Special Focus: Emerging Humanitarian Risks in the OPT:

[Tom Joad]

Special Focus: Emerging Humanitarian Risks in the OPT:
Impact of Cutting Aid on Essential Services and Poverty
From a UN report.

UN agencies1 recently undertook an analysis of the humanitarian situation in the oPt. This update reports their findings.

1. IMMEDIATE TRENDS

Since the Palestinian elections in particular, there has been a sharp deterioration in humanitarian situation due to Israel’s tightening of security procedures.

• The Karni crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip – the main crossing for commercial and humanitarian supplies in and out of Gaza – closed for 21 days between 15 January and 5 February resulting in an estimated loss of $10.5 million.2

• The IDF stated that it closed Karni crossing because of security threats and concerns over the spread of avian flu.

• On 26 February, it was announced that all Gaza Strip flour mills would close as wheat grain stocks are depleted following the closure of Karni crossing.

• The price of sugar has increased by 25% since the closure of the Karni crossing. Current stocks are sufficient for four days.3

• Palestinian casualties have increased throughout the oPt in the month after the elections compared to the month before (at least 34 deaths compared with 15) while Israeli casualties remained the same (1 death prior and 1 death after).

• From 19 – 23 February, the IDF has made four incursions into three locations in Nablus city (Balata refugee camp, the Old City and Kafr Qalil). Eight Palestinians were killed (including three children – aged 17 years) and 32 were injured.

• In the past 4 weeks approximately six Qassam rockets / day have been fired into Israel. Israel has shelled the northern and eastern areas of Gaza with 20-23 artillery shells / day.

• In February, the number of Palestinian children in Israeli detention was 360, representing a 13% increase from January. The average throughout 2005 was 300.

• The number of structures demolished increased sharply since the elections – 48 were demolished since 25 January for lacking building permits.

• There has been a 25% increase in the number of physical obstacles (471 obstacles) blocking Palestinian movement in the West Bank – these include earthmounds, checkpoints, roadblocks, which the IDF states are imposed to protect Israel’s citizens – it compares with 376 in August 2005.

• There has been an acceleration of Israel’s plan to separate Palestinian and Israeli road systems within the West Bank. Palestinian traffic is being diverted from the Israeli restricted West Bank roads through a combination of physical obstacles, movement permits and road barriers. A series of tunnels and bridges separate Palestinians onto alternative roads to traverse Israelicontrolled Area C and Israeli restricted roads.

• These new obstacles have had a negative impact, restricting access to land, markets, services and social relations.

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=9693&CategoryId=4

Palestinians die. And the world is silent.

[cali]

1. this appears to be an interpretation

of the UN report, not the report itself. It's also 2 months old- dated March 2.

[Tom Joad]

2. Go to the source. This is excerpts of the report.

for the full report, go to
http://www.miftah.org/Doc/Factsheets/Other/ochaHU0106_En.pdf

[pelsar]

3. so sad.....and such propaganda

and so one sided:

i always find the "closing the karmi crossing" bit so absurd .......its as if the egyptian/palestenan border doesnt exist.....news flash...egypt has food, egypt has trucks and theres this road that goes from egypt to gaza...and it can carry "really big trucks."


end of food crises....which means there isnt one, wasnt one and it was all made up

( and if there was a food crises..i guess many palestenains in gaza must have already starved to death, given that the report is months old.......)

i guess if one cant find anything bad to say about israel this month, no problem in digging up a one side report from months ago....keeps the anti israel info flowing.

[Tom Joad]

4. I just don't get those people who want to deny the suffering of others...

and the true cause. If it is here by those who want to defend Israeli policy, or those who deny other crimes against humanity throughout history.

Turkey still denies it harmed Armenians.
Japan still refuses to take responsibility for what it did to China.

I am not making a statement that Israel is committing equal crimes to any of the above. Not the point.

The point is that very real hardship/suffering is taking place, and every source, except Israel, puts the responsibility on the occupiers. It doesn't mean that what passes for Palestinian "government" is without fault or is perfect, it just acknowledges the obvious.

you can go to Oxfam, the International Red Cross, Amnesty International, and they all say that it is Israel policies is causing great harm to the Palestinian people. You can insist they are all part of this great conspiracy against Israel. Fewer and fewer Americans are buying that, however.

[pelsar]

5. yes israel has a lot to do with it....

i dont deny it in the least....nor does the israeli govt and the israeli people...hence one can read about it and hear about it in the israeli media.

however...when BS is mixed in with real info it gets rather confusing. Case in point the "food crises". Is it easier to bring in food via karmi? yes it is, CAN food be brought in via Egypt? YES...hence there is no crises...and its all made up....only fools or the willful ignorent pretend a truck cant cross from Egypt to Gaza loaded with flour.

