PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity)

#377 May 2, 2008

GAZA BEING STARVED TO DEATH

Jimmy Carter calls Israeli blockade of Gaza a crime and atrocity

CAIRO (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has called Israel’s blockade of Gaza a crime and an atrocity.

Speaking at the American University in Cairo, Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being "starved to death," receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa.

"It's an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. It's a crime... I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on."

Israel has been blockading Gaza since Hamas took control of the impoverished coastal strip last year. Since then Israel has only allowed the entry of basic supplies.

Israel has rejected Hamas proposals for a truce including an end to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and to Israeli attacks on Hamas personnel in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel claims a truce would enable Hamas to rearm.

Carter said Israel and the United States were trying to make life in Gaza markedly worse than in the West Bank, where the rival Fatah group rules.

The plan has failed. "I think politically speaking this has worked even to strengthen the popularity of Hamas and to the detriment of the popularity of Fatah," he added - the opposite outcome to the one America hoped for.

Carter, who made peace between Egypt and Israel while president in the 1970s, said the Hamas leaders he has met told him they would accept a peace agreement with Israel negotiated by Mahmoud Abbas -- the Fatah leader and Palestinian president -- if the Palestinians approved it in a referendum.

Israel and the United States say they refuse to deal with Hamas until the Islamist movement recognizes Israel's right to exist and renounces violence.

But Carter said Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, had to be involved in any arrangements that could lead to peace.

"One of the reasons I wanted to come and meet with the Syrians and Hamas was to set an example that might be emulated by others... I know that there are some officials in the Israeli government that are quite willing to meet with Hamas and maybe that will happen in the near future," he added.

Adapted from "Carter calls Gaza blockade a crime and atrocity" written by Jonathan Wright of the Reuters News Agency and published by the leading Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz on Apr. 17 2008. Full text available on line at: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976086.html

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