“There are fewer checkpoints because the Israelis are grabbing more land and huge swathes of stolen land are merging into other tracts of stolen land, making some checkpoints redundant. That doesn’t change the fact that the West Bank is now a series of small islands, cut off by Israel and its Apartheid Wall and settler-only roads, as well as the illegal settlements.”
Ever since a group of ordinary people from more than 40 different countries came together and set sail for Gaza have we seen various world leaders scramble to persuade Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza. Why? To honour the memory of those martyred by Israeli soldiers who shot nine unarmed peace activists at virtually point-blank range? Hell no!
They realize that people power has achieved more in that one heroic action, than any of them have achieved for the people of Palestine. And, despite that brutal episode, they know that more flotillas and convoys are being planned because people power is achieving more than anything else has over the past 60 years for the people of Palestine.
Children living in the poorest parts of the West Bank face significantly worse conditions than their counterparts in Gaza, a study conducted by an international youth charity has found.
The report by Save the Children UK, due to be released on Wednesday, says that families forced from their homes in the West Bank are suffering the effects of grinding poverty, often lacking food, medicine and humanitarian assistance.
The European Commission funded study found that in “Area C”- the 60 per cent of the West Bank under direct Israeli control – the poorest sections of society are suffering disproportionately because basic infrastructure is not being repaired due to Israel’s refusal to approve the work.
Homes, schools, drainage systems and roads are in urgent need of repair, but instead of work being allowed, families are being forced to live in tents and do not have access to clean water.
Restrictions on the use of land for agriculture have left thousands of Palestinian children without enough food and many are becoming ill as a result, the study found.
Crisis point
Conditions in Area C have reached “crisis point”, the charity said, with 79 per cent of the communities surveyed lacking sufficient food – a greater proportion than in blockaded Gaza, where the figure is 61 per cent.
The lack of proper nutrition is having a major impact on the health of children growing up in the area, with 44 per cent of those surveyed for the study suffering from diarrhoea, the world’s biggest killer of children under the age of five.
Many children living in such communities are showing signs of stunted growth, with the figure running at more than double Gaza’s rate, and more than one in ten children surveyed for the study were found to be underweight.
The report says that for many Palestinians, international humanitarian assistance is far harder to access in the West Bank than in Gaza, with almost half the households surveyed in Area C reporting that they had no access to foreign aid assistance.
Save the Children warned that with the blockade of Gaza dominating headlines in recent months, the international community risked forgetting the fate of the poorest communities in the West Bank.
“The international community has rightly focused its attention on the suffering of families in Gaza but the plight of children in Area C must not be overlooked,” Salam Kanaan, Save the Children’s director in the occupied Palestinian Territories, said.
“Palestinians in the West Bank are widely thought to enjoy a higher standard of living but tragically many families, particularly in Bedouin and herder communities, actually suffer significantly higher levels of malnutrition and poverty.”
The organisation called for Israel to immediately cease home demolitions and land confiscations in the West Bank and said the Palestinian authority should take “urgent action” to develop services and improve food security in Area C.
“Palestinian children cannot wait for the stalled peace talks between the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and the United States to find solutions to this crisis,” Kanaan said.
Pockets of poverty
Cairo Arafat helped devise the Palestinian Authority’s action plan for children before starting part-time work with Save the Children, and is now a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority. She told Al Jazeera the figures in the report did not reflect the conditions in the West Bank as a whole, but were still a major cause for concern.
“The overall conditions, if you look at health indicators and education indicators, are better than what is normal for the reigion,” she said.
“The problem is we are beginning to see a regression.”
The West Bank had “pockets of poverty,” she said, that left around around 10 per cent of the 240,000 children in the territory at risk of ill-health.
“There are certain parts of the West Bank were the situation is much worse than in Gaza, with a lack of access to water and shelter,” she said.
Arafat said that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was attempting to tackle the issue in the face of “excessive” obstruction from the Israeli authorities, particularly in areas near settlements and close to the separation barrier built by the Israeli military.
“The PNA is investing in a number of different programs in Area C and near where the wall is being built to improve the situation,” she said.
“But there are certain areas where the Israelis won’t allow infrastructure to be built.”
Thursday April 29, 2010 11:54 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies
Israeli paper, Jerusalem Post, reported that Israel has no intention to dismantle any of the 23 illegal settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank in the foreseeable future.
The paper said that those outposts were illegally installed in the West Bank after March 2001, and were named in the Road Map Peace Plan of 2002.
But consecutive Israeli leaders, including the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have no intention to dismantle any of the illegal outposts in the near future although Israel vowed to the former U.S administration to dismantle the outpost.
