Salaam,
Came across this :
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/...agename=Zone-English-Muslim_Affairs/MAELayout
Opinion
Waiting for Gaza to Die
By Suzanne Baroud
Freelance Writer
Until Israel and its allies, including some Palestinians, determine their next move, Gaza's suffering will continue. (Reuters Photo)
No matter what route you wish to use to enter Gaza — that if you are ever allowed to do so by Israeli authorities — the level of misery you shall witness is unparalleled; the piles of garbage, the over crowdedness, the pale, malnourished faces, the miserable looking neighbourhoods, the run-down public facilities, and the sinking feeling of hopelessness that all this brings.
But what is so astonishing about Gaza, is that such an appalling background does not, in any way alter the hospitality and the sheer sweetness of those living there. This may sound strange — after all, images of gun wielding militants, angry chanting crowds, hostile faces, and all sorts of grisly images that are continuously circulated by western media hardly testify to the reality I witnessed in my last stay in Gaza, a few years ago.
In one of the poorest refugee camps in Gaza, lives my husband's family. My sudden appearance in their midst, a perpetually giddy, smiling American with an inherit love for the sea, was the news of the day: the overt friendless, the almost coerced dinner invitations, the many cheerful faces that followed every move I made, and the giggles that would always accompany my every attempt to practice my Arabic skills, are memories that I will hold dear for the rest of my life. For now, I busy myself worrying about the fate of my family, held hostage in their refugee camp, dreaming of returning to their homes and wrestling with the immediate challenge of daily survival.
Bantustanization of Gaza
Gaza is not a detached entity and cannot be treated as an exception.
The story of Gaza is a small analogy that eloquently depicts the entire Palestinian narrative. Gaza is not a detached entity and cannot be treated as an exception. But to focus on Gaza is very important, because, first, isolation and starvation is the fate that awaits the West Bank once the Israeli project of colonization and Bantustanization is completed. Second, because the situation in the poor strip is too dire and too urgent to dismiss as business as usual.
Gaza's unfolding drama represents an ideal scenario for Israel, although it is still an experiment whose full results are yet to come to complete fruition. When Israel "withdrew" from Gaza in the summer of 2005, the question was: Can Israel withdraw from Palestinian territories, yet continue to control every aspect of its inhabitants' lives?
Since then, Gaza has been presented to world media and citizenry as a "painful compromise" made by Israel; Israel continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza at will; hundreds of them have fallen beneath the wreckage or inside the melting metal of blown up buildings and cars hit by Israeli missiles. By firing their homemade rockets, in response, at largely empty areas inside Israel, Palestinians are presented as vile and ungrateful. This serves Israeli propaganda well. The fact that Gaza has been turned into a mammoth open-air prison in which the movement of goods and people is entirely governed and determined by Israel is largely omitted; Israel says that it has the right to do so for its own "security". It claims that it is no longer responsible for the fate of Gaza, since Gaza, by Israeli definitions, is no longer technically "occupied". No Geneva Conventions are applicable here, Israeli officials argue. Worse, Gaza, as it is now "independent" is a foreign entity that can be classified as "hostile", thus denied fuel, food supplies, and all sorts of aid. Not only are Gazans now trapped in 365 square kilometres, they are collectively starved. What does this mean as far as ordinary people, the 1.5 million human beings living there, are concerned? It simply bodes disaster.
Since late October 2007, Israel has further decided to cut fuel supplies that Palestinians purchase on a daily basis. The amount of diesel required to sustain Gaza is now cut to one sixth. More, no machinery parts are allowed into the strip to replace whatever gets damaged; 140,000 people are denied access to drinking water because damaged pumps cannot be repaired. "Hospitals, transportation systems, and businesses have been plunged into desperation," reports Erica Silverman from Gaza.
Health Ministry Spokesman, Khaled Radee puts it more into perspective. "We have about 30% of the fuel in stock for Gaza's 12 hospitals and 52 primary health care centres."
