The US press has given brief reports regarding extreme power shortages and other hardships in the Gaza strip. The Outlook contacted Hunter Farrell, the Director of World Mission in the PC(USA) General Assembly Council. He contacted Victor Makari, the Middle East coordinator, who has prepared the following report to share with our readers:
An update that Victor Makari sent from the Middle East Council of Churches:
Dear All,
I was on the phone this morning with our colleague in Gaza Mr. Constantine Dabbagh, Executive Director of Near East Council of Churches and we exchanged for some time over the situation in the Gaza Strip.
From the description of the conditions in the Gaza Strip at the moment, I gather the following:
· It is very difficult for people to get bread. Bakeries that used to distribute bread regularly and fairly easily are unable to do so because of fuel shortage. Queues stand around a couple of blocks from bakeries in order to have a chance to get the daily bread staple which Palestinians cannot exist without it.
· Fuel Shortage is becoming critical The Near East Council of Churches Offices in Gaza City does not have electricity as well as all of Gaza. The limited fuel supply in the Offices will last, according to Mr. Dabbagh, for 2 days. He has called this morning a meeting for all staff members to think of ways to extend the use of the limited fuel supply for the rest of the week, 5 days altogether.
· Many of the employees cannot get to work and have difficulty in finding transportation because fewer and fewer cars and other means of transportation are available. The situation not only touches the NECC employees but most people across the Gaza Strip.
· NECC to decide where to stop services Mr. Dabbagh informs me that he has called for a special emergency meeting with the Gaza Area Committee (Board) in order to decide which services could be stopped if the emergency situation continues. We have to wait and see what happens on this.
· Medicaments in Clinics and Laboratory Tests The three Primary Health Clinics of the Gaza Strip do not suffer from a lack of medications at the moment. The Problem lies with the refrigerators that keep the Laboratory Tests and Medicaments that need refrigeration. With the electricity shortage continuing, the laboratory tests cannot be performed while medications that need refrigeration would be wasted. This applies to hospitals and other health facilities across the Gaza Strip.
· High Rise Residents Penalized With shortage of electricity, lifts are rendered inoperable. There are hundreds of high rise buildings in Gaza and all residents of the higher floors need to go up the stairs which can be strenuous to older and sick people. A case of an expecting mother living on the 9th floor was mentioned. Other cases abound.
· An Altogether Surreal Situation All Palestinians in Gaza are paying a very heavy price indeed. Scores of them have been killed and others seriously injured by Israeli military strikes. Sick people particularly those suffering from cancer and chronic diseases are not finding a way out. Jordan, at the initiative of HM King Abdullah, took the step of allowing tens of chronically ill people into Jordan’s hospitals. As the crossing points remain closed by order of the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, there are sad stories practically every day of chronically ill patients dying as they await permission to cross. The latest is a 14-year old boy who died of cancer just yesterday. A young girl of 13 relates to a correspondent how she is dreaming ‘death – dreams’ every night and how when she hears of patients dying she thinks that she would be the next in turn.
· A Way Out is Needed We need to search for a way out. Certainly political talks between Palestinians and Israel over the Gaza Strip situation has become an urgent reality and is demanded by all Palestinians. What steps need to be taken to return Gaza to some sort of ‘normalcy’ depend on the wisdom of leading people in the Palestinian Territories and policy makers in Israel. But without communicating the urgency and stressing the need to relieve Gaza of its present conditions, nothing will transpire.
I am asking all of our Partners to please forward to the Israeli Ambassadors in your respective countries as well as to Israeli officials in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv the need to end this killing siege of Gaza. Certainly, there is need for a political situation in which rockets from Gaza should stop hitting towns in Southern Israel, but imposing a siege on Gaza and punishing 1.5 million inhabitants will surely not help in stopping the launching of rockets. Even if rockets stop for a number of days, there will be no certainty that they will stop for good without a political solution. The Palestinians should be encouraged to be united in seeking such a political solution.
With best wishes,
Dr. Bernard Sabella
Executive Secretary
Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees Middle East Council of Churches Central Office Jerusalem
Tel: +972-2-6271715
Fax: +972-2-6271716
email: dspr@netvision.net.il
A statement by a number of Israeli groups:
GAZA: AN ISRAELI CALL FOR URGENT ACTION
We, the Israeli organizations signed below, deplore the decision by the Israeli government to cut off vital supplies of electricity and fuel (and therefore water, since the pumps cannot work), as well as essential foodstuffs, medicines and other humanitarian supplies to the civilian population of Gaza. Such an action constitutes a clear and unequivocal crime against humanity.
Prof. John Dugard, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, called the Israeli government’s actions “serious war crimes” for which its political and military officials should be prosecuted and punished. The killing of more than 40 civilians this past week violates, he said, “the strict prohibition on collective punishment contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also violates one of the basic principles of international humanitarian law that military action must distinguish between military targets and civilian targets.” Indeed, the very legal framework invoked by the Israeli government to carry out this illegal and immoral act — declaring Gaza a “hostile entity” within a “conflict short of war” — has absolutely no standing in international law.
We call on the Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to lead the Security Council to a decisive decision to end the siege on Gaza when it meets in emergency session on Wednesday.
We call on the governments of the world, and in particular the American government and the European Parliament, to censure Israel’s actions and, in light of recent attempts to revive the diplomatic process, to end all attacks on civilians, including the continuing demolition of Palestinian homes at an alarming rate.
We call upon the Jews of the world in whose name the Israeli government purports to speak, and upon their rabbis and communal leaders in particular, to speak out unequivocally against this offense to the very moral core of Jewish values.
And we call upon the peoples of the world to let their officials and leaders know of their repudiation of this cruel, illegal and immoral act — an act that stands out in its cruelty even in an already oppressive Israeli Occupation.
We condemn attacks on all civilians, and we acknowledge the suffering of the residents of Sderot. Still, those attacks do not justify the massive disproportionality of Israeli sanctions over a million and half civilians of Gaza, in particular in light of Israel’s oppressive 40 year occupation. Such violations of international law by a government are especially egregious and must be denounced and punished if the very system of human rights and international law is to be preserved.
The Israeli government’s decision to punish Gaza’s civilian population, with all the human suffering that entails, constitutes State Terrorism against innocent people. Only when Israeli policy-makers are held accountable for their actions and international law upheld will a just peace be possible in the Middle East.
The Alternative Information Center * Bat Tsafon * Gush Shalom * The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) * Physicians for Human Rights * Coalition of Women for Peace
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Additional reports on this crisis are available at the following Web sites:
The Courier-Journal has a page – https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ISRAEL_PALESTINIANS?SITE=KYLOU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT – where they appear to feature recent Associated Press stories. Thanks to Barry Creech who showed me that page.
Stories from the UN News Centre related to Gaza – https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=25360&Cr=palestin&Cr1=
The UN Webcast page (https://www.un.org/webcast/) indicates that the Security Council will be addressing ‘The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question’ at 3:00 PM. Don’t know if that is live or taped.
Also, the UN Human Rights Council is holding 6th Special session of the Human Rights Council on human rights violations emanating from Israeli military incursions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the recent ones in occupied Gaza and West Bank town of Nablus, Geneva, 23 January 2008 — see https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/6/index.htm.
A story from B’tselem – https://www.btselem.org/english/Gaza_Strip/20080121_Increase_of_sanction_on_Gaza.asp
From Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege – https://www.end-gaza-siege.ps/IndexEn.htm
