Washington, DC | January 23, 2008 | www.adc.org | The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee calls for immediate aid to be sent to the Gaza Strip and an end to the Israeli siege over this territory. Earlier this week the State of Israel halted fuel imports to the Gaza Strip which was already facing dire humanitarian conditions including widespread food shortages and malnutrition. Gaza’s 1.5 million residents were left without electricity when power plants shut down from lack of fuel.
News reports estimate that nearly 350,000 Gazans have crossed into Egypt this morning, after blowing through a separation barrier, in an attempt to procure necessary food and fuel for their livelihood. ADC is appalled by the Israeli treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and calls for an international intervention to stop a growing humanitarian crisis.
“The outburst we see today is a byproduct of months of Israeli imposed human rights violations, collective punishment, killings, unwarranted arrests and over 40 years of occupation” said ADC National Exec. Dir. Kareem Shora. He continued “The starvation of the Palestinian people or any people, as a political strategy, should never be permitted by the international community or any state with a conscience”.
A Human Rights Watch Report on the fuel cuts as a violation of International Law can be read here.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/10/29/isrlpa17198.htm