Memorandum submitted by the CARE International
UK
AN UNNECESSARY
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
1. The situation in Palestine faces international
NGOs such as CARE with a stark dilemma. The humanitarian situation
is severe and one part of our mandate urges us to respond with
appropriate life-saving measures to the extent of our abilities.
Yet we also know that this humanitarian situation has been caused
entirely by a breakdown in relationships between democratically
elected governments, whose collective intransigence has led to
hundreds of thousands of people facing destitution. The governments
of Israel, Palestine, the US and the UK all share in the responsibility
for this.
2. Following the victory of Hamas in the
elections of January 2006, the Israeli government withheld VAT
revenues from the Palestinian Authority, in violation of the Paris
Protocol ratified in 1995 following the Oslo accords. Several
international donors, including the US & EU, withheld their
aid funds to the Authority, and imposed restrictions on the use
of funds channelled through NGOs.
3. The freezing of funding to government
institutions has precipitated a collapse of the Palestinian economy
by depriving Ministries of operating funds for delivering their
services, and 150,000 government workers of their salaries. Because
the PA employs 40% of the workforce, the basis of family livelihoods,
local commerce and economic activity has disappeared. Institutions
as diverse as the World Bank, the UN, the BBC and a number of
human rights organisations have all reported on the deteriorating
conditions of the Palestinian population. Income is predicted
to drop by 40% and fully two thirds of the population will be
below the poverty line by the end of the year.
4. From CARE's experience of working alongside
them, Palestinian institutions are indeed flawed. Many display
deficiencies in capacity, effectiveness and integrity. However
our belief is that the way to solve this is by a combination of
strengthening both the institutions themselves and the capacity
of civil society to hold them to account. It is impossible to
achieve this against a climate where international pressure is
attempting to beat the government into submission and is driving
the Palestinian people into destitution.
5. For this reason CARE has adopted a twin-track
policy for its work in Gaza and the West Bank. On the one hand
it is conducting a humanitarian relief programme that seeks to
maintain essential services in the areas of health, water and
food security. It does so reluctantly in the full knowledge that
NGO action cannot and should not be a substitute for the duties
and functions of government. On the other hand, CARE is advocating
for a full and speedy return to normality so that Palestinian
institutions can assume their responsibilities and Palestinian
people can exercise their citizenship, albeit in the truncated
and restricted way imposed by the Israeli occupation.
6. The cases that CARE has chosen to include
in its evidence to the Committee are examples from individuals
whose stories are typical of the hundreds we encounter in our
work every day.
A FURTHER TURN
OF THE
SCREW
7. The conflict between Israel and Palestine
is not a recent phenomenon and many of the problems being faced
by people today are also not new. Movement restrictions, arbitrary
closures and punitive demolitions are part and parcel of the apparatus
of occupation that has steadily eroded the quality of life of
people over decades in Gaza and the West Bank.
8. Notwithstanding this, the current situation
is the most severe that CARE has encountered in 45 years of working
in the region. Wealthier members of extended families have always
supported their more vulnerable family members, but with government
salaries unpaid, this informal redistribution of resources is
not longer a sufficient coping mechanism. Many families have reduced
what they eat, and how often they eat. Meat is not the only luxury.
A woman, whose husband is a policeman with the Palestinian Authority
who has not received his salary since January 2006, recounts:
"In my home, I am buying vegetables for my children only
once a week. When I bought bananas, my six-year-old daughter Raheel,
asked for some more. I said to her I am sorry I have no money
and I cannot keep buying."
9. Other coping mechanisms include cutting
down on non-essential household expenditure, turning to subsistence
agriculture and bartering goods, and ultimately, seeking material
support from local charities and NGOs. The most desperate have
begun selling their assets. Some people have sold all they have,
and increasing numbers are going into debt. Shopkeepers are beginning
to refuse credit and local businesses are closing.
10. The situation is dividing families.
Because of movement restrictions, and now the punitive cost of
travel, workers are no longer able to commute and are having to
leave their families to live near their workplace. Some stories
are more tragic. One man tells of his three children whom he can
no longer see. His wife had said to him: "You want me to
stay here in poverty and hunger? In Israel I can find a job,"
and she took the children and left. "Now we are divorced
because of the security fence and the hard economic conditions."
PUBLIC SERVICES
GRIND TO
A HALT
11. Public services are close to paralysed
by the funding shortages, and now by the general strike of public
sector workers. Minimal or zero levels of service and infrastructure
maintenance are evident in sectors such as water supply, sanitation,
transport, health care, education, policing and judicial services.
