Dear Friends,
This Friday on "ONE LAND, MANY VOICES", hosts Hala Gores and William Seaman
speak with Dr. Mona El-Farra in Gaza about the escalation in the Israeli
blockade and the resulting worsening of the humanitarian crisis there. Dr.
El-Farra is a physician by training and a human rights and women's rights
activist by practice. She is Deputy Director of the Union of Health Work
Committees, heads the Rachel Corrie Children’s Center and is the Vice
President of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has been radically increased by the recent
escalation of the US-backed Israeli blockade. Appended below is a recent
article from the Guardian (UK) newspaper from Monday. This morning it was
reported that the border wall separating Gaza from Egypt has been blown up
in several places and tens of thousands of Palestinians have been streaming
across into Egypt to purchase basic supplies, fuel and food, and bringing
them back into Gaza. Please take a moment to contact our representatives in
Washington, DC, to demand an end to the blockade on Gaza (contacts listed
below).
Please tune in Friday morning at 9:00AM to KBOO 90.7FM Community Radio for
the ONE LAND, MANY VOICES interview with Dr. Mona El-Farra in Gaza. Please
join the weekly Friday rally and march, this week focusing on the crisis in
Gaza and calling for an end to the Gaza Seige, at 5:00 PM at Pioneer
Courthouse Square in downtown Portland. (For more information, please visit
the Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights website at www.auphr.org
or call AUPHR at 503-287-1885 or visit the Portland Peaceful Response
Coalition website at www.pprc-news.org or call PPRC at 503-344-5078.)
Your phone calls and donations can help free Gaza! Please call today! And
tune in Friday at 9:00AM to KBOO 90.7FM for ONE LAND, MANY VOICES!
Peace,
William Seaman
Hala Gores
Dr. El-Farra's BLOG: http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/
2007 Presentation at UfPJ Conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
2004 Interview: http://www.criticalconcern.com
American Friends Service Committee PROFILES OF PEACE - Biography of Dr. Mona
El-Farra
Palestinian physician active in medical relief efforts in the Gaza Strip.
Among many other activities, El-Farra heads the Rachel Corrie Children’s
Center in Gaza and writes a well-regarded blog, "From Gaza, with Love," that
has attracted attention from journalists, activists, and academics around
the world.
Dr. Mona El-Farra was born in Khan Younis, Gaza. Her family owned land in
Gaza for about 900 years. In her lifetime, however, this land was
confiscated by Israel and her family’s home was demolished. After obtaining
her medical degree, she dedicated her life to working for relief in the Gaza
Strip. Today, among many activities, she works as a physician in Northern
Gaza.
Some of her relief work includes creating programs that combine health
services with community and cultural recreation services. She implements
these programs as the Director of Gaza Projects for the Middle East
Children's Alliance (MECA). El-Farra is also a health development consultant
for the Union of Health Work Committees in Gaza and Vice President of the
Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza.
“Though we do not now live with ease, we live with resolve. Until the world
pressures Israel to recognize our rights in our land, and to pursue a peace
that brings freedom and security to Israelis and Palestinians, we both will
continue to pay the price.”
El-Farra heads the Rachel Corrie Children’s Center, which is also in Gaza.
The center is a project of the Union of Health Work Committees and is named
after Rachel Corrie, an American activist who was killed by an Israeli
Caterpillar bulldozer while protecting a home in Gaza from demolition. The
Children’s Center provides a haven for the children from the ongoing war and
violence surrounding them. El-Farra explains that the violence in Gaza has
devastating effects on both the children and the future prospects for peace.
"[Israeli] aggression will leave psychological scars on the children for
years to come," El-Farra commented in the newspaper article "My Life in
Gaza," published in the Boston Globe on July 10, 2006. "Instilling fear,
anger and loss in them will not bring peace and security to Israelis."
The center also provides computer and internet services to the children so
that they can communicate with the outside world. El-Farra states that the
importance of this communication is to show the children of Gaza that there
are international solidarity networks with the Palestinian peoples, " …. to
grow up knowing that there are still in the world a place for people who
respect justice and who are fighting to see the world full of justice, not
hate and injustice." (Democracy Now! Interview with Mona El-Farra, by Amy
Goodman, October 18, 2006.)
El-Farra’s work extends beyond medical relief work. She is a human rights
and women’s rights activist. She releases reports on the internet about the
deterioration of health services in light of Israeli aggression in Gaza and
the lack of resources. She has written for The Boston Globe, Le Monde
Dipolimatique, The LA Times, and The Guardian. She also has been interviewed
for Democracy Now! and the BBC.
In addition, her blog, "From Gaza, with Love," has attracted attention from
journalists, activists, and academics around the world. Currently, El-Farra
is co-authoring a book with Noam Chomsky. El-Farra writes about Gaza from
different perspectives: as a physician, as a mother, daughter, and civilian.
She reports on deaths, malnutrition, contaminated waters, lack of medicine,
and the deterioration of health for the Palestinian people. She also talks
about the effects of the Israeli aggression against Gaza on her children,
and her separation from her mother and other family members, especially
during the summer of 2006.
"Though we do not now live with ease, we live with resolve," El-Farra said
in the Boston Globe article "My Life in Gaza." "Until the world pressures
Israel to recognize our rights in our land, and to pursue a peace that
brings freedom and security to Israelis and Palestinians, we both will
continue to pay the price."
To visit Dr. El-Farra's web site "From Gaza, with Love" see:
http://www.fromgaza.blogspot
For information about a Middle East Children's Alliance speaking tour
featuring Dr. El-Farra see: http://www.mecaforpeace.org
URGENT ACTION on GAZA:
=====================
Dear friends,
There is a humanitarian crisis and catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. The
latest escalation of the blockade by Israel, with US support, is bringing
unprecedented suffering to a population already in misery and at great risk.
