Yeah Butt-head then Israel as an occupier IS obligated to provide
To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties.
Clearly, a number of arguments can be made regarding the nature of the blockade and its failure to meet the standards required by the San Remo Manual. However, all of the above violations are predicated on the assumption that the San Remo Manual even applies to the territorial entities involved, in this case, Gaza and Israel.
The Manual only applies to "belligerent states" and "neutral states" as clearly indicated in Section IV. Gaza, which is part of the Palestinian Occupied Territories along with the West Bank, is not a state, due in large part, ironically, to Israeli intransigence. Gaza was occupied by Israel in 1967 and, under customary international law, Israel has been the belligerent occupier of the strip since. Despite ending their colonization of the Gaza Strip in 2005 when they withdrew the colonies they had developed and populated with their civilians, Israel still maintains "effective control" over the Gaza Strip through control of its borders, air space and of course, sea lanes.
Israel has had a love/hate relationship with its occupation of the Gaza Strip. It has loved the security advantage of effective control which it has exercised through incursions, the creation of buffer zones within the strip, routine aerial attacks and so on. But it has simultaneously hated (and denied) the obligations which come along with belligerent occupation; prime among which is upholding the well-being of the civilian population.
The international legal framework which is most appropriate for assessing Israel's obligations is the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a party to. Part 1 Article 55 of the IV Geneva Convention clearly states:
To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.
And Article 56:
To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties.
Clearly, not only does the San Remo Manual not apply to this blockade since Gaza is occupied territory and not a state, even if Gaza was a state, the nature of the blockade is contrary to the stated requirements in the Manual. Further, since the Geneva Conventions do apply to this situation, the blockade and siege of Gaza are intentional efforts on Israel's behalf that leave it in default of its primary obligation as a belligerent occupier: the protection of the Palestinian civilian population.
Much debate about the legality of Israel's naval blockade and siege of Gaza has occurred in the U.S. media with little serious analysis of the laws. Pro-Israel spokesmen and Israeli officials like the Israeli Prime Minister's spokesman Mark Regev have claimed their blockade and siege is legal in accordance with the "San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea."
Few people have ever heard of this agreement and even fewer have read it. Newscasters and program hosts airing this Israeli spin certainly have failed to put the claims to the test. Instead, some have promulgated the flawed analogy between Israel's blockade of Gaza and the United States' blockade of Germany in WWII.
One does not have to be an international legal expert to read the San Remo Manual and realize the Israeli claims to legality do not hold water. A number of points in the San Remo Manual make it clear that the Israeli blockade of Gaza is not sanctioned by international law or this agreement in particular.
There are two ways to assess the legality of the Israeli blockade in accordance with the San Remo Manual. The first is assessing the legality of the nature of the blockade. This means asking if the way in which the blockade exists is in accordance with the San Remo Manual's guidelines for sanctioned blockades. The second is by assessing the legality of the existence of the blockade. In essence, this means asking if the very existence of a naval blockade of Gaza by Israel is permitted under the guidelines of the San Remo Manual. Let's begin with the question of the nature of the blockade first.
Part V Section II (95) of the San Remo Manual states that a blockade must be effective and cannot let certain vessels in while rejecting others. Israel has, since the start of the blockade, permitted certain ships to enter while not permitting others. Of the numerous trips staged by the Free Gaza Movement, several earlier trips have been permitted to reach Gaza through the blockade, where as others were not. All of these ships were carrying flags of "neutral states." This inconsistency is contrary to Part V Section II (100 & 101) which states that the blockading party must treat ships of neutrally flagged states equally, and is a clear indication that the nature of the blockade is not legal.
The blockade is also in violation of Part V Section II (102) which prohibits blockades that:
a.) have the sole purpose of starving the civilian population or denying it other objects essential to its survival; or
b.) the damage to the civilian population is, or may be expected to be, excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the blockade.
Dov Wiesglass, the Israeli official and aid to Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated the intention of the blockade was "to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger." Numerous international aid agencies and non-government organizations have made it clear that the deleterious effects on the civilian population are severe. (Arabic) A growing chorus of NGOs and officials, not excluding Israelis, has questioned the blockade's strategic value to Israel and many have concluded it is instead counterproductive in nature.
