Hope for a new dawn at Rafah in Gaza Strip

By Richard Lightbown

2 May 2011

Following the recent announcements of Egypt’s intention to open the Rafah Crossing with Gaza, Richard Lightbown describes some of the hypocrisies behind Israel’s objections and speculates on what might follow.

Egypt announced last week that it intends to open the Rafah Crossing to the Gaza Strip on a permanent basis. Commenting on Israel’s Army Radio on 30 April the chief of staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces, General Sami Anan, was reported to have said that this is not a matter of Israel’s concern. Officially, perhaps he is incorrect since the 2005 Agreed Principles for Rafah Crossing make it plain that the opening of the crossing is very much dependent on the cooperation of the government of Israel. However, since Israel has never seen fit to abide by the Agreement on Movement and Access (hereinafter called “the Agreement”) of which these Principles are a part, one might conclude that General Anan has a valid point.

The 2005 crossings agreement

The Agreement was intended to facilitate movement within the Palestinian territories, open Rafah as an international crossing point to enable the passage of people and “promote peaceful economic development and improve the humanitarian situation on the ground”.

It is worthwhile reiterating here the main points agreed by Israel and Palestine following negotiations facilitated by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, European Union representative Javier Solana and Quartet Special Envoy John Wolfensohn.

• Crossings into Gaza were to operate continuously. Of the five crossings from Israel, the main crossing at Karni would process 150 trucks of exports per day in December 2005, which would rise to 400 by the end of 2006.
• Israel would permit the export of all agricultural products for the 2005 season and ensure the continued opportunity thereafter of Gazan producers to export.
• Israel also undertook to make the West Bank passages fully operational as soon as possible. Bus convoys were to be established on the link between Gaza and the West Bank by the end of 2005 and truck convoys were to begin in January 2006.
• Construction of the seaport for Gaza could start once Israel gave assurances that it would not interfere with its operation.
• Discussions were to continue on the rehabilitation and operation of Gaza’s airport.
• Rafah Crossing would be restricted to Palestinian ID card holders and others in agreed categories by prior notification to Israel with approval of senior Palestinian Authority leaders. The crossing would be operated by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority monitored by EU officials.
• Rafah was also to handle exports from Gaza while imports into Gaza from Egypt would pass via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.

What happened in reality

One year after the agreement, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that “the ability of Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip to access either the West Bank or the outside world remains extremely limited and the flow of commercial trade is negligible”. For people in Gaza the situation never got any better.

The main crossing from Israel at Karni was opened in December 2005 but during 2006 it was closed for more than 50 per cent of its scheduled operating days by the Israeli authorities citing security reasons. On average, only 12 truckloads of goods per day were exported from Gaza (three per cent of the target figure for the end of 2006).

Despite emphasis in the Agreement on permitting the export of agricultural produce for the 2005 harvest season, only 465 tonnes were exported of nearly 14,000 tonnes produced (i.e. slightly more than three per cent) while a further 25 per cent was sold locally or through Israeli wholesalers. The remainder of the crops were given away or destroyed.

Sufa Crossing was used primarily for the import of construction materials. During the first year of the Agreement it was open for only 60 per cent of scheduled days. Erez Crossing was not used for commercial goods and Kerem Shalom Crossing was boycotted by the Palestinian Authority and was open for humanitarian cargos only.

Since the introduction of the Israeli closure regime on Gaza in 2007 all crossings other than the small inconvenient crossing at Kerem Shalom were gradually closed to goods traffic. This remaining crossing has not been open continuously, and was closed between 5 and 13 April this year on the grounds of continuing rocket fire and security threats against Israeli soldiers. The reopening on 13 April allowed the resumption of imports and one truckload of export produce. During the week of closure approximately three-quarters of a million cut flowers designated for export from Gaza were lost through spoilage (incurring estimated losses of 110,000 US dollars).

Truck and bus convoys between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were never introduced.

