Israel Made Me Set Myself on Fire

September 3, 2012 13:27 by Simon Plosker

The Guardian reports that an unemployed Gaza man has died after setting himself alight, apparently in protest over his family’s dire living conditions.

Harriet Sherwood expands on Gaza’s woes including unemployment, population growth and “Overcrowding, lengthy and frequent power cuts, unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and inadequate medical care”.

Up until this point, there is no mention of who or what may be responsible. But then comes the rub:

Israel enforced a tight blockade of Gaza for four years after Hamas took control of the area in June 2006, banning most imports, exports and the movement of people. Although it eased the blockade in 2010, there are still heavy restrictions on importing construction materials, exporting almost all goods and the issuing of permits to leave Gaza via Israel.

No responsibility attributed to Hamas, the terror organization that governs the Gaza Strip.

And what about the “impoverished” Gaza? Khaled Abu Toameh writes:

But according to an investigative report published in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, there are at least 600 millionaires living in the Gaza Strip. The newspaper report also refutes the claim that the Gaza Strip has been facing a humanitarian crisis because of an Israeli blockade.

Mohammed Dahlan, the former Palestinian Authority security commander of the Gaza Strip, further said last week that Hamas was the only party that was laying siege to the Gaza Strip; that it is Hamas, and not Israel or Egypt, that is strangling and punishing the people there.

For The Guardian, however, it’s just a short step to blaming Israel for Palestinians resorting to self-immolation.

Category: Backspin The Guardian UK News Tags:gaza, Harriet Sherwood, self-immolation, setting alight, The Guardian
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