Aid Rots Outside Gaza

[Jefferson23]

By Erin Cunningham

AL-ARISH, Egypt, Apr 15 (IPS) - Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aid intended for the Gaza Strip is piling up in cities across Egypt's North Sinai region, despite recent calls from the United Nations to ease aid flow restrictions to the embattled territory in the wake of Operation Cast Lead.

Food, medicine, blankets, infant food and other supplies for Gaza's 1.5 million people, coming from governments and non-governmental agencies around the world, are being stored in warehouses, parking lots, stadiums and on airport runways across Egypt's North Sinai governorate.

Egypt shares a 14-kilometre border with Gaza that has been closed more or less permanently since the Islamist movement Hamas took control of the territory in June 2007.

Flour, pasta, sugar, coffee, chocolate, tomato sauce, lentils, date bars, juice, chickpeas, blankets, hospital beds, catheter tubes and other humanitarian- based items are all sitting in at least eight storage points in and around Al- Arish, a city in North Sinai approximately 50 kilometres from Gaza's border.

remainder here: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46504

[Vegasaurus]

1. Zero responses to the Egyptians lack of response to humanitarian disaster in Gaza?

Wasted food and aid, sitting outside the border?

Where are all the people who scream at Israel (which actually has opened the border every day, and let in much needed aid and supplies)?

Why the silence, when the Arab brethren build a ten foot concrete wall, shoot at Gazans trying to get over, and won't even open up the gates to let in needed supplies?

Why the double standard?

[Sezu]

2. Gotta be a HUGE cognitive dissonance for the usual

suspects plus no way they are gonna take the heat off their Israel hate by engaging on that issue.

[Jefferson23]

3. Who here hates Israel? Or did you mean to say Israeli policy and the

occupation, the blockades etc? I have put up threads about Israel you haven't responded to, should I interpret that to mean you support settlement expansion? I doubt you do. I'm not aware that posters here
approve of Egypt's government response to the Palestinians overall. Maybe you can find support of that and post it here. I believe most recognize Mubarak for what he is, yet that will never change who decided to wage OCL, that will never change who decided to allow for settlement expansion, will it?

[Vegasaurus]

5. I didn;t say "hate Israel"

I said those who "scream about Israel".

I am only confused about the double standard.

If Israel doesn't allow in (as much as is needed, although they still let in lots) food or aid, people scream about Israel's lack of care for the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

But when Egypt doesn't allow in ANY food or aid, these same people are silent.

I am simply confused by the hypocrisy, since obviously wasted food and aid is terrible, but not getting it to the people who need it is worse.

And the fact is, Egypt is not at war with Gaza, while Israel is expected to take care of people with whom they have been at low level (or higher) war for decades.

And yet Egypt is given a pass while the world maligns Israel.

[Jefferson23]

7. Appreciate the response but I wasn't addressing you. My reply was in post

in post#2, a different DU member.

Regardless, I am honestly not aware of reading any cheerleaders for the governmental powers that be in Egypt. Contempt lies more with US policy and the manipulation our money fulfills for US interests than anything else. How Egypt responds is predictable because of that money but that does not translate to Egypt getting a pass by anyone here that I'm aware of. If you happen to see a post that does, I'd like to see it.



From you:"And the fact is, Egypt is not at war with Gaza, while Israel is expected to take care of people with whom they have been at low level (or higher) war for decades."

Are you suggesting that Israel should not be expected to allow in aid?

[azurnoir]

4. Egypt should allow aid through despite this statement

All aid meant for Gaza via Egypt must currently pass through either Al-Auja or Kerem Abu Sellem, Egypt's commercial crossings with Israel, and is subject to both Israeli-Egyptian trade specifications and Israeli import law.

Much of what is being stored in North Sinai - including food items like lentils, pasta, chickpeas, and juice - has been deemed by Israel to be "non- essential" to life in the Gaza Strip.

You see then we'de have a whole different type of complaint and accusation going on here

[ProgressiveMuslim]

6. BLAME EGYPT, DAMMIT! ROTFLOL!

Gee, I wonder if Egypt is being pressured not to open their border?

[sabbat hunter]

8. yes it must all be Israel's fault

gods forbid that the problem is the fault of anyone but Israel.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. Do you have any evidence to that effect?

It's not a totally absurd claim, but I haven't seen anything that even remotely supports it.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

10. Are you serious, Mr. Rankin?

You don't think the US "helps" Egypt determine its policy?