Statement on the Israeli siege of Gaza

The complete sealing-off of Gaza by the Israeli government is an act of collective punishment, a crime against humanity under international law. The Bush administration, which on occasion has hypocritically invoked international law to justify aggression against a targeted country, is fully backing the inhuman Israeli blockade. So too are the leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.

Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas of the world with 1.5 million people living in just 360 square kilometers. The impoverished population already was suffering from shortages of food, medicine, fuel and other basic goods before the tightened blockade stopped all shipments into or out of Gaza. Now, the people face the threat of starvation. The great majority of Gaza residents are from refugee families, driven out of other parts of Palestine when the state of Israel was created in 1948. Deprived of their land, more than 70 percent of Gaza’s population is dependent on international agencies for food.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the World Food Program—the two main relief agencies operating in Gaza—have stated that unless the blockade is lifted, fuel shortages will compel them to cease operations by the end of the week.

The Israeli government claims that it took action because of Palestinian rocket attacks. This is merely a pretext. On Dec. 23, 2007, Israel rejected Hamas’s call for a ceasefire. Since then, Israeli air and ground attacks have killed dozens of Palestinians and wounded hundreds more in Gaza, most of them civilians. In 2007, 373 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and the West Bank, compared to just 13 Israeli deaths.

The Israeli blockade is a blatant violation of international law. Article 33 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention reads, in part: "No protected person [civilian] may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."

Collective punishment is a war crime. Imposing a blockade on the population in Gaza is undeniably a form of collective punishment. The U.S. government, which gives billions of dollars in military and economic aid to Israel every year, shares the guilt for this war crime.

On Jan. 23, in a courageous act of mass defiance, tens of thousands of Palestinians living in Gaza broke through the blockade at the Gaza-Egypt border and were able to obtain some supplies. The remainder of Gaza remains blockaded.

The La Riva/Puryear presidential campaign demands an immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade, an end to U.S. aid to Israel and self-determination for the Palestinian people. The candidates plan to join the emergency protests to "End the Israeli Siege of Gaza" being organized across the country on Jan. 25-26.