Imagine a handful of engineering students imprisoned in the tiny Gaza enclave taking on the cream of Europe’s technical universities in a competition to build a race car and compete with it.

– at least that’s what their students’ union tells me, and I’ve been trying to get confirmation.

Formula Student (FS) is a challenge to university students around the world to design and build a single-seat racing car, which they must then put through its paces at the Silverstone Circuit in the UK in a series of static and dynamic tests.

The aim is to inspire young people and boost skills in advanced engineering. In Europe the competition is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineer (IMechE). America has a similar student competition run by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

Students have to pretend they’ve been engaged by a manufacturing firm to produce a prototype car for evaluation. In addition to technical skills, the exercise teaches management, marketing and people skills. The motorsport industry regards this as an ideal standard of achievement for students making the transition from college to workplace.

Last year’s Class 1 winner was the University of Stuttgart. Stuttgart, of course, is home to Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, and the University is renowned for its advanced automotive engineering. Gottlieb Daimler himself was a student there, and Wilhelm Maybach received an honorary doctorate from the University at the age of seventy – names to conjure with!

This gives some idea of what the Gaza lads, who are starting in Class 2, will eventually be up against. Peter Leipold, 26, Chief Executive of the winning Rennteam Stuttgart, said: “Formula Student gives you the chance to learn much more than you ever could through studying, internships and diplomas. You have to deal with ideas and concepts, design, manufacturing, costing, materials, testing, logistics – there’s such a huge range of work you have to do. I don’t think there’s any other competition in the world in which you can learn so much.”

Construction of the car itself has to conform to nearly 30 pages of stringent rules and regulations. A four-stroke piston engine no larger than 610cc must be used, but this is enough to catapult the car from 0 to 60mph in just a few seconds. Electric only or hybrid vehicles are also allowed.

Further rules cover judging. The cars are judged in a series of tests such as technical inspection, cost and sustainability, presentation, and engineering design, solo performance trials, and high performance track endurance.

The rules even cover “unsportsmanlike conduct”.

The competition has been running in the UK since 1998 and Silverstone has been the venue since 2007. Nowadays Silverstone, besides being the home of Formula One racing, incorporates a technology park and is a very different world from the old aerodrome circuit many of us remember from the 1950s and 1960s.

Blockaded and Starved of Resources

The Khan Younis Training Centre (KYTC), located near Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, was set up by UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency) in 2007 to provide training for Gazan refugees and to inject skilled labour into the local economy.  One of the programmes it offers is Autotronics, which includes diagnosis, maintenance & repair of automotive systems, injection & ignition systems and electronics & electrical systems

Ever since Hamas won the 2006 elections in Palestine and enforced their right to govern the Gaza Strip this tiny coastal enclave has been viciously blockaded by Israel, turning it into a prison. Nothing gets in or out without Israel’s say-so.  Although the siege is illegal under international law the international community does nothing. In 2009 KYTC’s first Autotronics class, frustrated at the lack of workshop materials for hands-on automotive experience, set about building a race car from recycled parts. The following year the students decided to go further and build a car to the exacting standards of Europe’s Formula Student contest. 11 students eventually travelled to the UK last June with their high-octane creation.

Entered in Class 2, the team won 3rd prize for their business plan and came 9th with their financial report. But they were docked a huge number penalty points for missing the deadline for their design and specification report. This was because Israel’s illegal blockade prevented specialty parts from Italy reaching them.  The team had to improvise with recycled items from Gaza. Had they been awarded just an average score for the design and specification section they’d have finished in the top half of the results table along with Bath, Budapest, Brunel and Edinburgh.

Dr Colin Brown, Director of Engineering at IMechE, said: “It really is inspirational to see a team working so hard with the odds stacked against them like this. Formula Student is a massive challenge in its own right, but to be working with almost entirely recycled parts in one of the most deprived areas in the world is remarkable.

“These students epitomise the spirit and inventiveness of those who take part in Formula Student.”

