[News] Why is Mahmoud Abbas letting children die in Gaza?
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Fri Jul 14 13:55:50 EDT 2017
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-mahmoud-abbas-letting-children-die-gaza
Why is Mahmoud Abbas letting children die in Gaza?
Ali Abunimah <https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah> - 13
July 2017
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The deeply unpopular <http://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/676> Palestinian
Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is helping Israeli occupation authorities
inflict horrendous suffering on people in the blockaded Gaza Strip, as
part of a cruel and cynical political game
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/mahmoud-abbas-high-stakes-gamble-gaza/20906>.
It is a campaign that in recent weeks has led to the deaths of more than
a dozen Palestinians denied medical treatment outside Gaza – the most
recent, a little girl called Yara Ismail Bakhit.
Israel and Abbas are doing this with the complicity of a so-called
international community that remains silent about the unfolding catastrophe.
Closely allied with Israel, Abbas has long defined collaboration with
its occupation forces as a “sacred” duty
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/mahmoud-abbas-collaboration-israeli-army-secret-police-sacred>.
This collaboration has included encouraging Israel, from the very start
<http://www.aljazeera.com/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011125144345427365.html>,
to tighten its blockade of Gaza.
The decade-long siege has brought the 2 million residents caged into the
territory to perhaps their most dire crisis in a period that has
included successive military assaults that have killed thousands of people.
On Thursday, Gaza’s only power plant shut down
<http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/1.801187> after
emergency fuel supplies ran out.
The territory is now dependent on just 70 megawatts of power supplied
from Israel, a fraction of the 500 megawatts it needs each day.
A “power watch” feature <http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.800735> in
the Tel Aviv newspaper /Haaretz/ shows that Gaza City received just
three hours of electricity on Wednesday, while some areas received four
hours.
But with the power supply now below the all-time low
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/gazas-electricity-supply-hits-all-time-low>
it reached earlier this week, most residents face long stretches without
any power at all amid the sweltering summer heat.
With only 2-3 hrs electricity per every 24 hrs & hight heat &
humidity, many #Gaza <https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash>
families taking 2sleeping in the open on their rooftops.
— J. Shawa جاسم الشوا (@shawajason) July 12, 2017
<https://twitter.com/shawajason/status/885218993350610944>
This is so publicity plea, but please pray for #Gaza
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash> because we are being
subjected to overwhelming multi layered intentional darkness.
— Omar Ghraieb🇵🇸 (@Omar_Gaza) July 13, 2017
<https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza/status/885486727065980928>
Its getting to a point where you can't shower as much as you want,
no cold drinking water, you can't even go to the bathroom much.
#Gaza <https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash>
— Omar Ghraieb🇵🇸 (@Omar_Gaza) July 13, 2017
<https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza/status/885490100569870336>
Another endless dark night. No electricity, no water, #Israel
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Israel?src=hash> drones buzzing loud,
dying batteries & #internet
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/internet?src=hash> might drop any
second. #Gaza <https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash>
— Omar Ghraieb🇵🇸 (@Omar_Gaza) July 13, 2017
<https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza/status/885291038784585728>
On top of the darkness and the heat, many in Gaza face a cut off of any
contact with the outside world: the PA telecom company Paltel said
<http://gisha.org/updates/7977> that internet and telephone services to
thousands of customers in Gaza have been severed as generators fail.
Unheeded warnings
On Wednesday, UN human rights officials emphasized
<http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21866&LangID=E>
that the latest power cuts “have deepened the humanitarian crisis with
hospitals in precarious conditions, water shortages growing and
untreated sewage being dumped into the Mediterranean.”
Their warnings will likely go unheeded, just like so many in recent
months, including from the International Committee of the Red Cross that
said
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-brink-systemic-collapse-icrc-warns>
in May that Gaza was on the brink of “systemic collapse.”
For months, health facilities across the territory have been in crisis
and Gaza City’s main hospital has slashed vital surgeries
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/surgeries-cut-one-third-gazas-main-hospital/20601>
because there isn’t enough power to run life support systems.
As treatment plants fail, the territory is swimming in sewage
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/life-septic-tank/20826>.
I just wish the world saw us as "humans" or even animals with
rights. We just don't matter. The world watches #Gaza
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash> blackout in silence.
— Omar Ghraieb🇵🇸 (@Omar_Gaza) July 13, 2017
<https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza/status/885492941472583680>
Yet the European Union, which never rests from trumpeting its alleged
commitment to “human rights,” has maintained a determined silence
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-washes-its-hands-gaza>
which can only be interpreted as full support for the measures
inflicting such suffering on Gaza.
Instead, the EU’s embassy in Tel Aviv as well as a top UN official,
touted Abbas’ authority for collaborating with Israel to increase the
electricity supply to Jenin, a town in the northern occupied West Bank.
Congratulations for signing first commercial agreement between the
#Israel <https://twitter.com/hashtag/Israel?src=hash> and #Palestine
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Palestine?src=hash> Authority
increasing electricity supply to #Jenin
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jenin?src=hash>
pic.twitter.com/wYtubqu8wD <https://t.co/wYtubqu8wD>
— Nickolay E. MLADENOV (@nmladenov) July 10, 2017
<https://twitter.com/nmladenov/status/884362076604424193>
The timing of the announcement, along with a grotesque ribbon-cutting
ceremony <https://twitter.com/steinitz_yuval/status/884333181167644674>
in which PA officials appeared alongside Israeli military officers,
looked calculated to rub salt into the wounds of people in Gaza.
