A unique struggle for Palestinian farmers

We often talk about how agriculture needs to improve in many under-developed countries. Not only does more land need to be used for local farming, but governments must also put more resources into improving food supply.

This is also true of the Palestinian territory. According to the Palestinian Authority agriculture only makes up 5.8 percent of their GDP. The government also puts little effort into agriculture, only spending one percent of their total budget on it. The Palestinian authority has instead made security and institutions a spending priority

Farming is made more difficult in the Palestinian territory because of the watchful, untrusting eye of Israel. The Israeli settlements also take up more and more of the Palestinian land.

From the Guardian, writer Phoebe Greenwood gives us this struggle of one Palestinian farmer.
. 

Zuhair al-Manasreh, once the governor of Jenin and later of Bethlehem, is now a date farmer. He runs the largest date business in the occupied Palestinian territory. "I love the land. I'm the son of a farming family," says Manasreh. He lovingly describes the olive and almond trees of his childhood home in Hebron, but says it was too risky to cultivate there.

Hebron is among the most volatile areas of the occupied West Bank, distinguished by a strong Israeli military presence and frequent clashes between Israeli settlers and the Palestinian community. Olive trees are the mainstay of the Palestinian agricultural economy, but they are also the most frequent casualty of settler attacks. More than 7,500 olive trees were uprooted or destroyed by Israeli settlers between January and October this year, many in the southern Hebron hills.

In 2006, a year after retiring from politics, Manasreh hit upon the idea of dates. They take longer to spoil than olives and have a relatively high rate of return, he reasoned. The sweetest, plumpest majul dates flourish in the Jordan valley, not far from the Dead Sea. So he planted 7,000 trees there.

Initially, Manasreh relied entirely on his own capital but in 2011, when the bank refused to give him another loan, he merged with Palestinian business giants Padico, and Nakheel Palestine was born. The business now owns six farms, with 20,000 date palm trees, and employs 100 people (rising to 150 during the harvest). They also grow and export dates. They are yet to turn a profit. Manasreh's farms are surrounded by 28 Israeli settlements, occupying 90% of the Jordan valley.

A recent report by 21 NGOs found that the EU imports £185m worth of goods from Israeli settlements every year, mostly dates and citrus fruits – 15 times the value of European imports from Palestinians. Israeli dates are cheaper. Palestinian farmers aren't able to travel to Israeli ports to oversee their exports, so they hire Israeli middlemen. Their pesticides, boxes and shipping pallets are all bought from Israel.

Cameras for kids initiative in Palestinian refugee camps

From IRIN, a story about a program to take a pictorial diary of life in Palestinian refugee camps.

A Beirut-based NGO is training children in Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps to take photographs of camp life in the belief that the exercise is cathartic for the children, will benefit the camps financially and lead some of the trainees to work professionally as photographers.

The idea of getting children to photograph camp life struck Ramzi Haidar after a visit to a Palestinian refugee camp, and led him to start the Zakira project.

"Kids are kids, they are the same everywhere,” he said. “They have the same needs, regardless of whether they are Iraqi, Palestinian, Lebanese or something else. And, if they go through war or other difficult experiences, they need to express what they have seen."

Haidar believes suffering in the Palestinian camps is on a par with what he had seen in Iraq where children had to put up with things no child should, and without any creative or intellectual outlets to deal with them. "I started thinking about how to work with photography in order to express such experiences,” he told IRIN.

Through Zakira, hundreds of children now have the chance to do this through photography. The NGO has carried out two projects so far: `Lahza’, which means “glimpse” or “moment” in Arabic, and the sequel, ‘After Lahza’.

During `Lahza’, Zakira organized workshops in all of Lebanon’s Palestinian camps; 500 children were taught basic photography skills, given disposable cameras and asked to photograph camp life.

A selection of the pictures taken, capturing everything from the distinctive narrow alleys and grey concrete houses in the camps to family and friends, were published. The income generated, which goes back to the Palestinian community, has so far helped pay for a football field and the floor and mirrors of a `Debke’ (folk dance) studio in Lebanon’s largest camp, Ein el-Helweh.

The ‘After Lahza’ project uses photography as a means of expression and to bring people together. More than 250 teenagers - Lebanese and Palestinians – have gained advanced photography skills at three-month workshops in Beirut, Tripoli, Saida, Sur and Baalbek.

Economic opportunity

Zakira is also looking ahead: “What we hope to do next is to set up photo studios in Beirut, Tripoli, Saida, Sur and Baalbek's camps,” said one of the founders, Rima Abushakra. “Many of the teenagers who we worked with during After Lahza are high school dropouts. They discovered that they have a talent for photography and now want to develop it and gain income from it.

