The UN has based that judgment on the amounts of food etc that was imported into Gaza before the blockade – and I’m not justifying the continuation of supplies of weapons into Gaza – in comparison the blockade.
I think they're referring to the amount of aid inserted into the Gaza Strip by organizations such as the UN before the blockade, not to the amount of goods imported by the Hamas government before the blockade.
Firstly Israel (if you read the BBC link posted before and here again) has apparently worked out the calorie intake it thinks is necessary to keep the citizens alive and that is what it bases its restrictions on.
Yes I know that.
From a liberty point of view – I’d personally prefer to not to have my food choices dictated if I have the means to buy them.
Well yeah it's a blockade we're speaking about, certainly it's going to greatly affect the population within the blockaded territory.
Secondly, “UN expectations” is nothing to do with what a population can afford – if they could afford the (legal) items before the blockade they should be allowed them after. Haiti is a different kettle of fish – if the Haiti economy cannot afford certain items they go without – this was not the case in Gaza. Those items are dictated. The BBC link has the .pdf file Gisha submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court but I’ll post the link again
BBC Link here.
Once more I'd like a reference to those details about the pre-Blockade Gaza Strip.
Repost of Gisha Document
The nice thing about this document is it fully references Israeli and International Law – and has links within that you might find useful.
That document makes many baseless assumptions.
For example, it states that because Israel enforces movement restriction on civilians from and into the Gaza Strip it means that Israel seeks to place pressure over the Gazan population and decrease their support for the militants.
The real reason is more around the threat of militants imposing as civilians getting into and outside the Gaza Strip.
Another example would be the claim that Israel has no real military objective in that blockade.
Clearly the objective of the blockade is to drastically decrease the power of Hamas, whether by the blockage of weapons or by the blockage of supplies for the constructions of bunkers and rockets.
The organization claims that Israel has no declared objective - that, once it will be achieved, the blockade could be lifted - and that this somehow causes the blockade to become a collective punishment rather than the cutting of supplies to the terrorist organizations in control of the territory.
Israel did however inform Hamas that the release of the abducted soldier, Gilad Shalit, would result in the immediate lifting of the blockade - sort of a compriomising by Israel.
Besides that it is clear that if Hamas revokes terrorism the blockade would immediately end.
I’m afraid you are wrong – here’s some quick examples –
Jam, fruit juice and chocolate are deadly weapons against most people’s expanding waistline – not against IDF soldiers though unless you know something I don’t?
You may remember my light hearted reference to why coriander was banned when we first discussed the issue of the limits imposed on Gazan citizens?
Now the other issue with the blockade is the above, the blockading of what is considered to be "civilians goods" and the way this organization refers to it as a clear evidence for collective punishment.
The blockade on the strip allows only necessities into it, such as water and canned meat.
As you were saying before, Israel calculates the required calories for the Gazan population and assembles the blockaded goods list in accordance with that calculation.
Why does Israel then blockade non-necessities?
The Israeli reasoning seems to be that Hamas(As many other insurgent/militants organizations around the world do) takes over the goods that are considered non-necessities, such as fuel for example, and then sells them to the Gazan population at its declared price, gaining all of the money from those goods.
You may remember a while back when we were debating about the NATO air strike on the fuel tanks hijacked by a group of Afghan insurgents (The Taliban IIRC).
The reasons why civilians have died in that air strike was that those insurgents were selling the stolen fuel to the civilians.
Basically, those non-necessities, if let in, provide the majority of the regular income for the terrorist organization of Hamas, and by allowing it in Israel allows the continued sponsoring of it by the Gazan population.
That is why the blockade seems to be allowing in only goods that are considered necessities, although from time to time Israel does indeed allow goods such as chocolate in.