קאונסיל מאן טשארלס בערען באשמוצט איזריעל

Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron is denouncing the Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla ''a clear act of piracy and terrorism.''

Commenting to City Hall reporter Frank Lombardi yesterday, Barron also assailed the long-running blockade by Israel (and Egypt) of the Gaza Strip, likening it to setting up ''a concentration death camp.''

Barron, who has often criticized Israel over its handling of Palestine, visited the Gaza Strip last July as part of a relief mission with other activists. He called on President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to denounce both the attack on the Gaza flotilla and demand the lifting of the blockade.

Here's how he put it:

''Israel is out of control. They're off the hook, they're out of line; and Barack Obama has to stand strong and so do does Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, to say that this kind of aggressive, terroristic behavior and act of piracy will not be tolerated and the blockade should be lifted immediately, immediately. There's too many children and women and innocent men of Gaza dying because you're isolating them and not allowing anything in. It's like having a concentration death camp. It's horrible, and the whole world is and should be outraged.''

Questioned if he was likening the situation in Gaza to Holocaust concentration camps, Barron persisted:

''Well, that's what's happening. You go to Gaza and you see the destruction, you see the destruction of Gaza, the thousands that died, even the United Nations said that was an over-reaction to whatever aggression that they claim the (Hamas) government imposed upon Israel. And this (blockade assault) isn't even about rockets being launched. No rocket was being launched from the boat, nor were there rockets on the boat. But it is like a death camp. You know when you go to Gaza you'd see people dying in the hospital because they can't get over the counter drugs…Any time that you deliberately cause the death of innocent children, whether you are a government or a non-government organization ,you're participating in genocide and you're in participating in a violation of the human rights. And if you allow for this death and destruction to go on for years because you're blocking humanitarian aid from coming in, you have set up a death camp. Whether the numbers are six million or thousands, the fact of the matter is that you're setting up a situation where people (die)…How many Palestinians have died at the hands of Israel, over land, over land that's not theirs? And what they've done in Gaza is unconscionable…I feel that if any people should be more sensitive to setting up situations where people are going to die, if any people that should be more sensitive to that and make sure there's no genocide and there's even no characteristic of a death camp it should be the state of Israel.''


http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/06/barron-israeli-blockade-of-gaz.html