"This is great, because in the camps, just like everywhere, there is a market for photographers," she added. "People need photos for their ID cards, and when they get married and want wedding pictures."

The workshops are an opportunity to improve photography skills, and build new relationships. The skills learnt also represent an economic opportunity in the camps: As a stateless community, the refugees have a tough time accessing education and employment.

"We saw many things in the youth we trained: Talent, determination, a quest for self-expression," Abushakra said. "Many of them are now enthusiastic about working with photography.”

One trainee has had several of her pictures published in a Lebanese newspaper, and another has been assigned as an events photographer in his camp. The project has held exhibitions in Dublin, Athens, Washington and Paris.

Palestinians make up nearly 10 percent of Lebanon’s population of about 4.2 million, but live on the margins of society, according to observers. Despite having lived here since 1948, most still live in camps and face poverty, discrimination and social exclusion.

Video: Labor Unrest in Egypt, More Yemen Demos

From Associated Press, a video on the unrest in the Middle East.

Overnight links for December 14th

Israel just finished a mass deportation of over 150 Sudanese nationals. From this Associated press story that we found at the Athens Banner Herald, Daniel Estrin says Israel conducted the deportation because they claim the migrants were overwhelming the state.  

Another link from the Middle East, this time for the Gaza Strip. The From Poverty to Power blog has this story about de-Development in Gaza. The post was written by Kristy Hughes of Oxfam. 

The US Census Bureau say that half of the children in Alabama's Dallas County lives in relative poverty. The Montgomery Advertiser made mention of the Associated Press story. 

Gaza blockade prevents medicine from entering

As a part of the Gaza blockade, one of the items that Israel stops from passing through the border is medicine. Israel controls all of the goods that reaches the Palestinian people that are blocked in. They do make some exceptions for food, but most medicine and medical equipment does not enter Gaza.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Mohammed Omer illustrates how the blockade infringes on human rights.

The health ministry now lists 375 deaths due to shortage of life-saving medicines. The medicines sit just outside the borders of the territory until most pass their expiry dates. But there are no expiry dates on about 10,000 coffins that have been donated for Gaza. The coffins do make it to those that eventually need them.

By the end of last month more than 70 percent of medicines donated for Gaza had been dumped because they were past their expiry date, the health ministry says. They were worth many millions of dollars. And they were worth many lives.

"Much of the donated medicines came from Arab states," Dr Mounir Al- Boursh, director of the pharmaceutical department at the health ministry tells IPS. This added up to 10,300 tonnes of medicines worth 25 million dollars, he said.

Only about 30 percent of this could be used, he said; the rest either expired, or was inaccessible because of restricted distribution by the Israelis, who control what gets into Gaza.

It's not easy to dump medicines safely either. Much of unused supply mixes with domestic waste, creating health hazards far from bringing relief. The World Health Organisation has had to "raise concern about the unsafe disposal of expired medication and other medical disposable material," WHO spokesperson told IPS.

But the Gaza ministry has received 10,000 coffins, about 1,000 of them for children, Dr Boursh said. Such help, he said, "does not meet with the needs of the Gaza Strip."

200 Palestinians homeless 18 months after war

Eighteen months ago, Israel led an armed offensive against Hamas ruled Palestine. The Israeli army bulldozed buildings close to the border when they entered the territory.

The demolition of those houses made for new homeless people within Gaza. Eighteen months after the war, 225 families who had their homes destroyed still haven't found a place to live.

The blockade against Gaza has made it difficult to rebuild. As the blockage does not allow for any construction equipment to pass the borders. Israel fears that equipment will be used to make weapons.

From this Associated Press story that we found at WPIX, writer Karoun Demirjian describes the conditions for the Awaja family.

A bulldozer flattened the Awajas' house on the first full day of Israel's ground offensive, when tanks and troops swept into Gaza neighborhoods near the Israeli border.

As the family fled, bullets hit Kamal, 49, his wife Wafa, 34, and their 8-year-old son Ibrahim — who bled to death in the street.

After a brief stay with Kamal's first wife — he has two, but is separated from the first — and her seven children in their tiny apartment in Gaza City, the Awajas pitched a tent on government land near Beit Lahiya. Municipal officials told them to vacate.

"I told them I'm not leaving... I'm afraid to go back there, close to the border," Kamal said.

They now occupy three tents and have had a sixth child, a baby girl named Leyali.

They tether the tent to the ground with cinderblocks and rugs. They siphon electricity from nearby lines to power a refrigerator, microwave, oven, TV and computer, all salvaged from their old home or smuggled through underground tunnels that connect Gaza to Egypt.

