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News from the Region

Human-made Humanitarian Crisis in Palestine

By AFSC Chicago Middle East Program Staff

"Please save my life. I have three boys and four girls. If you do not want to save my life for me, save it for my children." The speaker was Ahmed Ayad, 42, a kidney dialysis patient in a hospital in Gaza City.1  His life is in danger because the hospital cut back his treatment as it runs out of dialysis supplies. Hospitals in the occupied territories also have been forced to dilute medicines for cancer patients. Some patients have already died.

Ayad, along with some 3.5 million other Palestinians, is suffering a human-made humanitarian crisis brought about by economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority (PA) imposed by Israel, the United States, the European Union and other nations.

Ayad, along with some 3.5 million other Palestinians, is suffering a human-made humanitarian crisis brought about by economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority (PA) imposed by Israel, the United States, the European Union and other nations.

In recent years, the Palestinian economy has been sustained by foreign aid, and taxes collected for the Palestinian Authority by Israel. Following the January, 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections several donor nations, including the United States, cut off international aid to the PA in an attempt to isolate the Hamas-led legislature. In addition to cutting off more than $400 million in planned aid to the PA, the U.S. also demanded that the PA return $50 million in aid that had already been granted for reconstruction projects. In addition, the State Department has restricted its officials from having any contact with PA officials under the authority of the Prime Minister’s office or any ministry headed by a member of Hamas. Similarly, the Treasury Department has increased the PA’s isolation by labeling the entire PA a “terrorist entity” which outlaws “transactions with the Palestinian Authority unless authorized, and may not transfer, pay, withdraw, export or otherwise deal in any assets in which the Palestinian Authority has an interest.2 This policy has had the affect of cutting off all cash transfers to PA bank accounts as international banks have been warned by the U.S. government that cash transfers constitute “assistance to Hamas”.3 These policies have led many to believe that the U.S. aims for a “regime change” where Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party regains control of Palestinian legislature.

The PA’s financial crisis has also been exacerbated by Israel’s refusal to transfer Palestinian tax revenues. In 1994 Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) negotiated the Paris Protocols to establish interim economic relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as part of the Oslo Accords. As part of this agreement Israel was to collect an import tax on goods headed to the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) and Gaza on behalf of the PA. This tax revenue amounts to around $60 million a month, and in 2005 accounted for two-thirds of the PA’s total revenue.4 Since the January elections, Israel has refused to transfer these funds, which is clear breach of the Paris Protocol agreement. Unlike international humanitarian aid which is given at the discretion of the donor state, these tax revenues are not Israeli donations to the PA, but tax revenue that Israel agreed to transfer as an administrative duty. This tax revenue would help the PA maintain its basic operation even in the absence of additional international aid.  

The current crisis caused by the funds embargo, has only added to the ongoing Palestinian humanitarian crisis of the last half-century. This crisis is rooted in the continuing Israeli occupation, which severely restricts Palestinian freedom of movement, and has led to the steady loss of Palestinian land and livelihood. Israeli restrictions such as the Separation Wall, checkpoints, and work permits have made it nearly impossible for Palestinians to work on a regular basis and this has in turn has weakened the Palestinian economy and increased poverty. Some 60 percent of Palestinians had lower incomes in 2005 than in 2000, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. According to the World Bank, if the current financial crisis continues the Palestinian economy will shrink by 27% in 2006; and by 2008 74% of Palestinians will be living below the poverty line and 47% will be unemployed. 5

Around 160,000 Palestinian Authority government workers—including the doctors treating Ayad--have not been paid since March because of the economic sanctions. These salaries previously supported nearly a million people, a quarter of the Palestinian population. The jobs sustained the health, education and civil service infrastructures which are now close to collapse. 

For the unpaid workers, existence is becoming precarious. Take, for example, the Mansour family, profiled by the BBC. Hussein Mansour, 39, and his wife, Ibtisam, 30, and their two young children live in Nablus. He’s a teacher; she’s a nurse. Neither has been paid for months. "There are lots of things we don't buy," says Ibtisam Mansour. "We're living on the very basics. We had been trying to plan for a better future for our kids. We can't do that."6

Merchants throughout Palestine have extended credit to their strapped customers, but they, too, are at the breaking point. Market owners like Hatem Abu Dalal, interviewed in an article for the Electronic Intifada website, are increasingly unable to pay their sellers. Dalal can now only afford to pay the salaries of three of his former nine employees. He noted that, “if conditions continue like this, I'll have to close my shop and go bankrupt within two months time.”7

Another indication of how desperate the situation is: a reported sharp rise in Palestinian children sent to Israel to beg, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post. 8

A group of Israeli physicians, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, expressed  “profound concern” at the aid cutoff’s effects on health care. “Millions of people who depend on the services provided by this (Palestinian medical) system will face the danger of long-term injury to their health. Gravely ill patients will face the immediate danger of death. The State of Israel … will be required to fill the vacuum that will emerge. This is Israel’s obligation under international law; this is a direct consequence of its actions and of its complete control over the Palestinians’ ability to run their own lives.”9

References

1. Chris McGreal, “Patients die as doctors run out of drugs to treat them.” The Guardian, Wednesday May 10, 2006.

2. http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/actions
/20060412.shtml

3. Akiva Elder, “U.S. thwarting donor states' bids to send funds to Palestinians.” Ha’aretz, Wednesday April 5, 2006.

4. Geoffrey Aronson, Report: Financing the Palestinian Authority, May 25, 2006. Available at http://www.fmep.org/analysis/articles/financing
_the_palestinian_authority.html

5. Reuters, “World Bank Says Underestimated Depth of Palestinian Crises,” Haaretz.com, May 8, 2006.

6. Martin Patience, “West Bank family tells of crisis,” May 24, 2006.

7. Rami Almeghari, “Empty Pockets, Growling Stomachs in Gaza,” The Electronic Intifada, 21 April 2006.

8. Rafael D. Frankel, PA health care teeters on total collapse, The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, May 9, 2006 r

9. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Report: Collapse of the Palestinian Health System, May 9, 2006

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