PALESTINE HEALTH JOURNAL

Global Peace Index 2010, a Vision of Humanity

2010-09-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

I thought it is appropriate to revisit the GPI 2010 report today, the International Day of Peace.

This is interesting, the 4th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI). The results of the GPI for 2010 suggest that "the world has become slightly less peaceful in the past year."

Check out the peace indicators used and map of results at the link below.

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi-data/#/2010/scor

And here is a link to the GPI 2010 Discussion Paper. The correlations with economic and societal indicators are interesting, and also the section on the monetary value of peace, and the cumulative effects of peace.

Do these statistics really help understand the factors associated with peace or inform our methods for the future? What is missing?

Here is my favorite part of the Key Findings section:

The economic gains from even modest reductions in violence would easily equal the losses due to the world
economic crisis of 2008/9.

At a peace symposium, the most peaceful 2 countries shared wisdom and lessons... here are a few lines from that section:

A “forward focus” is one of the themes that researchers have seen emerge when looking beyond the concrete characteristics of peace and examined the less quantifiable dynamics that has driven each country’s path to peace. Peaceful countries tend to focus on building their future, rather than righting past wrongs. They also focus on getting their own house in order, rather than intervening in others’ affairs. Regionally and globally, the peaceful countries participate in international governmental organizations to harmonize approaches with their neighbors, but not to impose their ways. These peaceful countries realize they are not perfect, as they see better futures they want to build. Their peace is a process of cooperating to meet common aims, not a static state.

Amineh

The Suffering of Palestinian Children

2010-09-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, I hope the peace talks are real and not another "Yes But" game, for the sake of Palestinian children of Area C. Amineh

Published in the Haaretz.com on 17.09.10

Suffering of Palestinian children is something both sides can agree on

Even Israelis should be able to realize that they are responsible if Palestinian children in Area C are malnourished and worse.
By Margaret Atwood

More than 40 years ago, a psychiatrist named Eric Berne published a best-seller called "Games People Play" that is still instructive reading for those involved in difficult negotiations or complex debates.
West Bank school children

Berne defines "game" as "an ongoing series of complementary ulterior transactions progressing to a well-defined, predictable outcome. Descriptively, it is a recurring set of transactions, often repetitious, superficially plausible, with a concealed motivation; or, more colloquially, a series of moves with a snare, or 'gimmick.'"

All of Berne's "games" are basically dishonest, as they have an ulterior motive, and some are self-destructive as well as destructive to others. The word "game" suggests frivolity, but some games are grimly played and deadly serious - deadly in the literal sense. The term "war games" is no accident.

One of the games Berne describes is called "Why Don't You - Yes But." In this game, the player complains about a problem, and the dupes - who are conned into "helping" - propose solutions; but for every "Why Don't You" offered, the player comes up with a "Yes But" - a reason why the solution can't possibly work. Finally the helpers run out of ideas and are left feeling stupid and inadequate, and the player wins: His problem is smarter and bigger ... The only trouble is, he still has the problem. But maybe that's the goal he was aiming for all along: maintenance of the status quo, so that he can keep on doing whatever he was doing already.

Has Israel been playing a very long game of "Why Don't You - Yes But" when it comes to the "Palestinian problem"? Is there a mirror-image game in which Israel itself is "the problem"? Certainly the outside commentators - pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian - are ready with a "yes but" whenever someone they consider an opponent proposes anything like a logjam-breaker. The ideological positions are by now so dug in that the field of discourse resembles the western front in World War I: There are trenches everywhere, and anyone who sticks his head up is met with a barrage of well-worn verbal missiles: "mental defective," "idiot," "criminal" and the like. If some witless innocent lacking a trench wanders into the line of vision babbling of human brotherhood or something seen as equally fatuous, all those entrenched let fly.

Why anyone considers it an aid to positive resolutions to heave these overblown nouns and adjectives through the air is anyone's guess: If convincing others is the goal, this tactic fails, as the heavers sound like irrational fanatics. It does, however, deter anyone not already entrenched from taking an interest. ("Don't touch it! It's a swamp!" ) Perhaps the adjective-heaving comes from frustration, which is understandable considering the lack of positive momentum. Or perhaps it's a universal human characteristic: Having chosen and dug one's trench, one feels the need to defend it.

Meanwhile, the game of "Why Don't You - Yes But" goes on. "Return the Golan Heights to Syria." "Yes, but we need the strategic position for security." "Join the whole area politically and give Palestinians equal rights, thus making the state a true democracy." "Yes, but then Jewish Israelis would be outnumbered and unsafe, as in the Diaspora." "Invite Hamas to the peace talks, because nothing can be resolved otherwise." "Yes, but they want to destroy us." "Tear down the punitive walls." "Yes, but then we would get blown up in cafes again." "Acknowledge Israel's right to exist behind the 1967 borders." "Yes, but Israel is not a legitimate state, and anyway all the land is Palestinian by right, and anyone who would accept less is a quisling." "Stop kicking Palestinians off their land and making it impossible for them to reach what land they still have." "Yes, but this is allowed by our laws, and it's for security, and you are an enemy of Israel and also an anti-Semite." "Stop killing Israeli civilians." "Yes, but that's the only weapon we have left." And so forth. Surely the nature of the conversation has to change, on all sides - that is, if it's not really a game of "Yes But."

I proposed a different sort of game to myself: Would it be possible to choose a subject on which all those entrenched could agree, for which there is a clear solution, and to which there would be no plausible "Yes But" response? Let's give it a try.

For instance: What about the Palestinian children of Area C? (Area C, for those witless innocents who have never heard of it, is not that part of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority, nor is it Gaza, for which Israel now claims no administrative responsibility other than blockading it. Instead it is that part of Palestine entirely occupied and controlled by Israel since 1967. ) According to a 2009 report by Save The Children U.K. called "Life on the Edge," the rate of malnutrition of the children in Area C is higher even than that in Gaza, and many kids are not only developmentally stunted, but are dying from related illnesses.

Is Israel responsible for this situation? Yes, because it alone controls the Area C Palestinian population's access to food and its ability to earn a viable living. Is there a "Yes But" that could possibly justify the conditions being imposed on these children? Unless the report is lying, I can't think of one. Even the most wild-eyed extremist can hardly claim that children under the age of seven are terrorists.

There's a traditional china-shop sign: If you break it, you own it. Israel owns this problem, and Israel should fix it. Or does it really want an international campaign in which every doughnut shop in North America features a collection box, a sad-eyed child holding a dead sibling, and a stack of outrage-generating leaflets? Write your congressman: Tie aid to Israel to action on Area C child malnutrition and deaths? Give at church, save an Area C baby? Or how about: On the Day of Atonement, when considering wrongs to other human beings for which you bear some responsibility, start with the children of Area C?

As the peace talks begin again, some Israeli help on behalf of the children of Area C would be a signal that those talks are real, and not just another "Yes But" game.

Where the Hell is Matt? ... Matt is in Gaza with UNRWA

2010-07-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

Engaging children in play, games and sports increases their sense of social support and have tremendous positive short & long term health benefits on young and older children. UNRWA, like many other agencies working in Gaza, recognize these evidence-based findings and develop and implement many innovative programs to promote psychosocial health among the children of Gaza and the West Bank. UNRWA also strives to show the common humanity Gaza shares with the world. Below is just an example. Amineh

26 July 2010
Jerusalem

Celebrity YouTube film maker Matt Harding, whose film “Where the Hell is Matt?” secured over 30 million internet hits, has made a flying visit to Gaza as a guest of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Today, UNRWA released its own film of his visit, entitled “Where the hell is Matt? Matt is in Gaza with UNRWA”. The film shows dozens of kids in Gaza rehearsing and then dancing with Matt, imitating his trademark dance. Within the first few hours, the UNRWA film received nearly one thousand hits on YouTube.

“It was was a massive surprise to see the number of YouTube hits rise exponentially in just the first few hours of its release”, said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.

“Clearly, the idea that kids in Gaza are just like kids anywhere in the world is greatly appealing to audiences in the Middle East and beyond.

“Like the original, Where the Hell is Matt?”, this film celebrates the common humanity that the children of Gaza share with the global community”, said Gunness. “This is an important message: kids in Gaza are like kids anywhere in the world. All they want is to have fun. If allowed to be, Gaza can be a normal place where children can thrive.”

Background information:

UNRWA's Summer Games, conducted for the fourth year with the full support and involvement of the community, is the largest recreation programme for Gaza’s children, providing a diversified set of activities including sports, swimming, arts and crafts, theatre and drama. The Summer Games commenced on 12 June and will run through 5 August, providing 1,200 summer camps for over 250,000 refugee children across the Gaza Strip.

The film “Where the hell is Matt? Matt is in Gaza with UNRWA” was shot and edited by blogger Yousef Ahmed.

To see the film, and access up-to-date photos, videos and commentary on UNRWA and the Summer Games, visit Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unrwa

For Arabic speakers, a dedicated website provides information on the Games: http://summergames.unrwa.ps

The Slow Death of Palestinian Democracy

2010-07-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

By Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi | JULY 21, 2010

The cancellation of municipal elections in the West Bank marks another setback for democratic institutions. That's bad for Palestinians, and it's bad for peace.

Palestinian municipal elections were supposed to be held last week. Instead, they were canceled. A statement released by the Palestinian Authority claimed the cancellation was "in order to pave the way for a successful end to the siege on Gaza and for continued efforts at unity" between Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, and the government in the West Bank.

The cancellation of this election was an unjustified, unlawful, and unacceptable act. It damages democratic rights and makes a mockery of the interests of the Palestinian people.

But this is far more than an internal Palestinian issue. The only lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians will be based on a settlement negotiated between two democracies -- this was the case in Europe, and it will be the case in the Middle East.

The Palestinian struggle for democracy has been long and painstaking. Against long odds, we succeeded in constructing a remarkable civil society in order to survive the oppression of the Israeli occupation and to fill the void left by the lack of a central government. We developed parallel nongovernmental health and educational systems, built 17 universities, and established thousands of local community organizations. We even developed grassroots, community-based rehabilitation programs for disabled citizens, which received worldwide recognition.

The Israeli government has long paid lip service to Palestinian democracy while simultaneously crushing initiatives that produced results it didn't like. In 1976, then Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres offered the illusion of local leadership by launching municipal elections, which were meant to dilute the authority of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

To Peres's great surprise, 90 percent of Palestinians voted for pro-PLO, pro-independence electoral lists. Within two years, the Israeli government -- that self-proclaimed paragon of democracy -- deported the election's victors and dismissed the councils.

With the creation of the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s, we hoped to have a true democracy. However, we were forced to endure wild swings between successful popular elections and efforts -- both self-inflicted and foreign -- to crush our fragile democratic institutions. Palestinians waited until 1996 to cast their votes in Palestine's first-ever parliamentary election for seats in the newly created Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). I still remember the smile of one woman, a septuagenarian named Fatema, when she told me, "This is the first time in my life I can vote."

But that joy did not last. We had to wait 10 years, until 2006, to hold parliamentary elections again. Although these elections were praised by the world -- former U.S. President Jimmy Carter termed them "honest, fair, and safe" -- the results were never accepted by Israel or most Western governments because they did not like the outcome: Hamas emerged with a plurality of the seats.

Even when Palestinians managed to create a national unity government, which represented 96 percent of the Palestinian electorate, we were kept under siege and embargo. This fact contributed to the protracted conflict between Fatah and Hamas, which led to the internal division between the West Bank and Gaza in 2007. It also resulted in the cancellation of the PLC elections that were supposed to take place in January.

This is the context in which one must consider the Palestinian Authority's decision to cancel the West Bank municipal elections that were scheduled for July 17 -- and the willing participation of the United States and European governments in the abrogation of the democratic process.

Most Palestinians accept the impossibility of holding presidential and parliamentary elections without first healing the division between the West Bank and Gaza. It is precisely because of this fact that all Palestinian political parties and civil society organizations, excluding Hamas, agreed on the vital importance of holding municipal elections on time. The only alternative would have been the appointment of new local councils by an executive authority, which itself is not approved by the PLC, thereby further depriving the people of the right to choose their representatives.

We saw local elections as a way of keeping the seeds of democratic principles and systems alive despite vicious internal disputes. Properly contested municipal elections would have been a means to remind each and every authority that they are accountable to the people. It was also intended to promote nonviolent means for resolving internal differences, by giving Palestinians an opportunity to express their interests through democratic means rather than the use of force.

The Hamas government prevented voter registration in Gaza, thus stopping elections from taking place there. At first, Palestinian Authority officials correctly decided to go forward with the elections in the West Bank, providing lengthy explanations for why they would not contradict reconciliation efforts. Many gave speeches lauding the role of local elections in building the state. However, it soon became clear that, though Hamas would boycott the election, Fatah would still face tough competition from unaligned, democratic parties. This was evident in all major cities, including Hebron, Ramallah, and Tulkarm.

Nevertheless, until the elections were canceled on June 10, it appeared that voting would go forward as scheduled. Voter registration took place, electoral lists were formed, observers were chosen -- and then, a few minutes before the candidate registration lists were to be closed, the government in the West Bank announced that it was postponing the election until further notice.

So, while the government in Gaza prevented local elections, the government in the West Bank canceled them. This has caused great dismay among the people, who never believed the Palestinian Authority's argument that the election was canceled for the sake of intra-Palestinian reconciliation.

And, of course, it raises a fundamental question about the meaning of "state-building." Doesn't this term mean more than new construction projects, big government buildings, and a larger security apparatus?

Isn't the lesson from numerous failed states throughout the world that what matters most is the establishment of legitimate, representative democratic institutions? Surely this is a significant part of the reason why India and Brazil succeeded while Somalia, Afghanistan, and others have failed.

Our democratic shortcomings should not, however, be used by Israel as an excuse for the continued subjugation of the Palestinians in the occupied territories. This cruel Israeli practice is designed to provide an excuse for Israel's complicity in undermining our democracy, while whitewashing the greater crimes of its occupation.

Palestinians do not want a state in name only, with a flag and an anthem. We want a sovereign nation -- not clusters of Bantustans. And we want a democratic state where we can choose our leaders and our government. We do not want them appointed by foreign powers, who claim to act in our name. A real state requires that people live in freedom and prosperity, with dignity and full rights -- and not with constant machinations from one party or another that subverts this process. Such maneuvering only squelches Palestinians' democratic rights and sets back the cause of peace.

Mustafa Barghouthi is secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. He was a candidate for the Palestinian presidency in 2005. He is the president of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS).

A look at whats happening on the ground in the Gaza Strip with Michael Slackman

2010-07-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

The following link gives a 20 minute look at what's happening on the ground in the Gaza Strip with Michael Slackman of 'The New York Times' and Mort Zuckerman.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11130

The Silent War: Israel's Blockade of Gaza

2010-03-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

This is a new film by Medical Aid Palestine. Amineh

February 15, 2010

Israels blockade of Gaza has been in place for almost three years.

Building on existing closures and restrictions, the blockade means the delay or denial of a broad range of items food, industrial, educational, medical deemed "non-essential" for a population largely unable to be self-sufficient at the end of decades of occupation. The blockade prevents access by sea, land and air, effectively closing off a population of 1.5 million Palestinians from the outside world.

This short film examines what the blockade means for the people of Gaza, as they struggle to rebuild their lives over a year after Operation Cast Lead.

In The Wake Of War: Gaza One Year On

2010-02-25T16:09:00.000-08:00

Among many narratives of Gazans, this film depicts the narrative of a women who was pregnant when injured during the war. She gave birth during her 40 day long coma. Amineh

Medical Aid Palestine (MAP)
February 15, 2010

MAP FILMS visit the Gaza Strip and speak to its residents 1 year on from the Israeli Operation 'Cast Lead' that killed nearly 1,400 people.

Psychological trauma, nightmares stalk Gaza children

2010-02-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

IRIN, Feb 3, 2010

gaza-health.jpg
Mona al-Samouni, 12, show a photos of her parents who she witnessed being killed in Israel's assault on The Gaza Strip in January 2009. (Suhair Karam/IRIN)

Mona al-Samouni, 12, is depressed and has nightmares about the day - just over a year ago - when she witnessed her parents and a number of relatives being shot by Israeli soldiers in their home in Zeitoun, southeast of Gaza City.

Like a number of other children who witnessed horrific events during last year's 23-day Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, Mona has become increasingly withdrawn and silent - common ways of coping with tragedies, doctors say.

Statistics about Palestinians who lost their life during the military operation vary, but NGOs place the overall number of persons killed between 1,387 and 1,417. The Gaza authorities report 1,444 fatal casualties, whilst Israel provides a figure of 1,166, according to the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, also known as the Goldstone Report.

The killing of Mona's family is one of the most notorious incidents of last year's conflict in Gaza (see BBC slideshow) and was one of 11 incidents investigated by the UN Mission "in which Israeli forces launched direct attacks against civilians with lethal outcome" and in which "the facts indicate no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack". It said Israeli forces "killed 23 members of the extended al-Samouni family" on that day.

"There is a significant deterioration in the psychological well-being of Palestinian children who are living in the Gaza Strip, especially after the recent war," Ayesh Samour, director of the Psychiatric Hospital in Gaza, told IRIN.

According to a study by NGO Ard al-Insan in Gaza, 73 percent of Gaza children are still suffering from psychological and behavioural disorders, including psychological trauma, nightmares, involuntary urination, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Related Stories
refugee-girl-gaza-banner_19.jpg
Gaza, one year later

Female soldiers break their silence

Samour said children in Gaza were being denied a normal childhood because of the insecurity and instability in their environment. He said a culture of violence and death had pervaded their mentalities, making them angrier and more aggressive.

A dearth of health professionals in the Strip and a lack of access to medical equipment meant children were not getting the help they needed, Samour said.

Basem Naim, the Hamas minister of health in Gaza, said hospitals and primary care facilities damaged during the Gaza conflict have not been rebuilt due to the blockade of the territory under which Israel bans the entry of construction materials, saying they could be used for military purposes.