Finally, on Thursday, after months of ignoring Gaza, the EU, as part of
the so-called Quartet <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/quartet>,
issued a vague statement
<https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/29815/quartet-envoys-joint-press-statement_en>
of “concern” that said nothing about Israel’s responsibilities.
Israel’s responsibility
The UN experts emphasized that while Israel’s power cuts were nominally
implemented at the request of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah,
Israel remains legally responsible.
Previously, senior UN officials have attempted to play down Israel’s
responsibility
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/un-blames-palestinians-electricity-crisis-israel-caused-gaza>,
shifting the blame to an internal dispute between the Abbas-run PA in
Ramallah, and Hamas authorities that control the interior of Gaza.
In April, the PA told Israel it would no longer pay the full bill for
electricity Israel supplies to Gaza, as part of Abbas’ campaign to oust
Hamas
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/mahmoud-abbas-high-stakes-gamble-gaza/20906>
by inflicting additional hardship on the population in Gaza.
Over the last month, Israel has sharply reduced the power it supplies to
Gaza – the territory’s main source of electricity.
“Israel, as the occupier controlling the entry and exit of goods and
people, bore the primary responsibility for the deterioration of the
situation,” the UN human rights experts said on Wednesday, according to
a UN press release
<http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21866&LangID=E>.
Human rights groups previously affirmed that it is illegal
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-implements-illegal-cuts-gazas-power-supply>
for Israel, as the occupying power, to cut the electricity to Gaza no
matter what Abbas says.
Despite the Israeli cabinet’s decision to accept the Palestinian
Authority’s “cruel plan to further reduce the power supply to Gaza,”
B’Tselem said last month
<http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20170613_gaza_electricity>, the
situation in Gaza “is the result of Israel’s handiwork, achieved by its
decade-long implementation of a brutal policy.”
Killing babies
Three-year-old Yara Ismail Bakhit, who suffered from a heart condition,
died because she was denied a medical transfer out of Gaza.
Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza,
said on Thursday <http://www.alquds.com/articles/1499938750258968600/>
that the toddler, from the southern town of Khan Younis, is the 16th
person to die in recent weeks because they weren’t able to secure a
medical transfer.
Palestinian media have circulated these pictures of Yara:
الطفلة يارا إسماعيل بخيت (3 أعوام) توفيت اليوم نتيجة أزمة التحويلات
الطبية في غزة، وهي "الضحية الـ16 على مقصلة التحويلات" وفق وزارة
الصحة pic.twitter.com/C9akovT7u0 <https://t.co/C9akovT7u0>
— وكالة صفا (@SafaPs) July 13, 2017
<https://twitter.com/SafaPs/status/885496659815346176>
Yara’s death is another sacrifice to Abbas’ campaign against the
population in Gaza; it came about due to the delays his health ministry
is imposing on requests for medical transfers to Israeli or West Bank
treatment facilities.
The Ramallah health ministry must approve such requests before Israel
does because it pays for any treatment provided in Israeli or West Bank
hospitals.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights has documented a steady decline
in medical referrals since April – when Abbas’ renewed onslaught against
the population in Gaza began.
PCHR said on Monday <http://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=9231> that the PA health
ministry had failed to approve or renew referrals for “hundreds of
patients suffering from serious and chronic diseases without displaying
the reasons behind this decision.”
According to PCHR, the number of referrals dropped from almost 2,200 in
March to about 1,700 in April and fell below 1,500 in May. In June, the
PA approved just 500.
As of early June, medical authorities in Gaza had approved some 2,500
patients “suffering from serious diseases that have no treatment in
Gaza” for treatment outside the territory. But a month and a half later,
the Ramallah authorities had only approved 400.
PCHR said it was “shocked” that West Bank hospitals have begun refusing
to see patients from Gaza because there is no guarantor of payment.
Meanwhile, Abbas’ health ministry has also cut the budget for medicines
for Gaza <http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777988>, leading to an
acute crisis that is putting the lives of hundreds of people, including
children with cystic fibrosis and cancer patients, in grave danger
<http://www.phr.org.il/en/gazas-patients-placed-risk-medication-scarcity/>.
PCHR said: “Denying patients their right to receive medical treatment
abroad, in view of the absence of a proper alternative in Gaza, is a
clear violation of the right to health ensured in the Palestinian Basic
Law” – in effect the Palestinian Authority’s constitution.
PCHR calls on world governments to put pressure on Israel “in its
capacity as an occupying power” to guarantee the rights of people in
Gaza under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
It also “calls upon the international community to pressurize the
Palestinian Authority not to undermine the basic rights of Palestinians
residing in the Gaza Strip” and to respect its obligations under
international law to the Palestinian people it allegedly serves.
The problem is that the Palestinian Authority and its leader are tools
in the hands of the so-called international community against the
Palestinians and their cause.
Their role is to help Israel occupy and pacify the Palestinian
population, even at the price of the lives of children in Gaza.
--
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863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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