ISRAEL, GAZA: Israel approves wider export from Gaza

Gaza will now have access to international markets, after Israel's security cabinet decided Wednesday to allow international export from the strip. Export previously was restricted to flowers and strawberries sent to Europe under a Dutch-sponsored program, but officials will now allow other produce, furniture and clothing through Israel's Ashdod seaport and the Allenby crossing to Jordan -- though not to Israel.

International export from Gaza may pass through Israel's Ashdod seaport and the Allenby crossing to Jordan after security inspections, but West Bank-bound goods will still be limited and require coordination with the Palestinian Authority. Haaretz reports that Palestinian Authority customs officials will supervise matters at the Kerem Shalom crossing, marking a first return for Palestinian Authority officials to Gaza since being driven out by Hamas' forceful takeover of the Gaza strip in 2007.

The security cabinet's decision stated the move would assist the Gaza economy and help ease the burden of the population "under the repressive Hamas terrorist regime." Parallel to efforts to improve those conditions, Israel continues to urge the international community to continue the blockade on the Hamas regime and prevent the continued armament of Hamas that contravenes international law and harms the Gazan population's interests, the summary said.

Earlier, Israeli sources called the decision a natural extension of the decision to lift restrictions on nearly all Gaza-bound goods in June. At the time, Israel announced a significant easing of incoming supplies, partially ending a three-year clampdown  decried by the international community. Figures obscured in the past are now more easily available, in the form of a weekly report from COGAT, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which said Wednesday the decision was part of overall easings that have produced a 16% growth in the economy in the Gaza Strip in the first half of 2010. But international circles continue to charge that Israel hasn't sufficiently loosened its control of Gaza to meet humanitarian and reconstruction needs, and recent aid reports say there has been little improvement.

Gisha, an organization advocating Gaza access, welcomes the decision and hope it heralds change, but it has concerns about continued restrictions -- and some questions. Israel, Gaza and the West Bank are part of one customs and tax unit Trade should be considered marketing, not export, they say, questioning the logic of restricting goods already passing through on their way out and not approving them for direct sale in the West Bank, or Israel. Gisha is also concerned about the actual capacity of the crossings, with only one of four crossings open before 2007 now active, that of Kerem Shalom. Israel is allowed to restrict incoming or outgoing goods based on security needs, says Gisha director Sari Bashi, but it is continuing "what Israel calls pressure and the International Red Cross calls collective punishment."

The June decision itself was forced by circumstances, closely following the ill-fated takeover of the Mavi Marmara, a ship in the flotilla set to challenge Israel's Gaza policy and break the naval blockade. The fatal events drew fierce international criticism of Israel's policies and forced a prompt revision; this came inside a week. Also quick to follow was internal criticism that a more timely review of the overall benefit of Israel's Gaza policy would have spared it grave diplomatic, even strategic damage.

Despite the lessons supposedly learned after the flotilla, Bashi says, "Israel still lacks a coherent policy regarding Gaza." Meanwhile, rockets keep flying and the army keeps retaliating.

The flotilla continues to dog Israel. The nosedive of ties with Turkey began with Israel's military offensive in Gaza but the bottom really dropped out after the incident. Turkey is adamant that Israel must issue both apology and provide compensation for the fatalities and damage to the Turkish ship. Israeli resistance was softened by Turkey's recent assistance in the recent deadly forest fires.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman believes apologizing is a capitulation to terror and that if anyone should be apologizing, it's Turkey. Minister Silvan Shalom too says relations with them are important but that an apology should be out of the question.

The Turkel Commission investigating the flotilla events (as well as the broader scope of Israel's policies on Gaza and the naval blockade) heard testimony all summer and fall and is said to be done and working on its report. Here too, Israel had rejected international demands for an investigation committee, saying internal inquiries were sufficient. Then it formed the commission with international observers.

Some might see a pattern in this, the day after the U.S. announcement that it is abandoning the settlement freeze as an avenue for jumpstarting the stalled peace talks and each side accuses the other for wasting a precious year and a half. Somewhere between holding out and cutting losses, a stitch in time saves face.

