Two of Nasser's children

“I only have you to count on. From now on, my children depend on you.”
This was the desperate call of a man who sees no way out for himself and his children, and we ISM members who came to his phone call, received it in helpless silence. It is not the first time that we have visited this family, and every time we go home more horrified.

The last time we were there was on the 14th July 2010, a day after his wife died; was murdered, there is no other way to say it. Nasser Jabr Abu Said lives in Johr al-Dik, 350 meters away from the border with Israel. On the evening of the 13th July, Nasser’s wife was in the garden with two other women from the family when they were fired at with artillery shells from a nearby tank. They used flechette shells, which explode in the air so that five- to eight-thousand nails shoot out of them, piercing everyone and everything in a cone of 300 by 100 meters. They are also illegal under international law.

Nasser's damaged house

Nasser’s wife was not injured, but the Nasser’s sister was wounded in the shoulder, and a third woman, Sanaa Ahmed Abu Said, 26, was wounded in the leg. The family took shelter in the house and called an ambulance, which was unable to approach because it was stopped by machine gun fire from the nearby Israeli soldiers. At this point, the 33 year old wife of Nasser, Nema Abu Said, realized that the youngest of her children, Jaber, was asleep in the garden. As Nema ran outside to bring him to safety, she and her brother-in-law were pierced by the nails of another flechette shell. It took four endless hours before the ambulance finally got the permission to help the family, but by then Nema had died.

When we first visited the family, no one had yet had the heart to explain to Jaber that his mother had died. He kept asking for her while we were there, but how do you explain something like that to a three year old child?

When we went this time, all the children knew only too well what had happened. Nasser explained that he could no longer live in the house because of the almost daily incursions; bombs and shootings have destroyed their damaged psyche and now they wake up every night, screaming from nightmares and having wet the bed. UNRWA rented a tiny apartment for the family – right next to the cemetery where the mother is buried. “I couldn’t get my children away from their mother’s grave. It happened more and more that I suddenly noticed at night that one of the children had gone, and I found them crying in the cemetery, I knew I couldn’t stay there any longer”, Nasser told us.

His alternative is disconcerting. He has pitched a tent, funded by the Red Cross, a few hundred meters away from his old house. The Red Cross also brought three blankets. When Nasser requested more aid he was told that he had already been helped. UNRWA told him that they could not finance a new house. Although they also recognized that the danger was too great to stay in the old house, they said that the old house would first have to be destroyed. Until the house is destroyed, they won’t act.

The tent in which he has to live

In this tent, amid the rain of the winter, Nasser now sleeps with his four sons and his daughter, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 10-years-old. They sleep on only two mattresses because he has to burn the old mattresses every few weeks, as every night they are wetted by the children. There is not enough money for new mattresses, for a sufficient amount of blankets, clothes and school uniforms for the children, or for their transportation to school. He doesn’t dare to send them to school before it’s light, which means that they miss two hours of lessons every day. “They urgently need psychological care,” says Nasser quietly; he didn’t know where to start when we asked him what he needed the most. They received psychological care for a short while, and the psychologist diagnosed that they remained mentally in the state which they were in when their mother died. When a few days ago the bombs fell – one of them near the house – the children’s screams woke up their father.

They need the continuous care of their father, but that is not the only thing that prevents him from earning money. Nasser can’t farm his land any more: it was too often flattened; it is situated mainly in the inaccessible buffer zone; and he lacks the resources to be able to start farming the rest of his land. He doesn’t have the money for seeds to plant something. “I would love to plant eggplants again, cabbage and watermelons. Also, sheep would be a big help. But my water system is completely destroyed from the bombs, and I lack the money to rebuild it.”

“I am an old man,” Nasser Abu Said says, 37 years old, “to me it is no longer important, but what about my children? Don’t they have the right to life, the right to grow up in safety and with some joy?”

“From now on, my children depend on you,” this sentence stays in your mind. And so I do what is in my power. I write about it. Nasser’s misery concerns all of us. This wasn’t fate, that wasn’t a natural disaster. A few years ago, Nema and Nasser Abu Said were a happy and content family.

Dozens marched to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) headquarters in Jerusalem on Monday, August 2^nd, to mark the first anniversary of the eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Holding UNRWA to account

Representatives of the al-Ghawi and Hanoun families, whose homes have been occupied by Israeli settlers since August 2^nd 2009, were joined by Palestinian, Israeli and international supporters, who gathered at ten in the morning outside the houses in question, held a short prayer, and then marched to the UNRWA compound.

The group of around sixty people, including members of the media, asked to be admitted for an audience with UN representatives. Family members demanded of officials why, after one year, nothing had been done, and Palestinians from the same neighbourhood who are facing eviction asked why they had been show so little support.

