Can you describe the situation in West Bank and Gaza Strip especially in the refugee camps?
The deteriorating conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after 16 months of strife, closures and sanctions has compelled the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees to appeal to the international community for $117 million in emergency funds for 2002. UNRWA will use the emergency funding to provide food aid, medical care and work programmes to alleviate the worst of the suffering among the 1.4 million refugees in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Many thousands of Palestinians have lost their livelihoods because of closures imposed on their communities - there are now 72 permanent Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank and nine in Gaza. The destruction of agricultural crops has added to the hardship and fully half the population is now living in acute poverty. This rises to 65 per cent of the refugee population in Gaza.
Can you tell us a bout the restrictions imposed by the Israeli army on UNRWA activities?
Those whom UNRWA serves are among the communities worst affected by the closures and sanctions whether in terms of physical casualties, loss of livelihoods, damage to property and infrastructure or access to basic services. More than half of the 843 Palestinians killed by the middle of January 2002 were refugees registered with UNRWA. Thousands more have been injured.
Tragically 29 children enrolled in UNRWA's schools have been killed and another 800 have been injured. Teachers have not been able to get to their schools and the combination of lost days and trauma has caused exam results to plummet. Hardship is causing university students to drop out of class.
Ever tightening restrictions on freedom of movement, prolonged curfews, military incursions deep into population centers, house demolitions, the destruction of agricultural crops and widespread damage to infrastructure have exacted an alarming toll: economic, social and psychological.
UNRWA, whose sole concern is the welfare of the Palestinian refugees, has not been spared. Repeated and prolonged curfews and closures have led to disruptions in its services, particularly in the West Bank. Its installations have come under fire, several members of its staff have been humiliated and others beaten or injured in the course of carrying their duties. UNRWA has been unable to deliver 42 ten-tonne truckloads of supplies in storage in its warehouses in Jerusalem to the Gaza Strip, because of procedures at the Karni border crossing entailing the off-loading and on-loading of goods. Medical supplies for more than half the value of goods in storage.
Tight closures imposed by the Israeli security forces have severely affected access to health and education services. In the Gaza Strip medical consultations at UNRWA clinics rose by 21 per cent and dental consultations by 18 per cent as refugees increasingly turned to the Agency's services. In the West Bank, the crisis has led to 10.4 per cent in the incidence of low birth weights and a 52 per cent in the stillbirth rate. The numbers of refugees seeking secondary health care in hospitals where UNRWA contracts services on their behalf have fallen by 18.4 per cent in the West Bank, as refugees are often unable to access these hospitals because of closures.
The vulnerability of the refugees comes mainly from their high dependence upon work as unskilled or semi-skilled labour, particularly in Israel, where they are extremely susceptible to closures. With very little chance of work, and traditional alternative safety nets, such as savings, borrowing, buying on credit and assistance from extended families becoming exhausted, the only relief for these families comes from outside. UNRWA's ability to respond to their needs of the refugee community becomes even more critical. UNRWA's first three emergency appeals and this current appeal for the current year is of utmost importance to these families who have neither land nor other property, and have few accumulated savings to rest on.
The UNRWA declared its forth emergency appeal can you give us more details?
During the year 2002 emergency appeal, UNRWA plans to distribute $26 million of food aid to 217,000 of the very poorest families in the West Bank and Gaza. An additional $55 million needs to be spent on emergency work schemes that will create more than two million job opportunity days with greater attention to the poorer areas of the Southern Gaza Strip and the hardest hit village areas of the West Bank.
Special emphasis will be paid to the education sector were remedial classes will be held for children identified with learning difficulties resulting from the situation, and after school activities to provide children with a peaceful environment in which to express themselves. UNRWA plans to spend $5 million on compensatory education for 108,000 pupils, trauma counseling, university grants and other emergency educational needs.
For 40,000 of the most desperate households - often those with no breadwinner - UNRWA will distribute cash, clothing and other in-kind assistance. UNRWA plans also to spend $4.3 million on emergency medical supplies, supporting mobile health teams for the West Bank and other badly needed clinical services.
In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank over 4,500 refugees had been made homeless by the demolition of their shelters and thousands more have seen their shelters badly damaged. In 2002 UNRWA plans to spend $7.6 million emergency repair and reconstruction work to provide these refugees with basic accommodation.
It is true as Mr. Peter Hansen, UNRWA's Commissioner General, said: "… fatigue and despair are tempting responses by the international community to a seemingly intractable conflict coupled by political uncertainty and instability." But the Commissioner-General expressed the belief that "UNRWA's presence on the ground means that there is an effective tool for them to use and support to mitigate the damage caused in the area and plant the seeds for a better prospects for peace."
Launching UNRWA's 2002 emergency appeal in an environment of such political uncertainty and instability, the Agency hopes that the international community will respond generously to this appeal. In so doing the world can show its concern for those who have been injured and disabled, the families who have lost their breadwinner or their home and the children who have been traumatized by the daily violence that blights their lives.
The people united will never be divided
Date posted: April 30, 2024
By Joharah Baker
I was born in the United States and lived there through early childhood, but since returning with my family to Palestine, I have never wanted to go back. The United States has always evoked mixed feelings in me. I have a certain nostalgia for the place of my birth but my overall sentiments always culminated in a sense of resentment for this so-called superpower that has systematically aided in my people’s oppression, occupation and dehumanization.
That is, until present day. The scenes of American university campuses breaming with students in kuffiyehs, waving Palestinian flags and resisting the brutality of the police and their own university administrations, has uplifted my spirit in ways I cannot fully articulate. In a word, what is happening on US campuses today is validation of our people, of Palestine and of our struggle. To those who live comfortable lives in free countries, this may sound like an exaggeration, but for my people, who have been denied their very right to exist, who have been demoralized, demonized and dehumanized, this is huge. We are seeing students of all races, creeds, backgrounds and religions, calling for an end to the genocide in the Gaza Strip and marching for a free Palestine and divestment from the Israeli occupation. We are hearing Jewish voices, debunking Zionist propaganda and its below-the-belt attempts to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. We are being validated for our struggle, for our resistance against oppression, occupation and settler-colonialism and we are finally being heard and seen.
Students have always been the litmus test for social and political justice. Rallies and demonstrations on university campuses have been the driving force against imperialist wars throughout the ages, the Vietnam War being the best example. However, what is so incredible about this movement is that American students are not directly involved in Palestine. Students are not being drafted into an army to fight on foreign soil, so the stakes are not as high for them at the personal level. What is happening today is the direct result of the intersectionality of struggles and the belief that no one is free until all of us are free. This is a force far more powerful than a genocidal regime will ever be.
The scenes from university campuses in the United States and now in Europe, juxtaposed against the crushing images from the Gaza Strip, are a balm for our wounded hearts. We feel a kinship with these incredible Gen Zs who have put their very lives on the line for Palestine. We send them love, energy and solidarity as we watch them being thrown to the ground, handcuffed and arrested and we burst with pride as we hear them chant ‘Free Palestine”.
This is a moment in time that must not be squandered. May these American university protests spread like wildfire throughout campuses across the world, putting to shame both Zionism and American imperialism, which has allowed this racist ideology to survive. The Palestinians have never wavered in their determination to liberate their land from Israeli occupation and oppression, whether they do it alone or with the help of friends. Today, thanks to the beautiful people all over the world who have championed our cause alongside of us, a free Palestine is not only an inevitability, it is just around the corner.
Who will hear their screams?
Date posted: April 01, 2024
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
When Israel claimed women were sexually assaulted on a mass scale on October 7, the world exploded. Almost the entirety of Israel’s genocidal war was based on these and other allegations, many unsubstantiated. We all remember the infamous’40 beheaded babies” story, do we not?
This article is not about Israeli allegations per se, neither will it only focus on violations against Palestinian women. This is about a world that is immediately up in arms when one side merely alleges atrocities while it turns a blind eye to actual documented violations against the “other”.
In Gaza, it is painfully clear that we indeed, are ‘the other’. How else can anyone explain the muted cries of women being stripped, raped, starved and murdered practically in real time, on our phone screens, documented in UN reports and described in horrific detail in eyewitness testimonies? There is no other explanation than that Palestinians are what Arundhati Roy calls “Children of a lesser God”. We are the victims of deep-rooted colonialism, one whose geographic demarcations may have vanished but whose insidious, dehumanizing mentality still prevails and manifests in the ugliest of manners.
For nearly six months, Palestinians have endured unspeakable atrocities at the hands of Israel’s occupying army. Today, the Gaza Strip has been reduced to an emaciated shell of what it once was. As Gaza is being systematically decimated and ethnically cleansed, the world, for the most part, looks on. Barring sympathetic supporters and a few well-intended but timid political actors, nothing has been done to stop the carnage. Palestinians once believed there was no way the world would allow Israel to erase Gaza off the map, no way it could see a live-streamed genocide and do nothing. But that is exactly what is happening.
