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Contents
Dear Friends,
We just received the following update on the current crisis in Gaza from the Department of Services to Palestinian Refugees, a long-time KAIROS partner in the West Bank and Gaza. DSPR partners the world over are urged to press their governments to push for a diplomatic solution to resolve this episode of violence. A diplomatic solution would spare the life of the kidnapped Israeli soldier and countless civilian lives. It would also preserve what is left of the Palestinian infrastructure.
Please take a moment to phone or send a letter to your local MP calling on Canada to support diplomatic efforts to end the violence.
Please be sure to send a copy of your letter to Hanadi Loubani, Middle East Partnerships Program ( hloubani ).
THANK YOU
Excerpts of an Update from Gaza
According to UPI, the Israeli army’s operation "Summer Rains" kicked off early Wednesday morning, June 28, 2006, with air raids that targeted Gaza Strip’s infrastructure, including the main power plant in central Gaza, which supplies most of the region with electricity, and which was completely destroyed and set ablaze, plunging Gaza City and the strip's central and southern sectors into darkness. As a result water shortages are experienced across wide areas of the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes also fired rockets at two bridges, including the one that links Gaza City with the central and southern provinces, destroying them completely and inflicting extensive material damage to nearby properties.
In a phone conversation with our colleague Executive Director of DSPR Gaza, Mr. Constantine Dabbagh spoke of a situation that is becoming slowly but surely a hopeless one. Gaza’s streets are deserted and people are finding it difficult to go about performing their daily chores. This paralysis touches the lives of hundreds of Palestinians stranded on the Rafah Crossing with Egypt which was closed since the European monitors stationed there, as part of the disengagement plan mediated by no other than US Secretary of State, could not reach the area through an Israeli crossing. Mr. Dabbagh’s son-in-law, Munir, is an UNRWA maintenance engineer and he was in Egypt together with other UNRWA employees for work purposes. They cannot return to Gaza because of the closure of the Rafah Crossing. This is just one story but what is particularly worrisome relates to the conditions of scores of Palestinians stranded at the Crossing who need immediate medical attention and who are without any recourse. Some food provisions were given to the hundreds stranded by the Arab and Egyptian Medical Associations in Cairo but if the closing continues, it is likely that a major emergency situation could be at hand. There is also fear that with the closing of the Karni Commercial Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, supplies of food and energy will soon be depleted particularly flour, rice, gasoline and other essential commodities. For the Gaza Strip’s Palestinians, the only solace in the current situation, if this is really a solace, is that they have plenty of summer fruit produce as long as they can pick it and use it before it perishes. Commerce in the Gaza Strip stands at a standstill as hundreds of Palestinian merchants are prevented from leaving the area and as Palestinian fishermen are prohibited from sailing off the Mediterranean coast …
Clearly, the situation is heading towards complete destruction of what remained of the Palestinian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. The call to a diplomatic solution to the episode of the kidnapped Israeli soldier was not heeded; even Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, Abu Mazen, the President of the Palestinian National Authority, cannot leave Gaza where he is trying ceaselessly until this moment to bring about a peaceful resolution to the episode. Israel’s military operation sent out the message that there is no longer interest in diplomatic efforts among Israeli leaders. The Israeli military moves that destroy basic electricity and water infrastructure, among other services, together with arrests of Palestinian government and parliamentarian figures are steps that cannot be accepted on legal or moral grounds.
Operation “Summer Rains” in a land where there is no summer rain brings to mind the wishful thinking of some in Israel that the military operation would bring a turnabout not only in seasons but also in the chances of freeing the kidnapped soldier. The military solutions are never lasting solutions and this is why there must be insistence by all on a negotiated settlement between Palestinians and Israelis to bring to an end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and to create a viable Palestinian state next door to Israel that would lead to closing the ceaseless cycle of violence that has plagued our two peoples for long. As the Israeli forces were encircling and raiding Gaza, Palestinian factions and political groups agreed on the formation of a national unity government as part of the subscription to the “Palestinian Prisoners’ Document” that calls among other things on the use of negotiation as a means to end the occupation and that implicitly recognizes Israel’s right to exist.
DSPR partners the world over are urged to press on their governments and various constituencies the dangerous situation in which the Gaza Strip and the whole Palestinian people find themselves today. The insistence on diplomatic means to resolve this episode is of vital interest to the children and people of Palestine. A diplomatic solution would spare not only the lives of the kidnapped soldier and of countless others but would preserve what is left of the Palestinian infrastructure...
The Department of Services to Palestinian Refugees
Middle East Council of Churches
June 29, 2006
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