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.
