Israel bans books, music and clothes from entering Gaza

By Amira Hass

Haaretz - 08:05 17/05/2009


Israel allows only food, medicine and detergent into the Gaza Strip. Thousands of items, including vital products for everyday activity, are forbidden.

Altogether only 30 to 40 select commercial items are now allowed into the Gaza Strip, compared to 4,000 that had been approved before the closure Israel imposed on Gaza following the abduction of Gilad Shalit, according to merchants and human rights activists.

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The few items merchants are allowed to trade in are divided into three categories: food, medicine and detergent. Everything else is forbidden - including building materials (which are necessary to rehabilitate Gaza's ruins and rebuild its infrastructure), electric appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines, spare machine and car parts, fabrics, threads, needles, light bulbs, candles, matches, books, musical instruments, crayons, clothing, shoes, mattresses, sheets, blankets, cutlery, crockery, cups, glasses and animals. Many of the banned products are imported through the tunnels and can be found in Gaza's markets.

Pasta, which had been forbidden in the past, is now allowed, after U.S. Senator John Kerry expressed his astonishment at the ban during a visit to Gaza in February. But tea, coffee, sausages, semolina, milk products in large packages and most baking products are forbidden. So are industrial commodities for manufacturing food products, chocolate, sesame seeds and nuts. Israel does allow importing fruit, milk products in small packages and frozen food products as well as limited amounts of industrial fuel.
The blockade is a punitive measure intended to pressure Hamas into releasing Shalit, refrain from armed attacks, etc. It is also intended to weaken Hamas, and prevent the import of "dual use" items (err, like pasta). However, most analysts I speak with argue, correctly I think, that it creates such massive economic incentives for commercial smuggling that it makes it much easier for Hamas to smuggle in weapons too. When well over a hundred tunnels are bringing in basic supplies for 1.5 million each day--including perhaps 170,000 litres of fuel—its not so hard to slip some Grads in too.