UN
Official Says Humanitarian Crisis
In Palestine
By Sonia Nettnin
24 April, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Chicago: Director
of the Representative Office of UNRWA, Andrew Whitley spoke about the
humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank.
This week a number of governments, led by the Canadians, will meet in
Berlin where they will discuss political futures and options for refugees.
Whitley talked about the living conditions of Palestinian refugees.
Who is Andrew Whitley? He works for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, located
in New York. For over three years Whitley lived in Gaza, and he has
worked on the subject of the Occupied Palestinian Territories for over
25 years. In Tehran and New York he worked as an academic; as a foreign
correspondent specializing in Middle East, South Asia and Latin America,
with the BBC and the Financial Times; and in human rights. He was the
founding director of Middle East Watch – now Human Rights Watch/Middle
East and North Africa.
The theme for his lecture, “Humanitarian Crisis in Palestine:
A Gathering Storm,” focused on Gaza, which is one of the 59 officially-recognized
refugee camps.
“We have become very alarmed by the fragmentation of Palestinian
society particularly in the West Bank,” Whitley said.
With at least 530 barriers and checkpoints in place, peoples’
lives are completely disrupted. Moreover, Palestinian villages have
been torn asunder by movement restrictions because they do not have
normal economic life. He compared the size of the West Bank to the state
of Connecticut, and with words he painted a picture of people living
in atomized areas. Israel’s construction of a wall that is projected
to be 700 km is 60 per cent complete. There is a degree of permanence
to the sectioning because the Jordan Valley has been carved off for
Israeli settlements and the West Bank has been divided into a northern
and a southern area. As a result, the West Bank is now a trisection
containing enclaves of Palestinian cities and villages.
Although the Israeli Army established checkpoints in the name of security,
“I would argue the means to tackle these threats…leads to
a sense of nihilism, pent up anger that …brings about the results
they are trying to avoid,” Whitley explained.
Palestinians are Hungry – Weak Blood and Eyes Hurting
For the Palestinians, the situation is grave. In Gaza there are an estimated
1.4 million Palestinians and approximately 80 per cent of the population
lives below the official poverty line at US $2.05 per day per capita.
The Palestinian Gross Domestic Product collapsed by 23 per cent in the
last year. One million, or 70 per cent of these people, are registered
as refugees and 1.05 million people depend on international assistance.
“We keep (including the World Food Program) these people alive
these days and the degree they have become dependent on the international
community for lack of resources is troubling indeed,” Whitley
said.
Since the parliamentary elections in January 2006, the Palestinians
have been placed under economic siege. The strategy is to inflict political
defeat on Hamas by inflicting the Palestinian population.
On February 16, 2006 it was Israeli Prime Ministerial Advisor Dov Weisglass
who said: “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but
not to make them die of hunger.”
According to Whitley, an estimated 40 per cent of Gaza’s population
does not get an adequate supply of food, even with international assistance.
The hospitals are approximately 20 per cent short of the necessary drugs
and supplies needed for medical treatment. Although malnutrition has
been a long-term problem with women and children, growth stunting and
a worsening diet means “…children are not growing normally
in all of their faculties…we will see long-term results within
a decade but evidence is quite clear,” Whitley added.
In a video shot in Gaza recently, the UN conducted interviews with the
people.
“Most children have bad health kids have weak blood they are weak
and their eyes are hurting,” one man says.
Within the last year an estimated 450 business owners closed down. People
try to trade their gold for cash, but they are turned away because there
is no cash.
“People don’t have food. Life is difficult. People need
food but they are hungry,” another person said.
One girl explained that she can see her father cannot bring home food.
Another boy said: “I feel all this but no one cares about us.”
In March 2006, Erez border crossing was closed to Palestinian laborers
who work in Israel. The Israeli Government has imposed a gradual policy
of zero Palestinian laborers in Israel.
The Karni border crossing closures have caused the delay of goods and
cargo from moving in and out of Gaza. In 2006, Israel closed Karni 50
per cent of the working days. This means the thrust of the Palestinian
economy in Gaza - agricultural products such as fruits, vegetables and
flowers – rotted at the border crossing. In 2006 the UN paid one
million in fees to Israeli companies because of the Karni crossing closures.
Most of this one million came from European and US taxpayers.
Why did the UN have to pay these fees? Hundreds of full and empty shipping
containers move in and out of Gaza. If the border crossing closes, cargo
and goods are stored at Israeli ports and terminals. Therefore, trucks
sit in park.
When the UN was trying to move their goods, they experienced the same
situation and paid fees for crossing closures out of their control.
The overall impression is that the UN faces an acute moral dilemma.
They want to help the refugees, but there are many political, social
and economic factors preventing them from doing so. Perhaps the organization
is being used. Although the humanitarian organization works in highly-politicized
environments, one of their challenges is to preserve political neutrality.
When asked what he would say if he had the chance to talk with world
leaders, Whitley made several statements. One of them was: “I
would tell them that their policies are counterproductive.”
Recent Report on the Situation:
Oxfam survey: Financial boycott pushes Palestinians into poverty, April
13, 2007
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