Yet, the Bush administration provided direct support to settlement construct and expansion in the occupied West Bank and claimed that the support is meant to settlements that “will always be part of Israel under any peace deal”.
The author spoke at the Revolution Books Town Hall Meeting at Ethical Culture Society on January 13, 2009 condemning Israel and USA complicity in Israel’s murderous destruction and genocide of the innocent men, women and children of GAZA and the West Bank.
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli forces imposed a general closure on the West Bank beginning Friday morning, the army said.
The decision means those Palestinians with permits will generally not be permitted to access Jerusalem over the weekend.
The move comes in accordance with directives of the Israeli minister of defense, Ehud Barak, following situation assessments, the army said in a statement explaining the closure.
“The IDF will continue to operate in order to protect the citizens of Israel while maintaining the quality of life of the Palestinian population in the area,” the statement said, noting that some Palestinians will still be allowed to enter Jerusalem and Israel.
For some Upper West Side residents, their usual stroll down Broadway this evening had a surprise: a group of 20 New York Jews denouncing Israel’s occupation of Palestine were standing with thought-provoking signs while a few passed out flyers.
Challenging the assumption that all Jews support Israel no matter what, the action, organized by Jews Say No, called on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza and to end the longest running military occupation in recent history. The group was founded last year during Israel’s war on Gaza.
What’s it like to be a woman serving in the Israeli occupation force in the West Bank? Is a woman’s experience as an occupier any different than a man’s? Yes indeed, say some women who have just broken their silence and offered a glimpse into the grim reality of the occupation.
“The only reasonable conclusion is that Othman is being punished for his peaceful advocacy…The authorities interrogated him for months, then ordered him held some more, but they won’t say why they are holding him and haven’t accused him of any crime.”
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director
(Jerusalem) – The Israeli military appeals court should end the administrative detention of Mohammed Othman, a West Bank rights activist, and order his release, Human Rights Watch said today.
Israeli authorities have detained Othman without charge for more than two months on what appear to be politically motivated grounds. On the basis of secret evidence that Othman and his lawyers were not allowed to see, a military court confirmed a military order that consigned Othman to three months administrative detention without charging him with any crime. Othman has no criminal record and, to the knowledge of Human Rights Watch, has never advocated or participated in violence. His detention period, which may be renewed, ends on December 22.
Nearly 250,000 Palestinians in 83 communities on the West Bank are at risk of heightened violence in so-called “price tag” revenge attacks that Israeli settlers may launch against a large-scale attempt by Israel to evacuate outposts it considers illegal, a United Nations report warned today.
“While most ‘price tag’ incidents recorded to date… resulted in Palestinian injuries and in significant property damage, the level of settler mobilization observed so far, appears to be relatively limited,” it noted, referring to the settler strategy of exacting a “price” from Palestinians in response to Israeli attempts to dismantle outposts the authorities themselves have not authorized.
“However, considering the limited scope of the removal operations implemented so far by the Israeli authorities, the level of violence that could be expected following a relatively large dismantlement operation is significantly higher,” the monthly report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) added, listing a litany of attacks against Palestinians and their property, such as olive groves.
It called on Israel to ensure that all its security forces in the field are properly instructed about their authority and obligation to enforce the law on Israeli settlers and protect Palestinian civilians from settler violence, which must no longer enjoy the impunity it now does. Israel must also allocate necessary forces to effectively patrol all areas near vulnerable communities ahead of operations against the outposts.
“Considering Israel’s obligations under international law, the Israeli authorities must adopt all the necessary measures to prevent to the greatest extent possible attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians civilians and their property, in response to the removal of settlement outposts,” it stressed, adding that this year 13 Palestinians have been injured per month on average in settler-related incidents.
The report, which cited numerous accounts from the Israeli authorities, army and media, noted that the immediate aim of the “price tag” strategy is to divert Israeli forces from the scene of an outpost evacuation into other areas requiring their intervention to contain violent incidents.
It cited Israel’s “inadequate level of law enforcement” despite its responsibility under international law, as the occupying power, to ensure public order and safety in the occupied territory, the lack of adequate accountability for settler violence, and the frequent failure of Israeli security forces to intervene and stop the attacks in real time, including to arrest suspects on the spot.
“The current lack of accountability undermines efforts to reduce the phenomenon of settler violence in the long run and infringes on the rights of the victims to justice,” it said.
The report also noted that the most significant measure Israel has so far taken on the ground has been its decision to deploy during the past three olive harvest seasons, forces with the explicit task of protecting Palestinian farmers working in the vicinity of some settlements.
“This measure has reduced the number of incidents involving physical assaults by settlers and resulting in injuries, however, it hardly affected the scope of attacks against property such as olive groves and produce,” it said.
