Your trusted source

Press TV has conducted an interview with Joe Carton, a human rights activist, in Gaza about the illegal blockade of the Palestinian enclave by the Israeli regime.

- Eighty months is a long time to be under a blockade and an even longer time it appears for the international community to remain silent on this.

With this type of oppression that is taking place and continues to get worse in the Gaza Strip, what will it take for the voice of the people of Gaza to be heard in the international community?

- Israel’s basic talking point in response to allegations against it concerning the siege is that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

They take what is essentially a political situation - a denial of human freedom, of self-determination and turn it into a humanitarian question.

Currently, there are some sectors of the economy in Gaza that are functional, but they are driven entirely by international aid. Gaza is denied any opportunity to develop its own functional economy.

All imports of industrial equipment and raw materials are prohibited and of course nearly all exports, except for a few token ones, are prohibited by the occupation authorities, who control the checkpoints.

What is needed I think for those of us in solidarity with Gaza at least is to cast it clearly as an issue of human freedom and self-determination rather than a humanitarian cause such as a region stricken by an earthquake or a hurricane - something natural. What’s happening here is entirely man-made.

- What you’ve just mentioned basically as far as equipment and basic goods, not being able to bring them in or totally controlled by Israel would obviously be against international law.

The question is, though it is against international law, it seems that legally the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip basically have no leverage. What will it take to turn that around?

- There are several different mechanisms that can be used.

One of course that is increasingly discussed is a case against Israel at the International Criminal Court. Another is various kinds of popular pressure brought to bear against both Israel and Zionist institutions and policies in other countries. We can see this for example through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and efforts to break the siege such as the flotillas.

There are various strategies for calling Israel to account.