John Ging: Conditions in Gaza have not changed
since Israel declared it would ease the blockade
Thursday, 11 November 2010
John Ging: 'No tangible change has occurred to the lives of Gaza's people since Israel announced it would ease its economic blockade of the Strip last June.'
The Director of Operation for the UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] in the Gaza Strip, John Ging, has confirmed that "no tangible change" has occurred to the lives of Gaza's people since Israel announced it would ease its economic blockade of the Strip last June.
Israel's announcement that it would lift some of the restrictions imposed on Gaza to allow the entry of more food and consumer goods followed the international pressure it came under after nine Turkish peace activists were killed by Israeli soldiers aboard a Turkish vessel attempting to breach the siege.
John Ging accused Israel of ignoring the demands of the international community to lift the blockade and stated that "there is no tangible change for the people on the ground here with regard to their condition, dependence on aid, the absence of any recovery or reconstruction. And there is no economy."
Mr Ging asserted that "The ease as described was nothing more than a political ease of pressure on Israel and Egypt."
He also stated that Israel had imposed its stifling siege on the Gaza Strip for more than four years and prevents the entry of the majority of basic materials, primarily construction materials, which the sector desperately needs for the reconstruction of buildings destroyed by Israel during the war.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/index.php
Jerusalem attorney discloses Israeli plan for
full destruction of city
10 November 2010
The Israeli government is “planning to completely destroy the city of Jerusalem and a erect a new Jerusalem with a Zionist vision amid a plan it prepared which it calls the Jerusalem 2020 plan,” Jerusalem attorney Ahmed Al-Ruwaidi said in a statement he released on Wednesday.
The Jerusalem unit head said the wide-ranging plan envisions new settlements in the city and a complete transformation of Jerusalem’s Old City.
The Old City walls will dwindle down to a trace on the full parameters of biblical parks, bridges, and synagogues in an area covering the Silwan, Sheikh Jarah, Wadi Al-Jawz, and Al-Sawanah districts of the city, he added.
The plan alleges that Jerusalem is “the capitol and spiritual center of Israel and the Jewish people and a world city which attracts the souls of millions of believers across the globe.”
Ruwaidi went on to say: “All of the settlement projects in Jerusalem during the past three years, some of which have been practically implemented, fall under [the plan’s] framework, including a decision to erect a thousand new settlement units in Jebel Abu Ghunaim aimed at completing the isolation of the city with a wall of settlements.”
“Israel announced previously it will build 50,000 new units in the city. The implementation of 20,000 of those units has been initiated practically under projects that have been approved from time to time for political objectives linked to political and international action.”
20,000 Palestinian housing units have been threatened with demolition.
Under the plan, Arab Jerusalem will make up 71,000 dunums of the eastern and western sides of the city’s total 126,000 dunum land area.
Ruwaidi added that planning projects for new settlement units, conferences held in Jerusalem, excavation projects in the holy city’s area, and revocation of Palestinian residencies that have recently appeared in the media are part of a decided Israeli program that the Israeli government and other parties have been working to materialize.
Ruwaidi met on Wednesday with a legal team from the UK accompanied by political and cultural extensions from the British Consulate in Jerusalem. The delegation is currently developing a report about the situation in the city.
The Palestinian attorney presented a comprehensive report to the UK delegation relating to the city and the distress of its citizens, and the need to put the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and The Hague Convention of 1907 into action and to recognize Israel as an occupying force in Jerusalem that has no right to change the city’s landmarks.
He called for legal, political, and economic support for Palestinians in the holy city.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/
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