Wafa is constantly busy cleaning wind-blown dust off dishes and clothes, chasing away rats and stray dogs, and protecting belongings from thieves.

A pair of Palestinian items

The blockade against the Gaza strip is making big headlines, especially since the Israeli raid onto an aid ship that killed 9 people. A couple of stories concerning the blockade and the life of the Palestinian people have caught our attention this morning.

First the International Red Cross says that the blockade against the Gaza strip is illegal as a violation against Geneva conventions. From Vision MP, this story gathers together various internet reports on the statement.

According to the Al Jazeera website, An ICRC statement issued Monday termed the blockade a “collective punishment” and a crime under international law.

“The closure imposed on the Gaza Strip is about to enter its fourth year, choking off any real possibility of economic development,” the ICRC said.

“Gazans continue to suffer from unemployment, poverty and warfare, while the quality of Gaza’s health care system has reached an all-time low.”

For Palestinians who live in Lebanon, they still face a tough life due to restrictions to gaining employment. The Lebanese government does not allow Palestinians to obtain work visas for many types of jobs. Further many employers will not hire Palestinian people at all. The despair brought on by this discrimination could fuel even more extreme terrorism.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Mona Alami makes the case that the lot of Palestinians in Lebanon is not that much better than in Israel.

Large camps, such as Ain el-Helweh, Bedawi and Chatila, are guarded by the Lebanese military or police. Youngsters sit idly around the meandering dirty streets, chatting or smoking cigarettes.

At night, militants often run amok, engaging in futile feuds with rivaling political gangs. The often explosive environment means that a seemingly harmless game of football could turn into a violent gun battle.

There are about 300,000 Palestinians in Lebanon, mostly residing in nine camps throughout the country. The discrimination and marginalisation they face in their ghettoised reality are exacerbated by restrictions on their employment.

It is estimated that 60 percent of Palestinians are unemployed. Previously, Palestinians could not work in about 70 job categories; in 2005, however, the labour ministry lifted the ban on around 50 professions.

Khaled, 22-year-old Palestinian, studied electrical engineering in Baghdad before coming back to Lebanon to look for a job. "I have been looking for over a year with no success. I have been rejected because I am Palestinian, in spite of my credentials. In Iraq, Palestinians have more rights," he explains.

Much of the discriminatory treatment Palestinians face in the job market in Lebanon is rooted in the fact that they have been stateless since 1948. According to figures provided by the Human Rights Watch, only 261 Palestinians got work visas in 2009, compared to 36,754 Ethiopians. Lebanese authorities have denied them equal rights with Lebanese and other foreign residents.

"Lebanese labour law treats Palestinian refugees like other non-Lebanese and requires them to have a work permit and social rights, subject to the principle of reciprocity. This means that Lebanon grants the right to work to nationals of other states whose countries grant Lebanese citizens the same right. This law naturally bars Palestinians from many jobs," says Alexander Adam, project manager at the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).

In addition to fewer employment opportunities legally employed Palestinians cannot benefit from the Lebanese social security pension or insurance plans even though employers are still obligated to pay the government for such programmes, explains Adam.

Professional associations, such as those for lawyers, doctors, and engineers, either apply severe restrictions on non-citizens or exclude them completely, leaving Palestinians with few job choices.

"Most Palestinians work in the real estate sector as painters or builders as well as seasonal employees in the agricultural sector, or as taxi drivers. For professionals, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and other NGOs constitute the main source of employment," adds Adam.

How the Gaza blockade created a new legitimate "black" market

With the Gaza strip blockaded against any imported foodstuffs the Palestinians have created a black market to smuggle the food in via their underground tunnels. The blockade was meant to weaken the Hamas leadership of the territory but it has only strengthened it, as Hamas is now collecting taxes on the black market. It has created a new economy within the region that even legitimate businesses have to participate in.

From this Independent story, writer Catrina Stewart gives us more details.

Bursting with exotic foodstuffs, Hassan Hasuna's brightly lit grocery store appears like a beacon on a run-down street in central Gaza City. Cadbury Creme Eggs, a rare commodity in the Middle East, take pride of place next to the till.

Only a few locals can afford to buy any of it. All of the goods on display have come through a network of smuggling tunnels from Egypt that circumvent a three-year, Israeli-led blockade that has brought Gaza's once buoyant economy to its knees. The tunnels are a critical lifeline for ordinary Gazans, enabling the passage of fresh meat, soft drinks, condiments and other non-essential goods that Israel and Egypt won't let past the borders into Gaza. Unluckily for many Palestinians, they can cost twice the price.