Further, the Israel blockade is also in violation of Part V Section II 106 (c) which states that the zone of the blockade shall not exceed the area "strictly required by military necessity and the principles of proportionality." Israel has enforced a blockade around the 20 nautical mile mark for incoming ships, like those which are part of the Freedom Flotilla, but it has also enforced it at the three nautical mile mark against Gaza's fishermen, devastating their livelihoods out of no military necessity whatsoever.
You have to remember that Conrad, Albertoe, Lilly and ttom are in concert with Netanyahu and as Conrad has stated time and again "Fark the European Union" Fark the United Nations, FARK THE WORLD!!!! Israel makes up her own rules. And don't expect a logical answer as to why because they'll just dodge the questions and insult will start to fly.
Israel has balked at a request to boost the amount of electricity it supplies to the Gaza Strip on the grounds that it does not want to cooperate with the Hamas government there.
Quartet representative Tony Blair made the request on Monday at a meeting with Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, Blair’s spokesman confirmed to The Media Line.
RELATED: Gaza electrical station stops operating Analysis: Is there a humanitarian crisis in Gaza?
“Mr. Blair did raise this issue and asked for an increase to the electricity output to Gaza,” the spokesman said.
“Mr. Blair raised the issue at the request of the Palestinian Energy Authority in the Palestinian Authority. Our discussions are ongoing.”
Since the beginning of the year, Gaza has been experiencing power cuts – sometimes lasting for eight to 10 hours – due to a shortage of industrial fuel to power the turbines at the only electricity power plant in the Gaza Strip, located near the Nuseirat refugee camp. Israel supplies Gaza with about 60 percent of its electricity.
Blair’s appeal encountered a cold refusal from Shalom, who is also the minister for regional development.
“I expect the international community to pressure Hamas into accepting the Quartet’s conditions,” Shalom said in a press release published by his office following the meeting. “I regard Hamas as responsible for the suffering of residents in the Gaza Strip.
Israel cannot afford to cooperate with a terror organization that wishes to annihilate it.”
Shalom’s spokeswoman Lee Gat said the statement should not have been understood as an outright refusal of the PA request, but rather as Shalom’s general approach regarding cooperation with Hamas.
Israel supplies Gaza with 120 megawatts of electricity through 10 power lines.
Hala Zibda of the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority in Gaza said that the request for additional electricity was sent from the office of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah, since no direct contact existed between the Israeli government and Hamas.
“In 2005, Israel signed an agreement with the Palestinian Authority to provide electricity to Gaza through a new power line, No. 161. The Palestinian Authority even paid part of the sum for its construction, but the Israelis never implemented the agreement,” Zibda said.
In June, Blair held a joint press conference with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu following an Israeli government decision to loosen the ban on materials entering the Gaza Strip. “Over these coming months we need to improve life in Gaza,” Blair said at that event.
Meanwhile, arrangements have been made to keep the electricity flowing after the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company finally paid its bill for diesel fuel to the PA. The money for the bill was raised by a cut in the salaries of PA civil servants.
Fayyad announced on Tuesday the transfer of 320,000 liters of diesel fuel a day into Gaza for a period of five days.
The breakthrough in Gaza’s prolonged energy crisis was made possible after the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company paid $2 million to the account of the Energy Authority in Ramallah.
According to the Palestinian NGO network, 600,000 liters of industrial diesel entered Gaza on Wednesday, meant to fuel two of Gaza’s four power turbines.
“Tonight at five o’clock Gaza will be illuminated!” said Amjad al-Shawwa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network.
History will look at this episode in time and judge it for what it is. A gross injustice. A weak ploy on the part on Netanyahu and his henchmen to twist the rules so as to drag this sickness out as long as possible,..hopeing the attention of the world will fade,..just long enough,.. Not going to happen
Well, my camel-tradeing flip-flop who gots the sock- two-six which shell is the pea under boo-carp slinging adversary. I'm sorry to throw back at you the same stank you tossed this way but sometimes it takes just that to enlighten people like you to the ways of the world.
There is another flotilla in the works, another challenge to the "collective punishment" the "blockade" represents.
And , as I've said,....History will look at this episode in time and judge it for what it is. A gross injustice. A weak ploy on the part on Netanyahu and his henchmen to twist the rules so as to drag this sickness out as long as possible,..hopeing the attention of the world will fade,..just long enough,.. Not going to happen
Factbox: Key statistics on West Bank and Gaza Strip Digg This Tweet This Share on LinkedIn Share on Facebook Related NewsPower cuts cast shadow over boiling Ramadan in Gaza Tue, Aug 24 2010Israel's Netanyahu sees difficult talks ahead Sun, Aug 22 2010Dejected Palestinians see no hope in peace talks Sat, Aug 21 2010Israel and Palestinians agree to direct peace talks Sat, Aug 21 2010Israel and Palestinians agree to direct peace talks Fri, Aug 20 2010Analysis & OpinionWhy the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are useless In Gaza, it’s not easy being green Related TopicsWorld » RAMALLAH | Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:28am EDT
RAMALLAH West Bank (Reuters) - Following are key facts and statistics comparing conditions for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
POPULATION
Some 4 million Palestinians live in the Palestinian territories. There are 2.5 million in the West Bank and 1.5 million in Gaza, according to Palestinian figures. Some more recent estimates put Gaza's current population at 1.7 million. Annual population growth in Gaza is estimated at 3.3 percent and in the West Bank at 2.7 percent.
ISRAELI PRESENCE
About half a million Jewish settlers live in communities scattered all over the West Bank which have the protection of Israeli armed forces, as well as in Arab East Jerusalem. There are no Israeli settlers or troops in Gaza, from which Israel withdrew unilaterally in 2005. Israel's army and navy control the borders of the enclave. Its short frontier with Egypt is also under Egyptian control. The Israeli army controls movement and access in the West Bank with a system of bases and checkpoints plus a barrier fence and wall. Compared with Gaza which is under Israeli blockade, West Bank trade with and travel to the outside world faces fewer restrictions. A recent relaxation of Israeli control allows Arab Israelis to visit the West Bank freely but other Israel citizens are not allowed to.
LAND AREA
The size of the West Bank land, including East Jerusalem is 5,655 square km, while the narrow Gaza Strip covers 365 square km. Both territories were occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. The Palestinians want them back for a state of their own but would agree to land swaps in the West Bank with Israel.
ECONOMY
In 2008, gross domestic product in the West Bank stood at $3.70 billion. In Gaza it was $1.11 billion. Both economies are heavily dependent on outside aid, mainly from the West and Arab states. Per capita GDP in the West Bank is $1,718, compared to $774 in Gaza. According to official Palestinian statistics for 2007, the average West Bank family spends $1,000 per month. The average Gaza family spends $586.
UNEMPLOYMENT
Unemployment in the West Bank stood at 15.2 percent in the second quarter of 2010. The official jobless rate in Gaza was 39.3 percent but unofficial estimates put it much higher. By some calculations, 80 percent of Gazans live in poverty.
AVERAGE WAGE
The average wage in the West Bank is almost double that of Gaza at 99.4 Israeli shekels per day versus 58.1 shekels per day in Gaza.
LIFE EXPECTANCY
Life expectancy for West Bank men stood is 70.9 years versus 69.9 in Gaza. West Bank women on average live 73.7 years versus 72.5 in Gaza.
INFANT MORTALITY
Figures from the Ministry of Health in Ramallah put the infant mortality rate in the West Bank in 2009 at 12.6 per 1,000. The latest figure available from Gaza was in 2007, and estimated the infant mortality rate at 32.7.
RELIGION:
Islam is the main religion in both territories. The West Bank also has a Christian population of at least 57,000 versus only 3,000 Christians in Gaza.
"Canadian postal union joins Gaza flotilla" August 25, 2010
TORONTO (JTA) -- The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has joined a coalition of Muslim, Arab and human rights groups that plans on taking a boat to Gaza this autumn.
"Canadian civil society has a responsibility to fight the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza and to expose the Canadian government's unjustified support for Israel," the coalition, which calls itself Canada Boat Gaza, said in a statement on its website. "The time has come to send a Canadian boat to challenge the blockade of Gaza, in coordination with similar international efforts."
The postal workers union joined the effort after Canada Post announced earlier this month that it is suspending outgoing mail service to Gaza because its Israeli counterpart said delivery to the region was "unavailable."
