Israel Restricts Palestinians’ Access to Water in Gaza and West Bank, Says Amnesty International in New Report

Australians For Palestine, Oct. 24, 2009

Amnesty International Press Release - 24 October 2009
Download report: Water-Gaza Report Oct 09

(New York) — Amnesty International accused Israel today of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources. Discriminatory and restrictive policies leave many Palestinians with access only to poor quality subsistence levels of water, causing hardship and health risks, while denying them a basic need and a right, the human rights organization said.

“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies. In Gaza the Israeli blockade has made an already dire situation worse,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The Amnesty International report, “Troubled Waters: Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water,” says Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 per cent.

The Mountain Aquifer is the only source for water for Palestinians in the West Bank, but only one of several for Israel, which also takes for itself all the water available from the Jordan River.

While Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres a day per person, Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 litres per day, four times as much.

In some rural communities Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres per day, the minimum amount recommended for domestic use in emergency situations.

Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them from even collecting rainwater.

In contrast, Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation of international law, have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens and swimming pools.

Numbering about 450,000, the settlers use as much or more water than the Palestinian population of some 2.3 million.

The report describes the hardships, both physical and financial, that Palestinians face due to water restrictions — for example, the population has to reuse water for cooking, washing and sanitation, and bathe, wash and flush toilets less frequently.

An Amnesty International delegate on March 11, 2008 witnessed the destruction of a Palestinian farm on the West Bank by Israeli soldiers. In addition to uprooting crops, the soldiers tore apart the farm’s costly drip irrigation network. Samar Da’ish, mother of seven, told Amnesty International: “What harm have we done by cultivating this small bit of land, so that we can feed our children?”

In the Gaza Strip, 90 to 95 per cent of the water from its only water resource, the Coastal Aquifer, is contaminated and unfit for human consumption. Yet, Israel does not allow the transfer of water from the Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank to Gaza.

Stringent restrictions imposed in recent years by Israel on the entry into Gaza of material and equipment necessary for the development and repair of infrastructure have caused further deterioration of the water and sanitation situation in Gaza, which has reached crisis point.

To cope with water shortages and lack of network supplies many Palestinians have to purchase water, of often dubious quality, from mobile water tankers at a much higher price.

Others resort to water-saving measures which are detrimental to their and their families’ health and which hinder socio-economic development.

“Over more than 40 years of occupation, restrictions imposed by Israel on the Palestinians’ access to water have prevented the development of water infrastructure and facilities in the OPT, consequently denying hundreds of thousands of Palestinians the right to live a normal life, to have adequate food, housing, or health, and to economic development,” said Rovera.

Israel has appropriated large areas of the water-rich Palestinian land it occupies and barred Palestinians from accessing them.

It has also imposed a complex system of permits that the Palestinians must obtain from the Israeli army and other authorities in order to carry out water-related projects in the OPT. Applications for such permits are often rejected or subject to long delays.

Restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of people and goods in the OPT further compound the difficulties Palestinians face when trying to carry out water and sanitation projects, or even just to distribute small quantities of water.

Water tankers are forced to take long detours to avoid Israeli military checkpoints and roads which are out of bounds to Palestinians, resulting in steep increases in the price of water.

In rural areas, Palestinian villagers are continuously struggling to find enough water for their basic needs, as the Israeli army often destroys their rainwater harvesting cisterns and confiscates their water tankers.

In comparison, irrigation sprinklers water the fields in the midday sun in nearby Israeli settlements, where much water is wasted as it evaporates before even reaching the ground.

In some Palestinian villages, because their access to water has been so severely restricted, farmers are unable to cultivate the land, or even to grow small amounts of food for their personal consumption or for animal fodder, and have thus been forced to reduce the size of their herds.

“Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtaining even poor-quality subsistence-level quantities of water has become a luxury that they can barely afford,” said Rovera.

“Israel must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians’ access to water, and take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources.”

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

Contact: Suzanne Trimel, Amnesty International Media Relations Director, 212-633-4150, strimel@aiusa.org
Please visit www.amnestyusa.org for more information.

The Failings of the UN War Crimes Mission to Gaza

By Peter Eyre, The Palestine Telegraph, Oct. 9, 2009

Gaza - We had all hoped that the findings of the UN investigation team into war crimes would have delivered swift and severe justice for the people of Gaza. The US on the other hand had other ideas and once again intervened.

We have over many years seen the manipulation and interference by the United States in not allowing the UN to carry out its rightful duties. Could anyone imagine stalling the outcome of a murder case because the pending result may convict a killer and upset the family?

What gives Hillary Clinton the right to say that such an outcome may directly affect any future peace plans with Israel? Does this mean that war crimes can be swept under the carpet as she shakes hands with the perpetrators and pretends nothing ever happened? Doesn't Clinton and the President understand that in carrying out swift action will gain respect from the Arab world. This is truly a sad day for international justice.

The extensive report highlighted the many crimes that had taken place but then backed off when it came to more serious issues. The report fell short of investigating some very serious allegations that had been made; both in submissions made or pointed out to them whilst in Gaza. It was also disgraceful that this investigation had been given time constraints. Since when have investigations into murder been restricted by time?

Let's take a look at some of the more important aspects of this report and reveal the many flaws associated with it and how some of the genuine serious allegations were swept under the carpet.

The remit for this investigation was to investigate events occurring between the ceasefire of 18th June 2008 and the Israeli attack on the 27th of December 2008 and during Operation Cast Lead.