Some ISM activists accompanied representatives from the Hanoun and Al-Ghawi family, as well as from the Al-Kurd family – who currently remain in Sheikh Jarrah but must endure daily harassment and humiliation from settlers who have occupied the front room of their property – inside the UNRWA building to speak with officials.

Demanding long overdue support

Nasser Al-Ghawi with Fillipo Grandi

The families made three principal demands of the UN: firstly that they provide the full financial assistance to which the families are entitled, and which they need to pay the rent for the apartments they have lived in since being dispossessed; secondly, that the UN help them establish and maintain a presence in Sheikh Jarrah as a symbol of resistance to the injustice of the situation; and finally that they provide UN flags to families in Sheikh Jarrah still under threat of eviction – as a sign of support and in recognition that international law views such evictions as illegal.

Eventually Filippo Grandi, Commissioner General of UNRWA, spoke, saying that the UN is working in Sheikh Jarrah and similar places such as Silwan, and is maintaining a strong presence as well as pressuring Israel to hear an appeal on behalf of the families and monitoring the cases of other families threatened with eviction. However, some ISM activists and family members felt that the UN’s response was unsatisfactory.

One member of the Al-Ghawi family – who have documents proving that they own the house from which they were evicted – commented: “It’s always the same, excuses, words but almost no action. Why can’t the UN at least show they are supporting us with something as small as a flag?”

Legally unjustifiable

The eviction on August 2^nd 2009 was justified on the basis of the ruling by an Israeli court which recognized the settlers claim to own the properties, based on a document dating from the Ottoman era, riddled with inconsistencies. However, the American and British consulates as well as the United Nations, condemned the eviction. The court had refused to recognize the documents the Palestinian families had provided proving their ownership, granted to them by the Jordanian government and UN. Regardless of ownership their status as refugees also grants the families protection.

Under international law Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem violate UN Security Council resolutions 465, 242, 446, 452. All measures taken by Israeli to change the character and demographic character of Jerusalem lack legal validity and its policies and practices towards this end constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relating to the protection of civilians in conflict situation

Despite this clear position, just last week another Palestinian family were evicted from their home under similar circumstances, showing that Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing is continuing. The attempted Judaisation of Jerusalem – spoken of explicitly by several settler groups – and its corollary, the expulsion of Palestinians, is a slow and insidious but ongoing phenomenon, which has been condemned by Israeli human rights groups ICAHD and B’Tselem as well as the United Nations Commission for Human Rights.

Solidarity gathering

Later that evening the families hosted their usual Monday night community dinner and a drumming lesson taught by an Israeli samba band and attended by around 80 people followed.

Settlers could be observed filming people from the occupied houses. They also called Israeli police and complained to them that the road was being blocked. Police loitered on the scene for a long time but did nothing.

A talk was given by a Jewish Israeli professor from Tel Aviv University, in Hebrew and Arabic, analyzing the similarities – and difference – between the Holocaust and Palestinian situation. There was also a screening of the acclaimed film Bili’in Habibti.

Just before the projection of the film a settler threw a stone into the garden but no-one was hurt.

One ISM activist said: “It’s sad that on an anniversary like this, it’s clearer than ever that Israeli policy is not changing – a new eviction in the Old City happened just last week. These evictions are illegal, and create a massive obstacle to justice and peace, as well as on an individual level making families including young children homeless in a very traumatic way.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Israeli disinformation cannot hide the siege of Gaza.

For over four years, Israel has subjected the civilian population of Gaza to an increasingly severe blockade, resulting in a man-made humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. Earlier this month, John Ging, the Director of Operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, called upon the international community to break the siege on the Gaza Strip by sending ships loaded with humanitarian aid. This weekend, 9 civilian boats carrying 700 human rights workers from 40 countries and 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid will attempt to do just that: break through the Israel’s illegal military blockade on the Gaza Strip in non-violent direct action. In response, the Israeli government has threatened to send out ‘half’ of its Naval forces to violently stop our flotilla, and they have engaged in a deceitful campaign of misinformation regarding our mission.

Israel claims that there is no ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Every international aid organization working in Gaza has documented this crisis in stark detail. Just released earlier this week, Amnesty International’s Annual Human Rights Report stated that Israeli’s siege on Gaza has “deepened the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Mass unemployment, extreme poverty, food insecurity and food price rises caused by shortages left four out of five Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid. The scope of the blockade and statements made by Israeli officials about its purpose showed that it was being imposed as a form of collective punishment of Gazans, a flagrant violation of international law.”[1]

Israel claims that its blockade is directed simply at the Hamas government in Gaza, and is limited to so-called ‘security’ items. Yet When U.S. Senator John Kerry visited Gaza last year, he was shocked to discover that the Israeli blockade included staple food items such as lentils, macaroni and tomato paste.[2] Furthermore, Gisha, the Israeli Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, has documented numerous official Israeli government statements that the blockade is intended to put ‘pressure’ on Gaza’s population, and collective punishment of civilians is an illegal act under international law.[3]

Israel claims that if we wish to send aid to Gaza, all we need do is go through ‘official channels,’ give the aid to them and they will deliver it. This statement is both ridiculous and offensive. Their blockade, their ‘official channels,’ is what is directly causing the humanitarian crisis in the first place.

