Rhonda's Rodent Revival

So there is a joke about this man whose life is falling apart (and one can elaborate at length) and he’s sitting at his desk with a gun in his mouth, and he hears a little voice that says, “cheer up.  Things could be worse.”  So he cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.

2 weeks ago Sheri and I did a 4-day fast in solidarity with people in Gaza.  We meant to do lots of publicity, but we didn’t really, though we had some good conversations with people.

This is just one account from Gaza about the dire humanitarian situation before Israel’s most recent assault.

From the father of a friend of a friend.

 November 2008

Anyone who is monitoring the quality of life in the Gaza Strip, which has been living under a tightened 18-month siege, will be shocked by the catastrophic humanitarian situation. Unemployment rate has risen to 80% and the majority of the population is living far below the poverty line with one or two dollars a day. As a concerned medical professional, I would like to draw your attention to some harsh aspects of life for the civilian population in Gaza:

 First: There are tremendous health problems, which threaten people with either death or life-long disability. There is a severe shortage in medicine and medical equipment. Hospital maintenance and upgrades for X-Ray rooms, labs, pharmacies and operating rooms are desperately in need of attention. People with chronic and serious illnesses such as cancer or diabetes do not stand a chance for recovery or receiving the appropriate treatment. The number of deaths due to inability to receive medical treatment is 257 since June of 2007. Many seniors and children with chronic illnesses such as two-year old Said Al-Ayidy, three-month old Hala Zannoun, fifteen-year old Rawan Nassar and numerous others died because they were denied travel permits for treatment and were simply left to die.

  Hospitals in Gaza are anything but what hospitals should look like. Daily power cuts for long hours have caused immense suffering, especially to patients whose lives depend on medical machinery. Hospitals used gas-powered generators as substitutes. Yet, due to the lack of gas and diesel, the generators no longer served their purpose and the problem escalated.  Sadly, the only opportunity that patients with serious diseases have is to be transferred either to Egypt or Israel. Often, it is extremely complicated and near to impossible to obtain permission to be transferred to either country. Many are barred from even considering treatment outside of Gaza except for a few urgent cases. Many patients have died while waiting for the official documents to be issued; others have died on their way to Israel or Egypt. Hospitals have been turned into places where patients sleep for several days without any healing or proper treatment due to the absence of drugs and medical equipment. Such supplies are not allowed to cross into Gaza from the commercial border points due to Israeli closure of such borders.  

Second: We face another serious problem: sewage and pollution. We live in a densely populated area. The people of Gaza live in poor shanty towns, refugee camps, and crowded neighborhoods, which share fragile and inadequate infrastructure. Lack of fuel supply stops the water pumps that deal with the treatment and sanitation of sewage water. The only solution that the city has is to drain the sewer water into the Mediterranean. As a result, the beaches have been polluted and the fishing season has been significantly damaged.

On rainy winter days, the streets and homes are flooded with water and the already bumpy and unpaved roads become even worse. Sewer pipes often burst and get damaged due to inadequate infrastructure and lack of maintenance and repair. Dirty and toxic water is flooding out from broken pipes into streets and homes. In some refugee camps, the floods were so severe that people were forced to assemble primitive boats and flow over the water. In Jabalia refugee camp, where I work as a physician in a United Nations clinic, people have increasingly reported illnesses and sickness due to exposure to toxic air and chemical wastes.

Water has been flooding our backyard for days. The city public works department is unable to fix the problem because there are no construction materials to replace the damaged utilities. Heavy machinery does not have fuel to operate. We cannot open any windows and we are breathing toxic waste for days until sunny days come around to dry out everything. Streets are covered with mud, pebbles and sharp stones that are hazardous. The city departments are unable to fix any problems because they simply do not have any resources.

Finally, there are numerous problems that face our impoverished war-torn and isolated society, especially our damaged and disabled infrastructures. I did not mention the numerous shortages in food, goods and services, cash and other basic needs because I wanted to point out the health issues, which I am most familiar with as a medical professional. There is a need for urgent help from the international community. Former United States President Jimmy Carter described the siege that Gaza is enduring as a “crime against human rights.”

Can you imagine living like this?

 Sincerely
F.M.A (Gaza City, Palestine)  U.N. Medical Officer

And now.  Day 6 of Israel’s assault by air, sea and land, and Israel is massing troops along the border with Gaza and talking about invasion.  Numbers vary based on the source, but around 400 Palestinians killed, 2,000 injured, and 4 Israelis killed.  Again, depending on the source, one quarter to one third of Palestinians killed are civilians.  Mosques destroyed, 100 homes destroyed and thousands damaged.  Today Israel targeted and killed Nizzar Rayyan, a leader in Hamas, killing at least 8 civilians, including several of Rayyan’s wives and children in the process.  

Lots of things in this world are complicated.  There are times that people have acted on the best information and with the best motives and made situations worse.  And I surely don’t know what the best resolution of the Palestine/Israel question is.  One state?  Two states?, etc, etc.  But the suffering in Gaza is created by Israel, and being re-created every day.  People in Gaza were hungry, unable to get sufficient medical care, without electricity and clean water because Israel refused to let necessary humanitarian aid into Gaza.  People are being killed and injured, and the already fragile infrastructure is being destroyed, by Israeli missile strikes.  

So pressure must be put on Israel to stop this horror.  And those of us who live in the United States must pressure our government to stop funding and supporting it.  Every time I hear people (organizations, governments) calling for ‘an end to violence on both sides’ I want to scream? vomit? break things?  I’m not sure.  

According to the BBC, in 2007, 783 rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel, and 2 Israelis were killed by rockets.  And between 2000 and Jan. 2008, a total of 13 Israelis have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza.  Here is the link to that article:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3702088.stm.  

13 Israelis killed by rockets in 7 years, compared to 400 residents of Gaza killed in the last 6 days.  All life is valuable, every death by violence is a tragedy, but to talk about ‘both sides’ as if either power or suffering were equal is ridiculous.  

It is late.  I am not making such good sense.  But here is a closing thought.  In the United States, we can’t or won’t find the money to rebuild our own crumbling infrastructure or prevent people from being foreclosed on.  Yet we find the money to support Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure and civilian homes, not to mention Israel’s murder of Gaza’s residents.  

Some good sources of info:

http://www.gazatoday.blogspot.com/

http://electronicintifada.net/

http://www.alternet.org/audits/113143/israel%27s_%27crime_against_humanity%27/