UPDATES SUMMARY – OCTOBER 3, 2017
1- news about denied health in Gaza
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170823-pa-reduces-medical-referrals-for-gaza-patients-by-80/
First reported death from swimming in Gaza’s polluted seas is a 5-year-old boy
Read in browser »
2-new calls to remove the blockade of Gaza
- a call to EU to stop Gaza isolation issued by the ECCP
https://www.change.org/p/eu-stop-gaza-s-isolation?utm_source=embedded_petition_view - a call to Macron
Urgence humanitaire à GAZA: levée du BLOCUS ! #OpenGaza
https://www.change.org/p/pr%C3%A9sident-de-la-r%C3%A9publique-urgence-humanitaire-%C3%A0-gaza-lev%C3%A9e-du-blocus-opengaza
3-calls for health for Gaza from Medical Aid for Palestine
https://www.map.org.uk/campaigns/health-and-dignity-campaign
from Intel. Committee for Breaking Gaza Siege
https://youtu.be/MNm9b9JfU8k
4- actions
Actions in Milan (Italy) in September
https://www.facebook.com/events/927456337420174/
5- witnesses
Richar Flak in Paris
http://www.aurdip.fr/video-de-la-conference-de-richard.html
Gisha
Graphing-10-years-of-closure
http://gisha.org/publication/8227
6-commentaries
https://palestinefrommyeyes.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/has-gaza-ever-been-liveable/ Shahd Abusalama EN
Ramzi Baroud (Ma’an News)
http://zeitun.info/2017/09/07/tre-anni-dopo-la-guerra-parlano-i-giovani-di-gaza/ IT
UPDATES SUMMARY – AUGUST 16, 2017
References
We add links for the mechanism of crossing with Egypt (1) and about options and history of the building of a seaport (2, 3,4)
Witness
We add files by Israeli Gisha (5) and Palestinian center for Human rights (6), a very important film by John Pilger (7), which is not new, but very clearly illustrates the continuing actuality and the depth in time of the Palestinian issue, a video on energy cuts (8)an interview from Caritas in Palestine (9), a recent video about pollution of water (10) one about the present darkness (11)
Correspondence from signatories
A letter from Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout, writer and one by Victoria Britten, journalist (12 and 13).
Issues and tribunals
Believing that the charges according to international law that have been levied at Israel remain at the core of the struggle for justice in Palestine, we added documents from F.Boyles (14) and the final decision of the people tribunal, Russel tribunal on Palestine (15). Other issues raised in the ESCWA report (The report, was retired by UN and it is attached here in pdf: Israeli-practices-Palestinian-people-apartheid-occupation (16)) will be discussed in Belgium (17)
Initiatives/ appeals/campaigns
Since we issued the call many other initiatives have been initiated, here we report some of them, without pretense of exhausting the file
18- the End the blockade campaign that is directed to the UN with similar aims of opening Gaza, as ours
19- a Petition to Macron, France president to take a stance for Gaza opening
20- an information campaign by Oxfam that aims to state that the induced darkness on Gaza amounts to collective punishment
21- a call to action by IfNotNow, US
In the last 3 weeks there has been also an health mission in Gaza by Physicians for human rights Israel, here the report (22) and it was announced that an help caravan form Italy had permission to enter and is travelling (23)
News about health in Gaza in an unending aftermath of war, under blockade and lack of energy, (24) A doctor’s interviews the Deputy Minister of Health for Gaza, Dr.Baseem Naim; a report by PHRI (25) and a scientific publication about the contamination of women in Gaza by heavy metals in the war aftermath (26)
About the right of recurring to ICC of the patients whose life was lost because blocked by denied passage toward hospitals (27), not great audio
We picked some news that may not reach main stream as the filing in to ICC of a complain by the Palestine civil society (28); the comments to press of UNCHR spokesperson (29), the position of Arab donors (30) and a further waste of EU resources and loss for people, in lack still of a clear stand of the EU (31).
