Other Links

 

 

The second of three articles by Reform Editor David Lawrence on a trip to visit Christian Aid partners in Israel/Palestine

(Jan 2003)

 

They call it ‘The Prison’ – 140 square miles of parched land – just over half the size of Merseyside – stretched out along the coast where Israel meets Egypt. It is the Gaza Strip, home to 1.2 million Palestinians: three-quarters have the status of refugees, more than half are under 18, almost none can leave the 25 mile ribbon. Perhaps the president of the French charity Medecins Sans Frontieres caught the reality best when he described Gaza as ‘a vast open-air detention centre, watched, from land, sea and air, by war machines (planes, helicopters, armoured cars, and boats) and their faceless pilots.’

 

It is a hard place, where the distinction between water and life is difficult to make. And it is a crowded place. Population density in Gaza is just over 8,500 people per square mile, much like London. But Gaza must find land to feed itself and make room for some 7000 Israeli settlers, the estimated 20,000 Israeli soldiers who protect them and the security zones which surround their armed colonies, illegal under international law. In the 22% of the strip devoted to Palestinian residential areas, population density often exceeds 30,000 people per square mile.

into the prison

 

It was around 9 am when the eight members of the Christian Aid group arrived at the Erez checkpoint. The only other travellers were a small party of American Christians and one or two plush cars awaiting diplomats or VIPs. In past years the checkpoint would be thronged every morning with thousands of Palestinian workers queuing to get into Israel but those days are gone. As we entered Gaza we saw the concrete walls of the new industrial area – legally outside Israel so that it escapes Israeli legislation on wages and pollution, entry is nevertheless under Israeli control. The factories use cheap Palestinian labour but do not contribute to the development of a genuine Palestinian economy. Even so, the jobs are welcome in an area where it is is estimated that 80% of the population now live below the official poverty level of £1.25 ($2) a day.

 

 

Caring for refugees

 

We were guests for the morning of the Middle Eastern Council of Churches for a whirlwind tour of some of their work with refugees. Our trip took us into one of Gaza’s many refugee camps, some of the most crowded areas on earth. No law compels the 400,000 refugees to remain crowded into the camps, it is simply that for most residents there is nowhere else to go – even if they had the money to move.

 

When we arrived, a young Palestinian policeman was nervously eying the needle wielded by a dentist in the mobile dental clinic built into the back of a van parked outside the mother and baby clinic. There, we heard of the growing rates of malnutrition and anaemia among local children and saw the tiny dispensary, which hands out subsidized drugs and the compact laboratory on which the doctors rely for test results.

 

The other main side of the MECC’s work is educational. We saw the sparse workshops where young men and boys learned carpentry, metal and electrical work. A range of courses in dressmaking skills are offered to women of all ages – on equipment of all ages. In the conservative atmosphere of much Palestinian culture, dressmaking is considered an ideal occupation, allowing women to work from home and contribute to family finances. Elsewhere, mainly younger women were learning secretarial skills, getting to grips with information technology in a smart new computer room or developing their skills in English. Heartened though we were, it was sad to be reminded that many of those taking part in the programmes would have difficulty in finding outlets for their new skills in the devastated economy.

 

 

Rights and wrongs

 

The work of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, another Christian Aid partner, has been recognized and applauded around the globe. Its Director, Raji Sourani, is an intense and animated lawyer who holds the dubious distinction of having been imprisoned by both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities. Imprisoned four times by the Israelis, he spares visitors the details of the beatings and physical and mental abuse he suffered at their hands. His last period of incarceration, for criticizing the PNA’s decision to set up a state security court, lasted only 18 hours before he was released in a blizzard of protest faxes from around the world. The Centre he heads works to protect human rights, promote the rule of law, foster the growth of democracy and to support the ‘inalienable right’ of the Palestinian people to self-determination and independence. Its publications, including its website, are among the most respected sources of information on what is really happening in the occupied territories.

 

The Centre labours against huge odds to provide legal aid and counsel to those whose human rights are threatened, its work complicated by the bizarre mix of Ottoman Turk, British, Jordanian, Egyptian and Israeli law to which Gaza’s history makes it heir – which laws are applied usually depending on the whim of the authorities. Legal institutions find it almost impossible to function because of the regular ‘closures’ which make movement around the Gaza Strip impossible – some 40% of the Strip is actually under Israeli control and there are more than 40 military checkpoints or road barriers in the remainder. It was a familiar theme when talking to Palestinian professionals: time and time again we were told that even to make an appointment for next week was impossible because arbitrary closures of checkpoints made commitments impossible to keep. To know what your day will be like in Gaza you do not look at your diary, you listen to the news.

 

Advocating the rule of law in Palestinian territories does not always make the PCHR popular. Palestinian officials often find it difficult to understand why the Centre criticizes their actions when their human rights performance is better than that of other Arab states. The PCHR also opposes the use of the death penalty for ‘collaborators’ – those who have been bribed, frightened or coerced into co-operating secretly with the Israeli occupying forces. The PCHR’s courageous stand against the execution of people whose information has led directly to the death and injury of fellow citizens goes down badly with the general public.

 

 

Practical compassion

 

The following morning we travelled south to the town of Khan Younis, passing nervously through the grim armoured checkpoint which straddles the one main road and divides Gaza into two. The cramped town centre bustled with people eager to make the best use of the time before the Israeli-imposed curfew.

 

On the edge of the town, butting up against abandoned two-story houses riddled with bullet and shell holes was the ugly concrete security wall of the illegal Jani Tall ‘settlement’ from which Israeli forces make incursions into Khan Younis. It was hard not to feel afraid under the gaze of the gun emplacements or the sniper cage suspended high in the air by a tall crane – most people have stories of what they describe as random shootings. It was also hard not to feel anger at the provocation of placing an armed colony here, just about as far from Israeli territory as it was possible to get.

