Humanitarian Issues

[nodstar]

Hi Everyone ..

This thread will be moderated and cared for by Ninathedog
in recognition and for the encouragement of her efforts to bring the plight
of the Palestinians to our attention.
Thanks Nina

Nodstar*

[ninathedog]

Thank you, Noddy and GG!!

I'm tremendously grateful for your recognition and I really appreciate that you've set up a dedicated space for us to discuss humanitarian issues here on The Golden Thread.

Although I do tend to focus on the plight of the Palestinian people, there are many populations of people suffering all over the world who deserve our attention. May we use this thread to cast light into darkness and to foster positive change where it is so desperately needed.

May oppression and suffering rapidly fade, even as we become aware of its existence.

With love sent out to you all,
Jen.

[ninathedog]

Aid convey arrives in Egypt on way to Gaza

YnetNews.com
Published: 01.04.10, 00:01

An international aid convoy will be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip after organizers struck a deal with Egyptian authorities over its transit route.

Egypt's state-owned Middle East News Agency says a ship carrying the 150-vehicle convoy with hundreds of tons of humanitarian supplies will be unloaded at the Egyptian port of El-Arish after arriving Sunday. (AP)

www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3829163,00.html

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Report: Egypt opens Rafah crossing at Gaza border for three days

By DPA
Last update - 13:26 03/01/2010
Haaretz.com

Egypt opened its border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday for a scheduled three-day period, state-run newspapers reported.

Palestinians with travel plans and visas for foreign countries would be allowed out, along with patients in need of medical care, Al-Ahram daily said.

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip has generally been closed since 2007, when infighting between Palestinian factions raged, culminating in the Islamist Hamas movement taking over the territory.

Most recently, on December 23, Egypt opened the border for several hundred patients.

Gaza's only other crossing points lie along its border with Israel, which imposes a tight blockade on the territory.

Egypt's border with the Palestinian territory has been the source of protests recently, as hundreds of international activists marched on Rafah, demanding the authorities open the crossing point.

The Egyptian government eventually allowed 86 members of the group entry into Gaza.

Cairo has also come under increasing criticism for reportedly strengthening a wall along the border, with Palestinians concerned it might affect underground smuggling tunnels used to bring in basic supplies, such as food, but also weapons.

www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1139565.html

[ninathedog]

Gaza border: Why Egypt is building a steel underground wall

Reports from the Gaza border say that Egypt is building an underground
wall as deep as 100 feet to stem smuggling in Hamas-controlled tunnels.
But there are broader goals, too.


By Sarah A. Topol Contributor
Cairo, December 14, 2009
The Christian Science Monitor

Reports that Egypt is building a steel underground wall along its border with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip have fueled speculation about what exactly Cairo intends to accomplish with the project, which British newspapers claim is being carried out with the help of the US Army Corps of Engineers.


Heavy machinery operates on the Egyptian side of the border between the southern Gaza Strip, right, and Egypt, left, as seen from Rafah, Thursday. Egypt has been digging trenches and installing metal sheets underground along its border with Gaza in an apparent attempt to curb smuggling into the Palestinian territory through tunnels, Gaza border guards and area residents said Thursday. Eyad Baba/AP

The immediate objective is obvious: to severely disrupt the flourishing smuggling trade carried out in an extensive subterranean network of tunnels under the border. The smugglers provide everything from food to weapons for Gazans, who are largely cut off from the outside world due to an Israeli blockade.

Analysts disagree, however, about Egypt’s broader goals, which appear contradictory and are obscured by the fact that Cairo has yet to acknowledge the existence of the project. But it appears that Egypt is trying to strike a balance between remaining a key ally of the US while at the same time shoring up its position as an influential player in a neighborhood that often views Washington unfavorably.

“Egypt is walking a tightrope between its commitments to Arabs and directly to the Palestinian cause and at the same time its commitment to enhancing international security,” says Gamal Soltan, political analyst at the Al-Ahram Center in Cairo, a government-funded think tank.

But constructing a wall is a significant departure from the mere rhetoric Egypt has used to exert pressure in the past. This time, Egypt’s balancing act might backfire, especially given that fact that the Arab world was highly critical of Egypt for closing the Rafah border during the Israeli incursion on Gaza last year and cooperating with Israel on the economic blockade.

“You have operation Cast Lead basically flattening Gaza and Operation ‘Metal Wall’ on the Egyptian side strangling the Gazan population even further. These are impressions and perceptions that the Egyptian government does not need,” says Adel Iskandar, professor of media and communications at Georgetown University in Washington.

A response to US pressure?
Residents on both sides of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza have reported seeing giant drills and construction crews along the Egyptian side of the boundary, spurring a flurry of reports last week. On Dec 9. the BBC published a map of the project and reported that the completed wall would be six to seven miles long and plunge 60 feet below the ground, while others said it could go as deep as 100 feet. The wall is reportedly impenetrable, composed of bombproof steel that will be impossible to sever or burn. Though it would not completely destroy the tunneling networks, it is believed that it would stem the majority of smuggling, which has become a key source of revenue for Hamas.

Some analysts see the wall as a response to pressure from the US and Israel, which consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization, to stem smuggling along the border.

The US has in the past threatened to withhold $200 million in military aid to Egypt over concern about arms smuggling in the tunnels, angering Cairo. A compromise was reached in early 2008 under which Congress allocated $23 million of that aid toward stemming smuggling, the US Army Corps of Engineers have been involved in training Egyptian troops on advanced technology that can detect and destroy the tunnels.

Catering to American interests renders Egypt a continued player in peace negotiations and an essential ally in negotiations. Egypt, once the region’s powerbroker, also stands to show its neighbors it will not be subservient to the whims of Hamas, a small militant group and an offshoot of Egypt’s banned political opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.

“It could be a political ploy with the desire of maintaining or reasserting Egypt’s legitimacy in the region at a time when perhaps the Americans are starting to assume that Egypt has a declining role,” says Prof. Iskandar.

Message to Hamas: Consequences for not cooperating
Others see the wall as primarily directed at Hamas after months of Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks with the rival Palestinian faction Fatah have failed to produce a solution.

“It’s quite a drastic measure,” says Nadim Shehadi, associate fellow for the Middle East and North Africa Program at the London-based Chatham House. He sees it as a pessimistic sign that Egypt is giving up on the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation talks that have failed to produce a deal under Egypt’s mediation efforts.
“It’s an indication that there’s no outlook for a resolution that would allow free passage soon,” says Mr. Shehadi.

But some say it’s not a final move, but rather a political maneuver to strengthen Egypt’s position as a mediator between the estranged Palestinian factions – a maneuver that may prove crucial to restarting negotiations.

“It’s a way ... to send a message to Hamas that they cannot enjoy the same kind of lenient Egyptian policy while at the same time refusing to cooperate with Egypt towards Palestinian reconciliation,” says Gamal Soltan, political analyst at Egypt’s government-funded Al-Ahram Center. “Egypt wants to show Hamas there are consequences for not cooperating.”


www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2009/1214/Gaza-border-Why-Egypt-is-building-a-steel-underground-wall

[ninathedog]

CIA working with Palestinian security agents

US agency co-operating with Palestinian counterparts who allegedly torture Hamas supporters in West Bank

Ian Cobain in Ramallah
guardian.co.uk
Thursday 17 December 2009 18.16 GMT

Palestinian security agents who have been detaining and allegedly torturing supporters of the Islamist organisation Hamas in the West Bank have been working closely with the CIA, the Guardian has learned.

Less than a year after Barack Obama signed an executive order that prohibited torture and provided for the lawful interrogation of detainees in US custody, evidence is emerging the CIA is co-operating with security agents whose continuing use of torture has been widely documented by human rights groups.

The relationship between the CIA and the two Palestinian agencies involved – Preventive Security Organisation (PSO) and General Intelligence Service (GI) – is said by some western diplomats and other officials in the region to be so close that the American agency appears to be supervising the Palestinians' work.

One senior western official said: "The [Central Intelligence] Agency consider them as their property, those two Palestinian services." A diplomatic source added that US influence over the agencies was so great they could be considered "an advanced arm of the war on terror".

