Help end Gaza blockade, aid groups urge EU: The Guardian
The EU should commit itself to ending the blockade of the Gaza Strip and put its relations with Israel on hold pending tangible progress, 16 humanitarian and human rights organisations say today in a report marking the first anniversary of the war.
Amnesty International, Oxfam International, Cafod, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians and 11 other agencies criticise Israel for banning the import of materials urgently needed for reconstruction but also lambast world powers for not doing enough to help after last year’s three-week Cast Lead offensive, in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
Israel has the right and obligation to protect its citizens fromindiscriminate rocket attacks, the report says. But “punishing the entire civilian population of Gaza for the acts of a few is a collective punishment which is unacceptable and violates international law”.
The report calls on the EU to take “concerted action” and its new high representative for foreign policy, Britain’s Lady Ashton, to pay an urgent visit to Gaza. Only one EU foreign minister, Sweden’s Carl Bildt, has visited since the war, which began on 27 December last year. Tony Blair, the envoy of the Middle East Quartet, went to Gaza for the first time in March this year, two years after he was appointed.
The territory has been blockaded by Israel since June 2007 when the Islamists of Hamas took over from the western-backedPalestinian Authority. Restrictions have been tightened since the war. The border with Egypt is also strictly controlled.”Securing an immediate opening of the Gaza crossings for building materials to repair ruined homes and civilian infrastructure as winter sets in would be an important step towards an end to the blockade,” say the NGOs.
Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, also warns not enough is being done: “Tough sounding declarations are issued at regular intervals but little real pressure is applied,” he writes in today’s Guardian. “It is a scandal that the international community has sat on its hands in the face of this unfolding crisis.”
Preferential agreements between the EU and Israel “will be brought into question if there is no rapid progress”, Clegg adds.
Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam International’s executive director, said: “It is not only Israel that has failed the people of Gaza with a blockade that punishes everybody living there for the acts of a few. World powers have also failed and even betrayed Gaza’s ordinary citizens. They have wrung hands and issued statements, but have taken little meaningful action to attempt to change the damaging policy that prevents reconstruction, personal recovery and economic recuperation.”
The report also urges Hamas and others to maintain their de facto cessation of violence and permanently cease all indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel. All Palestinian factions need to intensify their dialogue to pave the way for a reunified government able to provide for the needs of its civilian population.
The blockade has sharply increased poverty, helping make eight out of 10 Gazans dependent on aid. Businesses and farms have been forced to close and lay off workers. An almost complete ban on exports has hit farmers hard. The Israeli offensive wrecked 17% of farmland and left a further 30% unusable.
Hopes for easing the siege currently rest on a deal under which captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is expected to be swapped for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Amnesty International’s UK director, Kate Allen, said: “The wretched reality endured by 1.5 million people in Gaza should appal anybody with an ounce of humanity. Sick, traumatised and impoverished people are being collectively punished by a cruel, illegal policy imposed by the Israeli authorities.”
World ‘failed Gaza over Israeli blockade’ – aid groups: BBC
Aid agencies have strongly criticised the international community for failing to help bring an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
The charities made the accusation in a report published just ahead of the anniversary of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The aid agencies condemn not just Israel, but the world community.
In the words of Oxfam’s director, Jeremy Hobbs, “world powers have failed and betrayed Gaza’s ordinary citizens”.
The charities call for more pressure to be exerted on Israel to end what they describe as its illegal collective punishment of Gazans.
Israel imposed a tightened blockade after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power two-and-a-half years ago.
That was bad enough, say the aid agencies.
Matters became that much worse after the destruction caused by the Israeli offensive in Gaza earlier this year.
The report points to an acute shortage, in particular, of building materials.
A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister told the BBC that Israel remains committed to humanitarian supplies of food, medicine and power.
But he said that sanctions will remain in place as long as Hamas is committed to destroying Israel and killing Israelis.
