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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel publishes list of goods banned from Gaza |
| 2010-07-07 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Israel published on Monday a list of goods--mainly weapons and materials that can be used to make them--that it will not let into the Gaza Strip under a policy to ease its blockade of the Palestinian territory. The list was published 15 days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on June 20 that he would ease the blockade and hours before he flew to Washington for talks on Tuesday with U.S. President Barack Obama. The United Nations welcomed the plan to liberalize rules on the import of goods to the Gaza Strip but urged Israel to lift a ban on exports from the Palestinian territory to improve the economy there. "The decision now by the Israeli government to substantially ease the closure can only be welcomed by me," U.N. Middle East envoy Robert Serry told Reuters after Israel published the list during a news conference in Jerusalem. The White House also welcomed the list's publication. "We believe the list of restricted goods for Gaza announced today will make a significant improvement in the lives of people in Gaza, while keeping weapons out of the hands of Hamas," said spokesman Tommy Vietor, referring to Gaza's Islamist rulers. "This is an important step in implementing the new policy announced by Israel two weeks ago. The president looks forward to discussing it with the prime minister tomorrow," he added. The softening of a policy, criticized as collective punishment of Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians to weaken Hamas, followed an Israeli raid on a blockade-running flotilla in which nine Turkish activists died. Under the old rules, Israel banned everything it wanted under a blockade on the impoverished enclave. U.N. envoy Serry, who has described the blockade as unsustainable and unacceptable, said it was important that Israel allowed exports out of the territory as it was the only way to ensure that its devastated economy could recover. "I also hope that very soon we will be seeing exports. Because how can you have a functioning Gazan economy without having exports also facilitated," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |