"Dying to Fish"

"Gaza’s once healthy fishing sector has been almost obliterated as a result of the Israeli siege. In 2000, for example, the Gaza fishing industry had over 10,000 registered fishermen. Gradually, the number has dwindled to 3,700, although many of them are fishermen by name only – as they can no longer access the sea, repair their damaged boats or afford new ones."

‘Dying to Fish’: How Israeli Piracy Destroyed Gaza’s Once Thriving Fishing Industry

Palestinian fishermen prepare to sail out to the Gaza sea. (Photo: via ActiveStills.org)

Water as a Weapon against Palestinians

Israel's use of water as a weapon against Palestinians makes handwashing—essential to confronting the escalating coronavirus pandemic—nearly impossible.

Israel controls 80% of Palestinian groundwater in the West Bank, intentionally restricting many Palestinian communities to 10–20 liters of water/person/day. The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 100 liters of w/p/d.

Meanwhile, Israel’s 650,000 illegal settlers consume 6 times more water than do the 3.1 million Palestinians. Settlers consume as much as 700 liters of w/p/d.

In the Gaza Strip, 98% of the water is contaminated. 97% of the 2 million residents (including 991,400 children) are without clean drinking water due to Israel’s devastating bombardments and its continual refusal to allow repair and reconstruction of water infrastructure.

Sources: reliefweb, UN

Beginning next week, the Water Fact will appear in the Alliance for Water Justice’s Bi-weekly Brief, and will continue to be added to the Fact List on the Alliance’s website.

Banner by Paul Normandia of Red Sun Press.

Gaza, an update

"There isn't one person in Gaza who's not preoccupied with all the problems created by the lack of water." Read some of their stories here:

Water in Gaza: Scarce, polluted and mostly unfit for use

“If I had to choose, I’d rather make do without electricity and have water all the time. Water is life and without water in my home, I feel hopeless and exhausted.”

HALA AL-KAHLUT. PHOTO BY OLFAT AL-KURD, B'TSELEM, 16 JUNE 2020.

TAPS AND SINKS ACCUMULATE RUST. PHOTO BY KHALED AL-‘AZAYZEH, B'TSELEM, 12 JULY 2020

The endless preoccupation with buying water, transporting it, storing it, and pumping it into containers is slowly wearing residents down. They know that even when the flurry of exhausting activity is over, their children will not enjoy sweet, tasty, healthy water. Instead, they will drink salty, polluted water that is bad for their health and eats away at their hair and clothes. Buthaynah Abu Ghaben (44): "The salty water causes a lot of problems. It’s bad for your hair and fingernails, makes your skin dry, damages the teeth and ears, and makes your eyes and whole body itch terribly after the shower. I feel like it’s almost sewage, not even fit for animals to drink". Photo: Khaled al-‘Azayzeh, B’Tselem

Bi-Weekly Brief for August 24, 2020

Bi-Weekly Brief for August 24, 2020

At a time when the Corona virus crisis has crowded out other news, the Alliance is producing news briefs every two weeks to keep our members informed about the situation in occupied Palestine.

Covid-19 cases steadily increase as community spread is detected in Gaza

According to Haaretz (Aug. 23), Israel’s cases total 102,380 with 834 deaths. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports 25,577 cases, including 19,104 in the West Bank and 6,364 in Jerusalem, and 146 deaths. On August 24 authorities announced the first 4 cases of community spread in the al-Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total there to 109, with one death.  The other cases had been detected at the Rafah border crossing where quarantine was imposed.  The camp has been locked down and the entire Gaza Strip placed under a 48-hour curfew.

Israel intensifies the already brutal collective punishment of Gaza

For the last 11 days Israel has subjected the Gaza Strip to air strikes and artillery fire as a reprisal, it says, for the incendiary balloons and handful of rockets sent from Gaza to pressure Israel to end its 14-year-long siege. An UNRWA school in al-Shati camp was bombarded.  On August 13 Israel stopped allowing Gaza to import fuel or anything apart from some food and medicine, leading to the shut down of the Strip’s sole power plant, and the reduction of electricity to 3 or 4 hours a day.  After repeatedly firing on fishing boats along the coast, Israel on August 16 announced the closure of the sea, depriving thousands of families of their livelihoods. 

Occupation business as usual in the West Bank and East Jerusalem

There was one piece of good news in the otherwise bleak picture of ongoing raids, arrests, demolitions and dispossession: the August 17th release without charge of Mahmoud Nawajaa, the coordinator of the BDS Committee in the West Bank.  On the same day, Israeli private security contractors shot a hearing-impaired Palestinian who failed to react to demands to stop at a checkpoint. Many were wounded in demonstrations protesting land grabs and the ‘normalization’ deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and on August 19, 16-year-old Mohammed Matar was shot and detained near Ramallah.  The next day the Israeli army informed his family that he was dead.  On August 24 Israel set up an outpost in the village of Birin in Hebron district, a prelude to building a new settlement. 

Annexation ‘temporarily suspended’ by UAE normalization deal

While Palestinians denounced the UAE for selling them out by agreeing to establish full diplomatic relations in exchange for Israel’s ‘postponing’ annexation in a deal brokered by the Trump Administration, the UAE was praised by Germany and the UK, and several countries are expected to follow in Mohammed Bin Zayed’s footsteps.  As a reward, the UAE will be able to purchase F-35 jets from the US.

See Wafa News Agency and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights  

Banner design by the talented Paul Normandia of Red Sun Press