May 15, 2006

URGENT STATEMENT FROM PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY ORGANIZATIONS IN CANADA ON THE OCCASION OF AL NAKBA

Commemorating 58 Years of Dispossession Forced Starvation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
End Canadian Complicity in Israeli War Crimes!

A massive humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing forced starvation due to the Israeli siege on the Palestinian economy. Supplies of fuel and cooking gas have been cut-off from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians are dying in hospitals because the Israeli government has prevented the entry of medical supplies. Reports from international, Israeli and Palestinian press indicate the scope of this current crisis:

*On 4 May, the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza reported that four people in need of dialysis have died because of medical shortages. Only a few days' supply of surgical drugs such as atropine, adrenaline, heparin and lidocaine remain. ("Funds Cut, Gaza Faces a Plague of Health Woes", New York Times, 8 May 2006 and "Patients die as doctors run out of drugs to treat them", Guardian Weekly, 10 May 2006).

*On 9 May, the Israeli company Dor - which provides all petrol and cooking gas to the West Bank and Gaza Strip - announced that it was suspending these fuel supplies. Israel prohibits Palestinians from importing fuel from any alternative source. Moreover, Israel, the US, Canada and other governments have cut all aid and barred the Palestinian Authority from receiving other funds to pay for fuel. ("Fuel supplies running dry; enough for 24 hours only says petroleum committee director" Maan News Agency 10 May 2006).

*The 160,000 Palestinians who work for the Palestinian Authority as teachers, doctors, police and civil servants have not received wages for two months. These wages support thousands of families, estimated at approximately 1/3 of the Palestinian population. This loss of income comes after nearly six years of Israeli attacks and siege. As a consequence, most of these individuals already face massive indebtedness and depleted personal savings. Even the World Bank warned this week that its earlier predictions of a 50% rise in poverty in the occupied territories this year (already at 50% in some areas) - driven by a sharp fall in personal income and a 23% increase in unemployment - may have been "too rosy" ("Patients die as doctors run out of drugs to treat them", Guardian Weekly, 10 May 2006).

*Palestinian officials report that police forces have received no food for two days. Over the last month, police have received as little as a loaf of bread three times a week and a few vegetables on other days. No salaries have been paid for two months. Palestinian prison guards are asking relatives of inmates to prepare food and bring it to the prisons so that prisoners will not starve. ("PA crisis: Prisons running out of food", YNET News, 8 May 2006).

These are the direct consequences of Israeli apartheid policies. Since 1967, Israel has pursued a policy of creating isolated Palestinian bantustans in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians are confined to a patchwork of disconnected population islands divided by Israeli settlements, checkpoints and military bases. All aspects of Palestinian life are completely dependent upon Israeli 'permission'. Palestinian movement in-and-out of towns and villages is controlled by Israeli-issued permits and regulated by soldiers and checkpoints.

Israel completely controls all imports and exports, and the flow of funds into the WB/GS. Massive confiscation of land in the West Bank has destroyed the Palestinian agricultural sector. In the Gaza Strip, Israel even controls where and how Palestinians can fish. The deliberate 'de-development' of Palestinian industry under Israeli occupation means that most Palestinians are dependent upon either the PA or are forced to work in Israel for their survival.

On May 15th we commemorate 58 years since Palestinians were driven out of their homes and land by Zionist aggression. The current situation indicates that this program of ethnic cleansing continues at full speed. While millions of Palestinian refugees wait to return to their homes and land, Israel has literally imprisoned millions more in the open-air prisons that constitute Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Deliberate starvation of the population is a war crime that is now openly embraced by the Canadian government. Canada was the first government in the world to cut aid to the Palestinian Authority. In November last year, the previous Canadian government openly endorsed a proposed visit by Israeli war criminal Ariel Sharon. On 22 March 2006, former Chief of Staff of the Israeli military, Moshe Yaalon - a man who once compared Palestinians to a "cancer" - was permitted entry into Canada. On 15 May 2006, Nefesh B Nefesh, an organization that recruits settlers to continue the program of ethnic cleansing in Palestine is holding a recruitment meeting in Toronto. On 17 May 2006, another war criminal, the head of Israeli Military Intelligence, Zeevi Farkash, will be speaking in Toronto. And on 18 May 2006, Gen. Doron Almog, a man who was unable to leave his plane in the UK because of a warrant to arrest him for war crimes, will also be speaking in Toronto.

The Canadian government must immediately end its open support for Israeli war crimes and the dispossession of the Palestinian people. We call for an immediate halt to all political and financial ties with the Israeli government until Israeli apartheid ends. Moreover, we call for the immediate and unconditional resumption of aid to the Palestinian Authority. This is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue. The world cannot insist that the Palestinian right to life is conditional on acquiescence to Israeli apartheid.

Adala - Canadian Arab Justice Committee
Al Awda Right of Return Coalition (Toronto)
Al Awda (Vancouver)
Arab Students Collective (University of Toronto)
Arab Students Collective (York University)
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
Canadians for Jerusalem
Canada Palestine Association, Vancouver
Canada Palestine Association, Halifax
Canada Palestine Support Netweork-Ottawa (Canpalnet-Ottawa.org)
Jewish Women's Committee
Niagara Coalition for Peace
Niagara Palestinian Association
Palestine House
Palestine Soldarity Society, Halifax
Palestine Community Centre, Vancouver
Soldarity for Palestinian Human Rights (McMaster University)
Soldarity for Palestinian Human Rights (Toronto)
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (Ryerson University)
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (York University)
Sumoud Political Prisoners Solidarity Group
Voice of Palestine, Vancouver

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*Signatories listed alphabetically.

Other signatories can be found at http://www.al-awda.ca

To endorse this statement, please email nimer@riseup.net

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