In an interview, Elon Musk said that SpaceX’s Starlink would connect people in Gaza with “internationally known assistance organizations.” Israel’s information minister, Shlomo Karhi, spoke out strongly against this move and promised to fight it.
While acknowledging that the business is aware that “no terminal has asked for a connection within that area,” Elon Musk stated in a post on X that it is unknown who has the authority to build ground connectivity in Gaza.
The Gaza Strip lost access to both the Internet and phones, cutting it off from the rest of the world.
Although the blackout officially began on May 27, it complicated efforts by foreign humanitarian groups to save lives and made it difficult for personnel to communicate with Gaza.
According to Reuters, SpaceX did not respond to their question about how they would make sure that any Starlink connection was only used by aid groups and never by Hamas, the terrorist group that runs the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s minister of communications, Shlomo Karhi, reacted to Musk’s post on X by saying, “We are going to use all means at our disposal to prevent this.”
“HAMAS is going to use it for terrorist operations,” Karhi said. “Maybe Musk would actually be willing to do it if we could get back our babies, sons, daughters, and elderly relatives who were taken hostage. Every single one of them! After that date, my office will no longer work with Starlink.”
Musk’s Starlink became famous after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Its satellites were said to have been very important in keeping internet connections open in several places, even though Russia tried to block the connections.
Since then, Musk has said that he doesn’t want to cover Crimea, which is currently ruled by Russia.
Musk has prevented the Ukrainian military from using his satellites to conduct attacks against Russian soldiers in Crimea by declining to expand coverage.
You can say what you want to say about Musk, but he’s not a businessman who likes war. He really wants to keep doing business with other countries and not cause political unrest in other countries.
If we want peace and wealth to be the norm around the world, we need more businesspeople who think this way.
Author: Blake Ambrose
