Israel delays treatment to child with lung disease

Posted on April 25, 2023 by crew

Aseel Mousa The Electronic Intifada 21 April 2023

Bilal al-Mashharawi was diagnosed with a lung disease earlier this month. Mohammed Salem

Bilal al-Mashharawi, 8, is seriously ill.

Earlier this month, he was diagnosed with a lung disease by al-Makassed hospital in occupied East Jerusalem.

Arranging the tests he needed at the hospital proved to be a major ordeal.

For several months, his family – who live in the Gaza City neighborhood of al-Zaytoun – sought a travel permit for Bilal. The Israeli military authorities repeatedly rejected their requests.

As his parents struggled with a Kafkaesque nightmare, Bilal’s health worsened.

“Seeing my child like this is killing me,” his mother Aya said shortly before the diagnosis. “His brothers and his sister are always praying for him and asking me to save his life. But I feel helpless.”

Although it had been evident for some time that Bilal had lung problems, doctors in Gaza’s al-Rantisi hospital were unable to give him a precise diagnosis.

With the healthcare system under massive strain as a result of the complete blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza for more than 15 years, local doctors admitted they cannot provide him with the treatment he needs. In December, he was referred to Jerusalem’s al-Makassed hospital.

The family received confirmation from the Palestinian Authority – based in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah – that it would cover the costs of Bilal’s treatment.

Yet Israel soon began placing hurdles in the family’s way.

First, it rejected an application for Bilal to leave Gaza, accompanied by his father Muhammad, citing the pretext of “security.”

So the family submitted a fresh application, naming Bilal’s mother Aya as his chaperone.

“A day before our scheduled appointment, I got a shock,” Aya said. “A message on my phone told me that I had also been rejected because of ‘security’ concerns.”

The family then submitted yet another application for an exit permit. This time the family named Bilal’s 52-year-old grandmother as his chaperone.

Two days after submitting the application, the family learned that it, too, had been turned down.

Interrogated

During their ordeal the family sought assistance from Gisha, an Israeli human rights group. Gisha initially asked the Israeli authorities to allow Bilal to travel, accompanied by one of his parents.

Yet Israel once more refused, offering “security” as an excuse.

Gisha was more successful when it petitioned Israel’s court system to allow Bilal travel, escorted by his grandmother.

On 7 April, Bilal and his grandmother were finally able to enter Jerusalem.

His grandmother was subjected to harsh movement restrictions while in Jerusalem. She was not allowed to visit al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, during Ramadan.

She was also interrogated by Israeli soldiers both when leaving Gaza and returning a few days later.

Bilal al-Mashharawi at home in Gaza City. Mohammed Salem

Bilal has another appointment in Jerusalem scheduled for next month. That means the family has to ask Israel for permission to travel once more.

At this stage, the family does not know who will be able to accompany him or even if Israel will grant the necessary permit. His grandmother has medical issues of her own, so the family is worried about the effects which another arduous journey could have on her.

It is not unusual for Israel to behave in such an inhumane way.

Al Mezan, a Palestinian human rights group, documented how three children died between January and August 2022 after Israel blocked them from receiving medical treatment outside Gaza.

Last month Israel arrested a cancer patient when he returned from Gaza after receiving treatment in Jerusalem. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights complained that such arrests are part of an “ongoing policy” by Israel’s military occupation.

Israel received more than 1,600 requests from patients to leave Gaza for medical appointments scheduled during March. Eighteen percent of the permits sought were not granted on time, the UN monitoring group OCHA has stated.

Khalid al-Bahtini

Khalid al-Bahtini, 37, is among many people in Gaza who have been prevented from accessing medical care.

For the past 16 years, he has received kidney dialysis at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

With his condition deteriorating, doctors at the hospital have been unable to hook his arteries to a dialysis machine recently. For that reason, he was referred to al-Makassed in Jerusalem.

Khalid was given an appointment in that hospital during December. But Israel refused to allow Khalid and his wife Riham to travel, citing “security” reasons.

He has made a number of subsequent applications, seeking that his father and aunt be allowed to accompany him. Israel has turned down all of the requests.

