Gaza's sole power plant shuts down due to lack of fuel

[Jefferson23]

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Gaza Strip's sole power plant was shut down on Wednesday evening as Qatari-donated fuel supplies finally ran out, a Gaza power authority said.

"The power plant stopped producing electricity during the night, after funds from Qatari donations to cover fuel costs ran out," the Gaza authority said.

"We are unable to pay for the fuel because of the taxes on purchasing it."

Hamas pays the PA for fuel imported to besieged Gaza, but is short of cash and had been unable to cover the additional costs in tax.

http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=759746

[Fred Sanders]

1. How much fuel do prisoners in an internment camp really need? Apartheid prison..the world looks away

[Jefferson23]

2. *Apartheid prison..the world looks away

Yes and yes.



Is that a great photo, or what?

[guillaumeb]

3. can we order these signs in bulk?

every former, current, and future GOP candidate for President should be required to wear one.

Gaza is indeed a prison camp, the largest in the world. The world ignores this camp in much the same way the world ignored Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, and the numerous other death camps run by the NAZI genocidaires.

[Jefferson23]

5. I detest Israeli policy and find their supporters nationalistic, unsound and desperate people.

I don't feel the need to compare what they do and have done to Auschwitz, it is not accurate.

I am sure you are well aware of US foreign policy, reprehensible on many fronts, and one
does not need to look far back in history..Iraq. I will include Clinton's sanctions too but
they do not equate to Auschwitz. We are responsible for much death and destruction
that no one at the top will ever likely pay a price for..and that is a grievance I take
quite seriously. As I truly believe when leaders are not held to account, there will be
no reason for the next one to hesitate. The documented history is bad enough, no need
to stretch it where it is not applicable.

[guillaumeb]

7. respect your points but

genocide is the same no matter the scale.

[Jefferson23]

8. Ok, this is how I see it, for the most part. Netanyahu politicizes

the Holocaust and abuses accusations direct and or implied of anti-semitism whenever
it suits him as a weapon to support the continuation of the occupation and those means are also utilized by AIPAC.
I find that beneath contempt for the victims of the Holocaust and Jews who are true victims of anti-semitism.
So I take using those Nazi terms more seriously than perhaps others may do because those correlations
are for one, not accurate in description imo and therefore create an illegitimate view of history.

[sabbat hunter]

9. There is no

genocide going on. To say otherwise is a flat out lie.

[Scootaloo]

10. The language lacks another word to describe it

No, Palestinians as individuals are not being liquidated en masse... but then neither were Native Americans.

It's been an ongoing purge of over five hundred years in the Western Hemisphere, with intermittent killing and war sprinkled amid a constant, overwhelming grind to destroy cultures, dispossess land, and disenfranchise people. A given Native in any given country might b doing just fine, but one cannot say that the genocide against native americans has halted - one must only look into the forests of Peru, the events in Honduras and Guatemala, or even the policies of hte United States and Canada with regard to their First nations, to see that the effort to dominate and ultimately annihilate these peoples as a whole entity is ongoing.

Israel's spent roughly seventy years conducting such a project against the Palestinians. No, it certainly cannot be compared to the Holocaust, as some are prone to doing. But this does not make it any less a genocide. The goal is the eradication of the Palestinian people as a people, to destroy what identifies them as such, to purge the concept of identity from them, to leave them exiles from their homes and devoid of any power or influence. All in the interest of the ascendancy of what is considered a "superior people." This policy of destruction is paired, of course, with outright violence and a fairly appalling amount of killing.

The word is genocide. There is no other word for it (there's "ethnocide," but that's just a subcategory of genocide, so...)

If that bothers you, oh well. me, i'm more bothered by the conduct being described than the word being used to describe it.

[guillaumeb]

11. absolutely on point

many defenders of the Israeli government seem to feel that genocide cannot be applied to Israeli actions because they feel the term can only be applied to the NAZI government.
But genocide is not defined as the absolute extermination of a people. It is legally defined as:

The international legal definition of the crime of genocide is found in Articles II and III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

Article II describes two elements of the crime of genocide:

1) the mental element, meaning the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such", and

2) the physical element which includes five acts described in sections a, b, c, d and e. A crime must include both elements to be called "genocide."

Note in sentence 2 the phrase "in whole or in part".

What the Israeli government had done from 1948 to this date can only be described as genocide.

[Scootaloo]

12. However, your comparison to Nazi death camps is unwarranted

I understand the sentiment, but yes, that is overboard. Gaza's more akin to the San Carlos reservation circa 1886 - where the Apache were sent to rot under armed guard at all times. "But they have their own land!" was of course the rallying cry at the time.

