[News] Palestinian Intifada - 4th Anniversary

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Palestinian Intifada - 4th Anniversary
SUMMARY OF PRESS CONFERENCE
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi Director HDIP
Monday, September 27, 2004

Dr Mustafa Barghouthi began today’s press conference with a summary of 
recent trends and statistics. The second Intifada, now entering its 5th 
year, has seen the World distracted by events in Iraq enabling Israel to 
continue violating Palestinians’ Human Rights with complete immunity. The 
International media remains more accessible to the Israeli side and thus 
allows Israel to push forward their preferred narrative. Furthermore, these 
past years have witnessed a significant deterioration in international 
support and involvement with the peace process, many becoming disheartened 
and reluctant having supported the now dead Oslo Peace Process. However, 
the Intifada has also witnessed the emergence of a new democratic 
opposition movement, born within the Palestinian Territories, together with 
a consolidation in support for pioneering, modern Palestinian leaders.

In the years since 1948, the Palestinians have witnessed a consistent 
decrease in their promised State - now just 11% of historic Palestine (as 
according to Sharon’s plan). What we are looking at now is not a future 
Palestinian State, but a series of Bantustans.

Death and Injury

In the four years since Sharon’s famous visit to the Haram Al Sharif we 
have seen 4,342 Palestinians and Israelis killed. Of those 1,008 were 
Israeli and 3,334 Palestinian. 82% of Palestinians killed were civilians.

Two to three Palestinians are killed by Israeli soldiers, police or 
settlers per day. Whilst this number may appear to be low, if this death 
rate were to be applied to the UK it would be equivalent to 35 being killed 
per day, and in the US this would be 157 per day.

Since the start of the Intifada on the 28th of September 2000, 621 
Palestinian children below the age of 17 have been killed by the Israeli 
occupation forces. Of this figure 411 were shot with live ammunition and 
200 were shot in the head, face or neck. 331 were from the Gaza Strip. 
10,000 Palestinian children have been injured. Dr Barghouthi insisted that 
there is absolutely no excuse to justify the killing of such a huge number 
of children. What is equally disturbing is the telling figures of injuries 
received to the head – Israeli forces were obviously shooting to kill. In 
fact the majority of Palestinians killed have suffered injuries to the head 
and upper body.

424 Palestinians have died in extra judicial executions (assassinations). 
186 of those were bystanders or “unintended” victims, killed as they were 
near the victim. 39 bystanders were children 26 were women. With regards to 
extra judicial assassinations, in Gaza whilst 72 Palestinians died in 
targeted killings, a shocking 118 bystanders were additionally killed in 
these attacks.

Palestinian Prisoners

Israel continues to make use of an old emergency law that dates back to the 
British Mandate. This Law allows Israel to arrest and detain anyone for an 
unlimited time without charging them. There are currently 78 Palestinian 
children in administrative detention.

There are also currently 100 Palestinian women and 377 children in Israeli 
prisons. 80% of the children are routinely tortured or harassed and 31% 
suffer from disease.

Health

30% of Palestinian children suffer from chronic malnutrition. The number of 
pregnant women unable to receive any medical attention during their 
pregnancy is now five times higher than figures before September 2000.

Economy

More than one billion dollars worth of Palestinian infrastructure has been 
destroyed by Israeli forces and more than 200 million dollars of this has 
been donor financed. Since the start of the Intifada the Palestinian GDP 
has decreased by 50% and agricultural losses have amounted to more than one 
million dollars.

Education

Israeli forces have shelled or broken into 298 Palestinian schools. 4 young 
children were shot in the head in UNRWA run schools in Gaza, in 2004 alone.

Water & the Evolution of Apartheid

Since September 2000, the price of water in the Palestinian Territories has 
increased from $2.5 per cubic meter to $7.5 per cubic meter. And only a 
shocking 70 litres per person per day is consumed in the West Bank for 
domestic, urban AND industrial use. 200 Palestinian communities have no 
access to a clean water supply.

In the Gaza Strip we can no longer forecast a disaster because it has 
already begun. There is no water supply in Gaza that is fit for drinking.

Every Israeli citizen consumes five times more water than the Palestinians. 
Illegal settlers living in the West Bank consume twenty times more water 
than the Palestinians living there.

Movement Restrictions

There are currently 703 movement restrictions in the West Bank alone. As an 
example of the effects on Palestinian everyday life that this has caused, 
whilst a journey from Ramallah to Hebron should take around one hour, it 
has taken up to twelve hours for many Palestinians.