The refusals have meant that – as well as his physical discomfort – Khalid and his family have to endure a great deal of mental anguish.

“I can barely sleep,” Khalid said. “I can’t bear the pain all over my body.”

Khalid and Riham have four children, aged 3 to 16.

“Of course, this has an effect on our daughters,” said Riham. “They are constantly worrying. Our life is so miserable.”

Aseel Mousa is a journalist based in Gaza.

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azione urgente a difesa di Francesca Albanesa e Tina Marinari

Posted on April 24, 2023 by crew

Carissimi,

c’è un nuovo impulso  della campagna contro la relatrice speciale delle Nazioni Unite su Palestina Israele, Francesca Albanese.

la nostra opinione è che in questo momento in cui il suo secondo rapporto sarà presto reso noto e mentre il volto nascosto dell’Israele democratico è in mostra per la sua violenza sui palestinesi e la continua espansione sul territorio, questa campagna non deve essere considerata come un lampo transitorio, ma sarà uno sforzo massimo da parte del governo israeliano.

La campagna, pur decollando ora sulla stampa e tra i parlamentari in Italia, si estenderà o si sta già estendendo a tutto il mondo.

Una petizione in change org dell’International legal forum che chiede la rimozione dell’Albanese mira ad aggregare anche professionisti del diritto di tutto il mondo, una strategia spesso intrapresa per demonizzare anche professionalmente il bersaglio.

Come società civile in Italia è stata lanciato una petizione in change org, che trovi  qui

https://chng.it/8s9WQsB6tS

NWRG

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NO MORE ATTACKS ON THOSE WHO DENOUNCE THE TRUTHS OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL

Posted on April 24, 2023 by crew

The voluntary associations, humanitarian, political, religious and cultural organisations who have signed this document, in respect of the values enshrined in our Constitution and the Charter of International Rights

DENOUNCE AND DEMAND

https://chng.it/8s9WQsB6tS

an end to the denigrating media campaign carried out against those who, holding international institutional roles or being members of non-governmental organisations, have dared to bring to the general attention, the role and repressive policies of the government of Israel towards the Palestinian people.

It is not as of today that the worst right-wing, colonialist and racist Zionism, now firmly in power in Israel, rages against anyone who dares to question the democracy of the State of Israel, which, in reality, has nothing to do with the democratic and anti-Zionist Jewish people living inside and outside those territories.

The infamous accusations of anti-Semitism, used by the leaders and supporters of the Zionist movement against the UN special rapporteur for the occupied territories, the Italian lawyer Francesca Albanese, and against Dr. Tina Marinari, campaigns coordinator for Amnesty International Italy, defender of International and Democratic Law, offend above all the Jewish religious sentiment of that people.

The accusation: having documented and denounced the policies used to impose the military occupation of the land of Palestine. This policy is however confirmed daily by the indiscriminate use of all the coercive means that each army of occupation has always deployed to impose the will of the invaders on the invaded, and by the apartheid regime that oppresses the Palestinian people.

It is from the columns of Il Giornale (italian newspaper) of 18 April 2023 that Fiamma Nirenstein, who has never concealed her right-wing political sympathies, accuses Francesca Albanese of anti-Semitism, explicitly asking the UN for her dismissal, arguing that the Israeli army has been there since 1967 to defend from Arab ‘terrorists’ the sacrosanct ‘right’ of the settlers to take back (after 2000 years…) the land that belongs to them by divine will, because that is how it is written in the Bible.

Fiamma Nirenstein makes the case for censorship made at the UN by the “four thousand lawyers of the International Legal Forum”. An organisation based in Tel Aviv, with branches in many Western countries. A denigrating intervention also reinforced by the statements by the Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Anti-Semitism, Amichai Chikli, who claims that “allowing Ms. Albanese to continue to spread hate, anti-Semitism and incitement to violence, does not fulfil its mandate to protect the fundamental human rights of all and to exercise equal treatment for all member states’. Hence the alleged necessity of the removal of Francesca Albanese, requested in a letter addressed to UN Secretary General António Guterres and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk (Jerusalem Post, 19 April 2023).