While the CIA and the Palestinian Authority (PA) deny the US agency controls its Palestinian counterparts, neither denies that they interact closely in the West Bank. Details of that co-operation are emerging as some human rights organisations are beginning to question whether US intelligence agencies may be turning a blind eye to abusive interrogations conducted by other countries' intelligence agencies with whom they are working. According to the Palestinian watchdog al-Haq, human rights in the West Bank and Gaza have "gravely deteriorated due to the spreading violations committed by Palestinian actors" this year.

Most of those held without trial and allegedly tortured in the West Bank have been supporters of Hamas, which won the Palestinian elections in 2006 but is denounced as a terrorist organisation by the PA – which in turn is dominated by the rival Fatah political faction – and by the US and EU. In the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has been in control for more than two years, there have been reports of its forces detaining and torturing Fatah sympathisers in the same way.

Among the human rights organisations that have documented or complained about the mistreatment of detainees held by the PA in the West Bank are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, al-Haq and the Israeli watchdog B'Tselem. Even the PA's human rights commission has expressed "deep concern" over the mistreatment of detainees.

The most common complaint is that detainees are severely beaten and subjected to a torture known as shabeh, during which they are shackled and forced to assume painful positions for long periods. There have also been reports of sleep deprivation, and of large numbers of detainees being crammed into small cells to prevent rest. Instead of being brought before civilian courts, almost all the detainees enter a system of military justice under which they need not be brought before a court for six months.

According to PA officials, between 400 and 500 Hamas sympathisers are held by the PSO and GI.

Some of the mistreatment has been so severe that at least three detainees have died in custody this year. The most recent was Haitham Amr, a 33-year-old nurse and Hamas supporter from Hebron who died four days after he was detained by GI officials last June. Extensive bruising around his kidneys suggested he had been beaten to death. Among those who died in GI custody last year was Majid al-Barghuti, 42, an imam at a village near Ramallah.

While there is no evidence that the CIA has been commissioning such mistreatment, human rights activists say it would end promptly if US pressure was brought to bear on the Palestinian authorities.

Shawan Jabarin, general director of al-Haq, said: "The Americans could stop it any time. All they would have to do is go to [prime minister] Salam Fayyad and tell him they were making it an issue.. Then they could deal with the specifics: they could tell him that detainees needed to be brought promptly before the courts."

A diplomat in the region said "at the very least" US intelligence officers were aware of the torture and not doing enough to stop it. He added: "There are a number of questions for the US administration: what is their objective, what are their rules of engagement? Do they train the GI and PSO according to the manual which was established by the previous administration, including water-boarding? Are they in control, or are they just witnessing?"

Sa'id Abu-Ali, the PA's interior minister, accepted detainees had been tortured and some had died, but said such abuses had not been official policy and steps were being taken to prevent them. He said such abuses "happen in every country in the world". Abu-Ali sought initially to deny the CIA was "deeply involved" with the two Palestinian intelligence agencies responsible for the torture of Hamas sympathisers, but then conceded that links did exist. "There is a connection, but there is no supervision by the Americans," he said. "It is solely a Palestinian affair. But the Americans help us."

The CIA does not deny working with the PSO and GI in the West Bank, although it will not say what use it has made of intelligence extracted during the interrogation of Hamas supporters. But it denies turning what one official described as "a Nelson's eye to abuse".

The CIA's spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, denied it played a supervisory role over the PSO or GI. "The notion that this agency somehow runs other intelligence services … is simply wrong," he said. "The CIA … only supports, and is interested in, lawful methods that produce sound intelligence."

Concern about detainee abuse is growing in the West Bank despite an effort by the international community to create Palestinian institutions that will guarantee greater security as a first step towards creating a Palestinian state. More than half of the PA's $2.8bn (£1.66bn) budget came from international donors last year; more than a quarter was swallowed up by the ministry of the interior and national security. Human Rights Watch and al-Haq have said that in raising the security capacity of the PA, donor countries have a responsibility to ensure it observes international human rights standards.

At the heart of the international effort is the creation of the Palestinian national security force, a 7,500-strong gendarmerie trained by US, British, Canadian and Turkish army officers under the command of a US general, Keith Dayton. Many Palestinians blame Dayton for the mistreatment of Hamas sympathisers, although the general's remit does not extend to either of the intelligence agencies responsible.

Some in Dayton's team are said to have been warned by senior CIA officers that they should not attempt to interfere in the work of the PSO or GI. Privately, some of them are said to fear that the mistreatment of detainees, and the anger this is arousing among the population, may undermine their mission. One source said: "I know that Dayton and his crew are very concerned about what is happening in those detention centres because they know it can jeopardise their work."

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/17/cia-palestinian-security-agents

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Hamas inmates say torture ends in West Bank jails
Jan 4, 2010 2:11 | Updated Jan 4, 2010 2:16
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank have stopped torturing
Hamas prisoners, ending two years of systematic abuse, Hamas inmates told
The Associated Press in jailhouse interviews.


The change in practice, said to have taken effect in October, was confirmed by a West Bank Hamas leader, human rights activists and the Palestinian Authority prime minister. It defuses a potential problem for Washington since the US has been closely involved in training PA troops under the control of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Human rights groups say their public pressure campaign helped bring about change, and US President Barack Obama's no-torture policy might have helped set a new tone. However, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the decision to halt any abuse was an independent one, part of an effort to make sure a future state is built on the right foundations.

Hamas legislators and human rights researchers said they still get sporadic reports of prisoners being slapped or forced to stand for several hours during interrogation. Andsecurity forces continue to keep a close watch on Hamas activities, often arresting activists and holding them for lengthy periods without charge.

However, they said the worst behavior - prisoners beaten with clubs and cables, suspended from the ceiling while tied up in painful positions and forced to stand for days - has ended.

Fayyad confirmed a "dramatic change for the better" in West Bank prisons and said 43 officers have been jailed, fired or demoted for abusing prisoners.

In an interview, he denied torture was ever official policy, but acknowledged past "excesses" that he said stemmed from a flawed culture of revenge.

Abbas's security forces, dominated by supporters of his Fatah movement, have been clamping down on Hamas in the West Bank since June 2007, when the terror group wrested control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian leader.

Since then, some 4,000 Hamas followers were arrested in the West Bank, and 500 are currently in detention, according to Hamas. Just two weeks ago, dozens of Hamas supporters were detained during the group's anniversary celebrations. In Gaza, Hamas has rounded up hundreds of Fatah supporters, who also have complained of severe mistreatment.

Hamas and Fatah have failed to reconcile, despite many rounds of Egyptian-brokered mediation. However, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said in a visit to Saudi Arabia on Sunday that significant progress has been made in reconciliation talks.

In the West Bank, persistent reports of abuse emerged over the past two years from prisons and interrogation centers. Since 2007, eight detainees have died inWest Bank lockups and 15 in Gaza, human rights researchers say, though circumstances in some cases remain murky.

The abuse was driven both by a desire to take revenge for the Gaza takeover and by fear that Hamas would seize control of the West Bank, said Salah Mousa, a human rights activist and former member of the Palestinian security forces.

The worst accounts of abuse came from those held at Jneid Prison, a barbed wire-topped jumble of low buildings in Nablus, a former Hamas stronghold.

Last week, an AP team was granted access to the prison, including the wing holding 40 Hamas prisoners. Officials unlocked the metal cell doors on both sides of a hallway and bearded inmates in track suits stepped out. With wardens out of earshot, inmates described past abuse and said it has largely stopped.

Khaled Susah, 48, at Jneid for the past 14 months, pulled back a sleeve to show a swollen right wrist, which he said was the result of being repeatedly handcuffed and strung up from the ceiling during 80 days of interrogation at the start of his detention.

"They were dealing with us like sheep in a slaughter house," said Susah, who was arrested on suspicion of ties to Hamas' military wing but has yet to get a trial date.

He said inmates were told of the new policy during a prison visit in October by a man who identified himself as an Abbas adviser.

Another inmate, 38-year-old shopkeeper Ayman Hamad, leaned forward to show a deep scar on the bald crown of his head, where he said he was clubbed by a security officer a year ago. "Now things are much better. Beating has stopped, except for some violations here and there," such as slapping, Hamad said.

Other inmates said interrogation still involves being forced to stand, sometimes for several hours.