According to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: “Palestinians in Gaza are being actually ‘starved to death,’ receiving fewer calories per day than people in the poorest parts of Africa. This is an atrocity that is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. It is a crime… an abomination that this is allowed to go on. Tragically, the international community at large ignores the cries for help, while the citizens of Gaza are treated more like animals than human beings.”[4]

Israel claims that we refused to deliver a letter and package from POW Gilad Shalit’s father. This is a blatant lie. We were first contacted by lawyers representing Shalit’s family Wednesday evening, just hours before we were set to depart from Greece. Irish Senator Mark Daly (Kerry), one of 35 parliamentarians joining our flotilla, agreed to carry any letter and to attempt to deliver it to Shalit or, if that request was denied, deliver it to officials in the Hamas government. As of this writing, the lawyers have not responded to Sen. Daly, electing instead to attempt to smear us in the Israeli press.[5] We have always called for the release of all political prisoners in this conflict, including the 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, among them hundreds of child prisoners.[6]

Most despicably of all, Israel claims that we are violating international law by sailing unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid to a people desperately in need. These claims only demonstrate how degenerate the political discourse in Israel has become.

Despite its high profile pullout of illegal settlements and military presence from Gaza in August—September 2005, Israel maintains “effective control” over the Gaza Strip and therefore remains an occupying force with certain obligations.[7] Among Israel’s most fundamental obligations as an occupying power is to provide for the welfare of the Palestinian civilian population. An occupying force has a duty to ensure the food and medical supplies of the population, as well as maintain hospitals and other medical services, “to the fullest extent of the means available to it” (G IV, arts. 55, 56). This includes protecting civilian hospitals, medical personnel, and the wounded and sick. In addition, a fundamental principle of International Humanitarian Law, as well as of the domestic laws of civilized nations, is that collective punishment against a civilian population is forbidden (G IV, art. 33).

Israel has grossly abused its authority as an occupying power, not only neglecting to provide for the welfare of the Palestinian civilian population, but instituting policies designed to collectively punish the Palestinians of Gaza. From fuel and electricity cuts that hinder the proper functioning of hospitals, to the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid delivery through Israeli-controlled borders, Israel’s policies towards the Gaza Strip have turned Gaza into a man-made humanitarian disaster. The dire situation that currently exists in Gaza is therefore a result of deliberate policies by Israel designed to punish the people of Gaza. In order to address the calamitous conditions imposed upon the people, one must work to change the policies causing the crisis. The United Nations has referred to Israel’s near hermetic closure of Gaza as “collective punishment,”[8] strictly prohibited under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. All nations signatory to the Convention have an obligation to ensure respect for its provisions.[9]

Given the continuing and sustained failure of the international community to enforce its own laws and protect the people of Gaza, we strongly believe that we all, as citizens of the world, have a moral obligation to directly intervene in acts of nonviolent civil resistance to uphold international principles. Israeli threats and intimidation will not deter us. We will sail to Gaza again and again and again, until this siege is forever ended and the Palestinian people have free access to the world.

NOTES:

1. Amnesty International, Annual Human Rights Report (26 May 2010); http://thereport.amnesty.org
2. “The pasta, paper and hearing aids that could threaten Israeli security,” The Independent (2 March 2009)
3. “Restrictions on the transfer of goods to Gaza: Obstruction and obfuscation,” Gisha (January 2010)
4. “Carter calls Gaza blockade ‘a crime and atrocity,” Haaretz (17 April 2008), http://www.haaretz.com/news/carter-calls-gaza-blockade-a-crime-and-atrocity-1.244176
5. “Gaza aid convoy refuses to deliver package to Gilad Shalit,” Haaretz (27 May 2010)
6. “Comprehensive Report on Status of Palestinian Political Prisoners,” Sumoud (June 2004); Palestinian Children Political Prisoners, Addameer, http://www.addameer.org/detention/children.html
7. Article 42 of the Hague Regulations stipulates, a “territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army,” and that the occupation extends “to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised.” Similarly, in the Hostage Case, the Nuremburg Tribunal held that, “the test for application of the legal regime of occupation is not whether the occupying power fails to exercise effective control over the territory, but whether it has the ability to exercise such power.” Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, like those in the West Bank, continue to be subject to Israeli control. For example, Israel controls Gaza’s air space, territorial waters, and all border crossings. Palestinians in Gaza require Israel’s consent to travel to and from Gaza, to take their goods to Palestinian and foreign markets, to acquire food and medicine, and to access water and electricity. Without Israel’s permission, the Palestinian Authority (PA) cannot perform such basic functions of government as providing social, health, security and utility services, developing the Palestinian economy and allocating resources.
8. John Holmes, Briefing to the U Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, 27 January 2009.
9. Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949, Article I stating, “The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.” See also, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, I. C. J. Reports 2004, p. 136 at 138; http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf.

