"If you have two brothers, put them in a cage and deprive them of basic and essential needs for life, they will fight, I don't think we should put the blame on the victim."
- Ziad Abu Amr, Palestinian Foreign Minster at news conference in Tokyo
Israel's strategy of Conquer ad Divide has reached another threshold. Israel’s right wing Maariv newspaper described Palestine as divided into Hamastan in the Gaza Strip and Fatah Land in the West Bank. What better way to turn the world’s attention away from its ongoing construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank and expansion of its illegal separation barrier that is confiscating Palestinian land.
The Jerusalem Post for its part is advertising Israel’s attempt to wash its hands of the blood running in the streets in Gaza which perpetuates the myth that Israel is free of the responsibility she has of creating the Gaza Strip in 1948. Israel, not Egypt is the one who ought to take responsibility for the ongoing crisis.
A new Oxfam report points out precisely this role of Israel as midwife to the crisis in Gaza, citing the economic crisis looming in Gaza. Oxfam is calling for the EU to end the boycott of PA.
Watch this short film on the underground economy via the tunnels of Rafah's border town by journalist Laila Al-Haddad.
Alvaro de Soto, the UN's recently retired Middle East envoy has condemned the UN's policy in the region and calls for the UN's withdrawal from the Quartet which is carrying out an economic embargo on the Palestinian unity government.
