UPDATE 1: Paul Woodward applies a healthy dose of skepticism to these early reports. I’ve added his observations with his kind permission (see below).
UPDATE 2: Sherine Tadros reports from Rafah for Al Jazeera on the barrier — video clip added below (h/t AlethoNews)
By Ann El Khoury* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz
Just when you thought things could not become more Kafkaesque comes apparent confirmation that the US-backed Egyptian government is building an underground steel barrier designed to cut off one of the few lifelines sustaining the Gaza Ghetto, the tunnel economy. The BBC reports that the huge underground wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long, will extend 18 metres below the surface and will take 18 months to complete. The project has been shrouded in secrecy with no official confirmation from the Egyptian government, but it is understood that the design is commissioned by US army engineers, at the behest of Israel, Ann Wright surmises.
The ‘impenetrable’ barrier is made of super-strength steel manufactured in the US, according to the BBC. It will likely not succeed in halting all smuggling but will force Palestinians to dig deeper.
Conditions are worsening in this nightmare siege. The Israeli regime has prevented EU officials from entering the besieged strip, Gaza’s water is contaminated and creating a public health disaster and the israeli blockade that prevents vital reconstruction continues unabated.
If this report is accurate, it would be a new low in the levels of inhumanity, absurdity and wretchedness to which the Israeli regime, with active Egyptian and US ZOG complicity, are subjecting the beleaguered Palestinians of Gaza. Only a just political resolution will put an end to the tunnels.
Retired US Army Reserve Colonel and former diplomat Ann Wright rightly castigates this development and calls it a laughing stock:
Just as the steel walls of the US Army Corps of Engineers at the base of the levees of New Orleans were unable to contain Hurricane Katrina, the US Army Corps of Engineers’ underground steel walls that will attempt to build an underground cage of Gaza will not be able to contain the survival spirit of the people of Gaza.
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America’s super technology will again be laughed at by the world, as young men dedicated to the survival of their people, will again outwit technology by digging deeper, and most likely penetrating the “impenetrable” in some novel, simple, low-tech way.
UPDATE #1
Paul Woodward of the excellent War in Context observes:
I’m a bit skeptical about this report. As an engineering feat I can’t see how 18-meter lengths of steel can be inserted into the ground without this being a highly visible (and audible) operation — large cranes, pneumatic hammers etc. The BBC report says:
For weeks local farmers have noticed more activity at the border where trees were being cut down, but very few of them were aware that a barrier was being built.
That is because the barrier, made of super-strength steel, has been hidden deep underground
Before this barrier can get hidden deep underground it has to get there from above ground.
The other thing that makes me skeptical is that I’m not at all sure that the Israelis have a big problem with the tunnels. The tunnels serve Israeli interests in multiple ways — as a propaganda tool (the means through which Hamas is rearmed and will thus need to be crushed at some point); as an adjunct to the siege (part of the drip-feed that maintains Gaza on a starvation diet with minimal expense to the Israelis); without the tunnels Israel would be forced to allow more materials through the borders and thus create the perception that it was relenting in enforcing the siege; the tunnels also provide an excuse for Israel to keep on bombing Gaza; and the fact that Hamas regulates and profits from the tunnel economy serves to undermine the organization’s political legitimacy. All in all, I’d say these add up to reasons why the Israelis would be quite happy keep the tunnel economy operating.
UPDATE #2
Sherine Tadros files a report on the alleged barrier for Al Jazeera
* Ann El Khoury is a researcher in Sydney, Australia and blogs at Peoples Geography - Relaiming Space and PULSE. She can be contacted at ann@peoplesgeography.com
Contextually Related posts:
Nazis starved the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Israelis are starving the Gazans.
Nazis targeted Jewish civilians during their assault on the Warsaw Ghetto.
The Israeli government targeted Gazan civilians during “Operation Cast Lead” with American
made and supplied Flachette artillary rounds that propell thousands of deadly darts over an
area of 300 meters by 100 meters. Call, fax, and email these numbers to DEMAND AN END
TO THE NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF GAZAN CIVILIANS!
Call Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and DEMAND AN END TO THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS AT:
202 364 5560
Call, fax, and e-mail protests to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his right-hand man, Eyal Gabai and DEMAND AN END TO THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS AT:
Telephone 02-6705555,
Fax: 02-5664838,
PrimeMinistersOffice@it.pmo.gov.il
Call, fax, and e-mail protests to Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak or his right-hand man, Ehud Shani and DEMAND AN END TO THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS AT:
Telephone: 03-6976663,
Fax: 03-6976218,
pniot@mod.gov.il
Call, fax, and e-mail protests to Israeli Minister of Justice Yaakov Ne’eman or his right-hand man, Guy Rottkopf and DEMAND AN END TO THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS AT:
Telephone: 02-6466533/5,
Fax:02-6287757,
mancal@justice.gov.il
Call, fax, and e-mail protests to Israeli Minister of Internal Security Yitzhak Aharonovitz or his right-hand man, Hagai Peleg and DEMAND AN END TO THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS AT:
Telephone: 02-5309944/7,
Fax: 02-5811551,
sar@mops.gov.il
Call, fax, and e-mail protests to Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure Uzi Landau or his right-hand man, Shmuel Tzemach and DEMAND AN END TO APARTHEID CONDITIONS in the West Bank where Palestinians are deprived of 60% of the land and where many roads are for Jews only at:
Telephone: 02-5006712,
Fax: 02-5006715,
pniot@mni.gov.il
This is an excellent website that lists all of the checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and gives periodic reports on the the social conditions at those checkpoints:
http://www. machsomwatch.org/en/reports/checkpoints
Enter your address to find your Representative’s contact info at the following web address and DEMAND AN END TO THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS.
http://www. contactingthecongress.org
Call the Department of State main switchboard TO DEMAND AN END TO THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS AT:
202-647-4000
The Middle East Peace Home page has contact info for President Obama. Call, fax, and e-mail protests to him and DEMAND AN END TO THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS.
