Gaza has become “uninhabitable,” not because of ecological disaster or Palestinian poor stewardship of the land, but because Israel chooses to destroy it by every means – poisoning, starvation, disease, poverty, medical neglect, and invasion – while the world stands silent.
Millions of travelers to Bethlehem believe the hasbara: Jews Good, Palestinians Bad; Jews victims, Palestinians perpetrators; because of the Holocaust, the world owes us, and must condone what we’re doing to Palestinians; those who criticize our racist policies are outright anti-Semites; we are God’s Chosen, therefore we can do no wrong.
Many patients in Gaza with shattered bones from Israeli sniper fire find that they must beat serious, resistant infections before they can undergo surgery. This is tricky under the best of circumstances, but where medical supplies and facilities are in desperately short supply, it is extremely challenging. Over 1,000 Gazans currently suffer from severe bone infections.
September, Week 3: Mainstream media does not cover the scores of “small” stories of Palestinian loss of freedom, property, life, and hope. IMEMC brings the stories to us daily. Below are many of the headlines from the past week.
In the years since Israel’s “disengagement” from Gaza, the Israeli-imposed buffer zones have fluctuated wildly – between 100 and 1,500 meters on land and 3 and 9 nautical miles at sea, in violation of international humanitarian law. This report also details February 2019 attacks and other human rights violations against Gazans.
A recent report exposes the serious threat of a superbug epidemic in Gaza, due to Israeli-blockade shortages of sanitation supplies in hospitals, targeting of medical personnel and facilities, and water shortage and contamination. The epidemic would certainly spread beyond Gaza.
Mohammed suffered a stroke, but Israel says he’s not ill enough for his son to get a travel permit to visit him. He needs care, but that is irrelevant. According to Israeli criteria, travel permits are only granted if first-degree relatives are dead or dying.
As Congress tackles urgent issues of reopening government and setting the budget for the country, it takes the time to prioritize a foreign country: H.R.648 contains assurances that Israel will receive $3.8 billion for arms, and funding for refugee resettlement; the bill also includes threats to de-fund the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and any future state of Palestine–if US demands (dictated by the Israel lobby) are not met.
Gaza is running out of medicine. The US, which has for decades supported the United Nations agency tasked to help Palestinian refugees, has cut off all funding. We need to step in and pressure our leaders to reverse this decision.
3 young men in Gaza: a surfer, a boxer, and a volleyball player, whose dreams were destroyed by snipers’ bullets as they stood watching or helping the injured at the Great March of Return.