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--- Begin Message ---
-Caveat Lector-
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny
September 18, 2002
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
[START]
Ethnic Cleansing by Starvation
by Rania Awwad
A US-financed assessment of the overall malnutrition level among
Palestinian children, released this month by the US Agency for
International Development (USAID), found that one in five Palestinian
children under the age of five now suffers from chronic or acute
malnutrition. This astonishing statistic is on par with impoverished
nations such as Chad and Nigeria, and actually surpasses rates of
child malnutrition in Somalia and Bangladesh. Such figures, the
report noted, are "considered an emergency by most humanitarians and
public health officials." The report points to Israeli-imposed
closures and sieges of major civilian centers as the direct and
primary cause.
We typically think of famines as being caused by natural disasters
(droughts, overgrazing) or by crises that result in the displacement
of large populations from their lands (wars, ethnic strife). The
situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, however, is a
startling aberration since it is clearly a man-made disaster intended
to specifically target whole civilian populations. Most importantly,
it can easily and immediately be reversed.
Today, Israeli military sieges are literally imprisoning families
within their homes for days at a time. People cannot leave their
homes to work, buy food, go to the doctor, or send their children to
school. Military checkpoints and roadblocks are restricting commerce
and the transport of food supplies. Workers cannot travel between
Palestinian towns, and farmers and manufacturers are unable to
deliver their goods to shops and markets. People have exhausted the
money they can draw on from relatives and connections on the outside.
The USAID report also revealed that about one quarter of West Bank
Palestinians have had to sell personal possessions to put food on the
table. The World Bank recently determined that as many as 62 percent
of Palestinian families are now living on less than two dollars a
day. As a result of these obstacles, increasing numbers of families
are skipping meals or reducing their food intake because eventually
they run out of money and assets to sell.
Even before the current Israeli re-occupation which began on June 20,
many Palestinians relied on aid from the Palestinian Authority and
the UN World Food Program (UNWFP). With its ministries and
institutions flattened, the PA can no longer serve in this role, and
the UNWFP has recently announced an emergency operation to cope with
what they call "dramatically deteriorating living conditions in the
Palestinian Territories."
But how can the slow starvation of a whole population be stopped when
that very starvation is being altogether denied by the Israeli
government and ignored by the US Administration? Major General Amos
Gilad, Israel's coordinator of government affairs in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, was hardly ruffled by the USAID findings. In fact, he
asserted that "hunger is when people have swollen bellies and fall
over dead. There is no hunger yet."
Discovering that dismissive denial of facts is not working, the
Israeli authorities are now moving to soften criticism with
much-hyped symbolic gestures. Israel recently announced its intention
to release about seven percent of the 600 million dollars in
Palestinian tax revenue it has seized since the start of the
Intifada, as well as its intention to reissue work permits for
Palestinians to cross from the West Bank and Gaza to their jobs
inside Israel.
These measures, however, are hardly sufficient. Much more needs to be
done. It is important to understand that the collective punishment
policies pursued by Ariel Sharon's government against the
Palestinians are not reactive but deliberate, and are intended to
serve a specific and well-defined political purpose. Sharon is the
head of the Likud Party, which to this day vows never to permit the
establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.
Sharon's solution is to depopulate as much as possible the Occupied
Palestinian Territories by making life for its citizens unbearable.
And what could be more unbearable than watching your children cry
themselves to sleep from hunger, night after night? What is most
alarming is that Sharon may very well be having his way. As recently
reported in the Jerusalem Post (an English-language Israeli daily),
80,000 Palestinians have allegedly left the Occupied Palestinian
Territories for Jordan and other nations to seek economic relief for
their families.
In parallel, private Israeli efforts have been pursuing their
missions of "helping" any Palestinian who wishes to leave the West
Bank or Gaza. As the president of one organization which seeks to
assist Palestinians to "permanently emigrate" put it: "Our aim is to
empty the state of Arabs".
Another group, Gamla, founded by former Israeli military officers and
colonists, has published similar recommendations on its website in a
nine-thousand-word manifesto titled "The Logistics of Transfer." It
argues that the mass expulsion of every Palestinian is "the only
possible solution" to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and further
makes the claim that this is "substantiated by the Torah".
The starvation of captive Palestinians is nothing less than the
muffled ethnic cleansing of a whole people. As always, these matters
should be of serious concern to US citizens given that our
diplomatic, military, and financial support have long allowed Israel
to pursue with impunity such policies which contradict our own
cherished political values and commitment to human rights. It is time
for us to speak up. We must not be complicit in the decimation of a
whole people.
Rania Awwad can be reached at:
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[END]
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
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--- End Message ---