The instrumental use of the accusation of anti-Semitism, and in particular of the immense tragedy of the Holocaust that involved the entire Jewish people, is not based on any evidence, and has the sole political function of wanting to disguise, by discrediting, the colonial and systematic apartheid that the State of Israel applies to the Palestinian people, with a dangerous escalation, attributable to the current extreme right-wing government, which is risking of seriously endangering Israel’s very existence.

Suffice it to observe the increase in incidents of violence that have occurred in recent days on the occasion of Easter, including against Orthodox Christian minorities and against Christian minorities, violence widely denounced by Mgr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Patriarch of Jerusalem.

The attack on Francesca Albanese and Tina Marinari is unacceptable to us, especially because of the importance of the organisations to which they belong, aimed at defending International Law – the UN – and active in the humanitarian and democratic field – Amnesty International. All our respect goes to these organisations.

A respect that, conversely, the State of Israel has never shown, as is confirmed not only by Israel’s failure to implement the countless UN resolutions against the policy of colonial expansion, but also by the continuous violation of International Law, also vilified through the systematic preventive bombardment of a sovereign state like Syria, without even the political dignity of declaring war, but with coward and reckless aggression.

The truth is that, after years of research, work, analysis, both the Apartheid Report by Amnesty International, presented by Dr Tina Marinari, and the one produced for the UN by Francesca Albanese, have highlighted that the Israeli authorities must be called to account for the crime of apartheid against the Palestinians.

The massive requisitions of land and property, illegal killings, forced relocations, drastic restrictions on movement and the denial of nationality and citizenship to the Palestinians, highlight Israel’s system of oppression and domination of the Palestinian population. They are acts that fuel a system that, under international law, constitutes apartheid, and which, according to Amnesty International, is based “on human rights violations” and, therefore, is a crime against humanity; so defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Apartheid Convention.

The UN Charter speaks clearly, also stating that any people, including the Palestinian people, has the right to resist a foreign invasion and that it cannot be the invader the one who decides what resistance is legitimate, starting with the non-violent one of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) promoted by civil society.

That is why the time has come for not only the media, but all the democratic society, to open their eyes to the truth and act so that the abuses stop as soon as possible. A stop that can only happen if the rights of the Palestinian people are recognised and practised, including the right of return of refugees, just as those of the Israeli people are recognised.

https://chng.it/8s9WQsB6tS

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BIP News #256: Francesca Albanese under fire A coordinated defamation campaign against the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine

Posted on April 24, 2023 by crew

Two Israeli ministries are coordinating a smear campaign against the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese. The personal attacks are based on lies aimed at removing her from office.
Israeli “Hasbara” organizations discredit the role of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. Hasbara is the Israeli propaganda campaign (see BIP Update #174). The Office of the Special Rapporteur was created by the United Nations to monitor and document human rights violations committed by Israel against Palestinians. The office, which is honorary, was held by Michael Lynk from 2016 to 2022 and is currently held by Francesca Albanese.
Albanese states that the State of Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid. Israel, she says, is a settler colonial state that has yet to be held accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Albanese, like her predecessors, has faced fierce opposition since taking office in May 2022. In December, the Israeli government’s Hasbara platform, ACT-IL, stepped up the attack on her when it launched a campaign discriminating against Albanese, calling for her removal from office; a similar petition on Change.org followed.
Earlier this month, the campaign escalated into a shitstorm of simultaneously published inflammatory articles and tweets. The recently reopened Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs (source in Hebrew) funds NGOs to indirectly spread Israeli narratives without any apparent Israeli government involvement. So does NGO Monitor, the organization also behind the fabrication of evidence against six Palestinian civil society organizations (see BIP Update #193) as well as the International Legal Forum (ILF).
Several hateful articles accusing Albanese of anti-Semitism were published between April 9 and 12 in the Times of Israel (which amplified the Change.org petition against Albanese), World Israel News, the Washington Free Beacon, Jewish News Syndicate, European Jewish Press, The Jerusalem Post, and The Foreign Desk. The articles coincided with a Twitter campaign pressuring UN Secretary General Guterres and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to fire Albanese.
The articles contained outright lies, accused Albanese of anti-Semitism without any evidence, and claimed she had “incited Hamas to violence” for misrepresenting a conference she had attended as one “sponsored by Hamas.” In addition, she had “endorsed anti-Jewish terrorism” because Albanese had affirmed the Palestinians’ right to self-defense.
Carinne Luck, International Director of the Diaspora Alliance, told BIP:
“The relentless campaign by the Israeli government and its supporters to undermine the application of Universal Human Rights and the mandate of the Special Rapporteur in the name of combating anti-Semitism not only harms Palestinians and Israelis, but also does nothing to protect the rights and security of Jewish people. Conflating anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel in this way only makes it harder to recognize anti-Semitism when it occurs.”
The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs joined the Ministry of Strategic Affairs on April 14 when Minister Amichai Chikli revealed that the Israeli government is actively involved in the campaign. Chikli is an openly racist politician who voted against his Jamina party under the previous Israeli government after it agreed to form a coalition with an Arab Palestinian party. Because of his racist and anti-democratic views, a large demonstration was organized against Chikli in Berlin, which preempted his attendance at the International Conference on Anti-Semitism. He flew back to Israel without attending the event (source in Hebrew).

