Israel: Global Isolation Continues Apace

• 

TEHRAN (FNA)- Israel is unable to successfully interpret macro-level developments in the world and the bad news just keeps on coming.

The decline of American influence in the Middle East, an increased awareness of Israeli apartheid around the world, and the Palestinians’ statehood bid at the United Nations have all worked together to erode Israel’s global position. As a consequence, the usurper regime is no longer able to justify the illegal occupation of Palestine.

Most indications suggest Israel’s global isolation will continue apace: The United Nations has just granted accreditation to a Palestinian NGO which Tel Aviv claims is linked to the resistance movement, Hamas. The 19-member UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations recognized the Palestinian Return Center (PRC) as a permanent NGO with access to many fora of the world body.

Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkey, China, Cuba and Venezuela were among the countries that supported the PRC application at the UN while the United States, Uruguay and Israel voted against. India, Russia and Greece abstained, and Burundi was absent. This was expected:

- Israel has carried out a range of war crimes against the Palestinian people. During last summer’s war on Gaza, more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed and over 11,100 others were wounded, mostly women and children. Contrary to helping build the safe haven Israel had sought for, the war sowed the seeds of Israel’s own destruction with increased global hatred and condemnation.

- Israel continues to impose a complete closure of Gaza. The blockade is an intensification of criminal policies designed to isolate the population of Gaza, cripple its fragile economy, and provoke its people against Hamas. There can be no dispute that collective punishment is illegal under international humanitarian law. Fuel and food cannot be withheld and wielded as reward or punishment.

- The blockade is but the terminal end of Israel's closure policy, in place since 1991. According to human rights groups, the blockade is condemnable, as it means the denial of a broad range of items deemed non-essential for a population largely unable to be self-sufficient at the end of decades of occupation.

- Those who fire rockets at Israeli settlements make a valid point. The random attacks should not evoke a hasty effort to seal off the occupied territory, but make Israel question how to avoid them in future. The answer is simple: Stop raiding the occupied territories and start honoring the sanctity of Palestinian lives…

In any case, Israel is under immense pressure to end the apartheid. In saying yes to the Palestinian Return Center, the UN has clearly condemned Israel’s occupation and settlement activities, human rights violations and blockage, systematic discrimination and genocide, as well as war crimes and crimes committed against humanity in Palestine.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940312001549