Domestic Water pipes and Old Motorcycle Engine

Who are these remarkable youngsters and who encouraged them to get involved? UNRWA says: “The 11 youngsters that make up the Formula Student team are following a course in autotronics, designed to give a solid practical grounding in automobile engineering. In educational terms, it equates to an A Level or Ordinary National Certificate (ONC). Many are from a background that the United Nations describes as “abject poverty”, which means families who do not have the financial resources to provide for the very basic necessities such as food, clothing, and hygiene…”

The Principal of the KYTC, Dr Ghassan Abu-Orf, was aware of the then-fledgling Formula Student competition while teaching at the University of Sunderland in the UK. When he returned to Gaza, he reckoned that building such a car locally would be an ideal project for his pupils.

According to Emel (Muslim Lifestyle) Magazine, “once the team had made the plans for the car and identified the necessary parts they needed, they set about contacting various suppliers around the world to see where they could be acquired from. After many companies turned them down, the students found an Italian company that was willing to work with them. But even after the parts were sent, the Israeli authorities refused to let them enter the Gaza Strip.

“We didn’t give up,” a member of the team told Emel. “As Palestinians, we look for plan B all the time.”

So the students checked old cars and machinery in the Strip and salvaged the parts they needed. The engine came from a used Honda motorcycle and the chassis was fabricated with domestic hot water pipes. “Unfortunately we didn’t have the tools, machines and parts necessary to give us the best possible results — technology in Gaza is still quite primitive and out of date in comparison with international standards. But our mission was different, and remains different.”

Sahar Mousa, writing in Rotterdam4gaza, said: “For us the Formula Student competition is more than a prize, its more than a competition to win, it’s not related to being famous or to get any material reward. When we think about the competition we think about Palestine, we think about the Palestinian people wherever they are, we think about a message we need to send for the world. We need to tell everybody that we are a part of this world and we deserve our place in this world. We are able to be active and Palestinian Youth are able to create, innovate, and compete.

“Yes we can make it, we are strong enough to do it, because it’s for Palestine and it’s for every Palestinian.”

Sadly, I’m posting this article without any contributions from the main players – the General Union of Palestinian Students UK who hosted the Gaza team while in Britain, the Palestinian Embassy in London, and the team itself. The reason? After several requests the union said it was “too busy” to give me the team’s contact details. The embassy has not, as far as I know, issued any press releases or briefings, although it did reproduced a Daily Telegraph report on its website last June. I have written twice asking the ambassador’s office for information and contact details only to be ignored. After combing the internet I found a general email address for KYTC. Two emails have been sent but not acknowledged.

So this amazing story is scraped together from other sources. Had I known about it last summer, I’d have been at Silverstone cheering the lads on.

But it would be good to know …

• While in the UK the team visited Parliament and presumably other places besides Silverstone. Did they manage to establish any helpful links to the performance car industry (constructors and R&D) or liaise with likeminded education and training establishments?
• Have they arranged a programme yet for their 2012 visit?
• For 2012 what changes are they making? Will it be the same car modified or an entirely new one? Same team or a new one?

These were among the questions sent to the Principal, although he might not have received them.  I also asked for pictures. Again nothing.

The 2012 event is only three month away. If the KYTC lads read this and wish to update me on their preparations I’ll be happy to do a follow-up. But I hope they appreciate that writers and reporters need to wrap up their stories and move on. If unable get a timely reply or make proper contact they soon lose interest.

As for the Palestinian embassy in London, its prime task is surely to represent all Palestinians in a good light, showcase their achievements and help open doors to opportunities. This year, if indeed these remarkable youngsters are coming back, let us hope the Ambassador and his staff are on the ball and actively engaged.

By Stuart Littlewood

- Stuart Littlewood’s book Radio Free Palestine can now be read on the internet by visiting www.radiofreepalestine.org.uk. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Efforts to keep the Gaza Strip in the dark, including its many hospitals, homes and street lights, is immoral and inhumane and constitutes collective punishment against the Palestinians. It also shows complete casual disregard by the Israelis for the Arabs who can see this crime against their brothers taking place but can do nothing about it.

