The AP reports:
JERUSALEM (AP) — Armed Hamas police broke into a Gaza warehouse packed with U.N. humanitarian supplies and seized thousands of blankets and food packages, officials said Wednesday. ...What strikes me most strongly about this story is not that Hamas would rob the UN at gunpoint, but that United Nations official Gunness actually referred to Hamas as "terrorists." Maybe the AP can get a clue and rethink calling Hamas "militants."
In New York, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said UNRWA "condemned in the strongest terms" the confiscation of its aid supplies. The U.N. demanded the items be returned, but they remained with Hamas late Wednesday.
Hamas policemen stormed an aid warehouse in Gaza City Tuesday evening and confiscated 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels ready for distribution to 500 families, said United Nations Relief and Works Agency spokesman Christopher Gunness.
"They were armed. They seized this. They took it by force," Gunness said, terming the incident "absolutely unacceptable."
The seizure took place after UNRWA staff earlier refused to hand over the aid supplies to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs, he said. Similar aid packages were distributed to 70,000 residents over the past two weeks, Gunness said.
Ahmad Kurd, the Hamas official in charge of the ministry, did not deny the aid was seized, charging the U.N. was giving the aid to local groups with ties to Hamas opponents. ...
Israeli officials say the incident vindicated their long-standing claims that Hamas routinely confiscates aid meant for needy Gazans. ...
However, Gunness said this was the first time Hamas seized UNRWA supplies. "Does anyone really think that the Americans, who are our single largest donor, or the Europeans, who are our largest multination donor, would give us aid in the generous way they do if they thought that aid would go to terrorists?" Gunness said.
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3 comments:
You know that Guinness is going to hear about that from his bosses. Sounds like a slip of the tongue.
Infant sliding off my lap can't finish thought.
I'd be interested to hear why Hamas have nicked off with these supplies. Surely it's not in their best interests to do so?
As a not so very public sociologist, I would suggest that the only thing different about this story is that the UN has openly outted the story in the first place. The dominant mode of production of the region is not a capitalist one and the paradigm of political process here is Ottoman. As Karen Barkey noted in her excellent work in the region, Bandits and Bureaucrats, the process of political status building in the Ottoman World is to rise to power as a Bandit that no one can control. THEN, the Ottoman negotiates with the Bandit. After THAT, the Bandit becomes part of the Bureaucracy.
Quite the contrary. Hamas's actions are quite rational--they are the bad boys in the neighborhood that will not die--deal with us!
The intriguing thing about this story is that after Gaza, the UN workers are no longer playing ball with the banditry as usual. Hamas AND Fatah regularly use UN observer vehicles, ambulances, and hospitals for their work. There is no concept of Sanctuary.
So, why did the Hamasniks rip off the UN food distribution site in broad daylight with the whole world watching? Because they can.
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