On 7 January 2009, Husam Sobuh (11) decided to bring more food, blankets and clothes to the UNRWA school in Beit Lahiya, where he was taking refuge with his family. On his way, he met with his uncle Osama (36) and his two children, Huda (11) and Luai (9), who were going home for the same reason. During this dangerous journey to their neighbourhood, where combatants were now fighting, Husam sheltered in an empty house with Mahmoud Abu Laila (14) and Luai Sobuh (9). All of a sudden, the building was attacked twice by a drone plane. Husam was blown into two pieces. Luai was blinded, and his body badly injured in the attack. Mahmoud suffered several injuries but recovered, as did Huda, who is badly traumatized by the incident. Osama has heard of treatment to restore Luai’s sight in the United States, but can’t afford the treatment.

The following information is based on an affidavit taken by DCI-Palestine from Husam Sobuh’s father, Osama Rajab Mohammad Sobuh, on 11 November 2009.

When the ground offensive stage of Operation Cast Lead saw an escalation in the bombing and shelling of Beit Lahiya, Osama Sobuh decided to take his family and flee. He brought his wife, nine children, two daughters-in-law and one grandchild to the UNRWA run Abu Hussein School in Jabalia Camp. It seemed all of Beit Lahiya was there seeking shelter in the school. Conditions were bad, not enough food, blankets or mattresses for the overcrowded population.

On 7 January, Osama decided to return to his house in al-Amal, Beit Lahiya, to collect some clothes, food and blankets for himself and his family. He decided to bring the two youngest children, believing the soldiers wouldn’t shoot at him if he had young children with him. Luai (9) and Huda (11) were scared, but he reassured them that they would be safe. On their journey, they met their relatives Mahmoud Abu Laila (14) and Husam Sobuh (11), who were going home for the same reason. Reaching al-Amal, they found all the residents had fled: “We reached the neighbourhood at around 7:45am and found it completely empty. No one was there except for some fighters in the alleyways, side-roads and under trees. An Israeli drone plane was circling overhead; I felt it was flying above us and watching us.” Osama remembers.

Having reached their houses, they gathered what they needed and reconvened to start the journey back to the school together. Osama made a white flag for Luai to wave as they walked, and they set off around 8:00am. Only 150 metres from the house, Osama got a phone call: “As we were walking back, my son Rajab called me to ask me to bring the small cooker to boil milk for his little son Raed because there was no gas in the school.” He tried to convince Luai to go back but he refused, so he installed the children in the empty house, fearing the drone plane overhead would launch an attack if they stayed on the street. “I left the children and told them I wouldn’t be long. I left the bags with them. Huda followed me. I had walked for about 30 metres when I heard a huge explosion from the drone plane. I turned around and saw thick white smoke coming from the house … where the children were. Huda was thrown to the ground…”

As he tried to run back to Huda and the rest of the children, an Apache helicopter overhead started firing, forcing him to run in the opposite direction. He took shelter in a neighbour’s house: “I stood at the door and looked at my daughter whose left arm had been injured. She was crawling towards me. She was shouting; “Please help me father,” but I couldn’t do anything except wait for her to crawl to me because the Apache helicopter was still hovering in the sky and firing on the street.” Huda managed to reach the house, where she was taken inside and treated by the women of the house.

Osama waited by the door for the Apache helicopter to stop firing and leave, so he could go to his children in the empty house, 50 metres away. As he waited, the drone plane attacked again: “I saw something flying in the air and falling on the street. I looked at the street and saw thick smoke coming out of the house; a few seconds later, as the smoke started to clear and I saw a half body of one of the children thrown on the street.”

An hour after the first attack, the Apache left and Osama managed to reach his children: “Once I entered the first floor, I saw my son Luai on the floor. He wasn’t moving. His face, eyes, chest and left arm were bleeding. His left arm was completely blown off. Mahmoud was beside him. He was also unconscious and his stomach was bleeding. I saw legs beside them and I assumed they were Husam’s legs. The rest of Husam’s body was on the street. The stench of smoke, explosives, and burned flesh filled the air. I saw small pieces of flesh and bones glued to the walls and the ceiling. They were pieces of flesh and bones of Husam’s dismembered body.”