"Health professionals in Gaza have been cut off from the outside world," Naim said.

Hussain Ashour, director of al-Shifa Hospital, the main hospital in Gaza City, said they lacked medical equipment and paediatricians.

Project

Save the Children Sweden and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on 25 January launched the Family Centres Project in Gaza.

"The project will ensure that the right to survival and development of children at riskâ€¦ is ensured through the establishment of 20 Family Centres in different communities of the Gaza Strip," Patricia Hoyos, director of Save the Children in Gaza, told IRIN.

"Its main role is to serve a wide population and to provide quality child protection, educational, health and psychosocial services to all those in need of support," she said.

© 2010 IRIN [This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.]

Atlas of Torture

2009-11-03T19:37:00.000-08:00

This is worth checking out! The Atlas of Torture website was launched in April 2009 by a group at the University of Vienna. You are invited to send your feedback to the development team if you should you find that any of the information is incorrect or incomplete.

Thank you. Amineh

An Independent Project

The Atlas of Torture website is a project of the Human Dignity and Public Security team at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM) in Vienna, Austria. It intends to provide an objective overview of the situation of torture and ill-treatment around the world. The website's content is provided by a team of researches, headed by Prof. Manfred Nowak, who has served in numerous functions as independent human rights expert, including his current appointments as chairperson of a police inspection commission of the Austrian Human Rights Advisory Board, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights. While the Atlas of Torture website builds on the extensive experience of the project's staff, it is an independent project. Any views expressed on the website are solely attributable to the authors in the function as researchers at the Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights.

Project Purpose & Major Components

The project's purpose is to:

* raise awareness of the legal framework governing the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment;

* compile information on states' (non-)compliance with their obligations under international law to prevent, criminalise, investigate and prosecute cases of torture and ill-treatment;

* analyse the underlying structural causes contributing to the continuing practice of torture.

Addressed to human rights professionals in governmental and non-governmental institutions, academics, journalists and the interested public alike, the website hopes to offer a useful resource tool by pooling relevant documentation and jurisprudence from United Nations bodies, regional human rights mechanisms and leading NGOs on the issue of torture and ill-treatment. In addition, summaries and legal analyses provided throughout the website are intended to render existing information more easily accessible. The combination of geographic and thematic approaches is also reflected in the major components of the Atlas of Torture website:

1. The section Country Situations will gradually be filled with short country profiles, comprising a brief overview of the political and historical context, a synopsis of the most recent official documents regarding the situation of torture and ill-treatment, and a compilation of relevant documentation and jurisprudence.

2. The section Topicsis designed to offer an introduction to the legal framework governing the prohibition and prevention of torture, as well as to give an analytical overview of related issues such as the non-refoulement principle, the right of victims to remedy and reparation, and other special issues.

3. The News section keeps track of the latest legal and political developments relating to torture and ill-treatment in international and regional human rights bodies, country specific trends, conferences and other relevant events.

4. To increase the usefulness of the Atlas of Torture project for as wide an audience as possible, the section Things You Should Know includes a glossary of legal terms, expressions and human rights institutions referred to throughout the website, and refers to further online resources.

Gaza: The Forgotten Story [Part III]

2009-10-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

Shattered Minds and the Children of Gaza [Part III]

By Aditya Ganapathiraju

It’s the most terrifying place I’ve ever been in… it’s a horrifyingly sad place because of the desperation and misery of the way people live. I was unprepared for camps that are much worse than anything I saw in South Africa.– Professor Edward Said 1993 [1]

They may be living but they're not alive. – Journalist Philip Rizk [2]

Gaza is a place that needs a million psychologists.— Ayed, a psychotherapist from Northern Gaza [3]

Over 40 years of Israeli military occupation have had a devastating effect on Gaza; airstrikes, artillery shelling, ground invasions, jet flybys and their sonic booms have all led to an epidemic of suffering among Gaza’s most vulnerable inhabitants.[4]

Soon after the recent winter Israeli assault, a group of scholars at the University of Washington discussed different aspects of the situation in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian Territories. Dr. Evan Kanter, UW school of medicine professor and the current president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, delivered a somber talk describing the mental health situation among Gaza’s population.[5]

Dr. Kanter cited studies that revealed 62 % of Gaza’s inhabitants reported having a family member injured or killed, 67% saw injured or dead strangers and 83% had witnessed shootings. In a study of high school aged children from southern refugee camps in Rafah and Kahn Younis, 69% of the children showed symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress (PTS), 40% showed signs of moderate or severe depression, and a whopping 95% exhibited severe anxiety. Seventy percent showed limited or no ability to cope with their trauma. All of this was before the last Israeli invasion.

Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, head of the Gaza Community Mental Program, and whom Dr. Kanter described as a “medical hero” working under seemingly impossible conditions, has produced “some of the best research in the world on the impact of war on civilian populations.” In a 2002 interview he said that 54% of children in Gaza had symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress, along with 30% of adults.[6] The hardest hit were young ones who had their homes bulldozed or who lost loved ones like their mothers, he said. Again, these figures were obtained well before conditions dramatically deteriorated.

Gaza is a land of youth. About 45% of the population is 14 years old or younger and about 60% are 19 years and younger, political economist Dr. Sara Roy said. [7] With such a young population facing constant violence, the long-term effects are incalculable.

Recent studies by international researchers and the Gaza Community Mental Health program revealed more worrying figures.[8]

Of a representative sample of children in Gaza, more than 95% experienced artillery shelling in their area or sonic booms of low flying jets. Ninety-four percent recalled seeing mutilated corpses on TV while some 93% witnessed the effects of aerial bombardments on the ground.

More than 70% of children in Gaza said they lacked water, food and electricity during the most recent attacks, and a similar percentage said they had to flee to safety during the recent attacks.

Additionally, 98.7% of the traumatized children reported that they did not feel safe in their homes. More than 95% of the children felt that they were unable to protect themselves or their family members causing a feeling of utter powerlessness only compounded by a sense of loss over the lives they could have had, safe and boring lives that many take for granted.

A whole generation is being lost to the horrors of large-scale military violence and a brutal occupation. In front of many distraught members in the audience, Kanter described another study that showed that witnessing severe military violence results in more aggression and antisocial behavior among children, along with the “enjoyment of aggression.” There are similar studies among Israeli children who witness terrorist attacks.

Post Traumatic Stress disorder, Dr. Kanter said, is an “engine that perpetuates violent conflict.” It leads to three characteristic symptoms. The first involves reexperiencing the traumatic events in the form of the nightmares, debilitating flashbacks, and terrifying memories that haunt people for years afterwards. Other people may develop avoidance symptoms in which they become isolated and emotionally numb, deadened to the world around them. The third symptom involves hyper arousal, which may lead to excessive anger, insomnia, self-destructive behavior, and a hypervigilant state of mind. Other maladies like poor social functioning, depression, suicidal thoughts, a lack of trust, family violence are all associated with PTS.

The most recent study however, revealed that in the aftermath of the most recent assault on Gaza an unbelievable 91.4% of children in Gaza displayed symptoms of moderate to very severe PTS. Only about 1% of the children showed no signs of PTS

Try to imagine an area with this many people—the city you live in for example—where 9 out of 10 children exhibited symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress. What would daily life be like? What would the future hold for your city's youth?

Particularly horrifying about the situation is that there is no “post” trauma for most in Gaza. Whereas soldiers who endure traumatic experiences in a war zone can return home to relative calm and seek treatment, the people in Gaza continue to held in what one Israeli rights group labeled the “largest prison on Earth”[10]—a methodically “de-developed” island of misery isolated from the rest of the world. The fate of the 1.5 million “unpeople” trapped there is of no concern to the occupying army or its international backers.[11]

This will be the enduring legacy of the Israeli occupation.

One of the most distressing prospects for peace are studies of similar war-torn populations like Kosovo and Afghanistan that showed that military violence often leads to widespread feelings of hatred and the simmering urge for revenge. One can easily predict the future consequences of a large number of young people exposed to this level of trauma.

As Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj warned soon after the offensive,

Palestinian children in the first intifadah 20 years ago threw stones at Israeli tanks trying to wrest freedom from Israeli military occupation. Some of those children grew up to become suicide bombers in the second intifadah 10 years later. It does not take much to imagine the serious changes that will befall today's children.[12]

Women in the war zone are have a unique perspective to share, yet their story is an all too familiar narrative: violence that leads to anger, vengeance, and the destruction of the bonds that tie a society together. Tihani Abed Rabbu, a mother who lost her teenage son, brother, and close friend, spoke of her fears:

What worries me is the safety of my family, my sons and my husband. My husband is going through a difficult time, a crazy time. He wants to affiliate with Hamas, he wants to get revenge after what they [Israel, I think] have done to us. How do you expect us to be peaceful after they have killed my son and turned my family into angry people - as they refer to us, "terrorists." I cannot calm my family down.[13]

Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief, reminds us that,

A father or a mother whose child dies because of a lack of vaccines or proper medical care does not forget. A boy whose ill grandmother dies while detained at an Israel checkpoint does not forget. All who endure humiliation, abuse and the murder of family members do not forget. This rage becomes a virus within those who, eventually, stumble out into the daylight.[14]

Despite some positive steps towards regaining some sense of normalcy, mostly from small non-governmental groups and international activists, the crushing siege continues and basic conditions of life continue to deteriorate. For many, hope is fading. Despair is spreading.

“The breakdown of an entire society is happening in front of us,” Harvard specialist Sara Roy warned. Many share Roy’s fears that “What looms is no less than the loss of entire generation of Palestinians,” which she fears may have occurred already.[15]

In the face of this onslaught however, lies a stubborn resistance. This resistance takes many forms—the one most often seen in the US is that of the few who see armed conflict as the only path to liberation.

“While some Palestinians return Israeli violence with further violence,” journalist Philip Rizk said, “the vast majority does not.” Many bear invisible scars but they nevertheless go on with their daily lives: put their children through school, study and try to do well in exams, seek to serve their home and community, laugh and play, and ultimately try to retain their sense of dignity while living under foreign occupation.

As Rizk observed, “the Arabic word for such everyday acts of non-violent protest is sumoud, which means steadfastness, perseverance.” [16]

This essay is a part III of a longer series on Gaza.

Eman Mohammed is a 21-year old award-winning photojournalist who lives in Gaza. Her photos will be available soon in the Seattle area. For more information, contact Amineh at amineh.ayyad [at] gmail.com

1. Edwards Said and David Barsamian ,The Pen and the Sword, Common Courage Press, 1994, page 99

2. “'Gaza wears a face of misery,' Adam Makary, Al Jazeera” April 4, 2009 http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/04/20094313332943145.html

3. “Young Freud in Gaza” Al Jazeera, June 18, 2009 http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2009/03/2009319727715344.html

4. “Israel’s ‘Crime Against Humanity,’ Chris Hedges, Truthdig, December 15, 2008

http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/20081215_israels_crime_against_humanity/

5. “Gaza: What Next? A Teach-In on the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza” UW Global Health, February 5, 2009

http://depts.washington.edu/deptgh/podcasts/gaza_kantor.php

6. “Clips from Dying to Live, a documentary film by Amineh Ayyad about health and human rights in Palestine. Shot in 2002. http://palestinejournal.blogspot.com/2009/03/clips-from-documentary-about-health-and.html

7. “Sara Roy - Beyond Occupation” Australian Broadcasting Corp. October 14, 2008, Part 17, 1:03:00

http://fora.tv/2008/10/14/Sara_Roy_Beyond_Occupation#fullprogram

8. Gaza Community Mental Health Program http://www.gcmhp.net/ Additional figures from recent studies reveal the following conclusions (from a June 3 press release):

· 66.6% of the children appeared to have some symptoms of anxiety and psychological fears. 42.0% of the children expect events similar to those they passed through.

· 36.4% of the children feel disturbance and tension when experiencing events reminding them of the tragic war.

· 98.5% of children did not feel secure during the war due to their sense of powerlessness to protect themselves and the inability of others to protect them.

· 61.5% of the parents indicated the emergence of unusual behaviors among their children (such as continuous crying, and restlessness).

· 40.6% of parents indicated that their children have problems with their peers.

· 82.1% of the children expressed their conviction that Gaza is an unsafe place.

· 73.5% of the children had fears of being targeted and killed.

· 76.6% of children had fears of occurrence of what happened to them during the war.

9. GCHMP, Thabet, et al., “Trauma, grief, and PTSD in Palestinian children victims of War on Gaza”

10. “ Gaza Prison: Freedom of Movement to and from the Gaza Strip on the Eve of the Disengagement Plan” http://www.btselem.org/English/Publications/Summaries/200503_Gaza_Prison.asp

“The Gaza Strip-One Big Prison” B’tselem http://www.btselem.org/Download/200705_Gaza_Insert_Eng.pdf

11. “’Good News,’ Iraq and Beyond,” Noam Chomsky, ZNet, February 16, 2008 http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20080216.htm

12. “A 14-year-old in Gaza has one question: Why?” Eyad El-Sarraj, January 11, 2009, Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/01/11/a_14_year_old_in_gaza_has_one_question_why?mode=PF

“Cast Lead: As many as 352 children killed” Defense for Children International, Sept 3, 2009 http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=917&CategoryId=1

13. “Women in the war zone: Gaza” Helena Cobban July 7, 2009 http://justworldnews.org/archives/003656.html

“Gaza conflict: Views on Hamas” BBC, July 7, 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8137645.stm

14. “Israel’s ‘Crime Against Humanity,’ Chris Hedges, Truthdig, December 15, 2008

http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/20081215_israels_crime_against_humanity/

15. “Destroying Gaza,” Sara Roy, The Electronic Intifada, 9 July 2009 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10636.shtml

16. “'Gaza wears a face of misery,' Adam Makary, Al Jazeera” April 4, 2009 http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/04/20094313332943145.html

Gaza: The Forgotten Story [II]

2009-10-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

What a Siege Looks Like

By Aditya Ganapathiraju

Why are people on Gaza so unhappy? Well, if you had to live in a prison, wouldn't you be unhappy?— Former CIA officer Robert Baer^[1]

They may be living but they're not alive. – Journalist Philip Rizk[3]

“Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution,” Sara Roy wrote in July. It has led to “mass suffering, created largely by Israel,” and aided by the active participation of the United States, European Union, and Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. [1]

The Israeli policy of isolating Gaza from the West Bank has been a gradual process that started in the early 1990s. It tightened soon after Hamas’ electoral victory in 2006, and turned even more devastating after Hamas’s 2007 takeover, degrading the society to the point where 96 percent of Gaza's population of 1.5 million is dependent on humanitarian aid for basic survival. [2]

This “perverse” situation is unique in international affairs in that humanitarian groups are sustaining the Israeli occupation by providing care for a civilian population and territory whose humanitarian needs and economy are being deliberately decimated for political reasons, with full backing of the Israeli High Court, Roy explained. [3]

The UN recently reported that 1.1 million people, or 75% of the population there are food insecure. Some 70-80% of Gazans live on less than a dollar a day and the unemployment rate is around 60%. [4]

The UN says about 10,000 Gaza residents have no access to a water network - while about 60% -- about 1 million people – don’t have access to water daily and receive water only intermittently.[5] The water consumption of Gazans is less than a third of what Israelis who live a short distance away use.[6] Ultimately, the crippling Israeli siege has degraded the water situation in Gaza to the point that the entire system “could collapse at any minute,” which “could take centuries to reverse,” according to International Committee of the Red Cross and UN officials. [7]

In a similarly precarious situation, the sewage system is also being prevented from being repaired by the blockage of spare parts. As a result, twenty million gallons of raw and untreated sewage has to be dumped into the Mediterranean every day, according to local officials.[8]

Forty-six percent of all children suffer from acute anemia there, former UN official and international Law Prof. Richard Falk said.[9] He adds that thousands of hearing aids are needed for widespread deafness due to sonic booms from Israeli jets. The restrictions on travel access alone has killed an estimated 260 Palestinians since the blockade escalated in 2007.[10]

The scale and intensity of his type of deprivation is impossible to convey through numbers, but try to imagine if three quarters of the people in your city could not find enough food and water to feed themselves or their children, where the overwhelming majority of them were unemployed, where nearly everyone lived on less than a dollar a day, and this is crucial, that all of this was the planned result of political decisions of a foreign government that has held you under military occupation for over four decades.

Even today, the most basic commodities for life still continue to be barred by the Israeli government. Materials like wood for doors or cement for rebuilding in the aftermath of the destruction left by the last attack remained barred.

No electrical appliances, like refrigerators or washing machines, and no parts for cars are allowed. Also restricted are “fabrics, threads, needles, candles, matches, mattresses, sheets, blankets, cutlery, crockery, cups, glasses, musical instruments, books, tea, coffee, sausages, semolina, chocolate, sesame seeds, nuts, milk products in large packages, most baking products, light bulbs, crayons, clothing and shoes.” [11]

School supplies too, are blocked from entering. More than 100 trucks full of stationary are still awaiting clearance to enter Gaza. All of the 387 government-run and 33 private schools, which serve more than 250,000 students, lack essential supplies. Draconian restrictions on glass, wood, and other building materials, has kept the hundreds of schools damaged during the assault remaining in terrible condition. [12]

When an occupying army blocks, tea, blankets, crayons, and school stationary from entering the “largest prison on Earth,” severely restricts essentials like fuel and medicine, makes travel in and out all but impossible, and exercises complete control over its borders, airspace, and seas, the pretense of “security” seems dubious at best, and suggests that turning Gazans into beggars and Gaza into a “depoliticized humanitarian catastrophe” is precisely the plan.[13]

Perhaps former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s advisor Dov Weisglass was describing Israeli policy accurately when he said of the Gaza blockade, “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.” One might ask if he includes the newborn infants, impoverished elderly, and deathly ill among those to be “put on a diet.” [14]

“What possible benefit can be derived from an increasingly impoverished, unhealthy, densely crowded and furious Gaza alongside Israel?,” Sara Roy asked. [15]

Six months have passed since international donors pledged almost $5 billion in aid to the devastated territory, yet “not one penny” has actually reached inside the borders of Gaza, according to the UN, mainly due to the tight blockade. [16]

This “macabre” situation is not the result of an earthquake or flood but rather the predictable consequence of well-planned decisions by Israeli officials, backed by their judicial body, along with complicit Western powers such as the US and EU.