Plans to upgrade the port of Gaza following the Oslo Accords began after finance was provided by Dutch, French and European investments. Starting in 1994 the work was constantly hampered by Israeli obstruction of materials and workers. Finally, one year into the project, Israeli forces bombed the port and completely destroyed it. The revival of the scheme under the 2005 Agreement was stillborn because of Israel’s refusal to provide the required assurances. (The US-led committee to oversee these arrangements as required under the Agreement was never established.)

Nothing came of the intentions to reopen Gaza’s international airport, which has been closed following bombing by Israeli forces in December 2001.

In five months following the capture of Gilad Shalit on 25 June 2006 the Rafah Crossing was open for only 14 per cent of the time and since that time has never been open continuously. Although deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must shoulder much of the blame for this and the Palestinian authorities are not without responsibility, the government of Israel was largely to blame for this situation by its manipulation and use of the terms of the Agreement for the opening.

What might the future bring?

Egypt’s declared intention to open the crossing into Gaza reflects a radical change from the policy of Mubarak and promises to provide a lifeline to the moribund Gazan economy that has been deliberately targeted by Israeli policies which are illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. In February, Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) reported that the World Bank believed that using Rafah as a trade corridor to the Suez Canal container terminal or Cairo International Airport could be done at a cost equivalent to or less than using Israel’s port or airports. Continuous opening will allow producers to effectively plan their transport arrangements free of the whim of a malignant border control. It will also allow students with overseas placements to take up their studies, and provide an opportunity for the rebuilding of Gaza, including the refurbishment and replenishment of its dire medical system. (For as the surgeon Dr Mustafa Yassin told the Turkel Committee on 13 October 2010, “I haven’t seen anything like Gaza in my life, and I hope that I won’t ever see it again.”)

The question remains whether Egypt will be allowed to carry out this policy or whether it will be prevailed upon to reverse its plans. Israel’s quisling administration in the US has already provided more the 116 million US dollars to Egypt in order to finance border security and combat tunnel trafficking. This included provision for a mobile ground surveillance radar and support system and a border tunnel activity and detection system. Will the US sit idly by as Egypt’s new regime renders this expenditure irrelevant and worthless? Or will it dare to defy the winds of change in the Arab world by racking up the pressure on its erstwhile ally to bring it into line against Gazan resistance?

Meanwhile, in nearby corners of the Mediterranean Sea, Mossad and the organizers of the next flotilla are playing out a sophisticated game of hide and seek. If the flotilla avoids the saboteurs and successfully takes to the sea, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be forced against his natural inclination to make a major political decision. Does he unleash the dogs of war and try to face down world opprobrium, or does he sit meekly by and allow the fleet to pass on victorious to Gaza? Either way he stands to be hoist on the petard of his own intransigence. Perhaps the Egyptian government will make the decision for him by rendering the blockade obsolete.

At the same time a successful entry into Gaza by sea will demonstrate many things. It will show the possibilities for trade by sea to complement the land crossing. It will refute the liars that deny that Gaza has a port and the doubters at UN Human Rights Council and elsewhere that it is a place where one can unload cargoes even now. It will also demonstrate the need for the world to insist that Israel allows the Gaza port to be refurbished. Above all it will demonstrate that people of courage and determination can accomplish what weak, collaborative governments fear to do.

Dare we hope this time that righteousness will prevail?

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Egypt-Gaza border opening scares Israel

Posted on May 2, 2011 by rehmat1

The military junta ruling Egypt since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, has announced to open the Rafah border-crossing with Gaza permanently within a few days. The Wall Street Jounal has called Egyptian decision a violation of an agreement reached in 2005 between the US, Israel, Egypt and the EU.

Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces General Sami Anan warned Israel against interfering with Egypt’s plan, saying it was not a matter of Israel’s concern, Army Radio reported on Saturday.

