UN expert condemns ‘tragic’ international failure in Gaza

Local Editor, 24-12-2009

A UN human rights expert on Wednesday slammed a "tragic failure" by major powers to end Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip or probe alleged war crimes committed during a military offensive one year ago.

In Geneva, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, urged Israel's European and North American allies to press for the immediate end of the blockade "backed up by a credible threat of economic sanctions."

Amnesty, Oxfam among groups slamming international community of failing to halt "Israeli siege", which they claim ‘punishes everybody living there for the acts of a few'.

Falk stressed in a statement that there is no evidence of meaningful international pressure being brought to bear to end the blockade.

"This represents both a tragic failure of responsibility by the powerful governments of the world and of the UN," he continued.

"Israel" launched a devastating 22 day assault on the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008, killing around 1,400 people. One year on, a generation of children is growing up amid the wreckage of that attack, traumatised - and radicalised - by the experience

"The ordeal of the 1.5 million residents of Gaza affected by the "Israeli" blockade, over half of whom are children, has been allowed to continue without any formal objection by governments and at the UN," he added.

Falk said a three-year blockade had banned enough food and medicine reaching civilians in Gaza, harming their physical and mental health, and was still hampering reconstruction.