Would You Buy a Used Occupation From These People?
Israel and its supporters are always accusing the Palestinians of saying one thing in English to the world but saying something quite different in Arabic. Well, the Israelis do the same thing.
BEAR IN MIND THAT THE "DISENGAGEMENT" FROM GAZA WAS PHONY: ISRAEL MAINTAINS THE TIGHT CONTROL OF THE TERRITORY THAT ONE WOULD ONLY EXPECT TO SEE IN A PRISON CAMP.
QUOTE: "It's a new position made very clear in Hebrew before the courts but not something that Israel has made clear internationally," said Sari Bashi, Gisha's executive director.
20070115 LT below The victims of Gaza's identity crisis
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2548381,00.html
Times Online [London] January 15, 2007
Israel's 'invisible hand' still controls Gaza, says report
David Sharrock in Gaza
Israel continues to control Gaza, 16 months after it pulled out its settlements and military installations, with an "invisible hand" that has provoked a severe humanitarian and economic crisis, according to an Israeli human rights body.
Ending its 38-year military occupation of the Gaza Strip did not end Israeli control but simply changed the rules of engagement, charges Gisha, the Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement, in a report due to be published next week.
The organisation says that Israel's control over Gaza's borders, airspace, territorial waters, population registry, tax system and supply of goods means that it cannot absolve itself of responsibility for its citizens under international law.
"It's a new position made very clear in Hebrew before the courts but not something that Israel has made clear internationally," said Sari Bashi, Gisha's executive director.
"Sometimes Israeli soldiers still operate in the streets of Gaza but Israeli control of every aspect of the lives of Gaza citizens is constant, they know that their ability to do ordinary things like turn on a light or buy milk depends on decisions made by the Israeli military."
The report details how Israel has removed some of its elements of control while significantly tightening others.
"Far from improving the economy and welfare of Gaza residents, Israeli actions since September 2005 - including severe restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza and an economic stronghold on the funding of civil services - have contributed to an economic and humanitarian crisis in Gaza not seen in the 38 years of Israeli control that preceded the withdrawal of permanent ground troops."
Gisha says that Gaza has been cut off from the outside world for 42 per cent of the time since the Strip was evacuated of Jewish settlers and troops. The Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt is operated by the Palestinian Authority under the supervision of European Union monitors and Israeli security officials who monitor operations with live video footage and passenger lists.
Travel through the crossing is restricted to Palestinians registered in the Israeli-controlled Palestinian population registry.
This means that foreigners may only enter Gaza via the Israeli-controlled crossing points in the north.
"Reports and internal military documents suggest that Israel has used the closure of the (Rafah) crossing to exercise pressure on Gaza residents. In the first year following the completion of its disengagement programme, Israel kept Rafah Crossing closed for 148 days." Since June last year, when militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier, the Rafah crossing has been closed for 80 per cent of the time and, on days that it has opened, has functioned only for a few
hours.
At the same time Israel has also kept Gaza's other crossings mostly closed and has withheld monies needed to pay the salaries of civil servants and to run civilian institutions.
"The results of these controls have been devastating and have helped plunge Gaza into an economic and humanitarian crisis unprecedented in nearly four decades of occupation," says the report, seen by The Times.
Israel completely controls the import of goods into Gaza and exercises substantial control over exports from Gaza to third countries and to the West Bank.
The Karni Crossing between Israel and Gaza is the lifeline through Which commercial goods enter the Gaza Strip. Because imports to Gaza are not permitted via air, sea, or Rafah Crossing, only goods arriving first in Israel and inspected there can be brought into Gaza.
"The restrictions on imports via Karni Crossing have, at various points, caused severe shortages of basic goods that threatened the health and welfare of Gaza residents," the report says.
"Citing security warnings, Israel has closed Karni Crossing to exports for most of 2006, causing severe damage to Gaza's economy and rendering export crops virtually worthless. The closures caused an estimated $30 US million in losses in the first quarter of 2006 alone.
"During that time, farmers destroyed their crops, donated them, or left them to rot in the fields, because they could not get them out of Gaza and to export markets."
Another controversial are is control over the Palestinian Population Registry, which means control over who may enter and leave Gaza.
