[THS] Jimmy Carter: Gaza: A Human Rights Crime

[Peter Webster]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19885.htm

A Human Rights Crime

The world must stop standing idle while the people of Gaza are treated with
such cruelty

By Jimmy Carter

08/05/08 "The Guardian" -- - -- -- The world is witnessing a terrible human
rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being
imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world. An entire population
is being brutally punished.

This gross mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza was escalated
dramatically by Israel, with United States backing, after political candidates
representing Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority
parliament in 2006. The election was unanimously judged to be honest and
fair by all international observers.

Israel and the US refused to accept the right of Palestinians to form a unity
government with Hamas and Fatah and now, after internal strife, Hamas
alone controls Gaza. Forty-one of the 43 victorious Hamas candidates who
lived in the West Bank have been imprisoned by Israel, plus an additional
10 who assumed positions in the short-lived coalition cabinet.

Regardless of one's choice in the partisan struggle between Fatah and
Hamas within occupied Palestine, we must remember that economic
sanctions and restrictions on the supply of water, food, electricity and fuel
are causing extreme hardship among the innocent people in Gaza, about
one million of whom are refugees.

Israeli bombs and missiles periodically strike the area, causing high
casualties among both militants and innocent women and children. Prior to
the highly publicised killing of a woman and her four children last week, this
pattern had been illustrated by a report from B'Tselem, the leading Israeli
human rights organisation, which stated that 106 Palestinians were killed
between February 27 and March 3. Fifty-four of them were civilians, and 25
were under 18 years of age.

On a recent trip through the Middle East, I attempted to gain a better
understanding of the crisis. One of my visits was to Sderot, a community of
about 20,000 in southern Israel that is frequently struck by rockets fired
from nearby Gaza. I condemned these attacks as abominable acts of
terrorism, since most of the 13 victims during the past seven years have
been non-combatants.

Subsequently, I met with leaders of Hamas - a delegation from Gaza and
the top officials in Damascus. I made the same condemnation to them, and
urged that they declare a unilateral ceasefire or orchestrate with Israel a
mutual agreement to terminate all military action in and around Gaza for an
extended period.

They responded that such action by them in the past had not been
reciprocated, and they reminded me that Hamas had previously insisted on
a ceasefire throughout Palestine, including Gaza and the West Bank, which
Israel had refused. Hamas then made a public proposal of a mutual
ceasefire restricted to Gaza, which the Israelis also rejected.

There are fervent arguments heard on both sides concerning blame for a
lack of peace in the Holy Land. Israel has occupied and colonised the
Palestinian West Bank, which is approximately a quarter the size of the
nation of Israel as recognised by the international community. Some Israeli
religious factions claim a right to the land on both sides of the Jordan river,
others that their 205 settlements of some 500,000 people are necessary for
"security".

All Arab nations have agreed to recognise Israel fully if it will comply with
key United Nations resolutions. Hamas has agreed to accept any negotiated
peace settlement between the president of the Palestinian Authority,
Mahmoud Abbas, and Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, provided it is
approved in a referendum of the Palestinian people.

This holds promise of progress, but despite the brief fanfare and positive
statements at the peace conference last November in Annapolis, the
process has gone backwards. Nine thousand new Israeli housing units have
been announced in Palestine; the number of roadblocks within the West
Bank has increased; and the stranglehold on Gaza has been tightened.

It is one thing for other leaders to defer to the US in the crucial peace
negotiations, but the world must not stand idle while innocent people are
treated cruelly. It is time for strong voices in Europe, the US, Israel and
elsewhere to speak out and condemn the human rights tragedy that has
befallen the Palestinian people.

· Jimmy Carter, a former president of the United States, is founder of The
Carter Center project-syndicate.org