Israel's policy of blocking pasta from entering Gaza received attention from John Kerry on his recent trip to Israel/Palestine. Unfortunately that was just the beginning. Israel is now preventing random goods on a haphazard basis. In addition to pasta, recent aid that was blocked included jam, soap, toilet paper, types of cheese, toothbrushes, toothpaste and the primary ingredient for hummus, chickpeas.
The Reuters article "U.S. queries Israel's toilet-paper rules for Gaza" reports:
In one case, Israel blocked for weeks a World Food Program (WFP)
shipment of chickpeas, used to make the Palestinian food staple hummus,
the U.N. food agency said."We're certainly asking the Israelis questions about this," a U.S.
official said of the restrictions on what is allowed into Gaza.A Western official said: "The Americans and international NGOs (non-governmental organizations) are raising their concerns… We're protesting."
Israel says it has opened Gaza's border crossings
to larger amounts of food and medicine since a January military
offensive that killed about 1,300 Palestinians, destroyed 5,000 homes
and left large swathes of the coastal enclave in ruins.But U.S. and Western officials complain the limited list of
humanitarian goods that Israel allows into Gaza changes almost daily,
creating major logistical problems for aid groups and donor governments
which are unable to plan ahead.Protests have been made to Israel via diplomatic channels, and have
increased since last week's visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. and Western officials said."It is totally surreal," one European diplomat said of Israeli
decision-making. "One day we had 600 kg (1,300 pounds) of pasta at the Kerem Shalom crossing but they said, 'Today, pasta can't go in'."Another Western diplomat said: "It's ever-changing. One week jam is okay and the next week it's not."
In addition to soap and toilet paper, the officials cited restrictions that come and go on imports of certain types of cheeses, toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Israel is shutting out everything crucial for basic hygiene in depriving the Gazan people of toilet paper, soap, and toothpaste.
Israel is also preventing even minimal nourishment in banning pasta and chickpeas.
Meanwhile, what about clean water and sewage treatment?
When will "our" "liberal," "Democratic" U.S. government stand up for progressive, humane values?
Those chickpeas (the major ingredient in Humus) constitute a real danger to Israel: Facts Cause Zionist Food Allergies.
Those toilet paper rolls can be pretty dangerous:
…Obie said he was making sure, and friends Obie was, cause he took out the toilet seat so I couldn't hit myself over the head and drown, and he took out the toilet paper so I couldn't bend the bars roll out the – roll the toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape. – Alice's Restaurant Massacree"
It's like Gitmo on a grand scale. Near constant harassment and humiliation coupled with the capriciousness of decisions made at checkpoints, or at government offices, or when trying to farm or build on one's own land, or in numerous other ways that the typical Palestinian is forced to jump through hoops just to go about their day to day business…is meant to wear them down to the point that they just give up quietly and accept with gratitude whatever abusive treatment the Israelis dish out.
The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said, without even looking round.
One of the Queen's hobbies – besides ordering executions – is croquet, however it is Wonderland croquet, where the balls are live hedgehogs and the mallets are flamingoes. This is presumably with the aim that the birds' blunt beaks should strike, but, as Alice observes, it is complicated by the fact that they keep looking back up at the players- as well as the hedgehogs' tendency to scuttle away without waiting to be hit. The Queen's soldiers act as the arches (or hoops) on the croquet grounds, but have to leave off being arches every time the Queen orders an execution in order to drag away the victim…
…curiouser and curiouser…
Loved the Arlo Guthrie reference, doug!
LT – I would add to your comment that the hoped-for end result from denying the population little things like toilet paper or jam(!) (Not the end of the world when considered in isolation, right? I am waiting for the apologists here and at TNR to say it's possible to improvise.) is that Palestinians "disappear" from their homeland permanently, one person or family at a time, without resort to mass murder like in Darfur.
These tactics, far from being capricious or arbitrary (which is how they want the rest of the world to view them – it accords plausible deniability), are systematic, intentional and calculating. We need to call these tactics for what they are: part of a strategy to commit ethnocide-lite.
@KatinPhilly – I think you are correct regarding my omission. When looking at Zionist quotes throughout history (even after weeding out the ones said to be fake), it is clear what the ultimate goal actually is. Your term 'ethnocide-lite' is quite valid. I've also thought of it as a 'slow motion' ethnocide.
"The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people." – Moshe Yaalon
"Over many decades, Israel has developed and refined policies to disperse, imprison and impoverish the Palestinian people, in a relentless effort to destroy them as a nation. It has industrialized Palestinian despair through ever more sophisticated systems of curfews, checkpoints, walls, permits and land grabs. Cook analyzes how Israel has transformed the West Bank and Gaza into laboratories for testing the infrastructure of confinement, creating a lucrative "defense" industry by pioneering the technologies needed for urban warfare, crowd control and collective punishment." -Jonathan Cook
Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair
The slow part is due to Israel's dependence on the USA money. NAZI germany didn't have that.
dammit, doug, you beat me to it.
I think the 'slow' part is better PR. It keeps the issue largely off the radar and the gradualism allows for a more insistent denial. They have enough killing machines and material to operate at any speed they thought they could get away with.
One thing Israel will never do is ban condoms. They tell the Gazans: "You want chickpeas? Here, take a carton of condoms first."
LT, yes–but if Israel didn't need annual USA dole it wouldn't worry so much about PR–your notion and mine (& Uri's) are interrelated. There are many sayings and samples in the Talmud providing exception to the general rule (usually instructing how Jews should treat non-Jews differently than they treat their own) for PR purposes. The different scenarios for keeping a found wallet for example. The first question, is it a Jew's wallet? The general rule is a Jew must always return a fellow Jew's wallet. The equal rule is one should not return a Goy's wallet–that would be supporting Goys. However, the context is important, depending on the local's proportion of Jews versus Goys. PR goes way back. Similar guides apply to a great variety of events, including the gored ox, saving a life on Saturday, etc. Very discriminatory rules
always apply. Phil's article recently on an anti-settlement guy being unable to hold a seminar for 12 orthodox jewish students because of fear the larger jewish community might come too is an index
to modern talmudic policy. Just think, and there one is only talking about open discussion as between MOTs. Hence Phil's article about the suppression of information in the interest of Likud Judiasm (at the expense of all of us).
@Citizen – Convincing points. The good PR is to keep the taps open.