Osama and other neighbours gathered the children and found an ambulance to rush them to hospital. Luai was transferred to Shifa Hospital in Gaza, and later to a Saudi hospital for treatment. He was left completely blind and is in need of plastic surgery for injuries to his arm. Huda also sustained injuries to her. Husam was brought directly to the morgue.

Speaking to DCI the following November, Osama explains that Luai has changed a lot. He has been enrolled in a school for the blind and his grades have been badly affected. He is angry all the time and fights with everyone. Osama is finding it hard to fund his treatment. He has heard of a procedure in the United States that could restore his sight. He hopes some organisation or individual will donate the money to help his son. Huda and Mahmoud have recovered physically, but Huda has been badly traumatized by the event.

21 January 2009

Last week, the government of Canada quietly announced it would discontinue its long-standing financial contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and redirect the monies to strengthen the judicial system of the Palestinian Authority and other food assistance programs. The news came out as UNRWA launched a special fundraising campaign to collect millions of dollars needed to support programs in the occupied Palestinian territories.

UNRWA provides assistance to 4.67 million Palestinian refugees scattered throughout the Middle East and administers programs in the areas of education, health and other social services in 59 Palestinian refugee camps. The agency operates solely through donations from various organizations and governments. It is currently under severe financial duress due to the increasing number of Palestinian refugees, the deterioration of their socio-economic level, unemployment and food insecurity.

“Canada’s decision to cut funds to UNRWA and its essential programs is very worrying and could have important consequences for Palestinian refugees,” stated Thomas Woodley, President of CJPME. “Reducing the capacity of UNRWA will terribly undermine the quality of life for these people. Canadians must respond to this announcement and protest against this radical break from traditional Canadian values of compassion and humanitarian concerns,” added Woodley.

Canada is the seventh largest donor to UNRWA and contributes on average 15 million dollars annually via the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which is currently overseen by the Minister of International Cooperation Beverley Oda. Several groups believe that the decision of the Canadian authorities to stop its support for UNRWA is more than just a desire to reallocate the money more effectively. It could reflect an intention to have the UN agency completely disappear. “There are groups who seem to think that if UNRWA were de-funded and disappeared, the refugees would disappear too. This is a deluded fiction,” said UNRWA spokesman, Chris Gunness.

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is a non-profit and secular organization bringing together men and women of all backgrounds who labour to see justice and peace take root again in the Middle East. Its mission is to empower decision-makers to view all sides with fairness and to promote the equitable and sustainable development of the region.

29 December 2009

The United Nations independent expert on Palestinian rights has again called for a threat of economic sanctions against Israel to force it to lift its blockade of Gaza, which is preventing the return to a normal life for 1.5 million residents after the devastating Israeli offensive a year ago.
“Obviously Israel does not respond to language of diplomacy, which has encouraged the lifting of the blockade and so what I am suggesting is that it has to be reinforced by a threat of adverse economic consequences for Israel,” Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, told UN Radio.

“That probably is something that is politically unlikely to happen, but unless it happens, it really does suggest that the United States and the Quartet and the EU [European Union] don’t take these calls for lifting the blockade very seriously and are unaffected by Israel’s continuing defiance of those calls,” he said, referring to the diplomatic Quartet of the UN, EU, Russia and US, which have been calling for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the main UN body tending to the needs of some 4 million Palestinian refugees, said today Gaza had been “bombed back, not to the Stone Age, but to the mud age,” because UNRWA was reduced to building houses out of mud after the 22-day offensive Israel said it launched to end rocket attacks against it.

“The Israeli blockade has meant that almost no reconstruction materials have been allowed to move into Gaza even though 60,000 homes were either damaged or completely destroyed. So we in UNRWA have been saying ‘let’s lift this senseless blockage,’” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told UN Radio.

“We are the United Nations and we always hope that diplomacy will prevail, and it will prevail above the rationale of warfare. But if you look at what is going on in Gaza, and if you look at the continued blockade and the fact that that blockade is radicalizing a population there, then one has to have one’s doubts.”

In a statement last week, Mr. Falk stressed that the “unlawful blockade” was in its third year, with insufficient food and medicine reaching Gazans, producing further deterioration of the mental and physical health of the entire civilian population.

Building materials necessary to repair the damage could not enter Gaza, and he blamed the blockade for continued breakdowns of the electricity and sanitation systems due to the Israeli refusal to let spare parts needed for repair get through the crossings.

Mr. Falk also deplored the wall being built on the borders between Gaza and Egypt.

