Gaza Blockade: The Banned List.

Since Israel's attack on an aid ship on Monday (31/5) I've been looking for a list of goods that are, in theory, allowed into Gaza. The best I've been able to find is the following list complied by Gisha, an Israeli charity set up to protect the rights of Palestinians.

http://gisha.org/UserFiles/File/HiddenMessages/ItemsGazaStrip060510.pdf

As the report itself says this is not an official list nor is it a complete list. Instead it just the charity's best guess compiled based on the anecdotal evidence of people who have tried to import goods into Gaza. Quite frankly it makes no sense whatsoever.

On the list of permitted items there are things such a chlorine, agricultural pesticides and chemical fertilizers all of which can be used to make some quite nasty weapons. However the list of banned items includes chocolate, sweets, musical instruments, paper, notebooks, pencils and toys. Therefore I cannot see how this blockade does one single thing to improve the safety of Israel. Instead it seems designed to make life in Gaza as unpleasant as possible without forcing Israel to admit that they're gradually trying to exterminate a nationality from the face of the earth. In fact the Israelis seem to be making sure that just enough weaponry is able to get into Gaza to allow the frustrated residents to take the occasional pot shot at Israel. These of course give Israel the justification to mount the occasional devastating war to protect their "security"

I suppose the Israelis true attitude to what is allowed through the blockade is revealed in their banning of construction sized wood, plastic containers, rope and tarpaulins. I don't know if you ever worked in a warehouse but if you want to transport anything by truck first you have to put it on a wooden pallet, wrap it in plastic, tie it down with rope and cover it in a tarpaulin. This means that no matter what is on the permitted list Israel reserves the right to prevent anything and everything from entering Gaza.