Then, when we thought things could not get any worse, something unfathomable emerged from the deathtrap of Gaza. When this happened, we were certain it would be the turning point in this hellish nightmare. Well-documented reports, corroborated by the UN and eyewitnesses on the ground, told of harrowing stories of sexual assault against Palestinian women in Gaza.
We were paralysed with horror when we heard of women being raped by Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza, assaulted and stripped in front of their families. What’s worse, we all know that in times like these, the undocumented atrocities will far outnumber those documented. Who knows what horrors will unfold once the dust settles in Gaza; no doubt they will be so horrific, our entire nation will be traumatized for years to come.
The real question here is not how Israel’s soldiers perpetrated such gross violations. I think by now we can all agree that this depraved military establishment and its political echelon to boot, has dehumanized and vilified Palestinians so much and for so long, they will justify just about anything. No, the question is more about the moral compass of the rest of the world. While alliances and political interests are always part of the equation, even when the issue pertains to basic human rights, nothing can better explain the blatant hypocrisy, double standards and loss of collective humanity than the deafening silence today.
Our women have not only been killed, starved and displaced, they have been exposed to the very violations that sparked global outrage and a genocidal war against an entire population under occupation, unprecedented in modern history. This is not only unacceptable, it is an indelible stain on humanity. Sexual violence is a crime so heinous it is imperative to condemn and prevent, no matter the perpetrator or the victim. That must always be the baseline in any argument.
Palestinians will never get past this genocide; it is not something you can come back from. However, be assured, this is not only about the Palestinians. The world’s women, the majority of so-called feminists who have remained disgustingly silent, must know this: when you do not stand up for women, all women, no one will stand up for you in your time of need.
A new day will come
Date posted: February 14, 2024
By Joharah Baker
I once heard that anger is not a real emotion, but a cover for other feelings such as sadness, disappointment or fear. You need to peel back that outer layer to understand what is really going on inside.
Strange how this has lately resurfaced for me, but I think I know why. Lately, I and surely, millions of other Palestinians, have been filled with a blinding rage -- at Israel, at the United States, and at the world overall. This is a rage that is all-encompassing, the depth of which is palpable at the cellular level, permeating every molecule and every atom of our being. The genocide in the Gaza Strip has grated our emotions raw and we are left stinging and burning from our head to our toes.
Our anger is like a huge magnetosphere and we are all trapped inside, but its walls are translucent and we can see the source of our rage mocking us from beyond. We Palestinians are angry because we are so disappointed and we are angry because we are disillusioned and we are angry because we are drowning in sorrow.
Our disappointment lies in the fact that the world has failed us in the worst possible way and has allowed the unspeakable to be committed against us. Genocide is the ‘mother of all crimes’ and, contrary to the promises, the conventions and the historical lessons the world was supposed to learn, it has been committed over and over again. The Palestinian genocide, however, is unique in at least one way: it is live-streamed, which means no one can claim ignorance and everyone has a responsibility in stopping it. Hence, our disappointment is not limited to countries, Arab or otherwise, or to international and human rights organizations. It has spread to everyone in our orbit; acquaintances and people we thought were friends, but whose silence towards our slaughter is a deafening betrayal. Our sense of disappointment has discolored every relationship it touches because every relationship for us is a dichotomy: you are either with or against genocide and either support Palestine in word and deed, or not.
Our anger is a thin veil concealing our disillusion with the international community and its institutions, supposedly established to protect people in situations precisely like ours. We have confirmed what we knew all along, that these organizations were constructed for some and not all, for colonial powers and not those who suffer beneath them. Even when the highest court in the land rules in our favor, the Global North ensures that its ruling will not be implemented to save us, the oppressed, indigenous brown people whose lives apparently do not matter.
And finally, our anger is a survival mechanism to shield us from our own grief. Our sorrow over the murdered men, women and children, defenseless, homeless, starving and shivering in the cold, is so deep, so immense, we ourselves cannot fathom it. If we dare peek behind this anger and truly feel a fraction of the aching in our hearts, it will paralyze us for sure, because no people can endure the magnitude and scale of such suffering and not lose their minds.
We Palestinians know we cannot let go and that a new day is near. We know we must hold on just a little bit longer, because Palestine depends on it. We are no strangers to oppression, suffering and sacrifice and we know the price of our freedom has and continues to be painfully high. Still, we also know that a life without shackles and the yoke of oppression around our weary necks is the only life worth living.
