Open-Ended Issue

Palestinian Genocide: * post-invasion excess deaths 0.3 million * post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million * refugees totalling 7 million -- Gideon Polya, >>

Genocide: as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention
"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." -- "genocide" as defined precisely by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ): >>

Israel blockades Gaza >>

Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip is "one of the greatest human rights crimes now existing on Earth" >>

Some 1.4 million people, mostly children, are piled up in one of the most densely populated regions of the world, with no freedom of movement, no place to run, and no space to hide. Virtually without external access since June, Gaza is experiencing a rise in poverty, unemployment, penury, and despair. [ ... ] Access by air, sea, and land has been virtually cut off for Gaza. The movements of goods and peoples have practically ceased. Supplies of electricity and water, interrupted by Israeli Defense Forces attacks on electric power stations, is irregular and insignificant. Civilian infrastructures have been affected. Gaza today remains dependent on outside sources for its food and commercial supplies. Hygienic conditions are deteriorating, while access to potable water is inadequate. With a Palestinian economy in continuous freefall, we must expect a more severe deterioration in sanitary conditions. -- Jan Egeland and Jan Eliasson, article in Le Figaro >>

Palestinian fishermen (from Gaza) are now only allowed six miles out to sea by the Israeli - not far enough out to reach the schools of large fish - and risk being shot or arrested if they breach this limit. -- According to Oxfam (2008?) >>

Israel signed the Bertini Agreement with the UN, which stated that Gazan territory extended the full 12 nautical miles from the shore. >>

The gross mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza is a terrible human rights crime >>

The residents of the Gaza Strip are suffering from hunger. >>

Only 43.5% of basic commercial food import needs were met during the period between 3 and 30 December 2007. -- According to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) >>

“The stranglehold on Gaza’s borders has made ... the work of the UN and other humanitarian agencies ... virtually impossible. Only a trickle of medicine, food, fuel and other goods is being allowed in. [The Israeli Blockade of Gaza] has made people highly dependent on food aid, and brought the health system and basic services such as water and sanitation near to collapse.” -- Several international aid organizations, including CARE International UK, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, and Medecins du Monde UK >>

"Your claim that the residents of the Gaza Strip are suffering from hunger is groundless considering the amount of food that passes every day from Israel to the Gaza Strip. There isn't another conflict in the world in which one side supplies all the needs of the other side – food, medicines, water, fuel and electricity. Thousands of Palestinians have crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip to receive medical treatment at Israeli hospitals." -- Noam Katz Director, Public Relations Department Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, in a letter to the Free Gaza Movement >>

Israel demolishes houses >>

Israeli forces demolished almost 300 houses and slew entire families in the Gaza Strip. -- According to B'Tselem, Israeli human rights organization, in its annual report >>

Israeli military shelling has also heavily damaged and/or destroyed some 7,571 homes in the Palestinian Occupied Territories -- Israeli Housing Ministry, September 2000 to 2001 >>

The Israeli government had demolished 18,000 Palestinian houses since the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza began in 1967. -- According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) >>

Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency tried to bully ill Palestinians to give information about militants in exchange for medical treatment. -- Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights, a human rights group, in their report called 'Holding Health for Ransom' >>