Have there been attempt to blow karmi? Yes....have the palestenians attempted to protect Karmi from their own side? NO!

when one learns to filter out the BS from the facts, respect the concerns of the israeli people/govt then one will find a willful partner with israel....but that appears to be a long way off

and i dont get how people can ignore the concerns of a country that since day one has been under constant attack both verble and physical from within and without and pretend that those threats arent real and that the people of that country should somehow ignore the threats and attacks as if they really "dont mean them"....somehow i doubt if your neighbor kept shooting at you, you would be able to "ignore him"...yet that is precisly what so many expect out of israel-THAT I dont get. Did i forget to add the constant boycotts since israels independance?.....



i wouldnt bet on the americans being suckered in by such propaganda...the polls i've read is that they see through the propaganda and double talk

[Tom Joad]

6. From Day one....

again denying history.
It was over 500 Palestinian villages that were forcibly evacuated and ethnically cleansed, refugees not allowed to return. over 700,000 people removed from their homes. Amazing that people did not take a liking to that. Israelis are much more aware of this history than most Americans. Only with that is an acceptance that it was necessary and right... kind of like manifest destiny.

Commit a great crime, and continue to commit great crimes, expect less love. strange how that works. Nothing being planned otherwise by the Israel, except more forced ethnic cleansing, and more crowding into Bantustans.

I see no future in that.

[pelsar]

7. history lesson?

perhaps reading the palestenain post might help?...

heres part of one article:
jews leave haifas arab quarter:...Afraid to remain cut off from the jewish quarters in the midst of an arab neighborhood about 79 families left....They said they had been advised to move out by their arab neighbors.

dec 03, 1947.... there are lots more in the archives if your interested in LEARNING more about the those palestenians pre1948


http://jic.tau.ac.il/Default/Skins/PalestineP/Client.asp?Skin=PalestineP&GZ=T&AW=1146099693890&AppName=2


it would show that some palestenains (Jew and Arab) left of their own accord and others not.....like everything else in this conflict only the niave and or someting else in their heart see things as black and white.(disguised as humanitarians for "select groups")

and those who make up things..such as "israel planning more ethnic cleansing"....such as gaza or as in pulling out of parts of the west bank?...you did mean that kind removing jews...or dont they count?..because for some reason they're really not as equal as palestenains when it comes to being ethnically cleansed.

expect love? jews?....are you nuts?...whos expecting love? given 2,000 years of history of hate, still going strong out of saudi arabia, jordan, egypt, iran and the palesteanins.....were not talking about love, were talking about not being the sacrificial lamb again...of which history has shown, nobody gives a shit.


oh you forgot to mention...what were the arab plans in 1948 for the jews when they invaded?...in 1967?.... in 1973?......how about Iran 2006?
......i would guess something like what the jordanians did to the areas they did capture in 1948...you do know about those correct? or is willful ignorence the preferred method here?

[cali]

9. I can't help but wonder

sometimes, what would have happened if the UN partition plan had been accepted by both parties. Would it have worked? Would we have two successful countries today? What would have happened if Arab countries hadn't attacked Israel in 1948? All unanswerable I know, but intriguing.

[pelsar]

11. had the palestenains made a country....

perhaps i take a more optismistic view..but as i see it, as israel prospered and grew, the palestenains who would be neighbors (dont forget pre 48 many villages and jewish farming communities did get along....would have been "dragged along.' First as the "workers and laborers" imported from arab palestine, but as they took their knowledge home the influence would have its affect.....there would have been two small countries working as neighbors, one with access to the arab world, the other with access to the western world

what a shame.....i could have been traveling all over the arab world by now....

[cali]

8. Was the attack on Israel by Arab nations in 1948

a great crime or noble resistance? Was the destruction of the Jewish Quarter subsequent to Jordan taking E. Jerusalem a great crime or justifiable somehow? It's simply not as one sided as you portray.

"According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan, Jerusalem was supposed to be an international city, not part of either the proposed Jewish or Arab state. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, West Jerusalem was captured by Israel, while East Jerusalem (including the Old City) was captured by Jordan. Upon its capture, the Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of the Jewish Quarter, most of whom had been living there for centuries. Many synagogues were destroyed, and the Jewish Quarter was bulldozed. In 1950 East Jerusalem, along with the rest of the West Bank, was annexed by Jordan. However, the annexation of the West Bank was recognized only by the United Kingdom, which did not recognize the annexation of East Jerusalem. East Jerusalem absorbed some of the refugees from West Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods that came under Israeli rule."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East-Jerusalem

Don't like wiki? The same information is widely available on numerous other sites.

[pelsar]

10. want some real reading?....

the palestenian post....gobs and gobs of info....

http://jic.tau.ac.il/Default/Skins/PalestineP/Client.asp?Skin=PalestineP&GZ=T&AW=1146099693890&AppName=2

[cali]

14. grass grows, crickets chirp, etc.

Will I get a response to my post?

[pelsar]

12. self delete...double post

-

[pelsar]

13. the "arab plan"....

for those jews who fought:

aug 27, 1948: palestenian post:

...there is no doub that they were subsequently beheaded by Arab troops. The Red Cross representatives were not in a position to prevent the atrocity.

and this is just one example of what awaited the jews who "lost"....

[cali]

15. kick to see if anyone will answer

the question I posed in post 8.

[pelsar]

16. 3 answers...

these are the answers i've heard over the years concerning the jordanians

1). The jordanians attacked for the palestenaians and were slowly, during their 19 years of annexation of jerusalem and the westbank were preparing the palestenians for independance.

