Israel's List of Crimes

Oppressive governments like to keep lists. And, naturally, Israel has many lists.

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Since 2006, the 1.5million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip have been subjugated to a cruel, immoral and illegal blockade by Israel and the corrupt, authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.

Israel and Egypt prohibit most of the basic life needs of the Palestinians from entering Gaza. Roughly only 80 items, 80!, are allowed in and even these items are several restricted to a few quantities and times when they can be imported. Consider the list Israel has devised for the permission of items into Gaza. A record of Israeli crimes:

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But the Palestinians are too ingenious. And are too resolute to let anything break them.

The Palestinians have responded by building tunnels to circumvent the blockade, and today roughly 60% of the food into Gaza comes through these tunnels.

But these are not stereotypical tunnels where only a handful exist and they are very poorly constructed. No. These tunnels number 10,000 (so when Israel bombs a few here and there it does nothing to the tunnel industry) and tunnels that are so well-built that even cattle and cars come through. There have been so many tunnels built, they the tunnel operators have been able to diversify away from food. This is why Honda cars are now being sold in Gaza - they come through the tunnels. And this is why the Gaza zoo recently received new animals. The tunnel industry imports so much food that the operators are now complaining about a decline, if not negation, of profit. And it is often a profitable business. Imagine that. A people blockaded who resort to tunnels, and you’d think that they’d be desperately sneaking in packets of food and only food since they cannot afford to sneak in anything else and that these tunnels are so few and the question of tunnel building and operation being a profitable enterprise is not even relevant; but no, not for the Palestinians. They have taken something which should each day be marked by desperation and turned it into a profitable industry. An industry where smuggling supply now exceeds demand. Where operators are now in so much competition that profits are down. And where they can also afford to place food aside for a moment in order to sneak in cars. That is the Palestinian ingenuity.

So Israeli crimes continue but so does Palestinian resistance, and the latter will overcome the former.