Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Beware of France: Hamas slams France for sending frigate to Gaza

Hamas PM: we expected France to send hospital ships to treat Palestinian children burned by banned Israeli weapons.


GAZA CITY - The head of the Hamas government in Gaza Ismail Haniya on Tuesday lashed out over the deployment of a French frigate to take part in a mission that Paris claims is against arms smuggling into the Palestinian territory.

"We expected France, whose motto is 'liberty, equality, fraternity' to send hospital ships to treat the children burned by banned weapons or to set up a humanitarian bridge... rather than deploy a navy ship to reinforce the blockade," Haniya said in a statement.

The Germinal frigate has been deployed to international waters off Gaza.

Haniya also dismissed criticism by European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel who on Monday said Hamas bore "overwhelming responsibility" for the Israel's 22-day war in Gaza.

"We are astonished by the European position which blames the victims and the oppressed people for the tragedy that befell the Gaza Strip," he said.

Observers note that the "weapon's smuggling" issue has further exposed the system of hypocrisy and double standards that the Middle East conflict has been subjected to.

While Israel, a brutal occupying power that is a threat to all of its neighbours, has access to advanced and sophisticated military aid (which is often used against civilians) from the US and elsewhere, Hamas, a democratically elected government and a resistance group determined to free Palestinian territories (Gaza, West Bank and east Jerusalem) from illegal Israel occupation, is denied the means to even defend itself or fight back.

“Israel’s total defence budget in the previous year was 7.2 billion USD, plus of course, another 2.2 billion USD in US ‘aid’ and this has risen since...Of course, Israel imports their arms directly, using seaports, airports and land borders,” notes Pat Bernstein, who writes about the situation in Palestine and its parallels to Apartheid South Africa.

“If Gaza was actually a state, without a total and illegal blockade, they too could import arms. Their qassam rockets would not need to be ‘smuggled’,” Bernstein adds.

“On average, every Israeli spends more on arms, than a Palestinian in Gaza has to live on.”


Source: Middle East Online

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