A Tunisian medical aid convoy began its journey to Gaza on Thursday from Tunis, Palestinian officials said.
The convoy carrying four tons of medical aid left Tunis-Carthage International Airport earlier in the day, medical officials told Ma’an.
The coordinator of the medical services in the Gaza Strip said the convoy was organized by a Tunisian scout group and will arrive in Cairo and depart for Gaza shortly thereafter.
Some 11 scout leaders are part of the delegation, which is to visit Gaza’s hospitals and civil society groups before checking up on local scouts.
The “induced euphoria” that characterises discussions within the mainstream media around the upcoming declaration of an independent Palestinian state in September ignores the stark realities on the ground and the warnings of critical commentators. Depicting such a declaration as a “breakthrough”, and a “challenge” to the defunct “peace process” and the right-wing government of Israel, serves to obscure Israel’s continued denial of Palestinian rights while reinforcing the international community’s implicit endorsement of an apartheid state in the Middle East.
The drive for recognition is led by Salam Fayyad, the appointed Prime Minister of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA). It is based on the decision made during the 1970s by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to adopt the more flexible program of a “two-state solution”. This program maintains that the Palestinian question, the essence of the Arab-Israeli conflict, can be resolved with the establishment of an “independent state” in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. In this program Palestinian refugees would return to the state of “Palestine” but not to their homes in Israel, which defines itself as “the state of Jews”. Yet “independence” does not deal with this issue, nor does it heed calls made by the 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel to transform the struggle into an anti-apartheid movement, since they are treated as third-class citizens.
All this is supposed to be implemented after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank and Gaza. Or will it merely be a redeployment of forces as witnessed during the Oslo period? Yet proponents of this strategy claim that independence guarantees that Israel will deal with the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank as one people, and that the Palestinian question can be resolved according to international law, thus satisfying the minimum political and national rights of the Palestinian people.
Forget about the fact that Israel has as many as 573 permanent barriers and checkpoints around the occupied West Bank, as well as an additional 69 “flying” checkpoints; and you might also want to ignore the fact that the existing “Jewish-only” colonies have annexed more than 54 per cent of the West Bank.
At the 1991 Madrid Conference, then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s “hawkish” government did not even accept the Palestinian “right” to administrative autonomy. However, with the coming of the “dovish” Meretz/Labor government, led by Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, the PLO leadership escaped into behind-curtains negotiations in Norway. By signing the Oslo Accords, Israel was released of the heavy burden of administering Gaza and the seven crowded cities of the West Bank. The first intifada was ended by an official – and secret – PLO decision without achieving its interim national goals, namely “freedom and independence”, and without the consent of the people the organisation purported to represent.
“Once declared, the future ‘independent’ Palestinian state will occupy less than 20 per cent of historic Palestine.”
This same idea of “independence” was once rejected by the PLO, because it did not address the “minimum legitimate rights” of Palestinians and because it is the antithesis of the Palestinian struggle for liberation. What is proposed in place of these rights is a state in name only. In other words, the Palestinians must accept full autonomy on a fraction of their land, and never think of sovereignty or control of borders, water reserves, and most importantly, the return of the refugees. That was the Oslo agreement and it is also the intended “Declaration of Independence”. No wonder, then, that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu makes it clear that he “might agree to a Palestinian state through negotiations”.
Nor does this declaration promise to be in accordance with the 1947 UN partition plan, which granted the Palestinians only 47 per cent of historic Palestine even though they comprised over two-thirds of the population. Once declared, the future “independent” Palestinian state will occupy less than 20 per cent of historic Palestine. By creating a Bantustan and calling it a “viable state”, Israel will get rid of the burden of 3.5 million Palestinians. The PA will rule over the maximum number of Palestinians on the minimum number of fragments of land – fragments that we can call “The State of Palestine”. This “state” will be recognised by tens of countries – South Africa’s infamous Bantustan tribal chiefs must be very envious!
