Sanctions alone, as they are most often applied, always harm the most vulnerable people in societies. Governments said to be the target of these so-called moral actions often survive the punishment.<\/p>\n
The BBC’s Kate McGeown discovered this to be the case in Burma<\/a>, where existing poverty worsened by sanctions imposes extreme hardships on the people, yet the government continues to act with impunity.<\/p>\n But if sanctions are to be used when bureaucrats act beyond reason, and often beyond the popular sentiment of the people they serve, then shouldn’t an international standard be a requirement or should sanctions continue to be one more weapon in the arsenal of war criminals? <\/span><\/p>\n Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak is planning to approve a list of civilian sanctions against the Gaza Strip<\/a> in response to continued Kassam attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n What does Barak intend to do about this? Award a medal?<\/p>\n Juliette is a member of the 2007 Jewish Voice for Peace, Health and Human Rights Project’s delegation to Palestine and Israel<\/a>, and will be blogging from there until 3 November.<\/p>\n Palestinian Home Ravaged by Israeli bullets — Inhabitants unarmed.<\/font><\/p>\n Two days ago in Naublus, Israeli soldiers repeatedly shot at and then evacuated a house, consisting of five one-family apartments, and an apartment inhabited by a seventy-year-old man \u2013 the man was shot in the heart that night when he opened his front door to the Israeli soldiers; he was unarmed, and he died.<\/p>\n Today, our delegation visited the rebuilding site \u2013 windows and nerves shattered by bullets, frightening clusters of holes in the ceilings and walls. And we experienced the most disturbing image: the white knit sweater of a three-year-old girl, Laura, scorched and ripped up by bullets. She wasn\u2019t wearing the sweater. It was in her bed, while the girl was clutched to her mother\u2019s chest nearby.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n [Read Juliette’s entry<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sanctions alone, as they are most often applied, always harm the most vulnerable people in societies. Governments said to be the target of these so-called moral actions often survive the punishment. The BBC’s Kate McGeown discovered this to be the … Continue reading