Amira Hass : Israel waging technological war against Palestinians

galway | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Thursday May 31, 2007 15:31 by TD - Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign

"Another front in the economic war Israel is waging against the Palestinians"

In a Haaretz article, Amira Hass exposes yet another ugly facet of Israeli discriminatory policy towards Palestine: "(Israel) does not allocate cellular frequencies to the Palestinians that answer their modern technological, economic, social and personal needs. More precisely, Israel refuses to coordinate with the Palestinians so they can use the cellcom frequencies they should have according to the International Telecommunications Union ...

... The Communications Ministry claims there is no coordination because we are not speaking to the Hamas government. A convenient excuse, but flawed, because even before the Hamas government arose, Palestinian requests to coordinate additional frequencies went unanswered".

The cellcom frequencies are a vital humanitarian need as according to Hass: "Families who live a few dozen kilometers apart and who have not seen each other for five years or more have learned how to make do with phones, Skype, and e-mails. No wonder Paltel (the Palestinian telecoms company, of which Jawwal is a subsidiary) is the most profitable Palestinian firm".

Hass concludes by stating: "The non-allocation of frequencies is another front in the economic war Israel is waging against the Palestinians. It means a direct loss of income, of jobs, and the blocking of the desire to develop economic niches, which by making use of the air, could overcome the earthen roadblocks and apartheid roads".