Israel bans paper shipments to Gaza
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EVOD-76FF7W?OpenDocument
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
Date: 26 Aug 2007
Israel-OPT: Ban on truckloads of paper set to hit Gaza schools
JERUSALEM, 26 August 2007 (IRIN) - The Israeli ban on deliveries of
paper to Gaza is not only threatening to create a shortage of
textbooks in the Strip but also shining a spotlight on what
constitutes legitimate humanitarian aid.
Israel is allowing in food, medicines and fuel, which it sees as
essential aid, but not paper, even though many would see education as
a vital sector in need of all the support it can get.
“Some 200,000 children will go into our classrooms on 1 September,
and won’t have the books they need,” John Ging, the Gaza director of
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, told IRIN.
The shortage has emanated from Israel’s refusal, so far, to allow
five trucks of paper into the impoverished territory, needed to print
the textbooks. Since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June, Israel has
clamped down on the borders, bringing imports and exports almost to a
halt with the exception of basic humanitarian goods.
The latest development serves as an indicator of the difference of
opinion between many aid organisations and Israel on what is
considered “humanitarian aid”.
Shadi Yassin, from the Israeli military’s coordination unit, recently
confirmed that the state remained committed to allowing in such
assistance.
Indeed, food and medicine continue to make it into the Gaza Strip and
even fuel. However, many goods are locked out.
Public health projects threatened
“We are trying to get raw materials into Gaza,” but without success,
said Sebastien Kuster of CARE France, adding that the materials,
including pipes, asphalt and cement for water and sanitation projects
were humanitarian goods. “These are needed to complete work to
guarantee continuous access to water for the people in Gaza.”
However, Israel maintains that these materials would block up the
limited routes for basic supplies.
“The priority right now is getting food in,” an Israeli security
official stated, noting that Israel would not coordinate with Hamas
on the other side of the border, as it sees the Islamic group as a
terrorist organisation. With no solution to the impasse, the borders
stay closed.
UNWRA’s Ging, too, is feeling the clampdown: “We cannot get in vital
supplies like construction materials for homes and schools. There is
already overcrowding,” he said, noting that health clinics were also
scheduled to be built.
Many of UNRWA’s water and sanitation projects have also been halted.
“These are public health issues,” Ging said, adding that over time a
people could not be sustained on just the most basic aid.
Paper and radicalism
Even if the paper arrived immediately, the school year would still
begin without the textbooks. According to the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to print the over 350,000 books
needed by UNRWA, factories would require between 20 and 25 days,
“assuming the electricity is functioning normally”.
Officials in Israel, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
state is concerned the paper might be used to print books with Hamas
ideology imbedded within them, or for other propagandist endeavours.
However, Gershon Baskin, the Israeli director of the Israel-Palestine
Centre for Research and Information, who is campaigning to get the
paper in, said so far there is no indication Hamas will change the
curriculum.
“It remains a concern,” he admitted. “But by not allowing them to
print books, will the thoughts and ideas go away? If they want to
teach [radicalism], someone can teach without a book,” said Baskin.
Not letting in the paper is “denying children their right to
education”, he concluded.