[guillaumeb]

13. all true

but is a slow death by starvation, white phosphorous, constant shelling, and the other assaults by the Israelis better or preferable to gassing and shooting? The scale of the Israeli genocide is smaller, but there is more media awareness plus the Internet coverage of what is going on in Gaza. The world cannot ignore the genocide as well as it did the NAZI genocide.

Plus Gaza is indeed closed off and under armed guard and surveillance. The bottom line is that the tactics and intent are the same in both cases. In my opinion.

[Shaktimaan]

25. Is it all true?

There's no starvation in the gala strip occurring. Nor is there constant shelling. The white phosphorus thing occurred on a few occasions... It's hardly comparable to the gassing and shooting of millions of people.

If this were truly genocide aimed at destroying the Palestinian people as opposed to a military response to a terrorist group that controls a specific area, then why arent we seeing a similar response against the Palestinians living in the West Bank? Or those living in Israel? You compare this to the holocaust where the citizens of affected countries were shipped to camps. Are Israeli Palestinians being sent to gaze?

Neither the tactics nor intent seem to be remotely the same in these two instances. It's telling how you use the heading "it's all true" to describe events that aren't actually occurring.

[King_David]

38. Not a very convincing "argument "

One meaningless line....

LOL

[guillaumeb]

47. thank you for asking

When you write:
The white phosphorus thing occurred on a few occasions... It's hardly comparable to the gassing and shooting of millions of people.
My response:
Using white phosphorous is a war crime. Targeting hospitals and schools are war crimes. Deliberate mass punishment is a war crime. Targeting an entire population for genocide is a war crime. Are you saying that because Israeli war crimes are not to the same scale as the Nazi crimes they are excusable?

When you write:
If this were truly genocide aimed at destroying the Palestinian people as opposed to a military response to a terrorist group that controls a specific area, then why arent we seeing a similar response against the Palestinians living in the West Bank
My response:
The answer is that on the West Bank there are many Israelis living among the Palestinians. The illegal settlements are scattered throughout the small amount of land the Palestinians have left so the same scorched earth tactics cannot be used.

Finally, when you write:
You compare this to the holocaust where the citizens of affected countries were shipped to camps. Are Israeli Palestinians being sent to gaze?
My response:
The Israelis have not shipped Palestinians to camps. They simply terrorized the Palestinians into leaving Palestine. There are millions of Palestinians living all over the world who left Palestine after 1948. A simpler final solution because Israel will not permit any of these displaced Palestinians to return to their homeland.

[hack89]

15. I don't recall Native American populations increasing in size

I guess I need to go back and read my history again.

[Scootaloo]

28. Hey, if you're taking classes, I have a suggestion that would help you more

Reading comprehension courses. Maybe some cultural studies and anthropology courses, too. I'm sorry, I realize I presented a complex subject to a group of people who very honestly lack the ability to understand the concepts. Which is only complicated by the fact that you can't understand things you don't want to understand.

For what it's worth by the way, yes, Native American populations have been increasing since the end of the "Indian Wars." However, population growth doesn't preserve cultures. it doesn't save languages. It doesn't re-establish nations, and networks. it doesn't replace history and knowledge, and everything else that defines a people as "a people." A people can leave descendants aplenty and still be eradicated.

[hack89]

30. Or you can stop stretching the word genocide beyond recognition

to suit your anti-Israel agenda.

[hack89]

39. If done honestly, nothing I guess. Nt

[Scootaloo]

50. I'm not. You simply don't know what the term means

And we can plainly see that you don't want to know what it means.

[hack89]

52. Ok nt

[King_David]

53. Sorry I think hack knows exactly what he's talking about

And it's you that is lost in the conversation here.

Back to the books for Scootaloo

[Scootaloo]

54. And your opinion is deeply valued.

It's just that your opinion also happens to be factually incorrect.

Now it's like I've told other people before. if you have a better word for the effort to dissolve and scatter an entire people, to remove them from history and future alike, to reduce them to nameless exiles... you go ahead and share that word with me.

To date, English, at least, has "genocide," and nothing else. Being an English-primary speaker, this is what I have.

Maybe Hebrew, with its people's broad and varied history of purges against them, has a better term that English could borrow?

[The Real Deal]

16. Uh-huh.

You do know the definition of genocide is mass-killing people.

I don't see Israel doing that. Palestine, yes, but not Israel.

Even Israel aren't that stupid. The genocide is the result of Hamas' stupidity.

Once again, 21,000 rockets from Gaza since 2001, 3,000 rockets last summer.

Not only attempted genocide of Israelis, but real genocide of their own people as a result of urban warfare.

[Scootaloo]

29. The definition of genocide under international law has already been posted here

It is different from what you think it is.

If you want to talk more, you'll have to wait until April 6.

