Anna Chan: Last month, our Israeli correspondents reported on the Gaza crisis. With it's food shortages and crumbling health services under the Hamas, today's update on Gaza talks about human rights being overidden by political interests.
It's not easy living in Gaza today. Under the control of the new Hamas government, infrastructure and social services in Gaza have sharply deteriorated.
Several nonprofit organizations have entered the region, trying to help.
[Martha Myers, Care West Bank and Gaza]:
"If you compare conditions in Gaza today with conditions in, for example 1980, you will see an economy that went from a second world economy of well-educated, well-nourished, healthy people, to a population where eighty percent of the people are dependent on food aid, there is serious malnutrition among children, and where there is inadequate fuel, electricity and medical supplies."
In 2005, Israel withdrew from the region under the request of Palestinians. At the time, few would have predicted that Hamas, an Islamist militant organization, would soon take control of the government.
Countries like the U.S. and Canada began listing Hamas as a terrorist group after it launched rocket attacks on Israel the following year. Hamas militants in Gaza hide in schools and other civilian centers to make it difficult for Israeli troops to fire back without injuring civilians.
Professor Gerald Steinberg is the Executive Director at NGO Monitor in Jerusalem. He says that Israel, despite being quite literally attacked by Hamas, is still trying to help the people of Gaza.
[Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg, NGO Monitor]:
"Israel for humanitarian reasons is providing a great [amount] of food. Last week, 62 truckloads of food and medicines [were] taken across from Israel to Gaza. Some of these trucks were fired [upon] by Hamas people, by Hamas terrorist guerrillas."
Nonetheless, says Steinberg, there are well-known human rights groups that choose to condemn Israel for how it handles Gaza.
[Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg, NGO Monitor]:
"And you even see organizations like Human rights watch, Amnesty International, they don't issue. They issue [more] reports condemning Israel than they do on the situation in other parts of the world including Tibet."
According to official statistics, Israel has been condemned in more UN's General Assembly and Security Council resolutions than any other country in the world.
This is probably the reason why Prof. Steinberg says human rights are now getting "political". Even in a country like China, with its well documented torture of thousands of its own citizens, gets less criticism than a smaller, less politically influential country like Israel.
NTD, Israel.