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Palestinian aid misses goals as donors neglect security - researchers
Written by: Megan Rowling
The mother of a Palestinian boy, wounded in an Israeli air strike, stands by his bedside at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, Dec. 31, 2008.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
The billions of aid dollars poured into the Palestinian territories in the past 15 years have failed to bring about development because donors have overlooked everyday insecurity, health researchers say. Some $9.4 billion in aid disbursed since 1994 has not met its goals, with evidence in recent years pointing to a reversal in development in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, according to a study in a special issue of the Lancet medical journal focusing on Palestinian health. Rajaie Batniji of Oxford University, one of the study's authors, said the international community had done little to stop threats to the basic security of the territories' 3.8 million inhabitants, targeting the effects of the violence rather than its causes. "Ensuring that every person has the security to survive, to function normally is a requirement for development efforts to work," he said. "Giving aid without doing things to open the economy, giving aid without taking measures to ensure people are safe might not achieve the effects we're all hoping for." Batniji's team analysed direct threats to Palestinians' security, including aerial bombings, the use of guns by the Israeli military, demolition of homes and land confiscation. Since 2000, some 6,100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action, and another 600 by fighting between Palestinian factions, according to the study. Over the same period, more than 35,000 have been wounded in the conflict. INSECURITY HARMS HEALTH The study also explores indirect threats to human security, which spring from "an interlocking web of checkpoints, barriers, border closures, curfews and the permit system imposed by Israel". Symbolic of these is the towering security barrier Israel began building in 2002, a 720 km (447 mile) construction separating Israeli settlements from Palestinian communities in the West Bank. "While the causes of social exclusion, unemployment and hunger need uncovering in other parts of the world, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) some social determinants of health are eight metres tall and others turn homes to rubble," Batniji told reporters in London. Between 2000 and 2006, the Ministry of Health reported 69 cases of Palestinian women giving birth at Israeli checkpoints, while 10 percent of women in labour were delayed for two to four hours on their way to medical facilities, according to the Lancet. Another paper on health status and health services points out how improvements in infant and child mortality have stalled since 2000, and stunting in children rose from 7.2 percent in 1996 to 10.2 percent in 2006, reaching 30 percent in some parts of Gaza. Rates of tuberculosis and mental disorders have also increased amid an upsurge in poverty, hunger and unemployment. The Palestinian health system is fragmented and inadequate due to a lack of development under Israeli military rule and mismanagement by the Palestinian Authority, the paper says, meaning many patients have to be referred to countries like Egypt and Jordan for treatment. "Hope for improving the health and quality of life of Palestinians will exist only once people recognise that the structural and political conditions that they endure ... are the key determinants of prevailing health conditions," concluded the authors. PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA Researchers say it is too early to know the full consequences of the 22-day Israeli offensive launched in December. Besides the immediate effects of serious injuries, damage to health facilities, and food and water shortages, they expect longer-term impacts from mental trauma, displacement and rising unemployment following the destruction of farms and factories. "It is very clear that initially everybody is saying this is the scale of an earthquake, this is a disaster," said Rita Giacaman of the West Bank's Birzeit University. "Those who are living are severely traumatised." Giacaman said the conflict had compounded the distress experienced by Palestinians over the past six decades, as they have lived with the threat of violence, expulsion and land seizure. "The bulk of people have mental health problems," she said. "We need to recognise that in the OPT, the home front is the battle front ... The battle front is at your doorstep, where people endure the social suffering of war daily." Giacaman said that, in most cases, mental stress had not yet manifested itself in sickness. But Tony Laurance, head of the World Health Organisation office for the West Bank and Gaza, said health professionals were particularly worried about the effects of the latest offensive on children. "Families are reporting a lot of primary symptoms of distress, anxiety, bed-wetting that will need urgent attention to which there has been a very partial response so far," he told journalists. This week, international donors pledged $4.5 billion of new aid to help the Palestinian economy and rebuild Gaza after Israel's offensive, although they insisted their funds should bypass the territory's Hamas rulers. Awad Mataria of Birzeit University said the money could help alleviate medical suffering but would be most effective if used to tackle the political factors behind the conflict. "If we want to improve health, we have to deal with the causes of the occupation," he said. Giacaman urged donors to go beyond meeting the immediate needs of the crisis-hit population. "Humanitarian aid is not enough," she said. "We need to address the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land and the severe violation of human rights, including health rights."