One can only assume that the much talked-about and celebrated “independence” will simply reinforce the same role that the PA played under Oslo. Namely providing policing and security measures designed to disarm the Palestinian resistance groups. These were the first demands made of the Palestinians at Oslo in 1993, Camp David in 2000, Annapolis in 2007 and Washington last year. Meanwhile, within this framework of negotiations and demands, no commitments or obligations are imposed on Israel.
Just as the Oslo Accords signified the end of popular non-violent resistance of the first intifada, this declaration of independence has a similar goal, namely ending the growing international support for the Palestinian cause since Israel’s 2008-2009 winter onslaught on Gaza and its attack on the Freedom Flotilla last May.Yet it falls short of providing Palestinians with the minimal protection and security from any future Israeli attacks and atrocities. The invasion and siege of Gaza was a product of Oslo. Before the Oslo Accords were signed Israel never used its full arsenal of F-16s, phosphorous bombs, and DIME weapons to attack refugee camps in the Gaza and the West Bank. Over 1,200 Palestinians were killed from 1987-1993 during the first intifada. Israel eclipsed that number during its three-week invasion in 2009; it managed to brutally kill more than 1,443 in Gaza alone. This does not include the victims of Israel’s siege in place since 2006, which has been marked by closures and repeated Israeli attacks before the invasion of Gaza and since.
Ultimately, what this intended “declaration of independence” offers the Palestinian people is a mirage, an “independent homeland” that is a Bantustan-in-disguise. Although it is recognised by so many friendly countries, it stops short of providing Palestinians freedom and liberation. Critical debate – as opposed to one that is biased and demagogic – requires scrutiny of the distortions of history through ideological misrepresentations. What needs to be addressed is an historical human vision of the Palestinian and Jewish questions, a vision that never denies the rights of a people, that guarantees complete equality, and abolishes apartheid – instead of recognising a new Bantustan 17 years after the fall of apartheid in South Africa.
Haidar Eid is an associate professor at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza.
Gazans are dying to break the Israeli blockade – literally. More than 500 of them have already died from lack of access to life-saving medications and medical supplies directly attributable to the illegal Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Lest you think it is just Gaza crying wolf, here is what the International Red Cross had to say about the situation in its Operational Update of 28 July 2011, “The lack of a reliable system for delivering drugs and disposables to Gaza has a direct impact on patient care. Drugs used in the treatment of cancer, kidney-transplant and haemodialysis patients have been out of stock for the past three months.” (1)
And that is only the tip of the iceberg.
I interviewed Dr Muneer Alboursh (see video interview below), Director General of Pharmacy at the Ministry of Health, about the critical situation they are currently facing trying to provide health services in a context of occupation, breaches of international law, and an alarmingly passive international community.
180 essential medicines lacking
I first asked Dr Alboursh about the current state of medications and supplies.
Gaza Video 1. Interview between Julie Webb-Pullman and Dr Muneer Alboursh, Director General of Pharmacy, Gaza MOH.
“I have here on my desk a letter from a department in the Palestinian Ministry of Health stating that 180 essential medicines are lacking, and 164 medical supply items. Disinfectants and alcohol are also absent from the shelves of the Ministry of Health. In brief, the situation in the sense of medical supplies in the Gaza Strip is just tragic,” he said. “In my capacity in this position I can confirm that some people have already died because of these shortages.
15 out of 30 medications that are needed for cancer treatment are missing, and some of the missing items are involved in more than one treatment protocol. Their absence hinders the implementation of the entire treatment process. Thalassemia (2) medications are also absent from the shelves of the Ministry of Health.”
Gaza Video 2. Interview between Julie Webb-Pullman and Dr Muneer Alboursh, Director General of Pharmacy, Gaza MOH.
I went and looked in the warehouse myself, and sure enough, the cupboards are almost bare – and a lot of what is there, has expired.
Israel and Palestinian Authority both contribute
That the citizens of Gaza are pawns in a game by Israel to get rid of the Hamas government is widely acknowledged in reports by a range of international organisations, who have long termed Israel’s blockade of Gaza both illegal, and a form of ‘collective punishment.’ Not so widely acknowledged is the role that the Palestinian Authority has been playing in this sacrifice.
