Login / RegisterLetter: Independent Jewish Voices says it's proud to sponsor flotilla to Gaza
Jack Chivo’s letter to the editor could have been written by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak or Israel Defence Forces chief Benny Gantz [" B.C. residents on Gaza flotilla raises questions of priorities"].
The Israeli security establishment and their supporters like Mr. Chivo try to confuse people about the economic situation prevailing in Gaza by spreading the message that life there is just fine and that there is no need for flotillas to challenge the Israeli blockade, which is cast as purely defensive in nature. But a State Department cable written from the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv in October 2008 and published by WikiLeaks sheds light on Israel’s claims about the economic situation in Gaza.
According to this cable:
Israeli officials have confirmed to Embassy officials on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis”¦ Israeli officials have confirmed ... on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge.
Israel’s deliberate effort to keep Gaza’s economy “on the brink of collapse” is what is motivating participants in the Freedom Flotilla to break its illegal blockade.
The conditions in Gaza haven’t gotten any better since that cable was written. In June of this year, a United Nations Relief and Works Agency report detailed the human cost of the Israeli siege on Gaza:
As the Gaza blockade moves into its fifth year... broad unemployment in the second half of 2010 reached 45.2 per cent, one of the highest in the world... real wages continued to decline under the weight of persistently high unemployment, falling 34.5 per cent since the first half of 2006.
Those facts—Gaza’s dire economic situation and Israel’s deliberate strategy to keep it that way—explain why flotillas like this one will continue to sail until Israel’s blockade of Gaza is no more. Our organization is proud to be one of the flotilla’s sponsors.
> Sid Shniad / Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Sid Shniad’s letter to the editor
could have been written by Muhammad Sawalha.
Muhammad Sawalha is the flotilla’s coordinator
under his title as Vice-Chairman
of the International Campaign to
Break the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG).
The campaign also coordinates
the Miles of Smiles* land convoys.
Miles of Smiles is another Union of Good-affiliate,
linked with Interpal, a major UK-based charity
and member of the UoG.
MoS was designated as a terrorist organization
by the U.S. Treasury in 2003.
A further connection is to Britain2Gaza,
with its directors, Sawalha
and Hamas-affiliated Zaher Birawi,
a convoy and flotilla spokesman.
The Union of Good* (UoG), is a
coalition of European charities
affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In 2008, the U.S. Treasury designated the UoG
as a terrorist organization, for transferring funds to Hamas.
*Someone on the left derided (presumably rightwing) organizations for using deceptive names.
These are excellent examples from the left!
Here is a somewhat contradictory Palestinian opinion:
http://electronicintifada.net/content/theres-more-gaza-broken-slabs-conc...
If you don't like it Sid, you can always call him a useful idiot.
Or a square peg in a round hole, like yourself.
Or even a self-hating mohammedan.
The population of Gaza is 1.6 million, with over 50% under 18.
38% of Gazans live in poverty.
31% of the Gazan workforce is unemployed and 47% of youths are unemployed.
54% of Gazans are food insecure and over 75% are aid dependent.
Economic output in 2010 is 20% lower than in 2005.
35% of Gaza’s farmland and 85% of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli military measures.
50-80 million litres of partially treated sewage are dumped in the sea each day.
Over 90% of the water from the Gaza aquifer is undrinkable.
85% of schools in Gaza run on double or triple shifts.
The Gaza blockade is a denial of basic human rights in contravention of international law, e.g., the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention ratified by Israel and binding on all UN members, as it constitutes collective punishment. The blockade severely restricts imports and exports, as well as the movement of people in and out of Gaza, and access to agricultural land and fishing waters. Gazans are unable to provide for their families and the quality of infrastructure and vital services has deteriorated.
Measures taken to ease the blockade in June 2010 have had little real effect. While imports have increased,they are still only at 45% of the pre-2007 levels. Exports remain tightly restricted and are limited to agricultural produce to Europe, and Gazan businesses cannot access their traditional markets of Israel and the West Bank. Access to land and sea remains highly restricted.
While Israel has approved a range of infrastructure projects aimed to improve vital sanitation, education and health services in Gaza, few of these projects have been implemented. This is mainly due to the unwieldy, cumbersome approval process and difficulties in importing materials. This means Gazans have seen no real improvement in the quality of vital services.
Gazans remain isolated and cut off from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory. Movement via the Israeli Erez crossing is prohibited for almost all Gazans, despite promises to ease restrictions. The Egyptian Rafah Crossing remains limited to 500 people per day, with hundreds of Palestinians denied passage each week.
Hamas also subscribes to the loathsome 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. In the words of journalist Christopher Hitchens---someone who has actually visited and investigated the region on many occasions (do read his "Hitch 22" for a rather more indepth look at the local and geopolitics of the area), unlike our own couch-surfing "activists"---'this disgusting fabrication is a key foundational document of 20th-century racism and totalitarianism, indelibly linked to the Hitler regime in theory and practice. It seems extraordinary to me that any "activist" claiming allegiance to human rights could co-operate at any level with the propagation of such evil material. But I have never seen any of them invited to comment on this matter, either'
Well, let's give Georgia Straight readers and journalists the chance to take on his comments and questions in this article entitled "Hypocisy on the high seas".
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Hypocrisy+high+seas/5062070/story.html
Isreal isn't the only entity that has some explaining to do.
