Tag Archives: Siege

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Viva Palestina 5 working closely with Gaza officials to bring vital medical aid on next convoy

Viva Palestina, 30 July 2010

Despite the recent claims by Israel that they have “eased” the siege on Gaza , vital medical supplies and equipment are still prohibited from entering the besieged region. In June, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that Israel blocked the delivery of essential medical equipment, including a CT scanner, defibrillators and monitors.

In addition, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Israel confiscated seven oxygen machines, donated by a Norwegian development agency, and refused to allow delivery of x-ray machines, claiming they could be used for military purposes.

As a result, there is a critical shortage of vital medicines and essential life saving equipment. Other supplies are expected to run out this summer, harming chronic disease sufferers the most.

In addition, only 30 percent of the medical aid, sent to Gaza after the last Israeli military offensive 19 months ago, was used at hospitals and medical aid centres. This was due to the fact that there was a surplus supply of certain medical supplies, and other medical supplies were out of date.

Another significant problem is an over-supply of bulky items like cotton wool which requires expensive storage, and the disposal of waste medical supplies in an area where rubbish disposal is a major issue.

In the light of this, Viva Palestina is working closely with the Ministery of Health in Gaza and independent medical organizations to accurately identify the kind and quantity of medical supplies that Gaza actually needs. We intend to bring a wide range of these vital medical supplies and equipment on board the upcoming convoy. These urgently required supplies will go a long way in helping to ease the suffering of so many in Gaza .

Viva Palestina are appealing for people to donate towards the cost of these medical equipment and supplies. People can donate via the web site at: http://www.vivapalestina.org/vp5/donate.html

Alternatively, if people have access to medical aid that they can donate, please contact us via email at: aid@vivapalestina.org. Please send a detailed list of this aid, and if it is on the required list, we will arrange collection.

We also need dedicated volunteers to join us on our next convoy to Gaza, leaving on September 18th 2010. If you can raise money to help the people of Gaza, we want to hear from you. Please visit the Viva Palestina 5 website

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Narratives Under Siege (4): Life Put on Hold as Construction Materials Continue to be Restricted

Salah Jalal Abu Leila has been living in a tent for over a year after his home was destroyed in the latest Israeli military offensive. Unemployed since he was barred from access to his job in Israel, he cannot afford to rent a new apartment and there is no material to rebuild his former home.

PCHR, Beit Lahia, Palestine—Salah Jalal Abu Leila lives in a crowded tent with his family of twelve beside a dusty main street in the Northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia; they have been living here for more than a year: “Our home was completely destroyed in the war. I worked for sixteen years in Israel to build my home and in one attack the Israelis destroyed everything I worked to build.” Unemployed since 2002, when he was denied access to his job in Israel, Salah is unable to rent an apartment and move from his government-allocated tent like the rest of the families who, too, were forced to take up temporary residence on this patch of sand after their homes were destroyed during the latest Israeli military offensive in December 2008 and January 2009. Almost none of these families, however—and Salah’s as well—have been able to begin to rebuild their homes and resume their lives due to the ban on construction materials as part of the total closure imposed by Israel since June 2007. For Salah and his family, life has been put on hold and he has little choice but to wait for the opportunity to begin again.

Salah Jalal Abu Leila has been living in a tent for over a year after his home was destroyed in the latest Israeli military offensive. Unemployed since he was barred from access to his job in Israel, he cannot afford to rent a new apartment and there is no material to rebuild his former home.

Salah Jalal Abu Leila has been living in a tent for over a year after his home was destroyed in the latest Israeli military offensive. Unemployed since he was barred from access to his job in Israel, he cannot afford to rent a new apartment and there is no material to rebuild his former home.

Over 16,000 homes were damaged during the latest Israeli offensive, 2,114 of which—like Salah’s—were completely destroyed. As a result, more than 51,000 Palestinians were made homeless.[1] Most sought refuge with family members in Gaza’s urban centers, adding to the already highly congested living conditions in the Gaza Strip. Without cement, steel, lumber or glass—all denied entry by Israel—most of those displaced during the war remain so more than one year after the vicious attack.  Their homes and other civilians buildings which were reduced to rubble by Israeli rockets continue to serve as a striking reminder—as if such a thing was necessary for the people of Gaza—of the extensive damage wrought by the war, and the inability to repair them and return home has greatly exacerbated the psychosocial distress of the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza who are forced to live amidst the ruins.

Since June 2007, when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, Israel has tightened its grip on the coastal territory, shifting to a policy of complete closure which allows only the bare minimum level of humanitarian assistance—enough to sustain life and little more—from a policy of selective closure employed since the early 1990s. While Salah’s home remains in ruins due in large part to the ban of construction goods under the complete closure, the misery caused to him by the Israeli-imposed closure did not begin in 2007. Salah worked as a plumber in Israel for sixteen years, one of the 26,000 Palestinians from Gaza who used to commute daily to Israel for work. Beginning in 2002, however, the Israeli-controlled Erez border crossing was closed for Palestinian civilians and Salah lost his coveted job. Sitting on his dirt floor, chickens and children scurrying around him, he speaks of his sixteen years in Israel with nostalgia: “The money was very good then. I could support my family with no problem and I had very good relationships with my Israeli colleagues. Sometimes our families would get together for dinner and celebrations.”

Now only approximately 100 people cross through the Erez crossing per day and these are either international aid workers or Palestinians seeking urgent medical treatment.[2] For Salah, the restriction of movement has meant unemployment and poverty: after losing his job in Israel, he returned to a job market in Gaza where unemployment now runs close to 55%. “Since 2002 I have not been able to go to Israel to work and now I have been unemployed for many years. I have no money to rent an apartment in Gaza City like the other families who were living in this area. I have twelve children. How can I take care of them? How long can we all live in one tent? I asked the government to help me, but they said there is nothing they can do because they cannot get the material to build new houses. I am a Palestinian civilian. I am not political. What did I do to deserve this?”

