Posted on 05/06/2011 by RamallahOnline

A window of opportunity for Israel

Gish, Gaza Gateway, Thursday, May 5, 2011

The lifting of travel restrictions anywhere, and all the more so when it comes to the Gaza Strip, is good news for us at Gisha. The statement made by the new Egyptian Foreign Minister last week was interpreted in Israel to indicate an intention to fully open the Rafah Crossing. If it proves true, this would significantly ease the closure by allowing Palestinians and others to enter and exit the Gaza Strip, and maybe even import and export goods in the future (and all that above ground, no less!).

It could also be good news for Israel, whose obligations, deriving from its control over movement of people and goods, would be reduced, commensurate with the reduction in the extent of its control. However, as long as Israel continues controlling the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip, its airspace and most of its land borders, its population registry and its tax system, Israel will continue to bear substantial, although not exclusive, responsibility under international humanitarian law for the maintenance of regular and free movement (subject to individual security inspections) into and out of the Gaza Strip. In addition to an obligation to allow people and goods to cross between Gaza and foreign countries, Israel continues to bear almost full responsibility for passage between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which has been restricted since 1991 and which the opening of Rafah Crossing would not resolve.

The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are recognized, including by Israel, as a single territorial unit, which, despite four years of tight closure, still shares one economy, one education system, one healthcare system and countless familial and social ties. Furthermore, if the reconciliation agreement signed yesterday between Fatah and Hamas is implemented, there will soon be a single internal government for both areas.

We at Gisha believe that this moment is an opportunity for the Government of Israel to initiate cooperation with the PA, Egypt and international parties over operation of the border crossings. Such arrangements should guarantee freedom of movement between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank under reasonable conditions, while addressing Israel’s security interests recognized by international law. This will enable Israel to realize the declarations that it, and its prime minister, have made repeatedly since June 2010, namely that the “civilian” closure of Gaza must be lifted and restrictions should apply only to the transfer of weapons and war materiel.

Posted on 04/11/2011 by RamallahOnline

De-constructing the “construction boom”

Gisha, 4 April 2011

Early last week, the Israeli Army Spokesperson’s Unit announced “widespread construction” in the Gaza Strip after the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories approved 121 projects funded by international organizations. According to the report, following the approval, the Gaza economy was expected “to be bolstered”.

This is a positive step, but unfortunately there’s nothing new about the news. The projects had already been approved over the course of the last year and in fact, the last time a new project was approved was in early February. Besides, the total value of the approved projects represents only 20% of the budget for projects planned by UNDP and UNRWA alone.

Leaving aside the recurring declarations of approval of the same projects, construction is proceeding at a snail’s pace because Israel operates only a single crossing into the Gaza Strip – Kerem Shalom – through which all goods are transferred, leaving little room for building materials. The average amount of “banned” construction materials (steel, cement and gravel) that Israel allowed into the Gaza Strip each month between October 2010 and February 2011 was 20,000 tons, which is just 7.6% of the average monthly amount (264,000 tons) brought into Gaza before the closure, from January to May 2007.

The Israeli security establishment has admitted (Hebrew) that the shortage of building materials impedes reconstruction in Gaza but claims that it restricts the transfer of these materials because Hamas can use them for military purposes, such as the building of bunkers and tunnels. For this reason, Israel operates a cumbersome bureaucratic system which, among other things, creates painstaking documentation and monitoring requirements for international organizations bringing in goods for their projects, as if we were talking about enriched uranium and not cement to lay the foundation of a school.

UNRWA's construction project in Khan Yunis, October 2010. Photo: Mohammed Azaiza, Gisha

But even this cumbersome system doesn’t ensure Israel control over the transfer and use of building materials in the Gaza Strip. According to a UN report, from October 2010 to February 2011, 98,000 tons of steel, cement and gravel were transferred through the tunnels without Israeli supervision – five times the amount transferred through the crossings during that same period.

Aside from the ineffectiveness of Israel’s restrictions in preventing Hamas’s access to building materials, this number illustrates just how great the demand for building materials is in the Gaza Strip compared to the limited supply Israel allows in through the crossings. The near-monopoly of the tunnel industry over the import of building materials, created as a result of Israel’s construction materials policy, allows the local government to appear more effective than international organizations in the construction of vital buildings. The local government uses materials from the tunnels, while the regulations of most international organizations prevent them from doing so.