Israeli Professor Avi Shlaim observed that the major powers were “imposing economic sanctions not against the occupier but against the occupied, not against the oppressor but against the oppressed.” [17]

The January 2008 testimony of Gaza Community Mental Health Program Director Eyad Al Sarraj offered a glimpse into what the stranglehold of Gaza looked like from the ground:

[The] Israeli military establishment decided to stop power supply and fuel to Gaza… food and humanitarian aid are not allowed in. My step son is on ventilator for asthma every night. What will happen to him when our generator is not running anymore? What will happen to hospitals, vaccines and blood banks? What will happen to patients on dialysis machines, and to babies in incubators? [18]

This was all before the brutal attacks this winter. The scale of destruction left behind has been covered by numerous writers, human rights groups, and most recently by the comprehensive Goldstone report. What has received little attention though, is the epidemic of mental anguish resulting from decades of oppression.

[The story of mental health in Gaza is covered in Part III]

“If Gaza falls . . .” Sara Roy, the London Review of Books, January 1, 2009 http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/roy_01_.html

2. “Destroying Gaza,” Sara Roy, The Electronic Intifada, July 9, 2009 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10636.shtml

3. “Sara Roy - Beyond Occupation” Australian Broadcasting Corp. October 14, 2008, Chapter 8 Making Palestinians Aid-Dependent http://fora.tv/2008/10/14/Sara_Roy_Beyond_Occupation#fullprogram

“Israeli Supreme Court Fiddles While Gaza Starves” http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/02/01/israeli-supreme-court-fiddles-while-gaza-starves/

4. “Israel's Gaza blockade crippling reconstruction,” Guardian, September 18, 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/18/israel-gaza-blockade-reconstruction

Palestinian Center for Human Rights Weekly Report September 10-16 http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/2008/17-09-2009.htm

5. “Analysis: Looming water crisis in Gaza” IRIN News, September 15, 2009 http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86151

“Leaked UN report echoes Goldstone and says Israeli blockade is leading to the ‘de-development’ of Gaza” Mondoweiss, September 18, 2009 http://mondoweiss.net/2009/09/leaked-un-report-echoes-goldstone-and-says-israeli-blockade-is-leading-to-the-de-development-of-gaza.html

6. “Gaza sewage 'a threat to Israel'” BBC, September 3, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8236733.stm?lsf

7. “MIDEAST: Gaza's Water Supply Near Collapse” IPS, September 16, 2009 http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48464

“Who Needs Clean Water?” Pulse, September 24, 2009 http://pulsemedia.org/2009/09/24/who-needs-clean-water/

8. “Narratives Under Siege (17): Swimming in Sewage” Palestinian Center for Human Rights http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/campaigns/english/gaza_closure/Narratives%20Under%20Siege%2017.pdf

9. “Israel’s ‘Crime Against Humanity,’ Chris Hedges, Truthdig, December 15, 2008

http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/20081215_israels_crime_against_humanity/

10. “Israel tightens the noose on advocacy organizations” Electronic Intifada, September 23, 2009 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10790.shtml

11. “Destroying Gaza,” Sara Roy, The Electronic Intifada, July 9, 2009 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10636.shtml

12. “OPT: Gaza schoolchildren lack basic equipment” IRIN News September 9, 2009 http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86072

13. “ Gaza Prison: Freedom of Movement to and from the Gaza Strip on the Eve of the Disengagement Plan” http://www.btselem.org/English/Publications/Summaries/200503_Gaza_Prison.asp

“The Gaza Strip-One Big Prison” B’tselem http://www.btselem.org/Download/200705_Gaza_Insert_Eng.pdf

“How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe” Avi Shlaim, Guardian, January 7, 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine

14. “What aid cutoff to Hamas would mean” Christian Science Monitor, February 26, 2007 http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0227/p17s01-cogn.html

15. “Destroying Gaza,” Sara Roy, The Electronic Intifada

16. “Not one penny has reached Gaza” The National, August 31, 2009 http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090901/FOREIGN/708319876/1140

17. “How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe” Avi Shlaim, Guardian

18. “Israel declares Gaza "enemy entity" (19 September 2007)” Electronic Intifada http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/685.shtml

Gaza: The Forgotten Story [I]

2009-10-10T21:11:00.000-07:00

By Aditya Ganapathiraju

Why are people on Gaza so unhappy? Well, if you had to live in a prison, wouldn't you be unhappy?— Former CIA officer Robert Baer[1]

They may be living but they're not alive. – Journalist Philip Rizk[3]

The situation on the ground in Gaza has continued to deteriorate since January. One of the most densely populated areas in the world, this small coastal strip is home to a million and a half Palestinians, many of them refugees for over 60 years. It is now the worst condition it’s been in since 1967 when the Israeli army took military control of the land.[4]

As numerous scholars and observers have concluded, the Israeli plan for Gaza seems to be to turn it into a depoliticized humanitarian catastrophe,[5] turning the Palestinians trapped in there “beggars who have no political identity and therefore can have no political claims.”[6]

The Israeli assault against Gaza last winter brought this enclave to the forefront of the news cycle, only to disappear from the headlines in the weeks and months that followed. The attention of much of the world’s dominant media moved on to other issues soon after a unilateral Israeli pullout—planned precisely timed so as not to cause an unsightly distraction from the inauguration of the new American president.

The lack of prominent coverage was not because there was a lack of newsworthy events in Gaza. No, “breaking news is Gaza's middle name,” says freelance journalist Philip Rizk. “But because this breaking news always holds the same kind of information, no one cares to report on it.”[7]

“An Eye for an Eyelash”[8]

Violence in the occupied territories has always been bloody but many longtime observers were shocked by the brutality of winter assault,[9] which killed more Palestinians in the first three weeks than during the entire first Intifada, or uprising against the occupation (1987-1993), prompting the UN to label it “one of the most violent episodes in the recent history of the occupied Palestinian territory.”[10]

The January offensive left 1,417 people dead, 1,181 of which were non-combatants (313 children and 116 women). Another 5,303 Palestinians were injured in the attacks, including 1,606 children and 828 women, many left devastated with life-altering conditions.[11]

The attack, carefully-planned six months in advance,[12] destroyed 60 police stations early on, obliterated 20 ambulances and 30 mosques, in addition to leaving several hospitals bombed. Some 280 schools and kindergartens were damaged, 18 of which were destroyed completely (including 8 kindergartens).[13]

Another 6600 dunams of agricultural land, which Palestinian farmers depend on for their livelihood, were razed (1 dunam=1,000 square meters). In all, some 21,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. An estimated $1.9 billion worth of damage was inflicted, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit report.[14]

“What we're witnessing today is an assault, a massacre,” and “not a war whatsoever,” said Zahir Janmohamed of Amnesty International on the 15 of January, reminding an audience that this was not a conflict between two equivalent military powers but rather another bloody chapter a long history of “Israel’s colonial operations” in the occupied territories.[15] His views were confirmed by facts on the ground, as one scholar recently observed.[16]

The systemic and widespread destruction of both lives and infrastructure was not an unintended consequence of the offensive but rather a deliberate strategy derived from the destruction inflicted during the 2006 Lebanon conflict.[17]

The attack followed the “Dahiya Strategy,” referring to the Beirut area that was destroyed during the attack on Lebanon in 2006. It concluded civilians must pay for their leader’s actions.[18]

The strategy was formalized two months before the attacks by Tel Aviv University's Institute of National Security Studies and urged the use of “disproportionate force” ( by definition a war crime) to inflict crushing damage on “economic interests” and “centers of civilian power,” leaving the targeted society devastated and “floundering” in a long reconstruction process.[19] (for more on the political dynamics involved and actions of Hamas and Israel before and during the attacks, see these papers[20]).

“Behind the dry statistics lie shocking individual stories,” a group of Israeli human rights groups wrote. “Whole families were killed; parents saw their children shot before their very eyes; relatives watched their loved ones bleed to death; and entire neighborhoods were obliterated.”[21]

The stories of those who experienced the attacks, who lost loved ones, and who continue to suffer, offer another perspective often absent here in the U.S. Some of these stories, which described the toll of war beyond numerical abstractions, trickled out in the British press, where journalists are less ideologically constrained to follow the party line, even despite the Israeli military ban on foreign journalists.[22]

Anwar Balousha, a 40-year-old man living in Jabalyia refugee camp in northern Gaza told British reporters of his personal loss. It was around midnight when an Israeli bomb struck their refugee camp’s mosque with a blast so powerful it collapsed several neighboring buildings, including the Balousha’s home. Of his seven daughters sleeping in a single room, five were killed—buried under bricks and rubble as they slept.

"We are civilians,” Anwar said. “I don't belong to any faction, I don't support Fatah or Hamas, I'm just a Palestinian. They are punishing us all, civilians and militants. What is the guilt of the civilian?"[23]

While human rights groups and other observers painstakingly extracted similar stories, the lesser-known narrative of a siege decimating Gaza’s society remained largely untold, confined to the dissident press and humanitarian groups.[24]

Most stories usually report on the violence and bloodshed between two forces, which are often implied to be equivalent both morally and physically. The day-to-day struggles of 1.4 million Palestinians enduring and resisting a 42-year old occupation do not fit neatly into the standard narrative of events describing the Palestinian-Israeli issue. It becomes easy for many to see ordinary Palestinians as nameless and faceless creatures, characters in a story taking place in a faraway land.

Israeli violence towards Gaza did not begin on the 27^th of December. As Amnety’s Janmohamed observed, the assault included the blockade and other attacks and incursions into Gaza, all of which started well before that Saturday morning in December.[25] The roots of the humanitarian disaster imposed by the Israeli need to be examined, he said, alluding to what one OXFAM official described as “a serious crime against humanity,”[26] a situation where 1.5 million people “are being punished for something they haven't done.”[27]

[This is the first part of a series on Gaza, Part II describes life under siege]

1. “‘U.S. and Iran Share an Equal Monopoly on Violence,’” Inter Press Service, January 23, 2009 http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=45526

2. Edwards Said and David Barsamian ,The Pen and the Sword, Common Courage Press, 1994, page 99

3. “'Gaza wears a face of misery,' Adam Makary, Al Jazeera” April 4, 2009 http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/04/20094313332943145.html

4. “UN: Gaza in worst condition since 1967” Ynet, http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3773955,00.html

5. “Israel wanted a humanitarian crisis” Ben White, Guardian, January 20, 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/gaza-israelandthepalestinians

6. “If Gaza falls . . .”Sara Roy, the London Review of Books, January 1, 2009 http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/roy_01_.html

7. “'Gaza wears a face of misery,' Adam Makary, Al Jazeera” April 4, 2009 http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/04/20094313332943145.html

8. “How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe” Avi Shlaim, Guardian, January 7, 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine

9. Avi Shlaim, Guardian:

“On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel's vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.”

“Leading Israeli Scholar Avi Shlaim: Israel Committing “State Terror” in Gaza Attack, Preventing Peace,” Democracy Now!, January 14, 2009 http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/14/leading_israeli_scholar_avi_shlaim_israel

10. UN OCHA Report “Locked In:The humanitarian impact of two years of blockade on the Gaza Strip” footnote 36 http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.nsf/47D4E277B48D9D3685256DDC00612265/0DFF75BB11E6929285257612004B4859

11. Palestinian Center for Human Rights Press Release March 12, 2009 http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/36-2009.html

12. “Disinformation, secrecy and lies: How the Gaza offensive came about” Haaretz, Barak Ravid http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050426.html “IAF strike followed months of planning” Barak Ravid http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050448.html

13. UN OCHA Report “Locked In”

14. Palestinian Center for Human Rights Press Release http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/press.html

15. “The Gaza Offensive and the Laws of War with Zahir Janmohamed,” The Palestine Center January 23, 2009 http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/4022/pid/897

16. “UN Inquiry Finds Israel “Punished and Terrorized” Palestinian Civilians, Committed Acts of War During Gaza Assault, Democracy Now! September 16, 2009 http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/16/un_inquiry_finds_israel_punished_and

17. “Israel's Bombing Campaign Will "Send Gaza Back Decades" Jonathan Cook, January 22, 2009 http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/121163

18. “The Dahiya strategy: Israel finally realizes that Arabs should be accountable for their leaders’ acts,” Ynet, Ynetnews.com, 6 Oct 2008 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3605863,00.html

19. “Disproportionate Force: Israel’s Concept of Response in Light of the Second Lebanon War” Institute of National Security Studies, Insight No. 74, inss.org.il, 2 October 2008 http://www.inss.org.il/publications.php?cat=21&page=6

20. “Behind the Headlines of the Gaza Attacks” Aditya Ganapathiraju ZNet http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/20161

“Foiling Another Palestinian “Peace Offensive”: Behind the bloodbath in Gaza” Norman Finkelstein January 19, 2009 http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/finkelstein-on-gaza-war-massacre/

21. The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories

http://www.btselem.org/English/Press_Releases/20090909.asp

22. “Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask” Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-why-do-they-hate-the-west-so-much-we-will-ask-1230046.html

“Robert Fisk: When journalists refuse to tell the truth about Israel” Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-when-journalists-refuse-to-tell-the-truth-about-israel-681622.html

“Robert Fisk: Keeping out the cameras and reporters simply doesn't work” Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-keeping-out-the-cameras-and-reporters-simply-doesnt-work-1225800.html

“Foreign reporters dub Israel 'military dictatorship'” Ynet http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3653154,00.html

23. “'I didn't see any of my girls, just a pile of bricks'” Guardian, December 30, 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/30/israel-and-the-palestinians-middle-east

24. “Israel declares Gaza "enemy entity" (19 September 2007)” Electronic Intifada http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/685.shtml

25. “The Gaza Offensive and the Laws of War with Zahir Janmohamed,” The Palestine Center January 23, 2009 http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/4022/pid/897

26. “Gaza: A humanitarian implosion: A report from eight UK human rights organizations says situation in Gaza worst since 1967” The Real News March 6, 2008

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1101

27. “New Report Finds Gaza Humanitarian Situation is Worst in 40 years” Voice of America News March 6, 2008 http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-03/2008-03-06-voa24.cfm?CFID=306830593&CFTOKEN=65036790&jsessionid=de30c06e056dbbc788ab7d61273855695769

"People say things are better this summer..."

2009-07-13T03:35:00.000-07:00

This summer marks the third summer that I have come to Palestine to work with PMRS on a research project on mental health among women in the West Bank. A lot happened this year, including the election of Obama and the bombardment of Gaza this winter (for more on the impacts, check out older entries on this blog and http://www.emro.who.int/palestine/, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057658.html, http://www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=702&catid=55&pcat=-1&lang=ENG.

People from Israel and the United States have told me that they are hearing that it's better now in the West Bank, especially that checkpoints have eased. So I've been asking Palestinians and looking for myself. Yes, some checkpoints are easier-for example, it was luxurious to drive into Nablus in a regular car without the usual checkpoint, where soldiers wouldn't let cars into the town. But, people in Palestine remind me about the dangers of saying "things are better than..."; the dangers of thinking that easing of abuse for one night or one week signifies real freedom, safety or sovereignty. Why should questions of basic human rights-such as ability to access health care, school, family be reduced to a question of scales of misery? Should Palestinians feel grateful that things are slightly better-knowing that the checkpoints can be reinstated at any time? Knowing, for example, that Atara checkpoint outside of Bir Zeit, which connects Ramallah with a main road, is still manned at the will of the Israelis? Or knowing that many-like the one above from a checkpoint in the West Bank this July- still exists the same as before?

The occupation of Palestine and the active de-development of infrastructure and society here continues. Like last year and the year before it, people tell me simply: This is not a life. And they say to tell people in the United States. Palestine is not in the midst of a "conflict", it is not even in the midst of a "war"; it is under occupation. The occupation is a military one, for sure. It is also a civilian one, seen in the ever-growing settlements-like the one in this photo from just outside Ramallah. And, even more this summer, I see that it is an economic one.

Whether or not Obama will mandate real change in Israeli policy is still very unclear. Neither Palestinians nor the few Israelis I've spoken with are holding their breath.

What is it we say? Pessimism of intellect/experience, optimism of spirit? For sure, la lucha sigue. The struggle continues and I am grateful for those who lead it, here and at home.

~in solidarity from Occupied Palestine

Cancer trauma inspires Palestinian animation film

2009-07-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

By Mohammed Harmassi
BBC Arabic

A woman from Gaza stands at an Israeli check-point. We can only see her back but it is clear that in shame she opens her top to a female Israeli soldier to show that her breasts have been removed in an attempt to beat cancer. Despite this, she is refused entry to Israel on security grounds.

This is the climactic scene from the first major Palestinian attempt at an animated movie and it is based on a true story.

But this is not an anti-Israeli rant.

There are good and bad characters on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide.

The heroine of the movie is called Fatenah.

She is a Gazan woman whose dream of finding love and leading a normal life is torn apart by cancer and the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

"Usually Palestinians are treated as numbers, but this is not the case here," said Saed Andoni, the film's producer. "Behind each number there is a long story and that is why we focus on this one individual."

True story

The animation tells of Fatenah's fight against cancer; the removal of both her breasts, Palestinian doctors who delayed her diagnosis and Israeli soldiers who delayed her treatment.

It also tells of a rare friendship between the Gazan and an Israeli woman, Dafna.

The animation is threaded together by a love story between Fatenah and a Gazan man.

The depiction of the impoverished coastal strip is condensed into harshly coloured scenes in the 30-minute animation; an Israeli checkpoint, crowded buildings and the sea.

