Palestinians complain that Israel halted furniture exports from Gaza. They won't mention the reason.

On May 5, Middle East Monitor reported:

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."

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Jordanian MP's tribe proud of his smuggling arms to Israel

In a story that was originally censored by the Israeli media, a Jordanian MP was arrested in Israel after being caught smuggling a large cache of weapons to the West Bank.

Imad Al-Adwan was caught smuggling 160 handguns and 17 M16 rifles at the Allenby Crossing on the Jordan River on Saturday night.

Adwan's tribe in Jordan issued a statement casting doubt on the charges, but saying that they are proud of his actions.

The statement said that Adwan "has a patriotic and national spirit" who exhibits a "desperate defense of the Palestinian cause." It stressed "our lack of confidence in the Zionist side and its narrative," and yet says "we are all proud of our son and his actions."

The Adwan tribe also called on the Jordanian government to make every possible effort to "restore the member of the Jordanian legislative authority from the hands of the Zionists, as soon as possible," considering that their son "is not a representative of his constituency, but of all Jordanians."

Other Jordanian groups likewise tried to simultaneously call Israeli officials liars while admitting that this kind of action was exactly what Adwan would do.

The National Forum to Support the Resistance and Protect the Homeland in Jordan called for Adwan's immediate release, saying that "despite the lack of information received, which comes from the Zionist occupier only, every Jordanian knows is that Representative Imad Al-Adwan breathes Palestinian concern and identifies with the heroics of the revolutionary Palestinian youth."

For its part, the Jordanian Workers Party is incensed at Israel's breach of protocol for not honoring Adwan's parliamentary immunity. "This procedure should not have taken place in the first place, given that the representative holds a diplomatic passport, and international norms require that his car not be searched, and his arrest is contrary to international norms."

From what I can tell, Adwan does not benefit from diplomatic immunity for any actions done in a private capacity - and presumably the government of Jordan did not want him to smuggle weapons. 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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No one seems to complain when Egypt acts like Israel

From Ma'an:

Egypt plans to impose a 500-meter buffer zone along its border with the Gaza Strip, a senior Egyptian military official said Sunday.

Egyptian residents living in Saladin, al-Barahmeh, Canada, Brazil, al-Sarsouriya and other neighborhoods close to the Gaza border have received eviction notices.

Homeowners who received eviction orders demonstrated against the decision and burned tires in protest.

Army bulldozers have also uprooted trees in the border area.

The army has demolished 13 homes in the al-Sarsouriya neighborhood where tunnel entrances were found.

An Egyptian military official told Ma'an that most cross-border tunnels with entrances in fields or open areas had been destroyed in a security campaign to stop smuggling. He said it was more difficult to locate tunnels that opened into houses.

This was the same kind of clearing operation that Israel was doing on its side of the Gaza border - and which was permitted by Oslo - when Rachel Corrie was killed.

The article continues:

Egypt's army spokesman Ahmad Mohammad said that forces have destroyed 343 smuggling tunnels. He said the Egyptian military has also prohibited fishing near the border to prevent smuggling via the sea.

Hamas said Friday that two Palestinian fishermen were wounded and five others arrested by the Egyptian navy off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

"Some Egyptian navy ships fired in the direction of Palestinian fishing boats near the Egyptian border off the coast of Rafah at dawn on Friday," the Hamas government's press agency reported.

"Two fishermen were wounded and five others arrested," said Hamas.

They were both taken to the hospital in Rafah, medical sources said, adding that their lives were not in danger.

Hamas described the incident as an "unjustified act," and called for those "detained to be freed."

Isn't it amazing that when Israel defends itself from Hamas terror and smuggling of weapons, it is violating the human rights of 1.6 million Gazans - but when Egypt does the exact same thing, it is simply defending itself? Indeed, Egypt goes beyond what Israel does (by not allowing people and goods to cross into Gaza via the official crossings) and there is near total silence from the so-called "pro-Palestinian" activists.

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Hamas still holding Gaza hostage by refusing fuel shipments

From Ma'an:

The Gaza Strip has not received enough fuel to resume normal electricity levels, a Gaza energy official told Ma'an on Saturday.

The deal as described by al-Nunu includes longer-term measures to increase the capacity of the power plant and link Gaza's electricity grid to Egyptian infrastructure. The shorter-term requirement is the delivery of fuel into Gaza, but a disagreement on the route of the fuel still appeared to be pending agreement.

Egypt wants to stop the use of underground tunnels for delivery of Egyptian fuel purchased by Palestinian authorities, and has severely reduced supply through the tunnel network, prompting the current crisis.

The Gaza government is pressing for the Rafah terminal between the countries to be equipped for fuel transfer, and is reluctant to accept fuel to be delivered via the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.

The government fears Israel will use control of supplies to squeeze the coastal strip.

However, Rafah currently is only fitted for passengers, and its development is restricted by an agreement between Egypt, Israel and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

"We are still waiting for the Egyptian agreement to let fuel enter Gaza officially and legally," Abu al-Amreen told Ma'an.

As I have noted several times, Israel never restricted the flow if fuel to Gaza except for logistical reasons, and was regularly supplying all of Gaza's power plant needs until January 2011 when Hamas refused the shipments.

So when you cut out all the double-talk, Hamas is less interested in helping Gazans than it is in refusing to get fuel through Kerem Shalom. Hamas is using the crisis as an excuse to gain politically - and Gazans are the ones suffering because of it. Hamas knows that if the fuel goes through Kerem Shalom, there would be no political pressure on Egypt to prioritize other delivery methods, so Hamas prefers to keep Gaza in the dark - endangering  the electric supply to hospitals, water treatment plants and other infrastructure - to get its message across.

The entire crisis is an exercise in cynicism and disregard for the lives of Gazans, and yet the world is still fooled by Hamas' subterfuge.

Do you think that "pro-Palestinian" activists would ever say a word against Hamas? Have they ever?

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