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Palestinians Between Rock and Hard Place
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Palestinians risk their lives as they try to climb the separation wall.
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Additional
Reporting By Youssef Al-Shaib, IOL Correspondent
RAMALLAH,
April 24, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – The Palestinians have been caught
between the rock of the Israeli separation wall with daily humiliation
by trigger-happy Israeli soldiers and the hard place of a humanitarian
crisis with severe shortage in food and medicine due to checkpoint
closures and aid cut by the West.
Khedr
Khalil is a Palestinian worker from the West Bank city of Bethlehem
lying in a critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit after
sustaining serious back injuries as he attempted to climb the Israeli
separation wall for a job on the other side of the territories.
"Desperate
as he was, Khalil decided to take the risk and climb the seven-meter
wall on his way to Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem) to find a job and
cater for his seven siblings," his cousin Mohamed told
IslamOnline.net Monday, April 24.
"He
fell down the wall and injured his back to be only kicked and beaten
by four Israeli soldiers with rifle butts and batons."
Khalil,
38, was later admitted to the Beit Jala hospital between life and
death.
Israel
claims the 700km-long separation wall in the West Bank is meant to
stop Palestinian attacks. The Palestinians, however, argue that it
preempts their future state and confiscate vast swathes of their land.
The
wall has already confiscated 11,4000 dunums (2,850 acres - 1,140
hectares) of privately-owned Palestinian land and led to the
destruction of 102,320 trees, according to a UN report.
According
to the report, 30 percent of the West Bank population, or some 680,000
people, will be "directly harmed" with the completion of the
wall.
Palestinian
experts further say that the Israelis clearly sought to commandeer
water resources by establishing the wall as Israel is monopolizing
around 75 percent of Palestinian water resources in the occupied West
Bank, a region where rainfall is infrequent and water a strategic
asset.
Daily
Humiliation
Khalil's
case is just an episode of the daily humiliation the Palestinian
workers face at the hands of the Israeli soldiers.
"I
was arrested by Israeli soldiers while going to work in Al-Quds,"
said a Palestinian worker who identified himself as Shouki.
He
said many Palestinian workers were also arrested by Israeli soldiers
while going for work for no reason.
"We
stand a trial and were sentenced for two months in jail and fined 2000
shekels."
Hundreds
of Palestinian workers are arrested by Israel on charges of entering
the Israeli territories without permissions.
But
Palestinians complain that they are always denied access by Israeli
authorities on claims of security concerns.
"We
have nothing at hands but to endure the provocative and humiliating
Israeli practices to avoid arrest," said another Palestinian
worker.
"We
are poor workers and only want to make ends meet."
Nearly
20 workers were killed and scores wounded in 2005 while seeking to
enter Israel for work, according to a report by the Palestinian labor
union.
Some
500 Palestinian workers were arrested in 2005 on charges of entering
into Israel without permission, it added.
No
Medicine
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The severe shortage in medicine endangers lives of scores of Palestinian patients.
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The
daily Israeli closures and its labyrinth of checkpoints as well as the
aid cut-off after Hamas election have also aggravated the suffering of
the Palestinians with patients taking the brunt.
"I
will die. Without medicine I will die," wheel-chaired Amena
Ghaith told Reuters.
Ghaith,
60, is one of scores of Palestinian patients looking for medicine but
in no avail due to the deadly closures, aid freezing and unpaid bills.
"People
keep coming in with prescriptions from doctors but as you see, our
shelves are empty of most medicine," said doctor Habib Attallah
at the reception department of the Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
Pharmacy
owners said many kinds of medicines were not available.
Nea'man
Abed, head of the kidney department, said some suppliers had halted
shipments to the Palestinian Ministry of Health over unpaid bills.
"That
means I may lose my son," said Musa Bahloul, standing next to his
13-year-old boy, who needs a kidney transplant.
The
Palestinians already complain about shortages of food and other items
over Israel's closures and the aid cut-off.
The
UN warned last month that the Palestinians are on the verge of a
humanitarian crisis due to severe food shortage.
The
United States and European Union have suspended aid to the Palestinian
government. Israel has since February stopped transferring customs
duties worth around $50 million a month and previously collected for
the PA.
A
recent report released by the United Nations said aid freeze could
mean that the Palestinian Authority would end up a "failed
state."
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