“I’m very distressed by that, because it is both an expression of complicity on the part of the government of Egypt and the United States, which apparently is assisting through its corps of engineers with the construction of this underground steel impenetrable wall that’s designed to interfere with the tunnels that have been bringing some food and material relief to the Gaza population,” he told UN Radio.

“And of course, the underground tunnel complex itself is an expression of the desperation created in Gaza as a result of this blockade that’s going on now for two and a half years, something that no people since the end of World War II have experienced in such a severe and continuing form.”

As a Special Rapporteur, Mr. Falk serves in an independent and unpaid capacity and reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.

In a new policy brief, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), entrusted with promoting the integration of developing countries into the world economy, reported that more than 80 per cent of Gaza’s population are now impoverished; 43 per cent unemployed; and 75 per cent lack food security. “In view of the eroded productive base, poverty is likely to widen and deepen unless reconstruction begins in earnest and without further delay,” it warned.

10 December 2009

UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd with Refka al-Kurd

Israeli police ordered outgoing UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd to leave an East Jerusalem home on Thursday during her last official visit as the head of the relief agency.

Ma’an’s reporter on the scene said AbuZayd left after police gave her five minutes to evacuate the premises of the house of the Al-Kurd family, as a Palestinian woman yelled “We want our homes and our lands. We have no alternative.”

Amidst Israeli police and soldiers, AbuZayd visited Palestinians recently evicted from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem on International Human Rights Day. She spoke of Jerusalem as a “City of Dispossession,”

“On this day, and in this place, I wish to remind the international community of the unfinished business in Sheikh Jarrah and elsewhere in the West Bank,” she said.

“The dispossessed, the displaced must see their losses acknowledged, their injustices addressed,” she added. “Peace is possible, but only if we insist on our universal humanity.”

Members of the Al-Kurd family, who are fighting a court battle to keep their home from being taken over by Israeli settlers, told her, “What are we to do? International Law should have helped us.” As she spoke, settler watched nearby.

During a news conference before entering the Al-Kurd house, AbuZayd said, “As a colleague of mine said, we have ‘failed with distinction’ … I am leaving reluctantly, at a time of greater political uncertainty than at any time I’ve been here in nine years and at a greater time of economic and financial difficulties.”

“While the international community is committed to the goal of establishing two states, with Jerusalem as a shared capital, it is difficult to imagine how that outcome can be achieved in light of the systematic settlement activity and violations of basic human rights currently afflicting the Palestinian community in East Jerusalem.

“The impact of this urban settlement activity being conducted with seeming impunity is manifold and acute,” AbuZayd continued. “The intimate juxtaposition of two cultures, such as exists in the building behind me, with its accompanying violence and tension, destroyed the communal atmosphere that has evolved over decades.”

UN condemnation of forced evictions

AbuZayd reaffirmed the UN’s condemnation of the ongoing Israeli policy of forced evictions of Palestinians and house demolitions. “The UN rejects Israel’s claims that these cases are a matter for municipal authorities and domestic courts. Such acts are in violation of Israel’s obligations under international law.”

“To date, four of the 28 families have lost their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, affecting over 55 people including 20 children. At present, a further eight families are under direct threat of forced eviction, having been served with orders to vacate their homes, potentialy affected another 120 people. In all incidents to date, settlers have taken over with the active protection and assistance of the Israeli authorities. But the numbers don’t speak to the human suffering and trauma that has been the unfortunate hallmark of these forced evictions.”

Plight of the Bedouin

During her final speech in Sheikh Jarrah, AbuZayd took the opportunity to speak of the ongoing displacement of the Bedouin across the West Bank. “On International Human Right day, I would also like to highlight the plight of one of the most disadvantaged groups in this region, the bedouins of the West Bank.”

“As the occupying power, Israel remains responsible for ensuring that the basic needs of the occupied population are met. But many refugee Bedouin and herding communities, originally displaced from their traditional lands in 1948, are now experiencing multiple counts of displacement from area C as they are forcibly moved from their homes.”

“These groups are now sinking deeper into food insecurity and abject poverty, as grazing land continues to shrink and access to natural resources is severely restricted by the occupying power. Administrative demolition, forced evictions, collapsing livelihoods, poverty and settler harassment represent the key triggers to displacement for area C herding communities today and they’re already stretched coping mechanism are now reaching their limits. They’re full rights must be respected as a matter of utmost urgency.”

Human Rights Day

“It is … fitting that on my last official visit to Jerusalem as UNRWA Commissioner General, and on International Human Rights Day, I should come to the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of the city, where the failure of the international community to fulfill the promises of the Universal Declaration is so acutely felt and where the pain and ugliness of dispossession and occupation are so tragically in evidence.”