The blockade, designed to weaken the Islamist group Hamas, has created an almost entirely black economy that has enriched and sustained Hamas while hurting the many Palestinians who have lost their jobs and live below the poverty line, subsisting on United Nations handouts. "We are now a nation of tunnel diggers," Palestinian economist Omar Shaban said.

He estimates that more than 20,000 Gazans are employed in the tunnel trade. "I don't need to work 20 months to buy a car. I just need to work two months in the tunnels."
At first reluctant to endorse the tunnels openly, Hamas nevertheless recognised the potential financial benefits and levied taxes on products coming through. It now charges smugglers a one-off fee of £1,900 for every site, while tunnel taxes have become ever more critical to propping up its one-party rule. "The people who own the economy own the political influence," Mr Shaban said.

The impact of the blockade on the Palestinians

One of the big news stories of the day is the incident that has brought international condemnation of Israel. Israeli marines intercepted ships that were to break the blockage against the Palestinian people. 9 people aboard the ships carrying aid were killed in the violent interception.

The blockade against the Palestinian people has had drastic effects against them. The ships that were intercepted were sorely needed. From Reuters Alter-Net writer Katherine Baldwin gives us this run down of what the Palestinians are lacking because of the blockade.

FOOD

Over three quarters of Gaza's population is food insecure or vulnerable to food insecurity, relying heavily on aid subsidies, according to a report by the World Food Programme and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), published in November last year. The report said the population of Gaza was being sustained at "the most basic or minimum humanitarian standard."

Food security exists when all people, at all time, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food insecurity exists when this access is jeopardised.

Food price inflation, a deterioration or destruction of livelihoods and the population's increasing inability to cope with the difficult circumstances all contribute to food insecurity in Gaza, the report said.
...

AGRICULTURE AND FISHING

Restricted imports of livestock, seeds and seedlings, plastic piping, iron bars for animal shelters, water pumps, filters and irrigation pipes, fishing nets, engine spare parts, veterinary drugs and cement are decimating Gaza's agriculture and fishing industries.

Israel bars the imports of building materials including steel, cement and pipes, saying Hamas could use them to manufacture weapons.

Farmers have been unable to rebuild agricultural land or vital roads because of a lack of construction materials like concrete and heavy equipment. Goods imported via tunnels from Egypt are often sold at inflated prices that most Palestinians cannot afford.
...

RECONSTRUCTION

Operation 'Cast Lead' caused some $268 million in damages, according to the United Nations. Israeli bombardments caused huge damage to already depleted infrastructure. Restrictions on imports of cement, other building materials and heavy lifting equipment are hampering efforts to rebuild vital roads, health and education services and power supplies.

POWER CUTS

Electricity shortages mean Gaza's population experiences rolling blackouts of up to 12 hours every day, according to an OCHA report, exacerbating the already difficult living conditions. Gaza's sole power plant, the Gaza Power Plant, is able to produce only half the electricity that it did prior to January 2010, due to a lack of funds to buy the industrial fuel needed to run the plant.

Hospitals and clinics often have to rely on back-up generators that are not designed to function for long periods and are often damaged as a result.

HEALTH

Many specialised treatments, such as for complex heart surgery and certain types of cancer, are not available in Gaza and patients are referred for treatment to hospitals outside the territory. But many patients have had their applications for exit permits denied or delayed by Israeli authorities and have missed their appointments. Some have died while waiting for referral, the World Health Organisation said in a January statement.

There are often shortages of key supplies and drugs. Delays of up to three months occur on imports of certain types of medical equipment, such as X‐ray machines and electronic devices. Clinical staff frequently lack the medical equipment they need while medical devices are often broken, missing spare parts or out of date, the WHO added.
...

POVERTY

A poverty survey carried out by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) showed that the number of refugees living in abject poverty since the onset of the blockade in 2007 has tripled. UNRWA found that 300,000 Palestine refugees live in conditions of abject poverty, from 100,000 in 2007. These families are completely unable to secure access to food and lack the means to purchase even the most basic items such as soap, school stationary and safe drinking water.

World Health Organization report on the Gaza Strip blockade

From IRIN, a new World Health Organization report gives us the latest stats on health conditions within the Gaza Strip. The report documents how the blockade against the area has effected health, poverty and employment.

With a failing economy, rising unemployment and deteriorating power, sanitation and health facilities, the health of Gaza’s population continues to worsen, according to a recent World Health Organization (WHO) report. In contrast, modest improvements have been made in the West Bank.

As a consequence of Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, 98 percent of industrial operations have been shut down since 2007 and there are acute shortages of fuel, cash, cooking gas and other basic supplies.