“There are multiple reasons behind this crisis but the Israeli occupation is the first and foremost because Israel is the occupier and the besieger of the Gaza Strip,” he told me. “And yes, the Palestinian Authority is also part of the problem because all of the medical items and supplies are procured by the Palestinian Authority and delivered to their warehouses in the West Bank, but they are only providing the Gaza Strip with the very minimum quantities of medications, to keep the situation lacking and to make sure that the people will grow resentful of the governors of the Gaza Strip. They [Palestinian Authority] have been getting all the funds from the World Bank yet they have been providing, as I said, only small quantities of these medications, to keep the crisis going and to keep Palestinians dying slowly, and they are responsible for fatalities among children due to the lack of medicines.”
Reunification
Will the reunification agreed to by Feteh and Hamas result in an improvement? I ask.
“We hope that Palestinians will eventually be re-unified but we should take into consideration that the Israeli occupation is the root problem of all of the problems. Israel has a keen interest in keeping the Palestinians divided and has been pressuring the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, and in Egypt also, to keep all crossings closed and to keep the situation lacking.”
The queues at Rafah unsuccessfully trying to leave for medical treatment despite the putative ‘opening’ of the crossing from 28 May this year, unfortunately support this pessimistic conclusion.
International organisations wait for Israeli approval while babies die
I ask what international organisations such as the United Nations and the Red Cross, are doing to ensure that no more Gazans die as a result of the failure of essential medicines and medical supplies to enter Gaza in a timely manner.
Family with sick baby turned back at Rafah despite having ‘permission’ to get medical treatment in Egypt.
“It is well-known that the UN is working within the framework that is set up by the occupation in the area, so they are taking into consideration the prevailing political circumstances in the neighbouring states like Egypt, and in Israel. They don’t thinks it’s odd that international committees like the Red Cross, that are supposed to be able to be in, and work within, conflict zones and war zones, are unable to do their work because they are waiting for Israeli approval. So the UN and those international organisations do nothing, pending Israeli approval, they are all waiting for Israel’s permission to do their jobs,” Dr Alboursh replied.
It’s not only odd – it flies in the face of ethical and professional standards in the provision of health care, as well as the UN mandate to provide humanitarian assistance, and Israel’s obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention “…to ensure the supply of foodstuff, medical and hospital items and other goods to meet the humanitarian needs of the population of the Gaza Strip without qualification.” (3)
So while International organisations kowtow to Israel, permitting a rogue state to determine the manner, content and delivery of humanitarian assistance, contrary to accepted humanitarian principles, people in Gaza die.
Dr Alboursh gives a recent example. “The International Committee of the Red Crescent was waiting for a few days when we were appealing to them to provide for essential medications for five twins that were born in the Gaza Strip. We had to wait for them to get the Israeli permit to enter Gaza and bring the medications, and by then two out of the five were already dead.”
Keep politics out of medicine
Dr Alboursh emphasised the willingness of the Gaza Health Ministry to co-operate with international organisations to ensure the planned and timely provision of essential medicines and supplies to the Gaza population. “The political division, disputes and the siege have been hindering access to and delivery of highly-needed items. We have appealed several times to international organisations to intervene and to declare the tenders and to do the whole tendering process and we will serve only as an operational medium for them and we would be more than happy to provide and to whatever they want us to do, to make sure they can help Palestinians in need and to alleviate the suffering of the people and to make sure there are no fatalities among the people who are waiting for life-saving medications.”
Even ambulances carrying desperately ill patients must often wait hours, and are aslo turned back.
Despite their pleas, the situation has got worse, not better. International organisations obviously need a timely reminder of the core principles of humanitarian assistance, outlined in a previous article, most important of which are humanity, neutrality and impartiality; facilitation of transit of assistance by states in close proximity; United Nations guarantee of prompt and smooth delivery of relief assistance; and the creation of “*relief corridors for the distribution of emergency medical and food aid.*” (4)
In the meantime, while they wag their tails and wait for Israel’s next command, civil society has again had to step up.