Israeli army soldiers were also on the scene, the reporter added. The forces also dispersed journalists from the area. AbuZayd had the brief opportunity to speak with Maher Ghawi, another Jerusalemite affected by Israel’s forced eviction policy.

Full text of Karen AbuZayd’s speech can be found here.

8 December 2009

Sixty years after the UN moved to address the fate of the dispossessed, we need to accept that the injustice endures

Sixty years ago today the United Nations general assembly voted into existence a temporary body known as UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA’s task was to deal with the humanitarian consequences of the dispossession of some three-quarters of a million Palestine refugees forced by the 1948 Middle East war to abandon their homes and flee their ancestral lands. Just two decades later, the six-day war generated another spasm of violence and forced displacement, culminating in the occupation of Palestinian territory. Today, anguished exile remains the lot of Palestinians and Palestine refugees. The occupation of Palestinian land persists, there is no Palestinian state, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms to which Palestinians are entitled under international law do not exist.

The occupation, now over 40 years old, becomes more entrenched with every infringement of human rights and international law in the occupied Palestinian territory. Political actors hold in their hands the power to redress the travesties Palestinians endure. Yet the approach has been, at best, to equivocate over the minutiae of the occupation – a checkpoint here, a bag of cement there – or, at worst, to look the other way, to acquiesce in or even support the measures causing Palestinian suffering.

From my perspective as the head of the agency mandated to assist and protect Palestine refugees, it is particularly vexing that the prevailing approach fails – or refuses – to accord the refugee issue the attention it deserves. Over 60 years, dispossession has faded from the focus of peace efforts. The heart of where peace should begin is absent from the international agenda, pushed aside as one of the “final status” issues, one which belongs to a later stage of the negotiation process. As forced displacements continue across the West Bank, as Palestinians are evicted from their homes in East Jersualem, I ask a simple question: is it not time for those engaged in the peace process to muster the will and the courage to address the Palestine refugee question?

On this regrettable 60th anniversary of the agency which I shall leave in less than one month, I wish to refocus the debate on the displaced and dispossessed, to put the refugees at the centre of peacemaking efforts.

Make no mistake, not a single conflict of contemporary times has been resolved, no durable peace achieved, unless and until the voices of the victims of those conflicts were heard, their losses acknowledged and redress found to injustices they experience. The precedents of recent peacemaking efforts and the methodology of contemporary conflict resolution affirm that giving high priority to resolving dispossession and the plight of refugees is a necessity, an international obligation and a humanitarian imperative.

The Israeli-Palestinian confrontation is uniquely complex. Among its myriad dimensions, all of which require attention, the unresolved refugee issue is one of those most profoundly linked to the uncertainties of the regional situation and to the persistence of the conflict. Addressing it is, therefore, a sine qua non for making progress towards a negotiated solution.

Failing to engage with the refugee issue and consciously shunting it to one side has served only to disavow the refugees’ significance as a constituency with a prominent stake in delivering and sustaining peace. This has left many with a dangerous cynicism about the peace process, thus strengthening the hands of those who argue against peace itself.

I refuse, however, to conclude my time in office on a pessimistic note. Instead I urge that we take steps to engage the marginalised. Let us confound the cynics. Let us create alternative realities to disarm those who favour violence. I call on the peacemakers to acknowledge, in their rhetoric and their policies, the need to address Palestinian dispossession.

Let symbolism and rhetoric give way to substance. On the anniversary of UNRWA, I call on the international community and the parties to the conflict to acknowledge the 60-year-old injustice as a first step towards addressing the consequences of that injustice. Let us build facts in the mind to create facts of a just and durable peace on the ground.

Rain of Fire: Israel’s Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza

Download the entire report (.pdf / 6mb)

Rain of Fire: Israel’s Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza

Summary

This report documents Israel’s extensive use of white phosphorus munitions during its 22-day military operations in Gaza, from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009, named Operation Cast Lead. Based on in-depth investigations in Gaza, the report concludes that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) repeatedly exploded white phosphorus munitions in the air over populated areas, killing and injuring civilians, and damaging civilian structures, including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse and a hospital.

White phosphorus munitions did not kill the most civilians in Gaza – many more died from missiles, bombs, heavy artillery, tank shells, and small arms fire – but their use in densely populated neighborhoods, including downtown Gaza City, violated international humanitarian law (the laws of war), which requires taking all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm and prohibits indiscriminate attacks.

The unlawful use of white phosphorus was neither incidental nor accidental. It was repeated over time and in different locations, with the IDF “air-bursting” the munition in populated areas up to the last days of its military operation. Even if intended as an obscurant rather than as a weapon, the IDF’s repeated firing of air-burst white phosphorus shells from 155mm artillery into densely populated areas was indiscriminate and indicates the commission of war crimes.