Fatenah has large eyes and a small mouth - symbolic of a woman "compelled to a bitter existence but not empowered to speak", says director Ahmad Habash.

Fatenah's struggle and friendship with an Israeli woman is based on the real-life story of a Gazan woman named Fatma.

Her fight against breast cancer was told by the Israeli group "Physicians for Human Rights" in a 2005 report after the disease killed her.

"The report was so unbelievable, that when you read it you feel like it is fiction. It is absurd. You cannot believe that these things happen even though we as Palestinians live in this situation," says Mr Andoni.

Health care in Gaza is poor - a legacy of poor training, corruption and shabby equipment.

A blockade tightened after militant group Hamas seized power of Gaza in June 2007 has sealed people in, and kept many medical supplies out.

But Israel says it continues to allow in humanitarian goods despite the blockade.

Seriously ill residents must find treatment in Egypt, Israel, or cross from there to the West Bank or Jordan.

But it can take weeks for Palestinian bureaucrats to organise referrals and for Israel to approve entry.

Physicians for Human Rights says 12 residents have died unnecessarily from their illnesses after Israeli officials refused their applications to enter since Hamas took power.

Aggressive cancer

In 2004, 28-year-old Fatma felt a lump in her breast - Palestinian doctors said her cure was in having children or switching bras.

Months later they diagnosed aggressive cancer but refused to make a referral for her to be treated in Israel.

Fatma defiantly sent her medical report to an Israeli hospital where doctors said she needed immediate care.

Israeli activists lobbied defence officials to allow her to enter Israel, but she was frequently delayed and turned back by soldiers.

Sometimes, her ambulance was forced to return to Gaza because of fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

The report says the climatic scene in 'Fatenah,' where she is ordered to disrobe before an Israeli woman soldier took place in real-life in September 2004.

In the animation, Fatenah's back is to the camera, but she ashamedly reveals a bare shoulder, suggesting she is naked under her long Muslim robe.

In reality, Fatma wore a tee-shirt and a stuffed bra because her breasts were removed to try to halt the cancer.

She was lying on the floor because she was too weak to stand, and an Israeli soldier yelled at her to dress.

The report said she was then sent back into Gaza for failing a security check.

Sullied reputation

The film makers are at pains to say the animation is inspired by Fatma's story, but it isn't about her.

That nuance was lost in deeply conservative Gaza, where Fatma's family say it has sullied their deceased daughter's reputation because of Fatenah's innocent romance - there isn't any kissing or hand-holding - and the brief scene where her animated breast is shown in the movie.

The film took almost two years to make in the West Bank city of Ramallah on a budget of $60,000 (£36,400) provided by the World Health Organisation.

It will be sent to film festivals around the world and Mr Andoni said he hopes it lays the foundation for what will become a burgeoning Palestinian animation industry.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8130934.stm

Published: 2009/07/03 06:33:49 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Justice Must Prevail: An American Doctor's Account

2009-06-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

Published in the PalestineChronicle.com
05/29/09

By Bryan Saario

Following up upon a Christmas donation to Palestine Children's Relief Fund in 2006, I offered my services as a retired oral and maxillofacial surgeon for one of their future cleft palate missions to Palestine/Israel. I was looking for an opportunity to fulfill a sense of not having done quite enough during my professional career to justify the self indulgent life I was living as an affluent American retiree; and in my research of looking for worthy causes, I had uncovered a disturbing scene of utterly neglected children devoid of medical care, living in the desperate conditions of refugee camps in a time warp of 1948 when their grandparents and great grand- parents were forced to flee their farms and homes.

I eagerly accepted PCRF’s invitation to participate in a mission to the West Bank, and in April of 2007 entered though fortified gates and checkpoints into Nablus in the (militarily) occupied Palestinian territories and on to Rafidia Hospital where throngs of parents with their children awaited our surgical team. In a dawn-deep into the night schedule we operated on children who had a plethora of developmental and acquired facial disfigurements of cleft lips and palates, deformed and misaligned jaws, and untreated or poorly treated facial and traumatic jaw injuries stemming from the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

In my attempt to contribute something of value to a people in need, I found my specific surgical skills to be limited to an assistant surgeon’s role for the many cases which we treated. I soon realized though, that my unmet expectation of being able to find fulfillment in my personal mission was dwarfed by the misery of the people I had come to help. However serious might be the physical maladies that I observed around me, the spiritual and mental impairment caused by sixty years of oppressive occupation was by far the most serious injury to be seen, and it was afflicting the entire Palestinian population.

I had expected to see general deprivation in the Palestinian population before I arrived, and that in good part was why I chose to come to this part of the world and contribute in some way, but the desperation and hopelessness that I observed in their plight was overwhelming. It astounded me that a tragedy of this proportion could go on and be glossed over by the main stream media outlets of Western television, radio, and newspapers. Here in Palestine was occurring a human tragedy that matched the greatest injustices in modern history; meanwhile Americans were being led to believe that Israelis are innocent victims of constant Arab terrorism, and all Palestinians are terrorists that inflict rocket attacks and suicide bombers on a civilian population without cause or reason.

The Israeli public relations program makes seemingly plausible statements that depict a scenario of Israeli reasonableness and a Palestinian position of irrational and ill founded demands for a just settlement in a well coordinated script with the Western media that belies both reality on the ground and the truth. Nowhere in American reporting is the story of the Palestinian Nakba or Diaspora ever presented on a level that gives unassailable reverence to the preservation of Israeli Statehood at the expense of the Palestinian people.

My observations of ongoing, constant oppression of the people in the occupied territories were enlivened by the many stories I heard from Palestinians with whom I came into contact while on the mission, and was given historical context after arriving back in the U.S. and reading The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. In his accounting of the take-over of the Palestinian lands by European Jews in 1947-1948, based upon reports uncovered in Israeli Defense Force files, he described the extermination of whole Palestinian villages in such a way that all romantic notions of Israeli Nationhood were over shadowed by the truth of reality.

The ongoing racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, non judicial executions, house demolitions, confinement within their isolated towns, villages, and enclaves with restriction of travel to anywhere outside their locale, land confiscation, imprisonment without trial, and denial of civil and human rights – are all well documented by United Nations agencies, Israeli and International human rights organizations, and Israeli and Western peace activist groups – so why doesn’t the world community speak out against the Israeli elephant sitting in the living room of human rights violations? The collective will of nations of good conscience forced the compliance of South Africa in regard to democratic reform. Why can that not be done in regard to Israel and its egregious mal treatment of its occupied population?

If Israel is to be brought into the community of nations that conforms to upholding basic human rights for all inhabitants subject to their authority, so must its chief progenitor, the United States, be brought into alignment with the force of boycott, divestment, and sanctions. This measure can only be achieved through courageous United Nations leadership accompanied by concurrent enforcement of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (which provided the basis for the creation of Israel), United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, and United Nations Security Council Resolution 242.

The insanity that allows Israel alone to determine the destiny of seven million displaced and dispossessed people must be rectified, and nowhere else can that be better accomplished than in the chambers of the United States Congress. Our Representatives and Senators must be weaned from the financial draw strings of an Israeli First lobby, and made to respond to the wishes of their constituencies that have overwhelmingly stated that we want an even handed and fair American foreign policy to bring justice and peace to the Middle East.

- Bryan Saario, D.D.S., M.D., is a retired oral and maxillofacial surgeon.
He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Clips from a documentary about health and human rights in Palestine (2002)

2009-03-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

Clips from Dying to Live, a documentary film by Amineh Ayyad about health and human rights in Palestine. Shot in 2002. Interviews with Drs: Mustafa Barghouthi (Palestinian Medical Relief Society), Eyad El Sarraj (Gaza Community Mental Health Program), Ruchama Marton (Israeli Physicians for Human Rights).

CLOSED ZONE: 'Waltz With Bashir' Animator Makes Film On Gaza (VIDEO)

2009-03-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

AP | March 4, 2009 02:25 PM

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- An Israeli creator of the Oscar-nominated "Waltz with Bashir" released a short film Wednesday about the effects of his country's Gaza blockade on Palestinians.

Yoni Goodman said he hoped the 90-second animated film, "Closed Zone," would draw attention to the plight of Gaza's civilians.

"People talk about Hamas, but there are many civilians there who are not Hamas supporters but who are suffering from this blockade," the animator said.

Israel has kept Gaza's borders largely sealed since the Islamic militant Hamas took over the seaside territory in June 2007. Since then, Israeli has heavily restricted Palestinians from leaving Gaza and limited the goods that can enter.

The closed borders are a major issue in both peace talks and proposals to reconstruct Gaza after Israel's three-week offensive ended in January. Both Palestinians and international aid groups say the borders must be opened to allow in much-needed living supplies.

Goodman said he began the film before Israel launched its offensive against Gaza's ruling Hamas militants in December, but the conflict affected the story.

The film, a combination of animation and real-life scenes, follows a boy chasing a blue bird while large hands block his way. The hands cut Gaza's borders in the ground with a giant cookie-cutter, then prevent the boy from crossing.

ISRAEL-OPT: Hotlines support Gaza residents

2009-01-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

humanitarian news and analysis
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

RAMALLAH, 15 January 2009 (IRIN) - Palestinians in Gaza, who are becoming increasingly traumatised as Israel’s bombardment of the tiny coastal enclave continues, are reaching out for psycho-social support via toll-free crisis-lines run by NGOs and aid agencies.

Residents have been trapped in their homes since the Israeli offensive began on 27 December 2008, without electricity and running water, while sanitation systems have collapsed. Some 56 percent of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents are children.

The telephone network - both land lines and the mobile phone network - has been severely damaged but it is still possible, for example, to dial 121 from a Jawal (Palestinian mobile phone company) phone and access the hotlines. Communications tend to improve at night when the number of calls increases.

One of the most popular crisis-lines is run by Sawa, meaning “together”, a Palestinian NGO in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

“We are receiving 200-250 calls per day,” its director, Jalal Khadar, told IRIN. His staff of 14 are working 24 hours a day to field the calls, which are treated confidentially.

Sami (not his real name), a 13-year-old from Rafah, called for support after he witnessed his three friends die in an aerial bombing near his home.

“I was playing with my friends when the plane attacked - they were cut to pieces,” Sami told the social worker fielding his call, according to a transcript Sawa retained from the call. “It would have been better to have died with them,” he said.

Social worker Abed Rahhal, 28, told IRIN: “We do our best to listen. About 70 percent of the callers are children and most children tell me they are afraid to die.”

“There is nowhere safe”

Rahhal also fielded a call from Hanan (not her real name), another 13-year-old from Rafah, after the house adjacent to hers was bombed, shattering the windows and doors of her home.

''I was playing with my friends when the plane attacked - they were cut to pieces. It would have been better to have died with them.''

Ten family members are staying in her grandfather’s home, she said, after Hanan’s family was forced to evacuate their home in Gaza City due to the shelling and bombing.

“We are dying - there is nowhere safe,” said Hanan over the phone. “We are so frightened.” IRIN was able to listen to Hanan’s call.

“I instruct the callers to take shelter in stairwells, or at least to stand together against the walls,” said Rahhal.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with the Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Conflict Resolution in Gaza, is operating a 24-hour help-line offering support to residents. “Most parents report panic and fear amongst their children,” UNICEF spokesperson Monica Awad, based in Jerusalem, told IRIN.

World Health Organization (WHO) mental health officer Ragiah Abu-Sway, based in Jerusalem, told IRIN by phone: “The circling drones make people agitated and nervous. For sure this is psychological warfare.”

[ENDS]
Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82377

Gaza children increasingly traumatised according to experts

2009-01-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

RAMALLAH (WEST BANK), 13 January 2009 (IRIN) - As the Israeli aerial and ground bombardment continues in Gaza, the number of trauma cases is growing, say specialists.

“The whole community is vulnerable to the intensity of the attacks and the loss of family members that will not only cause post-traumatic stress disorder, but other mood and anxiety disorders as well,” World Health Organization (WHO) mental health officer Ragiah Abu-Sway, based in Jerusalem, told IRIN by phone.

“The reality is that this current violence is already compounding high levels of trauma in children in Gaza,” said World Vision UK’s head of emergency affairs, Ian Gray. “There’s the initial impact on children, which we’re already seeing - frequent bed-wetting, nightmares, and a heartbreaking loss of hope - but there’s also the long-term trauma that will devastate for years to come.”

Specialists say the sound of bomb explosions could cause pregnant women to miscarry or have premature or still births. However, bombs are not the only source of trauma: “The leaflets and phone calls [from the Israeli military calling on residents to evacuate their homes] are also traumatising,” said Abu-Sway.

According to the Gaza health ministry, as of 12 January 910 Palestinians have been killed, including 85 women and 292 children. Some 4,250 people have been injured, including 1,497 children and 626 women.

“People are vulnerable, frightened and defenceless,” psychiatrist Eyad Al-Sarraj, director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme which operates three mental health clinics in Gaza, told IRIN by phone. “People are in a state of heightened anxiety, on constant alert due to the bombing.”

Trapped

Residents have been trapped in their homes since the Israeli offensive began on 27 December 2008, without electricity and running water, while sanitation systems have collapsed.

“Children are scared, cold - particularly at night - and trapped,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Merixie Mercato, based in Jerusalem, told IRIN. “It’s going to take time and a great deal of support for them to recover.”

Since the ground invasion began on 3 January, 85 percent of the mobile phone network is down and a huge number of fixed lines are damaged or lack electricity, reported OCHA. This further isolates the population and causes them heightened anxiety, say specialists.

As of 12 January, 28,116 residents had fled to 36 UNRWA (UN agency for Palestinian refugees) shelters, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which says tens of thousands have sought refuge in other locations.

However, there are few safe places to flee to: As Hamas runs the civil police, schools and hospitals it is difficult for civilians to find an area without a Hamas institution, say local residents.

Dwindling food, water supplies

Dwindling food and drinking water supplies are causing widespread panic, according to residents.

Hashem (who did not want to give his last name), a 24-year-old pharmacist from Gaza City, feels isolated without electricity, depending on his friends in the West Bank to relay the latest news via telephone.

“I can hear the bombing from inside my house in Tal Al-Hawa. Every window in our home has been shattered,” Hashem told IRIN by phone. “People are hysterical, suffering from terrible anxiety - there is no safe place in Gaza, even at home.”

Three of the five community mental health centres run by the health ministry are operating in Gaza for a limited duration during the mornings. One centre was damaged by the bombing and another, surrounded by Israeli forces, cannot be accessed, said WHO’s Abu-Sway. UNRWA is offering psycho-social counselling at its emergency shelters, he said.

UNICEF, in partnership with the Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Conflict Resolution in Gaza, is operating a 24-hour toll-free help-line offering support to Gaza residents. “Most parents report panic and fear amongst their children,” UNICEF spokesperson Monica Awad, based in Jerusalem, told IRIN.

[ENDS]
Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82335

Meet the children left to die among the bodies of their parents and families

2009-01-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

Toll on Gaza's children 3:53 Louis-Georges Arsenault of UNICEF's Emergency Programmes tells CNN Gaza children are facing an unbearable situation.

2009-01-09T15:25:00.001-08:00

New Restrictions on Mobility of Medical Personnel in the West Bank

2008-11-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

As of Sunday, November 2nd, 2008, new Israeli army guidelines are in force, requiring Palestinian medical personnel from the West Bank who work in Jerusalem hospitals to come in only through the Qalandiya checkpoint in Ramallah.  Medical personnel from the West Bank are prohibited from coming to work through other checkpoints, even if these are closer to where they live.

Since November 2nd, 2008, many medical personnel who have been prevented by the military authorities from going to work have contacted Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, the Palestineian Medical Relief Society.  Today, Tuesday, November 4th, 2008, about 100 Palestinian medical personnel held a demonstration at the Qalandiya terminal to protest the new restrictions.

Requiring all Palestinian medical personnel to come to work via the Qalandiya terminal forces them to go through many checkpoints inside the West Bank, spend many hours on the road and on long lines at the Qalandiya terminal, which is more crowded than any of the other checkpoints on the West Bank, in order to get to work.  This, despite the fact that they carry documents authorizing them to travel to their workplaces in Israel.

Not only does this new regulation disrupt the schedules of these medical personnel, delays them and makes them late for work, but it also disrupts the orderly operation of the hospitals in which they are employed, rather than making it easier for this segment of the work force that needs accessible, fast and unrestricted passage through the checkpoints.

This restriction is another addition to the ongoing Israeli policy intended to weaken the connection between Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem and the population of the West Bank, in an attempt to harm their special status as Palestinian institutions operating in Jerusalem. Using “bureaucratic” methods and/or “security” arguments for political purposes is an attempt to deceive everyone involved as well as the international community, and in fact represents a change in the status quo in Jerusalem that Israel has committed itself to preserve.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society demand that this restriction be lifted immediately, and calls upon the Israeli medical community, and the international medical community, to intervene now in order to protect the right of Palestinian medical personnel to travel freely for their work.

For additional information please contact Mr. Ran Yaron, Director of  the Occupied Territories department, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Tel. +972-(0)54-757-7696, e-mail: ranyaron@phr.org.il
Or Ms. Bahia Amra, External Relations Department, Palestinian Medical Relief Society- Ramallah. Tel. +972- (0)59-994-0073, e-mail: bahiaamra@hotmail.com

International participants in conference on Gaza siege denied entry

2008-10-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

Oct. 28, 2008

Jerusalem / PNN - The Israeli administration denied entrance to a major group of international academics, physicians and health professionals seeking to participate in a Gaza Strip conference.

“Siege and Mental Health, Walls vs. Bridges” will now be held via video conference on Monday and Tuesday instead of face-to-face due to the siege it intends to discuss.

Although the 120 slated participants in the Gaza Community Mental Health Program conference had applied for prior permission to pass the Erez Checkpoint, Israeli forces denied all entry permits without offering a reason.