86 Palestinians have already died because of movement restrictions, and 
this figure includes 30 children. Had these people been allowed to travel, 
they would have probably survived. In addition at least 55 women have been 
forced to give birth at checkpoints with 20 losing their children.

The Wall

The Wall is three times as long and twice as high as the Berlin Wall. In 
Qalqilia 40,000 residents are imprisoned within the Wall in what can only 
be described as a ghetto. As well as those imprisoned inside the wall the 
residents of surrounding villages now placed on the western (Israeli) side 
of the wall have been cut of entirely from schools, jobs, healthcare and 
family. Many in fact have lost all access to the outside world is 
controlled by 11 Israeli manned gates which are collectively only opened 
for a total of 55 minutes per day. Anyone who wishes to enter or leave 
Qalqilia must have special permission – even patients and medical services. 
Qalqilia residents claim that they can no longer see the sunset.

Whilst there is talk about adjustments to the Wall’s route, there are in 
fact no changes other than mere cosmetic alterations. What we are 
witnessing is not just the building of the Wall it is the destruction of a 
two state solution.

Disengagement in Gaza and the Road Map to Peace Sharon only accepted the 
Road Map as it was approved by the Israeli Cabinet and this was with 15 
reservations, the first being a refusal to freeze any settlement building. 
At the same time whilst Sharon talks about removing settlements in the West 
Bank, he is referring to 4 that exist in the north of the West Bank, that 
exist on land that can not be enclaved by the Wall. The other existing 
settlements will of course remain because they exist on land that Israel 
plans to appropriate through the Wall and enclaves.

Unfortunately, with regards to Sharon’s Gaza Plan most of the World’s media 
mistakenly continues to refer to it as a “withdrawal”. In fact Sharon never 
referred to a “withdrawal”, what he actually said was that they would 
redeploy from Gaza but the military would still enter at any time they 
deemed appropriate. In Rafah the Israeli forces are destroying on average 6 
houses per day in order to clear a passage separating Gaza from Egypt, 
which will grant them full border control. So far 2200 homes have been 
demolished in this area alone.

Periods of “Relative Calm?

During this last year of the Intifada, there has been a serious rise in 
mass popular support for non-violent resistance. This is why suicide 
attacks against Israel have significantly depleted, not because of the 
Wall. However, this has certainly not encouraged Israeli forces to stop 
attacking Palestinians.

Between March 15 and August 31, 2004, the International media talked of a 
period of “relative calm” purely because there were no suicide attacks 
against Israel. However, the following days of March saw 45 Palestinians 
dead with no Israeli casualties; April saw 56 Palestinians dead compared to 
3 Israelis; and May saw 116 Palestinians dead (the majority during Israel’s 
“Operation Rainbow” in Rafah) compared to 19 Israelis. It must be noted 
that of the total Israelis killed, 18 were Soldiers, 10 were illegal 
settlers and only 3 were civilians. This means that during a period of 
practical cease fire on the part of the Palestinians Israel continued to 
kill civilians at a rate of 12:1. If Sharon was at all serious about 
wanting a peaceful solution, genuine advantage could have been taken during 
this period of quiet, instead he proceeded to kill more Palestinians than 
at any other time since the beginning of the Intifada other than the 2002 
invasions.

Palestinian Elections and future Democracy?

Israeli forces have closed six election registration offices in Jerusalem 
as well as others across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Dr Barghouthi 
stressed that this is totally unacceptable and if the Palestinians are to 
achieve reform through democratic process, then the International community 
must do more than condemn these recent actions, they must demand that 
Israel reopens the offices. Democracy he insisted is a precondition not 
only for reform but also for lasting peace, a peace based on justice.

Dr Barghouthi concluded the press conference by declaring that 
unfortunately, he was almost 100% sure he would be greeting the same 
audience at a press conference to mark the fifth anniversary of the 
Intifada. As of yet, there has been no reason for the Palestinians to stop 
resisting – “either we live as slaves under an occupation or we continue to 
struggle for freedom”, and the latter he insisted is the path that will be 
taken.

A breakdown of the statistics for the four years of Intifada quoted in Dr 
Barghouthi’s presentation is available 
<http://www.palestinemonitor.org/new_web/4_years_intifada_anniversary.htm>here.

NOTE: all statistics are based on information available at the time of 
calculation.

Should you require further detailed breakdown please contact 
<mailto:charlie at hdip.org>charlie at hdip.org
The Palestine Monitor
+972 (0)2 298 5372 or +972 (0) 59254218


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