Hermit
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12 months of Hamas rule
« on: 2008-06-14 15:48:17 » |
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12 months of Hamas rule
[ Hermit : The following is an excerpt from a much longer article about Palestinian ingenuity. I have posted it here as I think it provides a fascinating glimpse into the reality behind the propaganda which makes up far to much of what passes for "news" in the Western media. ]
Source: The Independent
Authors: Donald Macintyre
Dated: 2008-06-13
Hamas took full control of Gaza, by force, exactly a year ago tomorrow. It was previously elected – in polling pronounced clean and fair by international monitors – in January 2006 but a short-lived coalition with Fatah dissolved in bloody fighting which ended in Hamas's victory on 14 June. [ Hermit : We have previously seen how the Hamas take-over was a reaction to an American sponsored coup attempt. ]
President Mahmoud Abbas immediately sacked Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh (below) as Prime Minister and Israel closed the crossings to all except basic humanitarian supplies. In September Israel's cabinet declared Gaza a "hostile entity".
In the year since the Hamas takeover, 564 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza according to Btselem, an Israeli human rights agency, including 209 who "were not taking part in hostilities" at the time. Ninety-two deaths were of children. The Israeli military says more than 4,200 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza. Seven Israeli civilians and seven soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza, all in 2008. [ Hermit : 564:14 = 40.5 Palestinians killed (directly) to each Israeli. The injury figures are far, far worse. Worst of all is the differential between Israeli and Palestinian and Arab incomes and life expectancies - which provide direct evidence of the apartheid structure and genocide respectively. Looking at the alleged 4200 "rockets and mortars, and assuming (which we know is false) that all 14 Israeli deaths were caused by them, that gives a POK of 0.3%. Not really a weapon worth ducking for, as the probability of dying of a cardiac infarct while attempting to avoid it is more than likely far greater than that of being killed by it.]
Most of Gaza's 3,900 factories have shut down for lack of materials. [ Hermit : This is caused directly by the Israeli blockade of the Palestine ] Officials estimate about 100,000 people have lost their jobs since June. Power cuts are common, and fuel prices have soared due to acute shortages. On Gaza's black market, a litre of diesel increased fivefold over the past year to 25 shekels (£3.90). A refrigerator has doubled in price and a bottle of cooking gas costs up to 100 shekels compared to 43 before the blockade – partly because many people now run cars on it. Food is still widely available – though some prices have sharply increased. Most construction projects, including some funded by the UN, have stopped due to materials shortages. Shortages of power and fuel have resulted in 75 million cubic litres of untreated waste being dumped into the Mediterranean every day.
Hamas's pre-takeover armed force of 3,000 has swollen to 13,000, split between five branches. The Hamas armed wing, Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, claims it numbers over 25,000. Internal security in Gaza has increased, and the streets appear much safer than during factional fighting. But rights groups say Hamas security forces have made political arrests and use torture in jails, also saying Fatah security forces in the West Bank have taken similar action against Hamas adherents. [ Hermit : The Israelis of course are guilty of the same but in far larger numbers - arguably the entire population of Gaza is now incarcerated in the world's largest concentration camp and is being tortured unmercifully. Seemingly with not only the full approval of the government of the USA and those of most of Europe but with their eager complicity. Try for a moment to imagine the situation if the situation were reversed and it were the Jewish population squeezed into 3% of the total area of the pre-Israel Palestine, and deprived of food, water, energy and medicine. Would we not have invaded already to protect them from genocide? ] [/i]
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