Lift the Gaza blockade: The Guardian
The suffering is shocking. And nobody will benefit from the radicalism that confinement engenders
Nick Clegg Tuesday 22 December 2009
On 27 December last year, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, an overwhelming exercise of military force aimed at silencing the Hamas rockets which had terrorised Israeli towns and villages. The immediate effects of the invasion are well known: 1,400 Palestinians dead, mostly civilians, with many more wounded or displaced; 10 Israeli soldiers and three civilians killed, dozens more injured; and thousands of families in southern Israel forced to flee to other parts of the country. The rocketfire from Gaza into Israel has slowed but has not entirely ceased. Hamas is still in power.
What is less well-known is the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The legacy of Operation Cast Lead is a living nightmare for one and a half million Palestinians squeezed into one of the most overcrowded and wretched stretches of land on the planet. And as Israel and Egypt maintain a near total blockade against Gaza, the misery deepens by the day.
This is not only shocking in humanitarian terms. It is not in Israel’s or Egypt’s interest, either. Confining people in abject poverty in a tiny slice of territory is a recipe for continued bitterness, fury and radicalism.
And what has the British government and the international community done to lift the blockade? Next to nothing. Tough-sounding declarations are issued at regular intervals but little real pressure is applied. It is a scandal that the international community has sat on its hands in the face of this unfolding crisis.
No doubt the febrile sensitivities of the Middle East have deterred governments, caught between recriminations from both sides. No doubt diplomats have warned that exerting pressure on Israel and Egypt may complicate the peace process.
But surely the consequences of not lifting the blockade are far more grave? How is the peace process served by sickness, mortality rates, mental trauma and malnutrition increasing in Gaza? Is it not in Israel’s enlightened self-interest to relieve the humanitarian suffering?
The peace process is in serious trouble right now. Internal Israeli politics limits any meaningful room for manoeuvre, illegal settlement activity in the West Bank continues, and leadership of the Palestinians is divided and incoherent. A two-state solution, long the accepted bedrock of any agreement, is being openly questioned.
But paralysis in the peace process cannot be an excuse for the inhumane treatment of one and a half million people, the majority of them under 18 years old. No peaceful coexistence of any kind is possible as long as this act of collective confinement continues.
According to a recently leaked report by the UN office of the humanitarian co-ordinator, Gaza is undergoing “a process of de-development, which potentially could lead to the complete breakdown of public infrastructure”. A report released today by a group of 16 humanitarian and human rights groups further spells out the effects.
Family homes destroyed in the invasion lie as shattered as ever. The embargo on construction materials means they will stay that way. Local hospitals and clinics were left devastated by the invasion, and those suffering health problems wait longer than ever to get out of Gaza for treatment. Many have died waiting. Bed-wetting and nightmares are endemic among children.
Half of those under 30 are unemployed. These young people are trapped in a broken land with little hope of economic opportunity. The blockade’s restrictions on Gaza’s fishermen mean they can sail only three nautical miles from the coast, impoverishing their families. Meanwhile, 80m litres of raw and partially treated sewage is pumped out into the sea every day.
Most disturbingly of all, the lack of access to materials means that basic water infrastructure simply cannot be repaired or improved; 90 to 95% of Gaza’s water fails to meet WHO standards. The extremely high nitrate level in the water supply is leaving thousands of newborn babies at risk of poisoning.
The insistence by some that aid should come into no contact whatsoever, even indirectly, with Hamas means NGOs are prevented from repairing basic water and sanitation facilities in schools.
There is a clear moral imperative for Israel and Egypt to end the blockade, as well as it being in their enlightened self-interest to change course. But if they do not do so of their own volition, it is up to the international community to persuade them otherwise.
The EU has huge economic influence over Israel, and it believes the blockade must be lifted. At the same time as exercising leverage over Hamas, it should make clear that the web of preferential agreements which now exists between the EU and Israel – from Israeli access to EU research and development funds to recently improved access for Israeli agricultural products – will be brought into question if there is no rapid progress.
Equally, the US, as by far the largest bilateral donor to Egypt, should press President Mubarak to allow in the humanitarian and reconstruction materials that are so desperately needed.
What will be the state of Gaza’s drinking water by next December? Of the health of its children? Of the economy? The attitude of its people towards Egypt and Israel? The risk of waiting another year is too great. Gordon Brown and the international community must urgently declare that enough is enough. The blockade must end.