 

We had come to Khan Yunis to see the work of the Cultural and Free Thought Association – a grand name for a piece of immensely practical and compassionate work. The CFTA was set up in 1992 by five women who wanted to help children in a local refugee camp. They rented a piece of land previously used for sewage and garbage collection and set to work cleaning it up. Over the years they have run leisure activities, a library and even a theatre on the site. Today the CFTA also runs play centres for local children, a centre for teenagers, a women’s centre and a loan scheme for women.

 

Since the start of the Second Intifada in the year 2000, with local people’s attention focussed on food and survival rather than leisure, the CFTA has run environmental improvement schemes which give local people the dignity of a wage with which to buy their own food.

 

The weather was bright and sunny for our visit to a CFTA children’s centre and no-one could have failed to be impressed by the riot of activity. Though the buildings were poorer and the facilities limited, the atmosphere was like nothing so much as play-time at a British primary school. Inside the rough buildings playdough and poster paint were much in evidence and we were surrounded by children demanding to have their picture taken with their latest artistic creation. In another room a small group sat reading with an adult volunteer, while others built miraculously tall towers out of wooden blocks or played with a collection of battered toys. Most of the children, however, seem to be enjoying themselves frenetically outside. Safe places to play are at a premium in Khan Yunis, where many children have spent a large part of the last two years locked inside their houses, their sleep regular disturbed by gunfire and explosions. So while some were led in gymnastics, others let off steam throwing light plastic balls with all their might at a colourful wall inside a wire netting cage. It was a poignant contrast to the image of children throwing stones at soldiers with guns.

 

 

A model partner

 

On the afternoon of our second day in Gaza we arrived at an institution which needs little introduction to readers of Reform: The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees. PARC has been a URC partner through our Commitment for Life scheme since 1992 and its story is always one of hope and encouragement. It exists to help Palestine’s small farmers (90% of the total) to develop their skills, find new markets and shift to safer and more sustainable ways of farming. Along the way it promotes rural development, environmental protection and, in a host of practical ways, the status of women in rural communities. Its administration is recognized as model of efficiency – it even provides training courses to newly graduated agricultural engineers to provide the technical and managerial skills neglected in university courses. It has pioneered the use of rainfall collection and distributes thousands of seedlings annually. It is helping small farmers to set up their own specialized growers’ organizations for mutual support and backing consciousness-raising ‘Clean Up’ campaigns to improve the environment. One recent emphasis has been on ‘urban agriculture’, using even small amounts of land available to produce food – even to the extent of planting trees which produce olives or dates alongside roads, rather than simply regarding public trees as decorative.

 

 

Land and water

 

Since the beginning of the Second Intifada, however, PARC’s work has necessarily shifted in emphasis towards relief and emergency aid. PARC estimates that more than 13,000 acres of agricultural land have been destroyed by the Israeli authorities and that it will take 5-10 years in many cases for the land to be rehabilitated. Now the fear is that a proposed one kilometre wide ‘security strip’ around the entire Gaza Strip – within the borders of the Strip – will result in a further massive loss of agricultural land.

 

The remaining farmers find themselves almost totally cut off from export markets – indeed, given the regularity of closures, it is often impossible to move produce even to markets within the Gaza Strip. When it is possible to get produce to local markets it sells at a half or a third of the cost of production. PARC is engaged in a major programme to feed 6000 families whose land has either been ruined or closed to them. Another programme, in co-operation with the Palestine National Authority, offers rural work such as tree pruning and installing irrigation networks. Workers can earn up to 40 shekels (£5.50) a day but can work for only 30 days before the chance must be passed on to someone else.

 

A continuing concern for PARC is the deteriorating state of Gaza’s water supply. The only reliable supply of fresh water in the Strip comes from artesian wells which tap natural reservoirs deep underground. In the south-west of the Strip, Israeli settlers are pumping vast quantities of water from the underground reserves, some it piped out of Gaza to settlements cultivating the Negev Desert. So much water has been removed that sea-water is beginning to seep into the aquifers and, in many places, sewage contamination adds to the problem. With many crops already disappearing from the Gaza Strip due to the declining water quality (citrus-growing in the south of the strip has all but disappeared) the effect of any further reduction in water supplies would be little short of disastrous.

 

 

A painful parting

Our last appointment in the Gaza strip was unexpected. PARC had learned that Israeli bulldozers had destroyed a grove of olive trees nearby the previous evening. We drove the short distance along dusty back-roads to view the remains of a farm which had been scraped clean of life. In tears, the elderly farmer told us he had tended the same land with its olive trees for 50 years – it had been his life, and the livelihood of his family. All that remained were a few upturned roots. Nearby we examined the ruined mechanism of an ancient mechanical water pump which had been destroyed for good measure. A few other local people began to gather, attracted by the sight of the strangers with their cameras. They invited us to come and see what else had happened the previous night.

 

Half a mile down the road we found what seemed the whole of the population of the tiny community gathered to comfort one family. Israeli soldiers had come in the night to arrest their son, a common experience for families in the Strip. The method was simple: a tank had rolled up to the back of the small concrete house and demolished the wall, with the family inside. We stood amidst the rubble which filled the remaining rooms. A few cheap toys, a broken fan and some stained mattresses lay on the floor. We thought at first that this was all that remained but then realized it was all they had had in the first place. None of us knew what to say, or how to answer the question addressed to us time and time again: ‘Why?’ But as we left, we promised to tell their story so that at least others might ask the same question.

 

 

top