Sunday February 15, 2009


Feb 15, 2009


In a flagrant violation of international human rights conventions and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which bans collective punishment of a population, outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated Saturday that he would continue his collective punishment of the entire population of the Gaza Strip until Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian fighters in 2006, is released.

In Olmert's statement to the press on Saturday, he said, "We will not open the crossings without Shalit's release. Any other statements are irrelevant." This ensures the continuation of the Israeli siege on Gaza, which is essentially holding the entire population hostage, preventing them from leaving, and freezing all economic commerce.

170 Palestinian patients have died due to the Israeli siege, when Israeli officials refused to allow them to leave the Gaza Strip for critically-needed medical care. After the 3-week Israeli offensive that ended on January 18th, the siege continued, forcing the under-equipped hospitals and clinics in Gaza to deal with the over 4,000 injured Palestinians – many of whom have unprecedented wounds and burns due to Israel's use of internationally-banned weapons during the offensive.

Water has become extremely scarce, sewage treatment plants are overflowing and unable to operate due to the lack of fuel and the damage done by Israeli forces, and essential medicines are simply non-existent inside the Strip. Israeli forces surrounding the Gaza Strip essentially operate what many Palestinians call the 'largest open-air prison on earth', and 1.5 million Palestinians remain trapped inside.

While Olmert's advisors continue their 'negotiations' in Egypt for a potential 'truce', Israel remains in complete control of the Gaza Strip – all sea, air and land is under Israeli military control, and the outgoing Israeli Prime Minister promises that the chokehold on the entire population will continue unless the one Israeli prisoner held by Palestinian resistance groups is released. Israel has over 10,000 Palestinians in prison camps, and the number increases daily.