Trócaire’s local partner in Jerusalem is appealing urgently for over 1.5 million euro to help Palestinians scrape by as salaries at the Palestinian Authority, which provides jobs for more than 150,000 people, go unpaid. The salaries have been frozen since Hamas won the January elections, prompting Israel and international donors to withhold funds destined for the new government. Those government employees directly or indirectly support a quarter of the entire Palestinian population of 1.3 million people. Other international organisations and donors also halted direct funding of the Palestinian Authority. About 40 per cent of children in Gaza already suffer from malnutrition because of the area’s absolute poverty. Read more about Growing crisis in Palestine
The continuing obstruction of mobility by the IDF, forced upon not only Palestinian civilians but international aid workers as well, has dramatically increased the unemployment rate and prevented food and foreign aid to reach the civilian population in the Palestinian territories. With the poverty rate in Gaza alone now standing at a staggering 67% and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimating that 51% of Palestinians cannot meet their daily food needs, how will the Palestinians survive? Read more about Politics of Starvation: the Humanitarian Crisis in Palestine
“When I was a boy, my family received a bag of flour from the United States,” tells Musa Taha, a Palestinian farmer from the village of Qatanna. It was right after the Nakba or “Catastrophe” of 1948 that left between 750,000 and 900,000 Palestinians as refugees, expelled from their homes and dispossessed of their land, that Musa remembers receiving this gift. He vividly remembers the sacks themselves and the picture on the front of two clasping hands with the label “A present from the people of the U.S.A. to the Palestinian people.” Read more about Where is the hand? The shifting of Middle East perceptions toward America
In 1967, the boundaries of Anata, located in the Jerusalem Governorate, extended over 30,000 dunums (7,500 acres) of land. However, multiple Israeli policies affecting the town since then have led to its progressive loss. According to the Anata Local Council, upon completion of Wall construction, only some 2,300 dunums (575 acres) will remain for the use of Anata residents, the majority of which has already been built-up. Israel has appropriated or isolated the rest through construction and expansion of Israeli settlements, establishment of a major military base, and construction of the Wall and its �buffer zone�. Read more about Creating a Semi-Enclave: Focus on Anata, Jerusalem Governorate
In an attempt to lure the small ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism into his new government, the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to pay extra child allowance to religious Jewish families with many children in a way that guarantees the extra payments do not also go to large Arab families. This is the latest in a long line of manoeuvres by successive Israeli governments to ensure that Jewish and Arab citizens receive differential child allowances so that higher birth rates among Jewish families can be encouraged without also encouraging increased fertility among Arab families. Read more about Olmert cooks the books to deprive Arab families of child benefits
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is increasing by roughly a quarter its 2006 budget for its activities in Israel and the occupied and autonomous territories, bringing the overall figure to more than 52 million Swiss francs. The additional funding will provide the means to meet most acute needs of Palestinians affected by the current crisis, particularly in the faltering health-care sector. The ICRC will fund the purchase of medical supplies and cover salaries and running costs to help the Palestine Red Crescent Society operate four hospitals, 30 primary health-care centres and ambulance services. The ability to provide these services has been severely jeopardized by the fact that the Society no longer receives funding from the Palestinian Authority. Read more about ICRC steps up aid, calls for action to avert major humanitarian crisis
20 May 2006- For many months now, people assumed that the militant arm of the Islamist movement Hamas, the Ezzeddin Al Qassam Brigades, had stopped its operations by orders of the political echelons of the movement. But recent events in Gaza City demonstrate that, in fact, this militant group is more active than ever. Its agenda, however, has changed. On 23 April, several Brigade members intervened to protect Palestinian Health Minister Basem Naim, from the Hamas-led government, when he was assaulted by several gunmen at his office in Gaza City. Read more about Hamas's militant arm turns to fighting internal chaos
As the situation in Bethlehem and the rest of Palestine approaches a humanitarian crisis, Open Bethlehem calls on church leaders, clergy, lay Christians and all who care about peace and justice to speak out against the EU sanctions and support the people of Bethlehem at this critical time. Over 70% of the population of Bethlehem now lives below the poverty line and unemployment has soared to more than 60%. Once a prosperous middle class town, Bethlehem has been economically suffocated and the post-election sanctions have brought the local population to the brink of disaster. Read more about Open Bethlehem calls for an end to EU sanctions as Bethlehem faces disaster
There is no money to pay the 150,000 public servants within the “West Bank” and Gaza Strip, including doctors, nurses and other health workers. Most have not been paid for two months. There is very little money in circulation. High quality fruit that has been grown for export has been allowed in only small amounts through Karnai, the commercial checkpoint. No other exports are passing through, and little is coming in. That includes drugs, spare parts for dialysis machines and other necessary medical equipment and supplies. There are no drugs and anaesthetic agents left in the hospitals. Shafa hospital, the main public hospital, was threatened with closure last week. Read more about Siege of 1.4 Million Souls in Gaza vs. International Law
With his coalition partners on board, Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert is plotting his next move: a partial withdrawal from the West Bank over the next few years which he and his government will declare as the end of the occupation and therefore also any legitimate grounds for Palestinian grievance. From here on in, Israel will portray itself as the benevolent provider of a Palestinian state — on whatever is left after most of Israel’s West Bank colonies have been saved and the Palestinian land on which they stand annexed to Israel. Read more about Israel’s road to ‘convergence’ began with Rabin