In the Military Intelligence section of the prison, three windowless isolation cells, each the size of a parking space, are still used at times to hold and pressure those under interrogation, prisoners said. Wardens insisted the cells are only used to punish those breaking prison rules.

The AP was not granted access to the interrogation area. However, Hamas officials who debrief released Hamas prisoners said security agents have stopped abusing prisoners.

"Torture has stopped, following strong articles in the foreign media and threats by human rights organizations of suing Palestinian Authority officials," said Mahmoud Ramahi, a Hamas leader in the West Bank and a leading critic of the security forces in the past.

Two leading Palestinian rights groups, Al Haq and the Independent Palestinian Commission for Human Rights, both confirmed the abuse has stopped. Shahwan Jabarin of Al Haq said lesser violations persist, such as denying prisoners blankets for days at a time, but the phenomenon is not widespread.

US officials wouldn't comment, noting that they do not train the forces accused of past torture.

Human rights activists say many of the government's measures remain problematic, such as holding Hamas supporters for long periods without charge and firing civil servants believed to be sympathetic to the group. Ramahi estimated that 1,500 Hamas loyalists have been fired from government jobs in the West Bank.

But in Jneid Prison, life is getting a little better.

The cells are still grimy and crowded, with prisoners sleeping in metal bunk beds.

www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339384609&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[ninathedog]

Gaza Water Reservoirs Almost Dry

Thursday, 31 December 2009 11:29
Added by PT Editor maysaa jarour
The Palestine Telegraph — We Change Our World


Photo by Mohammed Asad

Gaza, December 31, 2009 (Pal Telegraph) - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has said that water reservoirs in the Gaza Strip are almost dry, that would increase the harshness of life for the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Strip. (over half of whom are CHILDREN -- www.google.com/search?q=gaza+population+statistics+children )


A UNEP report Wednesday said that water resources in the Gaza Strip had been exhausted by overuse in addition to pollution resulting from the last Israeli operation on the Gaza Strip.


If the abuse continues, the preservation of water resources in Gaza would be pretty hard to handle and the damage may be difficult to deal with, said the report, adding that the initial estimated budget to clean water resources in Gaza was USD 58 million.


The issue needs immediate attention from the global community because the innocent people of Gaza do not deserve an additional problem to be thrown at them, said the report.


The UNEP coordinates United Nations environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and encourages sustainable development through sound environmental practices.


It was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972 and has its headquarters in Nairobi. The UNEP also has six regional offices and various country offices.


The UNEP is the designated authority of the United Nations system in environmental issues at the global and regional level. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action.

www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/gaza-strip/3435-gaza-water-reservoirs-almost-dry


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United Nations Environment Programme
—Gaza—

[UNEP in the Regions > Current Activities > Gaza ]




Following the escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009, the Governing Council of UNEP, in its Decision 25/12, mandated the organization to initiate a post-conflict environmental assessment to examine the natural and environmental impacts on the Gaza Strip caused by the hostilities. UNEP was also requested to conduct an economic evaluation of the cost of environmental rehabilitation and restoration. 

In late January 2009, in the immediate aftermath of the hostilities, UNEP deployed a senior technical expert as part of the UN Early Recovery Needs Assessment mission to Gaza, to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of the recent hostilities, including the large quantities of rubble, asbestos and other hazardous waste; hazardous health care waste, and groundwater and soil contamination. The UN Early Recovery mission culminated in a Gaza Early Recovery Rapid Needs Assessment report, as well as a Palestinian National Early Recovery Plan for Gaza, prepared by UN agencies and the Palestinian ministries, with technical support from the UN, World Bank and the European Commission. The latter was launched in Sharm El-Sheikh on 2 March 2009.

In May 2009, UNEP undertook a detailed environmental assessment of the Gaza Strip, based on fieldwork and independent laboratory analysis. A multidisciplinary team of eight international environmental experts were  deployed to Gaza , and remained on the ground for ten days, conducting walkover inspections of a wide range of sites and collecting samples for laboratory analysis.

The main areas under investigation through the post-conflict environmental assessment include:

• Water and waste water management;

• Solid and hazardous waste management, including asbestos; and

• The coastal and marine environment.

As requested through Decision 25/12, UNEP experts also undertook an economic evaluation of the rehabilitation and restoration of the environmental damage in Gaza.

Together with concrete recommendations for rehabilitation, findings were published in the Environmental Assessment of the Gaza Strip report in September 2009. Download: ** www.unep.org/PDF/dmb/UNEP_Gaza_EA.pdf **

To learn more about UNEP’s previous work and related publications in the region please see past programmes in UNEP in the Regions.
** www.unep.org/conflictsanddisasters/UNEPintheRegions/PastProgrammes/OccupiedPalestinianTerritories/tabid/325/language/en-US/Default.aspx **



For more information on UNEP's work in the Gaza Strip please contact Muralee Thummarukudy,Project Coordinator on: [e-mail]

unep.org/conflictsanddisasters/UNEPintheRegions/CurrentActivities/Gaza/tabid/562/language/en-US/Default.aspx
 

[ninathedog]

United Nations Environment Programme
Environmental Assessment of the Gaza Strip

Table of contents

Foreword — 3
Acronyms and abbreviations — 4
Weights and measures — 5

1. Background — 6

2. Environmental assessment of the Gaza Strip — 11
2.1 Introduction — 11
2.2 Scope of the environmental assessment — 12
2.3 Environmental assessment methodology — 13
2.4 Background research — 15
2.5 Remote sensing analysis — 16
2.6 Field work — 18
2.7 Laboratory analysis — 26
2.8 Limitations and constraints — 26

3. Results and discussions — 27
3.1 Introduction — 27
3.2 Damages directly attributable to the recent escalation of violence — 27
3.3 Environmental issues pre-dating the recent escalation of hostilities that were aggravated by it — 38
3.4 Institutional assessment — 68

4. Recommendations — 69
4.1 Introduction — 69
4.2 Recommendations for the restoration of damage caused by the recent escalation of hostilities — 70
4.3 Recommendations for the remediation of pre-existing environmental degradation that was exacerbated by the recent hostilities — 70

5. Economic assessment — 72
5.1 Introduction — 72
5.2 Scope of the economic assessment — 72
5.3 Economic assessment methodology — 73
5.4 Limitations and constraints — 74
5.5 Findings — 75

Endnotes 85

Appendix I: UNEP Governing Council Decision 25/12: The environmental situation in the Gaza Strip — 87
Appendix II: List of assessments conducted in the Gaza Strip after the recent escalation of violence and hostilities — 88
Appendix III: References — 90
Appendix IV: Bibliography — 92
Appendix V: List of contributors — 96

............

Download document —
www.unep.org/PDF/dmb/UNEP_Gaza_EA.pdf

[ninathedog]

Water Sector Review
Wednesday, 28 October 2009

The Applied Research Institute — Jerusalem

DOWNLOAD PDFS --
www.arij.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=410&Itemid=52&lang=en

VOL I – Summary Report

Vol I - Summary Report

Vol II - Situation Analysis Report

Section 1 & 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6 & 7
Section 8 & 9
Section 10

Vol III Water Sector Review - Needs Assessment Report

Vol IV - ADC Recommendations

www.arij.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=410&Itemid=52&lang=en

[ninathedog]

Gaza on the Ground
Nine of Ten Gazans Living in Poverty

By Mohammed Omer
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Pages 18-19
December 2009



Children carry bottles and containers of water home from UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) headquarters in the Gaza Strip’s Khan Younis refugee camp, Oct. 27, 2009. (AFP photo/Said Khatib)

An Amnesty International report accused Israel of denying Palestinians adequate access to water while allowing
Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank almost unlimited supplies.

............

According to a September 2009 report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), “living conditions and access to sources of livelihood in Gaza are currently at their worst since 1967, with poverty affecting 90 percent of the population.” The World Bank says that Palestinians currently are experiencing the worst economic depression in modern history.

Israel’s excuse for its continuing siege on the citizens of Gaza—which it instituted following the January 2006 free and fair elections in which Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank elected a Hamas government—is that the small strip of land is a hostile entity and den of terrorism, and that the continued starving and impoverishment of its people is necessary for Israel’s security. Like most military actions, however, the siege of Gaza has little to do with religion or terrorism. Rather, it is primarily economic and political.