Salah is far from alone in his difficult situation. Just across the street in Beit Lahia, in an empty office above a semi-operational gas station, lives Sabah al-Attar and her family. “Our home was completely destroyed on the first day of the war [December 27, 2008],” Sabah explains, waving her arms in an emphatic gesture to illustrate the totality of the destruction. “Since then we have been living in an empty office above a petrol station nearby,” she says, “but the government discovered us and is forcing us to leave because it is very dangerous to live here due to the large gas tank directly below us. They say if we don’t leave by the end of the month, we will have to pay a 10,000 NIS fine.”

For over a year Sabah al-Attar and her family have been living in an empty office on the second floor of this gas station. Their home was destroyed and the tent provided to them was confiscated. Because of the dangerous living conditions, Sabah's family is being forced to leave, although they have nowhere to go.

For over a year Sabah al-Attar and her family have been living in an empty office on the second floor of this gas station. Their home was destroyed and the tent provided to them was confiscated. Because of the dangerous living conditions, Sabah's family is being forced to leave, although they have nowhere to go.

After the war, Sabah and her family were simply glad that they survived the attack: as their home was being bombed, they were fired upon by Israeli troops as they attempted to evacuated the burning building. They are grateful to have each other, but more than a year later, still homeless, jobless and with no support, this remains all that they have as they try to gather the pieces of their broken lives: “We don’t have anywhere to go. We have no home, no work, nothing.”

Under the new arrangement announced in early July by the Israeli authorities following international condemnation of the fatal Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters, Israel will permit increased flows of construction materials for PA-approved projects overseen by international organizations. The reconstruction of family homes, like Salah’s and Sabah’s, falls outside the scope of most of these projects, however. Essential construction goods like cement and lumber beams will continue to be denied entry to the civilian population of the Gaza Strip by Israel as “dual-use goods”—meaning that they ostensibly possess military use—despite the fact that these goods do not appear on any internationally-recognized dual use list.[3] In this respect, it is easy to understand Salah’s pessimism with regard to the recent announcements: “I have no hope that the materials will be let in under the new policy. I hoped for three years now that the closure would end, but nothing has changed.” For now, there is little he can do but wait.

More reports from PCHR can be found at http://www.pchrgaza.org/

[1] PCHR, “PCHR Annual Report 2009.”

[2] PCHR,” State of the Gaza Strip’s Border Crossings: 16-30 June 2010.”

[3] These materials, like others included on Israel’s “Directive on Defense Export Control,” are not incorporated into the internationally-recognized Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual Use Goods and Technologies.

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Gazans Denied Medical Care Under Siege

Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman, 26 July 2010

Two recent reports discuss it, a July Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHR-IL) one titled, “A Situation Report on Obstacles Facing Gaza Residents in Need of Medical Treatment,” and a June one titled, “Who Gets to Go,” jointly prepared by PHR-IL, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. All cite Israeli medical ethics and international law violations by discriminating on the basis of need, denying adequate treatment to seriously ill Gazans by:

– preventing the restoration and development of the Strip’s healthcare system; and

– restricting travel to the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Israel, or neighboring countries for treatment.

In its July report, PHR-IL said Gaza’s healthcare system is getting progressively worse “due to a lack of medical expertise, medicine(s) and medical equipment,” the ICRC recently saying it’s “at an all time low.”

In June, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that Israel blocked delivery of essential equipment, including a CT scanner, defibrillators and monitors. In addition, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Israel confiscated seven oxygen machines, donated by a Norwegian development agency, and blocked x-ray machine deliveries, claiming they were dual-use, meaning possibly for military purposes.

As a result, critical shortages of most everything exist, including vital medicines, essential equipment, and other supplies expected to run out this summer, harming chronic disease sufferers the most, hampered by draconian impediments for permission to leave Gaza for treatment – what PHR-IL calls “an inexcusable breach of medical ethics” based on political, not medical considerations, most non-life threatening cases denied, including ones PHR-IL calls urgent, such as for:

“Paraplegia; retinal detachement; SLE (Lupus); foreign body in vitreous; subluxated lens; chronic severe febrile anemia; fever(s) of unknown origin (FUO); traumatic macular hole; psychomotor retardation; anemia; suspected abdominal abnormal vascular pressure; suspected chronic intestinal disease; psedoarthrosis (non-union of fractured bones) – arms, hand; infected plate – hip; deformation of cornea; recurrent dislocation of shoulder; lumbar discopathy; opacity of vitreous; (and) malformation of urinary tract.”

Numerous other non-urgent/non-life-threatening ones are also denied, some chronic, severe, painful and/or disabling, badly in need of treatment, including a 24 year old Gaza resident shot in the arm in October 2007, unable to use his hand because of atrophied muscle tissue around the wound area.

As a result, he suffers severe pain, orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Yosef Leitner, saying a tendon transfer is the only hope to restore proper hand functioning, Gaza’s Al Shifaa Hospital (the Strip’s largest and most advanced) with neither the means or staff to perform it.

In August 2009, an exit request was submitted to receive treatment in East Jerusalem’s Al Makassed Hospital. Initially denied, it was appealed and again denied – unprincipled, unethical, illegal, and common practice against Gazans under siege, PHR-IL saying:

“….all patients are entitled to the best available medical treatment, regardless of the urgency….or the severity of their clinical state,” legitimate distinctions only permissible in cases of limited resources (such as after a natural disaster), even then for the shortest time possible to restore proper care to everyone in need.