On Page 16 Paragraph 48 of the report they talk about certain weapons used such as White Phosphorus (WP): Based on its investigation of incidents involving the use of certain weapons such as white phosphorous and flechette missiles, the Mission, while accepting that white phosphorous is not at this stage proscribed under international law, finds that the Israeli armed forces were systematically reckless in determining its use in built-up areas. Moreover, doctors who treated patients with white phosphorous wounds spoke about the severity and sometimes untreatable nature of the burns caused by the substance. The Mission believes that serious consideration should be given to banning the use of white phosphorous in built-up areas.

The wording in the above paragraph indicates that WP is not proscribed under international law and yet when one looks towards Geneva we find the following:

The use of White Phosphorus of densely populated areas - In violation of the Geneva Convention: Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons (Protocol III).

"Certain uses of incendiary weapons, in particular the use of air delivered incendiary weapons against targets situated amongst concentrations of civilians" (Protocol III to the Conventional Weapons Convention).

I am sure that we all agree that these weapons were continuously rained down on the densely populated city of Gaza and yet the Mission appeared to have played down is usage and made the recommendation "The Mission believes that serious consideration should be given to banning the use of white phosphorous in built-up areas". Didn't they know this was already covered under the above Protocol?

Let's go back to Page 8 Paragraph (F) when it states that forensic analysis of weapons and ammunitions collected at incident sites would be used. Again it appears that the Mission did not apply the forensic analysis it talked about.

Even if one had the name "Sherlock Holmes" and walked around Gaza with a spy glass in hand you would find more evidence that these forensic scientist found.

Why did the Mission not follow up on the issue of Flechette or DIME weapons that were reportedly used on Gaza? The doctors explained to them their findings, they had victims with such injuries and they had a multitude of fragments to show? The report gives clear indications of their usage but falls short of condemning Israel and obviously must leave this aspect of such an enquiry open pending further investigation. Why is this not being carried out?

In their report the following comment was made: "Mission notes that they are an area weapon incapable of discriminating between objectives after detonation. They are; therefore, particularly unsuitable for use in urban settings where there is reason to believe civilians may be present". Did they again forget to mention that these weapons are also in violation of the Geneva Convention?

Whilst on the subject of weapons used what happened to the more serious allegation that DU/EU weapons had been used on Gaza? They were raised in the submissions made to the UN before their visitation and by other third parties. If one again looks at the report we will see some small reference on this topic namely: The Mission received allegations that depleted and none depleted
uranium was used by Israeli forces in Gaza. These allegations were not further investigated by the Mission.

Of all the alleged war crimes committed the most evil act that anyone could inflict on a nation is that of DU/EU weapons. They are totally indiscriminate, totally illegal and lethal. So why did such an important allegation also get swept under the carpet. Did the Missions Sherlock Homes run out of spy glasses, were their sun glasses so dark they couldn't find any evidence or did they just simply run out of time? This report like all the previous UN reports concerning DU/EU weapons usage in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon are deeply flawed so why should we expect any inspiration from the Gaza report?

Perhaps we must once again remind the Mission of the following:

Weaponry containing Depleted Uranium (DU) with indiscriminate effect or of a nature to cause superflouus injury or unnecessary suffering.

Protocols I to the Geneva Conventions have an obligation to ascertain that new weapons do not violate the laws and customs of war or any other international law. The International Court of Justice considers this rule binding customary humanitarian law.

Let's just help refresh their memory of the multiple attacks on Gaza using weapons containing uranium components. In the photograph on the left we see two such weapons exploding with another two on the way in. We have seen such explosions in many parts of Gaza and also in the Rafah.

If one looks at this investigation by the Mission you will once again see that these other extremely serious issues of DU/EU, WP, DIME, Flechette bombs have been bypassed and become insignificant. I again emphasise that this report into Israel's activities in Gaza should remain open pending further investigations.

The report also focused on the Palestinian rocket attacks but went outside of its remit in doing so. The Missions remit clearly states to investigate events between the ceasefire period and the end of Operation Cast Lead. The report failed to highlight the fact that the Palestinians held true its promise of a ceasefire for the entire duration and then only broke that ceasefire as a result of the continued intimidation by Israel.

Regarding Page 31 Paragraph 103 of the report. Why did the Mission go outside of their remit to quote the following? - "Palestinian armed groups have launched about 8000 rockets and mortars into southern Israel since 2001". In Paragraph 105 on the same page it again went outside of its remit to refer to data received in October of 2007: "The Mission has taken particular note of the high level of psychological trauma suffered by the civilian population inside Israel. Data gathered by an Israeli organization in October 2007 found that 28.4% of adults and 72-94% of children in Sderot suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" Based on this comment would it not be true to say the Palestinians have been under constant intimidation from the Israeli's since their States inception? Would it be true to say that the trauma of constant degradation, humiliation and land grabs goes beyond imagination.

The report even passed comment about Hamas fighting from within Gaza city and putting the civilian population at risk. Perhaps the Mission could explain how does want fight and defend such a densely populated city without being in amongst your own population? Does the Mission appreciate that the distance from the city to the border is very short and had Hamas taken up position in such an area the Israel Air Force with its sophisticated Fighter, Helicopters and UAV's would have picked them off without any effort. It is obvious that the experts writing this report have no understanding of the disproportionate force that Hamas faced and had no choice but to fight from within their city.

On Page 29 Paragraph 92 the report even extended into the West Bank when it stated: "In the West Bank, Israel has long imposed a system of movement restrictions. Movement is restricted by a combination of physical obstacles such as roadblocks, checkpoints and the Wall, but also through administrative measures such as identity cards, permits, assigned residence, laws on family reunification, and policies on the right to enter from abroad and the right of return for refugees" etc.