[King_David]

45. April 6 ?

[Scootaloo]

46. It's the day after April 5. Julian date 96. Tartan Day

[Shaktimaan]

26. Fascinating.

All in the interest of the ascendancy of what is considered a "superior people.

You best this on what, exactly?

[Scootaloo]

27. It's the only possible way to explain the entire premise of Zionism

In order for there to be a "Jewish state" at all, the Arabs of Palestine had to be "cleared out." Either that or subjugated under minority rule. Either way, Arabs are by definition the "inferior people," aren't they?

[King_David]

14. Comparisons of Israelis to Nazis is particularly odious

yet used by extremists on the right especially and left.

It's also against DU rules....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134287

[King_David]

37. And very much against this groups rules,

Unless you think the rules don't apply to you?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134287


"Spare us ". Who's this "us" that you talk of?

[FBaggins]

4. How do you read it that way?

The summary here sure makes it look like one palestinian group cutting off power to a different palestinian group (or the 2nd group being willing to cut off their own power to make the first group look bad to other palestinians).

[guillaumeb]

6. read it that way because

the Israelis are currently refusing to return tax revenue to Palestinians that is properly theirs. This revenue loss is the reason Gaza cannot pay for the fuel.

see link below for more:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2015/01/reports-israel-freezes-palestinian-tax-funds-20151318526717391.html

[The Real Deal]

17. I wouldn't use AlJazeera in here in this fora

It's from Qatar, and its emir supports Hamas, and even let the Hamas leader find safety there.

Also anti-Semitic.

[guillaumeb]

18. as to my source and your objection:

try these:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/02/24/257649/west-bank-palestinians-reeling.html

http://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-withholds-palestinian-tax-revenues-1420312156

No matter the source the information is the same. Are all of these sources also biased?

[The Real Deal]

19. I know about the tax revenue withholding - it's old news

been reported like, 3 months ago.

I think PA has to rethink its ICC strategy - it's about to blow up in their faces once they do it in April. And by that, I mean that ICC will rule that Hamas is responsible and PA has even violated its own charters and bylaws and have not allowed an free and fair elections since Abbas is in his tenth year of a 4 year term.

[bravenak]

20. Israel needs to rethink the occupation.

Support for Israel will continue to slide until they end the occupation.

[The Real Deal]

21. Gaza is free to run as its own independent state

not suckled the teats of Israelis...

So whats the problem?

[bravenak]

22. The blockade and the bombings. (Thing like that have impact.)

Israel will lose this generation. And we are a big fucking generation and still reproducing. The nastiness of Israel supporters has totally changed me from supporting Israel without question to not liking Israel at all.

[The Real Deal]

42. The blockade remains legal

and the bombings are justified due to the 3,000 rockets towards Israel over the summer. Israel does have the right to defend itself.

Even if it's from its neighbor, Israel has every right to defend themselves.

[Jefferson23]

43. Post a link that supports your claims. n/t

[The Real Deal]

48. Done.

http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/middle_east/Gaza_Flotilla_Panel_Report.pdf

The Palmer Report.

It concludes that the blockade is legal.

Next!

[Jefferson23]

49. Your reference is specific to the Naval blockade and was widely criticized by

the international community and I will add, the report did not justify the killing of
9 people who were aboard the humanitarian flotilla.

As well, numerous human rights groups have made clear over and over again
they collectively disagree the blockade which is collective punishment is
not in any form legal. The falsehood that Israel required a blockade is
is also mentioned in the National Academy of Sciences study which
reported that Palestinian violence directed at Israel showed a consistent
pattern of retaliation..there was no pertinent recognition within the
Palmer report describing Israeli policy of violence aimed at the Palestinians.
Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez who was part of the commission
has a horrific record of human rights abuse and how he earned a place
to examine the incident was a major red flag at the time.

snip* Because the Turkel Report held that the land and naval blockades “in prin-
ciple” formed an integral whole, it could only defend the legality of the Israeli
naval blockade by simultaneously upholding the propriety of the land blockade
and treating each “in conjunction”with the other. “Given the Commission’s ap-
proach that regarded the naval blockade and the land restrictions as inter-linked,”
a pair of Israeli scholars observed, “it could only justify the former by defending
the legality of the latter.”In the event the Turkel Report found—albeit by using tortuous
reasoning and eliding critical facts that the land-naval blockade passed legal muster.

http://file.insightturkey.com/Files/Pdf/insight_turkey_vol_13_no_4_2011_finkelstein.pdf

[Shaktimaan]

24. Hang on

Al Jazeera is hardly an anti-Semitic false news outlet. Qatar has its own issues, but as far as a press organization goes, Al Jazeera is entirely reputable.