Off the coast of Gaza exists a large underground natural gas field — (google search: www.google.com/search?q=gaza+natural+gas ) Israel’s prize if Gaza is broken, for Tel Aviv covets the land and natural resources of Gaza, not the human beings who live there. The West Bank also possesses a natural gas reserve. According to more than one country’s intelligence sources, Israel began parallel drilling and siphoning off the West Bank natural gas through Jerusalem in the late 1990s. Under the Geneva Conventions, this is a war crime.

Prior to the 2006 elections, the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority controlled Gaza. That government—its corruption a major factor in its ouster from power—negotiated a deal whereby Israel would be allowed to withdraw the gas from the Gaza fields, keeping the bulk of the profits. The marked-up gas would then be sold back to its rightful owners in Gaza for their use (a practice Israel employs with regard to other basic necessities such as electricity, fuel and water).

The election of Hamas, however, caused the natural gas deal to fall apart, since Hamas contended that the resources of Gaza should benefit Gazans rather than Israelis. Realizing that bribes and theft would not work with the new Palestinian government, Israel decided to isolate and attempt to overthrow it, and imposed its draconian siege on Gaza and its 1.7 million residents—despite the fact that collective punishment also is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

Israel’s strategy is transparent: to methodically make life in Gaza impossible by destroying its economy, and thus each family’s ability to survive. Starved and desperate, the theory goes, the people of Gaza will rise up against and overthrow Hamas, thus enabling Israel to assist in reinstating a government it can control. After three and a half years, however, that has yet to occur.

Israel’s December-January military assault on Gaza caused an estimated $4 billion in damage—three times the value of the strip’s entire gross national product (GNP). Despite international pledges at the Sharm el-Sheikh donors’ conference this past March of over $4.5 billion in aid—much of which remains an unfulfilled promise—Gaza’s destroyed economy has not improved. The water, sewage and electricity infrastructure, already severely debilitated by the siege, is now stretched to breaking point.

Prior to Israel’s 1967 occupation of Gaza, the small region was essentially self-sufficient, thanks to its textiles, arts and agricultural products. Now, however, as a result of the siege, Gaza’s farmers have been unable to export most of their crops for the third year in a row, forcing thousands out of work and tens of thousands below the poverty line.

Mohammed Al Telbani’s Al Awda Biscuits Factory in the Gaza Strip is an example that can be multiplied by the thousands. Al Telbani’s factory was a successful business with 400 employees, producing 40 types of chocolates, biscuits and ice-cream. “I never thought the day would come when my 400 workers would be laid off,” he lamented. “It’s something that never entered my mind.”

Businesses anywhere in the world need raw materials, human capital and cash flow in order to survive. Of late, Israel allows three types of raw materials into Gaza: “sugar, flour and butter,” enumerated Al Telbani. Among the more than 100 prohibited materials he requires that Israel prohibits from entering Gaza are cartons, paper, plastic covers, chocolate, hygienic materials, and spare parts for machines.

Even if Al Telbani could find the necessary items, however, he would be unable to purchase them, because his finances are controlled by The Bank of Israel—which in January officially cut its ties with all banks in Gaza.

Gaza’s Banking Crisis

Americans who have lost their homes and jobs as a result of the current financial and mortgage meltdown are only too familiar with the economic calamity bankers and financial institutions can cause. Imagine if the banks and corporations inflicting the damage were not even U.S. institutions! Welcome to Gaza, where Israel, rather than Palestinians, controls the banking system. Israeli financial institutions have imposed a series of hidden controls that paralyze cash flow and prevent commerce and employment from functioning effectively.

Even local banks have restricted loans to Gazans because of the risk of nonpayment. “The siege has affected banks’ ability to offer standard facilities to people,” said Thaer Hamaied, head of public relations and marketing at the Bank of Palestine Ltd. “In the West Bank our bank has not been affected as much as Gaza,” he added. “The investment rate in the Gazan bank is much slower than in our branches in West Bank, where there is noticeable improvement.”

For several months, Israel’s largest bank, Hapoalim, and others, backed by the Israeli central bank, have refused to handle monetary transfers to Gaza, including benefits to disabled workers who have been injured during work-related incidents in Israel (see July 2009 Washington Report, p. 20). Furthermore, Israel is responsible for reprinting paper money that has become worn out. According to a Gaza bank official, however, “Israel hasn’t been doing this lately, thereby causing a money shortage.” U.N. agencies have made a deal to allow U.S. dollars into the Strip, he added, but only to pay wages to U.N. staff.

The World Bank has warned that “the liquidity crisis could lead to the collapse of the commercial banking system in Gaza.” In the eyes of Gaza economists, the pauperization of Gaza’s economy is not accidental but deliberate.

According to some experts, the economic disaster in Gaza has been a long time coming. A key element of the Oslo agreement between Israel and the PLO was the 1994 Paris Economic Protocol, resulting in Gaza and the West Bank becoming economically dependent on Israel. All Palestinian imports and exports had to pass through Israeli sea- and airports and border crossings. Moreover, Israel was given responsibility for collecting and transferring taxes on trade to the new Palestinian Authority, thereby making it the “gatekeeper” of Gaza’s and the West Bank’s economy. As part of its attempt to crush Hamas in recent years, Israel has refused to remit to the Palestinian Authority the taxes collected on its behalf.

The basis for some of Israel’s actions appears to be a Sept. 19, 2007 cabinet decision declaring Gaza a “hostile territory.” The Olmert government decided to restrict “the passage of people to and from Gaza” and to further reduce supplies of fuel and electricity. The resulting border closure caused Gaza to lose many potentially lucrative trade contracts, shutting down as it did nearly all avenues of trade.

In 2008 the Palestinian economy lost ground for the ninth year in a row, the UNCTAD report found. The 2 percent economic growth for that year, which included substantial donor support of U.S. $1.9 billion, represented a one-third drop in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) since 1999, despite extensive reforms implemented by the Palestinian Authority.

The economic decline is rooted in Israel’s closure policy, the erosion of the Palestinian productive base, the loss of some of the West Bank’s most fertile land and natural resources to the Israeli separation wall, and expanding settlement activities, the report contends.

“The net result of four decades of occupation,” it concluded, “are expanded Israeli settlements and controls, combined with diminishing Palestinian economic policy space, reduced physical territory, and reduced access to natural and economic resources.”

The Gaza Ghetto

As were the Jews of Warsaw during World War II, 21st century Gazans find themselves surrounded by walls and an occupying military, and dependent upon tunnels for trade and the most basic of life’s necessities, from fuel to toilet paper. What little money people have exits Gaza through the tunnels into Egypt, where these staples are purchased and smuggled back. No money returns to Gaza—there is nothing for Egyptians or anyone abroad to buy—creating a trade deficit of 100 percent. “Sixty percent of our business used to be exports to the West Bank and Jordan,” said Al Telbani. Today 100 of his 400 former employees are lucky if they can work 12 days a month and supplies manage to make it to Gaza through the tunnels.

Al Telbani used to be able to buy packing cartons from Israel for 2 shekels each. Today tunnel merchants charge him 9 shekels per carton, and availability is erratic. Even if he had access to the raw materials, however, Al Telbani still faces the challenge of who can afford to buy his products. There was a time when Gazans could work in Israel after obtaining the necessary entry permit. Even that option has been taken away, however.

It remains an open question how businessmen such as Al Telbani can be expected to keep their doors open and meet their expenses in the face of a foreign banking system out to crush him, border guards preventing raw materials from getting into Gaza and exports from going out, a bombed infrastructure, a foreign military that might bomb his building at any time, and a market of unemployed people confronting ever-rising prices.

According to international sources, 98 percent of Gaza’s 3,900 factories have been forced to close; general unemployment has reached 45 percent, the highest in the world, while in the private sector it stands at 70 percent; and more than four in five Gazans depend on food aid from the United Nations. A senior U.N. official said of Gaza’s economic situation: “It was bad before, but it’s worse now, and it’s not getting any better.”

Palestinians believe this deadly economic disaster has been as carefully planned by the Israeli government as are its periodic lethal military assaults on the citizens of Gaza.

Nevertheless, despite Israel’s unrelenting efforts to destroy Gaza and Hamas, Gazans continue to survive and pray for the day when they may lead normal lives, raise their crops, feed and educate their children and not feel terror each time a helicopter hovers overhead.