Now for some news organizations. Call, fax, and email them to PROTEST THEIR SILENCE AND COMPLICITY (ie non-reporting), OF THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS.
ABC News President: David Westin
77 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777
General e-mail: netaudr@abc.com
Nightline: nightline@abcnews.com
20/20: 2020@abc.com
CBS News President Sean McManus
524 W. 57 St., New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-975-4321
Fax: 212-975-1893
Email forms for all CBS news programs
CBS Evening News: evening@cbsnews.com
The Early Show: earlyshow@cbs.com
60 Minutes II: 60m@cbsnews.com
48 Hours: 48hours@cbsnews.com
Face The Nation: ftn@cbsnews.com
CNBC President Jeff Zucker
900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
Phone: (201) 735-2622
Fax: (201) 583-5453
Email: info@cnbc.com
CNN President Jon Klein
One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1784
Fox News (News Corporation Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch – Mr. Murdoch has appointed Chase Carey to Deputy Chairman, President and Chief Operating Officer, effective 01 July 2010. He will report to Mr. Murdoch and he will have oversight of News Corporation’s global operations and will be based in New York.
1211 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10036
Phone: (212) 301-3000
Fax: (212) 301-4229
comments@foxnews.com
Special Report with Bret Baier: Special@foxnews.com
FOX Report with Shepard Smith: Foxreport@foxnews.com
The O’Reilly Factor: Oreilly@foxnews.com
Hannity: Hannity@foxnews.com,
On the Record with Greta: Ontherecord@foxnews.com
Glenn Beck: GlennBeck@foxnews.com
MSNBC/NBC President Phil Griffin
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112
Phone: (212) 664-4444
Fax: (212) 664-4426
Dateline NBC: dateline@nbcuni.com
Hardball with Chris Matthews: hardball@msnbc.com
MSNBC Reports with Joe Scarborough: joe@msnbc.com
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: nightly@nbc.com
NBC News Today: today@nbc.com
PBS President Paula Kerger
2100 Crystal Drive, Arlington VA 22202
Phone: 703-739-5000
Fax: 703-739-8458
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: newshour@pbs.org
Now for some radio listings: Call, fax, and email them to PROTEST THEIR SILENCE AND COMPLICITY (ie non-reporting), OF THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS.
National Public Radio
635 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001-3753
Phone: 202-513-3232
Fax: 202-513-3329
E-mail: Alicia Shephard, Ombudsman ombudsman@npr.org
List of Email addresses for all NPR news programs
For the next two listings: They’ll probably cut you off, shout you down, and then disconnect you, because they use delayed broadcast equipment in order to censor politically incorrect content, but you may want to give them a shot anyhow.
The Rush Limbaugh Show
1270 Avenue of the Americas, NY 10020
Phone (on air): 800-282-2882
Fax: 212-445-3963
E-mail: ElRushbo@eibnet.com
Sean Hannity Show
Phone (on air): 800-941-7326
Sean Hannity: 212-613-3800
James Grisham, Producer: 212-613-3807
E-mail: Phil Boyce, Program Director phil.boyce@citcomm.com
Print Media: Call, fax, and email them to PROTEST THEIR SILENCE AND COMPLICITY (ie non-reporting), OF THE IMMORAL, NAZI-LIKE SIEGE OF ONE POINT FIVE MILLION GAZAN CIVILIANS.
The Los Angeles Times
202 West First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: 800-528-4637 or 213-237-5000
Fax: 213-237-4712
L.A. Times Contact Information by Department
Letters to the Editor: letters@latimes.com
Readers’ Representative: readers.rep@latimes.com
The New York Times
620 8th Ave., New York, NY 10018
Phone: 212-556-1234
D.C. Bureau phone: 202-862-0300
Fax: 212-556-3690
Letters to the Editor (for publication): letters@nytimes.com
Write to the news editors: news-tips@nytimes.com
Corrections: senioreditor@nytimes.com
New York Times Contact Information by Department
How to Contact New York Times Reporters and Editors
USA Today
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Phone: 703-854-3400
Fax: 703-854-2078
Letters to the Editor: editor@usatoday.com
Give feedback to USA Today
The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty St., New York, NY 10281
Phone: 212-416-2000
Fax: 212-416-2658
Letters to the Editor: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Comment on News Articles: wsjcontact@dowjones.com
The Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW, Washington, DC 20071
Phone: 202-334-6000
Fax: 202-334-5269
Letters to the Editor: letters@washpost.com
Ombudsman: ombudsman@washpost.com
Contact Washington Post Writers and Editors
Newsweek
251 W 57th Street, New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-445-4000
Fax: 212-445-5068
Letters to the Editor: letters@newsweek.com
Time
Time & Life Bldg., Rockefeller Center, 1271 6th Ave., New York, NY 10020
Phone: 212-522-1212
Fax: 212-522-0003
Letters to the Editor letters@time.com
U.S. News & World Report
1050 Thomas Jefferson St., Washington, DC 20007
Phone: 202-955-2000
Fax: 202-955-2049
Letters to the Editor letters@usnews.com
News Services:
Associated Press
450 West 33rd St., New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-621-1500
Fax: 212-621-7523
General Questions and Comments: info@ap.org
Partial Contact Information for the Associated Press by Department and Bureau
Reuters
Three Times Square, New York, NY 10036
Telephone: 646-223-4000
Reuters Editorial Feedback
United Press International
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Telephone: 202-898-8000
FAX: 202-898-8048
Comments and Tips: tips@upi.com
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