Egypt’s barrier along Gaza border called ‘wall of shame’: LA Times
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Amro Hassan, Los Angeles Times – 21 Dec 2009
An underground barrier to prevent tunneling by smugglers along Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip has been dubbed a “wall of shame” by Arab writers and politicians who charge that Cairo is siding with Israel in isolating the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the seaside enclave.
Construction on the 100-foot-deep steel wall began a few weeks ago, but the Egyptian government didn’t publicly acknowledge the project until the weekend. Officials defended the effort against accusations that it was an affront to Palestinians by the government of President Hosni Mubarak, which opposes Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza.
“Whether it is a wall, sensors or tapping devices . . . what matters is that Egyptian territory must be protected,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying by Al Ahram al Arabi weekly magazine. “Whoever says Egypt is imposing its control on the border, we tell them this is Egypt’s full right.”
The controversy highlights Egypt’s close geographical and emotional ties to the Palestinians, but also the complex political dilemma it faces in attempting to undercut Hamas. The construction comes at a time when Egypt is wary over Hamas’ ties to Iran and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, but also as Egyptian officials are pushing for unity between Palestinian parties and a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas that would free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Egypt has tightened its border with Gaza since Hamas gained control of the coastal strip in 2007. But the smuggling tunnels — transporting goods as varied as weapons and baby food — were considered lifelines to Palestinians who faced shortages because of Israel’s siege of the territory.
“It is a wall of shame being built by Egypt on the borders with Gaza,” wrote Ibrahim Issa, chief editor of daily newspaper Al Dustour. “It is like a total obedience to the American recommendations. We are opening our territories for a barrier that only serves and supports the Israeli and U.S. policies.”
Issa, a frequent government critic, pointed out that regardless of his and many Egyptians’ political persuasions, building the wall is a clear example of Egypt’s authoritarianism.
“Unlike in Israel, where constructing a wall separating its territories from Gaza and the West Bank was debated in parliament and in the media before it was given the thumbs up, our regime was keen on classifying any information regarding the new wall. This is simply because Israel adopts a democratic system while Egypt doesn’t enjoy such luxury,” he wrote.
Similar reactions echoed across the region. They followed denunciations in January when Egypt closed its Rafah border crossing with Gaza during the Israeli invasion of the strip. The move effectively put a stranglehold on goods entering the enclave.
“We can understand it when the Israeli government uses the same methods as the Nazis in transforming the Gaza Strip into a huge concentration camp,” wrote the London-based pan-Arab daily Al Quds al Arabi. “But what we cannot understand or accept is that the Egyptian government — and not the Egyptian people — should take part in such a crime for fear of the Israelis, and in an attempt to appease the U.S., getting nothing in return except humiliation and dishonor.”
Palestinian journalist Mustafa Sawwaf wrote on a Hamas-affiliated website: “The issue has nothing to do with Egyptian national security, and more to do with Egyptian policy.
“As far as the borders with the Gaza Strip and the steel wall are concerned, this policy is linked less to Egypt’s interests and security as it has become a tool for implementing U.S. schemes in the region.”
The wall, dubbed “the steel barrier” by Egyptian media, prompted a number of lawmakers to file reports to the attorney general against Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.
“Our government is alleging that it is for the country’s own security while it is just another effort to stiffen the ongoing siege over our fellow Muslims in Gaza,” said Hamdi Hassan, a Muslim Brotherhood member of parliament.
MK Tibi: Israel is democratic for Jews, but Jewish for Arabs: Ha’aretz
The Knesset Law and Constitution Committee conducted a heated debate Tuesday on two parallel law proposals that would enable certain communities in Israel to handpick their residents.
The proposals come amid controversy over a number of Jewish communities in the north who have refused entry to Arabs wishing to reside there.
he laws proposed by MKs Israel Hasson and Shai Hermesh (Kadima) and the committee’s chairman MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu) circumvent the High Court decision that the reception committees are illegal.
MK Ahmed Tibi condemned the bills, which passed a preliminary vote a few weeks ago, claiming they would only allow systemic racism to take hold.
“This law is like pissing in mid-air,” said Tibi. “Racism is starting to be legislated in the statute book. There is an influx of racist law proposals; you aren’t even ashamed of yourselves.”