In the aftermath of Israel’s massive winter assault on Gaza, several humanitarian and human rights organizations now describe that small strip of land bordering the Mediterranean as the poorest place on earth. The disaster confronting Gazans is not a natural one, however. The poverty Gazans struggle to endure has been created by man—and is wholly reversible through the simple act of ending Israel’s illegal siege.

Award-winning journalist Mohammed Omer reports on the Gaza Strip, where he maintains the Web site <www.rafahtoday.org>. He can be reached at < [e-mail] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >.

wrmea.org/component/content/article/345-2009-december/6943-nine-of-ten-gazans-living-in-poverty.html

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtnBSLjaLWs



Troubled Waters:
Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water

Demand Dignity, Gaza, Israel, Middle East, Refugees |
Posted by: Edith Garwood, October 29, 2009 at 9:42 PM
blog.amnestyusa.org/

Israel is denying Palestinians their right to access to adequate water by using discriminatory and restrictive policies.

Donatella Rovera, senior researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories said, “Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies. In Gaza the Israeli blockade has made an already dire situation worse.”

The report, “Troubled Waters: Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water,” says Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT, while restricting Palestinian access to 20 per cent. Israel takes all the water from the Jordan River, the Palestinians get none. Download PDF of report via blog.amnestyusa.org/refugees/troubled-waters-palestinians-denied-fair-access-to-water/#more-5951

In the Gaza Strip, 90 to 95 per cent of the water from its only water resource, the Coastal Aquifer, is contaminated and unfit for human consumption. Yet, Israel does not allow the transfer of water from the Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank to Gaza. And because of the blockade on the Gaza Strip and the stringent restrictions imposed by Israel on the entry into Gaza of material and equipment necessary for the development and repair of infrastructure have caused further deterioration of the water and sanitation situation in Gaza, which has reached a crisis point.

A 12 page digest, “Thirsting for Justice: Palestinians access to water restricted” and the feature story of West Bank farmer, Mahmoud al-’Alam, about the day Israeli bulldozers came and destroyed his water supply and his livelihood can also be found on the Amnesty International website along with the main report. (PDFs available for download via link below)

blog.amnestyusa.org/refugees/troubled-waters-palestinians-denied-fair-access-to-water/#more-5951

[ninathedog]

Troubled Waters
Amnesty International

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION — 3

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND — 6

WATER RESOURCES IN ISRAEL/OPT — 8
Groundwater Resources — 8
Surface Water Resources — 8

UNEQUAL ACCESS TO WATER — 9
The West Bank: Israeli over-exploitation of shared resources — 9
Gaza: unsafe water supplies — 10

ISRAELI MILITARY ORDERS — 11

OSLO ACCORDS: INSTITUTIONALIZING ISRAELI CONTROL OF RESOURCES — 17
Inequality in access to water resources codified — 20
Israeli Claims: Maintaining the status quo — 21

POLICIES OF DENIAL — 23

THE WATER CRISIS IN GAZA — 25
Dwindling resources — 26

THE JOINT WATER COMMITTEE (JWC) – A PRETENCE OF COOPERATION — 28

MILITARY PERMIT REGIME HINDERING WATER PROJECTS — 29

RESTRICTING ACCESS TO WATER AS A MEANS OF EXPULSION — 36
Destruction of water cisterns – Vulnerable communities targeted — 36
The Southern Hebron Hills — 38
Confiscation of water tankers in the Jordan Valley — 40
Destruction of agricultural water facilities — 43
Unlawful Israeli settlements connected to the water network — 45

THE FENCE/WALL - BARRING ACCESS TO WATER — 46
Water-rich land inaccessible — 47
Bearing the cost – solving the problems created by the fence/wall — 51

MOVEMENT RESTRICTIONS AFFECTING ACCESS TO WATER — 52

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE DESTROYED IN MILITARY ATTACKS — 56
Damage to water facilities in Gaza during Operation “Cast Lead” — 58
Damage to water facilities during Israeli military campaigns — 59
Impact on Health — 60

ISRAELI SETTLERS’ ATTACKS ON WATER FACILITIES — 62

PA/PWA FAILURES AND MISMANAGEMENT — 65

SEWAGE DISPOSAL MALPRACTICE – ENDANGERING WATER RESOURCES — 67
Failure to protect the water supply in the OPT: Israel — 68
Failure to protect the water supply in the OPT: PA/PWA — 71

THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL DONORS — 73

INTERNATIONAL LAW: THE RIGHT TO ACCESS TO WATER — 75
International Human Rights Law — 76
International Humanitarian Law — 80
Applicability of international law in the OPT — 81
International law and the use of transboundary groundwater resources — 82

CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATIONS — 85

GLOSSARY — 89

ENDNOTES — 90


download pdf
blog.amnestyusa.org/refugees/troubled-waters-palestinians-denied-fair-access-to-water/#more-5951

[ninathedog]

Home > Life & Culture > Performing Arts

Thousands of Gaza children try for
kite-flying record on Beit Lahiya beach

Ma'an News, Aug 10, 2009


www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o_Z_kYoGSM

UNRWA called it a record-breaking day Thursday as 6,000 of Gaza's children from 119 schools brought their homemade kites out to the Beit Lahiya beach and set them aloft in the wind.

Observers counted at least 3,000 kites, shattering the previous record of 710, registered in Germany.

The day was organized by UNRWA summer camps, which operate throughout the Gaza Strip and host 240,000 children each summer. Each camp was allotted space on the long beach, and volunteers from the International Committee of the Red Cross supervised and registered the name of each child participating.

According to Al-Jazeera, Guinness Book staff were invited to verify the record-breaking attempt, but the organization cited a UK government warning against travel to the Strip and declined the invitation, sending detailed guidelines to organizers instead.

Guidelines stated that all kites counted in the record had to remain aloft simultaneously for at least 30 seconds.

imeu.net/news/article0017166.shtml

google search for images of Beit Lahiya —
images.google.com/images?hl=1&q=beit+lahiya&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=20

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Flying Higher than the Warplanes:
the Kites of Gaza

Tuesday, June 28, 2005
article and photo: Mohammed Omer

An article Mohammed did for Morgenbladet (where it appears in Norwegian.) As you'll see, living under occupation changes even the simplest things (posted by Judith McNally aka "Erika"— www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=judith+mcnally+norman+mailer&aq=f&oq=&aqi= (Rest In Peace, Judith, we carry on.)

These days around the summer solstice, the sun rises over the Negev a few minutes earlier every day, brightening the cloudless sky. Before it finishes its long arc to set over the Mediterranean, hidden from Rafah's refugee camps by barbed wire, walls, settlements and Israeli sniper towers, the noon heat will bake the sky almost white. Throughout the day, Apache gunships occasionally hover, unmanned drones come by now and then, but there are new squadrons of manmade objects in the sky as well—sometimes one or two, sometimes dozens of colorful kites soaring above the tents, the rubble, the tiny houses and narrow streets of the camps. Seen from a distance, they are diving, swooping, soaring shapes of brilliant red, blue, green, and white. You have to get closer to hear the delighted laughter of the children flying them, closer still to see their smiles.


farm3.static.flickr.com/2449/4288754808_8f55dc8955_o.jpg

Like children everywhere, the kite-flyers are fascinated by birds, planes, cartoon characters like Superman and Batman—anything and everything that flies. Palestinian children have seen skies full of American-made Apache warships for years, but most of the children now flying kites in Rafah are too young to remember clearly that short time before the Intifada when Palestine's national airline, with its tiny fleet of jets, was the pride and hope of the nation. Gaza International Airport is just a few miles east of Rafah, its runways destroyed by the Israeli Occupation Army, but its terminal crew still reports to work daily and maintains the building as best they can. With all the plans for Israeli disengagement from Gaza this summer, repairing and re-opening the Gaza International Airport is a key item in Palestinan-Israeli negotiations about post-disengagement Gaza.

While the politicians do what politicians do best—namely, talk, and talk some more—Rafah's children have mastered flight that requires no salaries for pilots, air hostesses, or ground crews, no jet fuel, planes, or airports. With paper, string, a bit of glue and lots of ingenuity, their kites soar aloft every summer day in Rafah. Instead of carrying passengers and cargo, these flimsy constructions are still strong enough to carry the dreams, questions, hopes, and demands of the children who send them into the sky.

