The Osterley Times: Why No Outrage?

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Why No Outrage?

Why is there no international outrage over Israel's decision to withhold funds it collects on behalf of the Palestinians simply because it disagrees with Palestine's democratically elected representatives?

The idea that this is being done because the Hamas government calls for the destruction of the state of Israel ignores the fact that from 1948 onwards successive Israeli governments refused to accept that the Palestinians even existed, seeing them only as refugees, with no similar punishment being meted out to the Israelis.

Now the world bank has reported that if Israel continues to withhold these funds, and if other donor countries reduce their support, there will be a decline in Palestinian incomes of 30% this year alone.

Israel has now announced that it will keep closed the Karni crossing, prompting United Nations aid organisations to warn that the Gaza Strip is now on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.

David Shearer, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Foreign Ministry officials that if there is no significant change in the situation, Gaza will face a humanitarian crisis as bad as the one in Kosovo.

A report by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warns of a lack of basic food supplies due to the frequent closures of the Karni crossing that are preventing goods from reaching Gaza from Egypt. The report also said there has been a significant increase in the number of hungry people since financial aid has been halted.

World Bank statistics show that if there is no dramatic change, 75 percent of Palestinians will be below the poverty line within two years. The current rate is 56 percent, compared to 22 percent in 2000 .

Now the US are threatening to also withhold funds, a move that ex-President Carter has condemned.

"My concern is that in order to try ... to punish Hamas, we are actually going to be punishing the Palestinian people who are already living in deprivation. And it's going to turn the Palestinian people even more against the West and against Israel and against us. And make Hamas seem to be, you know, their only friend," Carter said. "I think it's a counterproductive ploy to try to punish Hamas."
"My belief is now Hamas wants stable, domestically-oriented policies in the government to deal with the problems of the Palestinian people ... My belief is if they are treated fairly, they might very well be less likely to resort to violence."
"Eventually, they are going to have to acknowledge Israel's right to exist and resolve their problems with Israel in a peaceful way. No doubt about that. They cannot escape that international mandate which they have to fulfill."

The current US and Israeli positions, of ignoring the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people, and standing idly by while the Palestinian people suffer, is a recipe for disaster in the occupied territories.

And worse, it looks like we are punishing the Palestinians because we do not like the way they voted in their last elections, making a mockery of our claims to be exporting democracy.