What the report did not point out was that the West Bank remains under total occupation and that two thirds of this so called Palestinian enclave is not available to the rightful owners. The Israelis in their usual arrogant way continue to land grab and take control of vast tracts of land. We have reason to believe that much of the land on the Dead Sea side is extremely rich in natural resources and therefore they have no intention of allowing the rightful owners to benefit from those resources.

Finally I would like to point out that the report draws attention to the odd missile or bomb here and there when in actual fact the strip was bombarded with a vast array of high tech weaponry. It is obvious that yet again the UN is playing down these serious violations and really has no intention of revealing the truth behind the use of these dirty weapons. Independent experts have received samples from Gaza in much the same way as they did from Lebanon and the findings were extremely upsetting. I again as the question of the UN Mission Team.....why didn't they use forensic evidence from the many missile/bomb sites to analyse exactly what had be used during the conflict and why wasn't these forensic experts used as stipulated at the beginning of their report?

The Palestinian people and their brothers in the Middle East should apply pressure on the UN to proceed without delay and bring justice to the people of Gaza. The manipulation by the US and the announced delay is appalling.

- Peter Eyre, Middle East Consultant

UN rights chief slams Israel over Gaza violations

Reuters AlertNet, Aug. 14, 2009

GENEVA - There is significant evidence that Israeli forces violated international law and human rights in their invasion of Gaza between late December and mid-January, the United Nations human rights chief said on Friday.

A report by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay lambasted the "nearly total impunity" for the violations.

The already critical human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) deteriorated further during the war, she said in the report, the first of a series of periodic reports ordered by the U.N. Human Rights Council in January during Israel's "Operation Cast Lead".

The 34-page report is one of two -- together with a forthcoming one by South African jurist Richard Goldstone who has been conducting hearings in Gaza -- that will be presented to the council next month.

"...significant prima facie evidence indicates that serious violations of international humanitarian law as well as gross human rights violations occurred during the military operations of 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, which were compounded by the blockade that the population of Gaza endured in the months prior to Operation Cast Lead and which continues," Pillay said.

Pillay said rights violations included arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, extrajudicial execution, forced eviction and home demolition, settlement expansion and related violence and restrictions on freedom of movement and expression.

"While these violations are of deep concern in their own right, the nearly total impunity that persists for such violations (regardless of the responsible duty bearer) is of grave concern, and constitutes a root cause for their persistence," the former South African high court judge said.

Pillay's recommendations included the following:

-- Israel should lift the blockade of Gaza and restrictions on movement in and out of the West Bank, which amount to illegal collective punishment.

-- Allegations of violations of humanitarian law and human rights during the Gaza war should be investigated by independent bodies, and victims should have the right to reparations.

-- Israel should tackle impunity for violations, and curb its use of the military justice system, which does not meet international standards.

-- Israel should end the illegal expansion of settlements in the occupied territory, halt evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes, and end settler violence.

Unlike rulings of the U.N. Security Council, the findings and recommendations of the Human Rights Council are not binding.

Islamic and African countries, backed by Russia, China, Cuba and Nicaragua, currently have a majority on the 47-member council, which has spent more time on Israel/Palestine than on any other issue since being set up three years ago.

In a separate statement, a U.N. special committee on human rights in the occupied territories said it would report to the U.N. General Assembly on violations of humanitarian law including increasing violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank while Israeli police and troops looked on.

The committee, set up in 1968, was again unable to visit Israel or the occupied territories on its latest 10-day mission this month, but travelled to Egypt, Jordan and Syria to hear testimony. Its members are from Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Senegal. (For Pillay's full report go to http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A%20HRC%2012%2037_AEV.pdf )

(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay)

AROUND 30 ISRAELI SOLDIERS TESTIFY ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES IN OPERATION CAST LEAD – A NEW BOOKLET BY "BREAKING THE SILENCE"

Breaking The Silence, July 15, 2009

click here to read the Israeli Soldiers Testimonies

"You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them."

Fifty-four testimonies of Israeli combat soldiers who participated in Operation Cast Lead reveal gaps between the reports given by the army following January’s events; the needless destruction of houses; firing phosphorous in populated areas and an atmosphere that encouraged shooting anywhere.

Half a year after Operation Cast Lead, the organization "Breaking the Silence" is announcing the release of a new booklet today (Wed. 7/15) that includes numerous testimonies by soldiers who participated in the operation. The testimonies expose significant gaps between the official stances of the Israeli military and events on the ground.

Among the 54 testimonies are stories revealing the use of "accepted practices," the destruction of hundreds of houses and mosques for no military purpose, the firing of phosphorous gas in the direction of populated areas, the killing of innocent victims with small arms, the destruction of private property, and most of all, a permissive atmosphere in the command structure that enabled soldiers to act without moral restrictions. The booklet compiles the testimonies of about 30 reserve and regular combat soldiers from various units that participated in the fighting. The testimonies demonstrate that the soldiers were not given directives stating the goal of the operation and, as one soldier testifies, "there was not much said about the issue of innocent civilians."

Many soldiers said that they fought without seeing "the enemy before their eyes." "You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them," one of the soldiers testified that "a 20-year-old kid should not have to do these kinds of things to other people."

"The testimonies prove that the immoral way the war was carried out was due to the systems in place and not the individual soldier," said Mikhael Mankin from "Breaking the Silence." What was proven yesterday is that through the IDF the exception becomes the norm, and this requires a deep and reflective discussion. This is an urgent call to Israel's society and leadership to take a sober look at the foolishness of our policies."

click here for more information

First-of-Its Kind Study: Medicare for All (Single-Payer) Reform Would Be Major Stimulus for Economy

First-of-Its Kind Study: Medicare for All (Single-Payer) Reform Would Be Major Stimulus for Economy with 2.6 Million New Jobs, $317 Billion in Business Revenue, $100 Billion in Wages
California Nurses Association, Press Release

Establishing a national single-payer style healthcare reform system would provide a major stimulus for the U.S. economy by creating 2.6 million new jobs, and infusing $317 billion in new business and public revenues, with another $100 billion in wages into the U.S. economy, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study released today.

