Israeli document: Gaza blockade isn’t about security
Interesting report by Sheera Frenkel in McClatchy:
As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory.
Israel imposed severe restrictions on Gaza in June 2007, after Hamas won elections and took control of the coastal enclave after winning elections there the previous year, and the government has long said that the aim of the blockade is to stem the flow of weapons to militants in Gaza.
Last week, after Israeli commandos killed nine volunteers on a Turkish-organized Gaza aid flotilla, Israel again said its aim was to stop the flow of terrorist arms into Gaza.
However, in response to a lawsuit by Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, the Israeli government explained the blockade as an exercise of the right of economic warfare.
"A country has the right to decide that it chooses not to engage in economic relations or to give economic assistance to the other party to the conflict, or that it wishes to operate using ‘economic warfare,’" the government said.
McClatchy obtained the government’s written statement from Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, which sued the government for information about the blockade. The Israeli high court upheld the suit, and the government delivered its statement earlier this year.
Sari Bashi, the director of Gisha, said the documents prove that Israel isn’t imposing its blockade for its stated reasons, but rather as collective punishment for the Palestinian population of Gaza. Gisha focuses on Palestinian rights.
(A State Department spokesman, who wasn’t authorized to speak for the record, said he hadn’t seen the documents in question.)
The Israeli government took an additional step Wednesday and said the economic warfare is intended to achieve a political goal. A government spokesman, who couldn’t be named as a matter of policy, told McClatchy that authorities will continue to ease the blockade but "could not lift the embargo altogether as long as Hamas remains in control" of Gaza.
Continue reading. Group punishment is, of course, a violation of the Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory. But then Israel agrees to many things with no intention of honoring the agreements (cf. the illegal settlements, still being build and planned). Israel is thoroughly in the wrong on this.
The Israeli blockade is certainly about security and yes economic pressure, which is also a legitimate action to take against a terrorist group like Hamas. Winning an election does not make you democratic if you don’t respect the rights of others’, which Hamas doesn’t. Also economic turmoil breeds frustration, a sentiment that if it festers could inspire Gazans to throw Hamas from power. I don’t see the reason why Israel should let goods and services flow from itself into Gaza to help an organization that seeks its destruction stay in power. Security-wise, a big reason why the children of southern Israel can play in jungle gyms without having to run to bomb shelters is because the flow of cement, which is used to build rockets has been curtailed.
DJ Solomon
10 June 2010 at 10:22 am
The reason group punishment is against the Geneva Convention (which Israel signed) is that when you punish an entire population, you’re also punishing innocent bystanders and indeed those who might oppose Hama. The idea of humanitarian aid IS humanitarian. I don’t think that’s terribly difficult to understand. Not everyone in Gaza is a member of Hamas.
Yes, those cement rockets. Do you have a link? I’ve actually never heard of a cement rocket.
LeisureGuy
10 June 2010 at 11:56 am
Take a look at this post and its links. Then tell me Israel is be just in its actions.
LeisureGuy
10 June 2010 at 1:34 pm