World Bank, Palestinian, Israel debate water crisis in West Bank

Xinhua article by David Harris, Huang Heng

JERUSALEM, May 27 (Xinhua) -- As many Palestinians in the West Bank living on just 15 liters of water per day, the World Bank believed "the water crisis has reached a humanitarian scale."

Pier Francesco Mantovani, the organization's lead water supply and sanitation specialist for the Middle East and North Africa, made the comment during an environmental conference in Jerusalem Wednesday after the World Bank published a report on the water situation in the Palestinian areas, with a focus on the West Bank.

According to the World Health Organization, the minimum quantity of water needed for short-term survival is 30 liters per capita per day.

To read the rest of the article, click here: Xinhua-World Bank Water Findings

Amnesty International Blames Israel for Breaking Truce With Hamas

Amnesty International (AI), in its annual report on the Middle East released today, blamed Israel for breaking a six-month ceasefire with Palestinian group Hamas, and for grave breaches of Humanitarian law in its later offensive into the Gaza strip. Amnesty blamed Israel for having collectively punished the entirety of Gaza, and its civilians, with an 18-month crippling siege prior to the January conflict (that continues to this very day), and for a November fourth Israeli attack in Gaza, in which six Hamas fighters were killed. Israel had been expected in a June ceasefire agreement with Hamas to increase the amount of trucks let in to Gaza and to not instigate conflict. Israel did not live up to this agreement. Israel violated the ceasefire by first not diminishing its collective blockade of foodstuffs, medical supplies and building materials and second by invading Gaza on U.S. election day (November 4th).

In the ensuing debate in U.S. media over who started the conflict, blame repeatedly fell on the shoulders of Hamas. Even the U.S. President supported the Gaza offensive and blamed Hamas for violating the ceasefire with renewed rocket attacks. It is refreshing to see an absolute refute of this "blame claim" by AI. Nevertheless, this does nothing to change the horrid conditions of Gaza.

Gaza continues to be under crippling Israeli siege. Products to rebuild the thousands of destroyed homes remain stuck at the border, along with simple foodstuffs such as couscous and pasta. The siege has been described as near-starvation of the Gazan people and many sick or injured have died at the hands of Israeli border authorities, waiting to leave Gaza to receive the medical treatment they desperately need. Hundreds continue to live in tents set up by UNRWA, and few have work to do. The Israeli authorities have created what has repeatedly been called a "concentration camp" or an "open-air prison," and yet, little continues to be done to relieve their perpetual suffering. It appears hopeless to rely on the U.S., the European Union and the U.N. to stop the suffering of Gaza's civilians. Instead, we must act ourselves. Act today by joining UB SJP and contribute to the cause of justice.

To be a part of UB SJP Email ubsjp48@gmail.com.

George Galloway in Buffalo?

George Galloway is the brilliant British MP who has been advocating ferociously for the rights of Palestinians and Iraqis for years. For a good sample of his powers as a speaker, see his defense of the Lebanese against the Israeli onslaught of 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=249JaIaubVw&feature=related.

He's now in the United States on a tour of solidarity with and fundraising for Gaza. I've heard a report that he may be visiting Buffalo soon. I'll post any developments I hear about.

Homeless in Gaza and a feat of clay

Djallal Malti in GAZA CITY (AFP) — All of Amer Aliyan's hopes of rebuilding his life are placed in a carefully folded sheet in his wallet, a document that for the foreseeable future in Gaza is nothing but a worthless piece of paper.

"I'm waiting for the reconstruction, but I know it will take time," the 36-year-old says.

This is a gross understatement in the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip where an Israeli blockade is preventing the rebuilding effort after the devastation caused by a brief but deadly war at the turn of the year.

Aliyan's house was one of several thousand destroyed during the massive 22-day onslaught unleashed by Israel on the Islamist Hamas-run Gaza in December in response to militant rocket and mortar fire from the enclave.

Since the end of the war, the unemployed dry cleaner has lived under canvas with his wife and five children in one of 93 tents set up on the outskirts of the Beit Lahiya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

The paper secreted inside his wallet is the official attestation that his home was destroyed, and it is a document that will entitle him to funds for rebuilding once the reconstruction starts.

But that is unlikely to begin any time soon, and until it does the thousands of Gazans who like Aliyan lost their homes in the war will just have to fend for themselves.

