She (Lauren Booth, Tony Blair's sister in law)is active in the
"Free Gaza" movement that penetrated the Israeli naval cordon to allegedly bring
humanitarian supplies to Gaza despite the fact that, according to Khaled
Abdel Shaafi, director the United Nations Development Program, there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
On the gut feeling that there was something definitely "off" about this claim, I googled further.
I found THIS post (and many more) attributing the following statement to Abdel Shafi complete with rather obese children eating at a McDonalds (which does NOT exist in Gaza) complete with a banner hanging in the background in HEBREW (WOOPS, better check out your photos you try to find to support your LIE)
Khaled Abdel Shaafi, director the United Nations Development Program (December
15th, 2008):"There is a large surplus of fruit and vegetables [in Gaza]. The
vast majority of people here aren't wanting for food. Reports of children are
suffering from malnutrition are exaggerations. This is not a humanitarian
crisis, it's a political crisis, but it's not a humanitarian crisis. People
aren't starving."
In this case it is a CLEAR case of an out and out lie. Khalid Abdel Shafi NEVER made this statement, otherwise it would be in quotes like the opening paragraph of the article. The statements ATTRIBUTED to him are written by the JOURNALIST writing them himself. Other blogs have gone even further in manufacturing other things Khalid Abdel Shaffi supposedly stated, that the reports of malnourished children in Gaza are highly exaggerated.
So here you go, in bold are the quoted statements of Abdel Shaffi. Also in bold are the other written statements of the JOURNALIST which the ever ready CAMERA and other Zionist propagandists were Johnny on the Spot readdy to LIE and attribute them to Abdel Shafi
The article in FULL appeared HERE in the The Star, a Canadian publication. The author of the article is Oakland Ross, apparently a member of The Star's Middle East Bureau:
View on Day 2 of shaky truce
Militants remain firmly entrenched in Gaza Strip; residents still hurting from blockade, lost jobs
Jun 21, 2008 04:30 AM
Be the first to comment on this article... Oakland Ross Middle East Bureau
GAZA CITY–Khalid Abdul Shafi lit a Marlboro cigarette, sipped from a cup of Turkish coffee and reflected on this beleaguered territory's latest journey around the sun – a horrendous 12 months for Gaza.
"This has been the most severe crisis Gaza has ever witnessed," said the Palestinian economist who heads the United Nations Development Program here. "In my opinion, it will take years to recover." (THIS is in quotes meaning he DID say this)
That's if a nascent ceasefire holds, restraining Israelis and Palestinians from pummelling one another as they have been doing, one way or another, for a long time.
The Egyptian-brokered truce, which began on Thursday and was holding at least through last night, might also loosen the chokehold Israel currently exerts on Gaza's economy – an attempt by the Jewish state to punish and isolate the militants of Hamas who took power here by force last June.
But it would not take much for the shaky ceasefire to falter – and who then could say when, or if, Gaza would recover.
What Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants see when they gaze around is a huge amount of wreckage, both human and material.
They also see a fundamentalist Islamist government that was supposed to have been forced from power by now or at least badly weakened – the victim of marginalizing tactics adopted by Israel and other Western governments that regard Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Instead, Hamas is more firmly entrenched than ever.
"They made the siege and the aggressions to push us to give up," said Taher Al-Nounou, chief spokesperson for Hamas. "But our government is still working and we are still the leader of our people."
At the same time, however, Al-Nounou insisted Hamas is open to reconciliation with the more moderate Fatah faction, which it bested a year ago in an outbreak of vicious internecine fighting.
"If we start talks, we will surprise Fatah and others," he said, predicting a reunion between the two sides could take place by the end of the year. "We hope so."
In an apparent effort to promote that goal, Hamas officials have lately started putting up large posters around Gaza, depicting Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas, alongside Yasser Arafat, who created Fatah.
The two men, or their likenesses, peer down upon a territory that has been mauled by politics and war.
During the past year, 80 per cent of Gaza's factories have closed, mainly for lack of raw materials.
Forty per cent of Gaza's workers are unemployed. Four-fifths of the people now depend on international food aid to survive.
Power blackouts are a daily occurrence, fuel shortages an abiding aggravation and almost nothing gets built here anymore.
Different observers will point to different causes as the source of Gaza's torment, but the year-old economic embargo maintained by Israel has had a withering and undeniable effect, severely restricting the entry of fuel, food, medicine and other supplies.
Almost everyone in Gaza has suffered as a result.
Take Abdul Ramli, owner of a textile factory that no longer operates: "I used to export to Israel and North America," he said. "Now, nothing."
Or Mamoun Masri, a gas jockey at the Khozendar service station on Ezzedeen Al-Qassam St., where there is rarely any fuel to sell: "We do nothing," he said. "We sleep."
Or Bishara Shohada, owner of the Al-Aliat Bakery in the Rimal district of central Gaza City: "We don't have enough cooking gas," he said. "If we don't get cooking gas today, I won't open tomorrow."
Across the modest length and breadth of this slender wedge of Mediterranean seafront, the story is much the same, and it is not a happy tale. But the people are not starving. (The JOURNALIST is stating this, NOT Khalid Abdel Shafi!)
The Israelis have allowed food to enter Gaza and it has arrived in sufficient quantities for people here to get by, if not a great deal more. ( He did NOT say this! the JOURNALIST wrote this!)
Lately, Israeli supplies have increasingly been supplemented by black-market goods smuggled into Gaza from Egypt, through a profusion of tunnels linking the territory to the northern Sinai Peninsula.
One way or another, supermarket shelves in Gaza City – spottily stocked only short months ago – seem adequately furnished now.
The problem is not a matter of availability but of expense. (He did NOT say this either! The JOURNALIST wrote this, otherwise it would be IN QUOTES and attibuted to Abdel Shaffi who we havent' heard from since the first paragraph!)
Niman Qishawi, 38, owner of the Qishawi Supermarket on Palestine St., said business is down by about 50 per cent from the pre-embargo days. He blames the decrease on a combination of high prices and severe unemployment.
"On a normal day, the store would not be empty, as now," he said. "There would be people here."
Taxi driver Munir Mohammed fuels his ancient, battered Mercedes with diesel smuggled from Egypt that costs the equavalent of $6.20 a litre – more than three times the cost of fuel from Israel.
The difference is, the Egyptian stuff is available.
Such are the economics of war, but worse are the corpses.
Hundreds of Palestinians – many of them civilians – have died in that conflict during the past 12 months, mostly in Israeli air or ground strikes. But Hamas is credited with having curbed other forms of violence. Kidnappings, once a common peril here, appear to have been stopped, as has factional fighting among Palestinians within Gaza.
____________________________________________
So let me ask, did Khalid Abdel Shaffi state ANYWHERE that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza? Did HE state anywhere that it the reports of malnourished Gazan children are exaggerated? NO! Heck that statement isn't ANYWHERE in this ORIGINAL article! The ONLY statement that this journalist HIMSELF attributed to Abdel Safi, this journalist who I ASSUME is a journalist who knows how to QUOTE and attribute statements to the source is:
"This has been the most severe crisis Gaza has ever witnessed," said the
Palestinian economist who heads the United Nations Development Program here. "In my opinion, it will take years to recover."
Caught RED HANDED, Zionist propaganda out is FULL FORCE!
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