Enough Is Enough!
International law prohibits inflicting punishment on innocent civilians. Human right must be respected by all, and in all circumstances. That is why the international community is right to seek to investigate the recent assault on Jenin, argues Mary Robinson, The UN High Commissione for Human Rights. Jenin Massacre, along with Gaza, Qibia, Qana and tens of others will remain a source of unrest and instability for the occupation, a shame and disgrace for the entire world community, which has been inefficent in securing a rational and just peaceful solution as to end for good the Israeli brutality and occupation of June 4, 1967 Arab territorie
According to a report prepared by United Nations agencies in the occupied Palestinian Territory, the humanitarian and development effects of the two waves of the Israeli incursions were as follows: (a) A total of 497 Palestinians were killed in the course of the Israeli reoccupation of Palestinian area A from 1 March to 7 May 2002 and in the immediate aftermath; (b) Palestinian health authorities and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported approximately 1,447 wounded with some 538 live-ammunition injuries (for the same period); (c) Round-the-clock curfews were imposed in cities, refugee camps, towns and villages affecting an estimated 1 million persons; over 600,000 of them remained under a one-week curfew, while 220,000 urban residents lived under curfew regimes for a longer duration and without vital supplies and access to first aid; (d) Severe internal and external closures continue to paralyze normal economic activity, and movement of persons and goods throughout the West Bank; in the Gaza Strip, the unprecedented 38-day-long internal closures divided the Strip into three intermittently isolated areas; (e) Protracted curfews, compounded by severe restrictions on commercial circulation of supplies, rendered the food security situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory precarious: over 630,000 persons or roughly 20 per cent of the resident population were considered food security vulnerable; (f) Food deficit was increasingly observed in various regions of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Gaza food market being particularly distorted. Restrictions on food imports resulted in a mild increase in the overall food price level in the West Bank and in a considerable rise (up to 25-30%) of prices for staple commodities in the Gaza Strip; (g) Over 2,800 refugee housing units were damaged and 878 HOMEs were demolished or destroyed during the reporting period, leaving more than 17,000 people HOMEless or in need of shelter rehabilitation; (h) Non-refugee housing in Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jenin town and Tulkarm and a number of surrounding villages sustained damage ranging from minor to structural; (i) students in eight West Bank districts were prevented from attending school. It is estimated that, during the reporting period, some 11,000 classes were missed and 55,000 teaching sessions were lost; (j) Fifty Palestinian schools were damaged by Israeli military action, of which 11 were totally destroyed, 9 were vandalized, 15 used as military outposts and another 15 as mass arrest and detention centers.
Even before the recent Israeli military operation, economic and social conditions in the West Bank and Gaza were in a state of crisis. According to an assessment by the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator, the 18 months of confrontations and restrictions on movement prior to March and April, 2002 had witnessed a more than 20 per cent reduction in domestic production levels, unprecedented levels of unemployment, a 30 per cent decline in per capita income and a more than doubling of the poverty rate, to some 45 per cent of the Palestinian population. While it is difficult to ascertain with precision the magnitude of the socio-economic effects of the incursions, available preliminary information indicates a sharp intensification of the hardships faced by the population. That information suggests that the principal economic result has been a near-complete cessation of all productive activity in the main West Bank centers of manufacturing, construction, commerce and private and public services. Activities in those centers account for at least 75 per cent of the value of goods and services produced in the West Bank. The production stoppage has imposed immediate income losses on employees and owners of businesses, as well as losses in tax revenues for the Palestinian Authority. In addition, suppliers and buyers in the urban areas directly affected have close economic links to rural areas; the isolation of the former has significant negative effects on the latter. This is also true of the relationship between businesses in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In addition to the inability of households to access medical, educational or other services during Operation Defensive Shield, people have been separated from their means of income. This has resulted in lost opportunities to earn income, further compressing household income and savings and exacerbating the severe decline in living levels of the last 18 months. As a result, the West Bank will witness even higher levels of poverty in the short- to medium-term. According to the World Bank, reconstruction costs for physical and institutional damage to Palestinian Authority civilian infrastructure resulting from the incursions in the West Bank in March and April 2002 would total US$ 361 million.
With this in mind, is it wise and just to wait and watch the slaughter of the last Palestinian in the occupied territories? To what extent unbalanced reports and words of condemnation and demonstrations could help to feed the hungry children of Palestine or to find job opportunities for the jobless, of whom many are indiscriminately led on a daily basis to the Israeli notorious detention centers and prisons, if not to the death lists. The world once stood united in defeating the Nazis of the past Century; will take long before the other side would realize that enough is enough! The door is still open, though ajar considering the ongoing Israeli anti-peace practices; Arabs Initiative for Peace remains the best option in the interest of every human every where!
BY
Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim
Abdo88@ureach.com