"Mail is something that's important for people. It is contact with members of family and the outside world," union president Denis Lemelin told the Toronto Star. "It's always important to find an alternative, and this alternative is the boat to Gaza."
The group says it needs $300,000 to carry out its mission.
In May, the union denounced Israel's interception of the Turkish aid flotilla in which nine activists died, calling it "an act of piracy." In 2008, the union voted to back the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel. The fall mission is slated to include two survivors of the failed May flotilla.
I see all people as equal Gonmad. No "Chosen" or "Goy" all lillies in the field. Some tall, some short, some red, yellow, white. You with your demented mind-set of omnipotence and solipsist views surly are one of the tromped on flowers yet a flower just the same.
Because I post articles and opinion that doesn't agree with your perspective doesn't mean its wrong. I think your stance with its un-conditional support of Netanyahu and his murderous thugs is "bile and hatred". And do you shout from your rooftop "Kill the cattle" "WE ARE THE CHOSEN"!!!!!!!
Do you know how contemptious that is??? People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
UN says Israel not cooperating with flotilla probe
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with Desmond de Silva, a member of the UN fact-finding team, on Monday, when he said Turkey will cooperate with the UN's team with maximum transparency. Israel is not cooperating with the UN Human Rights Council’s probe of its deadly raid on an international aid flotilla that was trying to break the blockade of Gaza, a UN official said on Tuesday
Juan Carlos Monge said the fact-finding mission is speaking to witnesses and government officials in Turkey and Jordan, but he added that the team has not been granted access to Israel. Israel’s UN mission said it was not commenting on the investigation.
A three-member fact-finding team appointed by the UN Human Rights Council arrived in Turkey over the weekend and is currently examining evidence from Israel’s attack on May 31, which killed eight Turks and one Turkish American. In a statement released on Monday, the UN said the investigators have begun questioning witnesses of the attack, after hearing other witnesses in London and Geneva. After two weeks, it will move on to Amman, Jordan.
The team -- judges from Britain and Trinidad and a Malaysian human rights campaigner -- has been refused entry to Israel, which claims pro-Palestinian activists on the boat were killed when they fought back against its commandos.
Turkey, on the other hand, has pledged full cooperation with the UN investigators. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who met on Monday with the UN team’s Desmond de Silva, a former UN war crimes prosecutor, said all the information in Turkey’s hands would be shared with the three-member team with maximum transparency. Davutoglu said Israel indirectly admits that it is guilty by opposing such investigations and added that he hoped it would revise its stance.
Davutoglu said at the meeting that the response that Israel will get from the international community will help advance peace by proving that no country is above the law.
The UN Human Rights Council team is due to present its report to the 47-nation council on Sept. 27, according to a schedule for the body’s three-week autumn session, which starts on Sept. 13. The council, where members of the 57-country Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and its developing-country allies, as well as Russia, Cuba and China, have an inbuilt majority, set up the probe in June, despite strong Western reservations.
The council’s decision on the investigation, on a resolution tabled by Pakistan for the OIC, was made despite the announcement by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that he was setting up an international probe. Diplomats said Ban was unhappy with the council’s move, which fit a pattern of overt and indirect challenges from the majority in the body to the authority of the UN chief and of High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.
Israel itself is holding its own investigations behind closed doors. The May 31 incident sparked a serious deterioration in already-strained links between Israel and Turkey.
Earlier this month, current UN Human Rights Council President and Thai Ambassador Sihasak Phuanketkeow said the mission of the team -- whose members he chose -- would not overlap with Ban’s probe, but complement it.
Meanwhile, the boycott movement against Israel has gained astonishing momentum. Israeli officials are frequently targeted at universities in Europe and America, forcing them to cancel lectures. This week 76 distinguished Indian academics, including writer Arundhati Roy, signed a call for cultural and academic boycott of Israel. They have joined the well-established British academic boycott of Israel movement, BRICUP, and a growing US academic boycott group.
A cultural boycott of Israel movement is also developing; the Pixies, Klaxons and Gorillaz recently cancelled concerts in Israel. Prominent writers Alice Walker and Iain Banks are also boycotting Israel. Banks has refused to have his books translated into Hebrew, as has Jordan's Queen Rania whose book for children has just been published.