Participants issued a statement reading in part, “We, the conference participants, protest this last-minute decision by the Israeli authorities and regard it as a deliberate attempt to stop professional communication and exchange between the international medical community and Gaza medical professionals.”

At a Sunday press conference in East Jerusalem, Professor Alice Rothschild, Harvard Medical School, USA, Professor Dr. W.H.G. Wolters, the Netherlands, Professor Federico Allodi, University of Toronto, Canada, Dr. Ghada Karmi, University of Exeter, UK, Professor James Deutsch, University of Toronto, Canada, Judy Deutsch, psychiatric social worker, Toronto, Canada, and Dr. Eyyad Sarraj, of Gaza who spoke via telephone today, expressed their protest.

The two-day conference, co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, will cover the impact of the ongoing Israeli siege on physical and medical health in the Gaza Strip. Prepared presentations include work on violence, social stress, poverty and children’s mental health. After being denied entry permits for Gaza the international participants decided to come to the West Bank in a stated show of support for the besieged residents of the Gaza Strip. They will join in the conference via video from Ramallah.

A request for entry for 80 of the international experts from countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Holland and Italy was submitted to the Israeli administration by the WHO Gaza office on 28 September. But on 13 October the Israeli military at Erez informed the WHO that all of the requests were denied without giving any reason.

Settlements

2008-08-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

Mechanisms of Israeli rule in the West Bank include control of the movement of populations along roads through checkpoints, random arrests and detainments, and home demolitions. The occupation also takes on a civilian aspect, as Israeli settlers move into Palestinian areas, a practice that began in 1967 and now amounts to 450,000 settlers in 149 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. While settling civilians into occupied terrorities is contrary to international law, the settlement population continues to grow at a rate of more than double that of the population expansion in Israel; growth rate averages at 5.5% a year between 1987 and 2004 (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), 2007b).

The now more than 149 Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank are an integral component of the Israeli closure policies and practices. Despite the 4th Geneva Convention prohibition on moving civilian populations into occupied territories, the settlement population in Palestine increased by almost 150% between 1987 and 2004, now totaling 450,000 (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), 2007b). The United Nations Security Council and the International Court of Justice have declared the continued establishment of settlements illegal. These settlements are linked to each other through a comprehensive network of roads and tunnels, on which Palestinians are not allowed to travel.

In the time between last summer and this summer, settlements in the West Bank appear to have increased. In a recent trip with the mobile clinic, I saw many road signs with the Arabic either crossed out or covered with stickers advertising settlements.

News of settler violence has increased sharply. Ha’aretz ran a story this morning about a settler who threw a brick through the car of a Palestinian woman and her smal child. In the evening, Ma’an News reported that Israeli settlers attacked a wedding partyi in Al Khalil (Hebron), and pushed a 15 year old Palestinian boy from his roof, breaking ihis back. (http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30999)

On the 25th of July Ma’an News reported “three Israeli settlers, one masked and wielding a stick, pursued 14 Palestinian children who were on their way to a summer camp.” Although there had been an arrangement that Israeli military would excort the children, military personeel never arrived to do so. A few days later, there were reports that American solidarity workers from Christian Peacemakers who arrived to escort the children had been attacked by settlers so severely that one had to be taken to the hospital to treat a head injury he sustained. (http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30855)

In all sorts of settings in Palestine, acts of violence are often extreme and sudden-house invasions, arrests, beatings. But there is another sort of violence that is slower, often more deliberate, and sustained over time. Through research we’ve been working on this summer we’ve heard many stories from women about the unrelenting stressors of occupation that rarely make the news. Settlements, perched on hills surrounding Palestinian villages, connected by roads accessible only to Israelis, suffocate both the tangible resources in Palestine and the ability of one’s mind to relax and simply enjoy a view. There was only one village in Palestine where I had the pleasure of looking at simple hills of Palestine. It’s a valuable and rare memory...sitting on a roof, eating watermelon, imagining what it must have been like before all of this...

Ten-year-old boy killed by Israeli forces during clashes in Ni'lin

2008-07-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Maan News Agency
Date: 29 / 07 / 2008 Time: 19:59

Ramallah – Ma'an – Ten-year-old Ahmad Husam Yousef Musa was killed by Israeli forces on Tuesday evening during clashes in the village of Ni'lin, west of Ramallah.

Eyewitnesses reported that the child was shot in the head and died immediately. His body was transferred to Ramallah hospital.

The former mayor of Ni'lin, Muhammad Srour, told Ma'an that while the Israeli bulldozers were finishing their daily work on the separation wall in the village, Israeli troops fired live ammunition directly at demonstrators who had gathered at the wall construction site.

Ni'lin residents have staged daily protests and marches against the separation wall, which is being built on the village's land. Some 77 demonstrations, sit-ins, and protests against the wall have been held in the village so far. The Israeli military frequently responds by shooting tear gas, sound bombs, rubber-coated metal bullets and live ammunition towards demonstrators and bystanders.

The Israeli wall will confiscate some 2,500 dunams of land belonging to the village, whose residents depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. A dunam is 1,000 square metres or approximately a quarter of an acre.

-http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30905

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli soldiers Tuesday fired shots near a group of Palestinian youths during a demonstration in the West Bank, killing a 9-year-old boy, eyewitnesses told CNN.

The Israeli military released a statement saying it is "conducting a careful and thorough examination" into the reported incident, including a joint medical investigation with Palestinian medical personnel.

The military said the head of Israel's Central Command, Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni, "is following the investigation closely."

The incident happened during a demonstration against an Israeli security barrier near the village of Nil'in, which is near Ramallah.

There have been numerous demonstrations near the village in recent months against the security barrier that Palestinians say will result in the seizure of their land.

Israel says the security barrier is necessary to prevent terrorists from entering Israel and taking lives. But Palestinians say the barrier is an illegal land grab that also restricts them from traveling to work in Israel.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/29/israel.palestinians/index.html

The Wall: Four Years After International Court Decision...

2008-07-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, July 9, marked the four-year anniversary of the decision by the International Court of Justice that declared the construction of the Israeli Apartheid Wall illegal. (International Court of Justice, 2004) The 8-meter high, 436-mile long wall is a part of the growing geography of occupation in Palestine, where districts, towns, and even homes themselves, have been severed. The Palestinian Grassroots Anti Apartheid Wall Campaign notes that there are 17 enclaves “walled from three sides and tightly controlled from the fourth side.” (Palestinian Grassroots Anti Apartheid Wall Campaign, 2007) In some districts, the wall includes watchtowers with snipers every 400 meters, while in others there are electic fences, trace paths, barbed wire, cameras and trenches. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2004; Palestine Monitor, 2007)

Israeli occupation measures include stringent physical acts, such as the wall and associated physical measures (checkpoints, tunnels, gates, etc.), but also active economic measures, such as the Israeli control of water and agricultural land. The ruling notes “the wall will effectively annex most of the Western aquifer system (which provides 51%per cent of the West Banks’ water resources).” These measures are part of a program of active impoverishment of the Palestinian population, who suffer from what Sara Roy describes as de-development: “the deliberate, systematic deconstruction of an indigenous economy by a dominant power (Roy, 1995).” 43% of Palestinians fall below the poverty line and 15% live in deep poverty. The national GDP dropped 20% from 1999-2005. Unemployment in 2005 was 23%, and 35% among youth ages 20-24 (World Bank, 2005). The World Bank notes: “The inability of the Palestinian economy to fully use its productive potential is first and foremost the result of restrictions on the movement of people and goods (UNICEF; World Bank, 2006).”

Here in Palestine, communities have organized nonviolent protests against the continued construction of the wall. In the town of Ni’lin, ordinary citizens have been protesting since May. 26 people have been arrested, 160 have been injured by rubber coated steel bullets, and a PMRS ambulance was shot at. Live ammunition has been used on citizens who were peacefully protesting.

Many of us around the world work on issues dear to us that reflect the sacredness of human rights, self-determination, and international law. Some take exceptionally determined stands, compelled to extinguish the silence that atrocities require. I have been lucky enough to know some of these people...from an Army Lieutenant at Fort Lewis, Washington all the way to community organizers, educators, health workers, and citizens in Palestine. Knowing of their acts has made me wonder in the past few years what international law means to us all-especially those of us from occupying powers-and what we can do to burn its importance back into our collective memory.

The text of the decision:

“[By fourteen votes to one]:
The construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated régime, are contrary to international law; Israel is under an obligation to terminate its breaches of international law; it is under an obligation to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle forthwith the structure therein situated, and to repeal or render ineffective forthwith all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto, in accordance with paragraph 151 of this Opinion; Israel is under an obligation to make reparation for all damage caused by the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem.”

Yours in struggle from occupied Palestine~

(for a primer on the wall: www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article4)

Launching research on mental health impacts of occupation

2008-07-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Palestine for the second summer! I feel so incredibly lucky to work again with PMRS. While writing up the research I did last summer, I had the opportunity to reflect on the strength, hospitality and ingenuity of PMRS, as well as their awesome spirit to, in the face of continual assaults of the occupation, persist in promoting human rights, justice, empowerment & engagement in civil society.

This summer, I will focus on working with PMRS as a research partner to examine the relationship between the violence of the occupation and family violence, mental health and well-being. Most importantly, I will attempt to understand more the potential for resilience; factors that may help people and families to overcome the trauma of war and occupation. To this end, we will look at family cohesion, individual problem solving, and community capacity. I arrived to PMRS ready to begin work, and have an awesome research team who have translated all the materials, and are facilitating focus groups and helping to coordinate the collection of quantitative data.

We began the field work this week in Biddo, a town I visited last summer, a place that's landscape is carved up by the wall, settlements,and Israeli only roads. The clinic graciously hosted us, and recruited participants for both the surveys and the focus groups.

It was a powerful morning, with both a sense of accomplishment for beginning, and a sadness that comes with collecting and analyzing data on trauma and pain. Below is a picture of the new research team after finishing the first focus group.
I feel like this year I've come with a sharper focus, one that both seeks a greater understanding of the conditions here but that also searches to discover what people, families and communities do to mobilize internal and external resources. This focus is helping me to view Palestine more holistically, as a society that, in addition to a history of pain, injustice and struggle, also has a powerful history of growth, dignity, education and joy.

“Palestinian survival abilities and resiliency have been learned over a period of almost 100 years of trauma and conflict, not only recently, and have been handed down from generation to generation (R. Giacaman, 2005).”

Press Release: Amnesty International

2008-03-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release:
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Contact: AIUSA media office,
202-544-0200 x302

Israeli Army Denying Cancer Patient Vital Treatment, Charges Amnesty International

(Washington, DC)--The Israeli army must allow chronically ill cancer patient Karima Abu Dalal to leave the Gaza Strip and obtain desperately needed medical care in Israel, Amnesty International said today.

"Karima Abu Dalal's life now hangs in the balance because of the Israeli army's failure to grant her a permit to leave Gaza to obtain specialized cancer treatment not available there," said Amnesty International.

More than 40 people are reported to have died in the Gaza Strip in recent months because they were refused passage out of the area in order to obtain urgent medical treatment that could not be provided to them there.

Karima Abu Dalal, 34, suffers from Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a form of cancer which can be cured if appropriate, timely treatment is provided. Her condition has deteriorated recently and she now has difficulty breathing and walking. Her doctors in Gaza consider that her survival depends on her being removed urgently to Israel for treatment at an advanced medical center.

Since the Israeli authorities tightened their blockade on the Gaza Strip in June 2007, closing the border between Gaza and Egypt, each of the 1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants has to obtain the permission of the Israeli military authorities to leave the Gaza Strip for Israel. This is almost always refused. While some exceptions are made on a "humanitarian" basis, the Israeli military has denied permits for scores of ill patients saying they cannot allow them to leave the Gaza Strip because of unspecified "security" reasons.

Medical facilities in Gaza lack the specialized staff and equipment to treat a range of conditions, such as some forms of cancer and cardiovascular illnesses. Hospitals and medical facilities are also increasingly short of drugs, disposable supplies and functioning medical equipment.

Despite repeated requests since last November, the Israeli army has refused to issue a permit allowing Karima Abu Dalal to leave Gaza for medical treatment. A request made to the Israeli army last Sunday is still awaiting a response.

"Denying passage to patients in desperate need of medical care serves no legitimate security purpose, as all patients undergo strict security checks at the crossing, and are generally gravely ill," said Amnesty International. "Israel, as the occupying power, is responsible for providing the right to health and access to health care for Karima Abu Dalal and all 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip."

Background information:

Karima Abu Dalal received a bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy and radiotherapy in Egypt before the Israeli authorities closed the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in June 2007. This treatment was apparently successful. The Israeli army issued Karima Abu Dalal with a permit allowing her to leave the Gaza Strip in August 2007 to undergo courses of chemotherapy in Nablus in the West Bank. She responded positively to these and was due to return to Nablus in November 2007 for further treatment, but her requests to do so were rejected by the Israeli military authorities for unspecified "security reasons." The Israeli High Court of Justice also refused a petition against this decision stating that they saw "no grounds for intervention."

Karima Abu Dalal has been treated at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza. But doctors there say she now needs more specialist care at an advanced medical center in Israel if she is to have any chance of survival.

For more information, please contact the AIUSA media office at 202-544-0200 x302.

A fourth day of Gaza aerial bombardment

2008-03-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

AlJazeera English
March 01, 2008

A fourth day of aerial bombardment by Israeli aircraft is now being backed up now by ground forces making their deepest incursion into Gaza since 2005.

The chief negotiator for the Palestinians says any hope for the peace talks now lies buried in the rubble of Gaza.

More than 80 people - women and children among them - have been killed over the past four days, and international condemnation remains muted.

Nour Odeh has been following the day's developments

Public Health Effects of Power Cuts in Gaza

2008-01-21T10:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to a video showing a graphic consequence of the power cuts in Gaza.

From AlJazeera English

Gazans Die Because Israel Denies Treatment: International Pressure Should Prevent It, Says Barghouthi

2007-11-21T20:46:00.000-08:00

Palestinian National Initiative

21 November 2007

Ramallah: The death of two patients in two days in Gaza, both denied exit to access life-saving treatment outside of the Strip, underscores once again the brutal aspect of the Israeli siege of Gaza. "This is unacceptable, contrary to all humanitarian principles and laws, and still Israel continues unhindered. If the political will existed, these deaths could be avoided", commented Dr. Barghouthi MP, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative. He added that the more than 10 Palestinian deaths in Gaza since August because of denied access to medical treatment are tantamount to premeditated murder.

Eight-year-old Amir Shaher Abdallah El-Yazji died on Monday 19 November 2007 after the Israeli military delayed his passage through Erez crossing to Ichilov hospital in Israel despite having the necessary permit to enter.

Two days before, on Saturday 17 November, twenty-one-year-old Na’el Al-Kurdi died in Gaza City in similar circumstances. Al-Kurdi, who suffered from cancer, was repeatedly denied permission from Israeli authorities to travel to Egypt, where he was to be treated. In a testimony given two weeks before his death, Na’el declared: "My family and I were shocked by Israel’s refusal. I am constantly worried that the disease will spread throughout my body before I receive the treatment. I have been sick for more than a year." He added: "They can’t treat me [here] and I can only sit and wait until I die."

The referral of Gazan patients abroad to receive life-saving treatment used to be normal practice, but since January 2006 the number of patients permitted to leave the Strip has slowed to a trickle, causing numerous unnecessary deaths.

The latest increase in the Israeli stranglehold on the Strip since June 2007 has made things even worse, and the denial of access to treatment is now common, widespread, and part of a wider, systematic policy of collective punishment imposed by Israel on Gaza. This was consolidated by Israel’s declaration of Gaza as a "hostile entity" in September 2007, which Dr. Barghouthi labelled "an effort by the Israeli government to continue its complete evasion of all principles of human rights and international law."

Dr. Barghouthi urged the international community to meet its obligations as High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention and to pressure Israel to reverse the measures of collective punishment imposed on the inhabitants of Gaza and to lift its siege on the Strip.

He concluded that the unnecessary and avoidable death of an eight-year-old child days before the Annapolis conference further revealed Israel’s disregard for Palestinian lives, underlining that Annapolis will not help the people of Gaza because it entrenches Palestinian disunity, sidelines democracy, and ignores Israeli violations of human rights.

Beating Palestinian Children, Ongoing Human Rights Violations

2007-08-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

Ramallah, 19-08-07: Footage captured by an independent American filmmaker on Wednesday 15 August, showing Israeli soldiers beating, spitting on and throwing stones at three Palestinian children offers yet further proof that Israel's 543 permanent and 610 'flying' checkpoints "are sites of systematic torture and human rights violations against Palestinian civilians", said veteran human rights activist, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP at press conference held in Ramallah today.

The footage was captured at the Ras at-Tira checkpoint in the Qalqiliya District, and shows the three children attempting to cross the checkpoint in a horse cart when they are stopped by two Israeli soldiers. The female soldier is clearly shown beating the boys before spitting on them and sending them back the way they came. Her male colleague is then seen picking up stones from the ground and throwing them at the children as they drive away.

Dr. Barghouthi said the beatings were reminiscent of the physical assault of 18-year old university student Mohammad Jabali by Israeli soldiers near the notorious Huwwara checkpoint in Nablus on 18 March 2007. Four Israeli soldiers punched and kicked Jabali in the face, head and genitals, causing bleeding and a blood clot in his right testicle. Jabali had to undergo surgery and to have part of the testicle removed.

Footage of both attacks is available from the Palestine Monitor: Contact Bahia, Tel: +972-599-940073.

Checkpoints: Barriers between Life and Death

Israeli checkpoints are the settings of less overt yet equally insidious human rights violations, tragically illustrated by the death of 18-year-old Radi Alwahash, who died at a checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem on 29 June 2007. Alwahash was being transferred to
hospital in Jerusalem in an Israeli Magen David Adom ambulance after being critically injured in a traffic accident. Israeli border police and civil administration staff refused to let the ambulance cross the checkpoint and held it there for an hour and a half while Alwahash's
body systems failed, claiming that the teenager was a 'security risk.'

