From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Fri Jul 17 2009 - 19:34:19 EDT
ICRC: Israel Traps Gazans in Deprivation and Despair
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, July 16, 2009
Founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1863, the International Committee of the
Red Cross is an "impartial, neutral and independent organization whose
exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of
victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence and to provide
them with assistance." It also tries "to prevent suffering by promoting and
strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles."
It's legally mandated to do it under the 1949 Geneva Conventions and has
had a permanent presence in Gaza since 1968. Currently 109 ICRC staff work
there, including 19 expatriates. They remained throughout Operation Cast
Lead and witnessed firsthand the carnage and destruction that took place.
Cooperatively with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), they
evacuated hundreds of people, some severely wounded in the conflict. As
able, they also repaired power and water supply lines and provided
hospitals with vital medicines and supplies. In addition, ICRC surgeons
performed operations in Gaza's Shifa Hospital working alongside Palestinian
doctors.
Post-conflict, ICRC and PRCS collected information on Israeli violations of
international humanitarian laws. They also distributed vital items,
including plastic sheeting, cooking sets, mattresses, blankets, hygiene
kits, and more to over 72,000 Gazans whose homes were partially or totally
destroyed.
ICRC is currently providing eight hospitals with medicines, other medical
supplies, equipment, spare parts, and is helping with needed repairs. It's
also fitting amputees with artificial limbs and offering needed
physiotherapy.
It's helping to upgrade water and sanitation services to keep Gaza's water
network running as best it can. It's aiding farmers and others with land
rehabilitation, compost production, and "cash-for-work." It promotes
international humanitarian law and calls on all sides to observe it.
In June 2009, it issued a report titled, "Gaza: 1.5 million people trapped
in despair" that described the Territory as "look(ing) like the epicentre
of a massive earthquake" in the wake of Operation Cast Lead and went on to
detail how severely.
No Reconstruction Allowed - Public Health at Risk
Despite billions pledged for reconstruction, practically none of it has
come because of Israel's tight embargo on virtually everything needed. As a
result, thousands of displaced and destitute families live in cramped
quarters with relatives or in tents as their only other alternative.
Some emergency repairs were carried out, but "only to the already
unsatisfactory level prevailing before December 2008." Overall, the
infrastructure is inadequate, overloaded, and subject to breakdown.
Although chlorine is available to disinfect water, sewage and other waste
matter seepage remains a major threat to public health. Each day, 69
million liters of partially or untreated effluent are pumped into the
Mediterranean for lack of an ability to handle it.
Poor Access to Health Care
Gaza's health care system is in disrepair and can't adequately treat
patients with serious illnesses. In addition, with the Territory under
siege and a strict embargo imposed, most people can't leave to seek care
elsewhere. Those allowed out endure a bureaucratic nightmare and wait
months before permission is granted. For some, it's too late and for others
their condition has worsened.
Twenty-six year old Do'aa is typical. She has pancreatic cancer, needs
surgery, yet explains her despair. "At first, there was hope that I would
be given an operation, but as time went by I stopped hoping. I am in pain
and I know all too well that my disease is life threatening." She's waited
six months for permission, so far not granted.
Reaching Jordan is no easy task. It requires passing through Erez crossing
into Israel and doing it is arduous. ICRC describes the process:
"Patients on life-support machines have to be removed from ambulances and
placed on stretchers, then carried 60 - 80 metres through the crossing to
ambulances waiting on the other side. Patients who can walk unassisted may
face extensive questioning before they are allowed through the crossing for
medical treatment - or, as sometimes happens, before they are refused entry
into Israel and turned back."
As for treatment in Gaza, everything needed falls short. What's available
comes from the Palestinian Authority's (PA) Ministry of Health in the West
Bank, but the supply chain is unreliable given obstacles that Israel
imposes and tensions between Fatah and Hamas.
Getting imports is more complicated still because of embargo restrictions
of even the most basic items like painkillers and X-ray film developers.