Miles for Smiles 4 Convoy
A few minutes before our interview, Dr Alboursh had been with the European Miles for Smiles 4 convoy which had just arrived in Gaza, delivering to the Palestinian Ministry of Health desperately-needed supplies of therapeutic milk, and Factor 8 which is used for the management and treatment of haemophilia. The convoy is an excellent example of what can be achieved in the spirit of co-operation. “These medications can be considered as life-saving medications that are desperately needed in the Gaza Strip and these things were procured as a result of co-ordination with the convoy,” he said.
However, convoys are no substitute for proper planning – as the recent interception of the Freedom Flotilla 2 –Stay Human and the massacre on the Mavi Marmara illustrate only too well, such humanitarian missions are similarly subject to illegal – and brutal – Israeli attempts, often successful, to prevent essential medicines reaching the besieged population of the Gaza Strip.
So while Israel ignores its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure adequate medical supplies, while the Palestinian Authority pockets the money it receives from the World Bank yet fails to provide Gaza with the medicines and supplies it was provided for, while the UN and other international organisations try to clean up the mess left by the first two while begging Israel for the right to do so, Gazans die a slow but sure death trapped by an illegal blockade and the apathy and hypocrisy of an international community more concerned with appeasement of Israel than with international law, let alone fundamental humanitarian principles.
As Dr Alboursh concluded, “Above all, our major concern is that we can access and get timely delivery of the medications that are so needed by our people.”
The solution is simple – the international community must take a principled stand against Israel on moral, legal, and humanitarian grounds, and demand an immediate end to Israel’s illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. Gazan lives depend on it.
*************
Julie Webb-Pullman (click to view previous articles) is a New Zealand based freelance writer who has reported for Scoop since 2003. She recently managed to get into Gaza during a brief period when the Rafah Gate was open.
Government is all about statistics. But life is about people, and the disjunction between the two explains a lot about the cynicism and disaffection with politics. This is true for domestic policy, but also in international affairs, where the confusion and fatigue induced by distance is increased by the seemingly intractable nature of many of the problems.
The people who suffer are those who most need the attention of the world. This is notably true of the 1.5 million people crowded into the Gaza Strip, locked between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean sea.
The situation of the people – or rather the fight about their situation – is periodically in the news, most recently when violence broke the otherwise reasonably effective ceasefire in August. But Gaza has become the land that time – and the wider international community – forgot.
It is for this reason that I took up the offer from Save the Children to visit the Gaza Strip. I had not been able to visit while in government for security reasons. Now I wanted to get a sense of life, not statistics. The purpose of the visit was not to meet politicians or decision-makers, but to get a glimpse, albeit brief, of life for the people.
And there is real life. Boys in western football shirts – mainly Lionel Messi of Barcelona. Restaurants overlooking the Mediterranean. Girls in white headscarves wherever you look coming back from school. Barbers, clothes shops, fruit stalls. And a good deal of traffic – with new cars smuggled in through tunnels underneath the Philadelphi route that runs along the Egyptian border.
But although life is real, it is traumatic and limited. We saw buildings – not just the former Hamas headquarters – still reduced to rubble. There are houses riddled with bullet holes. The electricity supply cuts out for up to eight hours a day. There are not enough schools or teachers, so there are classes of 50 or 60 and the school day is restricted to a few hours to allow for two or even three shifts.
The consequences of war are everywhere, nowhere more so than for those caught in the crossfire. We met the niece and son of a farmer caught in the “buffer zone” between the Israeli border and Gaza. She had lost an eye and he a hand to Israeli shells in the war of 2008-09.
Save the Children, obviously, is most concerned about the 53% of the Gaza population under 18. The statistics say 10% of children are “stunted” – so undernourished before the age of two that they never grow to their full potential.
We saw what Save the Children is trying to do about it, at a nutrition centre serving mothers and children in Gaza City. The needs are basic: promoting breastfeeding, health boosts for young children through food supplies, medical attention for mothers. But not all those who need help are coming to get it, so Save the Children funds outreach workers to go and encourage families to use the services.
There is remarkable work to create opportunity as well as prevent catastrophe. The Qattan Centre for the Child is a privately funded library, drama, computer and youth centre that would grace any British community. The director told me it was dedicated to a philosophy of “building people not buildings”. The centre is a true oasis.
