Leaked UN report echoes Goldstone and says Israeli blockade is leading to the ‘de-development’ of Gaza

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Categoria: Riflessioni
Pubblicato Lunedì, 21 Settembre 2009 05:14
Scritto da Adam Horowitz

Mondoweiss, September 18, 2009

Susan Rice may want to discount the Goldstone report because she believes "the focus should be the future," but unfortunately many of issues that Justice Goldstone highlighted as "a crisis of human dignity" continue today.

The Guardian is reporting on a leaked UN report which says the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza is leading to "a gradual process of de-development across all sectors, devastating livelihoods, increasing unemployment and resulting in increased aid dependency amongst the population." Here are some of the statistics from the report:

The UN report, obtained by the Guardian, reveals the delays facing the delivery of even the most basic aid. On average, it takes 85 days to get shelter kits into Gaza, 68 days to deliver health and paediatric hygiene kits, and 39 days for household items such as bedding and kitchen utensils.

Among the many items delayed are notebooks and textbooks for children returning to school. As many as 120 truckloads of stationery were "stranded" in the West Bank and Israel due to "ongoing delays in approval".

There were "continued difficulties" in importing English textbooks for grades four to nine – affecting 130,000 children – and material used to print textbooks for several subjects in grades one to nine.

Government schools were reported to lack paper and chalk, while the UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees and runs many schools in Gaza, was still waiting to import 4,000 desks and 5,000 chairs.

The UN says the current situation "contravenes" a UN security council resolution passed during the war in January, which called for "unimpeded provision and distribution" of humanitarian aid for Gaza.

Additionally the Guardian reports, "According to UN statistics, around 70% of Gazans live on less than a dollar a day, 75% rely on food aid and 60% have no daily access to water. As many as 20,000 Palestinians are still displaced after the war, most living with relatives or renting apartments."

The Goldstone report took a look at the conditions that led to the fighting in Gaza last winter and specifically the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza. The report finds that the blockade is in violation of the Fourth Geneva convention; is in violation of international law; constitutes a form of collective punishment and could be found to be a crime against humanity. From the report (pps. 369-370):

The cumulative effect of the blockade policies, with the consequent hardship and deprivation among the whole population, and of the military operations coupled with statements by Israel made to the effect that the whole of the Gaza Strip was a “hostile territory” strongly suggest that there was an intent to subject the Gaza population to conditions such that they would be induced into withdrawing their support from Hamas. . . The facts ascertained by the Mission, the conditions resulting from the deliberate actions of the Israeli armed forces and the declared policies of the Israeli Government – as they were presented by its authorized representatives – with regard to the Gaza Strip before, during and after the military operation, cumulatively indicate the intention to inflict collective punishment on the people of the Gaza Strip.

Clearly many of these same conditions remain today. Even if the Obama administration is not interested in holding Israel accountable for the past, it would seem to be in their self interest to stop this inhumane and illegal ongoing policy if they really intend to restart meaningful negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis. They should view the Goldstone report as a gift to pressure Israel to end the occupation and push negotiations forward, not an unfortunate reminder of the past to be forgotten.


{ comments… }

1 Oscar September 18, 2009 at 12:54 pm

Stunning. The greatest humanitarian crisis of our time, and we sit on our hands, even as we see it unfolding before our eyes.

2 potsherd September 18, 2009 at 1:02 pm

The water supply to Gaza is in danger of permanent degradation. Some Europeans tried to send an advanced water treatment plant to Gaza, but Israel turned it back.

Now, with Israel so concerned about its reputation as a war criminal state, would be an excellent time to organize a sealift that would bring real relief to Gaza. With an armed escort.

3 hnorr September 18, 2009 at 1:21 pm

The gravity of the current situation certainly needs to be highlighted, but Israel’s “de-development” of hardly something new. Sara Roy’s magnificent book about Gaza, published in *1995*, was titled “The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development.” As she wrote in the introduction, “The central argument of the book is that the relationship between Israel and Gaza is unusual and lies outside existing development paradigms. Instead, this relationship is characterized by an economic process specific to Israeli rule, a process that could be characterized as de-development. De-development, it is here asserted, is the deliberate, systematic deconstruction of an indigenous economy by a dominant power.”

This year’s intensified siege is just a new phase in a process the Israelis have been engaged in for many decades.

4 wondering jew September 18, 2009 at 8:34 pm

I assumed that the Israeli de-development of Gaza began with the first intifadeh in 87. Could you supply some information regarding de-development that occurred beforehand or is my assumption correct?

5 hnorr September 19, 2009 at 2:33 am

Sara Roy (incidentally the daughter of survivors of the Nazi holocasut) is really my only source on this, but she argues that from 1967 on, though Israeli policy went through various stages, it was always aimed at de-development, basically in order to prevent the Palestinians from laying the basis for a state of their own.

On pp.136-137, for example, she writes “To preclude the establishment of a Palestinian state, the government had to eliminate any foundation on which it could be built. Economic policy in the occupied territories [NB: not just Gaza] became a critical component of this policy. It was characterized by the deliberate rejection of development as a legitimate and rational goal. Since 1967, there has never been an explicit commitment on the part of any Israeli government to advancing the economic interests of the Palestinian population through planned development….Development was equated with building the economic infrastructure for a state. In this way, Israel has always seen Palestinian economic development as a zero-sum game. …Israeli rejection of Palestinian economic development was rooted, not in the feat of economic competition or of a strengthened Palestinian economy per se… but in the emergence of socio-psychological factors, notably personal and community empowerment, social cohesion, and popular control. … Having excised “development” from its conceptual and strategic core, Israel’s economic policy in the occupied territories was fashioned to achieve two seemingly contradictory ends: improving the standard of living by increasing social and economic services …. and progressively weakening the indigenous economic base. Whereas a better living standard was meant to diminish nationalist aspirations and contain violence and popular resentment …., the weakening of the economic base was meant to create ties of dependence…..”

This is rather abstract, but she spells the concrete mechanisms out in great detail in the book.

It’s probably fair to say that beginning with the first intifada, or certainly after Oslo, Israel abandoned the part about improving living standards. As I recall, Neve Gordon also talks about that in his history of the occupation.




http://mondoweiss.net/2009/09/leaked-un-report-echoes-goldstone-and-says-israeli-blockade-is-leading-to-the-de-development-of-gaza.html