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05 Mar 2009 23:15:07 GMT
How Security in Palestine can be achieved is the billion worth question and without finding the right answer to this human question spending Billions after every flare up of conflict is a cycle of waste. Researchers Humanitarians and developers should go into the historic roots of this human problem and get into the minds of the different communities living in this holy land for many religions.
The right human answer to this deep rooted ethnic problem will help the future human civilization to solve many similar ethnic problems around the world for good. If a lasting peaceful arrangement among the different communities representing various ethnic division can be achieved in middle east, developments will grow on its own without donors help. Among us in Canada, in USA, and in Many EU countries we have all these different ethnic communities from middle east living peacefully for hundreds of years. We have their places of worship, cultural centers, schools and business establishments doing all well in peace and helping the nations wealth. Why can't they do the same thing in middle east and honour all ethnic division by allowing every body to live in peace and happy. If any ethnic group things Palestine is theirs ancient home land and they must get a piece of secure land by killing or expelling who are living in that land, so that they can have a holiday home, it is the greatest crime in history they are committing against mankind. Best thing for all these warring ethnic groups which are fighting based on some religious faiths is to fight for the moon, because moon has a holy place in all religions. So peace will come to earth spreading brotherhood and friendship among all ethnic groups in middle east and elsewhere on mother earth.09 Mar 2009 03:02:31 GMT
Finally coherence, common sense, and courage to speak up and against the abuse of power. It remains to be seen if the Arab and western leaders who so quickly pledge their tax payers dollars will heed this report and attend to the causes of the detriments of health and well being of the Palestinians living in the OPT and within Israel.
This report gives the Palestinians a voice, one that has been drowned out or marginalized by far too many players for far too long. Be assured the factors leading up to and culminating in their ongoing, and almost encompassing state of misery did not just happen because of Hamas. The latter is a consequence of the same causes that have put the Palestinians health in jeopardy. It does not take a degree in rocket science to understand this research, much of which most readers may have already grasped intuitively. If one can not access a medical clinic because the armed check points surrounding your small village are not open 24 hours a day..well? And how and why are they there in the first place? My faith in these external world leaders of peace and their process has dwindled. The special relationship of the US with Israel to the tune of an annual gift of 3 billion dollars plus military armaments for the next 10 years illustrates an underlying and repugnant hypocrisy. Human rights and health rights are interwoven, as are the abuses. Look in the mirror, most of us are two-faced. We make distinctions between those we like and those we don't regardless of their actions. Some are held accountable, others are not for these same actions. We assuage our complicity in the abuses by throwing more money into the pits of despair rather than stopping these pits from being dug in the first place. And have the audacity to demand preconditions before releasing aid. It is tantamount to demanding people to beg. They are already on their wounded knees. In 2008, Nelson Mandela was removed from the US's list of terrorists. In my opinion, this questions their credibility as to who is and who isn't. Mothers, those of you who were able to get to a birthing facility speedily, what do you think it would have been like to be delayed or stopped as the contractions became more forceful? What is it like to have to have your baby behind a checkpoint where young men and women robotically carry out their orders, without empathy at your suffering and with total disregard for the potential for complications resulting in your death and/or that of your baby? One reason caesarian births are on the rise in the Palestinian population is to time the deliveries. This is not a good reason to have surgery, nor within a health care system that is overwhelmed and suffering the brunt of seiges, blockades, and restrictions. It is hoped that this report will open up more dialogues with many more internationals. The connections between health to security, peace and justice are common to us all the world over. By all agreeing upon making the determinants of health the focal point in current conflicts and as a detriment to future ones might bring about political competency and responsibility. With regards to the Palestinians, the keys to health are justice, sovereignty, and self-determination, not strangulation of the essentials for life and economy, severe mobility restrictions, theft of land and demolishment of homes and farms, multifaceted obstacles and humiliations in the activities to normal daily life, or this horrendous recent bombardment. History will not be so forgiving or tolerant of those who deny human and health rights.