Gaza residents whose homes were destroyed during Operation "Cast Lead" build new homes with aid provided by Islamic charities. The construction materials entered via the tunnels, December 2010. Photo: Mohammed Azaiza, Gisha

Gaza’s economy has grown 9% in the last year from the place to which it had sunk post-war and during three years of nearly hermetic closure, but the gross domestic product is still 20% less than it was in 2005. According to a report by the International Monetary Fund released ahead of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting this coming Wednesday, one of the measures needed for a meaningful recovery of the economy is the lifting of restrictions on the private sector, including the ban on the transfer of building materials.

It can be assumed that some of the building materials brought in through the tunnels are being put to military use, just as it can be assumed that such use is being made of some civilian infrastructure and other basic products. Yet, Israel does not define electricity, computers or telephones as dual use products and allows them into the Gaza Strip. Is banning building materials for the private sector and preventing construction of vital buildings really necessary, especially considering that construction materials are flowing through the tunnels to whoever is willing to pay the price?

Goods Needs Vs. Supply 13/3/11 - 9/4/11

Industrial Fuel Needs Vs. Supply 13/3/11 - 9/4/11

Posted on 03/03/2011 by RamallahOnline

Gaza’s Crossings Squeezed Shut

Gisha Report, 3 March 2011

Gisha expresses concern that today’s closing of Karni Crossing will further restrict the ability of Palestinian residents of Gaza to engage in dignified, productive work. Rather than considering opening new crossings, as Israel promised as part of its “easing” of the closure, Israel is squeezing shut one of the last gateways into Gaza, pushing all access into the small southern Kerem Shalom Crossing. Kerem Shalom can accommodate just 250 trucks per day, as opposed to the 1,000 truck per day capacity of Karni, Gaza’s commercial lifeline.

Since 2007, Israel has closed three of Gaza’s four commercial crossings. Currently, Israel is allowing 40% of Gaza’s need for incoming trucks, and just 1% of its outgoing needs, despite promises to lift the ban on exports. The ban on export and on incoming construction materials is preventing Gaza’s economy from recovering and is keeping its factory and construction workers unemployed and dependent on international assistance. In addition, diverting all ingoing traffic to the southern-most crossing increases transportation costs and is expected to significantly raise the price of goods, including humanitarian donations, on which 80% of the Strip’s inhabitants depend.

Gisha notes that while Israel has a right and responsibility to protect itself from security threats at the crossings, the closure of the Karni, Nahal Oz, and Sufa crossings appears to be motivated by political, rather than security goals. The United States and the international community have invested millions of dollars in high-tech security equipment at Karni to address legitimate security concerns. All crossings have come under threat at various times, and the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured by militants who entered near Kerem Shalom. Security concerns must be balanced with the duty to allow residents of Gaza the level of access necessary for economic recovery.

Limiting access to a small crossing near the Egyptian border is consistent with a series of steps aimed at cutting Gaza off from Israel and the West Bank – tearing at the fabric of Palestinian society and undermining the possibility of a two-state solution.
The following graph (see http://www.gazagateway.org/) summarizes the current level of incoming trucks into Gaza, compared with need:

Since the December 8, 2010 announcement of "easings" of restrictions on export, Israel has allowed just four trucks per day to leave Gaza, rather than the 400 trucks per day it promised in the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access.

For a position paper on the continuing restrictions on access into and out of Gaza, click here.

Posted on 02/17/2011 by RamallahOnline

Meanwhile in Gaza

Gisha Report, 17 Feb 2011

The world is watching in awe as events unfold in Egypt, including residents of Gaza who are closely monitoring the uprising and expressing their empathy for the people of Egypt. The events taking place in Egypt, however, have a direct impact on the residents of Gaza. They illustrate the fragility of the situation in the Strip and how vulnerable freedom of movement really is. Gaza’s border with Egypt is the only remaining operating crossing for people since Israel imposed a closure on the other crossings (land, sea and air), allowing passage only in exceptional humanitarian circumstances.

The Rafah border crossing opened last June, following the flotilla incident, after being closed for nearly four years. However, it was closed again in late January, until further notice, due to security concerns in the Sinai Peninsula. While Egypt and the Hamas government administer the border crossing by way of ad-hoc agreements, Israel also exerts partial control of the crossing through its control of the Palestinian population registry (in other words, Palestinians who wish to cross must be listed in the registry administered by Israel). Israel also exercises control through joint security arrangements with Egypt. According to reports in the Palestinian media, approximately 4,000 people are waiting in the Sinai Peninsula for the crossing to re-open so that they can return to Gaza. A number of Palestinian residents of Gaza were also being held at the airport in Cairo, since, according to Egyptian protocol, they can not leave the airport except to go directly to the Rafah border crossing, and this requires a police escort. Other residents of Gaza worldwide are also waiting to return home.

