Going organic: The siege on Gaza

In February 2006, following Hamas' electoral victory, a top adviser to Ehud Olmert, the then Israeli prime minister, Dov Weisglass, described the essence of Israel's Gaza policy. "It's like a meeting with a dietitian," Weisglass said. "We need to make the Palestinians lose weight, but not to starve to death." Although any Gazan will quickly point out that the blockade on the movement of goods - and people - into and out of Gaza long predates the election of Hamas, as the years have passed the exact date of the siege has often been, for reasons of political expedience, recast to coincide with the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Israel characterizes the blockade as "economic warfare" targeting Hamas and its constituents. According to government documents that have surfaced in response to a lawsuit before Israel's high court, "the limitation on the transfer of goods is a central pillar in the means at the disposal of the state of Israel in the armed conflict between it and Hamas". A key white paper, entitled Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip - Red Lines, meticulously details the minimum caloric intake required, based on age and sex, to keep Gazans hovering just above malnutrition levels, and specifies the corresponding grams and calories of each type of food allowed into Gaza.