This raises questions about the usefulness of the Arab League, which has been unable to bring about the changes necessary to lift the siege on Gaza, and adopted a project two years ago to connect electricity supplies in the Arab world to the exclusion of the Gaza Strip. There are also questions about the religious and moral responsibility of the Arabs for the provision of electricity to the Gaza Strip, not least in order to save the sick, the poor and the needy. This is especially true of the Egyptians, who overthrew the Mubarak regime, which was a key ally of Israel and helped to enforce the siege of Gaza. The impotence of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to do anything at all, let alone provide electricity for Gaza, without permission from Israel may be understandable. The silence of the Arabs, however, is another matter, especially after the Arab Spring revolutions.

This failure to act suggests that they have not broken free from the dependency culture which sees whole states bow down to foreign intervention. Popular hopes that the Arab nation will regain its once important role as a major influence across the region have still not been fulfilled. If they had, then Israel would not be able to push ahead with its Judaisation plans and land grabs in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank; nor would the Zionist state be able to dictate to the Palestinian Authority. On the contrary, the Arabs, including the PA, would be in a position to break the siege and supply Gaza with all of its needs, electricity included. Israel’s collective punishment imposed for no other reason than that the Palestinians in Gaza have opted to resist the immoral military occupation of their land would come to an end.

Thus, the ongoing suffering of the people of Gaza at the hands of the Israeli occupation authorities can be seen as Israel’s revenge for Palestinian steadfastness. The people refuse to be humiliated and strive to maintain their dignity, and call upon the Arab world to join them in this stand against Israel’s inhumanity. Meanwhile, the weakness of the PA in Ramallah puts a huge question mark against its credibility and ability to fulfil the requirements of the national reconciliation deal struck between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo and Doha.

The Israeli government has to maintain its immoral policies to keep Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in power; the Palestinians have to pay a heavy price to buy votes for the increasingly extreme Likud leader. There is a crisis in his party, so Netanyahu has to show that he is a “tough” leader, which means being tough with the Palestinians. This includes keeping the military options open. The Arab world which hears the cries of the people of Gaza as they are kept in the dark should keep that in mind. The Israelis are not sleeping, so why are the Arabs?

Haitham Al-Sadiq

MEMO

Israeli warplanes fired on a Gaza City neighborhood early Friday, lightly injuring two Palestinian fighters.

The airstrike on the Zeitoun neighborhood injured two militants who were evacuated to hospital, emergency services’ spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said. Their identities and affiliations were not immediately identified.

An Israeli army statement said the warplanes hit “two terror activity sites in the northern Gaza Strip…in response to the rockets fired at Israel.”

Three rockets fired from Gaza landed in southern Israel on Thursday evening, and two projectiles early Friday, without causing injuries of damage.

The armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees said in a statement on Friday it had launched projectiles at southern Israel early on Friday.

The Nasser Salah al-Din brigades said they fire was in response to Israel’s violations of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians.

On Sunday, Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip injured six people, including a one-year-old infant.

Ma’an

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.

Ma’an

The prisoner swap deal with Israel, which Hamas has concluded through Egyptian and German intermediaries, is undoubtedly a perfect gift to the entire Palestinian people, given the deal’s auspicious timing, having taken place three weeks before the occurrence of Eidul Adha holiday.

The imminent release of some 1030 Palestinians from Israeli bastilles, dungeons and concentration camps is a definitive victory for Palestine and its struggling people by all conceivable standards.

Israel, the country, which has been oppressing and tormenting our people nonstop  for generations, has been forced to treat us with some respect, with a semblance of parity despite the enormous gap in the balance of powers between the two sides.

Israel, after all, is effectively a superpower which also tightly controls the politics and policies of the world’s sole superpower, its guardian-ally, the United States.

This is whereas Hamas is a small, besieged and blockaded resistance group, with a few thousand militiamen, struggling to resist a Nazi-like militaristic state that is hell-bent on murdering more Palestinians and stealing still more of their land.

Hence, the success of Hamas and other resistance groups to deal with Israel from a position of near  parity is a great moral, psychological and political victory for the Palestinian Islamist movement.

