Israeli authorities yesterday banned the export of furniture products from the occupied Gaza Strip.The economic ministry said in a statement that the Israeli move aimed at "inflicting more losses on the enclave's industries that have been suffering due to the blockade."The ministry called on the international community "to pressure Israel to allow freedom of import and export without restrictions so that the different industries in Gaza can prosper and overcome challenges resulted from the blockade."
So according to Gaza authorities, Israel just decided to stop furniture exports to punish them for no reason. And Arabic media also complains about the ban, which continued into June, asking the international community to pressure Israel to resume the exports and stop its arbitrary punishment of a specific industry.
But there was a reason.
On May 3, Israeli authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle guns, silencers and cartridges of bullets from Gaza to terrorists in the West Bank - inside furniture.
So now, Israeli authorities must update their procedures to ensure that future attempts to smuggle weapons in furniture are not successful.
Notice that the weapons appear to have been deliberately hidden in metal components, not only wood, so standard X-ray scanning might not catch them.
It will take time to come up with a solution that would catch any attempts to export weapons inside items like furniture.
Yet there is no anger for the would-be weapons smugglers, whose decision hurts all furniture manufacturers in Gaza. On the contrary, "human rights" NGOs are saying that Israeli attempts to stop weapons exports from Gaza is "collective punishment" - after all, it isn't a big deal when Jews get shot by West Bank terrorists, right?
Murdering Jews is not a violation of human rights - but a temporary ban on furniture exports is. And Israel is expected to tolerate its citizens being murdered under the pretext of "human rights."