Reconstruction is a non-event not because there is a lack of demand. Some 4,100 houses was destroyed during the war, as were 48 government buildings, 31 police stations and 20 mosques, among others.

Nor is it for lack of money -- in coffers worldwide sit a whopping 4.5 billion dollars that donors pledged to the Palestinians in March, most of it towards reconstruction in Gaza.

The rebuilding is not able to get under way because of the blockade Israel imposed on Gaza in June 2007 when Hamas, a group pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state, seized the enclave in a deadly takeover.

The billions of dollars in pledges remain where they are because the international community refuses to release the money directly to Hamas, branded as a terror organisation by Israel and much of the West.

The blockade, under which only essential humanitarian goods are allowed into the territory sandwiched between Israel and Egypt, means building materials stay on the outside, as Israel says they can also be used to make rockets.

In a bid to get around these restrictions, Gazans have dug dozens of tunnels under the border with Egypt that are used to bring in supplies, including construction materials such as cement, paint and wood.

The resulting trade is brisk, but limited and dangerous. The hastily dug tunnels often collapse, burying smugglers alive. The Israeli military still targets them in occasional bombing raids.

Because of the blockade the price of building materials has skyrocketed. A bag of cement now costs 220 shekels (56 dollars, 40 euros) compared with 20 shekels previously.

But the cement is of low quality, according to Hadj Salim who operates one of the tunnels, and it cannot be used to mix construction-grade concrete.

Other vital materials such as the steel rods used to reinforce concrete in buildings are too long to fit through the tunnels, Salim says.

With construction at a standstill, the newly homeless residents of the Gaza Strip where the vast majority of the 1.5 million population depends on foreign aid have had to make do.

The fortunate have found temporary housing. Some stay with relatives in what is already one of the most densely populated places on earth. But people with nowhere else to go are living in tents.

"Those who can go with families, the others stay here. There's one 12-member family living in a store room and they're paying for that," says Khaled Abu Ali, who is in charge of administrative affairs at the tent camp.

Others have turned to innovative measures.

Jihad al-Shaer, 36, was living with his wife and five kids in his parents' Rafah home when he got the idea to build a house from clay bricks in December, before the war that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

"The idea came from houses I'd seen in Bangladesh and Pakistan," he says.

He finished their 80-square-metre (860-square-foot) house in February -- after the war -- and today proudly shows off the results.

"It's cool in the summer, warm in the winter and only cost me 3,000 dollars," he says.

The one-storey structure that seems to grow out of its sandy surroundings was happily blessed a few weeks ago with the birth of Shaer's first son after four daughters.

His idea caught on quickly in tiny Gaza, and in early May the territory's Hamas rulers announced they would offer the option of building houses out of clay for those who want it.

After weeks of searching, Aliyan has finally found temporary living quarters for the months -- or what some fear may become years -- until Israel lifts its blockade and reconstruction is finally able to begin in dusty Gaza.

He, his wife and their children have managed to rent a small space at the back of a bakery, next to the oven.

To see the original article: Agence France Presse

New Rules for Palestinian Study in Israel

The Jerusalem Post reported that the High Court of Israel has accepted rules limiting Palestinian study in Israel. The rules come from the army and are as follows:

• Only PhD and Masters students will be considered and only if there is no practical alternative to studying in Israel
• Preference will be given to applicants to programs focusing on regional cooperation or developing coexistence and regional peace. The Education Ministry must testify as to the nature of the program
• Palestinians will not be allowed to study professions that have the potential to be used against Israel.
• The applicant will have to provide the army with a detailed request from a recognized academic institution explaining the grounds on which the institution wants him to study there
• There will be no further examination if the applicant has a security or criminal record.
• The army will take into account the age of the applicant and his personal status.
• The army, at its own discretion, may refuse to consider an applicant even if the student meets the above criteria.

The High Court will allow for appeals based on the discretionary refusals; however, that is the only objection to the army rules. Numerous academics in Israel objected to the Army's foray into matters they felt were purely academic.

Settlement Freeze

The Christian Science Monitor carried today a terrific piece covering efforts to freeze the growth of settlements. In it, there is discussion of the intricacies of a settlement freeze and the difficult of defining what exactly a settlement freeze should be. Israel agreed to a settlement freeze at the most recent Annapolis meeting; however, enforcing the freeze has never been successful. Successive U.S. administrations have agreed that settlements are an "obstacle to peace," though, only one President pressured Israel to freeze growth--Bush 41. In 1991, Bush 41 delayed loan guarantees to Israel until the elction of Yitzhak Rabin who immediately promised to freeze settlements. The U.S. acquiesced and settlement growth continued, albeit at a slower pace. It quickly ramped back up and throughout the Oslo years, 1993-1997, settlements grew at an alarming rate, by 78%. They now stand at 300,000 in the West Bank.