Under international law, denying medical care is illegal, Fourth Geneva’s Article 3 saying all non-combatants and those having laid down their arms “shall in all circumstances be treated humanely” with no distinctions for any reasons.

Article 16 states:

“The wounded and sick, as well as the infirm, and expectant mothers, shall be the object of particular protection and respect.”

The UN’s Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment prohibits mistreatment in any form (including denying medical treatment), as do the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Constitution of the International Criminal Court (the Rome Statute), and civilized countries globally, Israel and America not among them.

An Israeli Supreme Court decision provides an example, approving restrictions to exit Gaza for treatment, with narrow exceptions, ignored by government officials because the ruling left final authority in their hands, an easy cop-out to permit cruel and unusual punishment to continue, what PHR-IL calls “routine, permanent policy,” unethical, immoral, illegal, and deplorable.

Medical training outside Gaza is also denied, Fatah in charge of Ramallah’s Health Ministry, collaborating with Israel against its own people, blocking training and treatment of many, persecuting and abusing many more, acting as Israel’s enforcer, its duplicitous, self-serving agenda.

In addition, Israel prohibits its own or foreign doctors entering Gaza to provide treatment or professional training. Its authorities rejected two recent requests for a Ramallah Musallam Center team to come, to perform eye surgery and cornea transplants, most patients in need rejected or subjected to long delays.

For the past year, PHR-IL medical delegations were denied entry to Gaza, ones operating in 2008 as part of its Mobile Clinic, providing treatment, surgeries, medications, training, counseling, and referring patients for follow-up treatment in Israeli hospitals.

Repressive Security Services

In 2009, Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, interrogated over 600 of the thousands of Gazans applying for treatment exit permission. Usually, patients are summoned “after their hospital appointment date(s) passed,” causing them to lose out and have to reschedule. In addition, many face “threats and extortion….health (for) ransom,” collaborate or be denied, a choice most won’t accept.

In other cases, Shin Bet summons patients to Erez Crossing (on the pretext of permission to leave), arresting and detaining them instead – a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) worker as well, part of a paramedic/ambulance driver team en route to a Ramallah training course, arrested and imprisoned in Israel.

In January 2010, Adalah complained officially to Israel’s Attorney General, the Prime Minister’s office saying:

“The State of Israel reserves the right to detain elements who seek medical treatments in Israel following information that they are terror activists or that their entry to Israel might pose a security risk,” common Israeli boilerplate – disingenuous, duplicitous, and dishonest justification for repressive state policy, including against seriously ill patients and medical workers providing care.

Israeli also denies quality care outside Gaza and the West Bank, even in East Jerusalem where treatment is better. In some cases, follow-up permission is denied (including for rehabilitation) for those initially allowed in, leaving them in limbo, unable to get what they need.

Dr. Danny Rozin, an internal medicine expert at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, said the following:

“It is important to understand that in many cases providing a complete, effective treatment requires more than a one-time appointment and many patients need follow-up, post-surgery checks, or an additional medical or rehabilitative treatment….The lack of continuity might bring about a failure of treatment in part or in full and resources allocated to treat patients might go down the drain. Sometimes there is also a real danger that the patient will suffer functional damage or even lose his life….Preventing the continuity of treatment harms patients and is inconsistent with the many efforts made by medical staff to provide full and optimal care.”

It also violates international law and medical ethics, what Israeli authorities disdain and spurn. PHR-IL says it’s illogical and inconsistent that a patient given permission “suddenly becomes a security threat” and is denied. It reinforces the notion that politics and repressive policy are at issue, not security, a duplicitous red herring.

Israel further denies permission for West Bank treatment, saying patients might stay with their families – their legal right, unrelated to security, entirely state-sanctioned repression, part of enforcing Gaza’s siege.

Another part involves confiscating patients’ belongings on returning home after treatment, forced on reentry to leave behind whatever they bought or were given, including medical equipment, clothing, toys and other non-threatening items – another way to harass and intimidate.

A Final Comment

As a result of Israel’s post-January 2006 embargo, its siege since June 2007, Cast Lead, regular incursions, and its longstanding collective punishment policy, Gaza’s healthcare system is “at an all time low.” Many of the Strip’s sick and injured lack proper care, or enough, in violation of medical ethics and international law explicitly prohibiting these practices.

“As an occupying power, (Israel bears full) responsibility for the health of Gaza’s residents,” including to treatment outside the Strip, unconditionally without constraints, authorities denying it as collective punishment – prohibited under international law, what, throughout its history, Israel disdainfully spurned.

  • Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
  • http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

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Narratives Under Siege (3): The Economics of Occupation

Abdulfattah Al-Khateeb struggles to farm strawberries under the Israeli-imposed closure. His business and his way of life are threatened by the increasing restrictions despite the recent "easing" of the Israeli closure.

Palestine Center for Human Rights, 20 July 2010

Abdulfattah Al-Khateeb struggles to farm strawberries under the Israeli-imposed closure. His business and his way of life are threatened by the increasing restrictions despite the recent "easing" of the Israeli closure.

Abdulfattah Al-Khateeb struggles to farm strawberries under the Israeli-imposed closure. His business and his way of life are threatened by the increasing restrictions despite the recent "easing" of the Israeli closure.