Nicola Perugini, associate professor of international relations at the University of Edinburgh, told BIP:
“The attempt to justify the conquest and expropriation of land as an act of self-defense is a recurring feature of settler colonial regimes. Since the 1960 UN Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonized Countries and Peoples, the international community has agreed that colonialism must be ended and that colonized peoples have a right to resist. How can one defend what must be ended?”

Sid Shniad, founding member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, told BIP:
“The late Knesset member Shulamit Aloni explained that supporters of Israel often respond to criticism of Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians by claiming that those who voice such criticism are engaging in anti-Semitism. The most recent use of this tactic is evident in the current campaign against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Ms. Albanese is in good company, considering that several previous rapporteurs, as well as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have been subjected to the same smear campaign.”
Francesca Albanese is the first woman to serve as Special Rapporteur on Palestine. Her male predecessors, Richard Falk, John Dugaard, and the aforementioned Michael Lynk, were also sharply attacked by Israeli officials and pro-Israel groups – to that extent, this targeted and forceful attempt against Francesaca Albanese is a continuation of Israel’s previous strategy.
The attack on Albanese cannot be viewed in isolation from the misogyny prevalent in the Israeli far-right government. This is expressed in the low number of female ministers, in the government’s crackdown on women’s rights, which has alarmed feminist groups, and in the appointment of May Golan, a far-right activist who has publicly expressed his desire for leftist women to be “raped by ni***ers” (source in Hebrew).
The current hate campaign against Francesca Albanese coincides with the month of Ramadan, which is holy for Muslims, during which Israeli forces attacked worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, desecrating the mosque and violating Muslims’ religious freedom. Instead of responding to Special Rapporteur Albanese’s legitimate criticisms, the Israeli government is now trying to reframe tensions with Palestinians into a religious conflict and denounce as anti-Semites anyone who advocates for Palestinian rights.

Francesca Albanese told BIP:
“This is neither the first nor the last time that my mandate and my person will be attacked. An apartheid regime, as confirmed by the international legal framework, can persecute those individuals and organizations that oppose it. I must remain focused on my work and the millions of people oppressed or affected by the occupation, as well as the many who are threatened around the world for denouncing it.”

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Food or medicine? Gaza’s stark choice

Posted on April 15, 2023 by crew

Amal Bahar had to wait three months before she could see a doctor in the ear, nose and throat department at Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital.

Throughout that time, she had tinnitus.

“I have a constant tingling in my ear,” she said. “At times, the pain gets severe and turns into a headache.”

The pain, she noted, can be especially acute in the evenings.

As al-Shifa is a public institution, Amal was eventually able to see a doctor there free of charge. Yet because the hospital’s resources are limited and much in demand, it took a long time before she could get an appointment.

