- In the run-up to Annapolis Stuart Littlewood went to
Gaza on an unusual mission. He joined a party of priests bringing moral
support to the Christian community and to its Muslim citizens, all suffering
horribly under Israel's collective punishment and cruel siege.
-
- Traffic into Gaza through the elaborate new border 'facility'
at Erez is down to a tiny trickle these days since Israel branded the Palestinian
seaside enclave a 'hostile entity'. The purpose of our visit was to bring
moral support to elderly Fr Manuel, who ministers to his flock, runs an
excellent school (for Christians and Muslims) and is revered as a local
hero. Should he ever leave Gaza the Israeli authorities will not allow
his return, so he has allowed himself to be incarcerated there for 9 years.
He'd had no visitors since February and when he heard we were coming, said
a colleague, he burst into tears.
-
- We also wanted to show solidarity with the whole courageous
population, Muslim and Christian, and apologise for the British government's
indifference to Israel's military onslaught, the spiteful economic sanctions
and the west's meddling in Palestine's democratic affairs.
-
- Thanks to our noisy arrival at breakneck speed through
Gaza's streets with a police escort and sirens blaring that's VIP
treatment here - our small group quickly grew into a media circus. The
Rafah crossing into Egypt, now permanently closed, then followed the barrier
wall down to the sea and the coast road back to Gaza City. On the way I
noted the deserted beaches and the disused fishing boats. Israel has banned
fishing off the Gaza coast, ruined the livelihoods of 3000 licensed fishermen
and their families, and impoverished the local diet.
-
- The military fires on boats that defy the ban. Palestinians
are also prevented from developing maritime trade or natural resources
within their territorial waters. Gaza is just 365 sq km - 45 km long, up
to12 km wide and entirely sealed from the outside world by an Israeli fence
guarded by watchtowers, snipers and tanks. Israel controls Gaza's airspace,
coastal waters and airwaves. A vast prison with air-strikes, beach shelling,
troops, tanks, armoured bulldozers, uncaring of civilian casualties.
-
- Whilst much has been blasted into rubble or skeletal
remains, this was once an attractive place and many fine buildings survive.
So does the defiant community, though wearied by years of humiliation and
occupation. Gaza could easily blossom into a coastal paradise; a prosperous,
independent trading state. But Israel's hatred of Gaza and its people is
terrifying. The economy is strangulated and for 1.5 million souls, life
is hell.
-
- Fuel and candles are running out. Supplies of basics
are exhausted, so even hygiene is fast becoming impossible. Power cuts
disrupt hospital treatment and what few drugs there are cannot be kept
refrigerated. Many look death in the face as medi-care collapses.
-
- Flour to make bread has doubled in price; cement for
concrete to repair damaged homes and infrastructure has gone up 1,000 percent!
Some schools are having to teach three shifts a day. It is truly a humanitarian
crisis, as the UN and various charities have repeatedly warned western
governments. A friend emailed: "Today in Gaza ... we have no cement
to build graves for those who die."
-
- A communiqué received from the Ministry of Health
in Gaza reveals the stark reality:
-
- Cancer patients: Of 450 patients 35% are children and
25% women. They are forbidden to leave Gaza for medical treatment or surgery.
For many, there is no medication because cancer drugs cannot cross the
border.
-
- Renal Failure patients:400 should undergo dialysis three
times a week, but machine break-downs have cut this to twice a week, with
serious consequences for patients.
-
- Hemodialysis machines: Of 69 machines in 4 hospitals
20 are out of order. Israel blocks supply of spares deeming them not humanitarian
items. 3 more have exceeded their design.
-
- Cardiac patients:400-450 patients suffer from severe
shortage of drugs.
-
- No spares can be shipped in for therapeutic and diagnostic
equipment that breaks down.
-
- Stock levels Zero stock of 85 items of essential medical
drugs.
-
- * Zero stock of 12 items of essential psychiatric drugs.
-
- * 2 weeks' stock of anaesthetics for surgery, after which
the theatres will close down.
-
- * Zero stock of X-ray bags and sterilization bags.* Near
zero stock of stationery: medical files and examination forms. These are
re-used several times risking errors in documentation.
-
- * Severe shortage of cloth and dressings, barely enough
body bags and hospital bed covers.
-
- * Zero stocks of patients' food in all hospitals.
-
- * 2 weeks' stock of hospital cleaning fluids. * Diesel
and gas stocks for under 15 days.
-
- * Severe shortages of medical disposables, lab materials
and blood bank materials.
-
-
- The total number of people who died as a result of the
border closure since June has risen to 44. Prevention of patients from
traveling and prevention of entry of food, milk formula and fuel is an
organized crime committed by the Israeli occupation to exhaust and destroy
the health sector, as part of the Israeli policy to kill and humiliate
our people," conclude the Health Ministry.
-
- Physicians for Human Rights, have attempted to bring
seriously ill residents out of Gaza for proper hospital treatment, but
even requests on behalf of advanced cancer cases are invariably refused.
So they die in agony. 20 year-old Nail Al Kurdi, succumbed only a week
ago, still waiting for permission to cross. For five months PHR submitted
request after request to let him through, and even petitioned the High
Court of Justice, but each time he was refuse "for security reasons".