Beit Lahia, Palestine—The northern Gaza Strip area of Beit Lahia is famous for its agriculture. The climate, the sandy clay soil and the fresh water supply create an ideal environment for growing fruit here, and the practice has become a deeply-engrained way of life for Beit Lahia farmers like Abdulfattah Al-Khateeb, who has been growing strawberries here for over twenty-five years. Although the Gaza Strip is amongst the most densely populated places on earth, here luscious green fields spread out in vast tracts. Yet it is clear that as Abdulfattah gazes out onto his land his minds is troubled: Abdulfattah’s concern is unique in that it is not with growing his crops, but rather whether his crops will be able to reach the market once they are grown. In order to realize even a modest profit, Abdulfattah must sell his strawberries in the West Bank, Israel and Europe, as he did for over twenty years. Since 2007, however, Israel has enforced a complete and continuous closure of all border crossings into and out of the Gaza Strip, effectively cutting the coastal territory off from the rest of the world. Now, like the countless tons of his strawberries which have since been left to rot while waiting in vain at the Israeli border, he fears that his business and his livelihood may perish as a result of the closure.

Before the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip in 1967, this area was so renowned for its citrus production that the fruit produced here was known throughout Palestine as “yellow gold.” Under the control of Israel, however, itself a major citrus producer, farmers in Beit Lahia and throughout Gaza were forced to abandon their crops—many orange groves were bulldozed by Israeli forces—and instead grow flowers and strawberries and other crops that adhere to Israel’s “security concerns.” The Beit Lahia farmers adapted, and soon they were producing strawberries of such a high quality that their fruit was being exported to Israel, the West Bank, and upscale retailers in Europe; they are “the best strawberries in the world,” according to Abdulfattah, who also used to head the Beit Lahia Strawberry Farmers Society.

Now, however, Abdulfattah and other farmers in Gaza are being forced by Israel to abandon their crops yet again, although this time there is no recourse in shifting production to another, “safer,” fruit or vegetable. Under the current form of the illegal Israeli-imposed closure, farmers in Gaza can no longer export their produce outside the Gaza Strip, and they are facing further restrictions on the types and amounts of products they can grow. The effects have been disastrous. Before the imposition of the total closure of the Gaza Strip on 14 June 2007—itself only a more stringent form of a closure policy in place since the early 1990s—the Gaza Strip produced almost 400,000 tons of agricultural products annually, one third of which was intended for export. Despite the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which set a target for exports for Gaza at 400 trucks per day, only 259 trucks have left the Gaza Strip with goods in the last three years. Accordingly, since 2007, farmers in Gaza have reported a 40% decrease in income: in 2008 alone, farmers in the Gaza Strip lost an estimated US $6.5 million.

Without the ability to export their products to markets in the West Bank, Israel and Europe, farmers like Abdulfattah face a domestic market for agriculture characterized by artificially inflated supply, which in turn drives prices so low that Abdel says he cannot survive on them: “Before 2007, one kilogram of strawberries used to cost twenty-four shekels on the Gaza market; now it only costs three. I can hardly continue my life with prices so low. I have to live from season-to-season, hoping that I can get good prices or maybe export some goods, and since 2007 I am forced to rely on handouts and aid,” says Abdulfattah.

At the same time, Abdulfattah is facing greater restrictions imposed by the Israeli government on his farming operation in Beit Lahia, which contribute to rising costs of production. “The Israelis tell us how and what to plant, what to use to plant it, and where the plants we use must come from,” explains Abdulfattah. “We are forced to use Israeli strawberry plants, even though they are more expensive [fifteen shekels as opposed to four shekels for Palestinian plants] and not as good [as the Palestinian plants which produced the famous Gazan strawberries]. But we use them anyways, and we even obtain the certificate that proves it, which is expensive. Even though we follow all the specifications, the Israelis don’t let our strawberries pass through the border.” Encapsulating the plight of all farmers in Gaza under Israeli occupation, Abdulfattah adds emphatically: “when we do what the Israelis want, they just create another problem.”

The consequences of the closure for farmers like Abdulfattah are more than just tough economic times: the closure threatens their livelihoods and way of life. Approximately 2,500 dunums of land were planted with strawberry fields before 2007; this year some 1,500 remain unplanted, representing at least 300 families who will be without an income for the year. More than likely, these families will be forced to give up strawberry cultivation; half of all strawberry farmers in Gaza have already done so. Some of them will find other work, but—with unemployment in the Gaza Strip approaching 55%—others will surely not.

Indeed the Israel policy towards strawberry farming in Gaza, and particularly their exports, is a demonstration in the economics of occupation. The crops permitted to grow in Gaza are directly linked to the crops produced by Israel. Because of their quality—and the high consumer demand this quality creates—agricultural products from the Gaza Strip, like strawberries, are not allowed to compete with Israeli products in the Israeli markets or in markets abroad. At the same time, surplus agricultural goods produced in Israel are pushed onto the market in Gaza, further driving down prices for local farmers.

Making matters significantly worse for farmers in the Gaza Strip are the consequences of the latest Israeli military offensive, which destroyed approximately 46% of all agricultural lands in the Gaza Strip, estimated at approximately US$269,000,000 in damages, and over US$84,000,000 in damages to plant production, specifically. Not only have farmers received no compensation from the perpetrators of the damage, but Israel prevents the entry of farming equipment and machinery needed in order to rehabilitate the land.

On 4 July, the Israeli government formally announced an “easing” of the border crossings into the Gaza Strip in response to the international condemnation of the 31 May attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. While there will be an increase in the type and amount of goods that are allowed into Gaza under the new arrangement, the issue of exports remains ignored. For Abdulfattah, thus, the new restrictions represent only a marginal change in the modalities of the occupation that is suffocating his business and his way of life: “I expect nothing new [from the new Israeli policy]. Even if the Israelis decided to allow exports, I probably would not be able to follow the new restrictions they would invent for me to do so,” Abdulfattah explains; “but it won’t open anyways.”