“This country is Jewish and democratic: Democratic towards Jews, and Jewish toward Arabs,” Tibi said, adding that that if Israel’s declaration of independence was to be voted on in the Knesset today, it would not pass.
The proposals were actually meant to enable communal settlements, like moshavim, to disqualify candidates on grounds of economic status or incompatibility with the settlement’s lifestyle. The debate quickly developed, however, to the fact that the committees would be able to prevent Arab landowners from building on community land.
Gilad Shalit must be released at any cost: Ha’aretz
By Gideon Levy
It is not difficult to understand the agonizing decision facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet ministers. It would be very hard to accept a negative decision on their part. Gilad Shalit must be freed at any cost, all the more so because the actual cost is lower than the one bandied about by those who oppose the release.
We’re dealing with the release of hundreds of Palestinians, about one-tenth of the Palestinians in prison. Some of them are political prisoners for all intents and purposes; some are women and youths.
The most murderous of them have, for the most part, already served long sentences. The overwhelming majority of them will not return to terrorist activity; rather they will want to spend the remainder of their life in freedom.
Yes, there will be more and more terrorists in the future, with or without the hundreds of released prisoners, if the occupation and abuse of the Palestinian people continues. This is the real infrastructure of terror, and it does not depend on those who will be released in the deal.
One generation of Palestinians after another will fight in its own way for its liberty and breed more and more terrorists. The only really effective way to reduce terror, if not to prevent it altogether, is to stop its operating engine – the occupation.
Whether Mohamed, Ahmad and Marwan are released or not, whether they are exiled are not, the extent of danger expected from our neighbors will continue to depend on the entire Palestinian nation’s liberty, not on the freedom of nearly 1,000 people.
Of all the arguments against releasing them, the most fallacious one is the “loss of deterrence.” Even after implementing the deal the Palestinians will do everything they can to capture more soldiers. Israel has taught them, after all, that this is the only way to get their imprisoned brethren freed.
Just as Israels’ tough stance in the Ron Arad affair failed to prevent the capture of additional soldiers, so Israeli stubbornness in the Shalit affair will fail to prevent abductions. If Israel was not holding 10,000 prisoners, some of whom are serving disproportionate sentences and have no hope of ever getting out but by violent means, the Palestinians’ motivation for capturing more soldiers would diminish.
Whether Israel decides to sign the deal or not, it will not change anything except the personal fate of Gilad Shalit and the Palestinian prisoners. This is the only issue on the agenda, not Israel’s security or its sovereignty.
The dilemma is razor sharp – do we or do we not want to see Shalit home; alive or dead, to be or not to be, that is the only question. This is why the government must decide in favor of the deal.
It’s difficult to demand that the Israelis occupied with Shalit’s captivity show consideration for the Palestinians’ feelings as well. But they should do so, or at least try.
Hundreds of prisoners have been locked up for years in dire conditions, some – those from Gaza – have been imprisoned for years with no family visits, not a phone call home.
And not all of them have blood on their hands. At least the possibility of their release should have raised compassion in our hearts as well, as groundless and shrill as this may sound to the obtuse Israeli ear.
It is no coincidence that only the Palestinian prisoners’ families have expressed hope for Shalit’s release, beside the hope for their own sons’ release. How distressing that we hear no similar sentiment from anyone on our side, not even the Shalit family.
But Shalit and the Palestinian prisoners are not alone. Seven million Israelis and three and a half million Palestinians have been imprisoned for 42 years in a dark cave due to the curse of occupation. Had the turbulent Israeli temper, so impressively mobilized in the campaign to free Shalit, been recruited in a similar way for the struggle to end the occupation and free both Palestinians and Israelis from its yoke, things would already be different.
In view of the huge (and appropriate) sensitivity and concern demonstrated by Israeli society for one man’s life and liberty, it’s time to think of applying similar sensitivity, determination, involvement and caring in regard to the fate of 10 million Israelis and Palestinians. True, they see the light of day, but their future is cloaked in darkness.
