"intolerable, appalling, tragic" - Life in Gaza

Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians where life is "intolerable, appalling, tragic" and the Jewish state appears to have thrown away the key, a U.N. human rights envoy [John Dugard] said on Tuesday.

* * *

"If ... the international community cannot ... take some action, (it) must not be surprised if the people ... disbelieve that they are seriously committed to the promotion of human rights," he told the United Nations' Human Rights Council.

Now there's the understatement of the millenium!

Anyone with EYES, EARS and even a modicum of information KNOWS that the UN, the US and Israel aren't even interested in human rights let alone committed to protecting them.
But, even this mild diplomatic admonishment was too abrasive for Israel's taste.

Israel hit back saying there was an "alarming disconnect" between the rapporteur's report to the U.N.'s human rights watchdog and the experience of Israelis who continued to "face the daily threat of Palestinian terrorism."

The South African lawyer, who has been a special U.N. investigator since 2001, repeated earlier accusations that Israel is breaking international humanitarian law with security measures which amount to "collective punishment."

Israel says its security restrictions, which include the construction of a steel and concrete barrier in the West Bank, are designed to stop suicide bombers entering Israel. Bombings have declined since the barrier was built.

It also maintains tight restrictions on the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza, a coastal strip that it pulled out of last year after 38 years of occupation.

* * *

"Israel violates international law as expounded by the Security Council and the International Court of Justice and goes unpunished. But the Palestinian people are punished for having democratically elected a regime unacceptable to Israel, the U.S. and the EU," Dugard said.

But Israel's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Itzhak Levanon said that by putting the "entire blame" on Israel the report "absolves the terrorists that have taken Palestinian society hostage from even the most minimal responsibility."

Dugard said that three-quarters of Gaza's 1.4 million people were dependent on food aid. Bombing raids by Israel since the June 25 capture of an army corporal by Palestinian militants had destroyed houses and the territory's only power plant.

"Gaza is a prison and Israel seems to have thrown away the key," he said.

The West Bank also faced a humanitarian crisis, albeit not as extreme as Gaza, in part due to the barrier, which Dugard alleged was no longer being justified by Israel on security grounds but was part of a move to annex more land.

Palestinians living between the barrier and the Green Line, the frontier at the end of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, could no longer freely access schools and places of work and many had abandoned local farms, he said.

"In other countries this process might be described as ethnic cleansing but political correctness forbids such language where Israel is concerned," Dugard said.

* * *

Saddest Ramadan in 40 years: To many residents of Gaza, this month of Ramadan is the poorest and saddest holiday since 1967. According to them, the economic situation has never been worse and the holiday feasts have never been as lacking as this year.

Abed Srur, a construction worker from Gaza said that unlike the Ramadan tradition, for their fast ending meal they eat only rice with no meat. He said that his income since May has been only NIS 3,000.

The Palestinians continue to be troubled by the closure imposed on the Strip that prevents the transfer of goods and people and hurts the ability of traders and workers to support their families.

Srur also said that the salaries that the Palestinian government has promised to pay its employees have not been paid because of conflicts between the government and Palestinian President Abbas. "Ramadan has never been so sad," said Srur.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Ramadan is the Islamic holy month in which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset in the name of God, to purify us - mind, body and soul - from the desires of this world.

Israelis want to take this opportunity to purify the land of its unwanted inhabitants, further entrenching themselves in the desires of this world.

To each will come what they deserve.