‘Attention must be paid’ to sufferings of Palestinian people

With mass protests roiling Lebanon and Iraq, unsettling developments in Syria and Yemen, and the latest episode of the continuing soap opera that calls itself Israeli politics, little attention is being given to the plight of the Palestinians. One consequence of this neglect is that both Israel and the Trump administration feel they have been given a free hand to accelerate the oppression of the beleaguered Palestinian people.

Two reports passed my desk this week, both of which make this point and require our attention. First, as a result of the loss of US aid to UNWRA, the agency reported that it has been forced to make drastic cuts in programs and personnel. I will quote freely from the UNWRA report in order to fully establish the magnitude of the loss.

In Gaza, “in order to protect food assistance [UNWRA] provides to one-half of the population, other critical programs were cut.” These included: all housing subsidies for those still rendered homeless from the 2014 war; drastic reductions in in the “cash for work program” (cut by 59 percent) and the community mental health program (cut by 40 percent). In addition, UNWRA was forced to end all repairs to the refugee camps’ water and sanitation systems and to end “programs supporting students whose education was impacted by conflict.”

In the West Bank, funding was slashed by 67 percent, resulting in: ending the community mental health and mobile health clinic programs; ending the “cash for work program for 90,000 refugees,” and limiting food assistance to only 30 percent of eligible refugees. In addition, as a result of cuts to educational programs, the average class size in the West Bank has been expanded from 30 to 50 students. Even more desperate were the cuts to UNWRA programs serving refugees in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

All of this has been compounded by the Trump administration’s decision to cut funding to American non-governmental organizations that provide important development and humanitarian support to Palestinians throughout the occupied lands. In addition to being denied essential services by these cruel decisions, Palestinians living under military occupation have been forced to endure continued acts of repression and brutality at the hands of the Israeli military and vigilante settler groups, both of which operate with impunity throughout the West Bank. This brings me to the second report - a weekly cataloguing of human rights violations compiled by Mondoweiss. While these Israeli behaviors are reported only occasionally in the press, seeing them collected, in full, each week presents a horrifying picture of life under Israeli military rule.

Because this last week witnessed the celebration of Jewish holidays, there were a number of incidents directly related to hostile measures taken to allow Israelis to visit holy sites in the West Bank. For example, on Oct 17, busloads of Israeli settlers, escorted by Israeli army personnel, entered Nablus without permission to pray at the site Jews believe to be the burial place of the prophet Joseph. Since Nablus is within Area A, it is supposedly under the full control of the Palestinian Authority. As Palestinians gathered to protest this incursion, they were fired on by Israeli soldiers. Four were shot and wounded with live ammunition, 17 were injured by rubber bullets, and 34 were hospitalized suffering from smoke inhalation.

The Israeli occupation forces also used the holy days to close Hebron’s Ibrahim Mosque to Muslims for two days, giving Jewish worshippers full access to the mosque. They also closed several major arteries in the West Bank to allow for settlers to travel freely and to hold a “settlers’ marathon race”.

During this same period, the Israeli military invaded at least 14 Palestinian villages, shot and injured nine young men, and detained over four dozen. These raids included a number of home invasions, which resulted in extensive property damage and theft, and an attack on a wedding party that witnessed beatings and injuries to some of those present who objected to the soldier’s behavior. A continuing reality of daily life in the West Bank are attacks by settlers on Palestinians farming their land located near Israeli settlements and outposts. The most notorious of these occurred in the village of Burin where settlers have engaged in numerous attacks disrupting villagers harvesting their olive crop. This past week, settlers uprooted olive trees, set fires that consumed hundreds of acres of farmland, and beat Palestinians who attempted to stop this vandalism. Settlers also attacked and beat Israeli volunteers who had come to assist and protect the Palestinians of Burin during the harvest.

NOTE: Dr James J Zogby is the President of the Arab American Institute