Behind the Israeli propaganda lies to scare the hell out of its western puppet regimes about the so-called ‘Jew-hating Islamists’ replacing the former Israel-friendly regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Morocco, Libya, etc. – in fact the new regimes with the exception of some cosmetic changes, have turned to be more oppressive than the ones they replaced.

Egyptian military junta, so far has not fulfilled even a single public demands;
1) cancelling Egypt-Israel peace-treaty,
2) opening borders with Gaza and recognizing Hamas as the only elected government and
3) lifting ban on the popular Islamic political party Muslim Brotherhood. Furthermore, Egypt has not opened diplomatc relation with the regional power, Iran.

Several American lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, have threatened to stop US funding to PA if the Fatah-Hamas unity government is established in Gaza and the West Bank. They have also recommended that Obama administration stop $1.5 billion annual aid to Egypt if it cancels its peace agreement with Israel.
On May 1, Professor Franklin Lamb wrote a timely article from Beirut entitled Panic in the Houses of Congress and AIPAC?.

“On April 13, 2011, more than a dozen Israel “First, last and always” US congressional leaders from both houses of Congress held an urgent conference call organized by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

What AIPAC operatives reportedly told the conferees was that Netanyahu is once again furious with President Barack Obama and outraged by what he sees as a vacillating US Government attitude towards Israeli needs. They were told that the Israeli PM sees real political danger for Israel in the shifting US public opinion in favor of the young sophisticated attractive Arab and Muslims increasingly seen on satellite channels from the region who remind the American public of their own ideals.

Netanyahu, the conferees were told, wants Congress to flex its muscle with the White House and deliver a strong message to President Obama that his political future is tied to Israel’s. Hence, the current “America needs Israel more than ever stupid!“ campaign is wafting from the Israel lobby across the talk radio airwaves.

Congressman Eric Cantor lamented that “Israel is badly losing the US College campuses”, despite heavy financial investments the past few years to curb American students growing support for Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, all dreaded symbols of the growing opposition to the 19th Century Zionist colonial enterprise. “Support for Palestine is skyrocketing,” he claimed. “Until Palestine is freed from Zionist occupation no Arab or Muslim is truly free of Western hegemony,” according to one assistant editor of Harvard University’s student newspaper, the Crimson….”

Benji Netanyahu during his addresses late this month at AIPAC conference and joint meeting of the US Congress is expected to include;
1) Bashing of the Islamic Republic for its support for Hamas and Hizbullah and country’s civilian nuclear program,
2) Warning against the dangers to “the peace process” of any PA-Hamas unity government,
3) Warnings about the threats to Israel from Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood – scraping peace-treaty and abandoning subsidary on gas supply to Israel,
4) the usual hasbara lie: “Israel has no peace partner to negotiate with and
5) Ben-Obama is too hard on Israel.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Zuckerman Rag prints bald-faced lies on US flotilla to Gaza

Via MCS

- 01. May, 2011

THE NY DAILY NEWS PUTS THE LIES IN EDITORIALIZE



NOTE: The following piece was co-written by Nima Shirazi and Alex Kane and was originally published on Mondoweiss under the headline: “Zuckerman rag prints bald-faced lies on upcoming flotilla to Gaza.”

Nima has added some more of his own observations on the New York Daily News editorial below.
***

MORT ZUCKERMAN NY DAILY NEWS

by Alex Kane* and Nima Shirazi**

It comes as no surprise that a newspaper owned by Mort Zuckerman, an ardent Zionist, would be anti-Palestinian and that it would strongly oppose efforts to break the Israeli naval blockade by sending a flotilla of ships to Gaza. But a recent editorial printed by the Zuckerman-owned New York Daily News is a particularly egregious example of U.S. media’s aversion to the facts on Israel/Palestine. The bald-faced lies–which follow recent Israeli pronouncements about the “terrorists” organizing the upcoming international flotilla to break the Israeli blockade–printed would be laughable only if it wasn’t going to be read by thousands of people.

