Standout at Harvard Commencement

Thursday, May 23

Friends,

The Alliance and before it, the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, organized an annual standout at Harvard’s commencement. This year, we teamed up with Mass Peace Action; Jewish Voice for Peace; Dorchester People for Peace; Southeast Mass. Coalition for a Free Palestine: Falmouth for a Ceasefire; Medford for Palestine; Peace and Common Security, Watertown Citizens to organize over 175 people to attend a silent vigil. The participants showed up at 7:45 am to leaflet people who come from all over the world to attend commencement.

Here is part of what our leaflet said:

We Must Take a Stand Against Genocide!

We commend the students at Harvard University and across the country who took at moral stand against Israel’s genocidal war the Gaza Strip. They put their futures on the line by demanding an end to slaughter inflicted with US weapon, paid for with US tax dollars for Israel amount to $18 billion this year. The students risked suspension and arrest for denouncing the obliteration of a territory only half the said of Cape Cod with the equivalent of three Hiroshima bombs.

PHOTOS BY C. HOFFMAN

Half of Gaza water sites damaged or destroyed, BBC satellite data reveals

What we found

Of the 603 water facilities we analysed, 53% appeared to have been damaged or destroyed since 7 October.

A further 43 facilities were in areas that showed some damage or where solar panels had been removed, but we were unable to determine whether the water facility itself had been damaged so these were not included in our analysis.

The latest available satellite images were acquired in March and April, and our analysis has been ongoing since April.

The majority of sites identified as destroyed or damaged are in northern Gaza or in the area around the southern city of Khan Younis.

At one wastewater facility in Bureij, in the centre of the Strip, solar panels that power the plant had been obliterated and sewage treatment tanks appeared to have algae growing on the surface.

Read the article and see the photos.

Palestinians surviving on 3% of minimum daily water needs in Gaza

A lack of clean water and sanitation facilities has caused an uptick in infections among Palestinians in Gaza, while NGOs warn of the dire consequences.

The New Arab Staff

22 May, 2024

Some Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are surviving on just three percent of the global minimum standard for daily water usage, two humanitarian groups have said, as Israel’s war has decimated the enclave’s water infrastructure.

A lack of clean water and sanitation facilities have led to an increase in diseases and infections among Gaza’s civilian population, particularly children, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

The two organisations said in a report on Tuesday that they were alarmed at the situation after recent trips to the besieged Gaza Strip, which has been under a brutal Israeli offensive since 7 October.

The report adds that field observations by experts from IRC and MAP in Gaza are struggling to find safe and clean water, and that "at least one major hospital struggling to keep sufficient water supplies to meet its needs".

The experts do not specify which hospital, however, Israel's bombardment of the Strip has fully destroyed or damaged the majority of the enclave's hospitals and medical facilities, rendering them no longer functional.

A deterioration of water, sanitation and hygiene conditions "have significantly increased acute watery diarrhoea among children under five, while other water-borne and communicable diseases such as Hepatitis are proliferating among families who cannot access sources of clean water," the report found.

Families have been forced to build their own toilets, with hundreds of people using a single one, amounting to 30 times more than the minimum global standard, IRC and MAP said.

Read the full article here.

Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel Flash Update #168

Key Highlights

• Nearly 40 per cent of Gaza’s population have been displaced over the past two weeks, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times. 

• The Health Cluster warns of a further surge in malnutrition and communicable diseases due to large scale displacement towards areas that lack food, water and other basic necessities. 

• The Ministry of Health appeals for support to address acute shortages of medications.

Read the full report: Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #168

People being forcibly displaced from Rafah. Photo by UNRWA