The situation in Gaza represents the ultimate failure of politics. Nearly three years ago, after the Gaza war, the international community was preoccupied with opening up Gaza. Three years on, there is a stalemate – to match the wider stalemate in the wider search for a Palestinian state that can live alongside Israel.
The first responsibility is with Israel. The international call in the UN Gaza peace resolution, which Britain authored, on the Israeli government to open up the supply lines has been heeded only in small part. That is why the tunnels do such a roaring trade – which Hamas then taxes to fund its activities. So there is a real boomerang. In return, the Israeli government would retort that the parallel call in the resolution for the flow of arms into Gaza to be stopped has not been delivered. That’s true, too.
Yet the international pressure is muted. The focus has shifted. But the needs and the people have not moved on.
This is not a party political hit on the British government. The Department for International Development is the second biggest donor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The prime minister spoke up about Gaza early in his term of office. There is room for a genuine cross-party drive to make sure that the children and adults of Gaza are not forgotten.
To make the situation even more infuriating, the status quo is actually irrational. It is not in anyone’s political interest. Israel doesn’t become safer, or Hamas or Fatah more popular.
One young mother at the nutrition centre told me that she was just completing her accountancy degree – but there was no work. Yusuf, nine, working on a computer at the Qattan centre, told me he wanted to be a pilot. These people are not a threat to peace in the Middle East. They are actually its hope. But for that they need a chance to shape their own future.
Here we go again. Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, is portraying the Israel-Palestine conflict as one between equals.
In a speech today, Ashton congratulated herself for increasing Europe’s involvement in something called the Middle East peace process. “I have worked to achieve a greater EU role as I believe we are ideally placed as a friend of both parties,” she said.
What kind of friend is the EU leadership to the Palestinians? The kind that refuses to heed an appeal made by representatives of a wide cross-section of Palestinian society in 2005 for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
That is illustrated this week in Helsinki, where the European Union Contest for Young Scientists is taking place. Sponsored by the European Commission (a political body to which Ashton belongs), it features two finalists from Israel.
Greenwashing apartheid
Both of the qualifying projects chime with the propaganda of the Israeli state, or hasbara as it is known in Hebrew. The first one is in the social science category and seeks to demonstrate that fascism has roots in left-of-center politics. “Hopefully, this insight would be useful in fighting future fascism,” a blurb for the project says – without adding that Avigdor Lieberman and his ilk are nurturing a quasi-fascist intolerance in Israel.
The second project tries to reinforce the myth that Israel is ecologically responsible. Titled “Antileaks,” it designs a system for detecting leaks in water systems. I would be interested to find out if the system will be installed in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israeli settlers consume an average of 280 liters per day (in a desert environment), whereas Palestinians living in the West Bank have to make do with 73 (less than the 100 liters minimum recommended by the World Health Organization).
The Commission has some nerve supporting Israeli water conservation projects. For – as I have written repeatedly – it is a generous contributor of grants to makers of Israeli weapons like Elbit, Israeli Aerospace Industries and Rafael. Those firms helped destroy 30 kilometers of water networks, 6,000 home water tanks and 11 wells during Israel’s assault on Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009.
“Avoid” Israel’s arms
On a more positive note, the European Parliament voted today that the EU should “avoid” involving countries that do not respect human rights, UN resolutions or international law in scientific research projects with potential military applications. This call was contained in a position paper approved by the Parliament on the future of EU research policy. Even though Israel was not named, the call was clearly directed at the Zionist state. Israel is the most active non-European participant in the Union’s multi-annual research programme.
Undoubtedly, the BDS activists who have urged members of Parliament (MEPs) to take up the cudgels against Israel deserve a drink to celebrate this vote. But the activists should restrict their imbibing to one glass and get straight back to work. Democracy is routinely ignored in the EU’s corridors of power, so there is little immediate likelihood that Israeli arms companies will be deemed ineligible for further science grants just because that is what a majority of elected representatives advocate. The future, though, is unwritten. With enough public support, the momentum created by the BDS campaign should prove unstoppable.