Dr. Majed Mohammed is responsible for the intensive care unit at Al-Nasser Children's Hospital. He says, "The unstable electricity damages our equipment — ventilators, incubators, even our refrigerators."
Crippling Siege
Gravely ill Palestinian patients are expected to make a choice between becoming collaborators — with the Shabak — or dying in an impoverished Gaza hospital.
One can only imagine the devastation caused by this Israeli imposed reality knowing that Gaza's hospitals were already down run and under-equipped; if it were not for the humanitarian assistance coming from various European and other countries, international NGOs and charities, that reality would have been even much grimmer. But now it is, because of the successive Israeli actions intensifying after Hamas' advent to power in January 2006. These actions mounted to a tight, crippling siege following Hamas' clash with Fateh, and its subsequent control of Gaza last June.
Gaza's medical facilities had, for obvious reasons its limitations, thus the need to transfer patients to outside hospitals, in the West Bank, Jerusalem, Egypt, and even Israel.
"Because of the Israeli siege, the number of patients who can travel now is very limited," says Dr. Ahmed Shakat, a paediatrician at Al-Nasser hospital, quoted in the Australian newspaper, The Age. "In the past it took one day to transfer an urgent patient to Israel. Now I need maybe five days, maybe 10, if it happens at all. The Israelis say it's because of security, but it means urgent cases can die."
The World Health Organisation reports on these restrictions. Since June, out of 782 patients who sought transfer, only 100 were allowed access. One of those denied access is 11-month-old Roan Diab. "She is dying of renal failure and needs dialysis," according to Dr. Mohammed.
According to The Age, "Shortages of spare parts and supplies ... have shut down a third of the Gaza Strip's 69 kidney dialysis machines, forcing renal units to reduce treatments."
Some of the urgent cases that are denied access to better medical care abroad, eventually die. "Access-related deaths are increasing. On the ninth of December alone, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health data, three patients died in connection with denial of access to care," reports Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR) on December 20.
"Pending" Death
"Rapid killing is better than this slow death." — Dr. Mohammed of Al-Nasser Hospital.
PHR says that to avoid having to haggle with patients' appeals, once the requests of their transfer are denied, Israeli authorities developed a new tactic. Palestinian appeals are no longer rejected, but are classified under "pending." "Since appeals can only be filed after a formal rejection has been issued, the significance of this tactic is denial of the possibility of appeal," PHR reports.
"Pending" also means: pending on interrogation by the Israeli internal intelligence, the General Security Service (GSS) or the Shabak. The Shabak expects patients to "cooperate" to be granted access. Gravely ill Palestinian patients are expected to make a choice between becoming collaborators or dying in an impoverished Gaza hospital. "Before interrogation, patients often wait for many hours at the crossing (separating Gaza and Israel), and are sometimes turned back without interrogation and are obliged to reschedule with the GSS."
Dr. Mohammed of Al-Nasser Hospital had an interesting take on the matter, reflecting the growing frustration among Palestinians. "I prefer war," he said. "Rapid killing is better than this slow death."
Gaza is indeed dying a slow death, but the Israeli experiment cannot be allowed to fail, because its failure would impede the Israeli colonial experiment in the West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem as well. If Hamas and their powerbase in Gaza survives this, Israel's objectives which needs a weak Palestinian "partner" to be achieved — someone like Mahmoud Abbas — is in serious jeopardy.
Until Israel and its allies, including some Palestinians, determine their next move, Gaza's suffering will continue. Seven-month old Mohammed Abu Amra, who is struggling with suspected cystic fibrosis and immune deficiency, might not live long enough to understand how his life is affected by a political power play of which he was no player. For now, he is simply dying, alongside many ashen, tiny bodies of Gaza's children, some of whom are suckling a pacifier, the only amusing gadget in an otherwise scary, cold, and dark hospital.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suzanne Baroud is an American writer and editor of several books. She is the managing editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
Came across this :
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/...agename=Zone-English-Muslim_Affairs/MAELayout
Opinion
Waiting for Gaza to Die
By Suzanne Baroud
Freelance Writer
Until Israel and its allies, including some Palestinians, determine their next move, Gaza's suffering will continue. (Reuters Photo)
No matter what route you wish to use to enter Gaza — that if you are ever allowed to do so by Israeli authorities — the level of misery you shall witness is unparalleled; the piles of garbage, the over crowdedness, the pale, malnourished faces, the miserable looking neighbourhoods, the run-down public facilities, and the sinking feeling of hopelessness that all this brings.
