Bi-Weekly Brief for September 21, 2020

Bi-Weekly Brief for September 21, 2020
 
Attempts to control the spread of Covid-19 grow increasingly desperate
On Sept. 18, Israel became the first country to re-impose a 3-week lockdown because of soaring rates of Covid-19 that have now reached 188,760 cases, with 1,260 deaths. Israelis face steep fines if they do not remain within 1 kilometer of their homes. Times of Israel (Sept. 21) reported hospitals in Jerusalem and Ashdod turning away Covid-19 patients.  The latest available figures for the West Bank and East Jerusalem are 42,450 cases and at least 250 deaths. The Gaza Strip – where the virus is rapidly spreading – accounts for 2,400 cases and 17 deaths.   Gaza has had 4 weeks of curfew and total lockdown of some areas since Aug. 24 when ‘community spread’ was detected.  
 
White House ‘peace treaty’ extravaganza:  no war to end but many weapons to sell
On Sept. 15, Trump staged a largely mask-free White House signing ceremony before hundreds of people of a ‘peace treaty’ between Israel and the UAE (which were never at war), and a ‘peace declaration’ between the 2 countries with the highest virus infection rate by population in the world (Bahrain ranks #1, followed by Israel). According to Haaretz(Sept. 15), at the last moment Netanyahu agreed to add a clause requiring ratification by the Israeli government in return for the power of attorney he needed to sign the ‘Abraham Accords,’ whose terms have not been disclosed. The US is reportedly planning to sell the UAE F-35s ($80 million each) and Bahrain F-16s ($50 million each), and offering inducements to other countries to embrace Israel as a new Middle East alliance takes shape. Times of Israel (Sept. 16) quoted Trump as saying “7 or 8 or 9” countries would soon normalize and Saudi Arabia will “come at the right time.”
 
No end to repression, creeping annexation and heartbreak
To protest the UAE/Bahrain betrayal, demonstrations were held in several West Bank cities on Sept. 15, and two rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel.  Israel responded with 10 missile strikes. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) conducted over 100 raids on the West Bank to make arrests and repress protests, 2 incursions into the Gaza Strip, and on Sept. 16, fired twice on Gaza’s fishing boats.  On Sept. 18, Dr. Nidal Jabarin died of a heart attack when nearly hit by a stun grenade while going to his Jenin dental clinic. House demolition orders were issued in many parts of the West Bank and in Silwan (East Jerusalem) a resident was forced to self-demolish his house in order to avoid paying demolition costs of $30,000 or more to the municipality.  On Sept. 20, at least 76 settlers stormed into the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. 
 
Water Fact
According to a report issued by the Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Gaza’s residents confined to their homes to stop the spread of Covid-19 are struggling to obtain water for drinking, cleaning and personal hygiene.  Power cuts often bar them from filling rooftop tanks when water is available from the municipality.  In the Jabalya refugee camp, after one person tested positive for the virus, 24 family members were told to ‘self-isolate,’ and prevented by police from leaving their home in search of water.  
 
See the Palestine Chronicle  and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights

Banner design by Paul Normandia/Red Sun Press

The Alliance: This is what being ‘unlivable’ looks like

In 2012 a UN report predicted that the Gaza Strip would be “unlivable” by 2020.   It revised its opinion in 2017, stating that conditions in Gaza had deteriorated “even faster than the UN had originally projected.”

Well, here we are in 2020, and the situation in Gaza is not just ‘unlivable,’ but positively lethal.

The spread of the Corona virus

For six months, Covid-19 cases in Gaza numbered no more than 72, with all the infections detected in travellers from Egypt who were immediately quarantined at the border. Then, on August 24, 4 cases were found in the Al Maghazi refugee camp. Despite an immediately imposed lockdown, by September 18 as many as 2223 cases had been identified, and 17 people had died of the disease.

During August, as ‘community spread’ was gathering momentum, Gazans endured 3 weeks of nightly missile strikes, with Israel claiming its F-16 fighter jets were responding to incendiary balloons. The balloons were reportedly being launched from Gaza as ‘distress signals’ in the effort to draw attention to conditions imposed by Israel’s 14-year-long blockade.

In mid August, Israel closed the Mediterranean to Gaza’s fisherman and slammed shut the main border crossing for fuel, food, and goods. Gaza’s sole power plant was forced to close down on August 18, and electricity dropped below 4 hours a day. A health sector already on the verge of collapse could scarcely function without electricity or fuel for generators.

A Qatar-brokered deal between Israel and Hamas implemented on September 1 lifted the ban on fishing and permitted fuel and goods to enter. Electricity soon reached its pre August level of an erratic 8 hours a day in most parts of the Strip, and generators could again function.

But the health sector, with its dire shortage of facilities, medicines, and medical and protective equipment, remains woefully unprepared for the pandemic. There are fewer than 100 ventilators for a population of 2 million, many of which are already being used by patients with other respiratory maladies.

A water calamity

On September 3 the Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights issued an alarming report, “Water Shortage in the Gaza Strip Amid Covid-19 Outbreak.”

Imagine facing the pandemic while being locked down in a tightly-packed refugee camp under these conditions:

“The low quality of tap water, rendered unfit for human consumption, forces Gaza residents to purchase desalinated drinking water from private vendors who desalinate the water and truck it to households, but with the Israeli ban on fuel destabilizing power supply to households, and the mandatory lockdown, residents are struggling to obtain drinking water and pump it to their house roof tanks. Families who contract the coronavirus are strictly ordered to self-isolate at home, with police officers preventing them from leaving, which exacerbates their struggle to obtain drinking water.”

It is not just clean drinking water that is beyond the reach of many people. They are also struggling to obtain non potable water, as Ismail al-Tatari from northern Gaza describes in the report:

“I live with a family of ten, five of whom are children, in a three-storey house. It’s almost impossible to fill the roof tanks with water as the 3-hour municipal water supply coincides with power cuts most of the time, which means we can’t operate the water pump. Lack of water has immediately subsided the family’s ability to shower and keep the house clean. We are particularly worried because we are aware that a proper hygiene, especially for our children, is a priority to fight the spread of the pandemic, but without water, it is a huge challenge to shower, keep the toilets clean, and do laundry. We have been buying and storing drinking water to use for cleaning, instead of tap water. This is tremendously expensive, and I can’t afford it if the situation lasts longer.”

Collective punishment kills

For 14 years, the residents of Gaza – half of them children and the majority refugees - have been cut off from the world by an Israeli blockade that has destroyed their economy and livelihoods, ruined their infrastructure, deprived their young people of a future, and now prevents seriously ill patients from seeking treatment elsewhere. Israel bombs Gaza with US weapons and cages its population with the assistance of our tax dollars. We must pay attention to the ‘distress signals’ sent by those incendiary balloons, since what happens there is very much our business.

Nancy Murray

The Alliance Stands Out & Speaks Up

On September 8, the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine highlighted the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip during our Stand Out in Central Square, Cambridge MA. Our message was:

WE SHOULD FUND COMMUNITY NEEDS—NOT ISRAEL’S MISDEEDS!

The U.S. gives Israel 3.8 BILLION of our tax dollars annually—that’s nearly $11 million EVERY DAY! These funds are urgently needed at home.

With the spread of Covid-19, the densely-crowed Gaza Strip faces a humanitarian catastrophe. Its health care sector is on the verge of collapse, 97% of its water is polluted, and electricity is only available 4-8 hours a day.

PLEASE TELL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS:

• Stop funding Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights.

• Demand that Israel ends its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

LET GAZA LIVE!

PHOTOS BY NANCY MURRAY

Bi-Weekly Brief for September 7, 2020

Bi-Weekly Brief for September 7, 2020

Covid-19 cases soar as conditions in Gaza deteriorate

According to Haaretz (Sept. 6), Israel’s cases have exceeded 128,000 (26,232 of them active) with 1,010 deaths, while the West Bank has 9,792 active cases and 185 deaths. On Sept. 6, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported 969 cases in Gaza (873 of them active) and 7 deaths, and urged Israel to permit the entry of urgently-needed respiratory and intensive care equipment, medicines, PEP and cleaning supplies. Gaza has been largely under curfew since ‘community spread’ of the virus was detected in late August. During a searing heat wave, residents have been shut in crowded homes without clean water, with minimal food and only 4 – 8 hours of electricity a day. On Sept. 1, a candle used during a power outage set a house in al-Nuseirat refugee camp on fire, burning to death three children, aged 6, 5 and 3.

Qatar brokers ‘no missiles for no balloons’ truce

On August 31, Israel agreed to cease its nightly missile attacks on Gaza and to permit the entry of fuel blocked in response to Gaza’s incendiary balloons. As part of the deal, Qatar said it would give Gaza emergency aid for needy families.

Israel woos Arab world while Palestinians seek elusive unity

Also on August 31, Saudi Arabia allowed an El Al plane carrying Israeli and US officials to cross its air space en route to the UAE to consolidate the new ‘normalization’ deal. Under fire from the Israeli public, Netanyahu denied a Sept. 4th New York Times report that he consented to the US sale of F35 fighter jets and other advanced weapons to the UAE. As other countries were being urged by the US to ‘normalize’ with Israel, Palestinian factions met via video conference on Sept. 3 in an attempt to surmount their deep divisions. There was no sign that they succeeded in doing so (Al Monitor, Sept. 4).

Undeterred by Covid-19 Israel continues to brutalize West Bank residents

Israelis’ ongoing weekly protests against Netanyahu’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis ignore the brutal scene unfolding daily in the occupied West Bank. There have been at least 70 army raids over the last 2 weeks, including an Aug. 27 attack on the al-Fawwar refugee camp where a family was severely beaten and its money stolen. On Sept. 6, two brothers were critically injured in the Jenin refugee camp when soldiers blew up the door of their house. A sound bomb penetrated a Hebron hospital during an army raid on Aug. 30, forcing the evacuation of Covid-19 patients. Demonstrators against land expropriation have been subjected to live ammunition, tear gas and sound bombs, and a picture taken of a Sept. 1st protest in the village of Shufa near Tulkarem shows 65-year-old Khari Hannoun pinned on the ground with a soldier’s knee on his neck.

Water Fact

Israel completely closed off the Mediterranean Sea to Gaza’s fisherman from August 16 to September 1. Twenty years ago there were 10,000 registered fisherman in Gaza and now there are only 3,700, 95 % of whom live below the poverty line.

See Wafa News Agency and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights

banner design by Paul Normandia of Red Sun Press