Back to Gaza at Year End

At the end of the year I will be going back to Gaza, this time accompanied by 1300+ people from 42 countries around the world who are coming to protest the Israeli siege. A nonviolent march to the Israeli border is planned with the 1300 internationals to be joined by an expected 50,000 Palestinians. What is this woman doing, you may ask? How many times does she have to go to Gaza?

In return, I would ask, How long will our government continue to countenance and assist in the imprisonment and suffocation of 1.5 million civilians? The siege of Gaza has not been eased, civilians continue to be killed (farmers working in their fields near the borders, fishermen trying to pull some food out of the sea, and people in the smuggling tunnels struggling to bring cooking gas, food, and other of life's necessities into Gaza). Now, as you can see from the article quoted below, babies are being born half dead from their mothers' exposure to contaminated water.

Please wish me a safe journey, pass this story on to everyone you know, and ask your Congressional representatives why they are appropriating money to help Egypt build an 18 meter deep subterranean "fence" at the border to insure the success of Israel's siege. I'll be writing about what I learn.


“Who will save Gaza's children? Never mind Copenhagen, an environmental catastrophe is going on right now – contaminated water is poisoning babies in Gaza,” Victoria Britain, The Guardian, 12/9/09

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/dec/09/gaza-children-palestinian-babies

Excerpt: In Gaza there is now no uncontaminated water; of the 40,000 or so newborn babies, at least half are at immediate risk of nitrate poisoning – incidence of "blue baby syndrome", methaemoglobinaemia, is exceptionally high; an unprecedented number of people have been exposed to nitrate poisoning over 10 years; in some places the nitrate content in water is 300 times World Health Organisation standards; the agricultural economy is dying from the contamination and salinated water; the underground aquifer is stressed to the point of collapse; and sewage and waste water flows into public spaces and the aquifer.

The blockade of Gaza has gone on for nearly four years, and the vital water and sanitation infrastructure went past creaking to virtual collapse during the three-week assault on the territory almost a year ago.

What would it take to start the two UN sewerage repair projects approved by Israel; a UN water and sanitation project, not yet approved; and two more UN internal sewage networks, not yet approved? Right now just one corner of the blockade could be lifted for these building materials and equipment to enter Gaza, to let water works begin and to give infant lives a chance. Just one telephone call from the Israeli defence ministry could do it – an early Christmas present to the UN staff on the ground who have been ready to act for months and have grown desperate on this front, as on so many others.

Earlier this year, just one question face to face to the Israeli government, from Senator John Kerry after he visited Gaza, allowed pasta into Gaza. Who from Europe or the US will ask the Israeli defence minister the face-to-face question for the blue babies? Sarah Brown, the British prime minister's wife, would be the perfect candidate – an independent person who has the ear of the powerful, a mother who knows something about grief for babies. And she could be accompanied by Lord Mandelson in case there was any bullying.

The science on all this is unchallenged. Last September a UN report spelled it out in stark detail, including the regional implications for Israel and Egypt if the shared aquifer is not "rested" and alternative water sources found. The United Nations Environment Programme estimated that $1.5bn could be needed over 20 years to restore the aquifer, including the establishment of desalination plants to take the pressure off the underground water supplies.

Gaza's huge pale sandy beaches used to be society's playground and reassurance of happiness and normality, with families picnicking, horses exercising, fishermen mending their nets, children swimming and boys exercising in the early morning, but these days they are mainly empty, and not just because it is winter. Between 50m and 60m litres of untreated sewage have flowed into the Mediterranean every day this year since the end of the Israeli invasion in January, the sea smells bad and few fish are available in the three nautical mile area Palestinians are allowed in. This resource seems as ruined as the rubble of Gaza's parliament and ministries.