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UN: Israel blocking Gaza recovery

Thursday, 23 April 2009 16:30 RamallahOnline Content - News

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The United Nations says the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip has deteriorated health and economic conditions of the Palestinians in the region.

According to a report by the UN, the Israeli ban on imports into the Gaza Strip puts economic recovery in the region on hold.

In addition, preventing the entry of materials and spare parts would spur reconstruction following the Israel's devastating three-week military offensive, it added, UN News Center reported Thursday.

Meanwhile, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned that dirty water in the Gaza Strip has caused diseases among the children.

The report said that the UN Development Program also warned that poverty and unemployment has increased among the Gazan residents as a result of the three-week-long Israeli offensive on the costal strip.

The Israeli-imposed siege has also triggered a steady deterioration of health conditions in the coastal territory. There are chronic shortages of vital medicines and hospital facilities that rely on electricity remain in dire conditions largely due to the lack of fuel for power generators.

Israel is accused of committing war crimes during the onslaught on Gaza which left thousands of Palestinian civilians dead and wounded.

The war crimes include the use of unconventional ammunitions including deadly white phosphorus shells and depleted uranium in densely populated civilian areas and the use of civilians as human shields.

Israel initially denied using the controversial weapon containing phosphorus. However, indisputable evidence -- shown globally on video feed -- triggered Israeli officials to admit using the shells.

A recent report by the Ministry of Social Affairs in Gaza said that the Israeli war against the blockaded Gaza Strip has so far left 437 children dead and 1,872 more wounded.

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Well Said!

“Remember the solidarity shown to Palestine here and everywhere... and remember also that there is a cause to which many people have committed themselves, difficulties and terrible obstacles notwithstanding. Why? Because it is a just cause, a noble ideal, a moral quest for equality and human rights.”

- Edward Said

This brief review of Israel’s record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel’s real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.

-Avi Shlaim

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