Patients go wanting as a result, a serious problem for the most ill.
For those needing prosthetic appliances as well because getting them is a
lengthy, arduous process. Fourteen-year old Gassan lost his older brother
and both his legs. He loves football, but doctors told him he'd walk again.
Six months later, he's still waiting for both of his limbs to be fitted.
A Strangled Economy
The combination of siege and Operation Cast Lead devastated Gaza's already
fragile economy. On May 1, the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce reported
that unemployment reached 65%, poverty hit 80%, and the longer isolation
continues the higher these figures will go. Currently, about 96% of Gaza's
industrial operations are shuttered, and over 80% of its residents depend
on humanitarian aid and supplies from the World Food Program, UNRWA, and
what comes in through tunnels from Egypt to survive.
A May 2008 ICRC household survey showed that over 70% of Gazans had
personal incomes of $1 dollar a day excluding whatever humanitarian
assistance they received. On average, Territory workers have to support six
to seven other immediate family members and several others in their
extended family. Cutting household expenses is essential, even at the cost
of a healthy balanced diet, no longer affordable for most.
So cheap alternatives substitute for fruits, vegetables, meat and fish.
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies result. Children, the elderly and sick are
especially impacted. For youths it means stunted bone growth, improper
teeth development, and a reduced capacity to learn. It makes everyone
infection and illness-prone by lowering their resistance and destroying
their overall state of well-being.
Most of the poor "have exhausted their coping mechanisms." Their savings
are gone, and they've sold personal belongings, including jewelry,
furniture, farm animals, land, fishing boats, cars and other possessions -
anything to raise cash. They've cut back on food and other essentials as
much as possible. Still their situation is grave. Israel is slowly sucking
life out of 1.5 million people with no opposition stepping up to stop it.
Farming in the Danger Zone
Farm families comprise over one-fourth of Gaza's population, and they, too,
been badly hit. "Exports of strawberries, cherry tomatoes and cut flowers
used to be" important cash crops. No longer as they've been virtually
halted. Farmers lost half their income and struggle to sell what they can
internally at far lower prices than obtainable from exports to Israel or
Europe.
Operation Cast Lead destroyed thousands of citrus, olive and palm groves as
well as irrigation systems, wells and greenhouses. In addition, many
farmers lack fertilizers and many seedling types. They also lost access to
around 30% of their land, the portion inside a "no-go" buffer zone
straddling Israel and Gaza. It extends up to a kilometer inside an
Israeli-erected fence on which farmers risk being shot if they work there.
Under these conditions, productive agriculture is severely curtailed and in
some places not possible.
Fishermen has been just as hard hit by Israel's coastal restrictions
extending up to six nautical miles offshore. Reduced catches have resulted
as bigger fish and sardines, comprising 70% of earlier harvests, are found
in deeper waters.
Trapped
ICRC states:
"People in Gaza are trapped. Because Israel has shut the crossing points,
Gazans have scant opportunity for contact with relatives abroad or for
further education or professional training." Palestinian staff members of
international organizations, including ICRC, are also impacted.
The emotional fallout especially affects families whose relatives are
imprisoned inside Israel. In June 2007, Israel stopped ICRC-supported
visits of about 900 families and prevented spouses and children from
staying close to their loved ones.
Students, professors, teachers, and health professionals also get no exit
permission for education, training, seminars, and other skills and
expertise-building methods. Ibrahim Abu Sobeih is a 24-year-old Gaza
student. Pennsylvania's Clarion University awarded him a scholarship, but
he can't attend. In frustration, he said:
"Being stuck here gives me a sombre view of the future. I would like to be
educated and to make something of myself. I want to be able to help my
family financially. But it is very difficult when I am trapped. I feel very
angry and hopeless."
So do 1.5 million other Gazans - trapped in the world's largest open-air
prison, under siege for over two years, getting way inadequate outside
help, and none whatever from Western powers that support Israel's
slow-motion genocide against a civilian population unable to stop it.
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on
Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at www.sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The
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