Archive for category Lying

List of prohibited items, from The Economist. Israel also won’t allow cement or steel reinforcing rods for concrete buildings.

In recent days, coverage of the attack on the aid flotilla headed to the Gaza Strip has focused world attention on the continuing blockade of 1.5 million people. Trapped in Gaza by Israel and Egypt since June 2007, Gazans suffer from joblessness and privation.

The misery increased after a Israel attacked Gaza in 2008-2009 with aircraft, artillery and tanks, killing over a thousand civilians. Attempts to rebuild homes and business have been thwarted by the blockade. There is a chronic shortage of electricity and drinking water.

Israeli propagandists are working hard to put out two big lies about the blockade.

LIE #1

Israel and its apologists claim that the purpose of the Gaza blockade is to keep weapons out of the hands of Hamas fighters. But Israeli politicians instead describe the blockade as a effort to punish ordinary Palestinians. Israel’s policy was summed up by Dov Weisglass, an adviser to Ehud Olmert, in 2006. “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”

The blockade rules are shifting and unpredictable, but based on what Israel calls a “humanitarian minimum” — NOT on weaponry.

Items forbidden by Israel include stationery supplies, tea, jam, chocolate and children’s toys. Even USAID supplies are intercepted at the border. These include blankets, tomato paste, and recreational sports equipment for children.

Gaza now has a parallel economy, with tunnel owners employing 30,000 workers and paying official taxes imposed by Hamas. Around 4,200 items are smuggled in through the tunnels – from cattle and cars to sanitary napkins and clothes.

LIE #2

Israel and its apologists claim there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In fact, the United Nations reports that 61 percent of the population is food insecure. The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned by rising malnutrition indicators – increased cases of stunting, wasting and underweight children – and continuing high rates of anemia among children and pregnant women. A 2010 WHO report (PDF) stated that “chronic malnutrition in the Gaza Strip has risen over the past few years and has now reached 10.2%.”

Amnesty International, in its latest annual report, documents the reality of life in Gaza under Israel’s (and Egypt’s) three-year-old siege.

This gratuitous exacerbation of the privations already suffered by the inhabitants of Gaza seriously hampered their access to health care and education and destroyed industries and livelihoods.

The report goes on to describe the blockade as collective punishment — illegal under international law — and notes that fully 80 percent of Gazans depend on aid because of the blockade.

UPDATE: Cenk Uygur on the inconvenient fact that Israeli commandos executed 19-year-old American-born Furkan Dogan by shooting him once in the chest and four times in the head at close range.

Anybody know what we would call it if Hamas had shot an American citizen in the head? Yeah, you guessed it. Terrorism.

UPDATE: Salon has the story of Paul Larudee, a 64-year-old American who jumped overboard to escape the Israeli commandos and was repeatedly beaten when captured.

UPDATE: TPM has a compilation of accounts that indicate the Israeli naval special forces fired small arms and grenades from helicopters and ships prior to boarding the Mavi Marmara. The suppressive fire killed at least one person and wounded at least one.

UPDATE: The Irish are coming! The 1,200-ton humanitarian aid ship MV Rachel Corrie (named for an American killed in in the Gaza Strip in 2003 by the IDF) is expected to reach Gaza by late Saturday morning. Unless attacked by Israel, of course.

UPDATE: MV Rachel Corrie seized by Israel, and crew detained.

UPDATE: In the midst of an incoherent hour-long rant on his TV show, Glenn Beck concluded that deadly Israeli military attacks on unarmed ships in international waters can only be described as “unprovoked violence against Israelis.” Glad he cleared that up. Next thing you know, “fair and balanced” Faux News will try to blame the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on environmental groups (oh, wait they are already doing that).

Apparently, it’s all part of a plot to destroy capitalism. But anybody who watches Beck knows that, because he thinks everything is part of a plot to destroy capitalism (and his $36 million a year income along with it).