The number of jobs created by a single-payer system, expanding and upgrading Medicare to cover everyone, parallels almost exactly the total job loss in 2008.

read the full study | view more charts

"These dramatic new findings document for the first time that a single-payer system could not only solve our healthcare crisis, but also substantially contribute to putting America back to work and assisting the economic recovery," said Geri Jenkins, RN, co-president of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association, which sponsored the study.

"Through direct and supplemental expenditures, healthcare is already a uniquely dominant force in the U.S. economy," said Don DeMoro, lead author of the study and director of the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, the NNOC/CNA research arm.

"However, so much more is possible. If we were to expand our present Medicare system to cover all Americans, the economic stimulus alone would create an immense engine that would help drive our national economy for decades to come," DeMoro said.

Expanding Medicare to include the uninsured, and those on Medicaid or employer-sponsored health plans, and expanding coverage for those with limited Medicare, would have the following immediate impacts:

* Create 2,613,495 million new permanent good-paying jobs (slightly exceeding the number of jobs lost in 2008)
* Boost the economy with $317 billion in increased business and public revenues
* Add $100 billion in employee compensation
* Infuse public budgets with $44 billion in new tax revenues

Further, moving to the new system comes with an unexpectedly low price tag, given the economic benefits and the far-reaching consequences of genuine healthcare reform, DeMoro noted.

Healthcare for all far less than the Wall Street bailouts

Adding all Americans to an expanded Medicare could be achieved for $63 billion beyond the current $2.1 trillion in direct healthcare spending. The $63 billion is six times less than the federal bailout for CitiGroup, and less than half the federal bailout for AIG. Solely expanding Medicare to cover the 47 million uninsured Americans (as of 2006 data on which the study is based) could be accomplished for $44 billion.

The IHSP projections build from an econometric model of the current face of healthcare – applying economic analysis to a wide array of publicly available data from Medicare, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and other sources.

It is the first known study to provide an econometric analysis of the economic benefits of healthcare to the overall economy, showing how changes in direct healthcare delivery affect all other significant sectors touched by healthcare, and how sweeping healthcare reform can help drive the nation's economic recovery.

Healthcare presently accounts for $2.105 trillion in direct expenditures. But healthcare spreads far beyond doctor's offices and hospitals. Adding in healthcare business purchases of services or supplies and spending by workers, the total impact of healthcare in the economy mushrooms to nearly $6 trillion.

Overall, every direct healthcare dollar creates nearly three additional dollars in the U.S. economy. In current form, healthcare:

* Generates 45 million jobs, directly and in other industries.
* Accounts for 10.5 percent of all U.S. jobs and 12.1 percent of all U.S. wages.
* Totals 9.2 percent of the nation's Gross National Product.
* Contributes about 25 percent of all federal tax revenues. Federal, state, and local taxes from the healthcare sector in 2006 added up to $824 billion.

All those numbers would rise dramatically through comprehensive healthcare reform. But a single-payer system would produce the biggest increase in jobs and wages. The reason, DeMoro said, is that "the broadest economic benefits directly accrue from the actual delivery and provision of healthcare, not the purchase of insurance."

Medicare for all has numerous other benefits, of course, noted Jenkins, from a streamlined system with tens of billions less in private insurance administrative waste, guaranteed choice of physician and hospital, no loss of coverage when unemployed, and no one denied coverage due to age or health status.

"Only a single-payer, expanded Medicare-for-all approach ends the current disgraceful practice of insurance companies refusing to pay for medical treatment or engaging in rampant price gouging that discourages patients from going to the doctor, seeing specialists, or getting diagnostic procedures in a timely manner," said Jenkins.

The IHSP has conducted research for members of Congress and state legislatures as well as NNOC/CNA, and received international renown for research studies on cost and charges in the hospital industry, the pharmaceutical industry, hospital staffing, and other healthcare policy.

Robert Fountain, a frequent economics consultant for the California Public Employees Retirement System (Cal-PERS), served as a consultant on the study.

In blockaded Gaza, Israeli tanks kill again

Press TV, July 2, 2009

A seventeen-year-old Palestinian girl has reportedly been killed and four others have suffered wounds in Israeli tank fire in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Palestinians who said they witnessed the incident, Hyam Ayash lost her life after an Israeli tank fired a mortar toward a target near the al-Bureij refugee camp at a central area in the impoverished strip. Medical workers meanwhile said that one of those wounded in the attack is in critical condition.

The Israeli military account of the incident was that its forces had come under fire by Palestinian fighters in the area.

The incident took place after the London-based human rights group Amnesty International announced on Thursday that Israeli army soldiers picked and used Gazan children as human shields during the latest major Israeli military operation in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In its 117-page report on the offensive, the rights group leveled accusations of war crimes against Tel Aviv, saying Israeli forces inflicted "wanton destruction" in attacks that targeted civilians.

Based on the report, Israeli troops forced Palestinians to stay in one room at their home while turning the rest of the house into a base and sniper positions, effectively using the families, both adults and children, as human shields and putting them at risk.

There have been intermittent skirmishes between Israeli troopers and Palestinian fighters in the Gaza-Israel border region after Israel brought its three-week war on Gaza to a halt.

Three weeks of Israeli air strikes and a ground incursion resulted in the death of over 1,500 Palestinians and the injury of about 5,450 people in the Gaza Strip. Most of the victims were civilians. The offensive also inflicted more than USD 1.6 billion of damage on the economy in the Gaza Strip.