PS Maxime. Pompous, much? As per the article and the actual payload, the supplies are but a drop in any humanitarian bucket. I am not convinced that Hamas, like Cuba's Castro, are not quite delighted to expand their own ideolgy on the backs of theor own people. Yet, even Castro now acknowledges he was wrong. Perhaps a movement based on a form of twisted theocracy will be less flexible. At any rate, why not answer the political symbolism of this move, instead of hiding behind the skirts of humanitarianism?
Please do tell me when a Hamas leader has given the slightest indication that they really want to peacefully co-exist with Israel. When one of their own people is suspected of tolerating the Isrealis they are summarily dragged from their homes. Who knows what happens to them. The doctrinaire nature of their beliefs, the inculcation of their own people, of how they treat their own people in the Gaza is a lesson in futility for the area. They make Fatah look like Nobel Laureates. This is the real insanity fand shame from the Hamas supporters, living their bourgeois existences here in Canada.
Too bad Arafat rejected Oslo. We are facing the fallout of that decision yet many more years down the road. However, we work towards a way that works..
"Israeli Army destroys nine water tanks in Palestinian village"
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18566
acts they did not commit and for political circumstances beyond their control. The closure
inflicts harm to the civilian population and civilian institutions by blocking the passage of
goods necessary for health, well-being, and economic life. The closure infringes on the right
to freedom of movement and thereby violates other rights for which freedom of movement
is a precondition, such as the right to health, to education, to family life, and to access
economic opportunities. This blockade and siege is not for security reasons and was implemented because Israel and the US wanted to punish the Palestinians for voting the "wrong way" in a free and democratic election.
http://www.gisha.org/UserFiles/File/publications/GazaClosureDefinedEng.pdf
As a Canadian I am proud of our humanitarian activists and other nations humanitarians who are risking their lives to free imprisoned and brutalized people by a vicious regime that is intent on ethnically cleansing them for the simple fact they are not Jewish.
I stand with Independent Jewish Voices and all like minded people who seek justice and peace.
But the right to receive visitors, or lack thereof? This is the most recent addition. The prohibition on freely receiving foreign visitors is as disturbing as it is shocking, especially for a country that claims to be the only beacon of democracy in the Middle East.
Yes, you read correctly. Israel is threatening to refuse to allow Palestinians living in the occupied Palestinian territory to receive visitors from abroad. We are not talking here about visitors such as the 5 million Palestinian refugees whom Israel has refused to allow to return to their homes after being expelled by force and fear when Israel was founded in 1948. Rather, the issue now is that foreigners who desire to visit the occupied Palestinian territory are being denied entry into Israel.
Remember, there is no other way to get to the Palestinian territory of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which is under military occupation by Israel, except by passing through Israeli-controlled points of entry such as Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv or one of Israel's sea ports or land crossings. The entry point to the Gaza Strip from the West Bank requires passage through Israel as well.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/05/welcome-to-palestine...
The anger at Israelis who support Palestinian independence resembles the treatment of whites who supported the black civil rights movement
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/empathy-toward-the-palesti...
Dereck O'Keefe, Mable Elmore...) to rationalize this one:
Nine water tanks vs five human beings. Do the math.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/world/middleeast/18palestinian.html
Or is it because they were dhimmis, that's OK by Sid?
Thanks for your knee-jerk vote against me, Sid.
But you didn't answer the question:
Water tanks or human beings?
Your brownosing Hamas WILL win you many friends
at GS. And with friends like those, who needs enemies?
Charter Of Hamas (1988, Aug 18)
Article 7:[end]
"O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me,
come on and kill him! This will not apply to the Gharqad, which is a Jewish tree. (cited by Bukhari and Muslim)."
Note that there are no temporal or geographic limits
in that statement of intended genocide.
I didn't see any exemptions for Sid Shniad or David Mivasair.
Let's get the facts straight.
According to the June 2011 UN REPORT. Israel allows 150 trucks (including semi trailers) to enter Gaza. EVERY DAY
These trucks are loaded with humanitarian aid, medical supplies, food, and consruction material. Much of this paid by Israeli taxpayers
The borders are not closed: Gazans can enter Egypt and Israel through the designated border crossings. Many Gazans comee to Israel for medical treatment to Israel's best hospitals. The medical treatment is paid
for by Israeli taxpayers.
Israelis and the IDF left Gaza years ago and ever since it has been ruled by Hamas terrorist. So if all the international fundingwere used to improve the economic situation instead of buying weapons the citizens would be much better off. However Gaza is reigned by fear and terrorism. So blame
Hamas for the conditions in Gaza.
Kidnapped soldier Shalit has been imprisoned for over five years without
even the Red Cross allowed to visit him.
So in my humble opinion. These "Independent Jews" are nothing but
Traitors to Canada"...They are supporting the Hamas Terrorist Regime
while at the same time Canadians are fighting the spread of terrorism on many fronts- while some soldiers have nade the supreme sacrifice.
These Jews, especially, those ex Israeli Jews certainly do not represent the mainstream Jews that I have known.
AS a result they should not be allowed to return to "Canadian Shores" or
- or if they return should be arrested both as traitors and "spreading hatred"... and given the most severe sentence in our courts of justice
Please quote from realiable sources such as UN Reports,....
otherwise your unfounded comments nothing but slander and hate
Pages