Alarming news that Israel has finally installed automated kill zones around Gaza with the "See-Shoot" Sentry-Tech system. They can now exterminate stone-throwing children and a whole range of civilians along with with stray dogs, livestock, pigeons, and the army doesn't have to break into a sweat or even watch.
Some of this technology has been tried in Iraq. Yet another revelation of the nightmare Blair, Bush and their acolytes in government and the media got us into. So the Iraqi people have been guinea-pigs for the arms industry? How many of us knew about that?
Terrorists who strap explosives to themselves and blow up innocent civilians are to be condemned, but the billion-dollar sci-fi technology employed by an entire state is in another realm entirely.
From Kibush:
Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, said she is concerned about the deployment of such a system, regardless of whether it is operated in automatic or semi-automatic mode.
“There have been many cases in which people with no hostile or terrorist intentions were shot approaching the perimeter fence,” she said.
“Some attempted to enter Israel to find work, others suffered from disabilities, and still others were children who may have wandered into the forbidden areas. From a human rights perspective, the technology here is not as important as the need to evaluate each potential threat on a case by case basis.”
Meanwhile the entire population of Gaza — 1.5 million human beings — is under siege by Israel. Some 750,000 people are now out of food and medical supplies.
Delegations from the European Parliament have been trying to visit the area. More info here.
Ever since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006, Gaza has been subjected to an increasingly severe blockade that bars most essential supplies. Gaza’s economy has collapsed as a result, triggering sharp increases in unemployment, poverty, and childhood malnutrition.
How is this fostering peace?
The first British human rights activist has been arrested. Andrew Muncie is being held near Tel Aviv airport.
AP: Israel spurns UN plea to ease Gaza blockade
Charlie Pottins on the abducted Gaza fishermen.
[STOP PRESS: ITN reported this the other night as a new development but no-one else has picked it up so we could still be in the limbo period waiting for it to happen, which I hope it never does.]