MP/AA

Red Cross: Israel trapping 1.5m Gazans in despair

By Haaretz Service, Haaretz.com, June 29, 2009

The Red Cross released a damning report Monday on the effects of the Israel-led blockade on the Gaza Strip, describing the 2-year-old measure as having trapped the coastal territory's 1.5 million residents "in despair."

The international humanitarian organization lamented the fact that the blockade, imposed after Hamas seized control of Gaza two years ago, was impeding reconstruction efforts after Israel's offensive in the Strip at the beginning of the year.

"Gaza neighborhoods particularly hard hit by the Israeli strikes will continue to look like the epicenter of a massive earthquake unless vast quantities of cement, steel and other building materials are allowed into the territory for reconstruction," the report said.

According to the Red Cross, Gaza's poverty is directly linked to the blockade that is "strangling" the local economy.

The organization lamented Israel's halting of Red Cross-supported visits by about 900 Gaza families to relatives detained in Israel.

But no mention was made of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is widely believed to be held in Gaza by the Islamist Hamas. Shalit's parents and the Red Cross have been denied access to the soldier.

In addition, the Red Cross lamented the shortage of basic medicines in Gaza. It noted that the territory's hospitals and health clinics depend for supplies on the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health, which is based in the West Bank, but the supply chain often breaks down due to poor cooperation.

"Complex and lengthy Israeli import procedures also hamper the reliable supply of even the most basic items such as painkillers and X-ray film developers," the report said.

Report Four: Multiple Voices and Forms of Resistance May 30 – 31

Interfaith Peace-Builders

Read other reports from this delegation here
View photos from this delegation here

Resistance

Resistance is the stubborn red poppy growing out of the Israeli army bunker on the Golan Heights.

Resistance is the purple hollyhock climbing proudly out of the rubble of what was a Syrian house on the Golan before 1967.

Resistance is when the Israeli bubble you live in bursts when your daughter is blown up yet you decide, in all your devastation, to make a difference, a pledge, in fact, to get to know your enemy rather than seeking revenge.

Resistance is being able to recognize that pain is a power that can be used for revenge or reconciliation and you choose the latter.

Resistance is living the occupation, going through the humiliating checkpoints, waiting in long lines to reach work and school with silent dignity.

Resistance is the recognition that one’s voice, the one who struggles for justice, can make a difference.

Silence in the face on nonviolent resistance, on the part of the world community, is a crime.

-- Cathy Sultan

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Nazareth and the Galilee

Al Tufula Center-Nazareth Nursery Institute: We spent part of the day in Nazareth meeting with Nabila Espaniola, who has been instrumental in working on advocacy and lobbying on women’s issues. Whatever action is done has a song. These songs are part of a daily routine Palestinian women establish with their children and extended families.

While Nabila’s focus is on early childhood and women’s empowerment, her work branches out into three crucial areas:

1. Work with unrecognized Palestinian villages within Israel. These villages operate off the grid and are virtually ignored by the state of Israel. Evictions and demolitions pose a constant threat. Nabila seeks to build strength in women who will eventually work for their own communities.

2. High school students. Students are recruited for a year of training to become volunteers in their own communities. The Center works in conjunction with the students to look at their roots and history as well as abilities. Many of these continued on to University.

3. Disabled women. Here the Center stresses “different abilities” as opposed to “disabilities” for the reason of awakening each individual’s abilities and capacity-building. No longer must these people be silenced and invisible.

“For those left alone as orphans on the tables of the ungiving,” women can share in a “herstory”, children have access to a decent education, and extended family members sow the seeds of capacity through their collective abilities for generations to come.

Visits to Destroyed Village Sites: This afternoon we got a glimpse through our tour guide, Ali, of the devastating impact of the destruction of 530 villages in 1948 described as “ al-Nakba” (the disaster). Most of these villages are in the Galilee. Today, Karmiel, with 60,000 Jewish inhabitants, is part of the “Judaization of the Galilee”. We viewed remnants of stone structures from Palestinian houses abandoned in 1948. “What is it like for Palestinians to see remnants of their houses, their village,” someone asked, “for those who are able to go?

A Bedouin Unrecognized Village: Karmiel is a Jewish settlement inside Israel comprised of 60,000 immigrants, primarily from Russia. In between their concrete high rises sits an “unrecognized” village a family refers to as Rimya.

“How long have you been here?”, one of the visitors asked. A young man cheerfully replied, “We were here before the Turks came”. Within minutes we were invited into a hospitable world. Initially uncomfortable about our seeming intrusion and whipping out cameras, I began hearing laughter from the two teenage girls who stood in the background. A young Bedouin had pulled out his cell phone camera and began photographing us! “How can you help us?,” an elderly man named Mohammed asked. The two groups of people shared in discourse about changes that needed to be made in governments complicit in what was happening to these “living stones”, and what we could do in our individual communities. As we prepared for departure, a settler passed by.

-- Karen Clarke

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Naming

Calling people by the name they choose to be called is an indication of respect. I learned that the US cultural convention of saying “Arab Muslims” is inappropriate for Palestinian residents of the Galilee. Nabila from Al Tufula Nursery in Nazareth said the women she worked with liked to be called “Palestinian Arabs who are Israeli citizens” or “Palestinian citizens of Israel.” I will be more careful.

--Thea Nietfeld

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New Profile

Today we drove to Kibbutz Haogen near Tel Aviv where we met Ruth Hiller from the New Profile movement. Ruth grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and moved to Israel as a young idealistic Zionist to help build the nation of Israel. She met her husband in the kibbutz and they had six children (2 girls and 4 boys) who they raised on the kibbutz. The two older children (both girls) served in the military but when the oldest son turned 15, he announced to his parents that he was a pacifist and would not serve in the military.