The editorial states:

Sponsors of the flotilla are happily playing with fire, as they did a year ago in sailing into the blockade under the guise of delivering medicines and the like to Gaza. In fact, some of those ships carried suicidal fighters instead of useful goods. Nine of the brigands died when Israeli commandos were forced to board and came under assault.

NEW YORKERS TAKE TO THE STREETS
IN A GAZA FLOTILLA DEMO!

To claim that those aboard the Mavi Marmara were the aggressors is to completely invert reality. The attack was conducted in international waters after Israel cut off all communications from the ships and surrounded the flotilla with over 20 naval vessels and warships, along with multiple helicopters. In addition to the 45 highly-trained and heavily-armed commandos who rappelled onto the largest ship, the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, murdering 9 civilians and wounding about 60 more, about 650 other Israeli troops, including surveillance and support troops alongside those who actually boarded the ships, took part in the illegal assault on the flotilla.

And then there’s these howlers:

No one of any credibility disputes that Israel’s blockade is legal under international law. In coordination with Egypt, Israel barred sea-going shipments into Gaza in 2009 after years of Palestinian mortar and rocket attacks on Jewish soil.


As a board of inquiry put it:


“Israel imposed the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip for military-security reasons, which mainly concerned the need to prevent weapons, terrorists and money” from entering.


The UN has recognized the blockade’s legitimacy under international law. Now, it must prevent this perilous propaganda ploy.

First of all, the naval blockade has been in place since 2007, along with the land and air blockade–not 2009 as the editorial claims. The “board of inquiry” the Daily News refers to is the Turkel Commission, the name for the Israeli investigation into the flotilla events–hardly a neutral source of facts about the blockade of Gaza.
And finally, it appears that Zuckerman’s newspaper likes to make up facts. The UN has not “recognized the blockade’s legitimacy under international law.” In fact, various UN reports have labeled the blockade illegal. The UN fact-finding mission on the 2008-09 Gaza conflict, known as the Goldstone report, stated that the blockade was a form of collective punishment and that it was therefore in “violation of the provisions of article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” The UN report on the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara also clearly states that the blockade is illegal. In 2009, the Associated Press reported that “U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay has accused Israel of violating the rules of war with its blockade stopping people and goods from moving in and out of the Gaza Strip.”
*****
*Alex Kane, a freelance journalist based in New York City, blogs on Israel/Palestine and Islamophobia in the United States at alexbkane.wordpress.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.

VISIT US TO GAZA BOAT
***** ***** *****
UPDATE:
Clearly, the editors who wrote this piece of garbage know nothing of the actual goals of the flotilla organizers. For instance, the Free Gaza movement, which has sent numerous boats to Gaza in the past few years, states on their website that their intention is “to break Israel’s illegal stranglehold on1.5 million Palestinian civilians.” Furthermore, they continue that, along with their “coalition partners, the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza; IHH — the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights, Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief; the International Committee to End the Siege on Gaza; Ship to Gaza Sweden and Ship to Gaza Greece,” they seek to defy “Israel’s criminal closure of the Gaza Strip” and “sail as an expression of citizen nonviolent, direct action, confronting Israel’s ongoing abuses of Palestinian human and political rights.”
Free Gaza’s mission statement reveals, contrary to what the Daily News ignorantly claims, the actual goals set forth by the movement. Here is what they state:

We want to break the siege of Gaza. We want to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation. We want to uphold Palestine’s right to welcome internationals as visitors, human rights observers, humanitarian aid workers, journalists, or otherwise.


We have not and will not ask for Israel’s permission. It is our intent to overcome this brutal siege through civil resistance and non-violent direct action, and establish a permanent sea lane between Gaza and the rest of the world.