Please take a moment to help bring an end to the blockade of Gaza. Call our
representatives in Washington, DC, to demand that Israel restore the
shipments of fuel and open the border crossings for food and medicines, and
also to restore the normal flow of all goods so that Gaza's economy can
begin to recover. To find out more about the situation, and to donate for
relief services, please visit the Middle East Children's Alliance Gaza
emergency webpage:
http://www.mecaforpeace.org
Below are e-mail and telephone contact links to the Oregon representatives
in Washington, DC. Please contact them today. Tell them that the blockade
of Gaza must end!
Senator Ron Wyden:
http://wyden.senate.gov
Senator Gordon Smith:
http://gsmith.senate.gov
Representative Earl Blumenauer:
http://www.blumenauer.house
Representative David Wu:
http://www.house.gov/wu/email
http://www.house.gov/wu
Representative Darlene Hooley
http://hooley.house.gov/index
-236B60C42F5A}
(503) 557-1324 phone
(503) 557-1981 fax
Representative Peter DeFazio
http://www.house.gov/formdefaz
http://www.defazio.house.gov
temid=74
Representative Greg Walden
http://walden.house.gov/index
Main: 202-225-6730
Fax: 202-225-5774
Please call today!
------------------------------
Israeli fuel blockade may halt food handouts, UN warns
Mark Tran and agencies, Monday January 21, 2008 - Guardian Unlimited
Food aid to residents in Gaza could be suspended unless Israel reopens the
border, a UN agency said today.
The warning came amid a resurgence of violence between Israel and Hamas
Islamists, and the halting by Israel of crucial fuel supplies to the coastal
strip.
"Because of a shortage of nylon for plastic bags and fuel for vehicles and
generators, on Wednesday or Thursday we are going to have to suspend our
food distribution programme to 860,000 people in Gaza if the present
situation continues," said Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the UN
Relief Works Agency, which distributes food aid to 860,000 Palestinians in
Gaza.
Unwra distributes basic food parcels in Gaza consisting of items such as
pulses, flour and packaged milk. The situation in the territory, which has
been under a western economic embargo since Hamas took power last June, is
already bleak.
"We are already seeing signs of malnutrition and there have been cases or
rickets [a cause of weak bones through a lack of vitamin D]," Gunness said.
Israel, however, showed little signs of easing what is effectively an
economic blockade of Gaza in response to a barrage of rocket fire aimed at
its southern towns.
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said Palestinians in Gaza might
have to go without Israeli-supplied petrol for their cars as long as
militants continue to fire rockets across the border.
"As far as I'm concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no
fuel for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that
doesn't allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace," Olmert said
in a broadcast.
The UN and the EU have urged Israel to restore the flow of fuel amid fears
of a humanitarian disaster. Lebanon and Syria called for an emergency Arab
summit to discuss the Israeli blockade.
The Syrian foreign ministry demanded "an immediate end to the collective
punishment and Israeli crimes", saying Israel was violating "the simplest
rules of human rights".
The pro-western Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, described
developments in Gaza as a serious escalation of Israel's "racial
discrimination and blatant human rights violations against Palestinians,
under the pretext of confronting Hamas".
Palestinian officials warned of a catastrophe in health services in Gaza
because of Israel's decision to halt fuel shipments, which has forced the
shutdown of Gaza's sole only power plant.
"We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity
ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms," said a health
ministry official, Moaiya Hassanain.
Israel last night refused to reopen crossings or allow fuel supplies in
after the most intense fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza
for more than a year. Nearly 40 Palestinians have been killed in the past
week, at least 10 of them civilians.
Electricity officials shut Gaza's only power plant just before 8pm (6pm GMT)
yesterday. Gaza bakeries stopped operating because of the blockade, bakers
said, because they had neither power nor flour. Fresh pitta bread is a
staple food for Gazans.
Israel denied its economic measures would cause widespread suffering.
"We will do everything to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and I can
guarantee to you that there will not be a humanitarian crisis in Gaza," said
Shlomo Dror, an Israeli defence spokesman.
Arye Mekel, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, accused Hamas of creating
an artificial emergency, calling the blackout a "ploy ... to attract
international sympathy".
Hamas said five hospital patients had died because of the power cut. But
health officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied this.
Israel imposed the fuel blockade in response to rocket fire that has
virtually paralysed life in southern Israeli towns. The upsurge of fighting
last week followed an Israeli anti-rocket operation in Gaza.
The Israeli deputy prime minister, Haim Ramon, said there were signs the
blockade was working, as the number of rockets fired dropped sharply today.
The army said five were fired yesterday, down from 53 over the previous two
days.
As well as fuel from Israel to power its electricity plant, Gaza receives
about 70% of its electricity direct from Israel. That energy supply had not
been stopped, Israel said. The Gaza power plant supplies most of the
remaining electricity. Israeli officials acknowledge its fuel supply has
been stopped.
The EU criticised Israel for punishing all of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants
and urged it to restart fuel supplies and open border crossings.
"I have made clear that I am against this collective punishment of the
people of Gaza," the EU external relations commissioner, Benita
Ferrero-Waldner, said in a statement.
"I urge the Israeli authorities to restart fuel supplies and open the
crossings for the passage of humanitarian and commercial supplies."
Ferrero-Waldner said the decision to close border crossings and stop fuel
provision "will exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation in the
Gaza Strip and risks escalating an already difficult situation on the
ground".
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation but still
controls the borders and shipment of supplies.
Hamas seized power in Gaza from the rival Fatah faction, which is based in
the West Bank and led by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.