The Guardian 6 December, 2006
Israel breaks humanitarian agreement
The Australian media invariably presents the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the Israeli
point of view and has ignored a report by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of
Humanitarian Affairs which says that Israel has breached all the provisions of an agreement
on Palestinian travel and trade which was negotiated by the US in November of 2005 — over
a year ago.
At a time when a ceasefire has been implemented and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is
visiting the area, it remains to be seen whether she will insist on the Israelis carrying out the
agreement which her own government negotiated.
The agreement promised Palestinian control over the Rafah crossing into Egypt by November of
this year. At the time the agreement was concluded Condoleezza Rice declared that it would "give
the Palestinian people freedom to move, to trade, to live ordinary lives".
According to the UN report the Rafah crossing was shut down completely by the Israelis in June,
virtually imprisoning the 1.4 million residents of Gaza. Without this crossing residents cannot get
the medical treatment that is unavailable in Gaza; students cannot reach universities abroad, family
members are separated from each other and others cannot reach places of work.
Movement within the West Bank is also more restricted. There has been no peaceful economic
development as envisioned in the agreement. Instead the economic situation has deteriorated.
Unemployment in Gaza has risen from 33.1 percent to 41.8 percent in the course of one
year.
In addition, Gaza's main commercial crossing — al-Mintar — has been closed for more than half the
year says the UN report. An average of 12 lorries a day carrying Palestinian goods has been
allowed out of Gaza whereas Israel had promised to raise the number to 400 by the end of this
year.
As a consequence, less than four percent of the Palestinian harvest was exported and hundreds of
tonnes of produce were spoiled and dumped on the local market, thereby crippling the local
economy. The Palestinians suffered an estimated loss of US$30 million as a result of Israeli
actions.
David Shearer, the head of the UN mission which prepared the report commented: "From a
humanitarian point of view, it's a major crisis for these people who are effectively trapped within
and outside of Gaza."