CAABU letter in today's The Guardian about Israel

CAABU Letter in the Guardian, Wednesday 2 June 2010,  on Israeli lies about the Gaza aid flotilla.


This week we have seen some of the crudest propaganda Israel has ever churned out - from a country that used to claim there were no such people as Palestinians and that Palestine was empty. Israel's lie-master-in-chief, Mark Regev, reminds us of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the former Iraqi minister of information ridiculed as "Comical Ali" as he tried to assert there were no American troops in Baghdad even as their tanks were patrolling the streets. Regev rants that Israeli forces were attacked first. Perhaps I missed the humanitarian activists assaulting a passing Israeli gunship.


Another earth-is-flat-style lie is that Gaza does not need aid. Less than a quarter of the food supplies needed daily enter Gaza, and according to the UN, 60% of Palestinian families in Gaza are short of food. Israel has been preventing nearly everything from dates to pasta entering the Strip. Vital construction materials necessary to rebuild thousands of homes and schools have also been denied, along with adequate consistent supplies of fuel and clean water. All of this is collective punishment, a crime under international law, as is piracy and kidnapping.


Chris Doyle
Council for Arab-British Understanding

(Derek is an Executive Board memebr of CAABU)