On the Gaza side of the crossing, 300-500 people in need of medical attention are waiting to exit the Strip in order to receive treatment.

Students who returned to Gaza for the vacation cannot return to their schools. Among them is Ahmad, a medical student studying in Egypt. He hesitantly agreed to return home after five years during which he had avoided making the trip, fearing that once in Gaza, he would not be permitted to return to his studies. His worst fears have now come true and he is missing out on his studies while waiting to leave: “We never could have imagined that the source of our problems in returning this time would be instability in Egypt”, he said. The exit of students through the Erez crossing, which is controlled by Israel, is limited to those with a scholarship for study in a “Western” country. So exit through Rafah is Ahmad’s and many other students’ only option. If the opening of Rafah last June indicated a partial solution to the movement restrictions faced by students seeking to study abroad, recent events show how easily this freedom can be undermined.

Petrol station in Gaza. Photo: Mohammed Azaiza, Gisha (gaza city , 3-2-2011)

Events in Egypt have also led to a rise in the cost of fuel and construction materials in the Strip as a result of a drop in activity in the tunnels and shortages in supply on the Egyptian side. Last week, the price of cement rose by more than 30%, while the price of gravel increased by about 20%. The rising fuel costs were checked following the government’s decision to set a fixed maximum rate, but shortages continue. Since Israel imposed restrictions on the transfer of these goods in 2007 (claiming that this would “weaken” the Hamas rule), the trade in fuel and construction materials has operated through the tunnels, where the Hamas government levies taxes on it. As events calm down in Egypt, tunnel activity is resuming.

Recent events in Egypt illustrate how the closure of Gaza and the dependence it creates on the border with Egypt make freedom of movement in Gaza as vulnerable as a leaf blowing in the wind.

Goods Needs Vs. Supply 16/1/11 - 12/2/11

Industrial Fuel Needs Vs. Supply 16/1/11 - 12/2/11

Posted on 02/13/2011 by RamallahOnline

The revolution is coming… one truckload at a time

Gisha, February 13, 2011

In a press conference last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Quartet Representative Tony Blair announced a new package of measures aimed towards, in Blair’s words, improving “the conditions and living standards of the Palestinian people” and in Bibi’s, “enhancing stability”. This on the backdrop of instability in Egypt as well as the closing of Rafah and reduced activity in the tunnels. What do the measures Bibi and Blair announced mean in real terms for Palestinian residents of Gaza?

The new measures promised are welcome and important for Gaza’s struggling private sector and the population at large. The changes in access policies seen since the June 20^th Israeli Security Cabinet decision and the measures promised in this latest press conference are, however, minimal compared to need. Israel is currently allowing Gaza residents to receive 3% of the construction materials needed to re-build the Strip and to export 1% of the quantities promised in earlier agreements. A small fraction of projects led by the international community have received approval, let alone materials, to begin building.

With the proposed measures, we hope to see a rise in these figures. For example, the new package promises 40,000 tons of gravel – in February. The rest of the year is anyone’s guess, since hints in the press statement that Sufa crossing would be opened for transfer of construction materials appear to be just a one-time gesture intended to clear tens of thousands of tons of gravel which have been sitting there since Israel banned construction materials in 2007 and then closed Sufa in 2008.

Approval for twenty additional projects is also welcome, provided that it won’t take months to negotiate the entrance of each truckload of cement and steel, as has been the case until now. UNRWA alone reports that just 9% of its construction plan has been approved.

The measures also include reducing Gaza’s dependence on Israel for infrastructure – including by exploring new sources of energy and increasing capacity to treat sewage and de-salinate the water supply. Just for reference, currently the Palestinian Authority pays Israel for electricity to Gaza to the tune of some 40 million shekels per month (11 million dollars), and it is estimated that it would take several years to develop proper infrastructure to supply Gaza’s needs – assuming Israel refrains from measures taken in the past which have included blocking infrastructure inputs and bombing the power station.

But this isn’t just about “improving living standards” that have been dramatically and deliberately worsened over three and a half years of closure. While Israel negotiates numbers with the international community’s most high-ranking envoy, Gaza residents are being denied their right to build schools, hospitals, and homes and to travel, produce and sell the goods necessary in order to engage in their livelihoods. If there really has been a paradigm shift and security is the only criteria for what can enter or leave Gaza, then perhaps we can do better than this.