Two Palestinians were killed and six others were injured on Saturday after a gas canister exploded in a smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, medics said.
Medical sources reported that the two Palestinians identified as Bassam Abu Zayda, 33, and Mohammed Abdeen, 25, died due to a tunnel explosion, while the six others suffered moderate wounds.
Nine people were in the tunnel at the time of the explosion and one was rescued unharmed, medical officials told Ma’an.
Five Palestinians have been killed in tunnel collapses in the last week.
Ashraf Al-Qarra, 17, died on Monday afternoon and Haytham Abu Radwan, also 17, died on Tuesday morning from injuries sustained when a gas canister exploded in the tunnel they were in on Monday.
On Sunday, a young Palestinian was killed and another injured when a smuggling tunnel between the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed. Medics identified the deceased as Jihad Irbati.
Egyptian security officials said in early September that they were cracking down on the network of tunnels used by smugglers from the coastal enclave.
Medics say over 160 Palestinians have died in the network of underground tunnels since Israel imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip in 2006.
Under Israel’s crippling blockade, the tunnels have provided a lifeline for residents of the coastal enclave.
Egypt’s reopening of the Rafah border eased the impact of the siege for some residents, who were able to leave Gaza freely for the first time in years.
But the terminal is not equipped for the transfer of goods, and smugglers say trade is still booming.
Today Irish rugby stars Trevor Hogan, Jerry Flannery, Gordan D’Arcy, Shane Horgan and Tipperary hurling captain Eoin Kelly have joined forces in a video pledge to raise funds for the sabotaged Irish Ship to Gaza ‘MV Saoirse to sail again.
MV Saoirse was set to sail as part of this years ‘Freedom Flotilla 2′ but was sabotaged with a damaged prop shaft in port whilst in Turkey. Dr Fintan Lane, national coordinator of Irish Ship to Gaza, who own the vessel, said on the sabotage : “This is an appalling attack and should be condemned by all right-thinking people. It is an act of violence against Irish citizens and could have caused death and injury. If we had not spotted the damage as a result of a short trip in the bay, we would have gone to sea with a dangerously damaged propeller shaft and the boat would have sunk if the hull had been breached. Imagine the scene if this had happened at nighttime.”
Trevor Hogan and Fintan Lane
He continued: “One of the most shocking aspects is the delayed nature of the sabotage. It wasn’t designed to stop the ship from leaving its berth; instead, it was intended that the fatal damage to the ship would occur while she was at sea and this could have resulted in the deaths of several of those on board. This was a potentially murderous act.”
Dr Lane, who was on board Challenger 1 in last year’s flotilla, said: “The Freedom Flotilla is a non-violent act of practical and humanitarian solidarity with the people of Gaza, yet Israel continues to use threats and violence to delay its sailing. They attacked us in international waters last year; now they are attacking us in Turkish and Greek ports. There is no line that Israel won’t cross.”
“We will not be intimidated by attacks like this — it simply highlights the aggression that the Palestinian people of Gaza have to put up with on a daily basis. It strengthens our determination to continue until this illegal and immoral blockade is lifted.”
When Kia Ora Gaza was in Gaza almost a year ago, some of the team visited poor families and orphans in Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Yunis.
At that time I reported on the dire situation faced by families there, some of whom had been living in these conditions since 1948. Click Here for article
Yesterday I returned. The intervening year has not seen an improvement, but rather, even more homeless, living in even worse conditions, as a result of even more attacks by Israel, compounded by that state’s refusal to permit the necessary building materials in to replace the houses they have been destroying for over 60 years now.
UNRWA has managed to construct apartment shells but they stand empty, unable to be completed because of lack of materials, while next to them homeless families have cobbled together shelters on vacant government land – shelters they must leave before winter because the land is lower than the surrounding area, and when it rains, these paths become rivers flowing around – and through – their ‘homes’. Besides which, many have no glass in the windows, and the roofs are merely sheets of iron held down with chunks of broken concrete salvaged from the rubble, providing about as much protection from the rain as a colander.