The same intensive negotiations, the same public pressure, the same flyovers, races, balloons, petitions, bills, stickers and demonstrations, the same protest tents and the same demonstrations against the ongoing occupation would have got us long ago to a safe shore, one that would prevent more Gilad Shalits. But first Shalit must be released, and today.
Gaza must be rebuilt now: The Guardian
We can wait no longer to restart the peace process. The human suffering demands urgent relief
Jimmy Carter, Saturday 19 December 2009
It is generally recognised that the Middle East peace process is in the doldrums, almost moribund. Israeli settlement expansion within Palestine continues, and PLO leaders refuse to join in renewed peace talks without a settlement freeze, knowing that no Arab or Islamic nation will accept any comprehensive agreement while Israel retains control of East Jerusalem.
US objections have impeded Egyptian efforts to resolve differences between Hamas and Fatah that could lead to 2010 elections. With this stalemate, PLO leaders have decided that President Mahmoud Abbas will continue in power until elections can be held – a decision condemned by many Palestinians.
Even though Syria and Israel under the Olmert government had almost reached an agreement with Turkey’s help, the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejects Turkey as a mediator on the Golan Heights. No apparent alternative is in the offing.
The UN general assembly approved a report issued by its human rights council that called on Israel and the Palestinians to investigate charges of war crimes during the recent Gaza war, but positive responses seem unlikely.
In summary: UN resolutions, Geneva conventions, previous agreements between Israelis and Palestinians, the Arab peace initiative, and official policies of the US and other nations are all being ignored. In the meantime, the demolition of Arab houses, expansion of Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Palestinian recalcitrance threaten any real prospect for peace.
Of more immediate concern, those under siege in Gaza face another winter of intense personal suffering. I visited Gaza after the devastating January war and observed homeless people huddling in makeshift tents, under plastic sheets, or in caves dug into the debris of their former homes. Despite offers by Palestinian leaders and international agencies to guarantee no use of imported materials for even defensive military purposes, cement, lumber, and panes of glass are not being permitted to pass entry points into Gaza. The US and other nations have accepted this abhorrent situation without forceful corrective action.
I have discussed ways to assist the citizens of Gaza with a number of Arab and European leaders and their common response is that the Israeli blockade makes any assistance impossible. Donors point out that they have provided enormous aid funds to build schools, hospitals and factories, only to see them destroyed in a few hours by precision bombs and missiles. Without international guarantees, why risk similar losses in the future?
It is time to face the fact that, for the past 30 years, no one nation has been able or willing to break the impasse and induce the disputing parties to comply with international law. We cannot wait any longer. Israel has long argued that it cannot negotiate with terrorists, yet has had an entire year without terrorism and still could not negotiate. President Obama has promised active involvement of the US government, but no formal peace talks have begun and no comprehensive framework for peace has been proposed. Individually and collectively, the world powers must act.
One recent glimmer of life has been the 8 December decision of EU foreign ministers to restate the long-standing basic requirements for peace commonly accepted within the international community, including that Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries will prevail unless modified by a negotiated agreement with the Palestinians. A week later the new EU foreign policy chief, Baroness Catherine Ashton, reiterated this statement in even stronger terms and called for the international Quartet to be “reinvigorated”. This is a promising prospect.
President Obama was right to insist on a two-state solution and a complete settlement freeze as the basis for negotiations. Since Israel has rejected the freeze and the Palestinians won’t negotiate without it, a logical step is for all Quartet members (the US, EU, Russia and UN) to support the Obama proposal by declaring any further expansion of settlements illegal and refusing to veto UN security council decisions to condemn such settlements. This might restrain Israel and also bring Palestinians to the negotiating table.
At the same time, the Quartet should join with Turkey and invite Syria and Israel to negotiate a solution to the Golan Heights dispute.
Without ascribing blame to any of the disputing parties, the Quartet also should begin rebuilding Gaza by organising relief efforts under the supervision of an active special envoy, overseeing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and mediating an opening of the crossings. The cries of homeless and freezing people demand immediate relief.
This is a time for bold action, and the season for forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.
