[NYTr] The Grim Reality in Gaza; LA Jews for Peace vigils; Gush Shalom Ad

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Ed Pearl

New Statesman (UK) - 10 December 2007
http://www.newstatesman.com/print/200712100003#

Mohammed Omer reports on shortages in Gaza from crucial 
medical supplies through children's winter clothing to fuel


The grim reality in Gaza

by Mohammed Omer

Traffic in the Gaza Strip slowed to a trickle last week, and this week
medical centres have scaled back treatment in the medicines and
sustenance-destitute Strip.

"Israel's decision is a death penalty: our reserve of fuel is almost
zero and it may very likely run out by the end of today," said Khaled
Radi, Ministry of Health spokesman for the dismissed Hamas government.

Radi spoke in reference to the 30 November Israeli Supreme Court
decision to allow further fuel cutbacks, severe reductions which are
crippling Gaza's residents in all aspects of life. Prior to that
ruling, as early as October Israel decided to begin limiting fuel, with
Gaza soon after enduring serious cuts of over 50% of fuel needs, a dire
statistic confirmed by the UN body OCHA.

At the Nahal Oz crossing, through which all fuel enters Gaza, the
Palestinian petrol authority reported that Israel has delivered around
only 190,000 litres of diesel a day since late October, falling short
of the 350,000 litres needed by the Gaza Strip. This number plummeted
on 29 November, with Israel delivering a scanty 60,000 litres, only
marginally improving three days later, 2 December, with a delivery of
90,000 litres.

This week's increased cutbacks resulted in a several day closure of
Gaza's petrol stations, owners striking in protest to the pittance of
fuel allowed in-just one quarter of that normally received.

Gaza's Association for Fuel Station Owners commented: "Petrol firms
considered the amount negligible and so, in protest over the Israeli
blockade, refused to accept the paltry offering which does not come
close to meeting the essential needs of Gaza's civilians."

A Gaza taxi driver related his concern: "Cutting off fuel means cutting
off our lives. We use it for everything, in the place of wood or coal.
It's tragic not only that Israel is imposing this siege on Gaza, but
also that some Palestinians are supporting this cruel embargo, with the
naïve idea of causing the people turn against Hamas in Gaza."

Shortages of fuel have greatly affected the public transportation
system, leaving students from universities in Gaza City delayed for
hours standing in wait for transportation back to Khan Younies and
Rafah in the south.

Trickle Effect

The fuel cuts in turn impede water access: with diesel-run pumps unable
to function, leaving over 77,000 without fresh drinking water,
according to Gaza's water utility. Oxfam International has warned that
soon 225,000 Gazans could suffer from inadequate water supplies,
raising concerns for public health.

Ambulances and clinics suffer too, a fact reiterated by Khaled Radi, who
related how fuel shortages have already brought some ambulances to a
standstill: "This has affected the mobility of ambulances which are
especially vital during on-going Israeli air strikes such as that of
this morning."

He added that shortages further threatened to close essential clinics,
which rely on back-up generators during the frequent electricity
shortages in the Strip. Two first aid health centres have already been
forced to suspend treatment during electricity cuts. Those that remain
open suffer from want of medical supplies, with 91 of 416 essential
medicines depleted, according to the WHO.

Even basic things are scarce. Residents are hard-pressed to find a
piece of glass to repair a broken window, imperative in December's cold
weather, particularly in a time when electricity and gas are
scarce-to-absent.

Eyad Yousef, a 31-year-old Palestinian teacher, has been waiting for
cement, unavailable for the last many months, to enter Gaza.
Concurrently, prices of building materials have skyrocketed, more than
tripled in the worst cases. Yousef waits for any sort of building
material, but he knows that will not find anything, as he has looked
all over the picked-clean area. "I have a floor of my home to finish,
but can't do so yet as no sort of building materials are available in
Gaza," he said. "I'm using pieces of nylon to cover my windows at home,
but I can't go on like this for long," he added, saying he hopes that
the international community will put pressure on Israel to open borders
and let vital products into Gaza.

