Bi-Weekly Brief for December 1, 2020
Covid cases in Gaza double in 2 weeks, hospitals are overwhelmed, hunger grows
As cumulative cases surge to 19,898 in the Gaza Strip out of a total for Palestine of 91,464, Israel’s blockade – which has cost Gaza’s economy $16.5 billion according to a new UN report - is depriving its collapsing health care system of sufficient oxygen machines, ventilators, PPE, hygienic materials and medicines. Unemployment has reached 82% and 92% report receiving no government or NGO assistance. The need to eat has made it difficult to impose lockdowns. In the West Bank, the PA imposed new lockdowns on Nov. 27. In Israel there has been a 66% increase in confirmed cases to 336,000 since Nov. 19, partly attributed to re-opening 15 malls.
Pompeo gives more gifts to Netanyahu as Iran is put in the crosshairs
International law took a major hit during US Secretary of State Pompeo’s last Middle East trip. On Nov. 19, he visited the West Bank settlement of Psagot and declared that settlement products should bear a ‘Made in Israel’ label, and then went to the occupied Golan Heights and stated ‘this is Israel.’ After asserting that ‘anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism’ and that the US will counter ‘the Global BDS Campaign,’ Pompeo made a secretive trip to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 22, reportedly to meet with Netanyahu, the Mossad head and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. The crown prince’s presence was later denied by Saudi officials, as was the discussion of ‘normalization’ plans. Meanwhile, the US deployed more military jets and nuclear bomb-capable B-52 bombers to its base in Qatar. On Nov. 27, a top Iranian nuclear physicist Moshen Fakhrizadeh and 3 of his bodyguards were assassinated, with Israel the prime suspect. While the killing was widely condemned including by the EU, an unidentified senior Israeli official said the world should thank Israel for the deed. The murder is seen as a blow to diplomacy that complicates the incoming US administration’s Iran policy.
The PA resumes ties with Israel and hopes Biden will breathe life into ‘two states’
On Nov. 17, the PA said it would resume coordination with Israel suspended last May as a response to Israel’s annexation plans. The announcement scuttled unity talks between Fatah and Hamas that were taking place in Cairo. President Abbas is hoping for the speedy return to negotiations and immediate transfer of $903 million in taxes that Israel collects for Palestinians. Israel said it will deduct the $200 million the PA gives to families of political prisoners. To placate Israel and woo the incoming Biden team, Abbas has agreed to ‘revise’ financial aid to prisoners. Biden, who insisted that the word ‘occupation’ be struck from the Democratic Party platform, gives lip service to a ‘2 state solution,’ as do many of his potential cabinet members. On Nov. 29, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (see its history here), UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Palestinian and Israel leaders to ‘restore hope’ for a 2 state solution.
Israel races to tighten grip on East Jerusalem, multiply facts on the ground
Israel plans to build 108 new units in northern East Jerusalem, and 1,257 units in Givat Hamatos, sealing off Bethlehem from southern East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, 400 Palestinians face eviction from East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and an Israeli court has ordered the expulsion of 87 residents from its Batn al-Hawas neighborhood to make way for extremist settlers. Around the West Bank, homes, agricultural buildings and water wells have been destroyed, displacing scores of Palestinians. On Nov. 18, dozens of settlers returned to the Sa-Nur settlement near Jenin which had been evacuated in 2005, proclaiming ‘this place belongs to the people of Israel.’ Palestinians protesting land grabs were invariably met with live ammo, rubber bullets and stun grenades, causing many injuries. In the Gaza Strip, a rocket fired at Ashkelon on Nov. 21 triggered IDF tank fire and missile strikes, followed by a 4-day ‘surprise drill’ near the Gaza border simulating a major military attack.
Water Fact
Depriving Palestinians of water plays an essential role in Israel’s ethnic cleansing of parts of the 62% of the West Bank classified as Area C by the Oslo Accords. Here is the tally of water deprivation on a single day, November 25. Israeli forces confiscated a one-mile water pipeline connecting Khirbat Safi and Khirbat al Majaz in the southern West Bank. At least 100 Khirbat Safi residents depended on the pipeline for their water. The army also damaged a water tank in Khirbat Jabna and part of its irrigation network and destroyed buildings that included 2 health facilities and 4 water tanks in Fasayil village north of Jericho.
Compiled by The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
