Israel eases Gaza embargo to allow snack food
Wed Jun 9, 2010 9:00am EDT
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel is easing its Gaza embargo to allow snack food
and drinks into the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian officials said
Wednesday, following an international outcry over Israel's raid on an
aid flotilla.
Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, said the
territory needs cement -- banned by Israel and essential for
reconstruction after a December 2008-January 2009 war -- not soft
drinks.
An Israeli official said the new product list, announced hours before
U.S. President Barack Obama was to host Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas in Washington, was unrelated to Israel's May 31 takeover of the
convoy that challenged its Gaza blockade. [yeah, right.]
The talks between Obama and Abbas are expected to focus on ways to
ease the embargo, which has drawn mounting international criticism
since Israeli commandos [i.e., pirates], who met violent resistance on
a Turkish-flagged ship, killed nine pro-Palestinian activists.
The Palestinian officials, based in the West Bank, said that as of
next week, Israel will allow a wider variety of food, such as potato
crisps, biscuits, canned fruit and packaged humous, as well as soft
drinks and juice, into the Gaza Strip.
"They will send the first course. We are waiting for the main course,"
Palestinian Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh said in Ramallah. "We
are waiting for this unjust siege to end."
Israel says its blockade of Gaza is necessary to choke off weapons
supplies to Hamas, which is opposed to Abbas's peace efforts with the
Jewish state.
The United Nations says the Israeli blockade has caused a humanitarian
crisis in Gaza, an allegation Israel denies.
Hamas played down the impact of the new Israeli product list.
"We have three factories that make carbonated drinks. They say they
want to allow in potato chips, but we have factories that produce more
than enough to meet Gaza's needs," said Ziyad al-Zaza, economic and
trade minister in Hamas's Gaza-based government.
"We are looking for a true, real lifting of the blockade ... the
import of raw materials for industry and construction materials for
the reconstruction of Gaza," he said.
CEMENT BAN
Israel's ban on cement imports into the territory has limited efforts
to rebuild homes and infrastructure destroyed or damaged in a
three-week war it launched in December 2008 with the stated aim of
curbing cross-border rocket fire.
Israeli officials have said Hamas could use cement to build bunkers
and other military installations.
Asked about the new list of Israeli-approved products, the Israeli
government official said: "Over the last six months, Israel has
increased the volume of goods going into Gaza and their variety. That
policy is continuing."
A variety of goods comes into the Gaza Strip from neighboring Egypt
via smuggling tunnels. Egypt, which largely closed its Gaza border
after the Hamas takeover, reopened the frontier indefinitely following
the Israeli naval raid.
Commenting on the blockade, an Israeli security source said Israel
aimed to remove all restrictions on imported food items for Gaza
within a few weeks and noted that jam and several other products were
approved recently.
"This has nothing to do with the flotilla," the source said, making no
mention of whether Israel might expand the list to include
reconstruction materials.
Israeli authorities said that last week, Israel transferred 12,413
tonnes of humanitarian aid through Gaza border crossings.
The shipments included 994,000 liters of fuel for Gaza's power
station, 748 tonnes of cooking gas and eight truckloads of medicine
and medical equipment, according to an Israeli list.
(Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Additional reporting Mohammed
Assadi in Ramallah and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem)
--
Jim Devine
"Those who take the most from the table
Teach contentment.
Those for whom the taxes are destined
Demand sacrifice.
Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry
of wonderful times to come.
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary folk." – Bertolt Brecht.
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