Setting record straight on Israeli occupation

WITH reference to letters from Sonny Meyerson (Cape Argus, April 18) and from Brian Josselowitz (Cape Argus, April 20):

Post-Israeli destruction of Gaza saw the formation of the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM) in 2014, a tripartite agreement comprising the Israeli government, the Palestinian authority and the UN in an endeavour to “reconstruct” Gaza without consulting Gazians.

The GRM has not only hindered progress, but institutionalised the Israeli blockade.

Cogat (Co-ordination of Government Activities in the Territories), a unit of the Israeli Ministry of Defence, gives the final approval of any construction or humanitarian convoy crossing into Gaza via the Erez crossing in the north. The UN-run system, which gives Israel oversight over distribution of supplies, has been criticised for slowing rebuilding, concerning itself more with security.

Talking about Israel being the most humanitarian country in the world… despite overwhelming human rights violations Israel refuses to say whether it will stop selling arms to the Mynamar military. T’ruah, the Rabbinical call for human rights violations, published a petition signed by 300 rabbis, cantons and community leaders which read “as American citizens and Jews, we refuse to accept any involvement by the US or Israel in training and arming a military that is carrying out a brutal ethnic cleansing against a minority population”.

The letter draws a parallel between the Jewish experience to the plight of the Rohingya people.

Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli organisation based in Jaffa, promotes a just society where the right to health is granted equally.

Human rights form their core foundation and is against the occupation of Palestinian territory.

Nowhere in my article is an indication that Jews monopolise the banking system or trade.

One is a conspiracy theorist if you challenge the narrative, according to Josselowitz.