Posted by Kromey at 9:53pm Mar 6 '081.5 million people live in the 360 square kilometer (139 sq mi) Gaza Strip. 1.1 million, almost 75% of the population, is dependent upon food aid from the UN. Poverty levels have risen dramatically, with the number of families earning less than $1.20/person/day rising from 55% in June to 70% in September of 2007 - just 4 months!! The UN appeal for aid this year is $462m, more than double the 2006 appeal and third now only to Sudan and Congo.
Why all the hardship there? Because Israel has unilaterally imposed draconian restrictions on how much supplies are allowed in, and going out is even worse. Israel only allows in enough industrial diesel to let the Strip's only power plant operate at 68%-80% of its already-reduced capacity - reduced because Israel destroyed a significant amount of its infrastructure in June of 2006. This means that hospitals are subject to frequent blackouts, and there isn't enough diesel for them to run their generators, assuming they can even scrounge up enough of the nigh-impossible to obtain spare parts to fix them when they break! Schools are affected, too, with energy-expensive classes like IT canceled entirely.
Israel claims that it no longer has any obligations to provide humanitarian aid since it no longer has soldiers in Gaza, but because it controls all the land and sea borders and the air space it is still considered an occupying force by the rest of the international community (excepting, most likely, its bedfellow the US). As illustration of this fact, in December of 2007 Israel granted only 64% of petitions for people to leave to seek life-saving medical treatment, resulting in dozens of deaths; Israel also allows a mere 45 trucks of supplies per day to cross into the Strip, a fraction of the 250 agreed to by an Isreali-Palestinian deal.
Further, Israel frequently crosses the border and destroys crops because it has decided that no crop should be grown more than 40cm (15in) high; this effectively limits farmers to cash crops instead of staples like wheat and corn, and yet Israel has strangled exports to near-nothing, effectively meaning that farmers are simply out of business entirely. With no food production in the country, the economy will further collapse, and it won't be long before the entire population is dependent upon UN food aid - assuming, of course, that Israel allows such aid in at all!
Why are we not upset about this? Why do we fly into a rage at the mere mention of Islamic terrorism, and then turn a blind eye to the Jewish state's oppression of the Palestinians? I can certainly understand Israel wanting to stop the rocket attacks on its civilians, but what do the more than 840 thousand children struggling to survive in the Gaza Strip have to do with that??
Why all the hardship there? Because Israel has unilaterally imposed draconian restrictions on how much supplies are allowed in, and going out is even worse. Israel only allows in enough industrial diesel to let the Strip's only power plant operate at 68%-80% of its already-reduced capacity - reduced because Israel destroyed a significant amount of its infrastructure in June of 2006. This means that hospitals are subject to frequent blackouts, and there isn't enough diesel for them to run their generators, assuming they can even scrounge up enough of the nigh-impossible to obtain spare parts to fix them when they break! Schools are affected, too, with energy-expensive classes like IT canceled entirely.
Israel claims that it no longer has any obligations to provide humanitarian aid since it no longer has soldiers in Gaza, but because it controls all the land and sea borders and the air space it is still considered an occupying force by the rest of the international community (excepting, most likely, its bedfellow the US). As illustration of this fact, in December of 2007 Israel granted only 64% of petitions for people to leave to seek life-saving medical treatment, resulting in dozens of deaths; Israel also allows a mere 45 trucks of supplies per day to cross into the Strip, a fraction of the 250 agreed to by an Isreali-Palestinian deal.
Further, Israel frequently crosses the border and destroys crops because it has decided that no crop should be grown more than 40cm (15in) high; this effectively limits farmers to cash crops instead of staples like wheat and corn, and yet Israel has strangled exports to near-nothing, effectively meaning that farmers are simply out of business entirely. With no food production in the country, the economy will further collapse, and it won't be long before the entire population is dependent upon UN food aid - assuming, of course, that Israel allows such aid in at all!
Why are we not upset about this? Why do we fly into a rage at the mere mention of Islamic terrorism, and then turn a blind eye to the Jewish state's oppression of the Palestinians? I can certainly understand Israel wanting to stop the rocket attacks on its civilians, but what do the more than 840 thousand children struggling to survive in the Gaza Strip have to do with that??