Dr. Barghouthi stated that Israeli checkpoints are the frequent scenes of Palestinian deaths. Since September 2000, 69 Palestinian women have given birth at Israeli checkpoints. Five women and 35 newborn babies have died as a result.

A recent study on perinatal and infant mortality published together with the John Hopkins University found that four out of every 1,000 Palestinian children born die before the age of one, a factor linked to Israel's matrix of movement restrictions in the West Bank.

Human Shields

Dr. Barghouthi underlined that Palestinian children are the victims of other forms of violations by the Israeli military, citing the case of 14-year old Rena Mufid who was used as a human shield by an Israeli unit during a raid on Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip on 12 July 2007. Troops from the same unit fired on the girl after their colleagues had sent her into a house they had surrounded, hitting her in the stomach and leg.

Dr. Barghouthi stressed that this was not an isolated incident, but just one facet of a policy of consistent human rights violations on the part of the Israeli military. He referred to another incident whereby 11-year-old Jihan Daadush was also used as a human shield by Israeli
soldiers during an incursion into Nablus in February this year.

The practice of using human shields is illegal under both the Fourth Geneva Convention and under Israeli law itself. [2]

Child Deaths and Injuries

The vulnerability of Palestinian children and youth to the deleterious effects of the occupation is further evident in conflict-related mortality and morbidity statistics, which reveal that 959 Palestinian children have been killed by the Israeli army since 28 September 2000.
In addition, over 20,000 have been injured in the same period, of whom some 1,500 have sustained life-long disabilities because of their injures.

Of the 76 Palestinians killed between 16 June and 15 August 2007, 6 have been children. In addition, 24 of the 210 Palestinians injured during the same period have also been children. No Israelis have been killed during the same time period.

Dr. Barghouthi called urgently on the Palestinian Authority to take decisive measures in protesting these violations, stressing that what Palestinians need is not VIP passes for some politicians and businesspeople to cross checkpoints, but freedom of movement for all
Palestinians in safety, particularly schoolchildren and those requiring healthcare.

Notes

[1] The village of Ras at-Tira, with a population of 445 people, lies near the Israeli settlement of Alfe Menashe. It is surrounded by the Apartheid Wall on three sides, while the planned construction of a further section of the Wall will completely imprison the village, leaving three Israeli military-controlled gates as its only exit points.

[2] Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations."; In a ruling by Israeli Supreme Court on 6 October 2005, Judge Aharon Barak stated that "You cannot exploit the civilian population for the army's military needs, and you cannot force them to collaborate with the army."

Youth

2007-08-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

[Children in Beit Jala]

This weekend was a weekend of hearing from youth-which I always like.
We went to a village outside of Bethlehem, Beit Jala, looking forward to seeing the beautiful terraces and sites described in a little tour book we had.

Of course, a lot had changed since that book came out.

[settlement and new settler-only road & tunnel in Beit Jala]

As soon as we got out of the taxi, we met a very nice man who owns a coffee shop; he made us accept cups of coffee and water (which I desperately needed by then) and talked to us in Spanish. (He had travelled all around South America).

His sons were kind enough to walk us around the whole town, and to tell us stories the whole way. They even invited us into their mosque, which was an enormous honor. These guys were pretty young, but they knew everything about their town, and generously shared stories about family members (a picture of a small monument to a child is below) and town leaders who had been killed during various Intifadas (Palestinian uprisings).
[our tour guides] They told us about times when Israeli soldiers shot and killed someone from their mosque. [these are photos of the mosque where they shot from].
They told us about the new settlement and walls, and about the Israeli army shooting from the settlement into the town, destroying several areas of town so much that the UN had and still has many projects rebuilding historic areas and homes. They took us into a huge house that had been destroyed and occupied by the Israeli army, a house that is now abandoned. The Israeli army shot down into the town from the house.

Beit Jala was beautiful; not easy-beautiful, but beautiful in the midst of turmoil from a painful history (in which, despite the pain, people-like these youth- also understandably have a great deal of pride) and an ongoing occupation.

[A sun sets over the new settlements on tops of the terraces of Beit Jala]

After Beit Jala, we joined new friends who work for youth development organizations at their summer camp for youth at the YMCA. (It was oddly familiar to me, having spent way too much time as a camp counselor...) There was going to be music from bands, but it feel through, so what we ended up seeing was amazing poetry, hip hop and traditional music playing from youth-talking about occupation, re-drawn borders, identity and of course, love.

The ride back, through Wadi Nar-a huge and hot valley that ends with a terrible checkpoint-was long, and full of humiliation and hassle for the male passengers in our taxi and the one ahead of us. In these pictures, you can see the Israeli soldier opening each door of the taxi, and then making the men get out-and finally letting them get back in.

"Israeli army prevents children from flying kites"

2007-08-08T00:24:00.001-07:00

Since I've been here, I've seen a lot of sad things when I look up high; settlements on hills closing in on Palestinian towns, watchtowers and survelliance devices, the wall.

I also look up and see kites quite often, and fireworks from weddings and graduations. Yesterday the college placements tests scores were announced-in a press conference and on the radio-how's that for pressure?-and there were fireworks and flares from 11:30 in the morning until midnight!
Kites are good for children, especially children living under an occupation. That's why I've read and re-read a news story from Aug. 7: "Israeli occupational army prevents children from Bil'in from flying kites".

The rest of the news story:
"The children from the village of Bil'in were taking part in activities as part of the summer camp for children, supervised by the local sports club.

The Director of the club, Hossam Al Khatib said, "the children have been waiting for this day for a long time. It was part of the programme go to the wall to visit the land behind it, play football, music, enjoy the natural surroundings and to fly kites"

"The Israeli occupying soldiers killed this dream in the hearts of the children, and denied them their most basic rights," he added.

Al-Khatib described the actions of the Israeli army as an insult to the rights of children to live safely and freely."

-[http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24593]

Camels, water, settlers attacking Palestinians in Hebron

2007-08-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

My time here is really coming to a close-it is hard to believe. The work is still going strong-I'm trying to get the evaluation instruments all set so that the mental health program can start to evaluate their work this fall (and send me data to analyze from very far!). I really look forward to seeing how the evaluation goes, as PMRS also requested that I put in measures of the impacts of occupation, so this should be really fascinating to look at.

Other things that have happened in the past week or so-

I finally got a good picture of a camel! I just couldn't play it cool anymore, and hung out the cab to get a picture.

This weekend, my partner's professor invited us to his village, where we got to see some wonderful springs
and meet his kind family. Our walk was beautiful, and we got to meet the mayor. Besides enjoying all the beauty-and great food and visiting-we talked alot about settlements, which surround every village here. The one that hovers on the hills over Salfit, Ariel, is actually larger than Tel Aviv. Salfit also suffers, like the rest of Palestine, from checkpoints and road blocks. The main road for the town has been closed since 2000. [For a recent story about Salfit: http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24683]

When we got back home, there was more to think about with regards to settlements. In a previous posting, I talked about the illegal Israeli settlements literally on top of buildings and in the Old City of Il Khalil (Hebron). This weekend, a mob of settlers burned two Palestinian homes in that area (and prevented fire fighters from reaching them) and hit a man with their car. [http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24554]

Also, earlier in the week, a 17 year old Palestinian boy was shot and killed at the checkpoint outside our village. Maan News reported: "An Israeli army spokesman did not clarify why the soldiers did not aim for the legs, but chose to shoot him dead." [http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24475]

All in all, as usual here, life is rather intense. People are kind, the food is wonderul, the sun makes everything glow gold at 6:30, and there is plenty of work to do. [Amazing terraces in Salfit, with the old town on top of the hills]

"There were times I couldn't get to patients and they bled to death."

2007-08-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

Interview with PMRS ambulance driver
Aug. 4, 2007

Today I got to interview an ambulance driver at PMRS who patiently tried to explain things to me in English. Following is the transcript from the interview.

Q: Can you tell me about your experiences driving the ambulance?

A: There are many problems, many stories. There are many times I go places and I can't get there because of soldiers. Sometimes I have to wait 1, 2, 3 hours at checkpoints. Sometimes I have to stay the whole night at a place when I am trying to transport someone.

Q: Can you tell me a particular story that happened to you?

A: There were times I couldn't get to patients and they bled to death. Like there was a patient at the Tulkarem camp that I was trying to get to; they had been shot in their leg and were bleeding. I couldn't get through to get them and they died. Every day I have a story, every day things happen…

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about why you do this work with all this?

A: We work in ambulances because we want to help. But there are many problems-with your family, in work itself, on the road.

Q: When you say "problems with family", what do you mean?

A: Well, if there is an emergency you can't go home.

Q: Are there any recent stories you can tell me?

A: Last week, I was trying to get through Hawara checkpoint and the total trip took me about 5 to 6 hours. I was at the checkpoint for 2 hours. There was a patient who had just had open heart surgery and he was going to the hospital for a check up. The soldier at the checkpoint said I didn't have the proper license to get through and made us wait in the hot sun. You know, this past week was very hot, and the soldiers made the ambulances stop in the sun; this was very bad for patients.

Another time, I was driving the mobile clinic and I was trying to get through a checkpoint. The soldier said I can't go through. I was arguing with them, and trying to tell them that I had doctors and medicine with me and I needed to pass. I had to get out of the ambulance. The soldier put my arms behind my back and slammed me into the glass on the ambulance. In the end, they would not let us pass through and we had to turn back.

I used to work with the Red Crescent ambulances. One time I was taking a patient from Tulkarem to Nablus for them to get kidney dialysis, because they do not have that equipment in Tulkarem. I left Tulkarem at 7:00 in the morning. It took almost five hours to get to Nablus because of all the checkpoints and tanks.

While I was driving, two tanks stopped my ambulance and blocked me. Two to three soldiers were shooting at the ground and they sky. They told me to get out with my hands up. Then the soldiers strip searched me; they made me take off all my clothes. The soldiers made me stay two hours in the hot sun. They turned off the ambulance, so there was no air conditioning for the patient. I kept begging them to let me go check the patient. Finally, they let me. When I went to check the patient's pulse, I realized that he had died. He was about 40 years old.

"If you were in my place, you would do the same thing."

2007-08-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

Interview with Emergency Program Director: Dr. Mohamad Iskafi
[written permission granted to use name]
Today I had the great pleasure of getting to do a follow up with the extremely busy director of the Emergency Program at PMRS, Dr. Iskafi.
[Photo Credit: PMRS]
Background of Dr. Iskafi

Dr. Iskafi was trained in Russia as a General Practitioner. In 1988 he joined PMRS, first as a volunteer and then as staff. When asked why he joined PMRS, he replied: ''I wanted to help my people... I prefer to work in this field instead of at a hospital because I had previously worried so much about how to help my people.''

Q: Can you tell me about the working conditions of you and your team?

A: There is a real risk to our lives because of violations, sudden attacks-we don't know what will happen from moment to moment. Our lives are at risk. Also, there is the daily suffering in the teams from crossing checkpoints on a daily basis. First of all, it's a moral suffering because according to international laws, we should not have to wait at checkpoints, but sometimes they makes us wait 15, 30 minutes, sometimes an hour.
[Photo Credit: PMRS]
Also, when we pass through and others have to wait, this is not good, because everyone should pass through and be free in our country. And the checkpoints mean that we are not free.

[Line of 56 cars waiting at West Bank checkpoint]

This is a kind of continued suffering and continual stress that will certainly lead to psycho-social problems. This makes us hate the occupation and the soldiers more and more, and this is not good for Israelis or for us. I know for the Israelis the problem is deep; it is a problem of state and security, but for us it's freedom, our state, free access to services, work, daily life, fun, everything.

Of course, the other thing I should mention is that we at Medical Relief, when we see the people who are suffering, we see they are in need of help, emotional support, so many things. When we leave them and finish our work, we start our evenings, we think of them. We think of their future life, of the poverty, illnesses, complications that could arise for them. This is also another kind of stress when you go home and think about your people. If you go there, you help them, but if you don't go, no one will help.

Also, you think about the projects; most of them are for a short period; 6 months to a year; no project is over a year. When we stop, who is there? This is a moral stress for us, especially when people call us to ask where we are. We explain, of course, that it's not that we don't want to see them, that it's a financial issue. Some people understand that and others don't understand.
[Che at one of PMRS clinics]
[However], people [in the community] know that we are there for them at any time; there is no limit to our working hours. Most people here volunteer here as well as work-for example the time they put in on Fridays [the only official day off in the week] and in the afternoons is volunteer work; it helps to support and strengthen our programs.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the conditions faced by your ambulance drivers?
[Photo Credit: PMRS]
A: For example, two days ago, a PMRS driver was beaten seriously by Israeli soldiers in Jenin. This happens often. I have a list of the dangers faced by the drivers.

Q: As a supervisor, what do you do to help the drivers?

A: We do debriefing, we talk a lot. When we can, we go for trips. It all depends on everyone's time and our resources. We do what we can; we don't just leave them alone.
[Photo Credit: PMRS]
Q: Have you ever been personally targeted by Israelis for your work?

A: I have been arrested twice. The last time was during the last Israeli invasion in 2003. I have also been used by Israelis as a human shield.

The first time that I was arrested was in Ramallah City. I was the first one who entered the [presidential] compound to help the injured people and to help President Arafat. That was why they arrested me. I decided to take two seriously injured guys to the hospital in the PMRS ambulance. They were severely bleeding and in shock. We were arrested for the night and put under severely cold water for eight hours. Can you imagine? Two guys with shock and bleeding having to endure that?

Another time, they thoughts that PMRS had a relationship to two guys from England who had come to Ramallah and then done suicide attacks. I had to stay 1 day in the prison; they realized we had no relationship with these guys.

They took me also during the invasion as a human shield for four hours when there were checking buildings in Ramallah. They had decided to search the PMRS and neighboring building in Ramallah. They asked me, "Who is the leader here, who is responsible?", and I said, "I am." They took me then to use as a human shied as they checked our building and the one next to us. It was not easy, because imagine, if there was an actual exchange of fire, I would be killed because I was the one in front.

Q: With all of this going on, Dr. Iskafi, what keeps you in it? What keeps you going?

A: That is a strange question. If you were in my place, you would do the same thing. You would keep working. This is a matter of doing something; helping your people. It's a matter of feeling that you are responsible and you have to do something. You are not a Palestinian soldier, but you are a doctor, a health provider, and you should do something to help. And, there are the successes to think of, and the satisfaction of the beneficiaries gives you more and more energy to continue.
[Soccer practice in front of the wall]

Last night

2007-07-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

Last night we watched a beautiful, huge orange moon rise, while we sat on our balcony, enjoying the cool air.

I woke up to the news that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) had been in our little village for most of the early hours of the morning. They raided houses up the hill from us. One of the houses was that of our good friend and his roommates who are here from America for the Arabic language program. They woke up at 2:30 to soldiers whose heads were covered with black fabric bags. Later, several other soldiers with black face paint followed. One of their roommates was already outside, made to stand there in his underwear after he tried to crawl to the other roommates' room to tell them he thought someone was breaking in. Mid route, when he was on the floor in the kitchen, he saw red lights on him and got up and had to go outside, where they made him wait.

The soldiers eventually understood that this apartment was full of American students, but they held them, with at least two men pointing their guns at them-at their kitchen table until 4:30 while they raided all the other apartments in the building-a family with a small baby among them.

The soldiers finally realized that they had the wrong house, went next door and took 3 men, blindfolded them and drove away in their vehicle. One of the town's roads had been closed off. Our roommate watched the road closure and the military vehicles from our balcony, having been woken up by a text message from our friend.

As I walked to work this morning I thought about my friend and his roommates. I thought about the young family in the building. I thought about the 3 blindfolded men and their families. I thought about the great, kind man we interviewed this weekend who had simply lost years of his life when he was held in administrative detention-charged with nothing-held in the desert for two years. I thought about how the occupation seems to permeate everything.

[Israeli jeep outside of Habla]

The Wall-Qalqiliya

2007-07-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

In this post, I will simply try to explain the now infamous Wall. Although the wall goes all around and into the West Bank, I am going to focus on it in Qalqiliya. It is a lot to digest, and in fact, I have worked on this posting for some time now.

Last weekend we went on a tour of the wall by an employee of PMRS. She generously shared with us her personal stories, as well as showing us parts of it. It also was where we went on one of our first weekend trips; an earlier posting of mine talks about walking the wall with kids from Qalqiliya.

Qalqiliya is now entirely surrounded by the wall. It affects everything about this once vibrant town. I think one of the most important things that I want to express about what I saw there is that, coming from Oregon and Washington, I know the feeling of a place with water, and with plants everywhere. As soon as I first drove into Qalqiliya, I could see that this place used to be like that-we saw very rich soil.

It was an amazingly green place, before the wall-and there are still several greenhouses, all the way up to the wall-you can imagine really how both the greenhouses and farmers' land used to be. I can only imagine the feeling of watching all of your work torn up, replaced by a contiguous wall and fences, where you can only pass between certain hours and with certain permits. This farmer, for example, told us that the soldiers had just told him that he needed a special permit for his horse.

~Backing up a little bit: What is the Wall?~

A good basic source of information about the wall is from the Stop the Wall Campaign: http://stopthewall.org/factsheets. The Palestine Monitor has a great primer on it as well: http://www.palestinemonitor.org. This site has photos of the wall in Qalqiliya from the air; it is a great way to see the difference in one year in Qalqiliya-and to see how much of the land became inaccessible: http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/maps/210.shtml.

While the pictures of the concrete wall are certainly the most dramatic, the concrete wall is only part of the story. The Wall also consists of ditches, razor wire, footprint tracking sand paths, military roads, cameras and checkpoints. It cuts through land belonging to Palestinians, cuts families off from each other, and it is positioned immediately in front of businesses, schools, and families' homes.