"My kite carries a message," 13-year-old Hussni Hamad explained. "My dream is that the Israeli Apache pilots will see the question written plainly on it, namely, 'Why are you shelling us?'" Almost every Palestinian could ask that question, as it is rare for a day to go by even now without at least one person in Gaza being killed or injured by Israeli aerial attack. Even now, during a supposed cease-fire, shelling is a near-daily occurrence.

A few meters away from Hussni, Imad was hot and exhausted, but determined to finish his kite that day. The frame was made of dried ditch reeds; the paper covering it was designed with the colors of the Palestinian flag, black, green, white, and red. But this kite is far more than a pleasant toy for Imad, for in the center he has pasted a photograph of a young man. When asked who it is, Imad pauses, seems to go deep inside himself before explaining the man in the photo is his beloved older brother, dead nearly two years now, murdered by the Israeli Occupation forces in the winter of 2003. He has a dream, he says shyly. A simple one. Maybe he can make his kite, the marvelous kite honoring his brother, fly higher than the Israeli warplanes and Apaches. "I feel freedom; I feel like I'm flying through my kite," he says. "Though someday," he adds, "I hope to travel by airplane."

Imad probably doesn't realize that people have been flying kites at least 3000 years, or that in sending his dead brother's photo soaring into the heavens, he is creating his own version of symbols found in many cultures. In Chinese folklore, colorful kites symbolize the souls of honored ancestors rising to eternity. Very likely, the more enterprising Rafah kite-makers who turn out an extra or two to sell to the other kids, also don't realize that in many countries, elaborate kites have been prized and valuable art works for centuries.

The children of Gaza have also used their kites to send messages to one another. Last autumn, when the villages of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya were under prolonged siege, children in nearby areas flew kites daily to show their solitaridy with their neighbors under attack. Their hope was that when people looked up, they would see not just drones and gunships, but those bright kites saying, "We know what's happening. We care. We support you. Don't give up hope."

Growing up under Occupation has made the physical world tiny for the children of Gaza. There are the beautiful beaches they cannot visit, the warm nights when it's too dangerous to venture out, the sniper towers that make it dangerous to play, the friends and relatives in the next village they cannot visit. But the extent of their resilience is limitless, as they send their vivid messages of hope, their demand for peace, soaring into the sky day after brilliant summer day.

rafahnotes.blogspot.com/2005/06/flying-higher-than-warplanes-kites-of.html

[ninathedog]

Gisha:
Legal Center for Freedom of Movement
calls on the State of Israel to fully open Gaza's crossings and to allow the real victims of the closure — 1.5 million human beings — the freedom of movement necessary to realize their dreams and aspirations.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzqw7oBZT8k

About Gisha
www.gisha.org

Gisha is an Israeli not-for-profit organization, founded in 2005, whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents. Gisha promotes rights guaranteed by international and Israeli law.
 
Since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel's military has developed a complex system of rules and sanctions to control the movement of the 3.4 million Palestinians who live there. The restrictions violate the fundamental right of Palestinians to freedom of movement. As a result, additional basic rights are violated, including the right to life, the right to access medical care, the right to education, the right to livelihood, the right to family unity and the right to freedom of religion.
 
Gisha, whose name means both "access" and "approach," uses legal assistance and public advocacy to protect the rights of Palestinian residents. Because freedom of movement is a precondition for exercising other basic rights, Gisha’s work has a multiplier effect in helping residents of the occupied territories access education, jobs, family members and medical care.
 
As part of its legal work, Gisha represents individuals and organizations in Israeli administrative proceedings and courts. Gisha’s legal activity is based on Israeli law, international human rights and humanitarian law.
 
As part of its advocacy work, Gisha reaches out to members of the public and opinion-makers using publications in various media, in order to promote awareness and sensitivity for human rights in the occupied territories. Gisha also advocates directly before decision-makers to promote policies that respect human rights.
 
Gisha is operated by a professional staff and guided by a board that includes legal academics and practitioners, women and men, Arabs and Jews, who have helped shape Israeli human rights law through their advocacy and writings.
 
Gisha is registered in Israel as an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit organization. Gisha is generously supported by donations from Israel and abroad.


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Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine:
www.vtjp.org/



Mapping Israeli Apartheid in the Palestinian West Bank:
Israeli settlements, apartheid wall and fence, closures, and territorial fragmentation.

KEY: www.vtjp.org/background/MappingApartheidWestBank.htm

The Palestinian West Bank, bordered by the 1949 Green Line.
• Israeli settlements and settlement blocks established since 1967 in violation of international law and UN Security Council Resolutions.
• Completed and planned sections of Israel's "security fence" - the Wall.
• Sections of the Wall under construction.
• Palestinian areas completely surrounded by the Wall and/or additional barriers.
• Palestinian areas trapped between the Wall and the Green Line.
• Boundaries of Palestinian "enclaves" established by Israel. Travel between "enclaves" controlled by Israeli army.
• Trisection boundaries established by Israel. Permits required to travel between sections.
• Jordan Valley now virtually off-limits to Palestinians.

This animated map is largely based on information from OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)

Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel works to support the survival of the Palestinian people and to end the illegal, immoral, and brutal Israeli occupation through education, advocacy, and action. We are committed to the principles of self-determination for the Palestinian people, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and full civil and political rights for all Palestinians in order to promote the equality and safety of both Palestinians and Israelis. For more information, e-mail [e-mail]

mission statement continues — www.vtjp.org/aboutus/aboutus.htm

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Speech in Burlington, Vermont (USA)
by Holocaust survivor Nina Parris


www.youtube.com/watch?v=79DSpA9ZmYg

Nina Parris, an 83 year-old Jewish Vermonter and Holocaust survivor, spoke at a rally and march in Burlington, Vermont on January 17, 2009, which was held to protest Israeli atrocities in Gaza, Israel's crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the attempted genocide of the Palestinian people. Dr. Parris came to the United States from Berlin, Germany, in 1937 as an immigrant to escape the Nazis. Her father was Dr. Martin Gumpert, a German-Jewish poet and physician; her mother was Dr. Charlotte Blashko, also a physician.

[ninathedog]

EDIT:


www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdFVHlcxDGM

2 August 2009
Israeli security forces have forcibily evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem after a court rejected an appeal against their eviction. The al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun families who were evicted on Sunday have been living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood since 1956. Israel has reportedly set aside the land their houses were built on for a planned hotel project. The eviction comes amid international calls for Israel to halt settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land. A large police force was involved in the operation in Sheikh Jarrah, one of the most sensitive and upmarket Arab neighbourhoods closest to the so-called Green Line which separates east and west Jerusalem.

Violent scuffles
Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeeras correspondent in East Jerusalem, said: According to the Hanoun family, the members that I have spoken to, at about 6am as they were sleeping inside the house, Israeli police officers broke in and we can see the shattered glass all over the floor outside. They say that the police were armed and they forcibly evicted both the international activists that were staying at the house and members of the family themselves. Members of the family say the police officers beat them with batons and children as young as six were man-handled scuffles were seen and heard between the police and the two families trying to get back into their houses, she said. Tadros said the international activists were arrested and personal items belonging to the families such as cameras, laptops and computers have all been confiscated.

english.aljazeera.net/news/mid...

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Land sales row mars Orthodox Christmas
in Bethlehem

Palestinian Christian groups are boycotting celebrations of
Orthodox Christmas in Bethlehem, accusing their Church of selling land to Israelis.

BBC.com
Page last updated at 10:50 GMT, Wednesday, 6 January 2010


farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4250976825_0176732546_o.jpg

At least 100 protesters gathered with banners saying: "The Holy Land is not for sale," ahead of festivities to mark Christmas Eve for the Orthodox Church.

They accuse the Greek Orthodox Church of selling and leasing land in the West Bank to Israeli organisations.

The Church said it would not comment, on such a festive occasion.

The Council of Arab Orthodox Institutions and Organisations in Palestine said the current patriarch, Theophilos III, had continued to allow Israeli investors to lease Church land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The area was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Israeli-Arab war, and is where the Palestinians want their future state.