“We are telling everybody not to build walls all around Gaza. That’s what we have been saying loud and clear,” Filippo Grandi, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), told IRIN. “If Gaza gets encircled by walls everywhere, it can only explode. This is almost a law of physics. And that would be a catastrophe for everybody around - for the Egyptians, for the Israelis and for the region as a whole.”

He said the most important thing was to continue negotiating with the Israelis for full access of supplies to be granted legally - through crossings not illegal tunnels.

Import ban

The ban on imports of building materials has prevented the rebuilding of some 6,400 homes destroyed or severely damaged by Israel’s military operation in Gaza in 2008-2009 and prevented the construction of some 7,500 homes to cater for an expanding population. Some 3,500 families are still displaced.

“The Israeli position is that they must be absolutely sure that anything that goes into Gaza through the crossings on the Israeli side is for civilian and humanitarian purposes,” said UNRWA’s Grandi. “The UN has developed extensive tools to monitor [imports], and we have shared this with the Israelis to approve. If they want, we can offer all the guarantees in the world. Our problem is that in spite of all this assistance we cannot import.”

Water-related health problems are widespread in the Strip because of the blockade and Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure, including reservoirs, wells, and thousands of kilometres of piping.

“Gaza is not a refugee camp in a small remote place. It’s a city of one and a half million people with the needs of a developed urban environment that is used to certain standards. It needs certain standards of maintenance. This is what is happening with the water supplies, with sanitation. We’re very worried about that and the Egyptians and the Israelis should be too. Everybody should be worried because contaminated water has no borders,” said Grandi.

An electricity crisis continues in Gaza with the network only able to meet 70 percent of demand due to insufficient money to buy fuel for the Gaza power plant, and a lack of spare parts which is causing technical failures.

In contrast the West Bank economy appears to be growing since the beginning of 2009, partly due to an influx of donor assistance but also because Israel has eased movement restrictions there, and an improved security environment has led to increased investor confidence and more economic activity.

Unemployment, poverty

Unemployment in occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) decreased marginally in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, to 31.4 percent, though unemployment among young people stood at 67 percent. Just one in seven women were working, and 70 percent of families were living on less than US$1 a day in May 2008, said the WHO report.

In the third quarter of 2008, 51 percent of Palestinians lived below the poverty line (56 percent for Gazans and 48 percent for those in the West Bank), with 19 percent living in extreme poverty.

In the second half of 2008, one third of West Bank households and 71 percent of Gaza households received food assistance, with food accounting for roughly half total household expenditures - making families highly vulnerable to food price fluctuations. In May 2008, 56 percent of Gazans and 25 percent of West Bank residents were deemed food insecure by the UN. Chronic malnutrition has risen in Gaza over the past few years to reach 10.2 percent.

That comes at a time when UNRWA - responsible for providing assistance, protection and advocacy for some 4.7 million registered Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the oPt - is projecting a 25 percent shortfall in its core budget. “UNRWA is a very massive machine to feed and unfortunately, although our donations increase, in fact they don’t increase fast enough to meet the needs,” Grandi said.

Health

Healthcare services have generally improved in the West Bank over the past year because of eased movement restrictions and the efforts of the Palestinian Ministry of Health with the support of donors and other stakeholders. However, the impact of Israel’s “Separation Wall” and the difficulties of access to hospitals in east Jerusalem, where nearly 50 percent of Health Ministry referrals were to in 2009, remain areas of concern.

In Gaza, Israel’s blockade is debilitating the healthcare system, limiting medical supplies and the training of medical personnel and preventing serious medical cases from travelling outside the Strip for specialized treatment.

Israel’s 2008-2009 military operation damaged 15 of the Strip’s 27 hospitals and damaged or destroyed 43 of its 110 primary health care facilities, none of which have been repaired or rebuilt because of the construction materials ban. Some 15-20 percent of essential medicines are commonly out of stock and there are shortages of essential spare parts for many items of medical equipment, the WHO report said.

As a result, the steady decline in the infant mortality rate in recent decades has stalled over the past few years and may have even risen in Gaza, which has a mortality rate around 30 percent higher than in the West Bank. Watery diarrhoea, acute bloody diarrhoea and viral hepatitis are the major causes of morbidity among reportable infectious diseases in the Strip.

Reliable data on maternal mortality and morbidity trends were generally not available.

“Very often journalists ask me whether I define the crisis in Gaza as humanitarian and I give this reply: It’s far beyond humanitarian. It’s much more serious,” said Grandi. “You can address a humanitarian crisis with medicines and food; this is far more serious. It’s a crisis of the economy first of all - people are very poor. It’s a crisis of the institutions and it’s a crisis of the infrastructure. This requires years to fix.”

The WHO report, released on 13 May, was the result of a fact-finding mission to assess the health and economic situation in oPt in response to Resolution WHA62.2, adopted on 21 May 2009 at the 62nd World Health Assembly, which called, among other things on Israel to “lift immediately the closure in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly the closure of the crossing points of the occupied Gaza Strip that are causing the serious shortage of medicines and medical supplies”.

Video from MSF on their health care work in Gaza

From Medecins Sans Frontieres, this video describes their health care efforts in Gaza. It has been a year since Israel's Operation Cast Lead struck the region, some Palestinians are still feeling physical and mental scars from the violent military operation.

A one year old living in unsafe Gaza

A very touching story comes from the BBC about a one year old that lives in the very unsafe area of the Gaza strip. Mariam al-Sharif was separated from her mother for a time, but even while reunited the mother is unable to provide a healthy upbringing for her daughter due to powers beyond her control.

From the BBC, reporter Katya Adler accompanied Mariam and mother Saadiyia to a United Nations clinic.

Mariam is examined regularly here but the medicine she needs is often not available. Mariam's mother blames Israel's blockade, still in place on Gaza.

Most medicines are allowed into the territory, but their transfer can be slowed by Israeli and Palestinian bureaucracy, and the entry of medical equipment and other supplies is limited.

The World Health Organization says that at the end of November 2009, 125 of 480 essential drugs were at "zero level", meaning there was less than one month's stock left.

Israel says the military operation was - and the continuing blockade is - targeted at Hamas, not Gaza's civilians.

The Islamic movement has controlled Gaza since June 2007, and has launched thousands of rockets and mortars into Israel in recent years.

After weighing and measuring Mariam, Dr Salim Ramadan told us of the frustrations of being a doctor in Gaza.

He said Mariam's case was typical.

He often prescribes medicines to patients that either turn out not to be available in Gaza or that have been smuggled through tunnels under the border with Egypt, but at such a cost that few Gazans can pay.

Egypt also keeps its border with Gaza almost entirely closed.

"What to do?" he asked. "We have 65% of people living here under the poverty line and the situation is just getting worse."

Faking cancer to escape Gaza

As the blockade of Gaza continues many Palestinians are looking for a way out. Many are resorting to bribes or faking medical transfers to leave Gaza.

Israel and Egypt do allow Palestinians with life threatening illnesses to leave Gaza to seek medical treatment. So some will fake medical reports saying they have cancer in order to leave.

Israel and Egypt blocked off Gaza after Hamas took control of the territory.

From NPR, this Associated Press story gives one such example.

Akram Ghneim, 31, an unemployed father of six living off food handouts, told The Associated Press he promised $260 to a Palestinian middleman, who obtained for him a bogus medical report saying he had cancer. Ghneim said he hoped he'd get a rare spot on the list of Gaza patients with life-threatening illnesses who are allowed to enter Israel for treatment.

Once in Israel, he planned to disappear and work illegally. But Israeli intelligence officials, who review applications, rejected him last summer, saying his cancer report was forged.

"This is what the blockade does," said Ran Yaron, of the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which helps bring Gazans into Israel for treatment by lobbing Israeli defense officials.

"Most are frustrated and devastated people."

Yaron said fakers are a minority, but clog up the system for real patients who have to go through longer checks as a result.

Of more than 7,000 Gazans who crossed into Israel this year to seek medical treatment, some 500 haven't returned, said Col. Moshe Levi, an Israeli defense official.
...

Hazem Riyashi, 27, says he paid a middleman $1,000 in July to cross through Egypt, hoping to reach the Gulf emirate of Dubai, where his family lives. But the middleman disappeared and has not returned his calls. Riyashi hasn't given up, and is looking for someone else to pay off.

"I think everybody should leave Gaza," he said. "Even the air smells cleaner abroad."

Video: Tunnel con-men in the West Bank

From CNN comes this story of con-men taking advantage of desperate Palestinians. Tunnels that run into Egypt try to step around the Israeli blockade. New tunnels need to be built often because Israel keeps blowing up any they want. Con-men often look for investors for the new tunnels, but don't plan on paying them back.

Poverty triples in the Gaza strip

Behind the blockade, the Palestinian people have seen a tripling of poverty within the West Bank. The United Nations says that 1 in 5 Palestinians are in poverty, or 300,000 total.

From this Associated Press article that we found at MSN money we learn more about the humanitarian situation behind walls.

Gaza's economy has foundered under an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade imposed after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007 from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

John Ging, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency's top official in Gaza, called the rise in poverty a "predictable consequence" of the border blockade.