[Here is a photo from a school where the wall was built immediately outside its gates-it says: "It's not legal to build a wall by our school".]

I think one thing that really grabbed me is that the tour guide told us, with obvious hurt in her voice, that Qalqiliya used to be a place where there was a great peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and Israelis would come to get their cars worked on or to buy plants. She told us that it used to be a city of peace. But that it was the first city to be targeted by the wall project. With justifiable anger, she said it proves to her that the government of Israeli isn't interested in peace, but in confiscation of land and water.

~Water~
[This is a chart of the water lost due to the wall; click on the image to make it larger]
Qalqiliya rests on the main aquifer for the West Bank-the Western Aquifer. The Palestinian Hydrology Group notes that the Wall is rendering 50 wells inaccessible by the communities. (http://stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/book/impactonwater.pdf). Wells in the West Bank are especially important because Israel prohibited any well drilling for Palestinians with the 1967 Occupation.

Here is a picture of an aquifer in Qalqilyia hidden almost completely by sight and certainly inaccessible to Palestinians.

~Agriculture~

Stop the Wall reports that in Qalqiliyia alone 8,160 dunums (2,040 acres) of land have been destroyed by the wall. Also, in Qalqiliya alone 31,520 dunums (7,880 acres) of land had been separated from the community-that means that the land is now on the opposite side of the wall from the community.

Our tour guide told us about her family-about the very personal impact of the wall. Her father died this year, and his one wish was to see his land again before he died. He was not able to pass through the checkpoints to do this.

[Here a farmer passes, while other farmers negotiate with an Israeli soldier]

~Economic Impacts~

As far back as two years ago (2 years after the wall was completed there), unemployment in Qalqiliya was reported as 63%. At this time, 3,000 of the most able residents had fled the town. (Middle East International-http://meionline.com/backcover/377.shtml). Our tour guide told us that since the construction of the wall, 600 shops have closed in Qalqiliya. It was obvious from being there that it was a highly economically depressed region-and that it didn't have to be.

One person we talked to told us how two houses had burned the night before, because no Palestinian fire trucks were allowed in and the Israelis wouldn't come. After some time, they allowed the Palestinian fire fighters in, but it still took hours for them to allow the truck in.

~Family~

One of the foremost evils of the wall, especially as related to social structures and emotional health, is that it separates people from their family members and neighboring villages. The ride from Qalqiliya to Tulkarem, for example, used to be 25 minutes. Now it takes at least an hour. Crossing from Qalqiliya into Habla took us at least an additional 10 minutes each way because of a flying checkpoint that had been set up.

Home demolitions are also a impact beyond stress that I could ever imagine-especially because I have already lived in about 11 homes in the past 31 years, unlike most Palestinians, who have the same homes for generations. Also, extended families stay together in homes that often grow to accommodate all the members. On July 19 of this year, Israeli forces occupied Qalqiliya and demolished houses. In 2005, Palestinians in the area had received orders that stated that they did not have "housing permits" and so their homes were slated to be demolished. (http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1502.shtml)

~Health Impacts~
[sign at gate in Qalqiliya, notifying residents that the gate will be open between certain hours-the spaces to fill in the hours are blank-and that if there is an emergency they should contact someone-the line for that someone is blank]

Sometimes it is easier to note the acute health impacts. For example, in 2004, a two year old child named Hashem died when he was unable to recieve emergency medical attention. He was from Ras Atieh, a village that was sealed in by the wall. After the child developed a fever, his dad tried to get him through the checkpoint to Qalqiliya, but the gate was closed. The family had to go around to another village, Azzun, to meet an ambulance to go to Qalqiliyia. (http://www.health-now.org/site/article.php?articleId=21&menuId=1)

One study I've looked at found that "the human being looks and views the Wall as a stimulant and classifies it as a prison", which triggers the same psychological symptoms as a prison would. This study, which was done in the Qalqiliya district by the Palestinian Counseling Center, found a high relationship between both feelings of loneliness and emotional withdrawal and exposure to the wall, as well as rates of somatization and exposure to the wall. (http://www.pcc-jer.org/newenglishindex.html)

The best report I've read about health and the wall is from HDIP-a program related to PMRS. It's called Health and Segregation, and it really was one of the main motivators for me to come here to try to witness and help (www.hdip.org).

Our guide told me how she had wanted desperately to get her mother to treatment in another part of the West Bank for a heart attack she had. Because of the closures she was not able to do this. She asked me, "Can you imagine, sitting there watching someone die, when you know there is treatment that is not very far away, that you just can't get to?"

~PMRS in Qalqiliya~
[A picture of a site visit by funders to the group in Qalqiliya-faces of group participants are blurred out, so only faces of donors or staff are visible.]

In my first post, I mentioned that I had the awesome opportunity to see the Women's Group in Qalqiliya, and it was amazing. Like many other programs I've been able to get to know with PMRS, I have to say I am totally impressed by the organic, community level planning of their programs. I don't have very much time left here, so I anticipate that the next weeks will be busy as I work with the psychology team at PMRS to determine how they would most like to evaluate their programs. I have to say, it feels hard to come in as a student evaluator, when really I am just in awe of how they function, and feel humbled daily by thier ability to continue so powerfully and creatively each day.

Fun and Beautiful Palestine

2007-07-26T14:07:00.001-07:00

It's a Thursday night here-the end of the work week. We just got back from a folk festival celebration in our little village...

it reminded me that it's time to think more about the fun I've had, the beauty I've seen and the warmth that I've experienced here. This post will have no checkpoint photos!

Tonight as I sat and watched an amazing folk dance troop from Ramallah-who I think were telling us the old history of Palestine-I thought about culture, families, the importance of fun. I appreciated being able to sit and remember the importance of wellsprings of resiliency.

Checkpoints

2007-07-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank-click on picture for larger image [source: http://www.palestinemonitor.org/maps/westbank_checkpoints.htm]

I heard two stories about Israeli checkpoints in Occupied Palestine and youth from other people.

One from my friend who was here last year. He told me about a conversation partner he had last year and they were talking about checkpoints. When she was talking about how long it takes for her to get to classes each day, he asked her what it would be like without checkpoints-and got a questioning stare. After trying many different ways to ask the question, they realized that it was less of a language problem and more of a problem of a terrible reality that was hard for someone to think out of. And how could you, when they surround your life-when maybe you get to a point where you couldn't envision movement without them.

I also heard another story-where someone who has family here in Palestine was inviting the young teenager to come visit her in Scotland. And the teenager said that she would like to see it-she asked, "What are the checkpoints like in Scotland?"

I said in one posting that I was sort of getting used to the checkpoints. I think it was just that I was in a good mood that day-because I am not used to them, but sometimes just resigned to them. Other times I am angry, sad, panick-y and insulted. Usually it feels like hours-the wait-although it mostly is 15-30 minutes. But I know this would be different if I were a different person.

At one checkpoint on a Sunday coming back from Bethlehem, the taxi we were in passed through rather quickly. But I saw a large bus full of families. The Israeli soldiers had made all the men de-board the bus. As the men stood there, all of a sudden I saw what must have been almost 30 children's faces, looking down off the bus-I assumed looking at their fathers-since Sundays are kind of a family traveling day. My husband was napping and I didn't feel like talking to anyone else about it, so I just watched the kids watching their dads with the soldiers. And I watched the dads with thier green plastic holders of the papers that seem to never make anything easier. As our taxi passed, I thought about how I would have felt if I was a kid on that bus, little, and watching my father have to get off the bus for 19 year old soldiers with guns. I also thought about the boys-who I often worry about-as they anticipated their futures.

Since I spend most of my time in OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories)-in the West Bank, these checkpoints are NOT between Israel and Palestine, but rather seperate Palestinian villages and towns from each other and from the roads that connect them. In my time with PMRS, one of the things that I've been looking at is the impact of checkpoints on health and health care access. As you can imagine, it is a disaster for both critical, acute care as well as primary, preventative care. I will dedicate a future posting specificially to this topic.

In my time here, I've seen both permanent checkpoints as well as "flying checkpoints". Permanent checkpoints are well established structures that most often have people sitting in watchtowers, even when the checkpoints are not open and people can't pass.

Flying checkpoints move from place to place. In these pictures, you can see a flying checkpoint on the only road that connects two Palestinian villages that were separated by the wall-Qalqiliya and Habla. The soldier is checking IDs and trunks of cars that pass.

When we were in Qalqiliya, we saw a group of Palestinian men who had to negotiate with the Israeli soldiers to get through. Every day now, these farmers must pass through this gate-the gate is only open a few hours each day-to get to their land. Our tour guide told us that across this checkpoint was her father's land, and that he only wanted to see it again before he died-which he was not able to do.

Today (July 21) we went to Qalqiliya. This is a town that is entirely surrounded by the wall and its fences. Trying to leave the town, there was a definite bottleneck and soldiers were hastling the young men...

We sat with a family in the taxi minivan, and I think what struck me was how this young family-mother, father, 2 young boys, a slightly older girl and a new baby-were just trying to get wherever they were trying to get-just trying to live.

I kept thinking to myself of the graffiti on the wall in Qalqiliya-to exist is to resist. To exist is to resist.

Prisons

2007-07-20T11:37:00.001-07:00

July 20, 2007

People may have heard that today 255 Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel as part of their strategy of support for Palestinian President Abbas. From our balcony we saw a parade of cars, buses and taxis making its round in celebration, Palestinian flags waving high. Obviously a happy day for 255 people, and their families and friends.

But I was left all day thinking about the people who weren't included in the political game, who sat in cells, hopeless. Whose families can't visit them. I thought about the one prisoner, Mahmoud Ahmad Awad, 21 years old, who was told at four this morning that he would not be released-the Israeli authorities had changed their mind. (www.maannews.net).

Last week we went to visit the new Abu Jihad Center for Prison Studies. Besides being a beautiful museum, it held powerful records. It told stories of women forced to give birth in prison, stories of children prisoners, stories of people organizing, writing letters and entire books smuggled out through hand-made capsules.

Mostly it told the stories of the tool of prisons within occupation-of prisons as a tool of oppression-a story I also heard in Nicaragua, in Argentina, and within some communities in the United States. In Palestine, 20% of the total population-40% of men-have been detained by Israeli forces.(PalestineMonitor.org)

Al Jazeera reports today that there are still 9,850 Palestinian people in Israeli jails. This includes 40 members of the Palestinain Legistlative Council. It also includes 105 women and 359 children. Many people are taken in the middle of the night, their houses ransaked and their families victimized as well as the person by the arrest.

~359 Children~
The Palestinian Monitor reports that Palestinian children are tried as adults after the age of 14. Between ages 12-14, children can be held for as long as six months. A prisoners' support group in Palestine, Addameer, notes that over 2500 children have been arrested since 2000. They write that "in most cases, families are not informed of their arrest...as a result, it often takes some time before a child detainee is located and the family informed of his/her location".

What are the community impacts of prisons on children? A 2006 study done with 10th and 11th graders in the Ramallah district found that 25% of these Palestinian children had had their houses searched in the preceding 13 months. 17% had been detained or arrested-this number was 34% for males and 13% for females. 37% of the children had seen a friend or neighbor get arrested. 4.8% of these children reported that they had been tortured-8.8% of males and 1.1% of females. (N=3415). (Giacaman, R. et al, 2006, in The European Journal of Public Health.) This study is a small, powerful snapshot of conditions faced by youth around the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

~Administrative Detentions~
Interrogation of Palestinian people can last for 180 days, 90 of which can be without access to a lawyer. Addameer recently raised awareness about the case of Yaser Abd Eirahman Khalayleh, 41 years old, from Ramallah, who was held without charge or trial for a year and a half.

~Torture~
The Israeli High Court of Justice ruled in 1999 that torture is not forbidden, but "may be used in the "necessity of defense" and in situations where a detainee is deemed a 'ticking bomb'." http://www.addameer.org/detention/torture.html
90% of torture metohods include what is called the "shabh", where the person's legs are tied to a stool, hands are tied behind his back and a bag covers his head-sometimes for over 48 hours.

Today, as we sit in our calm apartment, I feel a mix of happiness for those released and mournfulness for those people and families who sit waiting.

For more information about prisons:
http://www.ppsmo.org/english.html and http://www.addameer.org/index_eng.html.

Mobile Clinics

2007-07-09T23:39:00.000-07:00

During my time with PMRS, I have had the amazing opportunity of getting to go with PMRS to some of their mobile clinics, in severely underserved areas of Palestine. On the first day that I went with the mobile clinic, it took a little over an hour to get to the two locations where the clinics were set up. (The mobile clinics seem to be located within religious buildings, old schools or community centers.) Just outside of Ramallah, we passed through a checkpoint that had a long line of cars waiting. It was strange how, in a way, I have gotten used to it. I don't know how other people feel about it, but the occurrence of checkpoints are the same story for the mobile clinic as well as for most Palestinians-having to pass through three jeeps and 8 or so soldiers with guns to get to work-and having no idea how long they will detain you or what they will require you produce to get through.

The first stop that day was to drop off the three staff for the women's mobile clinic-a doctor, a nurse and a lab tech. We got to our village around 9:15, and the staff unloaded the medications and got everything in order to see patients.

In the first hour, the two doctors, Community Health Worker, and nurse saw about ten patients-men, women and children. The clinic certainly hit a rush around mid-morning. That first day with the mobile clinic was amazing. People were so glad to get services, and were so kind to me as I sat in the waiting room taking it all in. Most of the cases were primary care-children getting vaccinations, older people checking their blood sugar and blood pressure, people following up with medications.

The second day I went with the women's clinic. It was very interesting because there was a woman from the village itself that was there for the whole clinic-and I saw that this was the regular practice. Someone right from the community who helped to coordinate patients and do basic services. (They also provided an awesome breakfast!)

Since this first week, I have gone with the mobile clinic more often, and am struck by the camaraderie, warmth and absolute dedication of the staff to each other and the project. It is obvious that they all really enjoy each other, their work, and the villages they serve.

Besides general impressions, I also conducted-what hopefully will be the first in a series of- interviews with the staff of PMRS on the topic of the occupation and health. Dr. Mohamad Iskafi, the Emergency and Mobile Clinic Program Director of PMRS, was kind enough to give me a lot of time on this topic-and to allow me to use his name in the write up.
Dr. Iskafi was trained in Russia as a General Practitioner. In 1988 he joined PMRS, first as a volunteer and then as staff. When asked why he joined PMRS, he replied: ''I wanted to help my people... I prefer to work in this field instead of at a hospital because I had previously worried so much about how to help my people.''

Following is more information about the history and evolution of the mobile clinic project from my interview with Dr. Iskafi.

The Emergency Response Program was largely born out of a need to take action to serve unarmed Palestinians who were victims of the violent actions by Israeli military and police though community based training in first aid. This training program resulted in 180,000 citizens trained in first aid just four years later, in 2000. During the Al Aqsa Intifada [uprising] for Independence in 2000, the Emergency Response Program quickly expanded to provide services to the victims of the increasingly violent and repressive response of the Israeli government and its army and police.

The ensuing reoccupation, which included more and more permanent checkpoints, closures and curfews, resulted in an increase in the isolation of Palestinians from one another and from medical services. These also resulted in the separation of medical personnel from their places of work. Naturally, these results of occupation further aggravated the health status of Palestinians, particularly in terms of diseases and conditions (such as diabetes, hypertension, pregnancy, and early childhood healthcare-including vaccinations) that require and benefit from primary care. In response, PMRS' work expanded to include emergency medical centers inside of towns. In 2001, its services also grew to include mobile medical teams. The goals of this project were to: ''Facilitate access of patients to health services in view of restricted mobility, alleviate the economic burdens by providing free-of-charge curative services, as well as prevent and minimize the development of medical complications." Mobile Clinics were an essential contribution to Palestinian health and health care provision, especially in light of data that indicates that by 2002, 260 governmental and non-governmental clinics had ceased working, leaving 73% of rural Palestinians without medical care.

Since 2001, the mobile clinics have grown. In 2003-2004, PMRS ran sixteen mobile clinics. However, because of lack of funding, they currently run nine. Each mobile clinic costs US$120-150,000 to run each year.
PMRS' mobile clinics are an example of how the grassroots sector of the Palestinian medical/health care system has adapted or grown to meet the needs of the people through the ever-increasing barriers to health and health care delivery.

Impacts of Occupation and the Role of PMRS' Mobile Clinics

When asked about the impacts of the occupation on the health status of Palestinians, Dr. Iskafi emphasized that the mobile clinics were indispensable because they served people in remote areas. For the increasingly isolated people of Palestine who suffer from chronic diseases, access to primary care through the Mobile Clinics is crucial in order to keep their situation from deteriorating into conditions that are more acute.

While the Mobile Clinics seriously aid Palestinians through provision of crucial primary care, Dr. Iskafi stressed that they are not sufficient in intervening with the detrimental impacts of the ongoing Israeli occupation. For example, he noted that the ability of the mobile clinics was limited in terms of solving the ongoing challenges due to continued isolation of villaes. For example, lack of sufficient follow up or medication (either because the medication is not available or because patients cannot afford to obtain it due to increasing unemployment and poverty) exacerbate the conditions of patients with chronic diseases like diabetes or hypertension. Dr. Iskafi also noted that the rates of late diagnosis of cancer are a direct result from the lack of access to primary care services due to the impacts of occupation.