We should all remember that only a few months ago, Israel was demanding rather vociferously the destruction of  all Hamas’s human and resistance infrastructure.

Indeed, in addition to  the overwhelming joy which will hover over more than a thousand Palestinian  households, the deal will encompass the entire  Palestinian people because in the final analysis the prisoners’ cause is the national cause par excellance.

For many decades, Israel instilled in our minds the idea that Palestinian freedom fighters are “hopeless cases” that would only leave jail on their way to their graves!!

This deal is proving that for Palestinian political and resistance prisoners, spending one’s life and dying in an Israeli jail is not and doesn’t have to be an ineluctable fate.

This should be viewed as a strategic gain for the resistance as well as a huge morale booster for the estimated 4000 prisoners, still languishing in Israeli jails, and their families and beloved ones.

This means that the Israeli theory of deterrence will never be the same from now on. Yes, Israel is likely to seek and find ways and means to reaffirm and renew its psychological deterrence. However, the Palestinians, too, will never stop being more creative and more innovative, and, yes, more daring, in their unrelenting efforts to force Israel to meet their just grievances.

Because, ultimately, those fighting a foreign occupation are akin to those resisting rape and murder. One really exaggerates little by saying that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is an ultimate act of rape.

Hence, calling these Palestinian heroes “terrorists” and other evil epithets is the ultimate form of “fornication with language.”

Another point, which must be featured prominently, is that protracted negotiations between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and successive arrogant Israeli governments produced virtually nothing, apart from the accumulating frustration and despair among our people.

Hence the imminent swap deal shows that resistance to Israeli aggression, terror and criminality, should never ever be abandoned because then there would be no pressure on Israel to meet Palestinian demands, however just and legitimate these demands may be.

Yes, Israel might occasionally resort to offering Palestinians some “overtures” and “gestures of good will.” But this is very much like receiving handouts and charity whereby the giver decides everything while the receiver, or more correctly the beggar, has no choice but to accept whatever is thrown unto him.

Beggars can’t be choosers.

I felt I had to employ this analogy because since the conclusion of the hapless Oslo Accords in 1993, Israeli rejectionism, insolence, and arrogance of power effectively reduced the pathetic PA into a vanquished supplicant, begging Israel and the United States, for everything, from obtaining a travel permit to reach Jerusalem to releasing Palestinian inmates from Israeli jails.

Now, the resistance is demonstrating that its way pays off, because Israel knows only the language of real politik, in other word the language of force.

There is no doubt the imminent prisoner exchange deal will boost the status and stature of Hamas, not only among Palestinians but among Muslims worldwide. Hamas deserves this enhanced standing; it has earned it the hard way.

The deal is also expected to further cement relations between Egypt and Hamas. The deal asserted Egypt’s Arab and regional status as a central state which will always be a huge asset for all Arabs and Muslims and their various causes.

We hope and  pray that Cairo will keep moving away from the Zionist axis and keep getting nearer and closer to the masses’ axis.

The masses, long humiliated by nefarious Israeli policies and  murderous Israeli practices,  hate and loathe   Israel, the criminal state that doesn’t stop trying to obliterate the Arab-Islamic identity of Palestine, even by burning mosques and unearthing ancient cemeteries.

A final salute must go to those who kept Shalit’s whereabouts an absolute secret for more than five years.

Those unknown soldiers proved to friend and foe alike that there are still honorable men in Palestine who won’t be intimidated by sticks or induced by carrots.

Their exemplary determination, discipline, resilience and integrity thwarted Israeli efforts to rescue or liberate Shalit, who was being detained all these months and years, not in Tehran or Cairo, or Beirut, but under Israel’s nose, in her very backyard, only a few kilometers from Israel’s centers of power.

Finally, a word or two to Israel and its leaders.

I know you are in no mood to receive advice from Gentiles, let alone from your enemy, or more correctly, your victims, the Palestinians.  Your phenomenal arrogance and insolence don’t allow you to be reasonable, just and wise.

But let me tell you this, don’t you ever  force the Palestinians to kidnap your soldiers; treat them with some Justice and respect, don’t detain their children  for prolonged periods for political reasons, treat them as you would want to be treated.

