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dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-mahmoud-abbas-letting-children-die-gaza">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-mahmoud-abbas-letting-children-die-gaza</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Why is Mahmoud Abbas letting children die
in Gaza?</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2017-07-13T16:24:17+00:00">13 July 2017</span></span>
</p>
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style="display: block;">
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<p>The <a href="http://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/676">deeply
unpopular</a> Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud
Abbas is helping Israeli occupation authorities
inflict horrendous suffering on people in the
blockaded Gaza Strip, as part of a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/mahmoud-abbas-high-stakes-gamble-gaza/20906">cruel
and cynical political game</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Israel and Abbas are doing this with the complicity
of a so-called international community that remains
silent about the unfolding catastrophe.</p>
<p>Closely allied with Israel, Abbas has long defined
collaboration with its occupation forces as a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/mahmoud-abbas-collaboration-israeli-army-secret-police-sacred">“sacred”
duty</a>.</p>
<p>This collaboration has included encouraging Israel, <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011125144345427365.html">from
the very start</a>, to tighten its blockade of Gaza.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Gaza’s only power plant <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/1.801187">shut
down</a> after emergency fuel supplies ran out.</p>
<p>The territory is now dependent on just 70 megawatts
of power supplied from Israel, a fraction of the 500
megawatts it needs each day.</p>
<p>A <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.800735">“power
watch” feature</a> in the Tel Aviv newspaper <em>Haaretz</em>
shows that Gaza City received just three hours of
electricity on Wednesday, while some areas received
four hours.</p>
<p>But with the power supply now below the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/gazas-electricity-supply-hits-all-time-low">all-time
low</a> it reached earlier this week, most residents
face long stretches without any power at all amid the
sweltering summer heat.</p>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">With only 2-3 hrs
electricity per every 24 hrs & hight heat
& humidity, many <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash">#Gaza</a>
families taking 2sleeping in the open on their
rooftops.</p>
— J. Shawa جاسم الشوا (@shawajason) <a
href="https://twitter.com/shawajason/status/885218993350610944">July
12, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">This is so publicity plea,
but please pray for <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash">#Gaza</a>
because we are being subjected to overwhelming
multi layered intentional darkness.</p>
— Omar Ghraieb🇵🇸 (@Omar_Gaza) <a
href="https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza/status/885486727065980928">July
13, 2017</a></blockquote>
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</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">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. <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash">#Gaza</a></p>
— Omar Ghraieb🇵🇸 (@Omar_Gaza) <a
href="https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza/status/885490100569870336">July
13, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Another endless dark night.
No electricity, no water, <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Israel?src=hash">#Israel</a>
drones buzzing loud, dying batteries & <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/internet?src=hash">#internet</a>
might drop any second. <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash">#Gaza</a></p>
— Omar Ghraieb🇵🇸 (@Omar_Gaza) <a
href="https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza/status/885291038784585728">July
13, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>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 <a
href="http://gisha.org/updates/7977">said</a> that
internet and telephone services to thousands of
customers in Gaza have been severed as generators
fail.</p>
<h2>Unheeded warnings</h2>
<p>On Wednesday, UN human rights officials <a
href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21866&LangID=E">emphasized</a>
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.”</p>
<p>Their warnings will likely go unheeded, just like so
many in recent months, including from the
International Committee of the Red Cross that <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-brink-systemic-collapse-icrc-warns">said</a>
in May that Gaza was on the brink of “systemic
collapse.”</p>
<p>For months, health facilities across the territory
have been in crisis and Gaza City’s main hospital has
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/surgeries-cut-one-third-gazas-main-hospital/20601">slashed
vital surgeries</a> because there isn’t enough power
to run life support systems.</p>
<p>As treatment plants fail, the territory is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/life-septic-tank/20826">swimming
in sewage</a>.</p>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">I just wish the world saw
us as "humans" or even animals with rights. We
just don't matter. The world watches <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash">#Gaza</a>
blackout in silence.</p>
— Omar Ghraieb🇵🇸 (@Omar_Gaza) <a
href="https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza/status/885492941472583680">July
13, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>Yet the European Union, which never rests from
trumpeting its alleged commitment to “human rights,”
has maintained a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-washes-its-hands-gaza">determined
silence</a> which can only be interpreted as full
support for the measures inflicting such suffering on
Gaza.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<div id="file-49006" class="file file-document
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<div class="oembed-content">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Congratulations for signing
first commercial agreement between the <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Israel?src=hash">#Israel</a>
and <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Palestine?src=hash">#Palestine</a>
Authority increasing electricity supply to <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jenin?src=hash">#Jenin</a>
<a href="https://t.co/wYtubqu8wD">pic.twitter.com/wYtubqu8wD</a></p>
— Nickolay E. MLADENOV (@nmladenov) <a
href="https://twitter.com/nmladenov/status/884362076604424193">July
10, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>The timing of the announcement, along with a <a
href="https://twitter.com/steinitz_yuval/status/884333181167644674">grotesque
ribbon-cutting ceremony</a> in which PA officials
appeared alongside Israeli military officers, looked
calculated to rub salt into the wounds of people in
Gaza.</p>
<p>Finally, on Thursday, after months of ignoring Gaza,
the EU, as part of the so-called <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/quartet">Quartet</a>,
issued a <a
href="https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/29815/quartet-envoys-joint-press-statement_en">vague
statement</a> of “concern” that said nothing about
Israel’s responsibilities.</p>
<h2>Israel’s responsibility</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Previously, senior UN officials have attempted to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/un-blames-palestinians-electricity-crisis-israel-caused-gaza">play
down Israel’s responsibility</a>, shifting the blame
to an internal dispute between the Abbas-run PA in
Ramallah, and Hamas authorities that control the
interior of Gaza.</p>
<p>In April, the PA told Israel it would no longer pay
the full bill for electricity Israel supplies to Gaza,
as part of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/mahmoud-abbas-high-stakes-gamble-gaza/20906">Abbas’
campaign to oust Hamas</a> by inflicting additional
hardship on the population in Gaza.</p>
<p>Over the last month, Israel has sharply reduced the
power it supplies to Gaza – the territory’s main
source of electricity.</p>
<p>“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, <a
href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21866&LangID=E">according
to a UN press release</a>.</p>
<p>Human rights groups previously affirmed that it is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-implements-illegal-cuts-gazas-power-supply">illegal</a>
for Israel, as the occupying power, to cut the
electricity to Gaza no matter what Abbas says.</p>
<p>Despite the Israeli cabinet’s decision to accept the
Palestinian Authority’s “cruel plan to further reduce
the power supply to Gaza,” B’Tselem <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20170613_gaza_electricity">said
last month</a>, the situation in Gaza “is the result
of Israel’s handiwork, achieved by its decade-long
implementation of a brutal policy.”</p>
<h2>Killing babies</h2>
<p>Three-year-old Yara Ismail Bakhit, who suffered from
a heart condition, died because she was denied a
medical transfer out of Gaza.</p>
<p>Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesperson for the health
ministry in Gaza, <a
href="http://www.alquds.com/articles/1499938750258968600/">said
on Thursday</a> 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.</p>
<p>Palestinian media have circulated these pictures of
Yara:</p>
<div id="file-49011" class="file file-document
file-text-oembed oembed-rich oembed-default
oembed-twitter">
<div class="oembed-content">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550">
<p dir="rtl" lang="ar">الطفلة يارا إسماعيل بخيت (3
أعوام) توفيت اليوم نتيجة أزمة التحويلات الطبية
في غزة، وهي "الضحية الـ16 على مقصلة التحويلات"
وفق وزارة الصحة <a
href="https://t.co/C9akovT7u0">pic.twitter.com/C9akovT7u0</a></p>
— وكالة صفا (@SafaPs) <a
href="https://twitter.com/SafaPs/status/885496659815346176">July
13, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The Ramallah health ministry must approve such
requests before Israel does because it pays for any
treatment provided in Israeli or West Bank hospitals.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>PCHR <a href="http://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=9231">said
on Monday</a> 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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>PCHR said it was “shocked” that West Bank hospitals
have begun refusing to see patients from Gaza because
there is no guarantor of payment.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Abbas’ health ministry has also <a
href="http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777988">cut
the budget for medicines for Gaza</a>, leading to an
acute crisis that is putting the lives of hundreds of
people, including children with cystic fibrosis and
cancer patients, <a
href="http://www.phr.org.il/en/gazas-patients-placed-risk-medication-scarcity/">in
grave danger</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Their role is to help Israel occupy and pacify the
Palestinian population, even at the price of the lives
of children in Gaza.</p>
<br>
</article>
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