Issue 1
Editorial
Focus on Gaza and the humanitarian crisis
This issue of ‘Perspectives’ is the first of our monthly newsletter from PIEF. In this edition we highlight the situation in Gaza a year after the war. The humanitarian and political crises in Gaza are an impediment to just and durable solutions.
Our monthly features in ‘Perspectives’ will highlight perspectives and analysis on the ‘Question of a just peace in Palestine and Israel’. Our intent is to generate a discourse towards creating a new basis in the search for freedom, peace and justice for both Israelis and Palestinians. We hope you find this newsletter useful and invite your feedback and ideas for its improvement.
Today we also launch the PIEF website (pief.oikoumene.org). Please send us your feedback on the website too. This will help us to improve it so that it becomes more relevant and useful for our network.
The war in Gaza is now long over but its dire consequences have lingered for the one-and-a-half million Gazans who survived the onslaught. It left in its wake several thousands of disabled, injured, traumatized, orphans, widows, and homeless people. Overcrowded neighborhoods are deprived of minimum public infrastructure and essential supplies of food and fuel. The lack of access to safe drinking water has compounded health risks. Many women and children are dying from want of nutrition, adequate sanitation, and prompt medical attention. Hospitals and clinics suffer from a lack of facilities. The problem of unemployment has created a growing sense of frustration. Rehabilitation and reconstruction projects been far too limited to cope with the requirements.
Indeed, the legacy of the Gaza War has assumed catastrophic proportions for the people in that small geographic stretch. The millions of dollars that have been pledged in aid do not translate into relief for the people because essential supplies to Gaza are cut off because of the lack of access to Gaza. Under harsh winter conditions, many thousands of people are still without shelter and lack the resources to reconstruct their homes. Churches must intercede in a way to guarantee that aid reaches the suffering swiftly. It is the need of the moment. There needs to be concerted insistence on the assertion of accepted humanitarian practices and policy which guarantee that aid reaches those who need urgent without impediments of any sort.
Important as they are, humanitarian interventions are, at best, ameliorative in scope. As the WCC has unequivocally stated, "the need of the hour is an unequivocal affirmation of the highest principles of justice, human rights and humanitarian practices".
Michel Nseir
Programme Executive
Public witness programme, Special focus on the Middle East
World Council of Churches
Perspectives on Gaza
Human rights groups in Palestine call for investigations on Goldstone Report
"Thirteen Palestinian human rights organizations and legal advocacy groups appealed to President Mahmoud Abbas and de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in open letters, calling for the immediate commencement of internal investigations of the Goldstone report in compliance with the UN General Assembly resolution," according to the Ma'an News Service. Click here to read the full article and the letters.
Human rights organizations call to government of Israel
"Human rights groups reissued their call to the government of Israel to establish, without delay, an independent and impartial investigation mechanism to thoroughly examine the allegations raised regarding violations of international law during Operation Cast Lead," according to a report from B'Tselem Center for Human Rights. Click here to read the full article
Open letter to Gordon Brown to end blockade
"Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP) wrote an open letter to Gordon Brown on 27 December calling for an immediate and unconditional end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip, " according to a MAP report. Click here to read the full article and letter
Special Rapporteur decries Gaza blockade
"Ahead of the first anniversary of the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, Richard Falk, a United Nations independent expert urged Israel’s European and North American allies to use the threat of economic sanctions to pressure the country into ending the blockade and calling for the swift implementation of the findings of the so-called Goldstone Report," according to a special report from the UN. Click here to read the full report
Impact on health from the blockade on Gaza
"The closure of the Gaza Strip puts at risk the health of people in Gaza and undermines the functioning of the health care system," says the UN Humanitarian Coordinator and Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) in a Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP) report. Click here to read the full article
Forced to dig for gravel
"The four-year-old Israeli siege on Gaza has caused unemployment to soar and basic supplies to be expensive and scarce," according to the Palestinian Telegraph. Click here to read the full article
Israel to resume pension payments to Gaza residents
"The national insurance benefits and pension payments, which are estimated at approximately two million shekels (535,000 dollars, euro 380,000) a month, will be transferred to the Palestinian Authority according to a list of about 1,000 beneficiaries," according to an AFP story on the Inform website. Click here to read the full article
Israel pays $10.5 million to UN for Gaza war
"The government of Israel has made a payment of 10.5 million US dollars to the United Nations, in respect to the losses sustained," according to an AFP article on Google News. Click here to read the full article
Israel suspends working permits for foreign national
"The Interior Ministry has stopped granting work permits to foreign nationals working in most international nongovernmental organizations operating in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem," accordint to a report in the online Israeli newspaper Haaretz.com. Click here for the full article
Israel opens crossings into Gaza Strip
"Israeli authorities opened the Kerem Shalom and Karni crossings into the Gaza Strip on Monday to allow the transfer of humanitarian aid and the limited export of goods," according to an article of the Ma'an News Agency. Click here to read the full article
Gaza shows solidarity with Haiti
Despite the harsh conditions Gaza people live under -- the Israeli blockade and military actions -- people from Gaza sent symbolic assistance to their brothers and sisters in Haiti," according to Rami Almeghari, who writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. Click here to read the full article
Gaza’s children yearn for a decent life
"Dozens of children living in the besieged Gaza Strip expressed their desire to live decent lives where their rights are guaranteed in a world far from war and internal conflict," according to an article from the Ma'an News Agency. Click here to read the full article
Gaza faces acute gas shortage
"An impending shortage of cooking gas in the Gaza Strip could cause a humanitarian disaster unless Israel intervenes to allow more into the coastal enclave," accrding to an article from The Media Line, found on the MIFTAH website. Click here to read the full article
You can contact the PIEF team by sending an e-mail to Ranjan Solomon at: Ranjan.Solomon@wcc-coe.org
Views contained in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the policies of the World Council of Churches. They are included in the newsletter with a view to highlight issues that merit study and discussion by all those who seek a just peace in the region.
You receive this information as a subscriber to WCC e-news. You are registered as ###USER_name### with the address ###USER_email###. To change your settings or unsubscribe, click here.