Doesn’t sound much like their “only goal is to deliver humanitarian supplies.”
Likewise, the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, which “advocates the fundamental right of the Palestinian people in Gaza to live in peace and dignity without being subjected to any form of collective punishment such as the cutting of supplies of food, fuel and medicine or their denial of free access to travel outside Gaza Strip,” declares its own goals this way:

[The ECESG] urges the participation of politicians and non-politicians alike to honor their duty to stop the suffering of one and a half million people trapped in Gaza under the most inhumane conditions. Supported by international and humanitarian law, the ECESG encourages all peoples of conscience and human rights advocates to intensify their efforts to highlight this life-threatening issue and end the catastrophe.

The U.S. Boat to Gaza describes the upcoming flotilla as an “international effort to break the blockade of Gaza and to end the occupation of Palestine.” Additionally, as an American delegation, the US Boat believes that “from the deck of The Audacity of Hope, we will be in a powerful and unique position to challenge U.S. foreign policy and affirm the universal obligation to uphold international law and human rights.”
In their mission statement, the U.S. Boat organizers declare that they “are taking action to help break the blockade which is suffocating the lives of the people of Gaza and denying them their liberty” and are joining “others from across the world to support an end to the collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.”
All flotilla organizers stress, as the U.S. Boat does, that “we agree to adhere to the principles of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance in word and deed at all times.” Naturally, the editors of the Daily News are uninterested in these inconvenient facts, labeling the flotilla vessels “warships in disguise” and describe flotilla organizers as “terrorists…disguised as humanitarians.” Without providing any evidence, the article presents as fact the outrageous suggestion that the “ships carried suicidal fighters instead of useful goods.” Not only is the assertion that Hamas and al Qaeda operatives were aboard the flotilla ships untrue, it has been repeatedly proven false by journalists such as Max Blumenthal.
While the editorial describes the flotilla organizers as “Islamic extremists” seeking to smuggle weapons “under the guise of delivering medicines and the like to Gaza,” such allegations are absurd. The “brigands” it refers to are the nine unarmed Turkish citizens (including one Turkish American) who were executed by Israeli soldiers in international waters.
The writers also state, without hyperbole, that the nine activists “died when Israeli commandos were forced to board and came under assault.” Died? Forced to board? Came under assault? The nine passengers killed during the Israeli assault didn’t just “die,” they were shot to death by Israeli troops who illegally boarded their ship. To claim that the Israeli commandos “came under assault” is to outrageously invert the roles of aggressors and victims.
Last year, an UN report on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla massacre found, not only that the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza is illegal under international law and constitutes collective punishment (which is a war crime), but also:

“The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality. Such conduct cannot be justified or condoned on security or any other grounds. It constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law.”

