“Grim and miserable” in Gaza

17Feb08

John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, expressed “shock” on Friday at the dire quality of life in Gaza, which he attributed to the Israeli siege.

“I have been shocked by the grim and miserable things that I have seen and heard today, which are the result of current restrictions and the limitations on the number of goods that are being allowed into Gaza,” said Mr. Holmes during a day-long visit to the Gaza Strip. “Around 80 percent of the population is dependant on food aid from international organizations. Poverty and unemployment are increasing and the private sector has more or less collapsed. Only ten percent of the amount of goods that entered Gaza a year ago are being permitted to enter now,” he said…

“What’s essential to alleviate this situation is the opening of crossings to allow a lot more humanitarian and non-humanitarian goods to enter Gaza so people can lead better lives and have a minimum of human dignity,” Mr. Holmes said. “These are points I will be making to the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority later in my trip,” he added.

Yesterday he visited the West Bank, which he found to be not a whole lot better:

“It is clear that the route of the Barrier, the expanding settlements and the closure regime and associated controls are severely damaging the social and economic structures of the West Bank and contributing to increased aid reliance, poverty and unemployment. The promised relaxation of the closures is urgently needed, as a minimum first step towards the kind of economic development which can underpin successful peace negotiations”.

The construction of the wall and settlement infrastructure continues (.pdf). Naturally, Israel defends this overt theft with the catch-all justification of “security needs”. It is worth noting, then, that a Civil Administration report released this week found that more than a third of Israeli settlements in the West Bank are built on private Palestinian land that was “temporarily siezed” by the IDF for “security purposes”. The report itself was only released after a protracted fight with the Israeli government, which maintained that that its publication would harm Israel’s ’security interests’. Recall also that Israel initially justified the illegal annexation wall on “security” grounds, but has since admitted that the wall’s actual purpose is to establish a fait accompli, prejudice future final status negotiations by unliterally expanding Israel’s borders into Palestinian territory. The next time the Israeli government whines about its “security needs”, then, you’ll know precisely where to tell it to stick them.

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Tags: Gaza, Human Rights, humanitarian, John Holmes, occupation, UN