{"id":82229,"date":"2016-10-31T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=82229"},"modified":"2016-10-30T15:28:10","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T15:28:10","slug":"why-is-israel-tightening-the-gaza-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/10\/why-is-israel-tightening-the-gaza-blockade\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Israel Tightening the Gaza Blockade?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ben-white-2\"<\/a>21 Oct 2016 – <\/em>Let us begin with the facts: Israeli authorities have, over the course of the last year, tightened the long-standing blockade of the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

Even before these more recent restrictions, the Israeli blockade \u2013 an illegal policy of collective punishment in the words<\/a> of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon \u2013 was continuing to severely harm the lives of Gaza\u2019s two million residents, furthering the enclave\u2019s de-development.<\/p>\n

In April of this year, the UN was clear that the most urgent step required for the reconstruction of Gaza remained \u201cthe removal of [Israeli] restrictions on the import of building materials, towards a full lifting of the blockade.\u201d Instead, things have gone backwards.<\/p>\n

In July, Israeli newspaper Haaretz<\/em> reported<\/a> how \u201crestrictions have been tightened on Palestinians seeking to depart the Gaza Strip and on imports permitted into the territory\u201d, including a prohibition on \u201ccertain businessmen from importing their merchandise into Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

UN data confirmed that the blockade tightened<\/a> in July, while in August, just 110 truckloads of goods exited<\/a> Gaza, less than half of January\u2019s figure (and 14 per cent of 2005 levels). August also saw a seven-year low<\/a> in the Israeli approval rate of patient permit applications to leave Gaza for treatment.<\/p>\n

Then in September, Israeli NGO Gisha published statistics showing<\/a> that \u201c1,211 Gazans were summoned to the Erez border crossing for Israeli security interrogations during the first half of the year\u201d \u2013 around 2.5 times the number of people interrogated during the same period a year earlier.<\/p>\n

\"Due<\/a>

Due to lack of building materials being allowed into the Gaza Strip, there has been little progress in the reconstruction of Gaza. The photo shows Palestinians having to pray in a heavily damaged mosque.<\/p><\/div>\n

In early October, a senior official at the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry described<\/a> the current situation as \u201cthe worst ever\u201d. On 13 October, UN official Nickolay Mladenov warned<\/a> those \u201cwho believe that it\u2019s possible to punish the Gaza Strip and keep it under blockade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, however, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed the Israeli military to tighten<\/a> the blockade, particularly with regards to so-called restricted \u201cdual-use items\u201d. According to Gisha, this list<\/a> \u201cincludes items whose use is overwhelmingly civilian and critical for civilian life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the above, a senior UN official recently described<\/a> how \u201cconditions have become much more difficult\u201d for the \u201chumanitarian community.\u201d In January, three per cent of requests for permits to enter Israel from Gaza were denied to its Palestinian employees; in August, this had risen to 65 per cent.<\/p>\n

His words were echoed<\/a> this week by UNRWA\u2019s director of operations in Gaza, Bo Schack, who also wrote<\/a> an op-ed urging an end to the blockade. Speaking to me by phone, Schack confirmed that Israeli restrictions on the entry of cement are delaying the pace of reconstruction.<\/p>\n

According to Schack, 400 families whose homes are yet to be rebuilt are still pending approval (as part of the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism<\/a>). Furthermore, for the last six months, since May of this year, \u201cwe have not received any clearance for any of the cases we\u2019ve submitted\u201d, Schack said.<\/p>\n

The Gaza-based UN official also affirmed that, along with \u201cincreasing restrictions on Palestinians in Gaza\u201d, there are also \u201cincreasing restrictions for movement of staff from the UN \u2013 to a much, much larger extent than there was before.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Gaza\u2019s traders and humanitarian workers<\/a> we can now add senior Palestinian Authority officials, with the recent news that the Shin Bet rescinded<\/a> the permanent exit permits for 12 out of 14 individuals responsible for mediating between Palestinian civilians and the Israeli authorities. In other words, the officials in charge of securing exit permits lost their exit permits.<\/p>\n

A number of observers have insisted that Israel has no desire to initiate a new offensive on the Gaza Strip anytime soon, and that Lieberman has \u2013 if not changed his stripes \u2013 moderated his previous bellicosity and vows to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza now that he occupies the defence ministry.<\/p>\n

But then what explains the clear crackdown? It\u2019s not as if the consequences of the blockade are a big mystery. Israel\u2019s \u201csecurity establishment\u201d itself is reportedly<\/a> concerned about \u201cinstability\u201d in Gaza, citing a growing crisis for Hamas, and staggering levels of poverty.<\/p>\n

One Palestinian Authority spokesperson believes<\/a> that Lieberman, in rescinding the 12 officials\u2019 Gaza exit permits, is implementing his stated policy of disconnecting Israeli communication with institutions under Mahmoud Abbas, \u201cand creating direct communication with Palestinian residents\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amira Hass, writing<\/a> this week on the denial of exit permits for Palestinians in Gaza, noted with withering sarcasm how the Shin Bet \u201cwants me to be persuaded that a female banker has turned dangerous and a teen with cancer, who has been treated in Israel since childhood and currently needs a jaw transplant in Haifa, has become dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Shin Bet knows \u201cit\u2019s all nonsense\u201d, wrote Hass. But what\u2019s behind it all? \u201cWe don\u2019t need to wait for the archives to be opened to answer our initial question,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Shin Bet and those in charge of it are interested in another terrible round of blood-letting \u2013 because the Gaza Strip isn\u2019t obeying its orders and insists on remaining part of Palestinian society and geography.\u201d<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

Ben White is a British journalist and activist who primarily writes about the Israel-Palestine conflict.<\/em><\/p>\n

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean?<\/a> For permissions beyond the scope of this license, please contact us<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 middleeastmonitor.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

21 Oct 2016 – Let us begin with the facts: Israeli authorities have tightened the long-standing blockade of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli blockade \u2013 an illegal policy of collective punishment in the words of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon \u2013 is continuing to severely harm the lives of Gaza\u2019s two million residents, furthering the enclave\u2019s de-development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}