After deep soul-searching, Ruth and her husband decided they would support him on two conditions -- that they would do it together and that they would do everything they could to keep him out of jail. He agreed, and so began a six-year sojourn -- searching for lawyers to represent them (the first 7 rejected the case as "not win-able"), three appeals to the High Court of Israel, and eventually to the High Court's decision that her son was "unsuitable" for military service.

"My son knew he was 'unsuitable' for military service at age 15," she said. "When we asked him how he came to the decision that he was a pacifist, he told us that he had learned pacifist values as a child on the kibbutz."

In his early teens, he sought out books by Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time he had to read Gandhi in English, as his autobiography had not been translated into Hebrew.

The process radicalized Ruth who moved from attending weekly vigils with Women in Black to getting together with a small group of women to form a study group around the issues raised by her son's case and that of all Israeli refusers.

Over the years, the New Profile movement emerged.

Today its aim is to work toward changing Israeli society "from a militarized to a civil society; from a discriminating and oppressive society to an egalitarian one; from an occupying nation to a respectful neighbor."

Ruth's stories illuminated the militarization of Israeli society and the normalization of militarization. When her son first came out as a pacifist, she remembers whispering as she described the situation to a "left-wing" friend. After two years of working together as a study group, New Profile organized a day long conference around the question, "Who has the right of conscience?"

They planned to hold the conference in the community meeting room at Ruth's kibbutz, the room where we our delegation met with her. However, as people arrived, a group of protestors ((Ruth's friends and neighbors, residents of the kibbutz) assembled at the entrance, holding protest signs, "Auschwitz, Never Again!"

Out of respect for the other members of the kibbutz, the organizers decided on the spot to move 150 people to a nearby neighbor's backyard. Ruth described the heartbreak she felt at the protest and her sense of joy at the number of people who showed up -- 150 people! She knew then that their work was touching a deep need in Israeli society.

Ruth and other members of New Profile now travel internationally, speaking in Europe and the United States about their work.

Her message to American Jews: "I don't want my children to die for your belief in Zionism."

Ruth says that the majority of "refusers" are "grey refusers." For example, her second and third sons, unlike their older brother, took the easy route out. "If you can get out because you wet the bed at night or because you're afraid of the dark, that's much easier than the route of direct political refusal."

New Profile provides counseling and legal aid to refusers of all kinds. Visit their website at www.newprofile.org/english to learn more about their work and services.

--Candace Walworth

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Voices

Voices….voices….diverse, pained, filled with an active hope that says, I must do something, or I will die. The voices come from extraordinary people doing amazing actions in horrific circumstances. They also come from people, Palestinians and Jews alike, who believe in the right of a democratic homeland.

On a street in East Jerusalem a good-natured merchant invited me into his shop; He told jokes, like my father’s, introduced his daughter, described his wares, and expressed his hope that a united country someday could be like America with everyone neighbors and friends regardless of nationality.

I heard the story of the Palestinian working as a gardener at his grandfather’s house, now in the hands of a Jew, an example of the slogan “More Land, Less Arabs.”

A resident of the Dheisheh Refugee Camp spoke of his detention. Palestinians cannot speak out. It is illegal and subject to detention. Sixty percent of the residents of the camp have had these administrative detentions, jailed with no say, no trial.

A soft-spoken, gentle young adult at the same camp just wants to sleep at night without fear, see the ocean, return to the village his grandmother describes to him as home.

A mother told of the trauma to her children after seeing their friends killed…she pleaded for the United States to be a peacemaker.

A poet father mourned for his daughter who died without seeing her son during his 21 years in detention. He recited his poem….”This year is gone without any taste…”

The Fatah party member in Bethlehem works to “transform the garbage of anger to flowers of compassion” by reawakening spirituality because that is the language of the heart. His work is meant to “empower the weak and bring the strong to their senses.” He was firm in his belief that no one is an enemy except he who denies human rights.

A man with Hamas leanings pleaded for the American press to report the fact that “justice delayed is justice denied.”

A victim of the siege of the Church of St. Catherine described police brutality as it punished a whole neighborhood for the act of one.

A UN spokesperson enumerated UN resolutions disregarded by Israel that were meant to protect people from illegal transfer and the need to provide physical return, restitution/reparation, and compensation.

During a tour through Galilee, “This used to be a Palestinian town,” echoed over and over.

An Israeli woman in Sderot, though traumatized by the rockets from Gaza, admitted through every assault that she never stopped thinking about the other side. “When you don’t see the other, you develop stereotypes and stigmas, not solidarity.” She pleaded for her country to break the wall and build a bridge.

An Israeli man identified Gaza as the largest prison in the world. He felt it was time to raise a new voice since Israeli society does not want to see what it is doing, what it has done, and fears it will only become more racist. Both accept social isolation when they state, “Not in my name or for my security.” Instead, they invite person-to-person dialogue.

At a nearby kibbutz, the Israeli members admitted that the threat of rockets make their situation bad but acknowledge that Gaza is worse; they understand Palestinian suffering. They believe the onus is on the stronger to act, not the weakest. They believe “we can all live here together in peace.”

The director of an NGO meant to empower women by identifying and utilizing their skills remarked that “the national priorities are Zionist priorities and overlook real needs; minorities have become invisible…. but identity and existence cannot be suppressed.”

Another Palestinian described the killing of six peaceful demonstrators who responded to government confiscation of the town’s farmland. This event is now commemorated on March 30th as Land Day, an illegal observance but necessary as a statement against continued illegal government action.

