By IDN Middle East DeskPhoto:CIDSE
Republished courtesy of IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
(IDN) - Faith-based development agencies CIDSE and APRODEV are calling on the 27-nation European Union to pressure Israel for an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of crossings to allow access to humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons.
According to CIDSE and APRODEV, the measures the EU has proposed so far are insufficient and can only strengthen the status quo.
On 14 June 2010, the EU Foreign Affairs Council declared that the EU was ready to contribute to the implementation of a mechanism based on the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access, suggesting the establishment of a list of prohibited goods and a strict control over the destination of imported goods.
"Such measures would not reverse Israel's effective control over Gaza, which would remain dependent on foreign humanitarian assistance," said René Grotenhuis, President of CIDSE, an international alliance of 16 Catholic development agencies from Europe and North America working together for global justice.
A statement issued in Brussels on June 29 at an expert seminar working on Gaza said: "We expect no less from the EU than to ensure (that) the blockade, which is illegal under international humanitarian law, is ended to give economic development in Gaza a chance."
The EU and its Member States must make sure that respect for international law is maintained. Their diplomatic efforts should be shifted towards starting a process that ends Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, the faith-based development organizations said.
"The people of Gaza need trade, not aid. Unconditional access of commercial goods and people is vital to give the citizens of the occupied territory hope for a better life," they added.
The CIDSE-APRODEV seminar titled 'Gaza: access, reconstruction and accountability' made a strong plea for more coherence between the EU’s policies towards Israel on the one hand and the occupied territory of Gaza on the other.
"The EU needs to renew the political process, to stop the Palestinian economy getting increasingly dependent on donor aid while Israel continues its illegal policies. As development organizations, APRODEV and CIDSE are worried that aid without an effective political process can be distortive," said Rob van Drimmelen, Secretary General of APRODEV.
APRODEV was founded in 1990 in order to strengthen the cooperation between the European development organizations that work closely together with the World Council of Churches (WCC).
APRODEV and CIDSE argue that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be ended when the expansion of settlements, the economic stagnation in the occupied territories; the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the needs for Palestinian reconciliation are addressed.
To this end, the EU should adopt a strict rights-based approach based on international law, using human rights as a framework to guide the development process, and link its aid to a political agreement that ends the occupation. Failing that, peace will remain out of reach.
The significance of the joint call by APRODEV and CIDSE is underlined by the fact that more than 75 percent of Gaza's residents are refugees who fled to the Gaza Strip in 1948 from what is now Israel. Some were frightened of being killed by the advancing Jewish militias. Others just sought refuge until the fighting died down. At least 726,000 people fled in all.
After the war however, their lands and properties were sequestered by the Israeli state, and frequently demolished to make way for newly built Israeli towns. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the refugees were forced to live in ramshackle camps which gradually took on a more permanent feel, as concrete replaced tarpaulin.
Today, there are eight refugee camps in Gaza: Beach, Bureij, Deir el-Bala, Jabalia, Khan Younis, Maghazi, Nuserat, and Rafah. Collectively, they represent nearly a quarter of all UNRWA-recognised refugees in the world. It is in these camps that many of the great Palestinian leaders were born.
The Palestinian "right to return" to their homes was recognised by the United Nations in December 1948 when the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194. This called for refugees to be allowed to return to their homes "at the earliest practicable date". Yet today, the population of refugees and their descendants is estimated to have swollen to over 7 million people. Consecutive Israeli governments have opposed their return.
Recalling these facts that have been more or less consigned to oblivion by the international community, CIDSE's new booklet entitled 'Gaza - Dignity under siege' says: §Despite the fact that it has been progressively isolated from the outside world for almost two decades, Gaza is a surprisingly welcoming and vibrant place. Most Gazans refuse to give in to despair and fight hard to preserve their dignity in increasingly difficult circumstances."
CLOSURE AND BLOCKADE
Gaza has experienced general closures that control civilian movement ever since the Strip was occupied in 1967. But in 1989, after the onset of the First Intifada, Israel began applying strict and increasingly regular closures that only allowed humanitarian aid and business transactions through.
The punitive policy of total closure or blockade that has become the norm today was first imposed in 1996 and justified by Israel with national security arguments. In June 2007, following the Hamas take-over of the Gaza Strip, Israel imposed an unprecedented, indefinite blockade on Gaza.
As a result, of 4,000 items that could enter Gaza before the blockade began, just about 40 are now allowed through. The blockade has caused shortages of basic necessities such as food, medicines and fuel with the result that power cuts are now a daily fact of life. Gazans are also forbidden from importing items such as spare parts, plastic sheeting, toys, wheelchairs, books, crayons, stationery, footballs and musical instruments.
Because cement and other construction materials are barred, they are unable to rebuild the thousands of homes that were destroyed or seriously damaged during Israel’s war of 2008-2009.
ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
Over the last decade, successive Israeli closures have almost completely destroyed the economy in Gaza. Between 1999 and 2003, before the current Israeli blockade, the Palestinian economy declined by 38 percent as a result of border closures justified by Israel with security arguments.
By 2004, 65 percent of Gaza’s population were living below the UN threshold for poverty of $2 a day and by 2009, the same percentage of Gazans was de facto unemployed. The World Bank has described this situation as one of the deepest recessions in modern history.
The $4.5 billion of post-war reconstruction aid promised by the international community in March 2009, at a conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, has still not materialised on the ground. More than that, as a CIDSE report shows, the EU has accommodated to unlawful Israeli obstructions of its aid efforts. It even declined to seek compensation for over €11 million of war damage inflicted to EU-funded infrastructure.
Meanwhile Gaza is still waiting for repairs to much of its basic infrastructure, including 57 kilometres of destroyed asphalt roads and the removal of 600,000 tonnes of rubble.
Gaza Strip’s 'economy' such as it is, has been reduced to a network of hundreds of tunnels that link the Strip with Egypt via the refugee camp in Rafah. Massive quantities of fuel and goods are smuggled in underground in very dangerous circumstances and at prices often beyond the reach of most people, says CIDSE'S booklet published in November 2009.
While the tunnels have provided some short-term relief, they do not constitute a sustainable alternative to the opening of the borders.
The authors of the booklet published in English, French and Dutch say: "Even after the recent war, which caused an unprecedented level of human suffering, our partners' message remains one of nonviolence and hope. They urge the international community to address the human, social and economic destruction and ensure accountability for violations of international law.
"Financial aid is but one element required for the reconstruction and future development of Gaza. More important to achieve is the immediate opening of the border crossings, security for all sides and a lasting and just peace. The people of Gaza deserve the full protection that international law provides and the full respect of their dignity."