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem

 

 

Comments

[Peter]

The Palestinians are the biggest con on the world!

Posted by: Wendy | December 08, 2010 at 06:05 PM

Poor wendy. Would you like to know what the biggest con and sham in the world was?

"A land without a people for a people without a land"

There was a people there, still is a people there, and have been constantly for over 2000 years. It was only since fanatic zionists like you who came into the picture was there violence and disturbance of the peace. The Jews of Palestine and Arabs got along just fine until people from Europe, Russia and Brooklyn began arriving.

Quotes from Ahad Ha'am Zionist/Humanist 1914

"ignoring the fact that the Palestinians themselves, well over half a million at the turn of the century, lived in Palestine, that it was their home. The great Zionist humanist, Ahad Ha'am warned against the violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, and his words are well known in the literature of Palestine.
"... Ahad Ha'am warned that the settlers must under no circumstances arouse the wrath of the natives ... 'Yet what do our brethren do in Palestine? Just the very opposite! Serfs they were in the lands of the Diaspora and suddenly they find themselves in unrestricted freedom and this change has awakened in them an inclination to despotism. They treat the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, deprive them of their rights, offend them without cause and even boast of these deeds; and nobody among us opposes this despicable and dangerous inclination ...'

"... The same lack of understanding he found in the boycott of Arab labour proclaimed by Jewish labour ... 'Apart from the political danger, I can't put up with the idea that our brethren are morally capable of behaving in such a way to humans of another people, and unwittingly the thought comes to my mind: if it is so now, what will be our relation to the others if in truth we shall achieve at the end of times power in Eretz Yisrael? And if this be the "Messiah": I do not wish to see his coming.'

"Ahad Ha'am returned to the Arab problem ... in February 1914 ... '[the Zionists] wax angry towards those who remind them that there is still another people in Eretz Yisrael that has been living there and does not intend at all to leave its place. In a future when this illusion will have been torn from their hearts and they will look with open eyes upon the reality as it is, they will certainly understand how important this question is and how great our duty to work for its solution'."

Wendy had the zionists heeded this mans warning well in advance, these things would not be occurring. That man was a prophet . The Palestinians were mere farmers, fishermen, sheepherders and your people from the western world came in taking advantage much like a New Yorker on vacation in a hick town would. Anyone wishing to read more about the origins of this conflict please read this UN document:

http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/5ba47a5c6cef541b802563e000493b8c/aeac80e740c782e4852561150071fdb0?OpenDocument

[Wendy]

The Palestinians are the biggest con on the world!

[sam]

all the problems in the area can be laid at the feet of the terrorist hamas and its terrorist bully boy friends,if these people wanted the best for the area they would give up their weapons and leave,but of course who would employ them what use could they be oh of course unless you want to employ wife beating murderes,who earn their money from creating fear/the use of children male/female druged for sex to the customer,and all the other disgusting habbits these people enjoy.all in the name of freedom,who's.
the palestinian authority are looking to cause further problems by trying to declare that the western wall is not a jewish holy site,so how can the people be helped when they have nothing but terrorists leading them by the nose the only peeople the true palestinians have to fear has always been the terrorist idiots who have gained a foot hold in the areas,and stay in power with fear and threats. thank you.

[Jack]

"Israel approves wider export from Gaza"
Of course not from Gaza sea ports but through Israel roads and ports which will 'force' Israel to charge various fees and taxes for using her infrastructure and transportation vehicles while passing through Israel, and poor Israel gets a blame for not caring about Palestinian well being, cough cough cough, seriously :)

[Dean Blake]

This action will pump more money into Hammas militant controlled Gaza and allow it to keep its independance from Fatah. While it looks like a 'humanitarian' move by Israel to all you liberals and bleeding hearts, its calculated to keep the Palestinians divided. Astute move to counteract Abbas' threatened intentions to unilaterally declare statehood. If Abbas does, he'll have to do it without Hammas and Gaza!!
Ultimately, the long-term State Dept. goal is a loose federation like Switzerland.