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Nations United Against Israel

Jew-free Gaza births humanitarian crisis

UN predictably tries to blame Israel for situation


By Ryan Jones
April 04, 2006

Their mighty claims of self-reliance notwithstanding, the Palestinian Arabs have failed to turn a Gaza Strip cleansed of all Jews into a source of national pride and prosperity, and are instead, according to United Nations aid workers, on the verge of birthing a full-blown humanitarian crisis there.

At first the "Palestinians" insisted their failure to continue making the once-barren coastal strip blossom as the Jews had was Israel's doing via a concerted effort to contaminate the land by placing barrels of toxins deep underneath the vacated settlements.

Despite that accusation's lack of credibility, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) investigated and last week had no choice but to give "the Gaza pullout an environmental clean bill of health."

Having lost that battle, the "Palestinians" managed this week to enlist UN backing for their assertion that Gaza's squalor is the direct result of Israeli border restrictions.

Israel's frequent closing of the Karni Crossing in northern Gaza is resulting in a lack of basic food supplies that will lead to a humanitarian disaster as bad as the one in Kosovo, warned the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in a written statement.

Israel, however, has tried to open Karni several times since the withdrawal, but was forced each time to close the terminal due to specific "Palestinian" terrorist threats against the Israelis working there, not to mention a constant barrage of rockets being fired from northern Gaza.

Israel then tried to relieve the situation by offering southern Gaza's Kerem Shalom Crossing, which is much easier to protect from attack, as an alternative. The Palestinian Authority rejected use of Kerem Shalom without a compelling reason.

Nor does the PA's now-unhindered control of the Gaza-Egypt border support its ongoing claim that the area is a virtual prison subject to the whims of the Jewish state.

World Bank statistics as reported by Ha'aretz show that if Gaza's Arabs continue to be used as political pawns in this manner, a full 75 percent of them will fall below the poverty line within two years.

Tellingly, only 22 percent of Gaza's Arabs were below the poverty line in 2000, before the outbreak of the "Al Aqsa Intifada" and the removal of Jewish farms that provided thousands of jobs.

Given these details, it seems the world is laying blame for the situation in Gaza on the wrong side.

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