The report also found “clear evidence to support prosecutions of the following crimes within the terms of article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: willful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health,” and stated that Israel had seriously violated its obligations under the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the “right to life…torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment…right to liberty and security of the person and freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention…right of detainees to be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person…[and] freedom of expression.”
Additionally, in July 2010, domestic Israeli policy and its occupation conduct had been found to violate these very same statutes (among others) by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
Based on both “forensic and firearm evidence,” the fact-finding panel concluded that the killing of American citizen Furkan Dogan and that of five Turkish citizens by the Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmara “can be characterized as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions.”
Furthermore, even propagandistic Zionists such as the New York Times‘s Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner has admitted that all 10,000 tons of aid goods aboard the Mavi Marmara was “unquestionably humanitarian in nature.” The aid included 6,000 tons of cement, more than 2,000 tons of iron, 100 prefabricated houses, 500 wheelchairs, crutches, medical equipment, wood and glass for building, electric generators, water purifiers, a mobile dental care facility, and food. The cargo had also been confirmed not to be transporting any weaponry by authorities before its departure.
Another aid ship, the MV Rachel Corrie which carried 550 tons of cement, 20 tons of paper for printing school books, 25 tons of school supplies, 12 tons of sports equipment and 150 tons of medical supplies, was also illegally seized by the Israeli Navy a few days after the Mavi Marmara massacre.
The need for medicine and health care supplies in Gaza is very real, despite what the editors of the Daily News may want their readers to believe. Since June 2007, “the number of Palestine refugees unable to access food and lacking the means to purchase even the most basic items, such as soap, school stationery and safe drinking water, has tripled” and over 80 UN and aid agencies agree that “the formal economy in Gaza has collapsed.” At the end of 2009, a UN report found that “insufficient food and medicine is reaching Gazans, producing a further deterioration of the mental and physical health of the entire civilian population since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead against the territory,” and “blamed the blockade for continued breakdowns of the electricity and sanitation systems due to the Israeli refusal to let spare parts needed for repair get through the crossings.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has “called on Israel to end the blockade of Gaza,” stating, “In particular, the Government of Israel should allow unimpeded access to Gaza for humanitarian aid and the non-humanitarian goods needed for the reconstruction of properties and infrastructure.”
The United Nations – which the Daily News calls upon to stop the upcoming flotilla -reported in January 2010 that Gaza is in “socio-economic crisis” and is suffering from the “severe deterioration of the already precarious living conditions of the people in Gaza and have further eroded a weakened health system.” The UN’s World Health Organization warns specifically that the brutal Israeli blockade – a clear example of collective punishment, which is illegal under international law – and the 2008-2009 winter massacre of Gaza “have led to on-going deterioration in the social, economic and environmental determinants of health.” The report notes that “many specialized treatments, for example for complex heart surgery and certain types of cancer, are not available in Gaza and patients are therefore referred for treatment to hospitals outside Gaza” continuing that “many patients have had their applications for exit permits denied or delayed by the Israeli Authorities and have missed their appointments. Some have died while waiting for referral.”
The UN also points out that “there are often shortages” of drugs and disposables “on the ground mainly because of shortfalls in deliveries” and that “[d]elays of up to 2-3 months occur on the importation of certain types of medical equipment, such as x-ray machines and electronic devices. Clinical staff frequently lack the medical equipment they need. Medical devices are often broken, missing spare parts or out of date.”
Furthermore, the report notes that sixteen health workers were killed and twenty-five injured while on duty by Israeli strikes. Also, fifteen of Gaza’s twenty-seven hospitals, forty-five of its 110 Primary Health Care services, and twenty-nine of its 148 ambulances were either damaged or destroyed in the Israeli assault. None of these facilities have been able to be repaired in the past two years due to the fact that Israel refuses to allow building materials into Gaza.
In June 2010, the WHO said that medical equipment valued at $20 million, including “CT scanners, X-ray machines, fluoroscopes, infusion pumps, medical sterilization gases, laboratory equipment, UPS (uninterrupted power supply) batteries and spare parts for support systems such as elevators” and which were “urgently needed in Gaza had been piling up for a year waiting for clearance from Israel.”
The WHO also renewed its call “to allow for the unimpeded access into the Gaza Strip of life-saving medical supplies, including equipment and medicines, as well as more effective movement of people in and out of the territory for medical training and the repair of devices needed to deliver appropriate healthcare.” The statement continued:

“It is impossible to maintain a safe and effective health care system under the conditions of siege that have been in place now since June 2007,” Tony Laurance, the head of the WHO’s office for Gaza and the West Bank, said in the statement. “It is not enough to simply ensure supplies like drugs and consumables. Medical equipment and spare parts must be available and be properly maintained.”