"The suffering, the impoverishment, the misery of the people here in Gaza continues to rise because of a man-made crisis, a political failure," Ging told reporters.

The blockade's toll on Gaza residents was compounded by Israel's winter offensive in the strip that aimed to stop Palestinian rocket fire at southern Israel. Thousands of homes, government buildings and businesses were destroyed during the Israeli campaign.

U.N. staff said the rise also reflects improved monitoring of refugees' economic conditions.

The U.N. agency provides services, including emergency food rations, to 750,000 of Gaza's 1.4 million residents. Those who are unable to feed their families are considered "abject poor" and receive extra aid, the agency said.

Gaza poverty level sees dramatic increase within a year

The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a statement about conditions in the Gaza strip yesterday. The Red Cross says that there has been a "dramatic increase in poverty" in the Gaza strip since the collapse of the Gaza economy last year. Conditions were only worsened by the Israeli offensive back in January.

The Red Cross says that 70 percent of Gaza Palestinians are in poverty, which is especially troubling because half of the population is children. The Red Cross also warns that the water and sanitation system in the area could collapse soon.

From Reuters, writer Stephanie Nebehay gives us more details.

Stringent import restrictions imposed by Israel are crippling reconstruction efforts by donors who have pledged $4.5 billion, it said. Basic medicines are in short supply and the water and sanitation system is on the brink of collapse.

The humanitarian agency called on Israeli authorities to lift the restrictions and allow spare parts, water pipes and building materials into the Hamas-ruled coastal territory devastated by the Dec. 27-Jan. 18 offensive.

"Gaza neighbourhoods particularly hard hit by the Israeli strikes will continue to look like the epicentre of a massive earthquake unless vast quantities of cement, steel and other building materials are allowed into the territory for reconstruction," the ICRC said in a report.

Israeli forces bombed and then invaded Gaza to root out militants firing rockets into southern Israel. According to a Palestinian rights group, 1,417 people including 926 civilians were killed, along with 10 Israeli soldiers and 3 civilians.

Many Gazans are "sliding ever deeper into despair", with thousands whose homes and belongings were destroyed still lacking adequate shelter, the Geneva-based ICRC said.

Hospitals are run down, with much of their equipment unreliable and in need of repair after daily power cuts.

3 out of 4 Arab children in Jerusalem live in poverty

A Civic rights group has concluded a new study that finds that 3 out of 4 Arab children that live in Jerusalem do so in poverty. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel blames the Israeli government for causing this. The ACRI says the governments policy of creating a Jewish majority in Jerusalem and forcing out Arabs is dropping the Arabs into poverty.

From the AFP News via Google, we read more findings of the study.

A total of 74 percent of Arab children in Jerusalem live below the poverty line, as compared with 47.7 percent of the Jewish children in the city, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said.

It said 66.8 percent of families in predominantly Arab east Jerusalem live in poverty as compared with 23.3 percent of the city's Jewish families, but that only 22 percent of the population receives social services.

In its "State of Human Rights in East Jerusalem" report, the group said residents of annexed east Jerusalem faced discrimination in planning and building, expropriation of lands, minimal investment in physical infrastructure, government and municipal services.

"These are concrete expressions of an Israeli policy designed to secure a Jewish majority in Jerusalem and push Palestinian residents outside the city's borders," it said.

"Life in Jerusalem can be described as a continuing cycle of neglect, discrimination, poverty and shortages.

"These, compounded by construction of the separation barrier cutting Jerusalem off from the West Bank, have led to the social and economic collapse of this part of the city.

"A large majority of east Jerusalem residents do not receive, and cannot afford to buy, the most basic services. The primary victims are the vulnerable populations, the aged, the disabled and children."
...

The Israeli group also reported a shortage of 1,700 classrooms in east Jerusalem and a school dropout rate of about 50 percent.

A roundup of Gaza Items

We came across a couple of items on the Gaza strip this morning and decided to put them all together into one post.

First, World Vision New Zealand is seeking donations to those who are hardest hit by the Israeli bombing. The Stuff website from New Zealand explains that this is part of a international effort.

World Vision internationally is aiming to raise $1.72 million to provide food parcels, blankets and other basic supplies to vulnerable families as soon as the situation in Gaza permits.

"Our priority now is to assist those who are living in intolerable conditions with limited access to food, water or medical facilities," World Vision's national director for Jerusalem-West Bank-Gaza, Charles Clayton said.

"Eighty percent of the people in Gaza are already dependent on food aid, and even those who had relied on a meagre daily income now find that it is no longer available."

Israel unleashed a massive bombardment following the end of a six-month ceasefire on December 19, aimed at weakening Hamas and in response to persistent rocket fire from the enclave.