The dangers posed by white phosphorus to civilians were well-known to Israeli commanders, who have used the munition for many years. According to a medical report prepared during the hostilities by the ministry of health, “[w]hite phosphorus can cause serious injury and death when it comes into contact with the skin, is inhaled or is swallowed.” The report states that burns on less than 10 percent of the body can be fatal because of damage to the liver, kidneys and heart.

When it wanted an obscurant for its forces, the IDF had a readily available and non-lethal alternative to white phosphorus-smoke shells produced by an Israeli company. The IDF could have used those shells to the same effect and dramatically reduced the harm to civilians.

Using white phosphorus in densely populated areas as a weapon is even more problematic. Human Rights Watch found no evidence that Israeli forces fired ground-burst white phosphorous at hardened military targets, such as Palestinian fighters in bunkers, but it may have air-burst white phosphorous for its incendiary effect. Fired from artillery and air-burst to maximize the area of impact, white phosphorous munitions will not have the same lethal effect as high-explosive shells, but will be just as indiscriminate.

The IDF’s deliberate or reckless use of white phosphorus munitions is evidenced in five ways. First, to Human Rights Watch’s knowledge, the IDF never used its white phosphorus munitions in Gaza before, despite numerous incursions with personnel and armor. Second, the repeated use of air-burst white phosphorus in populated areas until the last days of the operation reveals a pattern or policy of conduct rather than incidental or accidental usage. Third, the IDF was well aware of the effects white phosphorus has and the dangers it can pose to civilians. Fourth, if the IDF used white phosphorus as an obscurant, it failed to use available alternatives, namely smoke munitions, which would have held similar tactical advantages without endangering the civilian population. Fifth, in one of the cases documented in this report – the January 15 strike on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) headquarters in Gaza City – the IDF kept firing white phosphorus despite repeated warnings from UN personnel about the danger to civilians. Under international humanitarian law, these circumstances demand the independent investigation of the use of white phosphorus and, if warranted, the prosecution of all those responsible for war crimes.

The IDF at first denied using white phosphorus in Gaza, and then said it was using all weapons in compliance with international law. It now says it is conducting an investigation, reportedly run by a colonel, into the use of white phosphorus. Given the IDF’s record on previous internal investigations, and the relatively low rank of the reported investigation leader, the inquiry’s objectivity remains in doubt.

For Immediate Release—February 5, 2009

Contact: Paige Cram, NLG Communications Coordinator, 212-679-5100, ext.15

Gaza—On its second day in Gaza, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) delegation witnessed the rubble of the American International School in Gaza. An Israeli aerial attack killed the watch guard on duty and completely demolished the school at 2am on January 3, 2009.

“Israel doesn’t want anything good or bright in Gaza. They want us to live in the dark ages, just waiting in line for gas and bread,” said Ribhi Salem the school’s Director, who previously spent 20 years living and teaching in Chicago. Salem noted that the school is modeled on American schools and teaches “American values.” Because of that, he said, the school has been attacked on two previous occasions by local extremists since it opened in 2000.

The American school was only one of thousands of buildings destroyed in the recent Israeli offensive. Guild delegates were alarmed at the indiscriminate attacks against civilian neighborhoods, which left thousands of Gaza’s residents homeless and living in UN-provided tents. Israeli forces also targeted local businesses, including a tahini and sweet factory in Jabaliyya, leaving the poverty-stricken population more aid dependant.

John Ging, Director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), told the delegation that although the need is much greater now because of the war, less food aid is getting in now than before the war. “Nine hundred thousand people need food aid now but on the amount of food we are receiving we can feed only 30,000 each day,” he said. “Thousands of tons of aid are piling up in Al Arish in Egypt and Ashdod Port in Israel,” said Ging. “People need food and blankets. . . its been two weeks and two days [since the ceasefire] and we can’t get enough food into Gaza . . . where’s the accountability?”

The seven delegates also witnessed the remains of the entire residential neighborhood of Izbit Abed Rabbo. Resident Khaled Abed Rabbo told delegates Huwaida Arraf and Radhika Sainath how he witnessed an Israeli soldier execute his 2 year-old and 7 year-old daughters, on a sunny afternoon outside his house there. Two other Israeli soldiers were standing nearby eating chips and chocolates at the time on January 7, 2009. “I will never eat chocolate again,” said Abed Rabbo, who was formerly employed by the Fateh-led Palestinian authority. His third daughter, Samar, was also shot and paralyzed by the same Israeli soldier. Samar, 4 years old, is currently hospitalized for treatment in Belgium.

Founded in 1937, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.