UN-Truth

The international aid group Oxfam said that the Israeli decision to declare Gaza — one of the most densely populated areas on earth — an “enemy entity”, which could thus be subjected to a siege of sanctions, was both “immoral” and illegal “collective punishment”, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The Ramattan independent Palestinian news agency adds that “The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed its ‘deep concern’ over the likelihood of acute shortages of medical items in 2008 in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) … if donors’ financial commitments are further delayed.” [The UN usually is concerned mainly with getting donors to cough up ever greater amounts of money ...] The Ramattan report is posted here.

Haaretz’s Akiva Eldar has an interview with UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen Konig Abu Zayd, published today, in which he reports: “Every day new refugees who have lost their source of income visit Koning-Abu Zayd’s Gaza office, asking to have their names added to the list of the impoverished. Their distress, she says, neither minimizes their support of Hamas nor dispels their ambitions to return to the homes they abandoned 60 years ago. ‘Gaza continues calm on the surface, but simmering beneath, with periodic eruptions signaling underlying tensions. Businessmen and unemployed workers grow increasingly pessimistic and anxious about their future, their livelihoods, their children. They are beginning to worry about how long the rift between Gaza and the West Bank might last and with what further consequences’, observes Koning-Abu Zayd. ‘What I would say, and I say it reluctantly, sadly, perhaps, is that there do seem to be more and more people losing hope for the future… I think when I first came, of course I came during the glory days of Camp David at that time, and we were hopeful then, and then the intifada started and then things got worse, but people were always saying to me then, after the intifada started, “I may not see a Palestinian state in my lifetime, but my children will”. Now I hear people say, “We’re going to leave, we’re getting out of here” … those who have the opportunity, of course, many of them don’t. They say, “We don’t see the future. We don’t see the Palestinian state”. So they’re leaving, and I think you see that… I think this perhaps is one of the most unfortunate indicators of how people are not managing anymore, and don’t see how they can in the future. They don’t mention security, they don’t talk about the economy … though, nowadays, they don’t have to mention the economy, but they mention their children. They say, “We have to do something for our children; we have to think about them”. I find this a very unfortunate development among the people These are only the people who can get out. And, of course, in Gaza, there is a very small minority of people who have means, the skilled people with more education. In Gaza, it is very difficult to get out. You really are stuck there. You don’t have a chance. How many thousands of people are now out of jobs? How many more are coming on to the aid rolls? This is something that we can’t see the end of. How far can this go?`’,” Abu Zayd asks rhetorically.

Eldar then asks her for her opinion “of the Israeli proposal to deprive the Gaza Strip of electricity and water in response to Qassam missile fire?”, and Abu Zayd responds: “I cannot believe there could be a cutoff of electricity and water. I’m sure those who I’m told are researching whether such measures are legal under international law will conclude that they are not. The sealing off of Gaza, its isolation, “imprisonment”, as it is deemed by those stuck inside, is already viewed as collective punishment … If we look at other conflicts, and other refugee situations, despite the uniqueness of this one, we do see that there are ways out of it. Even in conflicts that have lasted a long time, when there’s been a lot of disenchantment between the parties, they have somehow managed. Eventually, people get really tired of living the way they’re living – under conflict on the Israeli side, I think, and some fear. And on the Palestinian side, living conditions and lack of future.”

Eldar then inquires: If you were Israeli, would you trust the Palestinians? And Abu Zayd replies, worthily: “Yes, and I believe that this will work, and that they are really interested in a two-state solution. Even Hamas people talk about the two-state solution and the Israeli state. They’ve accepted that.”

She added: “The Palestinians are enterprising. They want to work hard. They could make it work. Look at what they’ve been doing despite the intifada and despite the boycott of the last year and a half. Look at all the things that are going on. I myself was surprised that there were still 3,900 businesses to close in Gaza. They have closed recently because of Karni [crossing] not being open and imports not coming in and exports not going out. Rafah, of course, needs to be opened up, too. The problem is that the Qassams give Israel an excuse not to do this, to punish them. It’s a vicious circle. Very frustrating.”

And, Abu Zayd says: “Before everything else, at the very least, the right of return must be acknowledged. That it is their right. They may make another choice but they have the right to return. That’s very important to Gazans.”

Then, Eldar observes, “You say that refugees should have the right to choose where they go, but Israel has already decided for them that they will not come to Israel”. And Abu Zayd replies: “I think that it’s very difficult to begin discussing with refugees that they don’t have that part of the choice to return to their homes, which is so important to them. But then there are other choices, either to stay where they are, or to come to a Palestinian state once that’s agreed upon, as a viable state, and the other choice is going to a third country, which has been mooted before for, perhaps, those in Lebanon, for example…”
The Haaretz interview is here.

And, the AP reports, “Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, speaking at a joint news conference with Rice, said Israel was not obliged to deliver anything to Gaza beyond humanitarian aid. Legal experts have reviewed the planned sanctions to make sure they conform with international law, she added. ‘When it comes to the humanitarian needs, we have our own responsibilities’, Livni said. ‘[But] All the needs which are more than humanitarian needs will not be supplied by Israel to Gaza Strip’.”

Whatever that means.

The AP is also reporting that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the plan, saying in a statement issued by his office that “This oppressive decision will only tighten the stifling embargo imposed on 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip, increase their suffering and magnify their tragedy.”

AP added that “Rice arrived to try to wring more progress out of Israeli-Palestinian talks before a planned U.S.-sponsored peace gathering. But even before she landed, an official in Abbas’ office said he would ask Rice not to set a specific date for the conference until it is clear Abbas and Olmert can agree upon a joint statement setting out their goals. He spoke on condition of anonymity because Abbas and Rice had not yet met. The conference tentatively is scheduled for Washington in November. The U.S. thinks Abbas has a freer hand to reach a final accord with Israel because he expelled Hamas from power after it seized control of Gaza.” [But the U.S. could be wrong here ... ]
Read the AP report here.

Filed under: Donors, Gaza, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet