Medical aid must lead the way in Gaza

Doctors use a mobile phone for light as they treat a child critically injured during Israel’s attacks on Gaza last November (2012). Photo by Anne Paq ActiveStills

Start with simple solutions in Gaza – like medicine

Alan Philps, The National
June 18, 2015

How do surgeons operate when the power is cut in Gaza? They shine their mobile phones on the patient’s vital organs. In any other country, surgeons would wear head lamps but these are unavailable in the Gaza Strip. Israel will not allow any to be imported through the blockade – for security reasons. Apparently they can be used by tunnel diggers.

This piece of information was supplied by the Norwegian doctor, Mads Gilbert, who has worked with Palestinian surgeons during all four of the Israeli attacks on Gaza over the past eight years. Dr Gilbert was speaking in London at the invitation of the SOAS students union and Medical Aid for Palestinians. Originally the organisers printed 200 tickets, but more than 1,000 people wanted to pay to hear him. A bigger hall was hired and second session was scheduled – proof that even while Syria, Iraq and Yemen are in flames, the plight of Gaza still has enormous resonance.

And rightly so. Malnutrition is a serious problem in Gaza. No less than 29 per cent of children aged under five years are stunted, which irreversibly compromises their health, academic and socio-economic potential.

Next month will be the first anniversary of the start of the [2014] 51-day assault on Gaza that ravaged the local health care system and has left 100,000 people still unable to return to their homes. In the past, a diplomat’s answer to Gaza’s plight would have focused on the so-called peace process and its ultimate goal, a two-state solution, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians.

But no one believes in that possibility since the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said during the election campaign that he would not allow a Palestinian state on his watch. Since re-election Mr Netanyahu has sought to row back on that comment. But the deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotoveli, set a more genuine tone for the new government, telling diplomats that all of the historic land of Palestine belongs to Israel. “All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologise for that.”

The two-state solution is a dead concept. As Nathan Brown, a George Washington University professor, has pointed out: “We have seen enough of what it would look like in reality to know that it would likely codify existing injustices rather than resolve them.” Throughout the years of the peace process, settlement building and confiscation of land have proceeded unimpeded.

It is a bitter irony that the two “states” spawned by the peace process are within Palestinian ranks – the West Bank under the Fatah movement of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and the Gaza Strip, run by Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement. Israel has tried to crush Hamas, by war and blockade, while at the same time profiting from the split in Palestinian ranks that ruled out the necessity of the Netanyahu government actually having to agree peace terms.

Clearly, with the shadow play of the peace process taken off the stage, the international community needs to focus on what can be done in the real world. That means Gaza, and there are, surprisingly, some small points of light here.

While Mr Netanyahu is back in the prime minister’s office, the collapse of the US-led peace process has left Israel exposed on two fronts. Without the Americans monopolising the diplomatic dossier, attention will turn to the role of international organisations where Washington cannot offer the Israeli government a blanket defence.

Meanwhile, the option of sanctions against Israel – under the banner of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement – is now at the centre of debate. As the anniversary of last year’s Operation Protective Edge moves closer, analysis of the high casualty rate among civilians and children and the devastation of the medical system – 62 clinics and hospitals damaged – will cast a harsh light on the Israeli armed forces.

For this reason the Israelis have begun allowing more goods and people to leave Gaza – giving a slight spur to the economy – and permitting more goods in. This does not change the fundamental reality that Gaza is under Israeli occupation since Israel controls access by land, sea and air and is therefore responsible for the well-being of the 1.8 million residents. This is a gesture to delay the next explosion of violence.

Some Israeli commentators now suggest a new approach by the Israeli military to Hamas: a recognition that it is there to stay and cannot be eradicated by bombs and drone strikes. This may reflect nothing more than the changed regional environment: Hamas is a known quantity, while the alternative – offshoots of ISIL which are attempting to set up shop in the Gaza Strip – would be worse.

Hamas sources have revealed that they are in indirect contact with Israel on extending last year’s truce for five years, with the possibility of Israel allowing the construction of a floating port to link Gaza to the outside world. This is surprising indeed, since the Israelis have always turned a deaf ear to Hamas’s offers of a long-term truce.

Of course, Mr Netanyahu does not have much to lose: a port can be destroyed instantly. Nor is this any kind of permanent solution: for that there would need to be reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas to unite Gaza and the West Bank. That seems as far away as ever. These Hamas-Israel talks – if they turn out to have any substance – are likely to deepen the rift, with Ramallah and Gaza having their separate lines of communication with the Israelis.

There are no simple solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is moving into a new stage, one where Israel sees advantage in easing the pressure on Gaza. So it’s time for all countries with influence to change the status quo of the last eight years in Gaza and give the people some hope. A good start would be ensuring the timely delivery of all medical supplies.

Alan Philps is a commentator on global affairs. On Twitter: @aphilps

Notes and links

See also Third parties sidle into the peace gap

Imposing malnutrition on Gaza, Electronic Intifada, July 2009

Israel used ‘calorie count’ to limit Gaza food during blockade, critics claim, Guardian, October 2012

Ard El Insan Child Nutrition Centre

Chronic malnutrition in Gaza blamed on Israel, The Israeli blockade of Gaza has led to a steady rise in chronic malnutrition among the 1.5 million people living in the strip, according to a leaked report from the Red Cross.’ The Independent, November 2008.

Cases of child malnutrition double in Gaza because of blockade
Report by PCHR on the nutritional work of this centre.

Notes and links

Islamic Relief, UK

Gaza’s children need nutritious food. They need your support.

Fund-raising message from Medical Aid for Palestinians
12 June 2015

Israel’s brutal blockade, now entering in its ninth year, has destroyed Gaza’s economy. Many of the 1.8 million residents can no longer afford the soaring prices of the healthy, nutritious food they need. This is systematically undermining the health of the Palestinian people. And children – who represent half of Gaza’s population – are suffering most of all.

Children growing up in poverty are especially vulnerable. Their parents are unable to afford an adequate diet. Over 10% of children under five in Gaza suffer from exposure to chronic malnutrition most showing signs of stunting. These conditions can compromise a child’s immune system and leave them at high risk of disease and further illness.

We at Medical Aid for Palestinians are doing all we can to help these children in Gaza, and that is why I need your help today.

‘The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.’
Dov Weisglass, advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister in 2006.

I remember the above statement by Dov Weisglass in 2006 just before Gaza was completely cut off. At the time I was convinced that the blockade wouldn’t last and that it would drive the international community to act. Shockingly, they are now in the ninth year of the blockade. The trapped population have to endure the harsh conditions and live through severe bombardment from land, sea and air. The humanitarian crisis is now worse than ever.

As a result of the occupation and this inhumane blockade, over 80% of people in Gaza depend on aid to survive. The blockade is a form of collective punishment. It is unjust and it is illegal under international law. It puts the world to shame that Israel, with the support of Egypt, has been causing considerable suffering through this policy for so long.

The blockade doesn’t just stop essential items getting in. It stops Palestinians exporting goods out. It causes chronic unemployment. It has practically shut down the economy leading to widespread poverty. It has virtually destroyed the agriculture and fishing industries. The result: malnourishment amongst the most vulnerable. We are working with a specialist clinic to provide care and support for malnourished children and their families throughout Gaza. The clinic currently has long queues every day.

These children are not living in a country blighted by infertile soil or drought. The population of 1.8 million is living in a space no larger than the Isle of Wight, deprived of adequate access to a healthy life as a direct result of the Israeli blockade.

Like me, Hanan El Kurd, the Nutrition Administrative Officer and our partner on this project, is in no doubt about the severity of the current situation.

The number of severely malnourished children is increasing especially after the latest war on Gaza. We know that lots of the parents of the children are not employed and they depend mainly on food aid. This food aid does not guarantee healthy nutritious meals for the children as their families cannot afford to buy meat or chicken or fresh food. Most of the mothers of the children have the signs of malnutrition and anaemia which reflect the general condition of the families and the children.

This situation couldn’t be more urgent. As things stand, a child in occupied Palestine is five times more likely to die before the age of five than a child in Israel. If you think that’s shocking, as I do, please set up your monthly gift today. Thank you.

Tony Laurance,
Chief Executive Officer, Medical Aid for Palestinians