Finally, and of particular interest to those concerned with mental health, Dr. Iskafi discussed the psychosocial problems of the occupation, especially among children. He maintained that a major problem is that symptoms of psychosocial problems, such as nightmares or bed-wetting, go largely unrecognized as such by parents. Dr. Iskafi noted that parents here tend to think of these things as normal. Unfortunately, the occurrence of PTSD among children is actually "normal", numerically speaking, in Palestine. For example, one study conducted in East Jerusalem and the West Bank found that 54.7% of children studied had experienced at least one lifetime trauma and PTSD was diagnosed in 34.1% of the children (N=1000). A study of the impacts of the new Apartheid Wall found that 40.8% of children studied had noctiphobia (fear of the night) on a permanent basis. It also found that children between age 6 to 12 have become increasingly aggressive, per parent reports (59% for males and 41% for females, compared to 9% and 6.7%, respectively (N= 945; 314 adults, 313 adolescents and 318 children in five villages in Qalqilya district) [http://www.health-now.org/site/article.php?articleId=521&menuId=1].
Regarding mental health, Dr. Iskafi noted that a major task is to educate parents that these symptoms are not, in fact, "normal" within the trajectory of development. The growing mental health program of PMRS has in fact begun working to this end.

[A PMRS Children's Group]

~more on mobile clinics, health impacts of occupation and PMRS' mental health program to follow in the next weeks~

The Humanitarian Impact of the Barrier

2007-07-09T23:37:00.000-07:00

Here are excerpts from a report that was published today by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA):

"In an average year, fifty babies are born in ‘Azzun ‘Atma. There is no hospital or 24-hour medical service available in the enclave. There is only a basic primary health care clinic in the community which operates for 2 hours daily/ 2 days a week. To ensure access to proper medical care for deliveries, most women leave the village early in their ninth month and relocate to relatives’ homes or other places outside the enclave. Between January and early June 2007, 33 babies were born: 20 were delivered outside the enclave. The remaining 13 babies were delivered at home: none of the home deliveries was attended by a trained midwife or a doctor."

"Three years ago today, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion stating that the route of Israel's Barrier in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and its associated permit and gate regime, constitute a serious breach of international law. In this Special Focus, OCHA looks at several communities in the northern West Bank that have been severed by the Barrier from their neighbouring communities, from agricultural lands and livelihoods."

To view the full document, please click here.

Settlements

2007-07-09T13:02:00.001-07:00

There is so much to write about; it is hard to focus on just one thing. But for this posting, I think I will focus more on settlements. Of course I knew about settlements before I came, but was completely unprepared for them to be simply everywhere. What does this mean practically and emotionally?

[Click on maps for larger image]

Practically, it isolates Palestinians from each other further-settlements work within the context of occupation to further land and water confiscation and to anchor the walls, military roads and continued checkpoints.

What I've seen, especially traveling with PMRS' mobile clinics, is that settlements really are everywhere. Some of them are these fancy pre-fab "neighborhood" looking creations, while others simply are heavily armed trailer parks.

Besides seeing them on almost every hilltop, we went to Il Khalil [Hebron] this weekend and saw settlements literally IN the Old City-the Palestinian quarters.

Attached is a picture of some of these outposts (they have the army netting on top of them). Most striking is the Israeli trailor settlements that were dropped ON TOP of the souk-the market. The vendor in the market showed me how they had to put chicken wire up to block out the trash thrown down from the settlers.

Another Palestinian young man took us to the top of his roof to show us the buildings that had been taken over. As we left, we saw a family of settlers (using what is now the settler-only road through the Old City)-a father, mother, baby in carriage and toddler-and the father was walking along the (now settler only) street with an automatic machine gun.

I don't know everything there is to know about settlements, and of course, many people reading or writing on this blog know a world more than I do about them, but I am taking it all in and trying to convey my absolute astonishment at their all pervasive presence. People better versed in it than I have documented the history and impacts of settlements (below); my job for now seems to be witnessing and having the privilege to work with PMRS' mental health program as they tackle the issue of settlements as one of the ills of the occupation.

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/factsheet/settlement.html

http://www.stopthewall.org/news/maps.shtml

Arriving in the West Bank...

2007-07-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well, this is my first time blogging...

I am here in Ramallah working with PMRS. I've decided to work with their growing mental health program, to help with evaluation, and have begun by visiting the groups they have for women and children/adolescents. I'm here as a Masters in Public Health student from the University of Washington in Seattle.

So far, it's fascinating. The supervisor of the program has an incredible amount to manage, especially given all of the travel restrictions, road blocks, checkpoints, etc. that makes getting from one West Bank town to another an all day endeavor sometimes.

Last Monday, I rode with an ambulance and got to see first hand as the Israeli soldiers made the ambulance driver open the back and open everything for them to inspect, even with a child in the back that he was bringing to another town for specialized treatment.

On Monday, we went to see the women's group in Qalqiliya-which is a town that is completely surrounded by the wall. The work of the women's group was amazing-they meet in Qalqiliya, and then the women go themselves back to their villages, trained to run their own groups.

Tuesday, I heard that a PMRS ambulance driver had been beaten at the checkpoint by Israeli soldiers.

On Wednesday, I went to Biddo and some surrounding small villages. The doctor there was kind enough to take me to see the wall-a snake, he called it-and showed me how it cut off the once easy road from Ramallah to the towns, and of course, cut off Palestinians from each other and their land.

Yesterday a small group of us-all but myself who are here to study at Bir Zeit University-went to Qalqiliya to look more closely at the wall. A few kids followed us as we took pictures. They were ages 10-13. They told us how soldiers take pictures from the wall and that there are soldiers right behind it with guns-soldiers who will shoot you. Of course, most people reading this blog will not be surprised by hearing that; and intellectually I already knew that. But hearing it from this group of boys was much harder than I can explain. How to even begin to address the trauma?

In this way, the mental health endeavor of PMRS astounds me. I look forward to finding out more about how people deal with the psychological impacts of the occupation. It seems completely different from dealing with trauma in any other setting, because the acute as well as the more covert and sustained attacks-ranging from beating up ambulance drivers to the fact of the checkpoints themselves, not to mention the economic suffocation-are all ongoing. How do you address this? How do people build resiliency? These are questions I am excited to uncover, and I feel honored to be here.

In solidarity,

Cindy

From Gaza with love...

2007-06-13T16:24:00.000-07:00

Seattle Presentation by Dr. Mona el-Farra
Saturday June 16, 3-5 pm
University Friends Center
4001 9th Ave NE,
Just north of the University Bridge in Seattle, Washington

Dr. Mona El-Farra is a Palestinian physician who is active in medical relief efforts in the Gaza Strip. Among many other activities, El-Farra heads the Rachel Corrie Children’s Center in Gaza and writes a well-regarded blog, "From Gaza, with Love," that has attracted attention from journalists, activists, and academics around the world.

Here is a video of her talk in CA.

Targeted Killing Won't Bring Peace

2007-06-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

By Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi

As we enter the 41st year of Israel‘s military occupation, one of the more sinister policies inflicted upon us is what Israel calls "targeted killings."

Israel applies no death penalty, except against Palestinians living under Israeli military government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

There, suspected opponents of Israel‘s occupation are routinely executed without charge, judge or jury. Innocents who happen to be in the vicinity of Israel‘s "target" just as often suffer summary execution.

In April, 17-year-old Bushra Breghish was pacing her bedroom, studying for an exam. An Israeli sniper, from a squad dispatched to arrest her brother, shot her through the forehead, killing her instantly. All she held in her hands was a book.

Last week in Ramallah‘s central square, in broad daylight, Israeli undercover forces shot a fleeing 22-year-old, Omar Abu Daher, in the leg. After he fell, and was entirely vulnerable to arrest, an Israeli assassin shot him in the back of the head from close range, then kicked his body, apparently to confirm the kill.

The deaths of these young Palestinians are not rare, nor were they unintentional. They were the victims of an openly acknowledged policy.

For decades, Israel murdered Palestinian leaders abroad, following the macabre calculations of its political scientists and intelligence experts that even a small number of assassinations could retard, if not foil, our national movement.

Israel claimed to target those guilty of committing or planning acts of violence. In reality, Palestinian political leaders, poets, journalists and other professionals and artists were also killed.

Israel began "targeted killings" in the Gaza Strip in the 1970s, and expanded this practice during the first Palestinian intifada, which occurred from 1987-1993.

Palestinian youths faced Israeli tanks with little more than slogans and stones. Israel condemned their "targets" based on mere suspicion. They have since signed the death warrants of hundreds more, including bystanders like young Bushra studying for final exams.

Since September 2000, more than 400 Palestinians have been murdered in extrajudicial executions. Nearly half were innocent bystanders and at least 44 were children. These extrajudicial executions are war crimes.

The Palestinian unity government has offered to end all forms of violence, provided Israel reciprocates and ends its violence against Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Our own security forces are challenged, and we face acute internal political differences. But we are committed to halting all attacks - including by Qassam rockets - as long as Israel respects its obligations under international law and stops murdering Palestinians.

We have no hope of succeeding in this goal if Israel will not meet us half way. Palestinians would rightly reject a government that protected Israeli lives while failing to protect Palestinians, who have been slaughtered at 30 times the rate of Israelis over the last 17 months.

Israel has responded with escalating attacks against Gaza and extrajudicial killings in the West Bank. Is its political objective something other than peace? Israel‘s assassinations over the past seven years have repeatedly shattered unilateral truces by Palestinians and scuttled any prospect of negotiations.

Why has Israel consistently re-kindled violence? Is it possible that our willingness to negotiate our differences is more dangerous than any military threat our beleaguered population could ever muster against the sixth most powerful military in the world?

Could it be that Israel seeks to finish the systematic dispossession of Palestinians begun in 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were driven or fled in fear from their homes and homeland? Does goading Palestinians into violence permit Israel to dodge peace negotiations, and provide it cover to continue its confiscation of Palestinian land and construction of Jewish settlements in the lands it seized in 1967?

After all, "security" was the initial justification for Israel‘s settlements, and "military necessity" was the pretext for the seizures of our lands.

"Security" rationalizes the segregated road system Israel has constructed in the West Bank, whisking Jewish Israeli settlers wherever they wish to go, while Palestinians negotiate a decrepit one.

"Security" is allegedly served by the 500-plus Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints that dot our territory, restricting travel and smothering our economy, and by the "separation fence" that Israel has built, penning our communities into small Bantustans that function like open-air prisons.

"Security" is why Israel says it will never give up the Jordan Valley, nearly 30 percent of the West Bank.

In fact, security for both Israelis and Palestinians is mutually interdependent, not mutually exclusive. Israel cannot have security while denying it to Palestinians. When Israel is willing to renounce violence, it will discover how ready we have been as a partner for peace.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti is Minister of Communication for the Palestinian Authority. He is also the founder of medical organizations which provide health services to more than 1.5 million Palestinians each year.

The Responsibility of the Diaspora Communities

2007-06-06T02:11:00.000-07:00

From IHP Diaries Blog.
originally posted on May 14, 2007 by Amineh Ayyad.

A few days ago IHP sponsored a talk by Dr. Alice Rothchild, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Harvard University. Alice presented narratives about issues of health and human rights violations in Palestine and read from her recently published book "Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience". Alice told stories of Palestinian pregnant women and the effect the Israeli occupation has on their daily lives, specifically the effects of restrictions on movement. A recent example of what Alice talked to us about is the shooting of a pregnant Palestinian woman, Maha, by Israeli soldiers, killing her 7-month-old unborn baby. Emergency teams were prevented from reaching Maha's home.

The Israeli attacks pose immediate danger to mothers and children in particular, which ranks high as the cause for indirect deaths in the area. Access of mothers to post-natal health care services is frequently blocked due to Israel‘s separation wall and the presence of hundreds of Israeli military checkpoints throughout the West Bank. A recent study on perinatal and in
infant mortality published by John Hopkins University found that four out of every 1,000 Palestinian children born die before age one due to Israel‘s restrictions on movement on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Alice wrote in a concluding chapter in her book "I wonder whether the ongoing occupation, dense matrix of bypass roads and checkpoints, and the growth of Jewish settlements have actually made a viable two state solution a physical impossibility. I wonder how two peoples with such a history of trauma and loss can heal their many wounds, and what is the responsibility of the Diaspora communities." In a recent conversation with Dr. Barghouthi, Palestinian Minister of Information and President of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society stated that Israel‘s continuous breaches of international law undermined the potential for peace. I believe that medicine is not separate from politics and a people's right to health in Palestine can only be achieved when there is peace in the region and when we see an end to the occupation.

So, "what is the responsibility of the Diaspora communities" and the international community? What can we do from here?

Global Solidarity Activities Mark 40 Years of Israel’s Occupation of Palestine

2007-06-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

by Bahia, 3 June 2007

Ramallah, 03-June-07: Solidarity activities will take place throughout the world this week marking 40 years of Israel’s occupation of West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza. In a press conference held today in Ramallah, Minister of Information, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, presented the details of solidarity events taking place in Palestine, Israel, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe, and announced that the Ministry of Information was initiating a series of year-long activities to sustain exposure of Israel’s ongoing military occupation, which he said, had become the longest-running occupation in modern history.

By keeping the Palestinians’ 40-year-old struggle for freedom and self-determination in the media spotlight in this way in addition to global solidarity initiatives, he said that he hoped the campaign would promote greater regional and international efforts to end the occupation.

Dr. Barghouthi also presented a review of 40 years of occupation which began between June 5-10 1967, and in which the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as well as Arab territories were occupied by Israel.

Forty years later, and in contravention of United Nations resolutions, peace agreements and international law, this occupation not only continues, but has mutated into a fully-fledged system of Apartheid worse than that which prevailed in South Africa. Reiterating the words of former US president Jimmy Carter, Dr. Barghouthi underlined that Apartheid can be identified when two peoples living in the same area are segregated by force, as is the case with the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and where one side is oppressing and prosecuting the other .

He pointed to several characteristics of this Apartheid system, focusing on the creation and continued construction of Israeli settlements built illegally on occupied land and inhabited by 460,000 Israeli-Jewish settlers, and which are sustained by an infrastructure of 543 permanent checkpoints and 600 ‘flying’ checkpoints, and settler-only roads forbidden for use by Palestinians, the first time in history roads have been segregated. He added that this system was being consolidated by Israel’s Wall, which was designed to annex these settlements, and swathes of Palestinian land in the process, to Israel.

At the same time, settlements and the Wall are part of Israel’s long term policy to ethnically cleanse East Jerusalem of its Palestinian population by physically isolating the city from the West Bank and encircling it with a ring of settlements, thereby ‘Judaising’ East Jerusalem.

Further evidence of this system of Apartheid lies in differing levels of access to natural resource, which see Israeli West Bank settlers allocated 2400 m 3 water per year compared to just 50 m3 for Palestinians.

In addition, while GDP per capita in Israel was 6 times higher than that in Palestine in 1993, it has rocketed to a massive 30 times more than the GDP in Palestine in 2007. Despite this, Palestinians are still obliged to buy products at the same Israeli market price due to the forced dependency of the Palestinian economy on Israel. All this in the context of Israel’s continued withholding of Palestinian tax revenues amounting to some US$ 850 million, said Dr. Barg

FORTY YEARS TOO LONG

2007-06-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

A Weekend of Events to End the Israeli Occupation
JUNE 8th, 9th, and 10th

A broad group of organizations concerned with peace and justice in the Middle East will mark forty years of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. Weekend events will include theater, visual art, performances, discussions and films.

FRIDAY NIGHT

THE OCCUPATION ON FILM:

Seattle Central Community College
Student Activity Center - 1718 Broadway Room 208
6:30 PM -- 8:30 PM

Documentary films and discussion
Personal Narratives: Accounts of the Effects of Occupation

* Dying to Live 2002. 10 minutes.
Producer/Director Amineh Ayyad, member of Friends of Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS)
* In the Spider's Web 2004. 47 min.
Produced by Al-Haq, Palestinian human rights organization. Directed by Hanna Musleh.
* Films will be preceded and followed by short presentations by Amineh Ayyad, and a facilitated discussion/Q&A together with Erin Wade of the
Palestine Solidarity Committee.

SATURDAY EVENTS

THE OCCUPATION GAME

Cal Anderson Park
12:00 PM. to 6:00 PM

An outdoor living gameboard with a self-guided all-directions-at-once journey into day-by-day life in military occupation.

Over 80 different board squares present a set of rules which -- like the rules of a military occupation -- may work or may not. Dice will be supplied, or bring your own.
For more information: theatersquad@aol.com

ANTIGONE'S NATION
Cal Anderson Park
2:00 PM. to 3:00 PM

The Theater Squad presents an outdoor voice-and-image theater performance
adapted from Sophocles; Antigone, exploring the conflict between security, stability, rebellion and freedom. For all of time, I will never be that living person who stood by silent
and did not a thing, did not a thing. Directed by Robert Leigh from an adaptation by local playwright Edward Mast and featuring several local actors, musicians and movement artists.
For more information: theatersquad@aol.com

ENDING THE OCCUPATION:

Central Lutheran Church by Cal Anderson Park
1710 11th Ave
3:00 PM

More activities and panel discussions are scheduled to take place on Sunday as well.

ALSO, DON'T MISS:

ACTIVISTS FOR A BETTER WORLD

Saturday, June 2 at 4:00 p.m.
Newberry Books, 561 NE Ravenna Blvd
Ed Mast will speak on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Human Rights Perspective. What are the obstacles to equal rights? What are the possibilities?

Ed Mast is a poet, playwright and activist who has traveled many times to Occupied Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement.
For information contact: J. Glenn Evans, Program Director
http://www.poetswest.com

Presentation by the Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek

Wednesday, June 6, at 7p.m.
609 8th Ave, Seattle
The Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek will speak on the topic:
"JUNE 6, 1967--WILL THE OCCUPATION EVER END?"

Dr. Ateek will speak about the current state of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, which began in 1967, and what steps are needed to end the occupation and bring a lasting peace to the Holy Land.

Dr. Ateek is a Palestinian Episcopal priest and theologian, who founded and directs Sabeel, an ecumenical peace and justice educational and advocacy center in Jerusalem. This free public event is sponsored by the Bishop's Committee on Peace and Justice in Israel / Palestine and Friends of Sabeel-North America.

Radio broadcast: POETSWEST AT KSER 90.7 FM

Friday June 8 at 4:30 PM

A special program of Palestinian poetry read by local actors and writers. www.kser.org.