Poll: Israelis believe Gaza policies hurting security

JERUSALEM: A new poll shows that 67 percent of Israelis believe the government’s policies in the Gaza Strip have worsened security.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, leading to the takeover of the territory by Hamas militants two years later. Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade over Gaza since then, restricting the movement of people and goods in and out of the territory.

Israel says the measures are needed for security. The sides have fought three wars since 2008.

Sunday’s poll also said 69 percent believe improving conditions in Gaza helps Israel’s interests.

The poll was conducted by New Wave Research for Gisha, an Israeli advocacy group that pushes for greater movement by Gaza Palestinians. It interviewed 650 people and had a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points. Meanwhile, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial has asked Amazon to stop selling literature on its site that denies the genocide of 6 million Jews during WWII and otherwise promotes anti-Semitism.

Yad Vashem’s director of libraries Robert Rozett said he had dispatched a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos offering his assistance to “curb the spread of hatred.”

Rozett says Sunday that Yad Vashem has approached Amazon before on the subject but the Internet retailing giant insisted it would not halt sales of offensive and inciting material, citing freedom of information. Rozett says he hoped that given the recent spike in anti-Semitic incidents in the US, particularly a vandalism attack on a Jewish cemetery near St. Louis, Amazon would reconsider its position.

He said he has yet to hear back. “Open discussion of ideas is certainly essential to pluralistic and democratic systems, but facilitating the spread of such hate-filled ideas is irresponsible, to say the least.”

He continued: “As a major agent for the dissemination of ideas, it is incumbent upon Amazon, as it is also incumbent upon Internet providers in general, to act to curb the spread of hatred.”