2). They really didnt want to go to war...but the zionists forced them to.....


and then there is the real answer:

They were reluctant to, but arab pressure was far greater than the risk of losing (honor was involved), hence they attacked. Like the other states they had no intention of "giving the palestenains" anything..as history would later show.

in short: it was an opportunity for land grab.

as some side info: they were led by brits and even had RAF pilots involved (two were shot down)

[Tom Joad]

17. Hungry Palestinian children, "on a diet" as Dov Weissglas joked.

just to remind people of the topic at hand.
Mr. Weissglas is a prime example of what the Israeli government is all about. Making Palestinian people suffer, and ethnic cleansing ... except a few disconnected Bantustans that the Palestinians are supposed to be so grateful for.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=9785

They had not laughed so much in a long time. The team, headed by the prime minister's advisor Dov Weissglas and including the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, the director of the Shin Bet and senior generals and officials, convened for a discussion with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on ways to respond to the Hamas election victory. Everyone agreed on the need to impose an economic siege on the Palestinian Authority, and Weissglas, as usual, provided the punch line: "It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die," the advisor joked, and the participants reportedly rolled with laughter.
_______________________

The Bush & Co. is no worse than this.

[pelsar]

18. Feb 22?

nothing new to find on the EVIL ISRAELI Govt and its people for this week?

[Tom Joad]

19. Policies are consistant, that's for sure.

They said they were going to make Palestinians suffer, and they did. Mission accomplished.

I don't think that the Israeli govt is any less brutal or thuggish than the current Bush regime. Is that unbalanced, or unfair? What do you say Cali? Are we too hard on Bush and his criminal gang here at DU?

Is quoting Jewish israeli dissidents too extreme when it comes to Israel?

If we had a more "balanced" view would we accept a moderate amount of torture? A moderate amount of home demolitions? A moderate amount of child hunger? A moderate amount of shellings resulting in only a moderate amount of civilian casualties?

[pelsar]

20. they're suffering in Gaza? 2006?

..is there not enough food?...well perhaps then the palestenains shouldnt try to blow up karmi...or is that somehow israels fault that they want to blow up one of their major border control points. Need i mention the Egyptian border....or are the palestenians so incompetent they dont know how to bring in food from egypt?


you seem to think so.....

how about the israeli shelling.....pretty mean, funny how that came only AFTER the palestenains kept shooting their missles at israelis across the 67 border. How much terrorism must israelis suffer? Have you ever ever ever mentioned that the palestenain missles are terrorism who have the obvious tacit agreemen with the governing powers in gaza..or perhaps as I understand it from all of your posts, terrorizing israelis is perfectly ok with you....

In a previous post you condemed the IDF for killing a palestenain sneaking through the gaza fence on his way to israel, armed....meaning killing him was wrong, and he should have been left alone to finish his mission which was obviously to go and kill israelis.....some people have no problem with israelis being killed and terrorized, no matter what side of the border they sit...but its nothing new.....

how many "threats and terrorism" is acceptable to you? when it relates to israelis and jews?...irans threatening to wipe israel off the map, the palestenain govt agrees with them and plans on "organizing the resistant"...and they dont seem to be bothered by any 67 line. Israelis have been boycotted since 48..i guess thats ok with you as well....actually i think you should be honest about it:

i'm guessing here, but you seem to think that jews have no connection to israel, have no right to their own country and israel for all intents and purposes should be erased and replaced with an govt based on the arab/muslim culture.....if so, just say it, make yourself clear as opposed to just complaining about us evil israelis and our govt and our policies.

we prefer to know where we stand.....

[pelsar]

21. editing my previous post.....

i just reread it and decided it was off base...whereas tom you will deplore "all terrorism" and i would believe that includes israelis (govt policy makers too?) and all murderers.....after that you start to differentiate.....and here you get very fuzzy....as in condeming israel for killing the palestenain who was armed and attempting to enter israel.

as in all decisions or lack of, there are consequences....you will make blanket condemnations, and start excusing those that target civilians and attempt to kill as many as possible....and more so, condem those who actually stop such murderers...very confusing set of values.

[cali]

22. Sad, really sad, that you're incapable or unwilling

to tackle questions that don't fit into your neatly constructed black and white view of I/P.

Now to answer your questions- because I think it's important to do so directly. Sometimes I think people are over the top on DU even when it comes to bushco. Not out of any concern or fondness for bush, but because hysteria and hyperbole aren't effective. I realize this won't be a satisying answer to you. After all, you've written that you believe Clinton is a war criminal.

Quote anyone you like. I certainly never suggested that quoting a dissident was extreme. I will say though that I don't give someone automatic credence because they're a "dissident."

Torture is never acceptable. By the same coin, the long held goal on the part of Hamas and other militant groups to destroy the state of Israel and to kill as many Israelis as possible is not acceptable either. Israel should stop shelling and Hamas should stop those firing shells into Israel. A novel concept I know, but one that carries a certain logic.

See, that wasn't so hard. You should try it sometime.