Goods Needs Vs. Supply 9/1/11 - 5/2/11

Industrial Fuel Needs Vs. Supply 9/1/11 - 5/2/11

Posted on 02/03/2011 by RamallahOnline

A different kind of power struggle

Gisha Press Release, February 3, 2011

Those following the weekly charts on Gaza Gateway might have been surprised to discover that the amount of industrial diesel transferred from Israel to the Gaza Strip has been nil for some weeks now. The fuel, needed to operate Gaza’s power plant, is usually transferred via the Kerem Shalom crossing, though lately, you would only find its low grade cousin, regular diesel, coming in through the tunnels in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip, from Egypt and via coordination with the Gaza government, which collects taxes on it. The change of transfer point did not occur overnight but rather as a result of a, by now, three-year policy on the part of Israel and recently given a stamp of approval by the Turkel Commission, to reduce the transfer of industrial diesel to Gaza. The change also came about as a result of a funding dispute between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the government in Gaza which caused suppliers to seek out more cost efficient methods to supply the fuel.

The transfer of diesel through the tunnels reduces the electricity shortage in Gaza but does not resolve the problem. The power plant still needs industrial diesel, which is mixed with regular diesel coming from Egypt in order to reduce the amount of sulfur emitted from the production process. In these new circumstances, power outages have shortened but still occur for an average of six hours a day, posing hardship for Gaza residents. True to today, the plant is producing about 60 MW of energy, while the total electricity deficit in the Strip stands at 80 MW.

As far as underground economies go, the Egyptian channel is not reliable. Last week there was a drop in transfer of goods from Egypt due to recent events there, casting doubt on the stability of the diesel supply to the Gaza power plant. When the tunnels are operating, the government in Gaza coordinates the transfer of fuel and collects taxes on it (NIS 0.60 per liter of diesel that costs the merchants bringing it in less than one shekel). Based on these figures one can only wonder about the conclusion of the Turkel Commission, which legitimized Israel’s restriction on diesel transferred to the power plant, stating that these restrictions were an instrument to promote Israel’s military objective of harming “Hamas’s capacity, including its military capacity, to continue attacking Israel”.

Goods Needs Vs. Supply 2/1/11 - 29/1/11

Industrial Fuel Needs Vs. Supply 2/1/11 - 29/1/11

Posted on 12/19/2010 by RamallahOnline

Gaza’s Social Network

Gaza Gateway, GISHA, 19 Dec 2010

“People outside expect us all to be wrapped in keffiyehs … and to be stalwarts of the Palestinian cause every second of every day, and we feel we don’t want to disappoint them but we are human beings and sometimes we just want to blog about what’s on our mind”.

These words were spoken by a blogger from Gaza at a meeting in July which brought together 11 bloggers who use the Internet to tell readers all over the world about the reality of life in the Strip.

It seems that the Internet and its ability to cross borders are the exact opposite of life under closure in the Strip. In Gaza, residents cannot leave freely and are almost completely barred from traveling to the West Bank. The realities of the closure mean that the Internet and independent bloggers have become an important source of information about life in Gaza.

Blogger meeting in Gaza. Photo: Laila El-Haddad

In recent years, many young men and women from Gaza have begun writing blogs, the number of which are hard to estimate. Most of them write in Arabic and address readers in Gaza, the West Bank and the Arab world at large, but a substantial number write in English to an international audience. They write about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, local issues and the dispute between Hamas and Fatah or about personal issues. Blogger Mohammed Rabah Suliman, for example, says that he writes about his personal life and his daily experiences in order to show the human face of his hometown, Gaza City, which is usually described in terms of statistics instead of through the personal stories and experiences of people.

Blogger Sameeha Elwan critiques the blind judgements about women’s lives in Gaza made by her local and international colleagues. Yasmeen El Khoudary writes about the blossoming of the rare flower “The Last Queen of the Night”, while the blogger Bashar describes his experiences in the Gaza Strip through unusual video art:

Many bloggers from the Gaza Strip know each other and in the meeting they shared their experiences. According to Mohammed, even though many bloggers are friends in the “real” world, they are still a long way from cooperating on the Internet. Judging by the unusual and interesting collaboration between “Peaceman” and “Hopeman”, an Israeli from Sderot and a Palestinian from Gaza, who blogged together in 2008-2009, it seems that the Internet has great potential as a tool for understanding and border-crossing friendship.

