Bi-Weekly Brief for March 8, 2021
Vaccines treated by Israel as diplomatic bargaining chips while the virus surges in Palestine
Saying Israel has “more than enough” vaccines for its own population, Netanyahu has promised 5,000 doses of Moderna to up to 20 countries (100,000 doses in all) in exchange for diplomatic support. With more than 40% of Israelis fully vaccinated, Israel on March 7 re-opened public venues for those holding ‘green pass’ certificates of vaccination. The PA was meanwhile coming under criticism for allocating some of the 12,000 vaccines it had received (2,000 from Israel and 10,000 from Russia) to senior Fatah officials, including those in Jordan, to some international embassies and the Palestine national soccer team, instead of reserving them all for frontline health workers. On March 5, a year after the virus was first detected in Palestine, the number of cases exceeded 218,600 (56,000 in Gaza) with 2,333 deaths. Especially steep rises in Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron led the PA to announce new restrictions on travel, gatherings and the closure of universities.
Israel continues to display the ugly face of ‘medical apartheid’
Worried that the West Bank surge was endangering Israel and its settlers, the government announced on March 3 that it would start on March 7 vaccinating 120,000 Palestinian workers with permits to enter Israel or work in settlements. On March 4, a pilot run was held at Tulkarem checkpoint where 700 workers were reportedly vaccinated. But on the following day, the entire worker vaccination program was suspended due to “budget issues.” No date has been given for its resumption.
The experience of a Palestinian student living in the West Bank and studying at Tel Aviv University provides a graphic description of medical apartheid in action. When the University announced a campus vaccination drive she asked if she was eligible. After being told by her program that she was, she travelled more than 5 hours through 7 checkpoints on 8 different modes of transport to get there on time. After those in charge looked at her ID, she waited 6 hours as others received their shots, and was given “a number of excuses why she could not be given the vaccine.”
Netanyahu: International Criminal Court investigation “the essence of antisemitism”
On March 3, after ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced she had launched the war crimes investigation of Israel and Hamas, Netanyahu denounced it vociferously, stating that Israel’s actions were “heroic and moral” and its soldiers were forced to “fight against the cruelest of terrorists on the face of the earth.” Hamas welcomed her announcement, calling it “a step forward on the path of achieving peace.” Some Members of the US Congress declared it was “a dangerous politicization of the Court” while Secretary of State Blinken assured Israel that the US “firmly opposes” the investigation and would continue to stand with Israel in opposition to actions “that seek to target Israel unfairly.” He also warned the ICC that an investigation could undermine efforts for a 2-state solution.
Two states no longer possible, say Middle East scholars. No problem, say young Israelis.
While the Biden administration rhetorically clings to a ‘2-state solution,’ in a University of Maryland/George Washington University poll of Middle East scholars, 52% said a two-state solution was no longer possible and only 6% said it was possible and probable within the next 10 years. 59% called the current situation “a one-state reality akin to Apartheid,” which 77% said was likely to be the future for Israel/Palestine. Another poll found that only 29.6% of young Israelis (ages 18-24) believe in 2 states, while more than 40% support the annexation of the West Bank. Nearly 70% describe themselves as right wing.
Israel threatens to arrest Hamas activists running in Palestinian legislative election
According to Amira Hass, the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet has been telephoning and showing up at the homes of “social and political activists who express positions that diverge from those of the PA,” and threatening them with lengthy periods in prison if they run in the election. Dozens of West Bank members of Hamas have been arrested and placed in administrative detention. Israel reportedly fears that splits within Fatah might lead to a Hamas victory in the May 22 election, something it will not tolerate. The ‘National Democratic Forum’ slate of candidates being compiled by Yasser Arafat’s nephew Nasser al-Qidwa is especially worrying to President Mahmoud Abbas and members of Fatah dependent on him for their positions and perks.
Home demolitions on the rise as ethnic cleansing intensifies
“It’s people’s lives you’re demolishing” – this is what wheelchair-bound Khatham Abu Riala told the wrecking crew when they arrived on March 1 to destroy his house in the Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem. It was the 6th time since 1999 his house built on family-owned land had been destroyed for lack of an impossible-to-get building permit. In 2009, Abu Riala fell from the roof of his house just before it was razed, and has been paralyzed from the waist down ever since. On Feb. 26, 20 people including 12 children were made homeless in Issawiya when 4 residential apartments were destroyed. On March 2, the army flattened 3 homes and several agricultural buildings in the South Hebron Hills, leaving 11 homeless. The following day, shops and a residential building were destroyed in Sho’afat refugee camp, East Jerusalem. The UN found that 98 Palestinians, 53 of them children, were made homeless between Feb. 16 – March 1, while an al-Haq report cited the doubling of demolitions in 2020, compared to the annual average in the last decade. The report says as many as 50,000 Palestinian homes are under threat of demolition.
Anything goes in effort to force Palestinian submission to Israeli rule
That includes the torture and sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy from Issawiya, as described in a Defense for Children International report. It includes the refusal to return the body of Ahmad Erekat to his family since he was shot dead last June at a checkpoint in what a recent painstaking report by London-based Forensic Architecture and Al-Haq reveals to be an extra judicial execution. In addition to the daily tally of night raids, arrests, injuries, settler violence and land confiscation in the West Bank, the Israeli army fired multiple times on Gaza’s farmers and its navy used its firepower on several occasions. On Feb. 22, it sank a Palestinian fishing boat off Gaza which it claimed posed a threat. Five day later the navy opened fire and injured 2 girls on the shore in the southern Gaza Strip. On March 5, the navy fired at a fishing boat sailing within 3 nautical miles of the shore, injuring 2 fishermen. On March 7, 3 Palestinian fishermen were killed off the coast of southern Gaza, either by Israeli shelling or possibly an errant Palestinian rocket.
Water Fact
The Israeli army and settlers are dividing the work of depriving Palestinians of water, as 2 episodes on a single day (March 1) demonstrate. On that day, as Jewish settlers vandalized the electronic panel controlling the water supply to Asira al-Qibliya near Nablus, the army confiscated a water tank in the northern Jordan Valley village of Fasa’il a-Tahta. The tank belonged to families whose homes had been destroyed some months previously.
Compiled by The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
SAVE THE DATE: March 22.
The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine is hosting ‘Water, Health and Human Rights: Marking World Water Day, from the US to Palestine’, 7 – 8:30 PM EDT. Keynote: Rep. Rashida Tlaib. See program and speakers here. Register here. It will be live screened on our Facebook page.
Banner design by Paul Normandia of Red Sun Press