The whole world community is complicit with the policy of punishing Palestinians for having elected Hamas, said The Guardian in an editorial yesterday. Excerpts:
Anyone who thinks that the status quo in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is acceptable should talk to a doctor from Gaza. There is an acute shortage of all drugs, and a complete lack of all cancer and cystic fibrosis medication. The hospitals have generators, but often no fuel, and switching from mains to an emergency supply wrecks the equipment. One of the strip’s three CT scanners is bust because of fluctuations in current.
This also makes the temperature control of incubators for newborn babies unreliable. The list goes on: The majority of Gaza’s children present the symptoms of mild or severe post traumatic stress disorder. About 45 percent of children under five have iron deficiency from lack of fruit and 18 percent of children have stunted growth. There is one other statistic: 71 percent of children interviewed at a school recently said they wanted to be a “martyr”.
Israel says it will stop its blockade the moment the rockets cease and defends itself from the charge that its actions amount to collective punishment by drawing comparisons with other sanctions regimes. But Israel is not the only player. Conditions in Gaza are daily news in the Arab media and Egypt is coming under pressure to open its border with Gaza. British ministers may protest about the border closures, but the whole world community is complicit with the policy of punishing Palestinians for having elected Hamas. Nor can one justify the policy of keeping 1.5 million Palestinians on life support and then turning the ventilator off from time to time. Even less should it be tolerated by the incoming Obama administration. Keeping Gaza perched on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe should not appeal to a US president who intends to use his middle name to reach out to the Arab world.
