Pasta, paper and hearing aids threaten Israel's security

[MikeWB]

Pasta, paper and hearing aids threaten Israel's security

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 35143.html

The pasta, paper and hearing aids that could threaten Israeli security

By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor

Members of the highest-ranking American delegation to tour Gaza were shocked to discover that the Israeli blockade against the Hamas-ruled territory included such food staples as lentils, macaroni and tomato paste.

"When have lentil bombs been going off lately? Is someone going to kill you with a piece of macaroni?" asked Congressman Brian Laird. It was only after Senator John Kerry, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raised the issue with Defence Minister Ehud Barak after their trip last month that Israel allowed the pasta in. Macaroni was considered a luxury item, not a humanitarian necessity, they were told. The total number of products blacklisted by Israel remains a mystery for UN officials and the relief agencies which face long delays in bringing in supplies. For security reasons such items as cement and steel rods are banned as they could be used by Hamas to build bunkers or the rockets used to target Israeli civilians. Hearing aids have been banned in case the mercury in their batteries could be used to produce chemical weapons.

Yet since the end of the war in January, according to non-government organisations, five truckloads of school notebooks were turned back at the crossing at Kerem Shalom where goods are subject to a $1,000 (£700) per truck "handling fee".

Paper to print new textbooks for Palestinian schools was stopped, as were freezer appliances, generators and water pumps, cooking gas and chickpeas. And the French government was incensed when an entire water purification system was denied entry. Christopher Gunness, the spokesman for the UN agency UNRWA responsible for Palestinian refugees, said: "One of the big problems is that the 'banned list' is a moving target so we discover things are banned on a 'case by case', 'day by day' basis."

Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said: "Israel's blockade policy can be summed up in one word and it is punishment, not security." ==

Washington, D.C. - February 27, 2009 - Congressman Brian Baird (D-WA) and Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first American legislators, along with Senator John Kerry, to visit Gaza since 2000, made their first joint TV appearance since their return from the Middle East on Dr. James Zogby's weekly show.

The two congressmen discussed crossing into Gaza, the Palestinians and aid workers they met, and the destruction they saw firsthand. "It's an immediate difference. You go into a realm where people are using donkey carts to get around, where you can drive down a street and just all of a sudden, come across an entire destroyed area," said Baird.

The two congressmen stated their belief that there is an immediate need for humanitarian relief to Gaza, and that the Israeli government must be persuaded to open the borders for humanitarian aid. "We need to put urgent and immediate pressure on the Israeli government to allow more relief supplies in the short run, to be more open at the border, to let people and goods come in and out," said Baird.

Congressman Baird said that it is in the United States' long-term national security interest to pursue a policy of moderation in the region. "I think we, as a responsible friend of Israel -- which I consider myself -- and a friend of the Palestinian people, we have to say, some things are right, some things are wrong, we're going to not support the things that are wrong," said Baird.

Congressman Ellison spoke about the need to create an incentive for peace in the region, arguing that as Palestinians in the West Bank have maintained law and order, there hasn't been any reward to them for peace. "We haven't seen any reduction of the outposts, the illegal outposts or any of the checkpoints taken down... over 600 in the West Bank," said Ellison. However, there has been an increase in the settlement activity, Ellison noted.

When asked to share what stood out in their memory of what they saw, Congressman Baird described standing on the remains of a house and looking at what he called 'a panorama of destruction.'

"The entire industrial area absolutely leveled, building after building after building, not just hit by one round from a tank or one missile, but intentionally leveled and every piece of equipment absolutely destroyed," Baird said. "You don't forget that."

Although the congressmen's mission was not designed to address the political crisis, they both said that the Palestinians need to come to an agreement under a national unity government. "The basic terms of a lasting peace have been spelled out, stop the settlement expansion, '67 borders, shared capital in Jerusalem," said Baird.

Congressman Ellison, along with Congressman Brian Baird (D-WA) and Senator John Kerry were the first American legislators to visit Gaza since 2000 and following the recent Israeli war on Gaza (for more information see: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/wa ... Trip.shtml ).