The January 2009 invasion of the Gaza Strip left much of the tiny enclave in ruins. Nearly two and a half years later much of the damage remains, with Israeli officials continuing to strictly limit building material allowed in for repairs.
But today, the Israeli Defense Ministry approved a pair of large United Nations projects in the strip, allowing the importation of supplies to build 1,200 houses and 18 schools. The supplies will be sent to the UN directly and can only be used on projects previously approved by the Israeli government.
The approval signals the first large scale importation of cement and steel into the Gaza Strip since the invasion, and while UN officials say it will make a big difference there remains an extreme shortage of both liveable housing and schools.
The shortage, of course, is purely a function of the blockade, as a number of nations have offered significant funding to rebuild the strip since the war, and the UN program is only a small fraction of those.
In the meantime those who aren’t the United Nations have few options, but a number of Gazans have reverted to constructing simple dwellings out of mud since the war. With Egypt opening their border to Gaza on what appears to be a permanent basis, however, the Israeli restrictions could soon be practically meaningless.
The Gaza strip is an open air concentration camp – will Israel soon begin to build ovens – or – will they just starve all of the Palestinians to death?
Starvation is easier and cheaper. The ovens cost money and you know what tightwads them joos are.
It was almost 100 years ago that a young man left for his military service in Egypt. He was to become known to the world as Lawrence of Arabia. Thousands of arabs joined his call to overthrow the turks and Lawrence promised a homeland for the arabs if they helped the british removed them. After the war in the great betrayal the rich Lord Rothchild got the british to include part of the area for a homeland of the jews. At the time there were almost no jews in the area. A small number of very orthodox jews lived in Jerusalem but the vast majority of jews did not want anything to do
with the middle east. Millions of jews left Poland and Russia in the period of 1904-1908. Almost none elected to move to the zionist dream land of the middle east. During the conflict of WWI those few who did go just refused to fight to eliminate the turks.
Weki leaks showed that the blockade of Gaza is punishment for the arabs electing someone other than the puppets that Israel decided should represent the arabs. The Israel want the arab to just leave and since 1948 have treated the arabs badly with many leaders of israels calling arabs cockroaches. Israel looks like thugs in the blockade. What is going on is the Israel want to destroy all the arabs.
Israel may okay building materials for Gaza but will they deliver them? That's the question. Israel, much like it's colony to the West, doesn't necessary mean what it says. This still remains to be seen and considering that there are plans for another Flotilla, this is probably nothing more than another Hasbara ploy.