[FBaggins]

58. Aren't economic sanction preferable to bombs and tanks?

You can't expect someone you're treating as an enemy to not respond. When we seize/freeze foreign assets as part of sanctions, does the other party not think that the funds are "properly theirs"?

Nothing changes the fact that this is by choice on the part of the Palestinians and their supporters. There are supporters who have made up the funds for power generation in the past, and the PA is certainly able to deliver fuel to the GS without getting paid immediately.

Lastly, Hamas is seeing a funding hole... nothing says that the thing they need to slash is power generation. They do that to enhance the political effect.

Note what the story does not say? It's the only Gaza power plant... so where's the story saying that there is no electricity in Gaza??? That's right... there isn't one, because Israel supplies the electricity.

This is really pretty straightforward. In years past, Israel has withheld these funds, but they didn't just "steal" them, they applied them to outstanding debt to the power company for services that hadn't been paid for. It's hardly unexpected that Palestinins respond by running up that debt. Turn off their only internal generation source and the debt grows faster.

[guillaumeb]

59. but both methods are used in the fight

The Israelis vary their methods, but the ultimate goal and the ultimate irony is that it is obvious to many that the goal of the Israeli government is to create a Palestinian free area in the Palestinian homeland.

No amount of explanation can disguise that fact, and no amount of explanation can hide the actual history of the Israeli state.

[Dick Dastardly]

60. It has nothing to do with the withheld tax revenue.

Its between Gaza/Hamas and the PA.

Hamas refuses to pay the PA any tax on fuel it gets from them.

Hamas has been getting cheap or subsidized fuel from various sources. In the past they have also at times refused to pay for higher priced fuel that is at regular prices and has taxes such as those the PA levies.

[sabbat hunter]

40. where is all the millions

of dollars promised to gaza after most recent conflict?

Have those countries failed (again) to actually come up with the monies promised, or has the money been used for rebuilding a terror network by Hamas, instead of on things like fuel, infrastructure and housing?

[Jefferson23]

41. That would be great if those who promised the money would come through.

The tunnels, you have evidence of that, then post it. Israel withholds the
money due to the ICC bid, that is called blackmail where I live.

Israel has no right to withhold that money, none, but they do have political
power as well as military power, one of the most powerful on earth.

The Hamas meme is tiresome and inaccurate, for Israel has no God damn
interest in ending this occupation, never.

[Dick Dastardly]

61. You are incorrect. Israel does have a right to withhold the tax money.

Under Oslo Israel has, every right to withhold tax money and apply to debts owed to Israel such as the 500 million dollar debt owed by the PA to Israel's electric company.

[Jefferson23]

62. Oslo does not give them the legal right to withhold the money, political power is all they

rely on and they are doing so due to the ICC bid. The US does not want them to
continue this practice, the US will also do jack shit about it.

[Jefferson23]

44. Fuel to enter Gaza power plant on Friday

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The only power plant in the Gaza Strip is set to resume operations after a fuel delivery on Friday, Palestinian officials said.

The Kerem Shalom crossing will be opened as an exception to allow 40,000 liters of fuel to reach the power plant, the Palestinian Authority's director of border crossings Nathmi Mhannad told Ma'an.

Gaza's sole power plant was shut down Wednesday evening as funds from Qatari donations for fuel costs ran out. Cash-strapped Hamas pays the PA for fuel imported to besieged Gaza, and had been unable to cover the additional tax costs.

In December, Qatar stepped in and donated $10 million to the PA to cover the tax, effectively exempting Hamas from paying it for a short period.

The plant requires 550,000 liters of fuel per day to produce at capacity, the Gaza energy authority says.

Even with the plant running, Gaza suffers 12 hours of power outages each day. Many individual homes have their own generators, and households can purchase, expensively, fuel that comes into Gaza for private consumption.

The power plant was targeted during the Israeli offensive on Gaza by shelling on July 28, completely knocking it out of commission. The Gaza power authority said at the time that the damages from the attack could take up to a year to entirely fix.

Gaza is blockaded and controlled by Israel on two of its crossings, and isolated by Egyptian closure of a third.

http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=759756

[Agnosticsherbet]

51. Why would the Palastinian Authority and the Qatari government do this shit?

Seems wrong to me.

[Jefferson23]

57. Taxes on fuel paralyze Gaza’s only power plant

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/west-bank-government-fuel-taxes-power-plant-gaza.html

Explains the politics behind the issue.

[quadrature]

55. what fuel is used?

fuel oil
coal
natural gas
solar PV
wind
something else?

[Jefferson23]

56. Industrial diesel.

Taxes on fuel paralyze Gaza’s only power plant

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/west-bank-government-fuel-taxes-power-plant-gaza.html#ixzz3TtW8Mkd6