Israeli rockets have targeted government buildings, mosques, universities, police stations and other civilian buildings in the deadliest conflict in Gaza in four decades.

Israel has said militants were using some holy sites to hoard weapons and as command centres, and that other buildings were linked to Hamas military operations.

Second, Medecins Sans Frontieres is asking for help to aid the people in Gaza. The medical aid organization is seeking more doctors to volunteer their time.

More than a week after air strikes on Gaza Strip began and following the first land incursion of Israeli forces, surgical services in the area are overwhelmed and surgeons specialised in vascular surgery are desperately needed in order to deal with the number of wounded. In Gaza City, the intensive care unit of Shifa referral hospital has reached the limits of its capacity. The conflict is preventing patients needing post operative medical care and health personnel from reaching clinics and hospitals.

Three international MSF volunteers (a field coordinator, a doctor and a nurse) arrived in Gaza Strip on Wednesday the 31st of December, to reinforce the 35 local staff members.

MSF is adapting its activities to reach people in need of medical help who are unable to leave their homes. Local MSF doctors, nurses and physiotherapists have taken medical supplies to their own neighbourhoods and are providing care and distributing medical material to meet the immediate needs of patients living in their vicinity. In response to a request from Shifa referral hospital, MSF is attempting to send a surgical team into Gaza Strip. MSF is also trying to send a mobile hospital unit with an operating theatre and an intensive care unit, and medical material for treating the wounded and supplying hospitals, in order to help them deal with the numerous emergencies they are facing.

An update on the Gaza strip

For a while now we have been meaning to post an update on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Israel is now in it's seventh day of bombing, and some foreigners have been allowed out of the region, but Palestinians are still locked in. NPR asked World Vision about the humanitarian situation.

Aid groups are concerned about civilians in the area. Allen Dhynes, a Jerusalem-based communication manager for the aid group World Vision, said residents of Gaza have no power and that fuel is scarce.

"Prior to the violence, there was only an average of eight hours of power a day, and now it's maybe only one hour a day," he told NPR from Portland, Ore., where he has been in contact with colleagues in Gaza.

"Gaza has been under a severe blockade and was already living under dire poverty before any of this occurred, so this is just an overwhelming burden for the population," Dhynes said.

Between 350 and 450 foreigners were authorised by Israel to leave Gaza if they wish, via the forbidding concrete corridor that ushers them into Israel's fortified crossing point and its panoply of security scanners to detect hidden suicide bombs.

Israel launched the aerial campaign Saturday in a bid to halt weeks of intensifying Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza. The offensive has dealt a heavy blow to Hamas, but has failed to halt the rocket fire. New attacks Friday struck apartment buildings in a southern Israeli city. No serious injuries were reported.

Gazans line up outside banks as cash runs out

from the Miami Herald

Cash crunch going on in Palestine. Tens of thousands of people withdrew money from banks today. - Kale

by IBRAHIM BARZAK

Israel promised to transfer more money to Gaza on Tuesday.

But the shortage highlighted the daily hardships still faced by the coastal strip's 1.4 million people despite a June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that has brought some badly needed relief.

The delicate truce suffered a setback Monday when unidentified Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel, hitting an open area in the town of Sderot but causing no casualties, Israeli police said.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered crossings into Gaza closed Tuesday in response to the attack, for which no armed group immediately claimed responsibility. Militants have violated the cease-fire several times since it went into effect.

After Hamas violently seized power in Gaza in June 2007, Israel began blockading the territory in hopes of pressuring the militant group to halt rocket fire and of undermining its rule. The blockade has been loosened since the truce began, but widespread shortages persist.

Lacking a currency of their own, Gazans use Israeli shekels. But with little new Israeli money entering Gaza, the bank notes in circulation are either being hoarded or have been damaged from overuse.

Bank tellers turned people away Monday, and many automatic teller machines were not working.

"I've been trying to withdraw my salary since yesterday morning. I don't have a shekel in my pocket," said Bassam, a 23-year-old civil servant, who was waiting outside a bank in Gaza City.

He declined to give his family name because his salary is paid by Hamas' rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and he did not want to be publicly identified as taking money from Abbas' government.

Two young men standing beside him said they had the same problem.

Mohammed Ayyad, a spokesman for the Abbas government's Palestinian Monetary Authority, said officials were in contact with Gaza banks to determine how much cash each needed.

Saying it was responding to a request from Abbas' government, Israel said it would send $20 million worth of shekels to Gaza from Palestinian funds it holds from collecting taxes, which will be used to pay civil servant salaries. Officials said the cash would be transferred Tuesday.

Link to full article. May expire in future.