What, Israel is Calorie Counting to make sure they aren’t charged with a ‘Crime Against Humanity?’

Israel approves more expansion of settlement near Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel on Thursday issued a detailed plan for the building of some 800 new homes on annexed land in the West Bank that is certain to attract further international condemnation of its settlement policies.

A planning committee issued a call for bids from contractors to start building 797 housing units on the western slopes of the urban settlement of Gilo, an area that Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war and later declared part of Jerusalem.

The annexation has never been recognized internationally.

Israel “planned to starve” the people of Gaza     

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military calculated the number of calories that Gaza’s residents would need to consume to avoid malnutrition during a sweeping blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory from 2007 to mid-2010, according to a document that the Defense Ministry released under a court order and that was made public on Wednesday.

 

The military insisted that it never used the guidelines to restrict the flow of food to Gaza. But critics disputed that, saying the calculations appeared to have guided limits on food imports. They said the document provided further evidence that Israel used food as a weapon to put pressure on Hamas, the militant group that won legislative elections in 2006 and took full control of Gaza in 2007 after a brief factional war.

The blockade was imposed shortly after Hamas took over Gaza. Israel declared it a hostile territory in September 2007. Seeking to weaken the militants, it called for “severe restrictions” on civilians that included limitations on food.

The Defense Ministry handed over its document only after Gisha filed a freedom-of-information petition.

Israel is said to have often used secret guidelines to differentiate between humanitarian necessities and nonessential luxuries. The result was that military officials enforcing the blockade allowed frozen salmon and low-fat yogurt in, but not cilantro or instant coffee.

Hamas blunted the blockade by building a network of underground tunnels through which food, weapons and other contraband were smuggled from Egypt. While the embargo crippled Gaza’s economy, observers never identified a food crisis in the territory, whose residents rely heavily on international food aid.

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