 GENEVA - Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians where life is “intolerable, appalling, tragic” and the Jewish state appears to have thrown away the key, a UN human rights envoy said on Tuesday.
| Got everything right except the 'cause-effect' part. |
UN special wrapper rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory John Dugard said that the suffering of the Palestinians was a test of the readiness of the international community to protect human rights. “If ... the international community cannot ... take some action, (it) must not be surprised if the people ... disbelieve that they are seriously committed to the promotion of human rights,” he told the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.
| The international community generally isn't committed to human rights, it's committed to talking about human rights. That's a difference a special wrapper of the UN should understand. |
Israel hit back saying there was an “alarming disconnect” between the rapporteur’s report to the UN’s human rights watchdog and the experience of Israelis who continued to “face the daily threat of Palestinian terrorism”.
| 'Alarming disconnect' is the proper diplomatic form of "You idiot! Pay Attention to what you're seeing!" |
The South African lawyer, who has been a special UN investigator since 2001, repeated earlier accusations that Israel is breaking international humanitarian law with security measures which amount to “collective punishment.”
| Since the Paleos seem to be in it together, it's appropriate to keep them all away from the Israelis. |
Israel says its security restrictions, which include the construction of a steel and concrete barrier in the West Bank, are designed to stop suicide bombers entering Israel. Bombings have declined since the barrier was built.
| Which the special wrapper didn't notice: it's hard to see the gore that hasn't been splattered. |
It also maintains tight restrictions on the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza, a coastal strip that it pulled out of last year after 38 years of occupation.
| Especially the guns and ammo. |
Dugard also attacked the United States, the European Union and Canada for withdrawing funding for the Palestinian Authority in protest at the governing party Hamas’s refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist. “Israel violates international law as expounded by the Security Council and the International Court of Justice and goes unpunished. But the Palestinian people are punished for having democratically elected a regime unacceptable to Israel, the US and the EU,” Dugard said.
| The Paleos have a right to elect crazed killers to lead their government. We have a right not to give cash to crazed killers. That's one of our rights under that vaunted international law of yours, you could look it up. |
But Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva Itzhak Levanon said that by putting the “entire blame” on Israel the report ”absolves the terrorists that have taken Palestinian society hostage from even the most minimal responsibility.”
| You're trying to talk sense to a special wrapper and that doesn't work ... |
Dugard said that three-quarters of GazaÂ’s 1.4 million people were dependent on food aid.
| Stop the food aid and the Paleos might finally wake up. Cold but true. |
Bombing raids by Israel since the June 25 capture of an army corporal by Palestinian militants had destroyed houses and the territory’s only power plant. “Gaza is a prison and Israel seems to have thrown away the key,” he said.
| It's just not enough of a prison yet for the Paleos to come to their senses. |
|