Report: Israel Navy harassing and humiliating Gaza fisherman

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"An Israeli human rights group has charged that the Israel Navy is harassing and humiliating Gaza fishermen, who said they cannot make a living because of restrictions.

According to a report published by B'Tselem, a group that examines Israeli human rights violations in the West Bank in Gaza, at least 10 Gaza fisherman have been stopped by Israeli navy vessels in recent months.

The fishermen said they were forced to undress, leaving only their underwear, and made to swim to the Israeli ships, and then they were taken to the nearby Israeli port of Ashdod for questioning. Some said Israeli forces fired at them."

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"Israel has tightened restrictions on fishing off the Gaza coast during the past six years of Palestinian-Israeli violence. The limits have driven many of the territory's 3,000 fishermen into poverty."

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"Before Israeli-Palestinian fighting broke out in 2000, fishing accounted for almost 7 percent of agricultural output," said Tarek Saker, director general of fisheries at the Palestinian Agriculture Ministry. "But in 2006, Palestinian fishermen caught half as much as they did in 1999 - largely due to Israeli restrictions on fishing."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/830452.html

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=9785

The Hamas team had not laughed so much in a long time. The team, headed by the prime minister's advisor Dov Weissglas and including the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, the director of the Shin Bet and senior generals and officials, convened for a discussion with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on ways to respond to the Hamas election victory. Everyone agreed on the need to impose an economic siege on the Palestinian Authority, and Weissglas, as usual, provided the punch line: "It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die," the advisor joked, and the participants reportedly rolled with laughter. And, indeed, why not break into laughter and relax when hearing such a successful joke? If Weissglas tells the joke to his friend Condoleezza Rice, she would surely laugh too.