http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=5&datee=3/13/01&id=113144
Starvation at the Palestinian door
Prolonged closure is having a devastating effect on the territories,
charges the Red Cross.
By Joseph Algazy
The roadblocks, prolonged encirclements and restrictions on movement
that the IDF is currently imposing in the Palestinian territories is
having a seriously adverse effect on the general population, in three
areas in particular: economy, health and education, Rene Kosirnik, the
head of the Red Cross delegation to Israel, has told Ha'aretz. He
noted that until now the traditional family solidarity and the
Palestinian welfare services had prevented actual starvation, "But if
the current situation persists, this could happen to the most
destitute families.".The International Red Cross has recently voiced
its concerns about the situation in the territories publicly, more so
than in the past. Its representatives in Tel Aviv and Geneva are
pointing an accusatory finger at the Israeli authorities, especially
the Israel Defense Forces. They have defined the manner in which the
IDF has dealt with the Intifada as "restrictive, physical,
administrative and systematic steps, and collective punishment which
severely violates international humanitarian law, which requires that
the occupying power ensure that the occupied population continue to
live, as far as possible, in a normal manner, as during peacetime."
The head of the Red Cross delegation told Ha'aretz that the Red Cross
representatives visiting last week in the area of the Sudra village
near Ramallah discovered that blocking off the only road in the area
caused many villages to be cut off. Already last Wednesday, there was
a problem in providing medical assistance when a Palestinian Red
Crescent ambulance was unable to drive through. While the residents
succeeded in providing the ambulance with a temporary road, the IDF
later dug that road up too.
Another area suffering from being cut off and from the prolonged
closure is the coastal strip in Al-Mouazi in Gaza, which is surrounded
by the sea, the Egyptian border and a group of settlements. According
to Kosirnik, the IDF will not allow a single Palestinian car out of
there. There was a time when even the Red Cross was only able to reach
the area on foot.
Discussing the negative economic impact on the population, Kosirnik
noted that people have difficulty or are unable to reach their places
of work. There is no way of knowing if a particular road will be open
or closed to Palestinian traffic. A one-way trip from Nablus to
Ramallah that took 45 minutes before the current Intifada now takes
two or three hours, if it is at all possible.
Farmers are unable to work remote fields or market their produce, and
sometimes they are forced to walk to market, carrying their produce on
their backs. The Israel market is closed to them and the internal
Palestinian market is very weak because of the general lack of income.
People have been forced to use up their reserves. The situation is
growing increasingly worse, and could even lead to starvation.
The small amount of material assistance recently extended by the Red
Cross to besieged villages has three goals: to help those in need, to
remain in contact with the suffering population, and to send a message
to the Israeli authorities concerning the existence of a serious
problem. Ambulances encounter difficulties at roadblocks when
transferring patients, doctors, nurses and medical equipment. Teachers
are unable to reach schools located outside their own towns or
villages. High school and university students miss school days. The
roads have become dangerous because of acts of violence from both
sides.
Kosirnik noted that according to international law, as the occupying
force, Israel may restrict the movement of the civilian population on
condition that the restriction is required for military reasons for a
very limited period, that it does not adversely affect the day-to-day
lives of the civilian population and does not represent collective
punishment. The military and policing steps must be adapted to the
circumstances.
The high number and continuing casualties indicate a dramatic
escalation in the use of force by the IDF towards the civilian
Palestinian population. Assassinations are absolutely forbidden. If it
is necessary from a military or police aspect to take someone
prisoner, it is only permitted to arrest him.
"It is clear that some of the reasons of violence cannot be explained
or justified as a military necessity, for example a person killed in
his bed, at the entrance to his home, in his field or car."
Already in the second month of the Intifada, last November, the Red
Cross determined that the presence of the Israeli settlements in the
territories was impacting harshly on the general Palestinian
population and is contrary to the fourth Geneva Conference.
The Red Cross has so far been cautious not to define certain actions
by the IDF and Israel as "war crimes" because it does not consider
itself a judging agency. Human rights organizations and international
media, on the other hand, have accused the IDF of committing war
crimes. The killing of a civilian or the transfer of a civilian
population by the occupying force to the occupied territory - in other
words the settlements - are defined as war crimes. In their view, a
considerable proportion of the steps taken by the IDF in the
territories - such as the confiscation of Palestinian land, the paving
of bypass roads, restrictions of Palestinian traffic in the areas near
the settlements - are not being carried out by the IDF to protect
itself, but rather to protect the settlements. The settlements and the
settlers are a political problem that the Israeli authorities are
trying to solve by using military means, they say.
The head of the Red Cross delegation noted that his organization
condemns all attacks against civilians in Israel, such as the recent
terror bombing in Netanya, considering them "terrorist actions which
are absolutely and unconditionally forbidden," just as it condemns
indiscriminate collective punishment of the Palestinian population.
Kosirnik also complained about the problem of visits by relatives of
prisoners that live on the West Bank (not Gaza) in Israeli prisons,
which were stopped at the beginning of the Intifada. After they were
renewed three weeks ago, they were again halted by the Red Cross
because in Kosirnik's view "the conditions of passage were
unbearable." Today negotiations are being conducted to find a solution
to this humanitarian problem.
Last week Kosirnik met with the families of the Israeli soldiers being
held by the Hezbollah. "The families expressed their concern,
suffering, frustration and hopes," he related, "and I told them in
response that the Red Cross maintained frequent contact with the
Lebanese government and the Hezbollah in the matter concerning their
loved ones."
During the conversation, he told the families that Red Cross
representatives visit Lebanese prisoners held in Israel, except for
two: Mustafa Dirani and Sheikh Abd al Karim Obeid
