<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-container gmail-content-width3">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element" dir="ltr">
<font size="1"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinians-face-two-enemies-occupation-and-pandemic">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinians-face-two-enemies-occupation-and-pandemic</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Palestinians face two enemies: occupation and pandemic</h1>
<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/tamara-nassar">Tamara Nassar</a></span> <span class="gmail-field gmail-field-blog">-</span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">26 March 2020</span></span> </p>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-line-height4 gmail-reader-show-element" dir="ltr"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<small><span></span></small><p>Despite the global pandemic, it’s business as usual for the Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>The number of confirmed cases of <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/covid-19">COVID-19</a>, the respiratory illness caused by the new <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/coronavirus">coronavirus</a>, has risen to almost 2,700 in Israel, approximately 80 in the occupied West Bank and nine in the besieged Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>The illness has claimed the lives of eight Israelis so far, and <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/west-bank-woman-first-palestinian-die-covid-19">one</a> Palestinian woman in the occupied West Bank.</p>
<p>While the coronavirus sickens more people, Palestinians simultaneously face an older enemy: Israeli military occupation.</p>
<p>Besieged and densely populated Gaza is in particular danger from a widespread epidemic.</p>
<p>“Israel will not be able to deflect the blame if this nightmare
scenario turns into a reality that it created and made no effort to
prevent,” the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem <a href="https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20200322_corona_in_gaza">warned</a> this week.</p>
<p>Physical distancing, staying home and maintaining hygiene are
precautions Palestinians struggle to take as Israel continues to
demolish structures, conduct night raids, arbitrarily arrest children
and routinely harass civilians.</p>
<h2>Seizing structures for field clinic</h2>
<p>Early Thursday, Israeli forces demolished and seized structures meant
for a field clinic and emergency housing in Ibziq, a village in the
northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.</p>
<p>This was done under the supervision of the Civil Administration, the bureaucratic arm of Israel’s military occupation.</p>
<p>Israeli forces confiscated tents, a generator and building supplies.</p>
<p>“Shutting down a first-aid community initiative during a health
crisis is an especially cruel example of the regular abuse inflicted on
these communities,” Israeli human rights group <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/btselem">B’Tselem</a> <a href="https://www.btselem.org/press_release/20200326_israel_confiscates_clinic_tents_during_coronavirus_crisis">stated</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=KirOvEa115532344917aKirOvE">According</a>
to village council chief Abdul Majid Khdeirat, this was done on the
pretext that the construction was in a closed military zone.</p>
<p>Israel <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/nowhere-go-nowhere-live/25886">habitually</a> <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/firing-zones-and-risk-forcible-transfer">declares</a> occupied West Bank land to be firing or military zones then later seizes the land for illegal Israeli settlements.</p>
<p>Israeli forces also demolished the homes of three Palestinian families in al-Duyuk village near Jericho.</p>
<p>An Israeli military bulldozer destroyed the homes of Muayad Abu
Obaida, Thaer al-Sharif and Yasir Alayan, because they were built
without permits which Israel almost never grants to Palestinians. This
leaves them no choice but to build homes without the occupier’s
permission.</p>
<p>All three farmers are residents of Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Pictures and videos of the demolition circulated in local media:</p>
<h2>Isolating tens of thousands</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, Israel is <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-considers-cutting-off-parts-of-east-jerusalem-to-stem-coronavirus-1.8699381">considering</a>
sealing off several neighborhoods of occupied East Jerusalem, isolating
tens of thousands of Palestinians from the rest of the city.</p>
<p>Almost 70 percent of the 100,000 people in Shuafat refugee camp have Israeli residency cards allowing them to enter Jerusalem.</p>
<p>“In the event of a closure, these residents will be entirely
disconnected from their city upon which they rely for all basic
services, and it will likely lead to widespread panic and unrest,” warns
Ir Amim, an Israeli group working towards equality in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>“Such a measure would be one step further in realizing longstanding
Israeli plans to redraw Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries to formally
disconnect these neighborhoods from Jerusalem.”</p>
<p>Israel would be using coronavirus as a pretext to cut off those
neighborhoods from the rest of Jerusalem, despite the number of
confirmed cases being dramatically lower in those neighborhoods compared
to Israel.</p>
<h2>“Most vulnerable people in the world”</h2>
<p>Humans rights groups are <a href="https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20200322_corona_in_gaza">warning</a> of an impending massive disaster in case of a widespread COVID-19 outbreak in Gaza.</p>
<p>Often referred to as the world’s largest open-air prison, the coastal
enclave has been under a tight Israeli siege since 2007. Israel
controls Gaza’s airspace and sea, and Israel along with Egypt controls
its land boundaries.</p>
<p>Gaza is still reeling from three major Israeli military offensives since 2008.</p>
<p>“Gazans [are] amongst the most vulnerable people in the world to the
global COVID-19 pandemic,” the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq <a href="http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/16625.html">stated</a>.</p>
<p>The water and sanitation crisis caused by Israel’s prolonged blockade
of Gaza undermines “the ability of Palestinians to adequately prevent
and mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” al-Haq added.</p>
<p>Less than four percent of water in the territory is fit for human consumption.</p>
<p>Modern healthcare systems in countries like Italy and Spain are collapsing under the pressure of the pandemic.</p>
<p>An outbreak of the new coronavirus in Gaza, where the health
infrastructure is already on the brink of collapse, would throw it into
“a humanitarian disaster – created entirely by Israel,” B’Tselem <a href="https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20200322_corona_in_gaza">stated</a>.</p>
<p>Israel habitually <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/54-patients-died-waiting-israel-let-them-out-gaza">delays or denies</a> permits for many Palestinians to receive treatment outside Gaza, granting permission to only a fraction who need medical care.</p>
<p>“Now, even this faint possibility will not exist,” B’Tselem said.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/dr-mona-el-farra">Dr. Mona El-Farra</a>, the health chair of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Gaza, <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/understaffed-and-under-equipped-gaza">told</a> The Electronic Intifada that there’s a shortage of beds, protective equipment and testing kits.</p>
<p>“We don’t have enough kits, we have up to this minute just around 200
kits for diagnosis. At the moment we have 2,500 people in quarantine.
They all need to be tested.”</p>
<p>Qatar <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-qatar/qatar-announces-150-million-aid-to-gaza-to-support-un-programs-efforts-to-contain-coronavirus-idUSKBN21A0TP">pledged</a> $150 million over the next six months to aid United Nations efforts against the coronavirus in Gaza.</p>
<p>While this aid may help in the near term, it also relieves Israel of its responsibility as the occupying power.</p>
<h2>No access to emergency services</h2>
<p>Adalah, a group that advocates for the rights of Palestinians in Israel, <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9928">says</a> Palestinian Bedouins in the southern Naqab region have no access to emergency medical services.</p>
<p>Israel’s health ministry bars those with fever and respiratory
symptoms from leaving their homes. If their health deteriorates, MDA,
the national ambulance service, may recommend an in-home examination or
evacuation to the hospital.</p>
<p>Those villages have no access to the MDA, however.</p>
<p>The group sent a letter to Israeli authorities on Sunday demanding
they provide those services to 70,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel
living in unrecognized villages.</p>
<p>“Israel has for years maintained a policy of neglect and
discrimination when it came to providing routine health services – as
well as emergency medical services – to Bedouin citizens of Israel,”
Adalah said.</p>
<p>“In light of the coronavirus crisis, this state policy has now
resulted in an immediate danger to local residents and the general
public alike.”</p> <h3>
<span><br></span></h3>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>