An Ethiopian Jewish immigrant would like to see the Palestinian-Israeli issue settled after careful study, but “now I want to buy bread for my kids and cannot focus on a political issue.”

While all these voices touched the heart, the most poignant for me was the one of the Bedouin man, surrounded by his family, who said, “I have no place to go; this is my home.” His family has owned and worked the land since before the arrival of the Ottoman Turks, centuries ago. He has received a demolition order to make room for a Jewish settlement. Multi-story apartment buildings surround him already, inhabited by newly arrived immigrants from Russia. His small piece of land is dwarfed by Goliath.

What do these voices have in common? They acknowledge that people are human first; that people must act in the face of indiscriminate brutality, that people preserve hope through community action, that people must maintain their empathy.

These voices are the answer to Israel’s future and redemption. Will Israel and the US government, its co-conspirator, hear them.

--Carolyn Ciccui

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Study: Israel practices apartheid and colonialism in Palestine

Ma'an News Agency, June 1, 2006

Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) released a study on Monday indicating that Israel is practicing both colonialism and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The interim report, which will form part of a discussion at an upcoming HSRC conference on the subject, titled Re-envisioning Israel/Palestine, on 13 and 14 June in Cape Town, serves as a document to be finalised later this year, according to a statement.

The study's team found that Israel's policy and practices violate the prohibition on colonialism which the international community developed in the 1960s in response to the great decolonisation struggles in Africa and Asia. "Israel's policy is demonstrably to fragment the West Bank and annex part of it permanently to Israel, which is the hallmark of colonialism," the study concluded.

Israel has appropriated land and water in the territories, merged the Palestinian economy with Israel's economy, and imposed a system of domination over Palestinians to ensure their subjugation to these measures, the report noted.

"Through these measures, Israel has denied the indigenous population the right to self-determination and indicated clear intention to assume sovereignty over portions of its land and natural resources. Permanent annexation of territory in this fashion is the hallmark of colonialism," the published summary went on to say.

Regarding apartheid, the team found that Israel's laws and policies in Palestine fit the definition of apartheid in the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

Israeli law conveys privileges to Jewish settlers and disadvantages Palestinians in the same territory on the basis of their respective identities, which function in this case as racialised identities in the sense provided by international law. Israel's practices are corollary to five of the six 'inhuman acts' listed by the Convention, according to the report.

"A policy of apartheid is especially indicated by Israel's demarcation of geographic ‘reserves' in the West Bank, to which Palestinian residence is confined and which Palestinians cannot leave without a permit," the study's authors alleged.

The system is "very similar" to the policy of ‘Grand Apartheid' in apartheid South Africa, in which black South Africans were confined to black homelands delineated by the South African government, while white South Africans enjoyed freedom of movement and full civil rights in the rest of the country, it said.

The HSRC commissioned an international team of scholars and practitioners of international public law from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Israel and the West Bank to conduct the study.

The resulting 300-page draft, titled Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid?: A re-assessment of Israel's practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law, represents 15 months of research and constitutes an exhaustive review of Israel's practices in Palestine according to definitions of colonialism and apartheid provided by international law.

The project was suggested originally by the January 2007 report by eminent South African jurist John Dugard, in his capacity as Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Council, when he indicated that Israeli practices had assumed characteristics of colonialism and apartheid.

Amnesty International Report 2009: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Amnesty International Report 2009

Israeli forces launched a military offensive on an unprecedented scale – code-named “Operation Cast Lead” – on 27 December in the Gaza Strip, killing many civilians and destroying homes and other civilian property. Earlier in the year there had been a marked upsurge in killings of civilians and others by both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) before a ceasefire was agreed in June (see Palestinian Authority entry). Some 70 children were among the 425 Palestinians killed in the first half of the year. In addition to the large-scale destruction of homes and property in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces also destroyed scores of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and in Bedouin villages in the south of Israel. Throughout the year, the Israeli army maintained stringent restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the OPT, including a blockade on the Gaza Strip, which caused an unprecedented level of humanitarian hardship and virtually imprisoned the entire population of 1.5 million. This was further exacerbated by the Israeli offensive launched on 27 December. Hundreds of patients with serious medical conditions requiring treatment not available in local hospitals were refused passage out of Gaza; several died. Hundreds of students could not travel to their universities abroad because they could not leave Gaza, where many fields of study are not available. Most of Gaza’s inhabitants depended on international aid, but the Israeli blockade hampered the ability of UN agencies to provide assistance and services. In the West Bank the movement of Palestinians was severely curtailed by some 600 Israeli checkpoints and barriers, and by the 700km fence/wall which the Israeli army continued to build mostly inside the West Bank. The expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on seized Palestinian land increased to a level not seen since 2001. Israeli soldiers and settlers who committed serious abuses against Palestinians, including unlawful killings, assaults and attacks against property, enjoyed impunity in most cases. Hundreds of Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces; reports of torture and other ill-treatment were frequent, but investigations were rare. Some 8,000 Palestinians remained in Israeli prisons, many after unfair military trials.

click here to read the full report

Global warming causes 300,000 deaths a year, says Kofi Annan thinktank

Climate change is greatest humanitarian challenge facing the world as heatwaves, floods and forest fires become more severe
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk, May 29, 2009

Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming.

It projects that increasingly severe heatwaves, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces.

Economic losses due to climate change today amount to more than $125bn a year — more than all the present world aid. The report comes from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan's thinktank, the Global Humanitarian Forum. By 2030, the report says, climate change could cost $600bn a year.

Civil unrest may also increase because of weather-related events, the report says: "Four billion people are vulnerable now and 500m are now at extreme risk. Weather-related disasters ... bring hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods. They pose a threat to social and political stability".