Remember the pornographic oppression you are meting out to us, such as dumping our young men, including intellectuals, in your jails and dungeons is likely to boomerang on you.

PIC

Gaza City municipal teams worked for 24 hours to stem the flow of sewage flooding homes in the city’s eastern sector, a press statement said.

Faulty sewage lines burst and poured into homes on Friday, sparking the rescue mission, it said.

Workers face difficulties upgrading the sewage network because materials and machines necessary for the work are blocked by Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip, it added, calling on assistance from human rights organizations to help end the closure.

Israel tightened restrictions on movement of people and goods in and out of the coastal strip in 2007 when Hamas took control of the enclave after winning democratic elections a year earlier.

Construction materials can only enter Gaza via Israeli-controlled crossings for approved projects funded by international organizations and UN agencies.

Ma’an

Over 300 pilgrims left Gaza for Mecca on Friday night, to take part in Eid al-Adha celebrations in the holy city, the director of Palestinian Airlines said.

The first group, which left Gaza via the Rafah crossing to take two Palestinian Airlines jets from the northern Sinai town El-Arish, will be followed by pilgrims from the West Bank later in the month.

Airline chief Ziad al-Bada told Ma’an that 328 pilgrims were on their way to Saudi Arabia, where they will complete the Muslim pilgrimage to mark Eid al-Adha in early November.

This is the third year Palestinian Airlines has transported Palestinians to Mecca for Hajj, or pilgrimage, al-Bada said.

Based in Egypt and owned by the Palestinian Authority, the three-plane fleet offers once-a-week flights to Amman and charter services to Saudi Arabia during the pilgrimage season.

Ma’an

One of the groups involved in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit said Thursday that the transfer of some 450 Palestinian prisoners will begin Tuesday.

Spokesman Abu Mujahed of the Popular Resistance Committees said Thursday that as soon as the detainees are released, officials will check each one to make sure they are among those listed in the deal.

Once the prisoners are checked, the factions holding Shalit will release him too.

An official in the PRC’s military wing, meanwhile, released a list of prisoners it says Israel agreed to free in exchange for Shalit. The list includes 477 names along with the conditions of each prisoner’s release.

Several lists are floating around, including one which appeared on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV. The ministry of prisoners affairs in the Gaza Strip says none of them are entirely accurate.

Abu Mujahed, the PRC spokesman, said those detainees who are to be exiled from the West Bank will depart Israel via Egypt and enter Gaza. Those who will be exiled abroad will go to Turkey or Qatar via Cairo.

Israel and Hamas agreed Tuesday to swap more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for captive soldier Shalit, resolving one of the most emotive and intractable issues between them.

The deal was overseen by the Egyptian intelligence minister two weeks ago. Israel and Hamas send delegates to Cairo and it was agreed that 450 prisoners would be freed in a first round.

There are at least 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. They are regarded as heroes in their struggle against Israeli occupation and quest for statehood.

Shalit, who also holds French citizenship, was last seen in a videotape released by his captors in September 2009. He has received no visits from the Red Cross, despite many appeals.

Ma’an

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.

Al-Jazeera

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 lackingI 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 contributeThat 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.”

ReunificationWill 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 dieI 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 medicineDr 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 ConvoyA 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.

References: (1) http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/update/2011/palestine-update-2011-07-28.htm

(2) An inherited disorder common in the Middle East that affects the production of normal haemoglobin, leading to a form of anaemia.

(3) http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/factfindingmission.htmPg 26, paras 74 & 75

(4) http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1101/S00068/role-of-ngos-and-international-organisations-in-gaza.htm

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Growers of palms say they will lose more than $1m because of the ban imposed by Hamas.

Palm tree farmers in the Gaza Strip say they will lose more than $1m after the Hamas government banned the export of its fronds to Israel.

While Israel blocks almost all exports from besieged Gaza, it had exempted the fronds used in the observation of a Jewish holiday which starts on Wednesday.

Nicole Johnston reports from central Gaza.

Al-Jazeera