In reaction to this article, the BBC Radio 4 has found it necessary to give the Israeli Ambassador some 20 minutes to attack this call by Jimmy Carter! His claim – the Arab states should rebuild gaza! After all, what has Israel got to do with it? Roles in the Middle East are divided according to specialisms, after all; Israel destroys cities, and the Arabs have to rebuild: Kuneitra, Port Said, Beirut or Gaza – it makes no difference.
Jerusalem mayor cuts health funds for Arab children: Ha’aretz
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Thursday rejected municipal recommendations and cut funding for a toddler health-care center in East Jerusalem, while approving aid to a similar center in a Jewish neighborhood.
The funds would have gone to opening a branch of the “Drop of Milk” (Tipat Halav) program, which provides prenatal and toddler health-care services in Silwan, an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
Last year, authorities from the Jerusalem municipal offices recommended to the mayor to open the aid center in Silwan, which would service around 100,000 residents.
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Authorities also recommended opening a similar center in a Jewish neighborhood that is home to around 7,000 residents.
During discussions on the 2010 budget, Barkat decided to cut the aid that would open the center in Silwan while simultaneously approving the aid to open the same center in a Jewish neighborhood – a move that outraged residents of Silwan.
“I don’t understand why there is a ‘Drop of Milk’ center in the mayor’s neighborhood while there is none in ours?” asked Silwan resident Fakhri Abu Diab. “Why does he deserve one and we don’t? Are my children different from his children?
“Soon, Hamas will open a ‘Drop of Milk’ center and we will go there,” Abu Diab added.
Jerusalem city councilwoman Laura Wharton condemned the decision.
“This decision is caused by discrimination against the Arab population and I hope that we will succeed to reverse it,” Wharton said.
As opposed to most of Israel, the ‘Drop of Milk’ program in Jerusalem is under municipal authority.
Like other health services in Jerusalem, including toddler care, there is a wide gap in services provided to residents in East and West Jerusalem.
Other Jerusalem areas under public jurisdiction contain a total of 25 ‘Drop of Milk’ centers, while East Jerusalem, with its 250,000 residents, is home to just four Drop of Milk centers.
Many residents of East Jerusalem have difficulty taking their children long distances in order to receive care. This results in many children not receiving vaccinations as well as a delay in services for sick children living in East Jerusalem.
In response, the Jerusalem municipality said that they are working to improve services provided to the residents of Silwan and they still intend to build a ‘Drop of Milk’ center in the Arab neighborhood in the future.
Letter from Gaza – Mohammad Alsaafin: IOA
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Ma’an News Agency – 21 Dec 2009
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=248570
I’m writing to you as friends, colleagues, members of the media, acquaintances and activists. Some of have never met me; others have heard parts of the story I am about to tell. However, I do believe that all of you may have an interest in reading this – it is a story that needs to be told.
I am a Palestinian refugee, from the village of Fallujah which lies between Gaza, Hebron and Asqalan. I’ve never been allowed to visit Fallujah; my grandparents were exiled from there in 1949 (a year after the founding of Israel) and took refuge in the Gaza Strip. My father and I were both born in the Khan Younis refugee camp-he a few years before Gaza was occupied by Israel, and I a month after the outbreak of the first intifada. My dad married a woman from the West Bank-they had met and fallen in love while they were both studying at Birzeit University, and when I was two years old we emigrated to the UK where he received his Phd.
Fourteen years later, in 2004, we all returned to Palestine to live in Ramallah. Now British citizens, my parents were determined that my three siblings and I would forge a stronger connection to our homeland than we ever could living abroad. At first, the transition was made easier by the fact that our foreign passports gave us the freedom of movement that was denied to other Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. For me, this reality was shattered when in late 2005 I attempted to cross the River Jordan from the West Bank to visit my aunt in Amman. The Israeli border agents told me that I could not pass, because I had an Israeli issued Gaza ID. Under Israeli military rules, this meant that I could not ‘legally’ be present in the West Bank because the Israeli occupation had mandated that Palestinians from Gaza could not enter the West Bank, and Palestinians from the West Bank could not enter Gaza. This policy had been in force since the early 1990’s, but was applied with increasing severity after the outbreak of the second intifada.