But what is so astonishing about Gaza, is that such an appalling background does not, in any way alter the hospitality and the sheer sweetness of those living there. This may sound strange — after all, images of gun wielding militants, angry chanting crowds, hostile faces, and all sorts of grisly images that are continuously circulated by western media hardly testify to the reality I witnessed in my last stay in Gaza, a few years ago.
In one of the poorest refugee camps in Gaza, lives my husband's family. My sudden appearance in their midst, a perpetually giddy, smiling American with an inherit love for the sea, was the news of the day: the overt friendless, the almost coerced dinner invitations, the many cheerful faces that followed every move I made, and the giggles that would always accompany my every attempt to practice my Arabic skills, are memories that I will hold dear for the rest of my life. For now, I busy myself worrying about the fate of my family, held hostage in their refugee camp, dreaming of returning to their homes and wrestling with the immediate challenge of daily survival.
Bantustanization of Gaza
Gaza is not a detached entity and cannot be treated as an exception.
The story of Gaza is a small analogy that eloquently depicts the entire Palestinian narrative. Gaza is not a detached entity and cannot be treated as an exception. But to focus on Gaza is very important, because, first, isolation and starvation is the fate that awaits the West Bank once the Israeli project of colonization and Bantustanization is completed. Second, because the situation in the poor strip is too dire and too urgent to dismiss as business as usual.
Gaza's unfolding drama represents an ideal scenario for Israel, although it is still an experiment whose full results are yet to come to complete fruition. When Israel "withdrew" from Gaza in the summer of 2005, the question was: Can Israel withdraw from Palestinian territories, yet continue to control every aspect of its inhabitants' lives?
Since then, Gaza has been presented to world media and citizenry as a "painful compromise" made by Israel; Israel continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza at will; hundreds of them have fallen beneath the wreckage or inside the melting metal of blown up buildings and cars hit by Israeli missiles. By firing their homemade rockets, in response, at largely empty areas inside Israel, Palestinians are presented as vile and ungrateful. This serves Israeli propaganda well. The fact that Gaza has been turned into a mammoth open-air prison in which the movement of goods and people is entirely governed and determined by Israel is largely omitted; Israel says that it has the right to do so for its own "security". It claims that it is no longer responsible for the fate of Gaza, since Gaza, by Israeli definitions, is no longer technically "occupied". No Geneva Conventions are applicable here, Israeli officials argue. Worse, Gaza, as it is now "independent" is a foreign entity that can be classified as "hostile", thus denied fuel, food supplies, and all sorts of aid. Not only are Gazans now trapped in 365 square kilometres, they are collectively starved. What does this mean as far as ordinary people, the 1.5 million human beings living there, are concerned? It simply bodes disaster.
Since late October 2007, Israel has further decided to cut fuel supplies that Palestinians purchase on a daily basis. The amount of diesel required to sustain Gaza is now cut to one sixth. More, no machinery parts are allowed into the strip to replace whatever gets damaged; 140,000 people are denied access to drinking water because damaged pumps cannot be repaired. "Hospitals, transportation systems, and businesses have been plunged into desperation," reports Erica Silverman from Gaza.
Health Ministry Spokesman, Khaled Radee puts it more into perspective. "We have about 30% of the fuel in stock for Gaza's 12 hospitals and 52 primary health care centres."
Dr. Majed Mohammed is responsible for the intensive care unit at Al-Nasser Children's Hospital. He says, "The unstable electricity damages our equipment — ventilators, incubators, even our refrigerators."
