons who are not citizens to enter its territory seeking employment, and in circumstances of hostility, preventing them from doing so is a most reasonable measure against infiltration by militants. No foriegn government is under any obligation to subsidize a governing authority, democratically elected or otherwise, whose policies and actions it opposes. Running like a red thread through a good deal of 'counterpunch' style commentary on this situation is the idea that there ought never to be bad consequences for foolish and malicious actions visited on the societies and persons that engage in such. Life is largely comprised of such consequences, and people are supposed, at least, to learn from them, and in future avoid actions with detrimental consequences, and act in manners that will instead bring them some benefit.

[pelsar]

11. gaza......"the exposure"

with hamas taking over gaza no longer can the "anti israeli, etc crowd hide behind the "apron of "human rights" when trying to condem israel. Israel is simply no longer in gaza...israel no longer has any influence over the gaza/egyptian border. Furthermore in terms of "violation of human rights concerning the palestenians, the palestenians themselves seem to have broken all records.

and for some of the posters here..well not much else to do but find some old out of date articles that blame israel for some past deeds rather than face the new facts:

human rights of the palesenians was never the real issue (any calls for justice for the hamasnikim that executed palestenains in front of their families?)

the occupation was never the real issue (hamas is now the occupying power, any calls to remove them?)

apartheid?...now with hamas in power we probably will see gender apartheid-will there be any calls to stop it?....

---

Infact its israel that is now transfering food and fuel to the palestenians...not egypt

whats a "pro palestenian" to do?....

[The Magistrate]

12. The Egyptian Government, Sir, Will Not Help An Affiliate Of The Brotherhood

[pelsar]

13. oh i know that....

they're going to keep their borders shut down tight, the last thing they need are more bombs going off in the sinai. I just find the events of the last few months most fascinating with the exposure becoming more and more glaring.

we have the lebanese army using artillery in Palestinian refugee camps, we have unknown groups shooting rockets into israel and now killing unifil troops, with hizballa and amal con deming it, we have hamas killing their own Palestinian in the most cruel ways with gaza now officially occupied by the hamas militia.

It seems the "the terrorist" genie has been let out of the bottle with no small help from the wonderful people on the "far left" who couldn't/cant see past their own noses when it comes to understanding the differences between western democracies and "cult oriented "resistance movements.

its just getting harder and harder for them to claim the banner of human rights when israel attacks and then they go silent when the killing is "arab on arab'. Seems the banner never was human rights...(what a surprise)

[The Magistrate]

14. There Is Something To What You Say, Mr. Pelsar

The employment of a double standard by some critics of Israel is simultaneously becoming more obvious and more insupportable.

[Scurrilous]

18. Silence of the hypocrites

Leftists, Arab MKs quick to condemn IDF but say nothing about Hamas killings

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3416005,00.html

[Tom Joad]

19. I hear echoes of Avigdor more and more often in these parts.

Like the rightist bleatings of fools who attempted to stifle any criticism of the US because "the soviet union was worse"

[Behind the Aegis]

20. What is sad is that a racist like him can make such a VALID point.

[pelsar]

21. so you disagree with the article?

just curious.....if so why?

[Scurrilous]

23. Lieberman doesn't get it

Rightist MK fails to grasp that leftist protest stems from a sense of moral responsibility, not hostility

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3417636,00.html

[pelsar]

25. liberman may be a racist....

but it doesnt negate the article...i've read great stuff by the communists, whos outlook on life i disagree with, but it doesnt negate the core of an article.....that explains a point of view clearly.

the rebuttle just attacks liebermans hypocrisy (which is true) and not the core of what he wrote.....i.e. the messenger and not the message.

the rebuttle is written well, and has valid points, but nothing that relates to what lieberman wrote of, kind of skirts the issue

[Tom Joad]

22. not to mention that leftists are saying plenty about what is happening in Gaza

I have posted several articles critical of some of the hamas/fatah antics (written by Palestinians)... and that is ignored completely. Palestinians have not been silent about what Hamas/Fatah has been doing. Not for a long time.

[pelsar]

24. can you link me up...

i am very very interested in the "goings on in gaza"