More reports and information at PCHR

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Cosmetic Easing In Gaza Keeps Hope On The ’Banned’ List

Gaza Blockade (Palestine Monitor)

Palestine Monitor, 8 July 2010
As world leaders and mainstream news outlets sing the praises of Israel’s June 17 decision to ease its stranglehold blockade of the Gaza Strip, there is little prospect of change for Palestinians living under siege. Previously banned consumer items such as toys, newspapers, spices, and instant coffee are now passing through two of Gaza’s land border crossings, but the seaports remain tightly closed, all exports are still prohibited, and there is no sign of much-needed construction material. Written by Michael Carpenter.

Gaza Blockade (Michael Carpenter)

Gaza Blockade (Palestine Monitor)

Nevertheless, after Tuesday’s top-level meeting between United States and Israel, President Obama commended Prime Minister Netanyahu on the Gaza decision, claiming “We’ve seen real progress on the ground [and] it has moved more quickly and more effectively than many people anticipated.”

Similarly, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Quartet’s special envoy to the Middle East, trumpeted the move as “a significant milestone” and predicted a “dramatic influence on the daily lives of the people of Gaza.”

The world press has echoed this tone, some hailing the cosmetic changes as a major U-turn in Israeli policy on Gaza.

Not surprisingly, Gaza residents and those working on their behalf inside the open-air prison have a less enthusiastic view. Gamal Al-Khodari, leader of the Popular Committee for Confronting the Siege on Gaza, has described Israel’s decision to modify the embargo as “cheap publicity to dodge demands for ending the blockade.”

Adnan Abu Hassna, UNRWA spokesman in Gaza, described the changes as window dressing. “Ketchup and mayonnaise will not have any real effect,” he said.

Nevertheless, he was careful to measure his words. “Of course, we welcome any step that leads toward an end to the blockade, but we need action, not only talking. We need to see policy implemented, to see material, cement and iron, and not in small amounts.”

According to Israel’s modified embargo, construction material will soon be allowed into the Gaza strip, but only for building projects approved by the Palestinian Authority from the West Bank and conducted under international observation.

This does not encourage Abu Hassna. “We don’t know when the steps of the new policy will be taken. We need to know what the mechanisms and procedures will be, and we hope that it will be soon. To improve the situation, we need thousands of tons of cement and steel. We are in serious need right now of rebuilding ten medical clinics and 100 schools. Based on past experience, if we have to go slowly, truck by truck, it will take one hundred years to rebuild Gaza.”

“We have money,” he says, “but the problem is we cannot build. The people of Gaza need jobs. They need to not depend on UNRWA. Right now 80% of Gazans depend on humanitarian organisations for food.” The Gaza blockade has been in place for over three years, since Hamas took control of the strip in 2007. Israel’s decision to modify the embargo follows increased international pressure, especially in the wake of last month’s deadly raid on the aid convoy, the Freedom Flotilla. The face-saving gesture was also timed to precede Netanyahu’s highly anticipated visit to Washington and comes against the backdrop of an aggressive settlement policy in occupied East Jerusalem.

Small quantities of consumer goods and an uncertain commitment to allow construction materials will not have a significant impact on the people of Gaza.

Amal Sabawi, director of American Friends Service Committee in Gaza, says the blockade must go. “There should be pressure on Israel to end the siege, not to have this agreement to allow some things. The people should live in dignity. They should have a normal life, the right to mobility and travel.”

Abu Hassna says that the problem of Gaza transcends the strip’s borders. “I think from experience that Gaza is the key to stability and peace,” he explains. “The Israeli policies are increasing extremism and destroying the moderate mentality, and the international community should be aware of this if they want to have stability in the Middle East. Gazans must have hope, and if life continues like this, there is no tomorrow in Gaza. The international community should work hard to lift the blockade, to commit to the people of Gaza, to allow them to be part of the world and to show them they are not isolated. This is what the people of Gaza need, and what peace for the region needs.”

Learn more from UNRWA Gaza http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=64

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How to kill an economy

In 2000, there were over 120 textile factories scattered across the West Bank, now only the Herbawi Factory remains.

In 2000, there were over 120 textile factories scattered across the West Bank, now only the Herbawi Factory remains. (Palestine Chronicle)

Nicole Johnston, 5 July 2010

First close down the borders and refuse to allow any exports out.

Then ban the importing of any raw material for factories and businesses.

Force the commercial class to rely on expensive underground smuggling tunnels to procure what the community needs. This in turn enriches the tunnel owners.

Prevent businesspeople from travelling abroad.

And then, if the economy still has a breath of life left in it, go to war. Bomb the region and destroy its factories.

Finally refuse to allow any building material in so that those businesses cannot be rebuilt.

De-development

The result is the economy goes backwards in a process called de-development.

Businesses close, jobs are lost and families become dependent on food aid.

This is what has happened in Gaza.

It is suffering from a four year old siege, the destruction from Israel’s war and now a continued siege, with no sign of any real abatement.

While a few more products have entered Gaza since Israel killed nine people on board the Gaza-bound aid ship, the Mavi Mamara, raw materials for businesses have not.

And in some respects the blockade on business is getting worse.

Now Gaza’s manufacturers have to compete with Israeli products.

And Israel’s goods are cheaper and better quality because they are not produced under siege.

Truckloads of Israeli biscuits are entering Gaza. Israel says this is part of its so-called decision to “liberalise” the siege.

Al-Awda biscuit factory

This could put a company like Al-Awda biscuits in Gaza out of business.