She would have been able to receive treatment sooner if she was better-off. Yet with both Amal, 50, and her husband Wael, 55, unemployed, she cannot afford the bills.

The couple rely on disability benefits that Wael receives from the Palestinian Authority. It amounts to approximately $110 per month.

He had an accident at a building site where he was working two years ago. His right leg has been badly damaged as a result.

Amal would have to pay about $22 for a consultation with a specialist in a private clinic. She also needs to buy medicine from pharmacies, which can set her back around $40 a week.

Their dire economic circumstances have meant that Wael, Amal and their four sons go without many types of food. They have not eaten meat for the past 18 months.

“Poverty is destroying my family,” Amal said. “And my illness and all the stress in my life are destroying my health.”

The full blockade of Gaza – imposed by Israel since 2007 – has caused major problems for the healthcare system.

Stocks of essential medicines have long been seriously depleted.

And those drugs which are available can be “expensive compared to neighboring countries,” noted Hussam al-Ladgha, a local pharmacist. Importing medicines from Israel and Egypt is onerous and costly, he explained.

Battle for food

Muhammad Salem, 49, has chronic back pain. Over the past seven months, he has been waiting for an operation.

He has been recommended a number of medicines to relieve his condition. The total bill for the medicines is more than $20 per week.

Unemployed for the past seven years, Salem cannot afford that amount.

He also cannot pay the fees charged by many doctors. While he can see doctors in public hospitals free of charge, they tend to be overworked.

On occasions, he has arrived at the hospital for appointments in the early morning but had to wait until the afternoon before a doctor could see him.

“I am in bad pain every day,” he said. “And I find it hard to sleep. I am anxious all the time.”

Victims of Israel’s brutality frequently have to make do with inadequate treatment.

Muhammad Diab, now aged 34, was shot in his left leg by an Israeli sniper in May 2018. He was participating in the Great March of Return – protests to demand that Palestinians be allowed to realize their basic human rights.

Diab has undergone a series of operations. He has encountered various complications, including an infection in his leg.

Requiring a knee replacement, he ought to be seeing doctors regularly. Yet because he cannot afford to pay medical fees, he is only able to have examinations once every two months.

The painkillers he receives do not provide sufficient relief, he said.

“I am unemployed and have three children,” he said. “Before my injury [in 2018], I was a construction worker. Today, I am wounded and poor, relying on help from my brothers. I cannot pay for the treatment that I need.”

According to the latest official data, approximately 44 percent of people aged 15 years or older in Gaza are unemployed. About 80 percent of Gaza’s two million people depend on humanitarian aid.

Dr. Shawqi al-Baba, an orthopedic surgeon, noted that many people in Gaza are not having medical issues properly checked as they cannot pay fees. Health problems are known to worsen as a result.

“For the poor in Gaza, going to a doctor is often the last resort,” he said. “The main struggle here is for food.”

Zuhair Saad, 50, echoes that view. He has diabetes and high blood pressure yet seldom visits a doctor.

“I have been unemployed for 10 years and I have three unemployed sons,” he said. “For the poor in Gaza, going to clinics and buying medicines are additional strains. We face a daily battle to find food.”

Ola Mousa is an artist and writer from Gaza.

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Israel’s Ban on Travel Deprives Gaza’s Patients of Treatment

Posted on April 9, 2023 by crew

A recent report by the World Health Organisation WHO has revealed that Israel deprived thousand of Palestinian patients in Gaza of their right to travel for treatment.

The WHO report pointed out that 20,295 Palestinian patients in Gaza submitted applications for travel in 2022 to receive treatment in hospitals in Jerusalem, West Bank, and ‘Israel’.

However, Israeli occupation authorities rejected 33% of the applications, depriving nearly 6,700 patients of traveling for treatment either by direct rejection or delay.

In addition, the report explained that 29% of the applications were submitted for children, 19% for patients over 60, 35% for cancer patients, and 47% for female patients.

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What does it look like to live in Gaza now?

Posted on April 9, 2023 by crew

Like all people around the globe, Gaza residents wish to live safely and securely within their homes. However, from time to time, they come under heavy Israeli bombardment, killing and wounding thousands, demolishing their homes, playgrounds, schools, mosques, and even water pipes and electricity grids.