RELATED LINKS:

Posted on 12/08/2010 by RamallahOnline

Gisha response to Cabinet announcement allowing limited Gaza “export”

Gisha, 8 Dec 2010

Wednesday, 8.12.2010 – Gisha expresses hope that today’s Israeli Cabinet decision will be a harbinger of removing the restrictions on the transfer of civilian goods into and out of the Gaza Strip, in order to allow its residents to engage in dignified, productive work.

We are concerned by reports that Israel will continue to prevent residents of Gaza from marketing products to private, unaffiliated buyers in the West Bank, as well as to merchants in Israel – with no apparent security justification. We recall that until Israel blocked the outgoing traffic of goods from Gaza in 2007, Israeli merchants and manufacturers would buy goods from factories in Gaza and market them in Israel, the West Bank, and abroad, to the mutual financial benefit of both Israeli and Palestinian workers.

The Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Israel are part of a single “customs envelope” (Hebrew) controlled by Israel, which sets the tariff and VAT rates in all three areas. Marketing goods from Gaza to the West Bank and Israel is therefore not “export” but rather trade that, under international law, can only be restricted for security reasons. That trade is critical to economic recovery for the 1.5 million people in Gaza whose ability to transfer goods is controlled by Israel.

We note that since 2007, Israel has closed three out of four of Gaza’s commercial crossings, creating pressure on the Kerem Shalom crossing, whose capacity is limited. Israel is currently suppressing demand for space at Kerem Shalom by banning the entrance of construction materials and the exit of outbound goods, with limited exceptions. Prior to these restrictions, each day on average, 433 trucks would enter Gaza, and 70 trucks of outbound goods would exit. In contrast, since June 2007, Israel has permitted just 274 truckloads of outbound goods in total, for a daily average of one-third of a truck.

Despite promises to enable the transfer of construction materials for international organizations asking to rebuild the Gaza Strip, since the “easing” in July 2010, Israel allowed the transfer of just 149 truckloads of construction materials (gravel, steel, and cement) on average per month, in comparison to over 5,000 trucks with these materials per month prior to June 2007 (approximately 3% of need). Israel has approved just 7% of UNRWA’s plan for rebuilding and reconstructing Gaza, and even for these approved projects, permission to transfer the building materials is delayed.

In its report from September 2010, the International Monetary Fund noted that unless the restrictions on export to markets outside Gaza, including Israel, are removed, and unless the ban on construction materials is removed, there will be no significant economic recovery.

Click here for our post on the “export” of strawberries and flowers.

For an information sheet on the changes in the closure policy since the June 2010 cabinet decision, see: Unraveling the Closure of Gaza.

Posted on 09/17/2010 by RamallahOnline

Children of the gravel

GISHA, 16 Sept 2010

On Saturday, May 22, 2010, Hasan, 17, was shot in the leg in the now-defunct Erez industrial area in the northern Gaza Strip: “I was collecting gravel with the other workers, when one of the Israeli soldiers in the watchtower fired a shot which hit me in the right leg. I immediately fell to the ground in great pain. Everyone started running away, except for one youngster who I didn’t know, who came and tried to help me, but he couldn’t lift me”. In the meantime, the soldiers kept firing and the boy who came to help Hasan also had to run away. Finally, Hasan was rushed to hospital. “My leg was in a cast for two months, and now I still can’t walk properly and feel pain whenever I move it. I don’t know when I will be able to walk again, even though my family needs the money, and there are no other alternatives”.

One month later, on June 7, 17-year-old Awad was shot in the same place: “At around 9:30 A.M., I bent over to pick up some gravel when I heard a shot being fired. The bullet hit me in the right knee and I fell over in great pain. Youngsters around me started running in all directions and I saw my brothers running towards me”. Awad fainted, waking up later in hospital. “Since that day, I’ve been feeling numbness in my right leg and I can’t walk on it like I used to”.

About two weeks later, on June 22, 16-year-old Abdullah was shot while working in the evacuated Israeli settlement of Elei Sinai: “It was around 6:00 A.M. I heard a shot being fired from the Israeli watchtower and I immediately fell to the ground in great pain. My brothers and cousins rushed towards me and put me on the cart and rushed me to the main road. My ankle was bleeding and I felt it going numb”. Abdullah was rushed to hospital, where he underwent an urgent operation. “I still feel pain in my right leg and I don’t know whether I will be able to walk normally again or not”.