Its owner, Mohammed al-Tilbani, has to depend on tunnels to bring in sugar, flour, cocoa. Imports are banned by Israel. So everything he needs for his factory is carried through a dirt underground passage.

The costs are high, the quality poor and the goods often arrive damaged and unusable.

Al-Tlibani started his business with nothing. Now he has a biscuit and ice cream factory. He could operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Imagine the jobs this would create in Gaza where unemployment is greater than 40 per cent.

But since the siege, his 350 employees have only worked up to eight days each month. This is barely enough money to keep their families alive.

As for the ice cream factory, with electricity cuts of eight to 16 hours a day, it is too difficult to keep the ice cream frozen and this part of the factory permanently running.

So al-Tilbani is watching his hard work fall apart.

Before the siege he planned to open another factory, for chips. He travelled abroad, bought the machinery and shipped it to Israel.

Cruel joke

But since Israel imposed the blockade he has not been allowed to import the equipment to Gaza. It is stuck in a warehouse in Israel.

Destroy the businesses and destroy the job market. This collective punishment of Gaza’s population is illegal under international law, but it continues.

Somehow the al-Awda factory has managed to stay open throughout the siege. But now it faces its greatest challenge – competition from Israeli biscuits.

The Israeli biscuits have the advantage. Israeli factories can import anything they like and now they can also export into the strip. It is likely this will displace the local product which only has one market, Gaza.

The biggest market for Al-Awda biscuits used to be the West Bank.

It seems like a cruel joke. Israel attempts to assuage the international community by “easing” the siege.

So it allows Israeli goods to be sold inside Gaza; while blockading goods made in Gaza.

This is one more step in killing an economy.


  • Nicole Johnston is a Doha based reporter. She has been with the network almost five years with stints in London, Kenya, Jerusalem and Gaza. Prior to Al Jazeera, Nicole was a reporter with ABC Australia for 7 years. This was first published on Al Jazeera blogs

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Blockade ‘eased’ as Gaza starves more slowly

Gaza Children (Tales to Tell - 2009)

Jonathan Cook, 25 June 2010

As Israel this week declared the ‘easing’ of the four-year blockade of Gaza, an official explained the new guiding principle: ‘Civilian goods for civilian people.’ The severe and apparently arbitrary restrictions on foodstuffs entering the enclave – coriander bad, cinnamon good – will finally end, we are told. Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants will have all the coriander they want.

This “adjustment”, as the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed it, is aimed solely at damage limitation. With Israel responsible for killing nine civilians aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla three weeks ago, the world has finally begun to wonder what purpose the siege serves. Did those nine really need to die to stop coriander, chocolate and children’s toys from reaching Gaza? And, as Israel awaits other flotillas, will more need to be executed to enforce the policy?

Faced with this unwelcome scrutiny, Israel – as well as the United States and the European states that have been complicit in the siege – desperately wants to deflect attention away from demands for the blockade to be lifted entirely. Instead it prefers to argue that the more liberal blockade for Gaza will distinguish effectively between a necessary “security” measures and an unfair “civilian” blockade. Israel has cast itself as the surgeon who, faced with Siamese twins, is mastering the miraculous operation needed to decouple them.

The result, Mr Netanyahu told his cabinet, would be a “tightening of the security blockade because we have taken away Hamas’ ability to blame Israel for harming the civilian population”. Listen to Israeli officials and it sounds as if thousands of “civilian” items are ready to pour into Gaza. No Qassam rockets for Hamas but soon, if we are to believe them, Gaza’s shops will be as well-stocked as your average Wal-Mart.

Be sure, it won’t happen.

Even if many items are no longer banned, they still have to find their way into the enclave. Israel controls the crossing points and determines how many trucks are allowed in daily. Currently, only a quarter of the number once permitted are able to deliver their cargo, and that is unlikely to change to any significant degree. Moreover, as part of the “security” blockade, the ban is expected to remain on items such as cement and steel desperately needed to build and repair the thousands of homes devastated by Israel’s attack 18 months ago.

In any case, until Gaza’s borders, port and airspace are its own, its factories are rebuilt, and exports are again possible, the hobbled economy has no hope of recovering. For the overwhelming majority of Palestinians in Gaza, mired in poverty, the new list of permissible items – including coriander – will remain nothing more than an aspiration.

But more importantly for Israel, by concentrating our attention on the supposed ending of the “civilian” blockade, Israel hopes we will forget to ask a more pertinent question: what is the purpose of this refashioned “security” blockade?

Over the years Israelis have variously been told that the blockade was imposed to isolate Gaza’s “terrorist” rulers, Hamas; to serve as leverage to stop rocket attacks on nearby Israeli communities; to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza; and to force the return of the captured soldier Gilad Shalit.

None of the reasons stands up to minimal scrutiny. Hamas is more powerful than ever; the rocket attacks all but ceased long ago; arms smugglers use the plentiful tunnels under the Egyptian border, not Erez or Karni crossings; and Sgt Shalit would already be home had Israel seriously wanted to trade him for an end to the siege.

The real goal of the blockade was set out in blunt fashion at its inception, in early 2006, shortly after Hamas won the Palestinian elections. Dov Weisglass, the government’s chief adviser at the time, said it would put Palestinians in Gaza “on a diet, but not make them die of hunger”. Aid agencies can testify to the rampant malnutrition that followed. The ultimate aim, Mr Weisglass admitted, was to punish ordinary Gazans in the hope that they would overthrow Hamas.

