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Palestine
Crimes of Occupiers Intensify During Pandemic
Protest on March 19, 2020, at the International
Committee of the Red
Cross offices in Gaza City demands protection for
Palestinian political
prisoners.
The global COVID-19 crisis is simultaneously
bringing out the very best and the very worst of
humanity. This is no
more true than in Palestine, whose heroic people
this year are marking
72 years of steadfast resistance to occupation,
dispossession and
lawlessness by the Israeli occupation. Whereas the
global pandemic
requires all of humanity to rise to the occasion,
Zionist reactionaries
are using the crisis as a means to further their
genocide against the
Palestinian people.
 In an April 2
letter to the President of the UN Security
Council, Dr. Riyad Mansour,
Minister and Permanent Observer of the State of
Palestine to the United
Nations highlighted that crimes against the
Palestinian people continue
unabated during the pandemic.
Mansour reports, "A state of emergency has been
declared [in Palestine] and the country is in
lockdown with a view to
stemming the virus' spread, protect our
population, and ensure their
well-being. Despite limited resources and the
hardships and
restrictions already being borne under Israel's
illegal occupation, our
national institutions are exerting all possible
efforts to respond to
this health crisis and its immense humanitarian
and socio-economic
impact.
"Regrettably, however, in the West Bank,
including
East Jerusalem, Israel is exploiting the state of
emergency and
lockdown to accelerate its illegal
settler-colonization plans,
including through the continued demolition of
Palestinian homes,
destruction of crops, and forcible transfer of
Palestinian families. At
the same time, military raids in Palestinian areas
have continued, as
have Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian
civilians, in numerous
instances undermining efforts to combat the
pandemic. [...] Israeli
settlement construction and expansion and
annexation threats have
continued unabated."
 
Israel continues violent detention of
Palestinian youth
(left); and destruction of Palestinian homes
(photo is from Rommana).
Other crimes by the Israeli occupiers have
directly undermined Palestinian efforts to contain
the virus. These
include the destruction of a health clinic under
construction, the
detention of Palestinian workers disinfecting
public facilities and,
those involved in public education efforts, and
assaulting Palestinians
working in local emergency committees created to
help detect
coronavirus cases. Repeated acts of spitting by
dozens of Israeli
soldiers at Palestinians' cars, walls and
doorsteps to intimidate
residents amid the COVID-19 outbreak have also
been reported.
 
Palestinian workers disinfect for coronovirus
(left); COVID-19 testing
Centre in Gaza.
Concern over Israel's mass incarceration of
Palestinians has been heightened during the
pandemic. Mansour informs,
"Israel is refusing to heed calls for the release
of the more than
5,000 Palestinians, including 180 children and 43
women, that it
currently holds captive in its prisons and
detention centres, despite
four Palestinian prisoners having been exposed to
an Israeli employee
at an interrogation centre who tested positive for
COVID-19. [...]
Israeli jails are overcrowded, lacking minimum
health and safety
standards, and poor conditions, including the
requirement for prisoners
to pay for their own medical treatment and blatant
medical neglect,
have led prisoners to launch several hunger
strikes in recent years.
Dozens of Palestinian prisoners also suffer from
serious or chronic
illnesses and are in need of urgent medical care.
To make matters
worse, Israel removed all doctors and nurses who
were previously
tending to Palestinian prisoners, leaving only one
nurse per prison,
yet a further shocking act of medical negligence.
Palestinian Sand artist
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"In this time of crisis, Palestinians also face
another consequence of this decades-long
occupation -- a dilapidated
and depleted health care system that is marked by
poor infrastructure
and sanitation, a shortage of supplies and
inadequate equipment. With
just 1.23 beds per 1,000 people, 2,550 working
doctors, less than 20
intensive care specialists and less than 120
ventilators in all public
hospitals, the West Bank will face a public health
disaster if the
virus spreads further. And, while the health care
situation there is
bleak, in the Gaza Strip it is catastrophic.
"As noted by OCHA [the Office for the
Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs] on March 26, 'although
the current number of
detected cases remains relatively low, the
capacity of the Palestinian
health system to cope with an expected increase in
COVID-19 cases is
severely impaired by longstanding challenges and
critical shortages ...
the situation is particularly severe in the Gaza
Strip.' For a
population of nearly 2 million, half of whom are
children, Gaza has
only 56 breathing ventilators for adults, some of
which are in
disrepair or already in use, 60 intensive care
unit beds, and 700 units
of personal protective equipment." News reports on
April 8 indicate
that Gaza has now run out of COVID-19 test kits.
The Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement on
April 1 issued a press release demanding Israel
take immediate action
to protect food security and prevent economic
collapse in the Gaza
Strip, including the removal of "ongoing
restrictions imposed by Israel
on the entry of so-called 'dual-use' equipment and
materials for which
there is an acute need in Gaza's farming and
fishing sectors, and to
allow the exit of Gaza-made food products for sale
in the West Bank."
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 12 - April 11, 2020
Article Link:
Palestine: Crimes of Occupiers Intensify During Pandemic
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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