Dockworkers in Sweden, Norway, India and South Africa are refusing to handle Israeli ships. In San Francisco, bay dockworkers delayed Israeli ships for 24 hours, unheard of in the US. Britain's Unite union has resolved to boycott Israeli companies, and there is a mounting movement in Europe and the US for divestment from companies such as Caterpillar, which work to support Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Individually none of these acts is likely to threaten Israel. It is their collectivity and the speed with which they are spreading and increasing that is important. Beneath the official level of Western governmental support for Israel, there is private disquiet about Israeli conduct. And at the popular level, there is a sea change in opinion: where Israel was once seen as the victim, it has now become the bully. In the UK, for example, the strength of popular sympathy for Palestinians is striking. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the same is happening elsewhere.
If this trend continues and Israel's isolation worsens it will be no bad thing. It may be the only way for Israelis to grasp that endless aggression comes at a price and that peace is not made through the barrel of a gun.
Conrad; I can't even eat Turkey, it gives me gas!!!
Isolate the Israelis... By Dr Ghada Karmi , Posted on » Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Can Israel survive its recent battering in public opinion? Many believe that this may be a defining moment in a long history of Israeli impunity.
Hitherto, Israel's record of recovery from international censure has been impressive. A string of past misdeeds - the 1982 Lebanon invasion and siege of West Beirut, the Sabra and Shatila massacres, the 2006 Lebanon war, the interminable occupation of Arab land, even the 2008-2009 war on Gaza that should have been decisive - failed to tarnish Israel's reputation irreparably. Despite strong international condemnation each time, it was always been able to shrug off its critics.
The Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May 31 is the current object of international censure. But, going by the past, there is no reason to suppose this time will be different. Speculation about growing international isolation that will damage Israel may be just that. This May, Israel gained membership in the prestigious Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, unprecedented for a state of its size. An upgrade of relations with Europe, already a continent most favourable to Israel, is delayed but not cancelled. The fuss over the flotilla assault is fading, and Israel may feel it has succeeded in facing down international condemnation yet again.
Yet, it may not turn out so well this time. Bravado, the flaunting of Israeli power over the US Congress, and the recent success in apparently restoring cordial relations with President Barack Obama cannot disguise a tide of rising panic among Israelis. For a state so wedded to the idea of itself as legitimate, reputable and a worthy member of the world community, the battering this image has received in recent months must be worrying. The international climate of opinion has never been so hostile towards Israel. The savage assault on Gaza had a powerful impact on international public opinion, further aggravated by the flotilla affair, in which nine Turkish humanitarian activists were killed. Israel's stock invocation of anti-Semitism and security threats is not working. Its partial easing of the Gaza blockade has failed to stem the tide of criticism.
Last month Israel's only Islamic ally, Turkey, announced a suspension of all military co-operation worth $7.5 billion. Turkish airspace has been closed to Israeli military aircraft. Fear of reprisals has kept Israeli tourists out of Turkey, and Israeli officers have been instructed not to visit there. The UN has insisted on an independent inquiry into events around the flotilla, and not the one Israel proposes. Israel's hitherto unfettered control over Gaza is further under threat by the European Union's call for an end to the blockade and its intention to set up a monitoring mechanism for Gaza's land and sea crossings so that more humanitarian aid can enter unimpeded. Even Israel's staunchest ally, the US, has called the Gaza siege "unacceptable."
Relations between Israel and several Western states have been strained since January. The UK and Australia expelled Israeli diplomats in reaction to the illegal use by Mossad agents of their passports in Mahmoud Al Mabhouh's killing in Dubai. The Polish authorities arrested a Mossad agent accused of involvement. The UK, France, Spain and Italy have demanded firm action over the flotilla attack. On June 14, Israel's defence minister Ehud Barak cancelled a trip to the Paris Arms Show, having been warned that pro-Palestinian groups would seek his arrest.
Conrad; Fark Turkey, I don't even like Thanksgiving!!!
SilverBirch Forum Posts (3,158)
RE: "Gaza is like a prison camp"
Yeah Butt-head then Israel as an occupier IS obligated to provideTo the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties.
Read it an weep Gonmad