If emissions are not brought under control, within 25 years, the report states:

• 310m more people will suffer adverse health consequences related to temperature increases

• 20m more people will fall into poverty

• 75m extra people will be displaced by climate change.

Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies . "Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts. Hundreds of millions of people are expected to become water stressed by climate change by the 2030. ".

The study says it is impossible to be certain who will be displaced by 2030, but that tens of millions of people "will be driven from their homelands by weather disasters or gradual environmental degradation. The problem is most severe in Africa, Bangladesh, Egypt, coastal zones and forest areas. ."

The study compares for the first time the number of people affected by climate change in rich and poor countries. Nearly 98% of the people seriously affected, 99% of all deaths from weather-related disasters and 90% of the total economic losses are now borne by developing countries. The populations most at risk it says, are in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, south Asia and the small island states of the Pacific.

But of the 12 countries considered least at risk, including Britain, all but one are industrially developed. Together they have made nearly $72bn available to adapt themselves to climate change but have pledged only $400m to help poor countries. "This is less than one state in Germany is spending on improving its flood defences," says the report.

The study comes as diplomats from 192 countries prepare to meet in Bonn next week for UN climate change talks aimed at reaching a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in December in Copenhagen. "The world is at a crossroads. We can no longer afford to ignore the human impact of climate change. This is a call to the negotiators to come to the most ambitious agreement ever negotiated or to continue to accept mass starvartion, mass sickness and mass migration on an ever growing scale," said Kofi Annan, who launched the report today in London.

Annan blamed politians for the current impasse in the negotiations and widespread ignorance in many countries. "Weak leadership, as evident today, is alarming. If leaders cannot assume responsibility they will fail humanity. Agreement is in the interests of every human being."

Barabra Stocking, head of Oxfam said: "Adaptation efforts need to be scaled up dramatically.The world's poorest are the hardest hit, but they have done the least to cause it.

Nobel peace prizewinner Wangari Maathai, said: "Climate change is life or death. It is the new global battlefield. It is being presented as if it is the problem of the developed world. But it's the developed world that has precipitated global warming."

Calculations for the report are based on data provided by the World Bank, the World Health organisation, the UN, the Potsdam Insitute For Climate Impact Research, and others, including leading insurance companies and Oxfam. However, the authors accept that the estimates are uncertain and could be higher or lower. The paper was reviewed by 10 of the world's leading experts incluing Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, Jeffrey Sachs, of Columbia University and Margareta Wahlström, assistant UN secretary general for disaster risk reduction.

France is ignoring EU rules on arms sales to Israel, new study reports

by Katherine Orwell, IMEMC, May 30, 2009

The French arms trade with Israel breaks the rules that the European Union has set out for the defense industry, according to a new study brought out this week. Between 2003 and 2007 France licensed for more than 446 million euros for arms exports to Israel, making France the largest EU supplier of weapons to Israel.

The EU code for the defense industry forbids arms sales in cases where they may exacerbate regional tensions or are used in violations of human rights.

Patrice Bouveret from the French Center for Research on Peace and Conflicts in Lyon dismissed the claims from the French government that the "weapons" in question are generally only components of military goods instead of complete weapons systems. "Even if they are only components, they are used directly by the Israeli army," he added.

Amnesty International reported in February that after the Gaza war ceased electrical components were found in the ruins of buildings Israel destroyed, that had "Made in France" written on them.

UN: HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN PALESTINE AND OTHER OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES

UN Human Rights Council, March 10, 2009 via ReliefWeb

6.) The Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), particularly the Gaza Strip, has been affected by protracted conflict and occupation policies for decades. On 27 December 2008 the Israeli military launched a large-scale operation against Hamas in response to rockets fired towards populated areas on Israeli territory. According to available estimates, a total of around 1,453 people were killed. Of these, 1,440 were Palestinian, including 431 children, and 114 women. Thirteen were Israelis, including three civilians and six soldiers killed by Hamas, and four soldiers killed in friendly fire incidents.1 This operation also resulted in a dramatic deterioration of the living conditions of the civilian population. At the onset of the recent military operation, the population of the Gaza Strip was already rendered vulnerable following a 20-month-long blockade which severely restricted movement of people and goods and the delivery of humanitarian and development assistance. In addition, discriminatory legislation and policies of the Occupying Power in, inter alia, access to housing, health care, food and water systems have governed for decades the institutional set up in the OPT thus aggravating the situation of the area’s residents. An estimated 80 percent of the population in Gaza, particularly women and children, was already dependent on humanitarian assistance, before the recent military operation.

7.) Targeted and indiscriminate attacks on public facilities, including medical facilities, water and sanitation networks, government and municipal buildings, electricity, gas, transportation, agriculture, fisheries and industries have further eroded people’s access to basic services and goods. Combined with the decreasing ability of the authorities to manage basic public services and the collapse of the local economy, the recent military operation has exacerbated the situation of the 1.5 million Gaza residents whose rights, including the rights to education, food, health, housing, and to be free from violence cannot be protected. The conflict has further exacerbated the desperate situation of those living in poverty in Gaza and has pushed even more people into a life of poverty.

8.) Even after the ceasefire was declared on 18 January 2009, restrictions on movement of people and goods as well as humanitarian assistance have continued, thus hampering efforts for recovery and return to normalcy.

Notes:
1 In addition to the 1,440 killed the Palestinian Ministry of Health lists 5,380 Palestinians injured, including 1,872 children and 800 women. In addition to the 13 killed, the Magen David Adom lists 518 Israelis injured, including 182 civilians and 336 soldiers. For additional data on children see also Annex I. OCHA, The Humanitarian Monitor, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Number 33, January 2009.

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