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The majority of Gaza population depends on food aid from
international organizations.
The people of Gaza are purposely being
deprived of basic foods and medicines because they want to be free.
It could, rightfully, be a cause of shame to the world. But the world,
besieged by violence and injustice, hardly notices it. The people of
Gaza, 1.4 million of them, are slowly and purposely being deprived of
basic foods and medicines by the so-called civilized countries in the
West and there is hardly a protest. And all this happens because the
people in Gaza want to be free and independent. Never mind that in the
process children and innocent civilians are killed or families
dispossessed.
Dr. Mona Elfarra, a Palestinian physician
and human rights activist, thus describes a situation in her personal
blog, “I don’t know exactly what was going on inside the little heads of
the kids who were preparatory school children, of Al Buriege boy’s
preparatory school. But the two tiny bodies were shot, with many
bullets, as I was told by my colleagues at the emergency room at the Al
Aqsa hospital…On November 10, the dreams of two tiny kids has stopped
forever.”
As Dr. Elfarra states, both the children
as well as the Israeli soldiers who killed them are victims of the
occupation, “…the occupation that deprives the soldiers of their
humanity, when under the false pretence of Israeli security, daily
crimes are committed against my country. And against my people.” This is
particularly true in the lack of food and medicines for the people in
Gaza.
Most of the basic goods in Gaza are
imported. Because of border closures, there is limited delivery of those
goods, in particular sugar and wheat flour, which represent 80 percent
of the caloric intake of Palestinians. The majority of the population
depends on food aid from international organizations.
At the same time, the flow of exports
leaving Gaza has practically stopped, while the commercial and
humanitarian goods allowed to come in continues to decline. The Gaza
Strip is practically sealed off from the outside world. Approximately 80
percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day. It is estimated
that 70 percent of the potential workforce is out of work or without
pay. The Gaza Strip is not receiving tax monies owed to by Israel, which
amounts to almost half of its budget.
Also critical is the public health and
medical situation of the inhabitants of the Strip. The World Health
Organization (WHO) indicates that the public health system is facing an
unprecedented crisis. UNICEF reports that children are living in an
environment of extreme violence, insecurity and fear. Shelling and sonic
bombs have increased children’s signs of distress and exhaustion.
UN agencies have appealed for Israel to
restore full energy supplies to the Gaza Strip, stating their concern
over the status of the public health system. “In the last months, the
situation has become intolerable, with problems of referral outside of
Gaza for patients who need specialized care that cannot be delivered in
Gaza,” states Dr. Ambroggio Manenti, head of the WHO office for the West
Bank and Gaza.
The Israeli government General Security
Service (Shabak) cites unspecified “security concerns” when denying
medical patients exit permits from Gaza, a situation that has been
denounced by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel.)
“Israel denial of medical care to those in urgent need amounts to
collective punishment against the population, which violates
international law,” states Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights
Watch Middle East division.
In June, PHR-Israel and Gisha, another
Israel-based human rights group, challenged Israel’s restrictions on
medical evacuees in Israel’s Supreme Court. One of those denied
permission to leave Gaza was a 16-year-old girl with a heart condition.
“Israel has legitimate security concerns about rockets fired from Gaza
into civilian areas. But denying medical treatment to a 16-year-old girl
with a congenital heart defect doesn’t make Israel any safer,” said Leah
Whitson.
Leah Whitson’s words are confirmed by
Gideon Levy, the Israeli journalist, writing in the Israeli newspaper
Haaretz. “But we have no right to do what we are doing. Just as no one
would conceive of killing the residents of an entire neighborhood, to
harass and incarcerate it because of a few criminals living there, there
is no justification for abusing an entire people in the name of our
security. The question of whether ending the occupation would threaten
or strengthen Israel’s security is irrelevant. There are not, and cannot
be, any preconditions for restoring justice.”
-- César Chelala, an international public
health consultant, is the foreign correspondent for The Middle East
Times (Australia.) He is also a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of
America award.
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