STOP ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Israel should stop the almost total blockade of Gaza, says a report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

"“The agricultural sector in the Gaza Strip is close to collapse, as no exports are allowed, and there is a total unavailability of fertilizer, pesticides and other crucial inputs,” according to the report, released yesterday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)."

By sealing off Gaza and its population from food, power and medicine, Israel is in fact applying a hated collective punishment to the Palestinians living there. And I thought that collective punishment was inflicted only by tyrannical regimes intent on punishing the population for the sins and offenses of the few.

When Tony Blair try to visit the leaders of Hamas in Gaza several weeks ago, he had a sudden change of plans after the Israelis told him of a "death plot." Instead of visiting Gaza and seeing the human desperation and misery caused by the Israeli blockade, Tony Blair made other plans. So Tony Blair was scared out visiting Gaza. Who knows if the alleged plot was anything more than a made-up story by Israelis not wanting Tony Blair to get the other side of the story.