WikiLeaks: Israel Kept Gaza Economy ‘On Brink’

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel told the United States in 2008 that it planned to keep Gaza's economy "on the brink of collapse," according to a diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks.

The cable, one of three on the topic from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to Washington, said that "As part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed to (U.S. embassy economic officers) on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge."

Israel said it would keep Gaza's economy "functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis," according to a Nov. 3, 2008 cable.

Beginning last May, Israel relaxed the blockade on Gaza, though aid organizations say it is not enough.

The cables were made public Wednesday in the Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten, which says it has all 250,000 U.S. cables leaked to WikiLeaks.

Read more:
  • Share/Save
  • Email articleEmail article
  • PrintPrint

Comments

The Jewish Week welcomes comments on our stories and encourages discussions germane to our articles. But we will not become a platform for screaming matches or personal attacks against individuals, organizations or religious or political perspectives.

Commenting guidelines:

  • Be clear and stay on topic
  • Avoid objectionable language
  • Be short; comments longer than 300 words will be rejected
  • Be civil; name calling in any form will not be tolerated, and comments that denigrate any religion or Jewish religious stream will always be rejected.
  • Comments meant primarily to advertise a business or organization will be rejected

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.