BRULL, Michael. Anti-racist Jewish Australian writer Michael Brull in an Open Letter to J.K. Rowling on the blockade and imprisonment of (now in 2018) 2 million Palestinians in Gaza (2015): “In June 2008, Amnesty International observed that “in June, the Israeli government imposed an unprecedented blockade on the Gaza Strip, virtually imprisoning its entire 1.5 million people population, subjecting them to collective punishment and causing the gravest humanitarian crisis to date”. The results have been catastrophic. Mary Robinson formerly served as the President of Ireland and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She observed of the siege: “Their whole civilization has been destroyed, I’m not exaggerating. It’s almost unbelievable that the world doesn’t care while this is happening ” (Michael Brull, “Open Letter to J.K. Rowling from Michael Brull on Palestine”, New Matilda, 1 November 2015: https://newmatilda.com/2015/11/01/an-open-letter-to-jk-rowling-from-michael-brull-on-palestine/ ).
Michael Brull re the “siege on Gaza” and extensively quoting international humanitarian observers on this ongoing atrocity (2018): “The siege on Gaza was imposed in 2006, after Hamas won the elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It was tightened in 2007, when Hamas pre-empted a coup attempt by Fatah. This is a brief guide to what it has meant, though statistics can hardly convey the misery, suffering and desperation on the ground. This is also a cursory guide, given the effect of other factors, notably the wars on Gaza in 2008-9, and 2014, and the military coup in Egypt in 2013” ( Michael Brull, “The siege on Gaza: a brief guide (Part 1)”, New Matilda, 5 May 2018: https://newmatilda.com/2018/05/05/siege-gaza-brief-guide-part-1/ ).