Is Mr Weisglass a relic of the pre-Netanyahu era, his blockade-as-diet long ago superseded? Not a bit. Only last month, during a court case against the siege, Mr Netanyahu’s government justified the policy not as a security measure but as “economic warfare” against Gaza. One document even set out the minimum calories – or “red lines”, as they were also referred to – needed by Gazans according to their age and sex.

In truth, Israel’s “security” blockade is, in both its old and new incarnations, every bit a “civilian” blockade. It was designed and continues to be “collective punishment” of the people of Gaza for electing the wrong rulers. Helpfully, international law defines the status of Israel’s policy: it is a crime against humanity.

Easing the siege so that Gaza starves more slowly may be better than nothing. But breaking 1.5 million Palestinians out of the prison Israel has built for them is the real duty of the international community.

  • Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.

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‘We don’t want a crossing for plates, cups and tooth brushes’

Photo by AFP

Nicole Johnston, 24 June 2010

Keram Abu Salem Crossing

We watched the trucks roll into Gaza with goods Israel has not allowed in for more than three years.

And when we waved the drivers down to stop so we could see the cargo, there were those innocuous items; kids’ footballs, packets of pencils, children’s backpacks, kitchen cutlery and sewing material.

Is this a “liberalised” siege – an “easing” of the blockade?

Or is this Israel’s folly on display for the world to see?

From Thursday the goods now allowed into Gaza will include spare parts for cars, engine oil, tyres, parts for the agricultural and fishing industries, perfume and makeup.

In Gaza people see this as a minor modification of the siege.

All of these items are already available here. They come from Egypt and are smuggled through underground tunnels. This inflates the price and the quality is poor.

The Khadr family

But people in Gaza need more than goods.

“We don’t want a crossing for plates and cups, and tooth brushes. We ask them to open the crossing for everything. Not only food. We are calling for Israel, Europe and Arab states to let the construction material into Gaza. It is most important to rebuild the houses and factories and farms.”

Zaed Khadr’s house was destroyed during the war in Gaza. He doesn’t have a job, even though he previously worked in Israel for years on farms. But now under the siege he cannot leave. He’s trapped inside Gaza’s borders.

Next door Zaed’s brother, Mohammed, is raising 7 daughters in a tent. His house was destroyed as well.

Thin mattresses are piled up in the corner. A fan stirs the hot air inside the plastic tent. And sitting quietly, are three girls, watching cartoons.

Mohammed’s clothes are worn, full of holes and rips. And he is full of anger at the family’s situation.

He says Israel “erased everything, the land, the trees, the houses, and now we are living like dead people”.

Sitting on the balcony of my hotel in Gaza, I’m thinking about the Khadr family.

Mohammed said, “The whole world wanted to cross the sea to help us.”

But they failed and until the siege is lifted completely, the world will continue to fail the people of Gaza.


  • Nicole Johnston is a Doha based reporter. She has been Al Jazeera for almost five years with stints in London, Kenya, Jerusalem and Gaza. Prior to Al Jazeera, Nicole was a reporter with ABC Australia for 7 years. Source: Link

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Israeli blockade: Pasta YES, People NO

Photo by AFP

Sherine Tadros, 21 June 2010

What should we make of Israel’s change in strategy towards the Gaza blockade?

It really depends on what you see as the aim - saving face amidst intense international (Turkish and US) pressure or allowing people in Gaza to live a normal life.

Not only is it clear that it is the former not the latter (otherwise why not let people leave the Strip?) but through a change in semantics, Israel has managed to checkmate the world.

Photo by AFP

In the lead-up to what became Israel’s Freedom Flotilla PR disaster, a debate erupted as to the arbitrary and ambiguous nature with which goods are allowed into Gaza.

In the press conferences I attended days before the flotilla’s arrival, journalists grilled the army on why there was seemingly no logic behind what is let in - one journalist friend of mine remarked that while pasta was sometimes allowed through, gluten-free pasta was disallowed. It didn’t make sense, and more importantly authorities were increasingly finding it hard to explain (and justify) the policy.

With the decision to publish a list of prohibited items (rather than the ever-changing, inconsistent list of allowed goods) should come a debate on what the endgame of the Gaza siege is for Israel.

Former ministers and commentators have blamed Ehud Barak, the defence minister, as well as Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, for this “pasta and coriander” policy, which made a mockery out of the idea of a blockade on what Israel insists are security grounds.

Progress, really?

Put these small grumblings aside and Israel has done what Israel does best in defining what “progress” entails on its terms.

The siege on Gaza is illegal under international law – 1.7 million civilians not allowed to exit a plot of land that has become one of the poorest and congested places in the world.

Yet Israel’s decision to allow in a few more types of goods (with caveats) is hailed as progress by an American administration also desperate to start seeing positive signs in this part of the world.

Maybe this is a sceptical point of view, maybe we should see this as a step in the right direction, or maybe we should realise that by worsening the situation to crisis point, anything short of war is now considered progress.

Perhaps we should aim higher and the world should demand more of Israel. Just like they can ease the siege, they can end it too.

A ‘legitimate’ blockade

What the change in policy also does is legitimise the illegal blockade – giving it official status now endorsed by the Quartet and the Americans separately.

By changing it from a “civilian” blockade to a “military” one, in one stroke Israel pacified the international community and gained their approval (or at least a nod) for its continuing policy in Gaza.

But even if more goods are let in, even if the UN is finally able to finish its projects in the Strip, even if the land crossings start working efficiently and for longer hours – the people of Gaza are still under the whim of Israel’s decisions and 1.7 million people cannot leave.

For people there, this is often what they will tell you is the most difficult aspect of life under siege – entrapment and lack of control over the simplest of things like whether fresh meat will be available in Gaza tomorrow.