I visited a woman widowed by Operation Cast Lead, and her four children, who, along with everyone else here, must find another place to live before winter arrives. She will be competing with many thousands more for the few residences available – leading to serious overcrowding. Another woman, also widowed by Operation Cast Lead, lives, eats, sleeps with her seven children in one room of her father’s house, a house they must share with 20 relatives. Yet another lives with her nine children in an unfinished government apartment block which Hamas made available as emergency housing for those left homeless by Operation Cast Lead, and now wants to complete – but cannot, because they are full of women like her, widowed, unemployed, and unable to pay rent for them, let alone buy them at the favourable rates offered.
In Gaza there are no single parent benefits, no dole, no sickness benefits – the small amount of taxes the government-under-siege is able to collect is quickly eaten up by providing the most basic necessities such as water, electricity, and cooking gas.
If it wasn’t for the Khan Yunis Islamic Society, a non-governmental organisation totally reliant on donations, these children would have no food, no clothing, no school books, and certainly no possibility of ever attending university. They and their families would have no opportunity to receive medical care and medicines, rehabilitation services or to travel abroad for necessary treatment.
In their attempt to ensure that the most poor and most vulnerable of Khan Yunis – orphans, poor families, people with disabilities and medical needs – do not become trapped in a cycle of poverty and deprivation, the Islamic Society delivers urgent relief, medical aid, welfare, social services, and rehabilitation programmes to ensure their integration into the community. For example some 30 orphans have all of their living and educational expenses paid, and they run nine kindergartens in Khan Yunis, to enable all children begin school with basic literacy and numeracy, as well as social skills.
I visited the largest kindergarten, Toyor Al-Jana, directed by two women. They run two sessions a day, with 190 children attending the morning session, and 180 attending in the afternoon. Classes have 20 children in each, but space has become such a problem that an outside storage shed has had to be converted into a classroom.
Because so many of their students suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and have other special needs resulting from their survival of aerial attacks, ground invasions, and the bombing and shelling of their homes, as well as witnessing the deaths of family members and friends, the Society is very keen to identify and implement international best practice for this special needs group, in order to provide the best services possible for these children and their families.
They therefore welcome not only international financial contributions to their programmes (such as for a much-needed shade-cloth or roof for the kindergarten playground), but also professional and academic collaboration, knowledge and skill-sharing, to help them achieve the most positive impact physically, psychologically, socially and educationally, to produce productive and active members of society.
In what has become my most common reaction in Gaza, I left Khan Yunis amazed by the resilience of the people who continue to struggle against such enormous odds, and the children who, despite the horrors they have witnessed and the hardships they continue to suffer, can still smile and have fun, as this video shows.
I should mention that these kids are in the direct firing line – Khan Yunis is attacked almost daily, and the shadows under the eyes of the kids in the video and the pics are testament to the sleepless nights they suffer – from drones, F16s, rockets, hunger, or just sharing a small room with ten others. The bandages on the leg of the boy in pic 7 are from gashes received playing outside – his sister also had stitches in her foot – they have no shoes, and broken glass and pieces of metal scattered by bomb blasts are their constant companions.
If anyone works in early childhood education, and is interested in helping the Society do its work in this particularly-impoverished area, they would love to hear from you. They would especially like a shade cloth/roof for the playground, so any local solidarity groups who could go about raising the funds for/sending one with Viva Palestina 6, due to arrive in Gaza in December, it would be very welcomed. Are there any such things as sister-kindy’s??!! That would also be a wonderful thing to do, to build relationships between kids internationally – VP6 could take drawings etc to the Gaza kids, and bring some back from Gaza for your local kindy.
*Anyone wanting to help Khan Yunis orphans, either by donating to their programmes or by collaborating in the development of best practice for this particularly vulnerable population group, can contact the Khan Yunis Islamic Society directly at jameakh@hotmail.com.
New UNRWA housing in the background, houses constructed from rubble in the foreground
overlooked by the remains of the shelled-out apartments no longer habitable.
This street becomes a river when it rains, flooding all the houses.
The black hose is the water supply…
…for this solo mother, here with 3 of her 4 children.