These disturbing testimonies were recently published on the website of the Palestinian branch of Defense for Children International (DCI), which defends children’s rights worldwide. The three boys’ stories point towards the difficult economic situation in the Gaza Strip, where young people put themselves at risk and work as gravel collectors along the border fence with Israel in order to support their families. Furthermore, the testimonies illustrate how despite the “disengagement”, Israel continues to restrict movement inside Gaza. According to international organizations the restrictions are enforced in 17% of the total area of the Strip, however, the boundaries of the restricted areas are not clearly marked for the population and the terms of access to them have not been explained. (A U.N. Report on the subject shows that in the first seven months of 2010, seven residents were killed and 94 were wounded in the buffer zones). Just this week it was reported that four people were killed and several more injured by military fire near the border fence.

The testimonies show that many young people work daily collecting gravel in the Erez industrial park and the evacuated Israeli settlements in the area. Furthermore, according to their testimonies, at the moment the boys were shot they were not doing anything that could have been perceived as dangerous. Why, then, did the soldiers shoot the boys? Was everyone who was shot really suspected of being a terrorist or trying to infiltrate Israel? What rules of engagement were the soldiers following? We requested a response to the testimonies from the IDF spokesperson, but by the time of publication it had not yet been received.

Since the declaration of the easing of the closure of Gaza in July 2010, Israel has allowed about 600 trucks of construction materials into the Gaza Strip, or in other words, about 4% of need. As long as Israel continues to forbid the entry of building materials into the Gaza Strip, the informal gravel industry will continue to flourish and young people will continue to risk this dangerous option to support their families.

Goods Needs Vs. Supply 15/8/10 - 11/9/10

Industrial Fuel Needs Vs. Supply 15/8/10 - 11/9/10

Posted on 09/01/2010 by RamallahOnline

In testimony to Turkel Commission COGAT contradicts Netanyahu

For immediate release, Tuesday, August 31, 2010

In testimony to Turkel Commission

COGAT contradicts Netanyahu

Contrary to what Netanyahu told the commission, COGAT confirms that the closure was meant to exert pressure on the civilian population in Gaza.
Whereas Netanyahu testified that restrictions were vital to “prevent the entry of weapons and war materiel to the Gaza Strip, Dangot admitted that the restrictions were meant to paralyze the economy in order to weaken Hamas.
Gisha: the motives behind the closure have bearing on its legality.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 – The testimony today by Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, before the Turkel Commission to Examine the Maritime Incident, confirms Gisha’s claim that the closure was imposed on Gaza not only for security reasons to prevent the entry of war materiel, but also to paralyze the economy, meanwhile harming civilian life in the Gaza Strip. According to Gen. Dangot’s testimony, Israel declared economic warfare against the Gaza Strip and prevented the entry of goods – including certain kinds of food and other civilian items – that posed no security threat, with the goal of disrupting civilian life in the Gaza Strip.

In a letter from Gisha to the commission ahead of Dangot’s testimony, written by Adv. Tamar Feldman, the organization noted that the state had previously declared its goal of paralyzing the economy in Gaza to pressure the civilian population, and therefore “the closure was based not only on security considerations but was also a declared attempt to hurt the civilian population.” Gisha claimed that these motives, as well as the way the policy was implemented, have implications for the legality of the closure. International law allows restrictions whose purpose is to preventing the smuggling of war materiel, but does not allow for the prevention of passage of goods which are clearly civilian in nature.

Gen. Dangot was not asked to give the commission an explanation of how Israel defines the humanitarian minimum in the Gaza Strip or by what criteria it determines whether there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. As noted in Gisha’s letter, in the last three years Israel has maintained a policy of ambiguity and refused to reveal the criteria for prohibiting or allowing the passage of goods into the Gaza Strip, despite a petition by Gisha under the Freedom of Information Act.

In the letter to Justice Turkel, attorney Tamar Feldman, Director of Gisha’s Legal Department, asks: “Is the policy of imposing a tight and continuing closure on a civilian population of 1.5 million people – and this in order to pressure it to stop actions for which it is not responsible and change political circumstances that are beyond its control – a legitimate and reasonable one?” Furthermore, is this a policy that contributes to Israel’s security interests?

For the letter that was sent to the Turkel Commission, click here.

For a current Gisha information sheet “Unraveling the closure of Gaza: What has and hasn’t changed since the Cabinet decision and what are the implications?” click here.

For current information about Gaza’s crossings, see: www.gazagateway.org.

For “Safe Passage”, a new computer game that allows the player to interactively experience the travel restrictions between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, go to www.spg.org.il.

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