Shame on the Red Cross and shame on Oxfam...

They have become politicized and both are anti-Israel....

In a rare foray into politics, the International Committee for the Red Cross has condemned Israel's 40-year-old occupation of the Palestinian territories, saying security concerns could not justify the "enormous humanitarian cost" of Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The avowedly impartial Red Cross said yesterday it was releasing its report to raise the alarm about the "drastic deterioration" in the humanitarian situation ahead of an international donors' conference scheduled for Monday in Paris. The Palestinian Authority is expected to ask for $5.8-billion in new aid.

"Humanitarian aid and humanitarian assistance cannot be the solution to the problem," Red Cross spokeswoman Andrea Konig said. "That's why we say there has to be political action taken."

The Red Cross report said "severe restrictions" imposed by Israel have denied Palestinians their right to dignified, normal lives. It highlighted Israel's economic stranglehold on Gaza and the system of roadblocks that has chopped the West Bank into disconnected pieces, cutting farmers off from their lands and preventing free movement.

"Palestinians continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are prevented from doing what makes up the daily fabric of most people's existence. The Palestinian territories face a deep human crisis, where millions of people are denied their human dignity. Not once in a while, but every day," the report reads.

The Red Cross usually stays away from making political comments on the crises with which it deals. But this report underscored conditions in the Gaza Strip, where thousands of farmers unable to export their goods are "about to suffer a 100-per-cent drop in sales." Hundreds of sick Gazans have also been prevented from seeking necessary treatment abroad, the report said.

"Israel has the right to protect its own civilian population. ... [But] the balance between the Israeli legitimate security concerns and the right of the Palestinian people ... has not been struck."

In another report that will be released today ahead of the Paris conference, the poverty-fighting charity Oxfam International warned that if donor nations didn't put pressure on Israel to change its behaviour, much of the aid money raised next week would go to waste.

Gazans can export their stuff through Egypt...and if they simply stop their daily rocket attacks, through Israel. Oxfam is right about one thing -- all the donor money will go to waste -- but not because of Israel. But because the Palestinians will spend the money on weapons, rockets, and bullets.