I lived the next four years under constant fear of arrest by the Israeli military, because that would have resulted in almost certain deportation to Gaza, and isolation from my family. For those four years, I never left the confines of Ramallah, so as to avoid the Israeli checkpoints on every one of the town’s entrances-but even this couldn’t give me a sense of security because I had to commute daily to Birzeit University, on a route frequently patrolled by Israeli forces from the nearby settlement of Bet El.
In July of this year, after many pleas for assistance from the hapless Palestinian Authority, I asked the Israeli NGO Gisha to help me obtain permission from the Israeli occupation to leave the West Bank. I wanted to take part in an internship in the United States, but I would only be granted the permission to exit on the condition that I only return to the Gaza Strip, which had been under siege and total closure for the better of two years then. I accepted this impossible choice-after four years of imprisonment in Ramallah, I wanted to see the outside world and look for a job abroad.
During this entire period, my family had more or less been saved the travel restrictions imposed on me. As a foreign journalist, my dad frequently traveled between the West Bank, Gaza and inside the Green Line, and my mother and siblings would join him on day trips to Jerusalem, Umm al-Fahem, Acca and Haifa. But that all changed this August when he was entering Gaza through the Erez crossing as he had done many times before. On this day however, he was arrested by the Israeli military and had his press credentials revoked. He was told his British passport was worthless, because they had made a frightening discovery: My dad had been born and raised in a refugee camp in Gaza, and had a Gaza ID. They told him he would henceforth be treated not as a foreigner, but as a Gazan-he was sent into Gaza and told he could never cross the Green Line or enter the West Bank again.
My mother and siblings back in Ramallah were also informed that their British passports were worthless and that they would be issued Palestinian IDs by Israel. Despite being raised in the West Bank and still owning a copy of her old West Bank ID, my mother was actually issued with a Gaza ID. We assume this is because she married a Gazan 22 years ago, but nobody has given us a clear answer. This has put her in the same quandary I was in for the last four years. She cannot leave Ramallah for fear of arrest and deportation to Gaza, away from her children, her sister’s and the young children of her recently deceased brother. This situation was compounded by another perplexing development; my brother and sisters, all of whom were born in the UK, and whose parents and older brother had been issued Gaza ID’s, were issued West Bank IDs.
My dad spent the last few months trying to get permission to go back to the West Bank to see his wife and kids-even for a day to pick up his clothes. But whether it was through the British consulate or Israeli NGO’s, the Israeli occupation was adamant that he would not be allowed out of Gaza, unless it was to be deported from Ben Gurion airport. Eventually, in order to save his job, he left Gaza when Egypt opened the Rafah crossing in early December.
Now, my father is in one country and I am in another, while my mother is trapped in the West Bank, unable to travel for fear of never being allowed back. Thankfully, my brother and sisters are able to cross into Jordan, where we may see each other, but our family has been torn apart and separated under the most arbitrary occupation laws imaginable. Despite the continued attempts of Israeli and Palestinian NGO’s, we have found no recourse with the Israeli authorities, and the British consulate has proved useless. We even sent a letter to Tony Blair, the representative of the Quartet, imploring him to intervene on our behalf as British citizens. Unsurprisingly, we were ignored, but I have attached a copy of that letter to this email.
I believe this story needs to be told not because our situation is so unique, but precisely because it isn’t; this is the result of a deliberate Israeli policy, one that has been in place since the early days of the Nakba and has been evolving ever since. It is a policy that has led to the dispossession of millions of Palestinians, and the separation and breakup of tens of thousands of families. The forcibly imposed separation between the West Bank and Gaza is illegal under international law, and through it Israel is succeeding in separating the Palestinian people, one family at a time.
I am hoping that some of you will be able to spread this story through any platform you have, whether it is amongst your own friends and acquaintances, on blogs or perhaps by helping this get picked up in the media. My mother fears that if this story does become publicly known, she will suffer the same fate as Berlanty Azzam, the Bethlehem University senior who was arrested by Israeli soldiers and deported to Gaza. Despite the publicity her case received, an Israeli court unabashedly maintained that a Gazan cannot study in a West Bank university. The risk is real, but we have no other choice.
