Has Palestine Been Set Up for Genocide?
April 18, 2006
By Genevieve Cora Fraser:
Conditions are ripe for genocide in Gaza and parts of Palestine. All funds have been cut off by Israel (tax money owed to Palestine), and by America and the European Union which would normally be routed to the Palestinian Authority (PA). A significant portion of funds that enter Palestine is through the PA, which is comprised of hundreds of workers who provide the services from garbage collection to police to educational and medical agencies and food distribution networks. By denying all money to the PA, the infrastructure of Palestine will collapse.
Of course the other agency that supplied vital services to Palestinians was Hamas - distributing $80 million dollars worth of food, clothes and medicines and helping to fund the educational institutions for all - Christians and Muslims - within Palestine. But the West has threatened banks with blocking and impounding funds so even Arab banks are backing away from distributing funds from donors. Meanwhile Israel has escalated its attacks in the West Banks on population centers, schools and hospitals and Gaza has been sealed off so that few truckloads of food or medicine have been allowed in since January. Currently medical supplies and drugs are non-existent and food supplies are dwindling or priced so high few can afford a loaf of bread.Palestinians believed that one of the reasons for the disengagement last year, where 8,000 settlers were removed, was so that Israel could seal its borders and rampage without fear of injuring the Jewish settlers. Their fears have been realized. As I write this, Israel is lobbing thousands of missiles and shells into Gaza - by land, by sea, and by air and now the tanks are rumbling in and beginning to assault. Everything is a target. They are shelling buildings and factories and even the greenhouses that were to have been part of their future economy. Men women and children and injured and dying. Because hospitals no longer have medicines and buildings are subject to attack, doctors are setting up triage centers in tents.
Congress is washing its collective hands of responsibility, claiming they will allow additional humanitarian aid in - however, if the distribution system is destroyed there will be no way to get the food or medicine to the 1.5 million people of Gaza - many of whom live in refugee camps and were suffering from malnutrition before the siege. Even the United Nations food and medicine distribution is dependent on the PA and Hamas.
Israel claims it must do this because of the militants. The militants are trying to break the blockade because their families are starving and being denied drugs and medical assistance. Hamas has kept to the truce established over a year ago whereas Israel now has over 3,000 infractions (and rising by the minute) and has killed hundreds in the past year. Recently Hamas renounced suicide bombings.
What Hamas does state is that they have an internationally guaranteed Right to Resist and an internationally protected Right to Return which is true. Frankly Hamas is a Resistance organization, not a Terrorist group. As for recognizing Israel, how can they recognize a country that does not have a constitution and has never defined its borders. Frankly, what IS Israel? Since its inception Israel has broken international laws by not allowing the Palestinians to return or grant them compensation and has continually attempted to expand its borders through war. Israel continues to grab parts of Palestine on a daily basis - stealing water resources, farm lands and whole sections of cities and towns. Until Israel complies with international laws and defines its borders back to the green line and tears down the Apartheid Wall which has been condemned under international law, Hamas should not recognize its illegitimate assertions to lands that belong to Palestine not Israel.