Two days later an 8 year-old boy also died waiting for medical treatment
in Israel. I'm told he had the necessary permit but was repeatedly turned
back at the border.
-
- It is estimated that a thousand patients advanced
cases of kidney disease and cancer and those badly injured by Israeli air-strikes
- need immediate transfers. In the meantime (UK) Channel 4 News reports,
Israel blackmails chronically sick patients. If they agree to inform on
relatives and friends they can cross the border for treatment if not they
can "stay in Gaza and die".
-
- The International Committee of the Red Cross repeatedly
reminds that Israel is obliged under international law to ensure that humanitarian
supplies reach Palestinian civilians. Yet I learned that medicinal drugs
purchased with money from sales of my book 'Radio Free Palestine', could
not be delivered and would have to be smuggled in somehow.
-
- On 11th October, the European Parliament passed a resolution
calling on the Israeli government to lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip
and fulfill its international obligations guaranteeing the flow of humanitarian
aid, and assistance and essential services.
-
- Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament,
said: "I was recently in Gaza and I saw how the Strip is suffocating
in a serious humanitarian crisis due to the raids and the closure imposed
by the Israeli Army: massive devastation of public facilities and private
homes, the disruption of hospitals, clinics and schools, the denial of
access to proper drinking water, food and electricity, and the destruction
of agricultural land wanted by Israel, create a true catastrophe for civilians.
..."
-
- The EU has demanded that the Israeli government fully
respects human rights and international law and ends not only the emergency
in Gaza but also the military occupation of the West Bank, where Israel
continues its theft of Palestinian land with impunity. Instead of complying,
Israel has declared Gaza a 'hostile entity' and ratcheted-up the misery,announcing
that "additional sanctions will be placed on the Hamas regime.
-
- Hamas was democratically elected as the Palestinian government
in 2006, thus a legitimate power, while Israel is an illegal armed occupier.
As to whether Hamas a 'terrorist organisation' let's first check the definition
of terrorism. PHR investigated the effects of ammunition used by the Israeli
Defence Force in Gaza and the West Bank. They found that the high-velocity
5.56mm/.223 calibre round fired by the M-16 weapon, widely used by the
IDF, "tends to break open on impact causing a 'lead storm' in tissue,
even without impacting a bone and large temporary cavities, and extensive
damage to muscle, nerves and blood vessels, as well as fracture. The massive
tissue destruction produces a frightening clinical presentation which greatly
challenges the surgeons.
- When there are many such injuries, medical resources
are stressed to the limit." The majority of victims of these injuries
will have permanent damage in the affected leg. Witness reports to PHR
team and information to other human rights organizations, suggest those
injured in this manner ( were unarmed) and at most throwing stones."
-
- As guests in this tight-knit Gaza community we had been
invited for coffee at the House of Fatah and the residence of Hamas prime
minister, Ismail Haniya. Relations between religious and political factions
seem friendly and good humoured and they stand together against a merciless
enemy.
-
- There is broadly no trouble between Muslims and Christians
- a small miracle considering that their tormentor has powerful Christian
backing. As the whirlwind visit came to an end taking our leave entailed
the wrench of saying goodbye to brave people the west has trampled and
written off, then running the gauntlet of Israel's horrendous border security.
It was back to Erez and its state-of-the-art de-humanisation, to shuffle
through a maze of steel gates, cattle pens and a sinister X-ray machine,
on Israeli command, and queue interminably for questioning by the rudest
people on earth.
-
- Only 50 or 60 people had gone through the crossing that
day, so the 3-hour hold-up was entirely down to Israeli bloody-mindedness.
Complaining to Her Majesty's Government seems pointless: the responsible
British foreign office Minister is a former chairman of Labour Friends
of Israel.
-
- In spite of all. There is astonishing pride and resilience
among the Gazans. However if you kick, murder and starve and commit crimes
against humanity often enough, a victory of sorts can be yours. But tell
us, Mr Gordon Brown, why is Britain complicit in such a base and cowardly
scheme? We hit bottom in Iraq how much lower can we sink?
-
- Gaza was formerly under British mandate, surely sufficient
reason to feel special responsibility for its wellbeing. Yet it is not
even on the government's agenda at Annapolis. For Gazans, the "final
status negotiations" was a sick joke. So I urge the British government:
"Go see for yourselves the misery, the human tragedy and the devastation
you have heaped on these people. Then amaze us. Lift this cruel siege and
end 90 years of betrayal that has so shamed Britain."
-
- "Land supplies on Gaza's empty beach: Palestinian
territorial waters. Suspend all trade association agreements until Israel
complies with UN resolutions and International Court of Justice rulings,
ends its unlawful occupation and withdraws behind pre-1967 borders. Realise
that Israel is no western-style democracy but a ruthless ethnocracy. And
when British voters finally discover that half their MPs are signed-up
Friends of Israel, they will question how such slavish devotion to this
foreign military power can possibly be in the best interest of our Christian
and increasingly Muslim-inclusive, nation."
-
- To the Bush administration and its admirers: "You
may be the most powerful but you are the most hated. Watch out when decent
Americans finally understand what their tax dollars have been paying for
in the Holy Land." And, lastly, to church leaders in western Christendom:
"Are you going to sit there while the Holy Land is stolen from under
your noses?"
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- http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=4123&blz=1
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