Haneyya: The Israeli siege on Gaza form of colonialism

GAZA, - Ismael Haneyya, the democratically elected Palestinian prime minister, has described Sunday the Israeli siege on Gaza as a form of colonialism and a product of an extremist Zionist ideology based on eliminating the other.

Haneyya’s remarks were made in a speech he made at the launch of a new book about the siege breaking convoys where he stressed that the siege on Gaza was wrong policy biased in favor of the Zionist occupation and considered by the international law as “crime against humanity” because it inflicted harm on a broad sector of the Palestinian community, especially children and elderly people, stressing that such wrong policies breed hatred and hamper development.

Furthermore, Haneyya described the siege as a product of an extremist Zionist ideology that is based on eliminating the other through starving an entire people in a bid to break their steadfastness and subjugate them to the occupier’s will.

“The Palestinian people had presented a unique experiment of democracy in 2006 that Hamas won and formed a PA government reflecting the aspiration of the Palestinian people but it was rejected by the USA and Israel for known political reasons translated later on in this repressive siege”, Haneyya explained, noting that western countries that brag about democracy were the first to oppose that transparent Palestinian election results although against the will of a broad sector of their peoples.

In this regard, Haneyya underscored that the Palestinian people consider the siege and the Israeli settlement activities on the occupied Palestinian land as one, stressing that the only way for peace to prevail over the region was by removing the occupation.

He also underlined that many convoys and activists came to Gaza from countries considered hostile to the Palestinian just cause and participate in the siege on it, highlighting the convoy led by British MP George Galloway and comprised people of different nationalities and religions, including Jews among others, to express their support for the Palestinian people and to tell the world that the siege on Gaza was unjust and must be lifted.

Hence, Haneyya concluded, the Palestinian government in Gaza found it a duty to commemorate all the brave works and sacrifices offered by those siege-breaking convoys through a documentary book speaking about the chivalries of those people and in gratitude to each an everyone of them. PIC