Riot gear

The Christian groups mentioned one specific strategic piece of land, in the Bethlehem area, near the Israeli settlement of Har Homa, but said it was part of a wider pattern of deals set up under the previous patriarch.

Patriarch Irineos was ousted in 2005 over his alleged involvement in the leasing of Church land in Jerusalem's heavily contested Old City to Jewish investors.

There were remarkable scenes as the current patriarch arrived escorted by Palestinian security guards clad in riot gear, reports the BBC's Jon Donnison in Bethlehem.

The Scout groups' marching bands who would usually welcome the patriarch with bagpipes were silent as the church leader arrived.

Reprisal attacks

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who would also usually be present, is travelling overseas and it is unclear whether he is officially boycotting the event.

Palestinian owners of land in the West Bank, particularly in East Jerusalem where the Palestinians want their future capital, are often offered large sums of money to sell to organisations seeking to expand the Jewish presence in the area.

Palestinians who sell are at risk of reprisal attacks.

About 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in settlements illegal under international law.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8443290.stm

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdz2Dsr2X4w

Ta'ayush along with other Israeli peace groups have been marching from West Jerusalem to Sheikh Jarrah to protest the actions of the current Israeli government in the neighborhood. This is video from the march on New Year's day 2010.

For more information www.taayush.org and www.josephdana.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSaG8m0ymmI

Some 500 demonstrators gathered at the top of the street that Jewish settlers are taking over in Shiekh Jarakh in East Jerusalem. The demonstrators organized march from West Jerusalem, sang songs and beat their drums in solidarity with the Palestinians kicked out of their homes by the settlers.The good policemen of Jerusalem, who have probably not read the editorial in this morning's Ha'aretz, decided that a demonstration with no arrests would be unworthy of its name, even though the march and demonstration were coordinated with it ahead of time. Police started arresting people who were already arrested in the past, claiming that they were in violation of their parole. To their great shame a member of the Jerusalem municipality was present with a copy of the appeals' court ruling, canceling the activists' ban from the area, and so most detainees were later released.

The massive demonstration went on with great energy for two hours, and enjoyed the presence of the media.. It is believed that these demonstrations will keep growing in the coming future.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfXDzyzkUVA

On Friday 18-12-09, 6 musicians were arrested by Israeli police, in a well prepared ambush. They were arrested while walking and drumming peacefully down Hanevi'im st. (in West Jerusalem) to the Palestinian Neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah (in East Jerusalem). At a non- violent demonstration against the occupation of Palestinian houses by Israeli settlers 21 more people were violently arrested by Israeli police.

[ninathedog]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjS32CTSTRs

A year since the war in Gaza—The siege continues those responsible were not questioned. 1,400 Gazans killed, most of them civilians, terrible destruction carried out indiscriminatingly. The Goldstone Report has determined war crimes were committed by Israel.

Though the fighting stopped, the siege goes on, Gaza was turned into one big prison. Gaza is cut off from the world, Gazans from their families and their people.

Demonstrators demand: End the Siege of Gaza! Those responsible must stand trial!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=irlTe2tFlvc

Sunday, December 27, 2009 demonstration by Anarchists Against the Wall near Gaza border against the Israeli siege of Gaza

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjEiSAOExw8

Protest by villagers of Ni'ilin, international and Israeli activists against the separation fence cutting through the village's land, on Friday, the 25th of December 2009

google search: environmental impact of tear gas
www.google.com/search?q=environmental+impact+of+tear+gas


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EDIT:


FOCUS: OPINON
Viva Palestina's bumpy road
By Dr Hanan Chehata


photo: Chehata says most of volunteers joined the group because of their convictions [Reuters]

In an international effort to show solidarity with the Palestinian people, Viva Palestina (VP) volunteers from around the world have left their families and in some cases resigned from their jobs in order to take part in this humanitarian undertaking.

They have done this for no other reason than that they feel strongly about the crisis in Gaza. The images that they saw flash across their television screens during the assault on Gaza in 2008-9 has been seared into their minds.

It is sad that it took such a horrific tragedy to wake people up but one inevitable consequence of the Israeli attacks and their cruel blockade was certainly to educate the world as to the reality of the situation.

Civil action

Until that point many people could not even pinpoint Gaza on a map. Now they are spending their time and risking their personal safety to defend Gaza and its people.

Seeing the images of the chaos and destruction during the Gaza assault certainly mobilised a lot of people into civil action.

Immediately following the atrocities, those who were appalled by the number of civilians killed, who had seen the UN buildings, schools, mosques and hospitals deliberately targeted decided that they could no longer sit back or pretend that they did not know what was taking place.

Ignorance was no longer an excuse. Action was called for and multiple tactics were employed from the grassroots level upwards. Protests and demonstrations were held, MPs were bombarded with emails and letters, campaigns to boycott Israeli goods were put into action and yet, while all of this has drawn attention to the plight of the Gazans, the situation has not improved.

In fact, the siege is tightening and the condition of the people living there has deteriorated considerably. More direct action was clearly required. People were becoming increasingly disillusioned by the inaction of their governments and, in some cases, their direct complicity in Israel's oppression and aggression against the Palestinian people.

Thus enters VP 2009. Here was finally a way for individuals who felt betrayed by their government's to take direct action and be themselves a tangible part of the solution.

By physically taking in the aid that Israel would not otherwise let through, not only is the convoy alleviating the short term suffering of the Palestinian people by providing them with desperately needed medicine, clothes and other vital humanitarian aid but it is also refocusing attention on the ongoing crisis that exists in Gaza.

However, in a fairly unexpected turn of events a new actor has walked into the scene. If you ask anybody the question, "who is responsible for the siege on Gaza and the suffering of the Palestinian people?", they will inevitably respond "Israel", and rightly so.

Cairo's complicity

While Egyptian government has been complicit for a very long time now, its wrongdoings have been of a secondary nature. However, somehow, recently Egyptian government is succeeding, much to Israel's delight, in diverting attention away from the Israelis.

This has primarily been done by their insistence on placing unreasonable obstacles in the path of the convoy. For instance, the VP Convoy had planned to enter Gaza on December 27 to mark the first anniversary of the attack.

That was intended to show how, one year on, the siege continues to compound the suffering of the Gazans. They have not been allowed to rebuild their homes or their lives.

Instead of being in Gaza and handing over the aid to the waiting recipients on 27th of December as planned, the VP Convoy was stranded in a compound in Jordan with hundreds of vans and ambulances full of aid. The reason for this was that Egypt had refused to grant permission for the convoy to pass through the necessary part of their territory.

The Egyptian government has been extremely uncooperative and have fought VP every step of the way. While VP has done their utmost to accede to their demands, the Egyptian authorities continued to place more onerous conditions which George Galloway, the British MPand VP leader, has said he is unwilling to undertake.

These include dealing with the Israeli government directly. Why should VP have to deal with Israel when the issue is about taking aid from one Arab country to another?

Extra cost

Eventually, we were forced to return to Syria from where we chartered special flights to transport us to El-Arish while our vehicles were loaded onto ferries.

The extra cost, which exceeded $300,000, could have meant the total collapse of the mission because the sum required was most certainly beyond the reach of individual convoy members.

Thanks to the generosity of the Turkish contingent and a few other Arab donors, we managed to continue with our journey.

There is absolutely no justification for the Egyptians' stalling tactics. Even now after our arrival in El-Arish and in spite of previous agreements, we are confronted with new obstacles, namely the number of vehicles allowed to enter.

Egypt refused access to Gaza, angering the convoy of activists [AFP]
Instead of making the transition as easy as possible for those who have taken it upon themselves to do the job that frankly Arab governments should be doing, Egypt seems to be almost punishing the Convoy for daring to try and help the people of Palestine and are playing a power game, trying to show who is in control, a completely unnecessary game to play, against merely powerless individuals, considering what is at stake.

Frustration, anger and disgust with the Egyptian government have naturally increased incrementally as the days have passed. They have been the subject of much vilification.

I have spoken to many people who have vowed to boycott Egypt from now on.

It is bad enough that Egypt is allying itself with Israel, the aggressor, against the victim, Palestine, by tightening the siege and restricting access to Gaza via the Rafah border crossing but shortly before we left home the news that they were building an underground steel wall at Rafah to block off access to the tunnels, the one lifeline to Gaza, set the tone for everyone's disgust.