Death Penalty

Yousef, at least, is luckier than the newly dead: since last month at
least 31 medical patients have died in Gaza, a result of Israel's
lockdown on borders and preventing of medical access to Israeli,
Egyptian and Jordanian hospitals, as well as West Bank hospitals.

Since Hamas took over power in June, this subsequent Israeli lockdown
has made it virtually impossible for Palestinians to get out of Gaza.
The situation then deteriorated with the closing of Karni crossing,
Gaza's only commercial crossing, only opened for the most basic food
essentials. Coupled with Israel's ground and air attacks, the situation
for Palestinians worsened yet further still when Israel last October
announced Gaza as a "hostile entity", further allowing Israel to
justify its closed-borders policy to the international arena.

In the densely-populated region starved of medical supplies, and now
facing the shutdown of clinics, Gazan citizens have been given a death
sentence with Israel's control over borders. Yahya Al Jamal 53, one
case among hundreds of people, has cancer and is in serious need of
medical care at well-equipped hospitals. For more than two months now
he has been refused entry to Israel for treatment. His agonized father
reported that his son will die in the coming days if he does not get
the medication he needs, an outcome of Israel's mass denial of the
luxury of critical healthcare.

Insult upon injuries, cement - already scarce for building - is no
longer available even for graves of the many recently dead.
Empty Stocks
Aid agencies like the World Food Program (WFP) reporting that food
imports are only enough to meet 41 per cent of demand in the Gaza Strip.

As winter progresses, resilient citizens desperately seek to survive. In
Rafah's Saturday market, Umm Mohammed Zourub scours the stalls yet
again: "I've been looking for new winter clothes for my children, but I
haven't been able to find any because no materials are coming into Gaza
with the closed borders," the 43 year old mother lamented.

Indeed, the cold weather has fallen quickly on an
internationally-isolated and starved population. From the intense heat
of summer months, where water was scarce and air conditioning a
fantasy, Gazans now experience the bitter cold in the same homes
unprepared for extremes, and the bitter realization that, once again,
they have been left to the whims of imprisonment, Israeli air and
ground attacks, and a staggering invisibility in the international
realm.

                            ***

LA Jews for Peace - Dec 17, 2007
http://www.geocities.com/LAJewsforPeace/

Yesterday's vigil in opposition to the Israeli siege of Gaza on the
Santa Monica 3rd St Promenade went quite well.  LA Jews for Peace is so
opposed to the siege, and yesterday's event went so well, we will do it
again next Sunday, Dec. 23.

LA Jews for Peace  joins Israeli, Palestinian, international, and American 
groups in calling for an end of Israel's siege of Gaza, and an end of U.S. 
support of Israel's practice of collective punishment.  Since June 2007, 
Israel has subjected the 1.5 million people living in Gaza to a siege that 
restricted movement of people and supplies of food, medicine, water, 
electricity, and commercial goods.  These Israeli government restrictions 
have made a humanitarian crisis.   Please join us and others in the fight 
for human rights and justice.

Help Stop the Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip
Demonstrate to FEED the CHILDREN of GAZA and 
ISRAEL MUST END SIEGE OF GAZA

Join LA Jews for Peace
on the Third Street Promenade
Sunday, December  23, 2007 - 2 to 4 PM
on the corner of Santa Monica and 3rd

LA Jews for Peace will have a large signs.  Bring your own.

More information
call Jeff Warner at 562-694-1637 or
e-mail  LAJewsforPeace at AOL.com  or
http://www.geocities.com/LAJewsforPeace/

                           ***

Gush Shalom - Dec 13, 2007
http://www.gush-shalom.org
info at gush-shalom.org

Ad published in Haaretz - December 14, 2007

Three weeks
After Annapolis:

In Khan-Yunis -
Tanks shoot and crush.

In Gaza -
People ride on donkeys
Because there is no petrol.

In Har-Homa -
300 more housing units
Are added to the settlement.

But don't worry -
Soon Bush will come
And have another
Photo-op.


03-5221732.
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Our activities and ads
By sending checks to
Gush Shalom, P.O.Box 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033.