The Obama administration has taken this issue very seriously. In the most recent meeting between Israeli PM Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama; Obama impressed upon Netanyahu the seriousness of his administrations efforts to freeze settlement growth. At the moment, the U.S. and Israeli authorities are in discussions over what should be deemed a violation of the U.S.-Israeli agreement to freeze settlements.

Yossi Alpher, the coeditor of the online Israeli-Palestinian web op-ed forum Bitterlemons.org says "There's all sorts of loopholes. Are you going to deny them a new nursery school?" And the answer is emphatically Yes! The setttlers have chosen to live in the West Bank. They have chosen to live there for religious reasons (a minority, however an active, organized minority) and for financial reasons (the majority). Settlements are cheap, the loans for houses are low-interest, and the government subsidizes buildings. More relevant to my point, the settlements are a nice place to live. They are new, they have beautiful synagogues and they are very well protected. If we are to stop settlement growth, it must begin with making settlements unattractive to live in, even if that means denying settlers a nursery. They have chosen to live in territory deemed occupied, continue to harm the national security of Israel through their growth and thus should not be rewarded with a nursery school, a synagogue and a yeshiva. Rather, they should be punished with high housing prices, high-interest loans, and no public amenities. Give them the basics: water, electricity, food. But do not subsidize their education. They have chosen to disobey government regulations and therefore should not be helped, or more radically should be punished. If we are to freeze settlements, we must make them unattractive to live in. The question is, will the U.S. be able to pressure Israel to make settlements unattractive to live in?

Alpher continued on to say that "even the most dovish prime minister would have to point to American pressure" to justify enforcing a settlement freeze. He is right and I just hope that pressure is really coming; otherwise, we may not be able to save this fragile two-state solution that we dream of.

Our founding document

I. MISSION: Part and parcel of the larger student movement sweeping university campuses across the United States, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, and community members centered at the University at Buffalo, and organized in accordance with democratic principles to promote justice, human rights, and self-determination for the Palestinian people.

II. GUIDING PRINCIPLES: As an advocacy group, SJP believes that key principles grounded in international law, human rights, and basic standards of justice, dictate concrete steps that will be fundamental to a fair and lasting resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Most important among those steps are:

• An end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.

• The establishment of either a fully independent and viable Palestinian state in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, or of one secular, democratic state over all of modern-day Israel and Palestine.

• An end to Israel’s system of apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as its system of discrimination against the Arab population within its own borders.

• A just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.

Just as SJP condemns the racism and discrimination underlying many of the policies of the state of Israel, SJP also categorically opposes any form of prejudice or discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. At the same time, SJP manifestly rejects attempts to equate principled criticism of Zionism, or of the character or policies of Israel, with anti-Semitism.

Furthermore, SJP condemns all acts of unlawful violence, or violence that indiscriminately targets civilians or civilian infrastructure, committed by either side in the course of the conflict.

Ultimately, SJP’s strength flows from the diversity of its membership, comprising individuals of varied racial and ethnic backgrounds and political orientations, all united under these stated principles in the struggle for peace and justice in Palestine.

III. CODE OF CONDUCT: SJP’s activities include educational events, film screenings, discussion forums, and demonstrations meant to promote awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people and encourage activism in solidarity with their struggle. SJP will also initiate a campaign urging the University at Buffalo to divest from companies complicit in Israeli violations of human rights or international law. SJP will conduct only nonviolent actions, and rejects actions that violate its guiding principles, to which all individuals or groups acting as members, representatives, or sponsors of SJP are required to adhere. More broadly, SJP will work to link the pro-Palestine movement with other movements seeking political, social, economic, or environmental justice in the Middle East and across the world. To this end, SJP may elect to endorse the programs or activities of other organizations whose principles and objectives are consistent with its own.

University at Buffalo-Students for Justice in Palestine--WE HAVE A BLOG!!

The students of the University at Buffalo chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (UBSJP) would like to announce the creation of a new blog. We will use this blog to further our efforts at the University at Buffalo to bring justice to the Palestinians.