Worse still, while we are sitting miles away from our destination, stranded and tired we received news that Benjamin Netanyahu was welcomed into Cairo with open arms. What a disgraceful state of affairs! A convoy of humanitarian aid is treated with hostility while the perpetrators war crimes are welcomed with open arms!

Role of villain

Egypt has had every opportunity to redeem and to recast itself in the role of the hero. Instead they have needlessly and voluntarily cast themselves in the role of villain.

I am half English and half Egyptian and used to be so proud of that fact but since Egypt have chosen to ally itself so unnecessarily and immorally with Israel, I feel a profound sense of shame.

When Convoy members know of my heritage, I am bombarded with a tirade of very reasonable questions including "Why is Egypt adding to the suffering of the Palestinian people?" "Why are the Egyptians not helping their Muslim brothers and sisters - aren't they part of the Muslim Ummah (community) as well?" These are all perfectly reasonable questions to which I have no answers.

Now that we are on its territory, all that is left is to call upon Egypt allow our convoy through! I love Egypt and I love its people and have to keep reminding those that I meet that the Egyptian people are not being fairly represented by their government.

I fear that if it does not change its policies immediately they will be branded irrevocably with the same label deserved by Israel, War Criminals and villains of modern history.

Dr Hanan Chehata is travelling with the Viva Palestina convoy. She is director of public relations at the Middle East Monitor (MEMO), London. Her blogs from the convoy can be read on www.memonitor.org.uk

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.


In depth
• 'Fighting to break Gaza siege'
• Egypt blocks US activists' march
• Video: Gaza aid held up in Jordan


english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/01/20101633050183414.html

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hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TUNNEL_LIVING_VEGAS?SITE=OKOKL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Jan 4, 5:42 AM EST

Tunnels beneath Vegas a refuge for homeless people
By OSKAR GARCIA
Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Underneath its glitzy casinos, far from the bright marquees, there is another Las Vegas, a pitch-black, dank underworld virtually unknown and unseen by those who live, work and play above.

About 300 people - mostly men battling demons of various addictions - live in the underground storm system built to protect the desert playground from the infrequent cloudburst.

There's no sign or word of welcome down here. Drug use is nearly universal. Most people carry makeshift weapons and the police don't often come unless they're called.

But the denizens have found a haven in the labyrinth of concrete tunnels that snake beneath the city and its suburbs.

In a place where total darkness can be just one bend away, visitors to this urban netherworld stumble across the unexplainable. A beat-up teddy bear lies next to a dirty chef's knife propped up against a wall. Graffiti turns into murals near sparse pockets of light.

A scruffy black cat's meow is startling as it scrambles in a pile of junk to escape a flashlight's beam. The echoes of footsteps change as boots hit standing water, or accidentally kick empty beer bottles as they tiptoe past midday sleepers. Fetid smells of garbage, dirty water and wet cloth waft through the corridors.

Each subterranean encampment can be as spartan as a few worn blankets, or as elaborate as an apartment fitted with queen-size beds, dining utensils and knickknacks.

One camp just west of the Las Vegas Strip is wallpapered with hardcore pornography, a collage of magazine pages modified with hand-drawn comic book-like dialogue bubbles giving voice to naked women.

"You'd be surprised the things that wash down in this channel ... it's hard to even describe," said Rick "Iron" Cobble, a 45-year-old Oklahoma native, who sleeps in a 5-foot-high tunnel near the south end of the glittering Strip, not far from the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign.

Cobble, battling severe drug addiction while living near a mound of washed up garbage, said his only belongings are a small mound of blankets and his clothes.

"Right now I'm just trying to survive," Cobble said. "That's the only way you can put it."

Rich Penksa, a retired correctional sergeant who began traversing the tunnels earlier this year for a nonprofit's homeless outreach, said he first heard about the tunnels years ago from prison inmates who told tales of living under Sin City when not behind bars.

"I don't think I've ever felt odder than when I'm down in that tunnel environment," said Penksa, who once encountered thousands of spiders feasting on the baby mosquitoes multiplying in standing water. Penksa frequents the tunnels for HELP of Southern Nevada, which is working to place tunnel residents into more conventional homes.

What started as a piecemeal set of individual drains is now part of a 500-mile maze of pipes, washes, basins and open channels, said Betty Hollister, spokeswoman for the Clark County Regional Flood Control District that built the system. Local jurisdictions maintain it using sales tax money at a cost of $7.9 million last fiscal year.

About 200 miles of the system - mostly built since 1986 - are underground drains ranging from 2-foot pipes to 12-foot-high, 20-foot-wide reinforced concrete boxes that shape channels, Hollister said.

The people who call these tunnels home - mostly men ages 35 to 50, are a distinct breed, Penksa said.

"Even the folks that are homeless above ground are very leery of the inhabitants of the tunnels. They're kind of feared," he said.

Annie Wilson, homeless liaison for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said officers usually only go into the tunnels when they are called or if they are doing homeless outreach.

Penksa said he has encountered a few children and women living alone below, but no families.

Most inhabitants don't like intruders and avoid conversation.

Eric D., a 40-year-old New Yorker who has spent the past five years sleeping between four tunnels near various casinos, said he's largely left alone in these desolate hallways - leaving him free to use drugs.

"Down here, we're out of sight, out of mind," he said. "Which is cool with me because that's the way I prefer it."

Eric, who asked that his last name not be used, said people end up in the tunnels for a lot of different reasons - he's addicted to methamphetamines and marijuana.

"This is the worst situation anybody could ever be in, and I did it to myself," he said.

Eric said the pitch black passageways are livable if you're not claustrophobic, don't mind cockroaches or black widow spiders and can tolerate "nasty" smells that get worse when things get wet.

Even small amounts of rain make the tunnels dangerous.

"When the water comes, if you're not ready for it, it'll take you," Cobble said. "It's not like a little trickle."

The drains and 82 basins work together like bathtubs, with rainwater filling basins then draining through large output pipes, Hollister said. The system, driven by gravity, propels water east to Lake Mead. The change in elevation from Red Rock Canyon - 2,800 feet, or twice the height of the Stratosphere Tower - means water can travel as fast as 30 mph through the tunnels with levels rising as much as one foot per minute, Hollister said.

Eric is known as the weatherman among his tunnel neighbors because he spends hours watching television in the casinos' sports books and keeping up with weather forecasts.

"I've seen these things fill all the way to the roof," he said. "If somebody doesn't watch the weather, and you get caught, you can lose your life in here."

Fortunately, Las Vegas went 347 days without any rainfall in 2009, and had only five days where at least 0.10 of an inch of precipitation fell. Still, since 1960, there have been 31 flood deaths in the city, according to the flood district, including five deaths since 1992 believed to be homeless people.

Matthew O'Brien, a writer who began exploring the tunnels in 2002 and wrote a book about them published in 2007, said people live in the tunnels for a wide range of reasons, including to get out of the desert summer heat that easily passes 100 degrees.

O'Brien said the vast majority are addicted to either drugs, alcohol, gambling or some combination of the vices.

"In these tunnels, no one bothers you, no one harasses you - there's a permanence," he said. "When you leave and come back, you know your home's going to be there in the tunnel."

O'Brien said the tunnel residents largely live off the excesses of the casino corridor by panhandling or cashing out unplayed slot machines - a practice known as the credit hustle.

Eric says the hustle, while once lucrative, has become less reliable as Sin City battles a harsh economic downturn keyed by deteriorating tourism.

"The money, up until I'd say three years ago, was just too good to not do it. I literally averaged $150 a day cash money in my pocket," Eric said. "And when you have a speed habit like I did and you have a marijuana habit like I do, it was the greatest thing in the world."

Penksa said the majority of tunnel dwellers don't want assistance.

Still, HELP has placed 18 tunnel residents into permanent housing since March.

Eric said he's hoping to get out of his concrete home soon, and would likely be out already if not for his marijuana habit.

"I have to make right with my family and I don't want them thinking I'm going to spend my whole life living like this, like a bum," Eric said. "Fifteen years of doing the same monotonous, dumb stuff, it's time I gotta do something right for myself. I can't do it no more, I'm so tired of being who I am."

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