By December 2010, the Ministry of Health in Gaza was warning that “137 types of medicine and 150 of essential medical supplies are out of stock in Gaza, among those supplies are drugs used to treat cancer and kidney patients” and that a mere “37% of required medical supplies reached the Strip this year so far.”
Thankfully, the Daily News didn’t burden its readers with these annoying facts.
The Daily News editors claim that “the true aim is to provoke a confrontation that serves as a rallying point in a drive to portray Israel as an amoral, oppressive force.” Anyone familiar with Israel history knows full well that no artificial provocation is required for Israel to be portrayed as “amoral” and “oppressive.” The actions of the Israeli government and military over the past six decades prove that such a depiction is accurate, if not woefully inadequate to describe the war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and institutionalized discrimination necessary to continue Zionist domination of Palestine.
It should also be pointed out that, when mentioning mortars and rockets shot from Gaza into Israel, the Daily News states that the Palestinians were attacking “Jewish soil.”Jewish soil? Describing the State of Israel, which was established after years of massive (and illegal) Jewish immigration and months of deliberate and violent ethnic cleansing to eliminate the majority of native Muslim and Christian inhabitants from the area, as “Jewish soil” is disgusting. What does the Daily News think about the 20% of the Israeli population who are Palestinian Arabs and whose ancestors have owned and lived on the land for centuries if not longer? Whose “soil” are they living on?
Lastly, the photograph accompanying the Daily News piece shows a young Palestinian boy stocking shelves in a Gaza grocery store. The obvious implication is that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza and that the 1.5 million Palestinians there are in no need of humanitarian aid, let alone human rights solidarity.
Naturally, this suggestion ignores the fact that, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 61% of Gazans are “food insecure,” of which “65% are children under 18 years;” the level of anemia in infants is as high as 65.5%, about 70% of Gazans live on less than $1 a day, 75% rely on food aid, and 60% have no daily access to water. It also sidesteps the fact that, as Rebecca Sargent of the Peace and Collaborative Development Network has noted, “Much of the population remains unemployed and thus have no money to buy supplies for themselves. U.N. Resolution 1860 calls for the unfettered access of aid and commercial goods to Gaza, although it would appear this call has been mostly ignored by the Israeli government’s blockade.”
The photo of the Gaza grocery store is clearly another piece of propaganda meant to signify to the reader, “hey, with stores like these, can we really believe that Gaza’s inhabitants are victims of deliberate deprivation, discrimination, and occupation?”
Apparently, according to Zuckerman’s Daily News editors, where there’s a market, there’s no suffering, right? To answer this question, one need only look at these pictures of the Warsaw Ghetto marketplace in the 1940?s:




I suppose, if we are to believe the Daily News editors, there was nothing too offensive going on there, I mean, just look at all those warm coats, high heels, and storefronts!

And hey, if these children were smuggling food into the Ghetto, I suppose they had a good reason. But if Palestinians do the same in Gaza, clearly it’s because they are all murderous anti-Semites.


While the Daily News ends its piece by urging the UN to prevent the upcoming flotilla from sailing to Gaza this June, it is clear that the “perilous propaganda ploy” it warns against is actually its own unadulterated hasbara.
*****

** Nima Shirazi is a political commentator from New York City.  His analysis of United States foreign policy and Middle East issues is published on his website www.wideasleepinamerica.com, and can also be found in numerous other online and print publications. Visit his website at: www.wideasleepinamerica.com. Follow him on Twitter @WideAsleepNima Contact him at wideasleepinamerica@gmail.com.

VISIT US TO GAZA BOAT

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Anan: Israel has no right to interfere in decision to open the Rafah crossing

[ 29/04/2011 - 09:48 PM ]

CAIRO, GAZA, (PIC)-- The Egyptian Chief of Staff Lt-Gen Sami Anan said that Israel has no right to interfere in the Egyptian decision to open the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.
Anan said in a statement he published Friday on his page on Facebook: “Israel has no right to interfere in the decision to open the Rafah crossing as this is an Egyptian-Palestinian affair.”
The Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi had stated earlier that Egypt was seeking to break the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and open the Rafah crossing fully in both directions within ten days, after the signing of the Palestinian reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo.
The Foreign Ministry in Gaza, for its part, welcomed the Egyptian Foreign Minister’s statements which call for the complete lifting of the siege on Gaza and the full opening of the Rafah crossing.
In a statement on Friday, the Foreign Ministry said that it welcomed Arabi’s statement and hoped that it would be implemented on the ground as soon as possible, placing special emphasis on facilitating the travel of Gaza citizens in and out of the coastal strip.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian