Comment I posted RE Hussein Ibish: The tragedy in Yarmouk

NOW: A man stands inside a demolished building in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital Damascus on 6 April 2015. Around 2,000 people have been evacuated from the camp after ISIS seized large parts of it. (AFP/Youssef Karwashan)

The tragedy in Yarmouk: The Syrian Palestinian refugee camp has become "hell on earth"by
Hussein Ibish
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentary/565103-the-tragedy-in-yarmouk

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[Dear...]

Heart breaking- but a very good column by Hussein Ibish.  I am glad Ibish has not abandoned Palestine and the refugees. 

While I understand Ibish's call is for the international community, I have to wonder what exactly is the international community- is it formal governments worldwide, or is it mainly people speaking out to persuade their peers and elected leaders and newspapers to promote preferred story lines?   I can not help but think of all the many "pro-Palestine" activist individuals who constantly knock support away from diplomacy and state building efforts for Palestine.  Why are one-staters, anti-Israel Jewish activists and Islamists, who all tend to scorn negotiations, never ever held accountable for prolonging the Israel-Palestine conflict?

How many reasonable able advocates has Palestine lost, and how many good arguments for negotiations and statehood simply are not being made because 'pro-Palestine' in America has been hijacked by anti-state activists?

Seems to me the real Imperialism of today is a conglomeration of all the many "pro-Palestine" activist inciters weighing in to exasperate racism, religious bigotry, extremism, escalating conflict... further disenfranchising people connected to Palestine, and alienating America (and donors for UNWRA), rather than giving people concerned about the very real plight of the Palestinians the tools to help build a future with good jobs and real freedom based on a just and lasting peace for both Israel and for Palestine.

I wish more people had given more public support to American Task Force on Palestine efforts... I wish more people understood the vital importance of diplomacy and dialogue... and citizenship. American Task Force on Palestine might not be super active today, but all the many wise words, honest insights and good advice written through the years by Ibish & Dr. Ziad Asali (and others) remain in view providing a glimmer of hope that reasonable arguments for a real Palestine can still be made.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

"I have yet to meet a refugee who wanted to be a refugee and even less so, who wished to remain a refugee. Palestine refugees are no different. Their call for a just and lasting solution to their plight must be heard." UNWRA's Pierre Krähenbühl on World Refugee Day

http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/features/unsustainable-refugee-crisis

An Unsustainable Refugee Crisis

20 June 2014

Op Ed for World Refugee Day by the Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Pierre Krähenbühl

One hundred and twenty children were recently allowed out of Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, to sit public exams.  The fourteen-year-olds emerged from the apocalyptic city-scape they call home shell-shocked and bewildered, child victims of one of the most pitiless conflicts of our age.

Two weeks later those same children returned to Yarmouk to be reunited with their families, to a place where UN food deliveries are meeting just a quarter of the nutritional requirements of over 18,000 civilians trapped there in an extraordinarily harsh environment, an environment in which the absence of medical care can result in death from conditions that are otherwise easily treated and cured.

It was a bitter-sweet, profoundly tragic moment that cruelly exposed the hopelessness confronting those young students. Moreover, it was a metaphor that poignantly encapsulated the unsustainability of the Palestine refugee crisis in the Near East.

In Syria more than fifty per cent of the 550,000 UNRWA registered refugees have been displaced by the conflict with over half of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps where we work transformed into theatres of war.  On World Refugee Day, the plight of this often forgotten population must be acknowledged and the dramatic context in which they struggle to survive understood in all its complexity.

Beyond Syria, unsustainability confronts Palestine refugees living in the West Bank where the human impact of the Israeli occupation and settlement expansion is multi-dimensional and profound.

Palestine refugees are subject to a permit system that prevents freedom of movement. Many are forced to deal with home demolitions and land expropriations. Children and ordinary civilians face increased threats from the use of live ammunition. The West Bank barrier is destroying whole communities. The occupation is synonymous with de-development, stifling economic life with predictable human consequences. Food insecurity in Palestine has reached 33 per cent, affecting 1.6 million people according to UNRWA’s latest food survey.

In Gaza, unsustainability has many yardsticks. One in particular has struck me profoundly. The number of Palestine refugees coming to UNRWA for food handouts has increased from 80,000 in 2000 to over 800,000 today. When last in Gaza I met a once prosperous businessman who has now joined the UNRWA food line, a tragic transformation which puts a human face to the notion of this untenable situation. In Gaza there are many. Youth unemployment stands at 65 per cent.

Unemployment among women is 80 per cent. Unsustainability has an alarming environmental aspect in Gaza. 90 percent of water is unsafe to drink. The entire aquifer is likely to be unusable as early as 2016, with the damage irreversible by 2020 if present blockade policies are not changed. There are few immediate signs that they will be.

Projections for the numbers of Palestine refugees UNRWA may have to serve in the coming years underlines the unsustainability of the refugee crisis. In 2012, 5.27 million people were registered with UNRWA. This is expected to increase to 5.75 million in 2016 and 6.46 million in 2021. The number of those registered with us as “poor” will rise to 1.7 million in 2021.

With each passing day, it becomes an increasing imperative to listen to the voices of the dispossessed and heed their enduring warnings about loss and fear. Decades on, and with so many other crises affecting the Middle-East and the world, there is a real risk that their fate will be overshadowed and seen as an “old story”. I would argue that neglecting the plight of Palestine refugees is a risk the world cannot take.

Yet from Yarmouk, to the dismal Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon swollen by over 50,000 new arrivals from Syria, to the refugee communities trapped behind the barrier in the West Bank and on to the downward spiral in Gaza, unsustainability haunts almost all aspects of life. I have yet to meet a refugee who wanted to be a refugee and even less so, who wished to remain a refugee. Palestine refugees are no different. Their call for a just and lasting solution to their plight must be heard.

Until this is achieved UNRWA has a transformative role to play. During times of relative peace, our human development work in education, health, relief and social services promotes stability, dignity and respect for rights. In times of war, our emergency assistance builds resilience and mitigates the denial of rights to some, albeit an inadequate extent.

Now in our seventh decade, UNRWA’s contribution speaks for itself: we have achieved some of the highest literacy rates in the Middle-East, dramatic reductions in child and maternal mortality. Our commitment rivals that of any humanitarian actor, working under fire to provide emergency relief in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza.  This will continue until a solution to the plight of the Palestine refugees is found. I understood from day one that UNRWA’s mandate is not for sale.

I believe passionately that UNRWA’s contribution is inextricably linked to that of the refugees who make up the vast majority of our staff. Like all refugees, the Palestinians are also individuals with achievements and pride. They are victims of injustice, of occupation, blockade and conflict. They are also actors in their own development with skills that many in the world would envy. Palestinians are justly proud of the comparative literacy rates of their children and the highest attainment levels of generations of professionals.

UNRWA’s efforts will focus both on mobilizing hosts and donors to preserve and further strengthen our achievements, while raising the importance of increasingly recognizing that international assistance must come with the promotion of rights and dignity. Let us not forget that this is a crisis with a human face be it those shell-shocked children in Yarmouk, the ex-businessman in the UNRWA food line in Gaza or any of the five million individual refugees registered with us. No amount of aid will ever make up for the denial of their rights and dignity.

Celebrities press UN on Palestinian refugees in Syria

Celebrities press UN on Palestinian refugees in Syria (via AFP)

Some 30 celebrities have petitioned the UN demanding they take action to protect civilians, notably Palestinian refugees, caught up in the Syria conflict as it entered its fourth year on Saturday. Stars including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Sting, Roger…

---

#LetUsThrough ... & KUDOS to The Guardian for a dignified glance at what is it really like to be on the frontline of humanitarian response

Have you come across any inspiring stories about refugee resilience? 

Khaled. Photograph: UNRWA ...

A 14-month-old baby boy called Khaled. He looked like a five-month-old when his mother brought him to UNRWA. But with just a few days of proper food and medicine, he was brought back from the abyss.

Christopher Gunness, UNRWA

I was surprised by coming across a refugee community living in a disused railway station in Idlib province. The community had developed with a structured hierarchy, with the elders acting as councillors and the young men working the land and looking after the few cows and goats they had.

Matthew Norman, Syria Relief

Every day, I met the future of Syria, Syrian children who talk about their dream: the future paediatrician who said she will give free medicine to children; future painters, future airplane engineers. [They are] the future of Syria; they are the ones who show me hope.

Eujin Byun, UNHCR

I met a 70-year-old Syrian grandmother at one of our winter voucher distribution centers in east Amman. Even though we only engaged for a couple of hours, still, to this day, I think of her. Not for her harrowing tales – of which, like all those who cross the border, she had many – but simply for her [sense of] thrill, her love of life. Never without a smile, the grandmother of nine cheekily joked and charmed everyone in her presence. She brought joy and laughter at a time when they are rarely seen.

Rosie Thompson, Save the Children

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http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/guardianwitness-blog/2014/mar/14/syria-crisis-what-weve-learned-three-years-on

Syria crisis: what we’ve learned three years on

We’ve been using GuardianWitness to highlight the Syrian refugee crisis. Here, we ask our key contributors to reflect

This week marks three years since the start of the Syrian civil war. The conflict, which shows no sign of abating, has claimed 140,000 lives, forced 2.5 million people to flee for safety, and left a further 4.3 million people displaced within Syria’s borders. The UN estimates that 9.3 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance.

Agencies have issued multiple warnings and calls for help to deal with the conflict’s fallout. Only this week, Unicef and World Vision warned that – with millions of children facing collapsing health and education services, and suffering acute psychological distress and impoverishment – a potential “lost generation” is emerging.

There are also concerns about the pressure refugees are putting on neighbouring countries Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. UN officials have repeatedly called for Europe to relax its border controls in order to ease the growing humanitarian crisis on its doorstep, and have issued multiple appeals for financial assistance.

The public has become accustomed to images from Syria and beyond being beamed around the world, and has responded sympathetically. Thousands joined solidarity vigils for the #withsyria campaign, for which Banksy adapted an iconic image currently doing the rounds on social media. But what is it really like to be on the frontline of the humanitarian response?...READ MORE

Is there anything else you would like to highlight? 

A “thunderclap” new media campaign which aims to generate 23m social media hits with our campaign hashtag #LetUsThrough. Once we have done that, the iconic image of refugees waiting for food distributions in Yarmouk will appear on the electronic billboard in New York’s Times Square …. we will then get people in Times Square to do “selfies”, with the billboard as a background, and circulate them to all 23 million people who supported the campaign. It sounds complicated, but it is very simple. Please sign up. With two clicks you can make a real difference.

Christopher Gunness, UNRWA

***

This Thunderclap campaign aims to generate at least 23 million tweets, the pre-war population of Syria, with the #LetUsThrough hashtag. Once we have achieved that, our Thunderclap image will appear on the electronic billboard in New York’s Times Square, not far from United Nations Headquarters, sending a powerful message to the global diplomatic community that we demand they unite and “LetUsThrough.” We will then photograph the image on the Times Square billboard and tweet it out to the millions who followed us in the campaign.

U.N. Denies Altering Image of Palestinian Refugees in Damascus By the NYTimes' Robert Mackey

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http://nyti.ms/1fnM07y 

New York Times

March 11, 2014

The Lede

 Blogging the News with Robert Mackey

 A photograph of food distribution in a Damascus refugee camp for Palestinians released by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in January. Photo Credit UNRWA, via Associated Press

 A spokesman for the United Nations agency that provides assistance to Palestinian refugees rejected claims that an arresting image of thousands of people waiting for food distribution on a ruined street in Damascus recently had been digitally altered. 

Chris Gunness, the spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or Unrwa, said in a statement on Tuesday that the photograph — which is being used in a social media campaign to draw attention to the suffering of refugees trapped by fighting in a camp in the Syrian capital — has not “been ‘photoshopped’ or tampered with in any way. It is entirely genuine.” 

Mr. Gunness, who has expressed his personal outrage at conditions in the Yarmouk Camp, is leading an effort ...READ MORE

"Any claims that the photograph, which was described as “a biblical picture of suffering” in the British tabloid press, was created in Photoshop would seem to be dispelled by what appears to be video of the same scene released by the relief agency." 

U.N. video of food distribution in the Yarmouk Camp for Palestinian refugees in Damascus in January.

Thousands of Palestinians trapped in Syria camp 'slowly dying'

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http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=677438

Residents of Syria's besieged Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp, south
of Damascus, crowd on a destroyed street during food distribution, led
by UNRWA, on Jan. 31, 2014 (UNRWA/AFP/File)

BEIRUT (AFP) -- Gaunt, ragged figures fill the streets for as far as the eye can see in the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk outside Damascus, where some 40,000 are said to be slowly starving to death.

The United Nations distributed shocking images this week of thousands of people, their faces emaciated, desperately flocking to receive food aid that only a few were lucky enough to collect.

"We live in a big prison," said Rami al-Sayed, a Syrian activist living in Yarmouk, speaking via the Internet.

"But at least, in a prison, you have food. Here, there's nothing. We are slowly dying."

"Sometimes, crowds of children stop me on the streets, begging me: 'For the love of God, we want to eat, give us food.' But of course, I have no food to give them," Sayed said.

After months of shelling and fierce fighting in and around Yarmouk between rebels and President Bashar Assad's troops, the camp's population has shrunk from more than 150,000 to 40,000. Among them are 18,000 Palestinians.

Since last summer, the area has been under choking army siege, creating inhumane conditions for its inhabitants.

"We've been living off herbs, but these herbs are bitter. Even animals won't eat them," said Sayed.

"And if you go to the orchards to pick herbs from there, to use them to cook soup, you'll get sniped."

"The situation is really tragic. On the streets, all you see are emaciated people, their faces drained of any life. Sadness is everywhere," said Sayed.

Even the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians was overwhelmed by the drama.

Since January, the agency has only been able to carry out limited, intermittent food distribution in the camp.

'Let us out, or let us die'

"Gaunt, ragged figures of all ages fill the streets of the devastated camp for as far as the eye can see," UNRWA said, adding that such scenes were the agency's "daily reality."

"Humanitarian need has reached profound levels of desperation. Hunger and anxiety are etched on the faces of the waiting multitudes."

Since January, UNRWA has distributed only 7,500 food parcels in Yarmouk, describing that as "a drop in the ocean compared with the rising tide of need."

One parcel feeds a family of between five and eight for 10 days.

"Yesterday (Wednesday) only 10 percent of people here received assistance," said Sayed.

Ali Zoya, a Palestinian living in Yarmouk, said "the aid will only last a few days."

Much of the camp has been reduced to rubble by shelling, fighting and occasional aerial bombardment.

The distribution only began after rebels from outside the camp agreed to withdraw, following a deal reached with Palestinian factions.

The lack of food in Yarmouk is compounded by medical shortages.

"In the hospitals, there are wounded people who cannot be treated because there are no doctors or medicines," said Sayed.

"I saw a young man with a shrapnel wound to his leg. He won't get better until he is able to leave the camp," which is still under siege even though the rebels have withdrawn.

Since October, more than 100 people have died from food and medical shortages, says to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

After a visit on Tuesday, UNRWA chief Filippo Grandi described the "shocking" conditions of life he witnessed in Yarmouk. He compared the people flocking to the distribution point as "the appearance of ghosts."

Their despair echoes that of families who were trapped in rebel-held areas of the central city of Homs for more than 18 months, also under a tight army siege imposed to turn people against Syria's nearly three-year revolt.

"People here are completely exhausted," said Sayed. "They feel tortured. They say: 'Let us out, or let us die.'"

This Week in Palestine: Human Rights in Palestine

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http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=4190&edid=227&ed=227

....Every time my children Basil and Taima cry because they are hungry or cold, I am immediately transported to Al-Yarmouk, and I imagine toddlers my children’s age crying endlessly, not having eaten for days, or even worse, not crying at all as they slowly slip into eternal silence. The world remains oblivious, uninterested, and unmoved by the Palestinian plight. And our cause is often diluted to a situation of two neighbours unable to live together, which could not be farther from the truth. This is why an issue on human rights had to be produced. This Week in Palestine’s main mission is to document and celebrate Palestine rather than mourn her, but this issue is far from celebratory. Nor is it mournful. If anything it is a solid documentation on the status of human rights in Palestine. We cover everything: prisoners, women, children, business, and human rights. We share the world’s pain on losing Nelson Mandela, as we also lost one of our own human rights champions, Eyad Sarraj. This issue is serious, well written, and heavy. It need not be taken lightly. However, you will, no doubt, feel a few rays of hope shimmering somewhere within its folds.

So read on. And could someone please send a copy to Scarlett Johansson!

Riyam Kafri AbuLaban
Content Editor

Human Rights in Palestine

• Palestine’s New United Nations Status Brings Human Rights Obligations
  By Mutaz M. Qafisheh

 
• The Rights of Palestinian Children
  By June Kunugi and Monica Awad

 
• Let It Out
  By Laila Joseph

 
• Eulogy for Dr. Eyad Sarraj

 
• Palestinian Women between the Hammer of Colonialism and the Anvil of Patriarchy Stateless and Invisible
  By Maha Abu-Dayyeh

 
• Social Security Is a Human Right
  By Mounir Kleibo

 
• The Status of Human Rights in Palestine
  By Randa Siniora

• Artist of the Month
  Amer Shomali

 
• Book of the Month
  Golda Slept Here

 
• Exhibition Review
  Interstice

 
• Film Review
  Suspended Times

 
• Personality of the Month
  Mamdouh Aker

 
• Picturesque Palestine
  Picturesque Palestine

The Offices of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in East Jerusalem forcefully closed by Israel in 2001. Photo by George Azar.

ATFP Briefing: Yarmouk Camp Crisis

as of 1-28-2014: 73 Palestinian refugees starved to death in Yarmouk refugee camp

Briefing Video

Published on Jan 27, 2014

The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) hosted a briefing on the Palestinian Refugees in Syria and the crisis at Yarmouk on Wednesday, January 22. The event that was held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C, examined the crisis from numerous angles, including its humanitarian and regional components, and placed it in the context of international responsibilities towards the victims.

The panelists included the acting head of the DC UNRWA office Christopher McGrath; WINEP Senior Fellow Andrew J. Tabler; and ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish. It was moderated by ATFP Executive Director Ghaith Al-Omari.

ATFP Briefing on Palestinian Refugees in Syria and the Crisis at Yarmouk: The National Press Club Washington DC- January 22nd, 2014

Register Now

ATFP Briefing: Yarmouk Camp Crisis

The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) will be hosting a briefing on Palestinian Refugees in Syria and the crisis at Yarmouk on Wednesday, January 22 from 1-3 PM. The event will be held in the Zenger Room at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, DC 20045.

Panelists will include Richard Wright, the Director of the UNRWA New York Representative Office; Andrew J. Tabler, Senior Fellow at the The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish. 

January 22, 2014
 1:00-3:00 PM

 

The National Press Club
Zenger Room
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
Washington, DC 20045

 

Palestinian refugees in Syria, especially at the Yarmouk refugee camp outside of Damascus, are facing a dire humanitarian crisis. 18,000 refugees are trapped in Yarmouk and there have been many reported deaths due to attacks, starvation, and lack of medicines and fuel.

On December 20, UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi warned that "It is my responsibility to inform the international community that humanitarian conditions in the besieged refugee camp of Yarmouk are worsening dramatically and that we are currently unable to help those trapped inside. If this situation is not addressed urgently, it may be too late to save the lives of thousands of people including children."

On January 15, Secretary of State John Kerry said, "[in] Ghouta and other parts of the country, such as Yarmouk refugee camp, civilians are dying of malnutrition. That is absolutely unacceptable. If the regime can allow access to United Nations and international weapons inspectors, surely it can do the same for neutral, international humanitarian assistance.” 

This ATFP panel will examine the crisis from numerous angles, including its humanitarian and regional components, and place it in the context of international responsibilities towards the
victims.

Richard Wright, the Director of the UNRWA New York Representative Office

ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish

Andrew J. Tabler, Senior Fellow at the The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

 

When

January 22nd, 2014 1:00 PM   through   3:00 PM

 

Location

The National Press Club
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
Zenger Room
Washington DC 20045
United States

Register Now

Murdering Palestinians by starvation in Syria... much crueler and more arbitrary than anything imposed on Gaza by either Israel or Egypt.

Patrolling the vicinity. (AFP Photo/Anwar Amro)

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/530276-murdering-palestinians-by-starvation

Murdering Palestinians by starvation in Syria

Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk are being starved to death by the Syrian regime. Does anyone care?

Hussein Ibish 
January 14, 2014

There isn't much the Palestinian people haven't suffered. But the use of enforced starvation against them by the Syrian dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad at the Yarmouk refugee camp breaks new ground in cruelty. Hundreds are said to be facing imminent death by starvation, lack of water and medical care, and the loss, for almost a year now, of all heat and electricity.

Last weekend, at least 41 Palestinian refugees were reported to have died as a result of food and medicine shortages, and all the evidence suggests this account is a low estimate. The numbers continue to grow daily.

Rights groups said that today eight more Palestinians in Syria have died from malnutrition, including an 80-year-old, Jamil al-Qurabi, a 40-year-old, Hasan Shihabi, and a 50-year-old woman called Noor. Meanwhile 10-year-old Mahmoud al-Sabbagh and two 19-year-olds, Majid Imad Awad and Ziad al-Naji, were killed while protesting the blockade of the camp. Muhammad Ibrahim Dhahi is reported to have been tortured to death by regime forces, while Hasan Younis Nofal was killed by one of Assad's now-notorious barrel bombs.

Yesterday a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) convoy of trucks loaded with desperately-needed food and medicines were fired on by pro-Assad forces, most likely the so-called PFLP-GC, as they tried to enter the camps and were unable to deliver the urgent relief.

The PLO says it is still trying to negotiate with "Syrian officials and [pro-Assad] militants in Palestinian camps in Syria in order to reach a solution and create a safe passage for the entry of relief supplies to Yarmouk." They are, in effect, begging for the lives of innocent Palestinians suffering a siege that, while significantly smaller in scale, is without doubt much crueler and more arbitrary than anything imposed on Gaza by either Israel or Egypt....READ MORE

Aid Convoy Unable to Reach Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Syria ... 41 Palestinian refugees have died of food and medicine shortages in the camp.

Yarmouk refugee camp:

Palestinian Refugees Starving in Syria

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/international/6626-aid-convoy-unable-to-reach-yarmouk-refugee-camp-in-syria
Published on Tuesday, 14 January 2014 10:44

An aid convoy consisting of six trucks loaded with medicine and food were attacked on their way to Yarmouk refugee camp. The convoy was prepared by the PLO and tried to reach the camp  on Monday under UNRWA auspices. It is unclear who attacked the convoy of the much needed humanitarian supplies.

Yarmouk refugee camp has been under siege since last summer and no humanitarian aid organizations, including UNRWA, have not been able to reach the camp since september 2013. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 41 Palestinian refugees have died of food and medicine shortages in the camp.

Before Syria’s civil war began, the camp was home to 150, 000 Palestinian refugees. Today only about 20, 000 Palestinians remain there. Syria is officially home to nearly half a million Palestinian refugees. Since the war broke out in 2011 half of them have been displaced, becoming refugees for a second time.