On Thursday evening, the Israeli security cabinet launched a meeting to discuss what to do in response to a barrage of rockets launched towards Israel from south Lebanon. During the meeting, Hebrew mass media leaked information stating that the cabinet had decided to attack the besieged Gaza Strip in response to rockets launched from Lebanon.

Before the end of the cabinet’s meeting, the Israeli occupation army started a round of heavy bombardment across the coastal enclave, targeting “Hamas arms factories” and “military bases”. This is the pretext that the Israeli occupation has always used to justify its attacks on Gaza.

Israel launches airstrikes in Lebanon, Gaza - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]

Israel launches airstrikes in Lebanon, Gaza – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]

The most complicated problem is that after carrying out many airstrikes in every corner of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation cabinet said it would not stop its offensive. Until then, no human casualties had been reported, but this news turned the situation from bad to worse.

Gaza residents, who had already been traumatised by the heavy Israeli bombardment, started to pack their bags, ready to move from their homes. To where? They do not know! At this moment, scared Gaza residents live in a state of fear on account of their previous traumatic experiences of Israeli offensives causing the killing and wounding of thousands and turning hundreds of thousands homeless.

READ: Israel blames Hamas for multiple rockets launched from Lebanon

As the ongoing bombardment continues – renewed every 20 to 30 minutes – at the same time, the Israeli occupation army has started to reinforce its military preparations near Gaza. Gaza residents became certain they were heading towards dark days in which every family must be ready to offer a martyr or a wounded.

Out of their worries and fears, the elderly in Gaza cannot sleep, nor can children, because of the trauma caused by the continuous Israeli bombardment.

Before the Fajr prayer, children are woken to have their Sohour. You will not find them now on their beds, but instead, surrounding their mothers, scared and crying. They refuse to even eat a small crumb of food or drink a sip of water. However, they need to be persuaded to have something to eat as they will be fasting for around 14 hours.

You can try to push them to have three dates each, but when they want to mark their fast with Fajr prayer, they hear the sound of a huge explosion. They find that this was an Israeli airstrike that damaged all the windows and doors of their house as the Israeli airstrike hit an empty area adjacent to it.

Then, as they had spent the night awake, you expect they might go to bed as early as possible following the performance of the Fajr prayer. However, they find it impossible due to the Israeli bombardment that started in the middle of the night and would continue.

For me, the most problematic of all, is that I do not know when or how this will end. Like my wife and children, I am afraid, but I must pretend I am strong to keep life going on, wishing that the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip stops.

READ: UN peacekeeping forces urge calm as Israel strikes Lebanon, Gaza

Military Israeli Spokesperson Daniel Hagari confirmed that the Israeli Air Force struck over ten targets in Gaza, using around 50 tonnes of munitions. This came in response to renewed rocket attacks on the south.

At the same time, the Israel Defence Forces are bolstering the Southern and Northern Command with additional infantry and artillery forces, Hagari wrote on Twitter. He said the decision to bolster forces was made following a recent assessment: “To strengthen defences for possible scenarios.”

My children do not know this. I did my best to persuade them to go to bed as the offensive ended, and I am sure they will blame me when they wake up after having enough sleep or after hearing the sounds of explosions. However, I am unable to go to bed because I know that bolstering ground forces means a real preparation for a major offensive on the strip.

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Auguri di BUONA PASQUA con un video terribile che non possiamo assolutamente fare a meno di condividere per la repressione brutale e per una insolita scommessa.

Posted on April 9, 2023 by crew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdEmhX4UlTA

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Access to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque ‘a dream’ for Palestinians in Gaza

Posted on March 30, 2023 by crew

Speaking to The New Arab, human rights activists and locals said that “such illegal restrictions have banned at least three Palestinian generations from their right to visit Al-Aqsa and perform their prayers inside it.”

In a single day, at least 10,000 applications were submitted, while the occupation will allow only 800 people to travel to Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan, according to a Palestinian official in Ramallah. [Getty]

Due to an Israeli ban, accessing occupied Jerusalem and praying in Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest Islamic sites in the world, continues to be a fantasy for the majority of Gaza‘s population.

