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Opinion break the siege on Gaza

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Opinion: Break the siege on Gaza

 

09 September 2008

Opinion

Break the siege on Gaza

* by Firoz Osman

A people’s campaign to break the siege on Palestine, comprising of various associations from civil society, has been launched in Egypt. Named “Egyptians against the Siege”, the campaign is made up of judges, university professors, journalists, politicians, women’s groups, doctors, pharmacists, engineers, agronomists, lawyers, teachers and students.

For almost two years the world has been witnessing the anguish and agony of the one-and-a-half million Palestinians as they are being slowly strangulated and starved in a narrow, hermetically sealed strip of land. There have been only occasional whimpers of protests from world governments, reflecting their utter hypocrisy to their claim to uphold human rights.

In a statement issued in June 2006 by John Dugard, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory stated:

“Gaza is under siege. Israel controls its airspace and has resumed sonic booms which terrorize and traumatize its people. The targeted killing of militants is on the increase. Inevitably, as in the past, such killings have resulted in the killing and wounding of innocent bystanders. Israel also controls Gaza’s territorial sea and fires missiles into the territory from ships at sea. The no-go area along the border of Gaza has been extended to some 500-600 metres to enable the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to prevent the firing of Qassam rockets by Palestinian militants.

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How Isarael bought off uns war crimes probe

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By Jonnathan Cook

(source: The Electronic Intifada)

Israel celebrated at the weekend its success at the United Nations in forcing the Palestinians to defer demands that the International Criminal Court investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Israel during its winter assault on the Gaza Strip.

The about-turn, following vigorous lobbying from Israel and the United States, appears to have buried the damning report of Judge Richard Goldstone into the fighting, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians.

Israeli diplomats suggested on Sunday that Washington had promised the Palestinian Authority, in return for delaying an inquiry, that the US would apply "significant pressure" on Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to move ahead on a diplomatic process when the US envoy, George Mitchell, arrives in the region tomorrow.

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