Thoughts after Attending the Sabeel Conference - Part 2

This Apartheid is Worse than the Africaaners's.

When did I write this? About six hours ago?

“But saying that it is similar to South Africa misses an important point - the Government of Israel's form of Apartheid is WORSE than what the white Africaaners imposed on the blacks; i.e., in South Africa there were no collective punishments (like destroying a power plant), there were no separation barriers (walls, fences), no destruction of land, no destruction of trees (olive or others), there were no closures and roadblocks, there was freedom of movement, there were no separate roads, no separate license plates, the Africaaners hired the blacks to work for them allowing them to earn a living whereas the Government of Israel uses laborers who are brought in from other countries, and there was a benign condescending attitude of the ruling class for the oppressed and no concerted effort to work towards their eventual removal from the land.” http://judaismandisrael.blogspot.com/2007/10/thoughts-after-attending-sabeel.html

It doesn’t take long for the Government of Israel to provide evidence and support for the speakers at the Sabeel Conference.

Excerpts from this story on cnn.com Sunday, October 28
Responding to rockets, Israel slashes Gaza fuel supply
Israel restricted the flow of fuel to Hamas-controlled Gaza on Sunday, a move it vowed to take in response to "the incessant firing of rockets into Israel," an adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. Ten Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups are petitioning Israel's Supreme Court to stop the reduction. The Israeli company Dor Alon supplies fuel to Gaza. It's unclear how the new reductions will affect Gaza's power plant, which is fueled by Dor Alon. Ahmed Ali, deputy director of Gaza's Petroleum Authority, told The Associated Press that fuel shipments on Sunday were more than 30 percent below normal. "There should be no sanctions against the Palestinian people, neither individual nor collective punishment," Abbas said days after the Israeli Cabinet's decision. "It will harm our bilateral relations. It will harm our discussions and negotiations. It will harm the atmosphere and even sabotage it." After the Israeli Cabinet's unanimous decision last month, Chris Gunness of U.N. Relief and Works Agency said the impact of the measures would be "extremely detrimental" to the humanitarian situation in Gaza. "This would be just another tightening of the knot on Gaza," he said, adding that 1.2 million Gazans are already receiving emergency food rations. Also, said Gunness, the Cabinet action will "further radicalize the youth," as more are forced into unemployment.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/10/28/israel.gaza/index.html

Even so, whether the Apartheid that existed in South America is better or worse than that imposed on the occupied territories, this action of restricting the flow of fuel is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949: i.e., Article 33 of the Fourth Convention states: "No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed," and "collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."

Some Palestinians fire rockets into Israel. There is absolutely no evidence and to reason to believe that all Palestinians - men, women, children, babies, the elderly, the sick, the infirm - living in Gaza participated in the action of firing rockets into Israel. To restrict fuel to all of them is not only collective punishment and a violation of international law.

It is worse. It is immoral.