Benjamin Dousa about Gaza: « Not me holding the trucks out »
The UN warns of starvation in Gaza. According to the organization of acute malnutrition, 14,000 infants suffer. Since the beginning of March, Israel has blocked thousands of trucks with auxiliary broadcasts from crossing the border, while Israel has started an extensive ground offensive in the area.
« A slaughterhouse » recently called a surgeon in place In Gaza it for.
Benjamin Dousa, Minister of Development Development, says that Gaza is now one of the worst places on the globe.
– The humanitarian situation is terrible, he says.
Now he wants to « build a coalition of willing » To increase humanitarian support for Gaza and press for the EU to use the sanction tool to a greater extent against actors in Israel.
-More EU countries are needed that think this is to become a reality. In a first step, we then make an extent to our Nordic countries, which often have a consensus on these types of issues.
Earlier this week the majority of EU member states behind An initiative to review if Israel adheres to the requirements that the cooperation agreement that the EU has with Israel places on respecting human rights.
-It is positive that the European Commission is now doing a review, and we are positive to increase the pressure on Israel to immediately allow sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The government also runs nowadays on to set up extremist Israeli ministers On the EU sanctions list, says Benjamin Dousa.
Several experts have criticized the government’s handling of the issue. Johan von Schreeb, professor of global disaster medicine and Ylva Jonsson Strömberg, secretary general of Doctors Without Borders, calls in a Article on DN Debate The government’s actions for « political misconduct ».
Benjamin Dousa says he understands the criticism that it is happening too little.
– I think every Minister of Development and Foreign Minister in the world can feel a frustration that you want to do more. All the stories from Gaza make it turn in the stomach. But it is not me who stands at the border and keeps the trucks out. It is the Israeli defense force that does it. And what we can do is put pressure on the Israeli government.
Is it enough?
– The problem is that Sweden does everything we can. But we do not have our own association agreement with Israel. We have no sanctions of our own. These are issues that are handled at EU level. There are small steps in the right direction. But I can agree that it is far too slow.
In December, the government stopped the aid to the UN organization Unrwa operating in Gaza. Benjamin Dousa believes that this is because the Israeli Parliament has banned UNRWA, which makes it difficult for them to operate. A ban that one is critical of.
– But in the name of honesty, a lot of problems with UNRWA have also been reported for decades. This is how it can be when there is a relief organization in place where a terrorist organization also works. Finally, an addiction or relationship is created so that they can work.
On Tuesday, DN was able to report to SIDA’s humanitarian ward In a report, UNRWA concludes that despite the ban, the actor can best work in Gaza. Yet they are given no support. Dousa says that the support is now going through other aid organizations.
Why not provide support to the organization that is deemed to be most effective?
– We have an overall assessment of what Unrwa’s capacity will look like in the slightly longer term. If the conditions were completely changing, and Unrwa would have radically better conditions for acting in Gaza, then we do ongoing re -examinations of all our support.