Israel’s doctors must allay torture fears: The Guardian CoF
Allegations of Israeli doctors colluding in the torture of Palestinians must be investigated
Antony Lerman, Tuesday 22 December 2009 12.00 GMT
One of the disturbing features of the persistent use of torture by many countries in conflict situations around the world is the role some doctors play in condoning it. The World Medical Association (WMA), which “promot[es] the highest possible standards of medical ethics, [and] provides ethical guidance to physicians”, is crystal clear on this practice. Its 1975 Tokyo declaration states unequivocally that “physicians shall not countenance, condone or participate in the practice of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading procedures, and in all situations, including armed conflict and civil conflict”. True to its principles, in October, in response to reports about the possible collusion of doctors in the abuse of prisoners in Iran, the WMA passed a unanimous motion at its annual meeting in Delhi urging national medical associations to speak out in support of the rights of patients and doctors there. But is the WMA being selective in its condemnations?
The specific problem of doctors’ complicity in the torture of detainees in the Middle East was raised at an international patients’ rights conference in Turkey in November. In a presentation she made, Dr Ruchama Marton, head of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I), called for the WMA to play a central role in establishing a network “to voice complaints and provide assistance to those who are willing to struggle against torture”. National medical associations and human rights organisations should work together “to campaign against torture in general and against the participation of physicians in torture procedures”. In saying this, Marton was thinking about what some regard as the very unsatisfactory situation in Israel.
Evidence has been produced by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and PHR-I of doctors examining interrogated Palestinians before, during or after torture without documenting, reporting or resisting, and by providing medical documents and information to the bodies responsible for the torturing. These are all expressly prohibited under WMA and Israel Medical Association (IMA) guidelines, as is even the presence of a doctor where there is torture.
These allegations have never been seriously investigated by the IMA, despite persistent urging by PHR-I as part of its long struggle against the use of torture and its bringing of the issue to the attention of the WMA. In the summer the IMA cut ties with the human rights body, accusing it of fomenting antisemitism. Dr Yoram Blachar, the chairman of the IMA, wrote in a letter that “the outrageous situation is that PHR’s activity serves as fertile ground for antisemitism, anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism”.
In May, a letter sent to the WMA council through the chairman, Dr Edward Hill, signed by 725 doctors from 43 countries, and supported by PHR-I, requested that the WMA investigate the IMA for failing to conform to its code on the absolute prohibition of doctors participating in and condoning torture. And it called for the immediate resignation of the then president of the WMA, Blachar. In November, Dr Derek Summerfield of the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, convenor of the group who signed the May letter, wrote to the new WMA president, Dr Dana Hanson, on behalf of the lead signatory Professor Alan Meyers of Boston University, and again pressed for action to investigate the IMA. And he also referred to the apparent discrepancy between the treatment of reports of collusion in torture in Iran and in Israel. At the end of October, Meyers spoke to WMA council chair Dr Edward Hill and was told that the WMA would neither be responding to nor commenting on the May letter. So far, that stance seems remain in place.
The current situation is deeply unsatisfactory. Even though Israel’s supreme court in 1999 finally ruled that methods of torture used at that time by the security forces were illegal, a loophole was left for interrogators who tortured in “ticking bomb” situations, which ultimately allowed old forms of torture to creep back in by the mid-2000s, as a 2007 report by PCATI showed. So there is good reason to be seriously concerned about the use of torture today.
It is important to recognise that torture would not be possible without the support and safety net of doctors and that doctors are key in exposing and stopping the practice. Israel therefore needs to do two things. First, allegations that Israeli doctors colluded in torture must be confronted and thoroughly investigated. Otherwise, this ongoing affair can only damage the reputation of the vast majority of doctors in Israel, many of whom belong to PHR-I, who will have no truck whatsoever with torture and who assiduously apply their principles of medical ethics equally to all who come into their care, irrespective of national, ethnic or religious origin.
Second, PHR-I proposals for guidelines to help doctors identify torture and for legislation that would make it obligatory to report suspicion of torture and protect whistleblowers – measures that would protect doctors’ independence and make it much harder for interrogators to use torture – must be adopted by the IMA and the government.
No double standards are being applied to Israel here. By implementing the proposals, Israel would simply be conforming to WMA guidelines – and doing at least one thing that would help repair its international position.