jerusalem | Israel’s decision to loosen its blockade on Gaza is drawing both praise and criticism.
Israel’s security cabinet on June 20 voted to ease land-based civilian imports to the Gaza Strip; the naval blockade will remain in place.
All items except those on a published blacklist will be allowed into Gaza. The blacklist will be limited to weapons and war material, including “dual-use items” that can be used for civilian or military purposes. Construction materials for housing projects and projects under international supervision will be permitted, according to a statement issued by Israel’s security cabinet.
Before the loosening, only items specifically permitted were allowed into Gaza.
The plan also calls for increasing the volume of goods entering Gaza and opening up more crossings, as well as streamlining the movement of people to and from the strip for medical treatment.
Despite the easing of the land blockade, Israel will continue to inspect all goods bound for Gaza by sea at the port of Ashdod.
Hamas officials said the easing of the blockade was not good enough to relieve the distress of the Gaza population. They called the changes “cosmetic,” according to Ynet.
In Israel, the announcement received mixed reviews. Some lawmakers, including ones from the centrist Kadima Party and the center-left Labor Party, criticized the government for buckling under pressure, saying the move would strengthen Hamas. But others, such as Labor’s Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, praised it. Israeli Arab Knesset member Hanin Zoabi called it insufficient, saying the blockade should be lifted completely.
The White House released a statement June 20 saying it welcomed the new policy toward Gaza.
“Once implemented, we believe these arrangements should significantly improve conditions for Palestinians in Gaza while preventing the entry of weapons,” the statement said. “We strongly re-affirm Israel’s right to self-defense, and our commitment to work with Israel and our international partners to prevent the illicit trafficking of arms and ammunition into Gaza.”
Turkey, which lost nine citizens when Israeli commandos intercepted a Gaza-bound aid flotilla determined to break the blockade, continued to slam Israel following the announcement.
“If the Israeli government really wishes to prove that they have given up the act of piracy and terror, they should primarily apologize and claim responsibility in the slaying of nine people on May 31,” said Egemen Bagis, Turkish minister for European Union affairs, according to the New York Times.
The blockade of Gaza was put into place by Israel and Egypt in June 2007 after Hamas violently wrested power in the Gaza Strip from the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority. It was designed to thwart the import of weapons or weapons-capable material into Gaza and pressure the coastal strip’s rulers into releasing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was taken captive in a cross-border raid in 2006.
An economic blockade had been in place since Shalit’s abduction.
Pressure on Israel to ease the latter blockade, which had been climbing steadily, increased dramatically following last month’s Israeli interception of the cargo ships.
In his role as envoy of the Middle East quartet (a grouping of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia), Tony Blair reportedly played a central role in establishing the new protocols for Gaza.
Blair joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 20 to announce the easing of the blockade, after which the quartet issued a statement calling for its rapid implementation and improvement of the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.
Israel called on the international community “to stop the smuggling of weapons and war materials into Gaza.”
British Foreign Secretary William Hague praised Israel’s plan but took a wait-and-see attitude.
“The test now is how the new policy will be carried out,” he said.
German officials called for a complete end to the blockade in the wake of Israel’s refusal to allow Germany’s minister of economic cooperation and development, Dirk Niebel, to enter Gaza during a four-day visit to the region.
A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the French news agency AFP that the blockade should be abolished altogether.
“These steps alone are not sufficient,” spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said, “and all efforts must be exerted to ease the suffering of the people of Gaza.”
Meanwhile, Iran announced this week that on Sunday, June 27, it will send a ship with 1,100 tons of relief supplies and 10 pro-Palestinian activists to Gaza.
At the same time Israel warned archenemy Iran to drop the plan, Egyptian transportation official Mohammad Abdelwahab said his country would not prevent the Iranian ship from passing through the Suez Canal, which connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea that Gaza borders.
“No one in their right mind can believe that a ship sent by the ayatollahs and their Revolutionary Guards has anything to do with humanitarian aid,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said. “I don’t think there is one single country in this region and beyond that would let such an ayatollah ship come near its coasts.”
Security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the prospect of an Iranian boat headed for Gaza had Israel deeply worried, and that naval commandos were training for the possibility of taking on a vessel with a suicide bomber on board.
In addition, a French-registered ship named Julia was planning to leave from Lebanon with food aid for Gaza, and a Turkish humanitarian group that purportedly has ties to terrorism said it will send another flotilla in late July. It already has acquired six ships and called on others to add vessels.
And several pro-Palestinian groups are scheduled to participate in what has been dubbed the Fleet of Freedom 2, including Turkish, Greek and Swedish nongovernmental organizations, Free Gaza and the International Committee to Lift the Siege on Gaza.
Israel has told the United Nations and Lebanon through a third party that it will use all necessary means to stop ships from breaking its blockade of Gaza.
“Israel reserves its right under international law to use all necessary means to prevent these ships from violating the existing naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip,” Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, wrote in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.