Occupied Lives: No place to call home

Afaf Abu Daher in her tent in Qarara.

Somewhere between 8-10 January 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, Israeli forces bulldozed and destroyed the Abu Daher family’s home and farmland in Qarara, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.  Almost 4 years later, this family of 9 is still displaced and living in an iron and nylon tent in east Qarara, where they are currently unable to start any income-generating projects to support themselves. 

For Afaf Abu Daher (37), the events surrounding their displacement are hard to re-live: “Our house was about 300 meters from the border fence.  There was frequent shooting, shelling and rockets.  The children could not even go to school sometimes.  The Israeli occupation forces also conducted incursions and was arresting people.  Then, one day, we heard through a microphone announcement that everyone should vacate the area immediately because it would be targeted.  We had nowhere to go, but we left and went to stay at the UNRWA school in Qarara with other families.  About 2 days after the announcement, our house was bulldozed and completely destroyed.  Most people had left, but some had stayed on.  I remember my husband’s cousin remained behind and he was killed in his house.  120 houses were destroyed in that area during the operation.” 

The family stayed at the UNRWA school for about a month before renting a modest house in Qarara.  They stayed in that house for another month, and then set up a tent on their land: “Initially, we thought that we would go back to our land and maybe find someone to help us rebuild our house, but that was not the case.  We could not continue renting a house because it was too expensive, so we came here.”

The Abu Daheer family tent, joined to their neighbour’s goat shed.

Over the years, life has gotten progressively harder for the Abu Daher family, especially since they have no proper roof over their heads: “It has been very hard for all of us.   My children and I all sleep in one room, on mattresses on the floor.  There is a hole one of our walls, so we sleep next to the neighbor’s sheep.  This is where I cook and this is where we sleep.  Last time it rained, the floor was covered in water and we did not sleep.  We have tried to change the nylon on the roof, but it does not help much.  The children never bring their friends home because they are ashamed.  They meet their friends in the street.”

Afaf reflects on the projects she had before their house was destroyed and the conditions her and her family are currently facing: “The land we had was 7 dunnums.  We had our house and farmland there.  There were about 700 olive trees, and we also kept sheep, chicken and cows.  We sold the milk and cheese we made in the market and had a steady income to sustain ourselves.  Right now, nobody has a job and we are barely surviving.  This land is too small to begin any project.  Only 2 of our children go to school now.  The others stay at home to help their father with odd jobs and collecting rubble from buildings.  We cannot afford to take them to school.  We rely on help from the UN and anything else we can get.  My husband is ill and can barely work.  He gets 800 shekels to work for the government for 1 or 2 months in a year.  That money only stops us from dying.”

Losing their home has also taken a toll on the emotional state of the Abu Daher family: “My children are traumatized from the war and I also have nightmares.  One of my sons has seen 3 dead children and a child whose head was decapitated.  This has traumatized him and he wakes up shouting at night.  He has also started sleep walking.  I have my own nightmares, but I try to counsel my children and explain to them what has happened.  We also have people coming from the Gaza health centre to provide counseling for us, from time to time.”

As for the future, Afaf just wants the best for her children: “We had a house and life was okay, then suddenly we had nothing at all.  I am looking to provide for my children.  I want them to live and not struggle to survive.  I want to work, save and be left to live in peace.  I do not know what to expect for the future.  Everything is just so bad right now.  We are refugees from Bersheva, so UNRWA is supposed to give us a housing unit, but we have been waiting for a home for years now.  We don’t know when we will get one, but we will just wait, as always.”

The direct targeting of a civilian object constitutes a war crime, as codified in Article 8(2)(b)(ii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.  Similarly, under Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the destruction of private property is prohibited unless rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.  The ongoing enforcement of a ‘buffer zone’ along the land borders of the Gaza Strip results in the violation of numerous human rights provisions, including the right to adequate shelter contained in Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

 Source

Why are Gaza children being robbed of fun this summer?

The annual Summer Games in Gaza has been canceled this year.
(Mohammed Asad / APA images)

Saif Saleem
 
Living in besieged Gaza, nothing gives us greater joy than watching our kids play football, jump on a trampoline, fly a kite or go to the beach.