On occupied East Jerusalem, OCHA said that while Israel has expropriated some 35 per cent of land there for Israeli settlements, only around 13 per cent is available for Palestinian building and much of that land is built-up already. In those areas where construction is possible, Israeli bureaucratic restrictions make it extremely difficult for Palestinian residents to get building permits, it added.
In a related development, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for a settlement of the Middle East conflict that espouses the internationally accepted Road Map plan for two States – Israel and Palestine – to live side by side in peace and security within fully recognized borders.
“Palestinians have waited too long for an end to occupation and a State of their own,” he said in a message to a hosts and donors meeting of the 60-year-old UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main conduit for aid to Palestinian refugees.
“Israelis have a right to live in peace and harmony with their neighbours. More than ever, for both peoples, for the region and for the international community as a whole, we need to see two States living side by side in peace and security,” he added in the message, which was delivered by UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) Executive Secretary Bader Al-Dafa to the gathering in Jordan.
Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies.
These unreasonably restrict the availability of water in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and prevent the Palestinians developing an effective water infrastructure there.
Thursday April 29, 2010 11:54
by Saed Bannoura – 
Peace and Justice Post 
‘Worse than Gaza’: Conditions in West Bank Areas Reach Crisis Point
June 30, 2010Children living in the poorest parts of the West Bank face significantly worse conditions than their counterparts in Gaza, a study conducted by an international youth charity has found.
The report by Save the Children UK, due to be released on Wednesday, says that families forced from their homes in the West Bank are suffering the effects of grinding poverty, often lacking food, medicine and humanitarian assistance.
The European Commission funded study found that in “Area C”- the 60 per cent of the West Bank under direct Israeli control – the poorest sections of society are suffering disproportionately because basic infrastructure is not being repaired due to Israel’s refusal to approve the work.
Homes, schools, drainage systems and roads are in urgent need of repair, but instead of work being allowed, families are being forced to live in tents and do not have access to clean water.
Restrictions on the use of land for agriculture have left thousands of Palestinian children without enough food and many are becoming ill as a result, the study found.
Crisis point
Conditions in Area C have reached “crisis point”, the charity said, with 79 per cent of the communities surveyed lacking sufficient food – a greater proportion than in blockaded Gaza, where the figure is 61 per cent.
The lack of proper nutrition is having a major impact on the health of children growing up in the area, with 44 per cent of those surveyed for the study suffering from diarrhoea, the world’s biggest killer of children under the age of five.
Many children living in such communities are showing signs of stunted growth, with the figure running at more than double Gaza’s rate, and more than one in ten children surveyed for the study were found to be underweight.
The report says that for many Palestinians, international humanitarian assistance is far harder to access in the West Bank than in Gaza, with almost half the households surveyed in Area C reporting that they had no access to foreign aid assistance.
Save the Children warned that with the blockade of Gaza dominating headlines in recent months, the international community risked forgetting the fate of the poorest communities in the West Bank.
“The international community has rightly focused its attention on the suffering of families in Gaza but the plight of children in Area C must not be overlooked,” Salam Kanaan, Save the Children’s director in the occupied Palestinian Territories, said.
“Palestinians in the West Bank are widely thought to enjoy a higher standard of living but tragically many families, particularly in Bedouin and herder communities, actually suffer significantly higher levels of malnutrition and poverty.”
The organisation called for Israel to immediately cease home demolitions and land confiscations in the West Bank and said the Palestinian authority should take “urgent action” to develop services and improve food security in Area C.
“Palestinian children cannot wait for the stalled peace talks between the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and the United States to find solutions to this crisis,” Kanaan said.
Pockets of poverty
Cairo Arafat helped devise the Palestinian Authority’s action plan for children before starting part-time work with Save the Children, and is now a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority. She told Al Jazeera the figures in the report did not reflect the conditions in the West Bank as a whole, but were still a major cause for concern.
“The overall conditions, if you look at health indicators and education indicators, are better than what is normal for the reigion,” she said.
“The problem is we are beginning to see a regression.”
The West Bank had “pockets of poverty,” she said, that left around around 10 per cent of the 240,000 children in the territory at risk of ill-health.
“There are certain parts of the West Bank were the situation is much worse than in Gaza, with a lack of access to water and shelter,” she said.
Arafat said that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was attempting to tackle the issue in the face of “excessive” obstruction from the Israeli authorities, particularly in areas near settlements and close to the separation barrier built by the Israeli military.
“The PNA is investing in a number of different programs in Area C and near where the wall is being built to improve the situation,” she said.
“But there are certain areas where the Israelis won’t allow infrastructure to be built.”
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