REFERENCES
1-EUBAM and port for Gaza
The Council has extended the mandate of the EU border assistance mission for the Rafah crossing point (EU BAM Rafah), as well as the mandate of the EU coordinating office for Palestinian police support (EUPOL COPPS) until 30 June 2018. http://www.eubam-rafah.eu/
4-building a seaport for Gaza? By the way, contracts for construction of the port were signed back in 1994 between Israel and the PA. The plans were reaffirmed in the 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh memorandum, and construction began in the summer of 2000. But Israel bombed the site during the second intifada and it has since been abandoned.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/03/israel-gaza-strip-hamas-benjamin-netanyahu-vladimir-putin.html#ixzz4penQY4wh
WITNESS
5-report from Gisha http://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/shedding-legal-light-gaza-electricity-crisis
6- PCHR- Palestinian center for Human Rights, is currently working on documenting the electricity crisis in a series of videos of people’s daily struggles in their hospitals, houses, factories, farmlands, etc… here the first one https://youtu.be/e_4DXbUInTk, also see http://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=9348
7-John Pilger film http://johnpilger.com/videos/palestine-is-still-the-issue
8-Invicta Palestina video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghes9YcpwyM
11- http://www.huffingtonpost.it/2017/08/09/nel-buio-e-nel-silenzio-gaza-sta-morendo_a_23071766/
24- https://palestinefrommyeyes.
25- http://zeitun.info/2017/09/07/
ISSUES AND TRIBUNALS
14- Francis Boyles
15- Russel Tribunal on Palestine- http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/TRP-Concl.-Gaza-EN.pdf
16- ESCWA pdf israeli-practices-palestinian-people-apartheid-occupation
INITIATIVES/APPEALS/CAMPAIGNS
17-https://www.manifiesta.be/fr/programme/palestine-100-ans-de-complicite
During this feast Richard Falk will present the report by himself and Virginia Tilley, previous ESCWA director.
18-End the maritime blockade against Gaza. Campaign at the UN by the group ENd the blockade now, USA. reference Richard Littleton endblockade@gmail.com
19-petition to President Macron
https://www.change.org/p/pr%C3%A9sident-de-la-r%C3%A9publique-urgence-humanitaire-%C3%A0-gaza-lev%C3%A9e-du-blocus
20-Oxfam launched a campaing:
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170807-oxfam-electricity-crisis-in-gaza-strip-is-punishment-for-entire-nation-and-it-must-be-stopped-immediately/
#lights on Gaza at @lightsongaza and video https://www.facebook.com/pg/lightsongaza/videos/?ref=page_internal
21-IfNotNow Pledge to #SpeakTruthToPowerGaza
https://actionnetwork.org/groups/ifnotnow
22-PHRI visited in Gaza – http://mailchi.mp/phr/muwsh5pulz-991385?e=19b7f93641
23-music for peace is traveling with a caravan of help items this week
HEALTH NEWS
24-A doctor’s interviews the Deputy Minister of Health for Gaza, Dr.Baseem Naim- August 2, 2017
http://www.pourlapalestine.be/quatre-questions-au-ministre-de-la-sante-de-gaza/
25-http://mailchi.mp/phr/muwsh5pulz-991353?e=19b7f93641
26-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28768639– A cross sectional study of the relationship between the exposure of pregnant women to military attacks in 2014 in Gaza and the load of heavy metal contaminants in the hair of mothers and newborns
RIGHTS AND RECOURSES
27-press conference video on law issue related to the blockade of patients in need to travel for getting cared (bad audio) MoH and https://www.facebook.com/MOHGaza1994/videos/1927373250873860/
RELEVANT PRESS NEWS
28-Palestinian Civil Society To File A Complaint Before The ICC http://gaza.scoop.ps/2017/07/palestinian-civil-society-to-file-a-complaint-before-the-icc/ and
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/07/20/529041/Gaza-Palestine-ICC-Israel-
29-Ravina Shamdasani: Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
http://gaza.scoop.ps/2017/08/unhchr-deeply-concerned-about-deterioration-of-humanitarian-conditions-in-gaza/
30-https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170812-arab-countries-half-their-aid-to-the-pa/
INTERVIEW
Summarizing the health situation under the energy crisis and more
FILMS
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170811-this-is-palestine/
With the life of people in Gaza seriously endangered, it is the duty of the people of the world, of associations, groups and religious denominations to take responsibility and act. We need to take action to ensure this slow genocide finds its place on the international agenda.