Crippling Siege
Gravely ill Palestinian patients are expected to make a choice between becoming collaborators — with the Shabak — or dying in an impoverished Gaza hospital.
One can only imagine the devastation caused by this Israeli imposed reality knowing that Gaza's hospitals were already down run and under-equipped; if it were not for the humanitarian assistance coming from various European and other countries, international NGOs and charities, that reality would have been even much grimmer. But now it is, because of the successive Israeli actions intensifying after Hamas' advent to power in January 2006. These actions mounted to a tight, crippling siege following Hamas' clash with Fateh, and its subsequent control of Gaza last June.
Gaza's medical facilities had, for obvious reasons its limitations, thus the need to transfer patients to outside hospitals, in the West Bank, Jerusalem, Egypt, and even Israel.
"Because of the Israeli siege, the number of patients who can travel now is very limited," says Dr. Ahmed Shakat, a paediatrician at Al-Nasser hospital, quoted in the Australian newspaper, The Age. "In the past it took one day to transfer an urgent patient to Israel. Now I need maybe five days, maybe 10, if it happens at all. The Israelis say it's because of security, but it means urgent cases can die."
The World Health Organisation reports on these restrictions. Since June, out of 782 patients who sought transfer, only 100 were allowed access. One of those denied access is 11-month-old Roan Diab. "She is dying of renal failure and needs dialysis," according to Dr. Mohammed.
According to The Age, "Shortages of spare parts and supplies ... have shut down a third of the Gaza Strip's 69 kidney dialysis machines, forcing renal units to reduce treatments."
Some of the urgent cases that are denied access to better medical care abroad, eventually die. "Access-related deaths are increasing. On the ninth of December alone, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health data, three patients died in connection with denial of access to care," reports Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR) on December 20.
"Pending" Death
"Rapid killing is better than this slow death." — Dr. Mohammed of Al-Nasser Hospital.
PHR says that to avoid having to haggle with patients' appeals, once the requests of their transfer are denied, Israeli authorities developed a new tactic. Palestinian appeals are no longer rejected, but are classified under "pending." "Since appeals can only be filed after a formal rejection has been issued, the significance of this tactic is denial of the possibility of appeal," PHR reports.
"Pending" also means: pending on interrogation by the Israeli internal intelligence, the General Security Service (GSS) or the Shabak. The Shabak expects patients to "cooperate" to be granted access. Gravely ill Palestinian patients are expected to make a choice between becoming collaborators or dying in an impoverished Gaza hospital. "Before interrogation, patients often wait for many hours at the crossing (separating Gaza and Israel), and are sometimes turned back without interrogation and are obliged to reschedule with the GSS."
Dr. Mohammed of Al-Nasser Hospital had an interesting take on the matter, reflecting the growing frustration among Palestinians. "I prefer war," he said. "Rapid killing is better than this slow death."
Gaza is indeed dying a slow death, but the Israeli experiment cannot be allowed to fail, because its failure would impede the Israeli colonial experiment in the West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem as well. If Hamas and their powerbase in Gaza survives this, Israel's objectives which needs a weak Palestinian "partner" to be achieved — someone like Mahmoud Abbas — is in serious jeopardy.
Until Israel and its allies, including some Palestinians, determine their next move, Gaza's suffering will continue. Seven-month old Mohammed Abu Amra, who is struggling with suspected cystic fibrosis and immune deficiency, might not live long enough to understand how his life is affected by a political power play of which he was no player. For now, he is simply dying, alongside many ashen, tiny bodies of Gaza's children, some of whom are suckling a pacifier, the only amusing gadget in an otherwise scary, cold, and dark hospital.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suzanne Baroud is an American writer and editor of several books. She is the managing editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
:tti_sister: Ya Allah,, the Most Gracious and Most Merciful,, please keep all the ummah throughout the world,, strong and steadfast in these tests and tribulations, and may they,, the oppressed and suppressed,, be reward with jannah Firdaus 
