ISRAEL’S defence minister is once again preparing to approve cuts in the supply of electricity and fuel to Gaza, to try once again to starve and freeze the Palestinian people of Gaza into accepting the occupation of Palestine.
Ehud Barak, the ex-Israeli premier, met with his officials later on Thursday to discuss implementing the savage measures, which will close hospitals, schools and deprive Palestinians of cooked meals.
Israel intends to go forward with its Bush sponsored peace talks with Mahmud Abbas at exactly the same time as it is starving the men, women and children of Gaza.
Palestinian leaders have correctly responded to this brutal threat by accusing Israel of inflicting collective punishment and breaching international law on the legal responsibility of occupying powers for the territories that they are responsible for.
However, they have not told the Israeli government that Abbas will not have peace talks with the Zionists and Bush while they are threatening to starve the Palestinian people in Gaza, which would be the only principled position to take.
Israel has already declared Gaza to be ‘hostile’ territory, and because of this declaration argues that it can no longer be held responsible the under international law governing the administration of an occupied territory and its duty to supply utilities to the civilian population.
However Israel has surrounded the Gaza Strip and turned it into a big prison through its control of all entry and exit points and its control of the seas and airspace around and above the Gaza Strip. Even then, under international law it is still held responsible for the strip by the United Nations.
Israel has made the daily life of the men, women and children of the Gaza Strip into a living hell ever since it dared to vote for Hamas in the Palestinian elections and elected the government of its choice and not the government that was favoured by Israel, the US and the UK.
It imposed an economic embargo, and was supported in this by the British and US governments who are now continuing with this policy.
A spokesman for Hamas in Gaza said it would be unbowed by any further sanctions.
‘International law requires that occupation forces take care of the needs of the occupied peoples,’ Sami Abu Zuhri said, adding that ‘Exploiting human needs to blackmail our people will never weaken us.’
The UN has previously warned Israel that it must not inflict collective punishment on Gaza’s civilian population by cutting vital supplies and services.
Britain and the US will support the latest Israeli attack on the defenceless people of Gaza.
Workers in the West must come to the aid of the Palestinian people of Gaza.
The British trade unions must be made to stand up and take action to support the Palestinian masses.
They must impose a trade, and cultural boycott of Israel and spread it worldwide through mobilising the world trade union movement.
British workers must refuse to unload Israeli ships, or planes or load any materials bound for Israel.
A boycott must be maintained until the Zionists end all sanctions against Gaza and cede the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian state.
This must be free of all settlements and be made up of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem which will be the capital of the Palestinian state.
Part of the agreement must be that every Palestinian refugee has the right to return and that all of the settlements and all security walls and barriers are dismantled, and all Palestinian prisoners freed.
The British trade unions must act at once and show through action that their support for the Palestinian people is real and concrete and not just verbal and cosmetic.
