Israel's Economic Stranglehold of Palestine Is a Silent Killer

[Tom Joad]

http://www.alternet.org/story/47608/

Daily life has become a constant struggle for the ordinary Palestinian trying to put food on the table or run a business within a choking, round-the-clock military occupation.

Over the last year, Palestinians have faced a siege that has taken its toll in every city across the West Bank and Gaza. It is not a siege of missiles and gunfire, but a calculated attack on the backbone of the entire occupied territories.

Through the Israeli, U.S. and European move to paralyse the precarious Palestinian economy over the last year, daily life has become a constant struggle for the ordinary Palestinian trying to put food on the table or run a business within a choking, round-the-clock military occupation.

The day after the swearing in of the duly-elected Hamas leadership in February 2006, Israel froze the release of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority to the tune of 52 million dollars a month, as collective punishment against the millions of occupied Palestinians for electing the Hamas leadership.

In parallel attacks just months later, the United States and the European Union slapped economic sanctions against the entire population, under the conditions that Hamas "recognise" Israel's right to exist while "renouncing" violence.
_______________________________________________

The only people under military occupation ever to be put under economic sanctions. Meanwhile, the US is using terror daily against the people of Iraq, Israel has used it against the people of Lebanon.
Both threaten a "pre-emptive" war against the people of Iran.

[aquart]

1. Yeah, that's it.

If it weren't for the Israelis, investment money would be pouring in and there would be prosperity for all.

Except that the Palestinians are on record as blowing up whatever annoys them. Might not that have the TEENSIEST bit to do with their economic troubles?

Nah. Nothing is ever their fault. Ever.

[breakaleg]

3. Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone. Israel is not in a position to judge anyone.

[Tom Joad]

4. Israel blew up Gaza's Power Plant.

[oberliner]

5. This was after Hamas members killed Hanan Barak and Pavel Slutzker

and kidnapped Gilad Shalit.

[Porcupine]

6. So they starve all of Gaza?

and destroy the power plant for a million people? That's the moral high ground; starving a population?

I seem to recall a historical incident where the prisoners in a concentration camp would get out of line and the guards would just shoot a few dozen people who lived in the vicinity of the offender........

Seems to be a comparable situation. Except that Israel sees fit to punish hundreds of thousands for the actions of a few people.

Apartheid. Genocide. Israel must correct these if it is to survive.

There is no excuse. Not in 1939 and not today.

[oberliner]

9. Of all the comparisons to make

Why so quickly to the Holocaust?

I do not think the situations are analogous, and I find it curious that the comparison between Israel and Nazi Germany is made so eagerly.

[Porcupine]

12. Gaza as Warsaw a reminder.

The comparison is apt and common. In Gaza the comparison is particularly harsh because the inmates are not allowed access to the sea at their doorsteps. Any Palestinian bound boat or ship is seized or sunk by the IDF. The world isn't even allowed to give them food or water. Of course you might argue that genocide is only a valid statement when jews die? I have cambodian friends that wouldn't agree with you.

Do the Palestinians have to start stacking the skulls of their dead at your checkpoints before you stop killing them? I actually doubt that would work.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2004%20opinions/May/3o/If%20you%20ever%20say%20that%20Palestine%20is%20like%20the%20Warsaw%20Ghetto%20again,%20we%20will%20kill%20you%20By%20Jane%20Stillwater.htm">If you ever say that Palestine is like the Warsaw Ghetto again, we will kill you!!

It was the middle of the night. The phone rang. "If you ever say that Palestine is like the Warsaw Ghetto again, we will kill you."
..........

What the Palestinians will be getting is a place on a map that is the exact re-creation of the spirit and mood of the ghetto at Warsaw -- no more, no less. The Israeli army will surround Gaza on all sides. No one will be let in or out. Watch towers, machine guns and barbed wire will ring the city. Tanks will rumble up and down the streets. The only thing missing to complete this tableau will be the yellow crescents sewn on residents' clothing -- and that can be arranged.

Gaza as the Warsaw Ghetto

Ehud Olmert, acting like Governor-General Hans Frank, has decided to turn the Gaza Strip into the Warsaw Ghetto. Frank was of course Governor-General of occupied Poland and Olmert is the acting PM of Israel, also known as occupied Palestine (ministerial powers were transferred to Olmert after the war criminal Ariel Sharon suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke). Frank was prosecuted during the Nuremberg trials and sent to the gallows. Olmert will never face trial for killing Palestinians and will likely go on to become a big cheese in the “centrist” Kadima party.

“Israeli officials on Friday discussed virtually sealing off the Gaza Strip, banning the entry of Palestinian day workers and freezing money due to the Palestinian Authority once a Hamas-dominated parliament is sworn in on Saturday,” reports the Financial Times. In other words, since “democracy” didn’t turn out the way the Israelis wanted, they will now wall up the Palestinians much the same way the Nazis in Poland “sealed off” the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,975423,00.html

The original founders of the Jewish state could surely not imagine the irony facing Israel today: in escaping the ashes of the Holocaust, they have incarcerated another people in a hell similar in its nature - though not its extent - to the Warsaw ghetto.

Google: Gaza + Warsaw= 400k hits.

[oberliner]

13. I agree that it is common

but not that it is apt.

Genocide is never valid. It is also not what is happening in Gaza.

It is, however, happening in other parts of the world.

The fact that Gaza and Warsaw generates 400K internet hits is a statistic that, to my mind, confirms something other than the aptness of the analogy.

[Porcupine]

14. Of course it's not "genocide" if the IDF does it to you.....

is that your arguement?:sarcasm:

Back in the old south the rule was "It's not rape if a white man takes a black woman." It didn't matter what the woman had to say about it; the courts held to that definition. Of course all the juries where white men only.

