Israel bans aid workers who’ve ever criticised it from Gaza and West Bank

Not content with murdering hundreds of aid workers, Israel now demands only those who will be silent are allowed

After renewing its complete blockade of food, fuel energy and other essentials into Gaza, Israel has imposed ‘sweeping’ new rules on all aid workers trying to gain access to any Palestinian territory, according to Palestine Chronicle.

The new, wide-ranging visa and registration regulations form part of the occupation regime’s assault on the survival chances of the Palestinian people and a new assault on the freedom of speech and thought of those trying to help them.

Supposed grounds for refusal include an organisation or its employees having ever supported a boycott of Israel, disagreed that it is democratic or should be a so-called ‘Jewish’ state, or even supporting court action against Israeli war criminals. The rules also demand that aid organisations provide all personal details of Palestinian staff – deeply sinister when Israel has murdered hundreds of aid workers, including more than 280 staff working for UN aid agency UNRWA and a dozen or more international workers. A further nine aid workers were killed yesterday when Israel targeted the UK-based Al Khair charity’s aid distribution centre.

Under international law, Israel – as the occupying power in Gaza and the West Bank – has an absolute obligation to provide the essentials for life and health to the captive Palestinian population and to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach them unhindered. However, Israel has given up even pretending that it is allowing aid into Gaza, instead openly announcing its genocidal intent to start the Palestinians either to death or into abandoning their land, despite orders from the World Court to prevent any genocidal actions in the occupied territories.

Israel’s High Court has rejected a legal appeal by aid organisations. Israel is a rogue and terror state able to act with impunity in its contempt for international law and human rights because it is protected by the US and its client governments like that of Keir Starmer in the UK.

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