However, this year the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) decided to cancel the Summer Games, a vital source of happiness for children in Gaza, an estimated 250,000 of whom participated in the fifth annual Summer Games last year. The reason given for the cancellation was the shortage of funds.

Was this a political or a financial step?

Israel’s best friend

Who is controlling and funding UNRWA? More than 190 countries support the agency. But the funding cuts are largely due to a decrease in contributions from the US, Israel’s best friend. In January, Washington announced it would give $55 million to UNRWA in 2012 — about a quarter of funds the US donated in 2011 (“United States contributes $55 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East,” State Department media note, 3 January 2012).

Is the US using its aid cuts to increase pressure on Palestinians in Gaza by depriving them of the few sources of enjoyment previously open to them?
Obviously not for the first time, the US’s stance smacks of double standards.

Under Barack Obama’s presidency, the US has increased aid allocations to Israel dramatically, even though Israel has refused to cancel the construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

UNRWA recently had to reduce spending on a number of programs because of a funding shortfall of $35 million.

According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNRWA has to decrease by one-third its allocations to employment generation programs that provide about 3,500 jobs per month (“Protection of civilians weekly report,” Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 29 June - 5 July 2011).

This has had an adverse impact on services provided to more than 1.1 million people in Gaza.

Denied basic rights

Restricting the services available in Palestine means that we are being denied basic rights that are essential for a decent quality of life. We are being forced to think only of bread, water and jobs.

Human dignity is not about bread or water alone. It is about living in freedom and enjoying the same rights as people in the rest of the world. These are rights that the US and Israel are determined to deny us. And as well as depriving us of sources of enjoyment, the US is giving weapons to Israel that are used to kill and maim our children.

Cutting funds to UNRWA not only robs our children of sources of enjoyment, it harms our workers and our factories which help sustain the Gazan economy. Why should our children not be allowed to play and be happy because of an unfair political decision?

Saif Saleem is a journalist based in Gaza.

Source

UNRWA deletes 169,000 Palestinian refugees from its records

The organisation for Palestinian refugees and their right of return, Thabet, has expressed grave concern that the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has deleted 169,000 refugees from its records for 2011. Thabet condemned the move. In a statement sent to Quds Press, the organisation explained that the statistics at the beginning of 2011 noted the details of 4,797,724 registered refugees, whereas the records for 2010 had included 4,966,664. The details of 168,940 registered refugees are missing. Thabet said, "The names of 19,219 refugees from Lebanon, 9,024 refugees from Syria, 19,886 refugees from Jordan, 211 refugees from Gaza and 121,023 refugees from the West Bank have been removed."

The organisation described this as "a strange phenomenon occurring for the first time since UNRWA was founded in 1949, as the agency has had a census of refugees every year since 1951." The statistics have always referred to the growing number of refugees who get registered every year in its five areas of operation (Lebanon, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Syria), said Thabet. "There has never been a time when we've witnessed a decline in the number of registered refugees."

This is "dangerous", claimed Thabet, and questioned the reasons and timing of this change: "What has happened to those thousands of 'missing' refugees?" It has demanded that UNRWA clarifies this matter and justifies it's publication of the data. It also called for urgent action to uncover the background to this unprecedented reduction and the implications for Palestinian refugees and their right of return".

 Source

Owners of destroyed homes close UNRWA offices

GAZA, (PIC)-- Angry Palestinian demonstrators closed the UNRWA offices in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, on Sunday to protest the delay in rebuilding their destroyed homes.

Dozens of citizens participated in the demonstration to demand expediting the reconstruction of their homes before they closed the UNRWA offices.

The demonstrators threatened to stage an open sit-in in front of the UNRWA offices in the event their homes were not rebuilt and rent allowances were not paid to them.

UNRWA agreed with owners of those destroyed buildings in March last year that reconstruction would start on that date.

They lost their homes in the Israeli aggression on Rafah in 2003 where more than 2700 houses were destroyed.

 http://www.palestine-info.co.uk