IRCT supports direct assistance to the Palestinian population

IRCT supports direct
assistance to the Palestinian
population

In a letter sent to the European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the
IRCT’s Executive Committee has expressed its strong support for the
Commissioner’s decision to provide direct assistance to the Palestinian
residents in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT).

The letter, sent on July 5, expresses the Committee's apprehension about the
worrying situation in the Gaza Strip and draws attention to the concerning
working conditions and security of the medical personnel and their patients in
IRCT's centres in the OPT and about the centres' capability to continue
provision of treatment.

“We ask you to promptly intervene in order to contain the escalation of
violence and halt the multiplication of grave violations of human rights and
IHL that are currently taking place in the Gaza Strip.”, pledges the IRCT.

Below you can read the letter in its entirety.

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Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner
European Commission
200 rue de la Loi
1049 Brussels
BELGIUM
Fax: 00 32 2 29 81 299
5 July 2006
HA/gsø

Madam Commissioner,

We are pleased to address you to express our strong support for your
decision to provide direct assistance to the Palestinian residents in the
occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). The new Temporary International
Mechanism is an important step forward towards securing the health and
security situation in the OPT and to meeting the basic needs of the
Palestinian population. The support provided by the Mechanism has become
all the more crucial in light of the recent events in the Gaza Strip during which
the Israeli military has launched a major military operation.

As strongly expressed by the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator Mr Jan
Egeland, the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster after the
Israeli air force on 27 June destroyed the only power plant there as part of its
ongoing military operation. According to BBC News (29 June), could be out of
action for six months. Many of the Gaza Strip's inhabitants are currently not
only without electricity, but also without running water as the lack of electricity
coupled with an acute shortage of fuel means that Gaza's water supply
infrastructure cannot operate. This situation is not least worrying from a health
perspective since it means that hospitals and health clinics are unable to
function. Moreover, constant sonic booms from low-flying Israeli combat
aircraft and frequent bombardments are creating an atmosphere of intense
fear which according to our partners particularly affects children. Considering
this extremely grave situation we encourage you to intervene to contain the
conflict and to intensify the EU's assistance to the Gaza Strip's civilian
population.

As you know, the IRCT is an umbrella organization of 114 rehabilitation
centres for survivors of torture worldwide. The centres provide comprehensive
medical, psychiatric, legal and social services to victims of torture. Therefore,
we are particularly concerned about the working conditions and security of the
medical personnel and their patients in our centres in the OPT and about the
centres' capability to continue provision of treatment. Since Western donors
including the EU suspended their financial support to the Palestinian Authority
our member centres have experienced and reported a major deterioration of
the health and security situation. The fiscal crisis has led to a chronic
shortage of medical supplies that has made it extremely difficult, and in some
instances indeed impossible, to adequately treat patients in hospitals, health
clinics and rehabilitation centres.

Moreover we are deeply concerned about the well-being of Palestinian
detainees and prisoners in Israeli custody. Currently there are over 8000
Palestinian political and other prisoners in Israeli detention, among these
about 100 are women and more than 300 are children. Statistics reveal that
over 20% of the total Palestinian population has been detained by the Israeli
military at least once. This represents 40% of the Palestinian male
population. It is estimated that 85% of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons
are subjected to torture, 40% of those who are tortured suffer from PTSD.
Complete recovery is often very difficult due to the fact that the trauma is
frequently continuous, multiple and repetitive. Reports indicate that as a result
of the ongoing conflict, over the past five years more than 4000 Palestinians,
including many civilians, have lost their lives, 45,486 have been injured, more
than 56,000 Palestinians have had to change their place of residence and the
number of displaced persons is expected to grow. Strict closures imposed by
Israeli forces impede hundreds of people, among them women, children and
discharged patients from Egyptian hospitals, from returning to their homes.

Finally, we are alarmed by reports that trials before Israeli military courts do
not meet international standards of fairness and that allegations of torture and
ill-treatment of detainees are reported to be inadequately investigated.

In the context of the brewing humanitarian disaster resulting from Israel's on-
going military invasion, our special attention focuses on the implementation of
the Emergency Service Support Programme (ESSP), which is meant to cover
essential needs in the health and social sectors. In this connection we wish
to emphasize that support to torture survivors and traumatised persons
should be included in the measures taken by the Mechanism since the
rehabilitation work is an essential contribution to the stabilization of the
general health and security situation.

The establishment of the Mechanism is a strong signal of your concern for the
well-being of the Palestinian people in the OPT. We welcome this concern,
and in particular we strongly support your prioritization of ensuring the
functioning of health institutions and provision of medical treatment. Finally we
express our hope that continued support will be given to survivors of torture.

In conclusion we call upon you to maintain the necessary attention to the
growing humanitarian crisis in the OPT. Bearing in mind that the new United
Nations' Human Rights Council during its first session has once more
considered the crisis in the Gaza Strip as a ‘human rights emergency' we
encourage you to express your dissent towards the recent military actions led
by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.

Indeed, as these actions constitute blatant and continuous violations of
International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and taking into account the European
Union Guidelines on promoting compliance with IHL, we ask you to promptly
intervene in order to contain the escalation of violence and halt the
multiplication of grave violations of human rights and IHL that are currently
taking place in the Gaza Strip

Yours sincerely,

The IRCT´s Executive Committee:

Abdel Hamid Afana, MA, PhD
President

José Quiroga, MD
Vice-President

Akram Chowdhury, LLM, MSS Alfredo Ruiz, MSc

Niels Krustrup Vivienne Nathanson, MD, Professor

James Jaranson, MD, MA, MPH

(1) All figures are taken from: BBC News Web Site, ‘Palestinians back
prisoner release call' June 27th 2006 http://news.bbc.co.
uk/2/hi/middle_east/5122056.stm; Al Jazeera News, ‘Report about the effects
of Intifada on the Palestinian community three years after the Intifada',
Program Hasad El Yaum September 30th 2005; Palestinian Central Bureau
of Statistics (2001), survey on the impact of Israeli measures on the economic
conditions of the Palestinian household retrieved from www.pcbs.
org/english/labor/lab_curr.htm.

Resource:
http://www.irct.org/Default.aspx?ID=159&M=News&PID=5&NewsID=420