Since the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada (uprising) in 1987, Israel set restrictions on Palestinians in Gaza from access to Jerusalem, further strengthening restrictions after the launch of the second intifada in 2000.

Based on the Israeli incapacitating requirements, only men aged 55 years and over and women aged 50 and over can get exceptional permissions to reach Jerusalem and pray in Al-Aqsa.

Speaking to The New Arab, human rights activists and locals said that “such illegal restrictions have banned at least three Palestinian generations from their right to visit Al-Aqsa and perform their prayers inside it.”

Ameer al-Nakhala, a Gaza-based man in his 20s, expressed sadness as he does not have any hope to access Al-Aqsa, which most foreigners can do.

“I only heard from my parents and grandfather about Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa and most of the cities in the West Bank, but I have never visited them before as Israel deprives the young people of reaching our occupied territories,” he said to TNA.

“It is illegal to live in the same occupied territories but cannot move freely between our provinces,” he said, noting that he can only watch the prayer in Al-Aqsa via televised events, especially during Ramadan and Fridays.

“I heard that Israel will allow Gazans to pray in Jerusalem, but once I read its requirements, I believe that I have to wait for at least three decades to meet some of its conditions,” he added.

Shady Safi, from Khan Younis city in southern Gaza, shared similar sentiments. He believed that travelling to any Arab or European country would be easier than reaching Jerusalem.

“Israel knows very well that we love Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa as a basic holy place for us as Muslims and Palestinians and it knows that if we reach there we will never leave anymore,” the 30-year-old father of two said to TNA.

“For years, Israel is betting on making the new generations forget the Holy Lands and our rights to regain them and establish our independent state,” he opined.

“However,” according to Safi, “we are keeping our history, and all the Israeli restrictions and procedures will not prevent us from reaching Jerusalem someday. “

Earlier this week, the Israeli authorities claimed that it will allow hundreds of Gazans, who meet its requirements, to head to Jerusalem to pray in the Al-Aqsa mosque.

As a result, the Palestinian Civil affairs declared that it is ready to receive the applications from the residents in Gaza to send them to Israeli intelligence, which will issue the final approvals.

In a single day, at least 10,000 applications were submitted while the occupation will allow only 800 people to travel to Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan, according to a Palestinian official in Ramallah, who preferred anonymity.

Amina Nassar, a Gaza-based woman, was among those who applied their information to be allowed to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque. However, she was not sure she’ll achieve the dream she sought for more than 23 years.

“I hope to pray in our holy Mosque,” the 59-year-old mother of eight told TNA. “I am afraid to pass away before reaching Jerusalem.”

“The last time I prayed in Al-Aqsa was in 1986, and then all my attempts to visit Jerusalem failed,” she added.

In a press statement sent to TNA, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said, “The Israeli occupation practices a racist policy that prevents the Muslims of the Gaza Strip from exercising their right to freedom of worship by visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

“The recent Israeli decision to allow only about 800 elderly people to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque represents a continuation in denying Gazans the right to access places of worship,” Fadel al-Muzaini, a director at the PCHR, told TNA.

“Allowing a small number of worshipers from Gaza to reach Jerusalem is considered a falsification of reality and an attempt to deceive the international community,” al-Muzaini said. “Jews are allowed by Israel to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

“Freedom of worship is a right guaranteed by international human rights law, and it must be available to all individuals and not to a specific number,” he stressed.

He condemned the international community for not pressuring Israel to stop its violations against the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

 

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Confronting Energy Poverty in Gaza

Posted on March 29, 2023 by crew

Asmaa Abu Mezied

Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from a worsening energy crisis due to the Israeli regime’s ongoing siege. As a result, they have adopted different coping strategies, including solar energy technology to offset electricity shortages. Al-Shabaka policy analyst and 2022 Visiting Gaza Fellow Asmaa Abu Mezied examines this reality, and offers recommendations for Palestinian leadership and stakeholders to promote Palestinian economic self-determination in Gaza.

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