Did the Red Cross say there's no humanitarian crisis in Gaza? [View All]

[Jefferson23]

Technically, yes. But the Red Cross says chronic shortages create deplorable economic and medical conditions.

By Dan Murphy, Staff writer / July 6, 2011

"The Red Cross says there's no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, therefore the Gaza flotilla is a waste of time."

Comments much like this have been made by readers on stories I've written about the efforts of pro-Palestinian activists to symbolically run the Israeli blockade of Gaza in the past couple of weeks. They have also been a major piece of ammunition on the pro-Israel side of the "he said, she said" propaganda war that's been raging for weeks (which have also included a hoax video about a gay activist spurned by the flotilla and allegations that the activists were preparing to attack Israeli soldiers with sulfur, later refuted by Israeli lawmakers.)

The Gaza flotilla this year was defeated by successful Israeli diplomacy, which persuaded Greece to prevent the boats from leaving its ports. Most of the European and American activists participating have begun trickling home. They say their effort was about more than a "humanitarian crisis," that the overall burden on Gaza's people is too great because they don't have any control over how to get goods in or out.

RELATED: Israel's new friend: Why Greece is thwarting Gaza flotilla

But is the assertion that there is "no humanitarian crisis" true? Well, sort of. In April, Israeli Defense Forces spokeswoman Rotem Caro Weizman published a piece on the IDF website that detailed an interview with "Mathilde Redmatn," the deputy director of the Red Cross in Gaza headlined "Red Cross Official: There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza".

snip* (There are in fact nice restaurants in Gaza and a few good supermarkets. But they generally cater to foreign aid workers, journalists, and rich Gazans, some of whom are members of a proto-mafia class that has grown rich thanks to control of smuggling tunnels along the Egyptian border. For average residents, they're out of reach).

in full: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2011/0706/Did-the-Red-Cross-say-there-s-no-humanitarian-crisis-in-Gaza