OPT: Gaza fishermen’s livelihoods in jeopardy

Source: IRIN

OPT: Gaza fishermen’s livelihoods in jeopardy

GAZA CITY, 7 June 2007 (IRIN) - Almost a year after Israel imposed
harsh restrictions on fishing off the Gaza coast, the industry is in
sharp decline and fishermen’s livelihoods are in jeopardy.

Gaza fishermen are now allowed by the Israeli navy to fish up to eight
nautical miles off the coast after what the UN described as a "near
total ban" on fishing since last June, when Gaza-based militants from
the armed Palestinian faction Hamas abducted an Israeli soldier.

The best fishing begins at about 18 nautical miles out, Gaza fishermen
say. However, they have not been allowed so far out for so long that
the coastal waters have been overexploited, resulting in the depletion
of breeding grounds.

Israel said the restrictions were necessary to stop weapons and drugs
smuggling into Gaza, though the Oslo Accords of 1993 stipulated that
Palestinian fishermen were entitled to fish up to 20 nautical miles out.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72597

of even the Oslo accords (which were mostly slanted toward Israel) and of course international law, which it very rarely recognizes.

Israel consistently acts outside international law , after all. Something else it has in common with the old South African regime.

. . recognizes levels of seriousness. At the highest level are crimes against humanity - which include purposeful attacks by a party to a conflict against innocent civilians.

Every Qassam, every mortar fired from Gaza, every suicide bomber detonating their bomb in Israel - is a grievous violation of laws against humanity, international war crimes of the highest order. These are all, BTW, extreme violations of the spirit and letter of agreements made at Oslo. Such agreements are made reciprocally. You can not expect Israel to honor such agreements while jeopardizing its own security - because Palestinian militants simply see such agreements as an opportunity to smuggle arms and explosives into Gaza.

All international law recognizes a state's right to self-defense. Every militant targeted by Israel in Gaza, every bomber who is killed before reaching his or her target, every restrictive rule imposed on Palestinians - is the result of fully justified and legal Israeli defensive needs.

Israel has never purposely targeted Palestinian civilians.

Your constant attempts to not only assert some moral equivalence between the two sides - but to cast Israel as the illegal party in the conflict are becoming tedious.