One room is home for this widow and her 7 children…
Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law, a panel of human rights experts reporting to a UN body said on Tuesday, disputing a conclusion reached by a separate UN probe into Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship.
The so-called Palmer Report on the Israeli raid of May 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists said earlier this month that Israel had used unreasonable force in last year’s raid, but its naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled strip was legal.
A panel of five independent UN rights experts reporting to the UN Human Rights Council rejected that conclusion, saying the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in “flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
The four-year blockade deprived 1.6 million Palestinians living in the enclave of fundamental rights, they said.
“In pronouncing itself on the legality of the naval blockade, the Palmer Report does not recognize the naval blockade as an integral part of Israel’s closure policy towards Gaza which has a disproportionate impact on the human rights of civilians,” they said in a joint statement.
An earlier fact-finding mission named by the same UN forum to investigate the flotilla incident also found in a report last September that the blockade violated international law. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says the blockade violates the Geneva Conventions.
Israel says its Gaza blockade is a precaution against arms reaching Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas by sea.
The four-man panel headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer found Israel had used unreasonable force in dealing with what it called “organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers.”
Turkey has downgraded ties with Israel over the incident.
Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and one of the five experts who issued Tuesday’s statement, said the Palmer report’s conclusions were influenced by a desire to salve Turkish-Israeli ties.
“The Palmer report was aimed at political reconciliation between Israel and Turkey. It is unfortunate that in the report politics should trump the law,” he said in the statement.
About one-third of Gaza’s arable land and 85 percent of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli military measures, said Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, another of the five.
At least two-thirds of Gazan households lack secure access to food, he said. “People are forced to make unacceptable trade-offs, often having to choose between food or medicine or water for their families.”
The other three experts were the UN special rapporteurs on physical and mental health, extreme poverty and human rights, and access to water and sanitation.
Employees at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency [UNWRA] in Gaza have stage a sit-in outside the Agency’s main headquarters where they raised banners and placards demanding dignity for employees and a reversal of the decision made to suspend Staff Union President, Suhail al-Hindi.
UNWRA decided to suspend al-Hindi for three months without pay on account of his trade union activities and has also given him a final warning.
In protest against the decision, the Union of Arab Employees at UNWRA announced that staff across all Agency schools would suspend work for two hours.
Staff participating in the sit-in stressed their right to express their connection and belonging to the Palestinian cause and to their homeland.
A UK based aid convoy carrying urgently neeed medical aid has just entered the besieged Gaza strip.
The team consisting of 19 people from England, Ireland and Egypt accompanying a truck loaded with specialist surgical equipment and vital medical supplies today arrived via the Rafah crossing. Their entry came after facing delays at the hands of the Egyptian authorities who regularly delay and hinder aid convoy’s and activists showing solidarity with the blockaded people of Gaza.
This convoy arrived on the 1551st day of the siege amidst a changing atmosphere between not only the Egyptians and the Israelis but between Palestine and the rest of the world Ahead of their bid for statehood at the UN this month.
A UK based aid convoy carrying urgent medical aid has just been blocked from entering Gaza. They have all the correct paper work but have been told they can’t enter.
The team consisting of 19 people from England, Ireland and Egypt are accompanying a truck loaded with specialist surgical equipment and perishable medical items that are nearing expiring as time goes on.
The original date that they were given permission to go in on was the 8th but they were contacted by Egyptian officials and told to delay for their safety. The team delayed and went on the 10th as suggested by the officials but they have waited since 8am on Saturday without any news on when the can enter. They have been told not to film or hold banners up.
This comes long after Egyptian authorities claimed that Rafah was opened. This kind of delay/denial of entry has become commonplace, almost standard practice for those attempting to send aid or show solidarity with the people of Gaza and the process is harder still for the millions of Gazans trapped inside wishing to travel in or out of Gaza.
This convoy is testing the Egyptian Authorities at Rafah at a very crucial time following the storming of the Israeli embassy in Cairo, the ‘de facto’ expulsion of it’s ambassador and calls from the post Mubarak revolutionary movement to cancel the Camp David agreement with Israel.