A people held against their will in a walled compound, however large, and denied the right to travel, trade or secure supplies of food and water adequate to their needs. Anyone breaching the wall for any reason is killed. All true statements about Warsaw and Gaza.

What do YOU call it?

[oberliner]

15. with all due respect

Of course that isn't my argument.

The Hutu committed genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda.

800,00 Tutsis were killed. (10,000 were killed in a single day on more than one occasion)

The Serbs committed genocide against the Muslims in Bosnia.

200,000 Muslim civilians were murdered.

The IDF should be held accountable for its actions in Gaza and the West Bank, just like the US army should be held accountable for its actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Similarly, Hamas should be held accountable for its actions against Israeli civilians.

All of us who favor peace ought to be working towards a solution that yields an independent Palestinian state living side by side at peace with Israel.

I think the Geneva Accords are a good place to start.

[Englander]

7. Act of Vengeance

September 2006, Status Report

Act of Vengeance: Israel's Bombing of the Gaza Power Plant and its Effects

In the early morning hours of 28 June 2006, following the abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli Air Force attacked the only electrical power plant operating in the Gaza Strip. Six missiles were fired at the power plant's six transformers. Two of the missiles missed their target, so two more missiles were fired a few minutes later, destroying the remaining transformers.

Three months have passed since the attack. Public and media attention has long since shifted elsewhere. Nevertheless, for the 1.4 million residents of the Gaza Strip, who have been forced to live without electricity for long parts of the day and night, the harsh effects of the attack continue to be felt.

The effects of the attack are apparent in all areas of life. As a result of the lack of electricity, the level of medical services provided by clinics and hospitals has declined significantly; most of the urban population receive only two or three hours of water a day; the sewage system is on the verge of collapse; many inhabitants' mobility has been severely restricted as a result of non-functioning elevators; and the lack of refrigeration has exposed many to the danger of food-poisoning. Small businesses reliant on a regular power supply have been badly affected. The hardship involved in living without a steady flow of electricity is exacerbated by the deep economic crisis afflicting the Gaza Strip.

Undoubtedly, the State of Israel has the right to protect the lives of its citizens from threat, including, the threat posed by Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. However, not all means of response and action are permissible. Aiming attacks at civilian objects is forbidden under International Humanitarian Law and is considered a war crime. The power plant bombed by Israel is a purely civilian object and bombing it did nothing to impede the ability of Palestinian organizations to fire rockets into Israeli territory.

Even if Israel reached the highly questionable conclusion that disrupting the supply of electricity in Gaza might provide the Israeli army with a "definite military advantage," under the principle of proportionality, Israel was legally required to choose the action that would prove least harmful to the population. Accordingly, Israel could have reduced the supply of electricity that the Israel Electric Corporation – which is the primary provider of electricity for the Gaza Strip – sells to the Palestinian Authority. However, in the wake of the company's objection to this alternative, which was likely to harm its commercial interests, the decision-makers within the Israeli government and army opted for the more harmful option.

In view of Israel 's responsibility for the lives and welfare of the population of the Gaza Strip, and in light of Israel 's obligation under international law to make reparation for the war crimes it committed, B'Tselem calls upon the government of Israel to:

* Cover the expenses needed to return the power plant to full capacity;

* Finance the upgrading of the infrastructure to transfer electricity from Israel to the Gaza Strip;

* Permit the entry of the equipment needed to rehabilitate the power plant, without delay;

* Repeal the amendment to the Civil Wrongs Law and enable persons and institutions from the Gaza Strip that suffered damage as a result of the bombing of the power plant to sue the state for compensation;

* Direct the judge advocate general to open a criminal investigation against the persons involved in the decision to bomb the power plant and against those who carried out the attack, with the intention of prosecuting them;

* Adopt a government resolution that in principle forbids the IDF to attack civilians and civilian objects.

< Note: In conformity with its customary practice, B'Tselem sent the report to the IDF Spokesperson's Office for a response. The IDF Spokespersons' Offfice failed to respond.>

http://www.btselem.org/english/Publications/Summaries/200609_Act_of_Vengeance.asp

[Tom Joad]

8. In no way justifies spreading hunger. Bombing the plant was a terrorist hit against civilians

millions of civilians were harmed by this. A clear effort to make civilians suffer so to force a political change sought by the bombers (in this case, the Olmert government), the very definition of terrorism.

The actions in the capture of a soldier in no way justifies what amounts to a terrorist attack on civilian infrastructure.

[oberliner]

10. Context is important though

You posted that Israel bombed the plant in Gaza but did not mention the events that immediately preceded it.

Also, you are free to call it BS if you want, but the Israeli gov't said that they bombed the plant not to make civilians suffer but rather to make it difficult for the militants who were holding Shalit to move around.

Personally I do not think the bombing of the plant was justified either, but I do think it is important to include the context.

[Porcupine]

11. Bullies always have an excuse don't they?

The way we distinguish bullying from self defence is to look at the context of the action.

Was force the only possible way to stop the offending action? Well no. In this case the action of the IDF had no direct bearing on the source of their complaint.

Was the response the minimal possible needed to return to a state or equilibrium? No again, the IDF indulges itself in massive collective punishment for the actions of small groups.

The IDF likes to find excuses for it's genocidal actions. Typically they kill about 10 Palestinian civilians in retaliation for the death of one soldier. I wonder where they learned that trick?

[breakaleg]

2. If the US and other countries want to withdraw their econmic aid to protest

the Hamas government, while distasteful, it's within their right to do so. But Israel withholding money from taxes which rightfully belongs to Palestinians in the first place, ought to be against the law. Not that it would make any difference to Israel, since they seem to find international law a joke when it doesn't go their way.