Friday, August 1, 2014

Recipe for Lasting Ceasefire? Lifting Israeli Siege & Int’l Accountability Could Break Status Quo

Democracy Now!

"The Gaza Health Ministry now says at least 50 Palestinians have been killed today in Gaza following the collapse of a U.S and U.N.-backed ceasefire. Hamas and Israel are blaming each other for violating the truce. Israel has launched a major operation to rescue a soldier captured earlier today. The Israeli Defense Forces just identified the soldier as Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin. Hamas says the soldier was captured before the ceasefire began. The 72-hour ceasefire announced Thursday was supposed to bring Israeli and Palestinian representatives together in Cairo, but the outbreak of violence puts those talks in jeopardy. We speak with Yousef Munayyer, executive director of The Jerusalem Fund and its educational program, The Palestine Center. "We cannot go back to a status quo were a ceasefire ends rocket fire from the Gaza Strip but does not end the system of violence that is the siege … enforced through the regular use of Israeli fire," Munayyer says. "You cannot call it a ceasefire while that system of violence still exists."...."

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