Since 2000, with few exceptions, Israel has not permitted additions to the Palestinian Population Registry, with the exception of children of Palestinian ID-card holders.
Tens of thousands of Gaza residents, primarily women who entered Gaza on visitor permits and married locals, cannot leave because they will not be permitted to return.
A result of these policies, says Gisha, is an unemployment rate which has risen between 2005 and 2006 from 33.1 per cent to 41.8 per cent, and Gross Domestic Product has declined by an estimated 30 per cent.
The report concludes:"So long as Israel exercises control over civilian life in Gaza, it will continue to owe obligations to those civilians whose lives depend on the decisions of a foreign military power."
===== 20070115 LT below The victims of Gaza's identity crisis
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2547485,00.html
The Times [London] January 15, 2007
Ahmad el-Akad's wife, Elena, left Gaza to visit her dying mother in Siberia. She has no identity card in Gaza and has not been allowed to return with her children. (David Sharrock)
The victims of Gaza's identity crisis
David Sharrock in Gaza
# Israel has frozen Palestinian register
# Thousands have no official papers
She wants to leave but dares not, fearing that her return will be barred. He yearns for his wife and children to come home, trapped on the other side of Gaza's walled high-tech frontier. Both are victims of Israel's control of the Palestinian population register.
Under the 1993 Oslo accords, which charted a phased route to Palestinian statehood, any addition to the Palestinian population register was subject to Israeli approval. But Israel has frozen the register since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, leaving tens of thousands of ordinary people in Gaza, like Mirvat al-Nahal, a lawyer, and Ahmad el-Akad, an ophthalmologist, in limbo. Their plight is highlighted in a forthcoming report from Gischa, the Israeli Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement.
Ms al-Nahal was born in exile in Libya and was 19 when her parents took her home to Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border. "I finished high school here, then studied law at El Azhar University. But for the past 13 years I have never left Gaza because I have no official identity. My father was told he had no right to an identity card because he left Palestine before the Israelis invaded Gaza in 1967. Until a year ago my father couldn't even travel to Gaza City, 45 minutes away, because he was afraid the Israelis would catch him at a checkpoint and deport him.
"My mother Nadia's family also left and live in Syria. When we lived in Libya we could visit them, but since 1993 she has not seen them. In 2005 Nadia had a stroke and needed medical facilities that were only available in Ramallah.
"She was refused the right to cross to the West Bank because she had no identity card. She died while we were trying to arrange for a specialist to come from Ramallah to treat her.
"My children Taysir [an 8-year-old boy], Shahed [a 5-year-old girl] and Seifildeen [a 3-year-old boy] can travel because my husband has his Gazan identity papers and they are included under his name. But I am deprived of all my rights as a citizen. My husband's ID card says he is married but the box for 'spouse's name' is blank. I want to develop my career. I have been offered scholarships to do my masters abroad but if I take them I know that I will be refused entry on my return."
Dr el-Akad left Gaza in 1990 to study ophthalmology in Tomsk at the University of Siberia. He met Elena, a doctor, and in 1994 they married. A year later their son Mostafa was born. In 2000 he applied for a family visit visa so that they could return to Gaza. They got jobs, Elena as a paediatrician in the Palestinian Ministry of Health and Dr el-Akad in the private sector. In 2002 Daiana, a daughter, was born. Elena applied for her ID card but nothing happened.
"You apply through the Palestinian administration but it is up to the Israelis. We waited a long time. We wrote to President Putin, to Arafat, we tried everything. My wife's father died in 2005 and she was not able to go to the funeral. Last year her mother's [heart] condition worsened and she was calling Elena, saying 'I want to see you before I die'.
"She was caught between two emotions, to see her mother for the last time or stay with her husband and children. It was agonising. In July last year we decided that she should go to Siberia."
At this point Dr el-Akad began to cry. "We have tried everything. My children can come back, but how can they without their mother? It's not easy to find work for her or me in Siberia, while here she is respected in her profession.
"My children cry when I speak to them. They ask me: 'When are we coming home? When will we see you?' I send them $1,000 a month but now I must sell my furniture because there is no work here, the economy is collapsing. I know of people here in similar circumstances who eventually divorce because they cannot get back. I am afraid this will be my fate."