The naval blockade is still in place, exports are not allowed so the economy cannot recover, people are still trapped by air land and sea and Gazans are still 100 per cent reliant on Israel to survive. The new “military” blockade looks an awful lot like the old one, and it’s the “civilians” that bare the brunt of the siege, whatever name it goes by.

Source: aljazeera

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Israeli violence continues in Gaza ‘buffer zone’: wheat harvest prevented

GAZA - Women hand-harvesting wheat in the Gaza 'buffer zone'

International Solidarity Movement, 20 June 2010

Gaza June 2010 - Israeli snipers arriving in jeeps

Gaza June 2010 - Israeli snipers arriving in jeeps

Five female farm-workers returned to the Gaza ‘buffer zone’ early Saturday morning, with the intention of continuing the wheat harvest near Khoza’a village, Khan Yunis. The harvesters were forced to abandon their work after just thirty minutes as snipers attacked the unarmed workers with a barrage of live ammunition. Earlier in the month, the same women harvested for three partial days, but increasingly extreme attacks by Israeli snipers ultimately ended the harvest for fear someone would be intentionally targeted.On Saturday, the unarmed workers began harvesting at 7am, accompanied by four international activists and several media agencies. The women worked roughly 150-200 meters from the Israeli border. After only thirty minutes, Israeli snipers began shooting around the plainly non-threatening group. Over fifty rounds were fired as international activists communicated the nonviolent nature of the harvest over a megaphone. The attack was more threatening than the opening barrages of previous mornings, putting the workers on edge

After the shooting ended, the group waited in the field until 8:15am, then moved further back to wait for the snipers and jeeps to retreat, like they usually do. At 9:00am, the jeeps were still stationed at the border. The severity of the attack, combined with earlier perilous situations, left the impression that someone would soon be intentionally shot, as is often the case. Consequently, the women were forced to leave the wheat unharvested. A sizeable amount remains in the ‘buffer zone’, highlighting the effect that this particular Israeli policy has on poverty and malnutrition in Gaza.

GAZA - Women hand-harvesting wheat in the Gaza 'buffer zone'

GAZA - Women hand-harvesting wheat in the Gaza 'buffer zone'

A primary factor in the decision to abandon the harvest was an attack which occurred Wednesday, June tenth. On that occasion, snipers fired over 50 rounds extremely close to the group, with many bullets landing within a meter of the women’s heads. At such a short distance, any minor deviation would have hit someone.Concern is expressed among farmers that if land in the ‘buffer zone’ (more than 30% of arable land) is allowed to lie fallow, Israel will seize the wide swath, claiming it is unused. This technique is commonly used in the West Bank, where settlements and the illegal annexation wall prevent farmers from accessing their land or expose them to violence. The land is then claimed because it has not been farmed.

Rubble collectors attacked, injured by artillery shelling near Beit Hanoun

Three rubble collectors were injured Saturday by artillery shelling near the northern city of Beit Hanoun as they collected concrete in the Gaza ‘buffer zone’. This is the second artillery attack in recent weeks. The previous, 27 May, left six farmers seriously injured.

Those venturing to the border regions to gather rubble and steel risk being shot with live ammunition and other weaponry as well as abduction. The Israeli military routinely raids the homes of rubble collectors to make arrests. Persons choosing to assume these risks do so as a result of the siege on Gaza which, along with Israel’s 23 day winter war, has decimated Gaza’s economy. Prior to the brutal assault, 98% of industrial operations were stagnant due to the blockade. The offensive then destroyed or severely damaged some 700 private businesses in just three weeks.¹

The recycled construction materials are vital in Gaza where the Israeli-led, internationally-complicit siege bans all but roughly 35 categories of items from entering. The list of banned construction materials includes cement, steel, glass, and plastic and metal pipes. Over 6,400 houses were destroyed or severely damaged in the Israeli war on Gaza, and nearly 53,000 sustained lesser damages. Hospitals and medical centres, schools, kindergartens and mosques are among the other buildings destroyed and damaged. Since the war, a monthly average of four trucks now reach Gaza with construction materials, less than .05% of the pre-siege levels. ¹

Gaza ‘buffer zone’ background

While unemployment levels hover near 42% in Gaza and 60% of its 1.5 million residents lack food security, ² Israel’s illegal buffer zone greatly exacerbates the humanitarian crisis. 30% of Gaza’s arable farmland, and some of its most fertile, lies within the buffer zone. ³ Farmers who attempt to work in the zone face live fire and crop destruction. The number of crops grown in the zone has consequently been reduced from a diverse range to wheat and other less labor-intensive harvests, which further negatively impacts the nutrition and economic condition of Gazans. An additional 17% of farmland was destroyed in Israel’s war of aggression,¹ making 47% (nearly half) of Gaza’s farmland now marginally usable.

The buffer zone has also reduced Gaza’s fishing zones to 1-3 miles offshore. In the first four months of 2010, 19 naval attacks led to two shootings and three arrests, as well as numerous confiscations of fishing equipment. The narrow fishing zone, in which over 3,600 fishermen work daily, is gravely over-fished. ³

Israel’s decision to instate a 300-meter buffer zone is in violation of Oslo Accords, and people are routinely shot as far as two kilometers from the border. Israeli attacks in the buffer zone injured 50 persons and killed 14 between January and April 2010. In the past twelve months, at least 220 Israeli attacks have been carried out, with 116 coming since the beginning of 2010 (as of April 30th). ³

¹ Oxfam: Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses
² PCHR Fact Sheet: The Illegal Closure of the Gaza Strip
³ PCHR Fact Sheet: The Buffer Zone in the Gaza Strip