12. Provisions in the EU's Temporary International
Mechanism, (TIM) are only a partial respite, because to function
as a whole the systems needs all its parts to be working—fuel
and salaries and disposables and maintenance and supplies must
all be in place. Filling one gap simply makes another the critical
limiting factor.
13. Because people can no longer afford
to pay their electricity and water bills (payment rates have declined
from an estimated 90% to around 25%), the utilities' revenues
are decreasing even further. Local authorities have no revenues
with which to maintain the most basic of services. Household refuse
collection is irregular and, particularly in Gaza, we see the
conditions for a public health crisis. Cases of childhood diarrhoea
are up by over 50%, possibly due to deteriorating water quality.
Mothers have stopped vaccinating their children regularly, because
they do not have the money for transport to the health facility
or the facility is not open.
14. Human tragedies lie behind the generalisations
and statistics cannot tell the whole story. In the Women's Centre
they are telling the story of an 18 year old woman from Seila
village, who went to the Government Hospital in Jenin for delivery.
The hospital was on strike because health workers were not receiving
their salaries. While the husband was trying to come up with the
money to take his wife to a private hospital, the woman died.
UNDEVELOPMENT
15. We are witnessing the dismantling of
a society which, for all the difficulties it faced, functioned
at many levels. Social tensions were contained by a mixture of
tradition, a sense of solidarity under adversity, and a vestige
of hope. Removing the basic means of material survival from most
families has taken the social structure to the edge of breaking
point. Families are too focussed on caring for the needs of their
nearest and dearest to have the resources for collective action.
16. As a result, Palestinians are resorting
to informal ways of meeting their needs—exercising any means
available to meet their needs. Respect for the rule of law, already
weak, has declined further. Distinctions between legal and illegal
actions dissolve in the pursuit of food and livelihoods. There
is an increase in theft and assault. In some areas we are told
that women and girls especially no longer feel safe. These are
phenomena that were relatively rare in the past.
17. There are many among the Palestinian
population who suspect this is all a conspiracy by "the West"
to ensure that Palestine never becomes a viable entity. Ahmad
said: "We are being punished because people voted in a democratic
way. I had attended training workshops on democracy, but now I
do not believe what the world is telling us."
18. However, this assault on their human
dignity is not turning ordinary Palestinians into a submissive,
dependent population. Rather, frustration is fueling radicalism
and rebellion. In the words of the head of one local village council:
"I carry moderate political views, but the people are asking
me what has your moderation brought us? Now the people's role
models are making me feel worried."
19. The situation with youth is particularly
of concern. A school principal , who became a teacher 31 years
ago because it was prestigious and would guarantee his family
a decent living, is now on strike, and says: "I am ashamed
to look my pupils in the eye when I see them wandering in the
streets. I am afraid because my pupils are subject to extremism."
A WAY FORWARD
20. As a result of the current situation
CARE's longer-term development work in the West Bank and Gaza
has all but ground to halt. For the immediate future CARE has
no option but to focus on its work to mitigate the humanitarian
impacts of the sanctions. Because of movement restrictions and
other obstructions, our efficiency is reduced and our costs increased.
(ECHO has estimated that it loses 20% of its budget to the disruption
caused by movement restrictions).
21. Added to this, the restrictions placed
by some donors on whom we can work with means that it has become
more difficult to work through some of the most effective channels,
including some local NGOs as well as PA institutions that are
deemed to be under Hamas influence. Ordinarily we rely heavily
on information from counterpart ministries and local authorities
for effective monitoring and targeting of our interventions.
22. However imperfect the status quo ante,
CARE believes there is no way ahead without a return to normalised
relations with the Palestinian Authority. This is the bedrock
on which can be built effective governance and service delivery.
NGOs are neither equipped, nor have the mandate, to substitute
for a variable and effective state.
23. The TIM is a stop-gap measure and so
far has been used, with some effect, to prevent a total collapse
of services and social welfare in Gaza and West Bank. The situation
has deteriorated so far now that it will be impossible for a return
to normality overnight. We are concerned that with time the "Temporary"
will become the status quo, and some of the changes may prove
hard to reverse. For example, the payment of benefits to low-paid
workers under Window 3 is now made through the President's office,
reversing the fiscal reforms that were under way before the current
crisis.
24. We urge that in the coming months, the
TIM be administered in a way that moves progressively towards
normalisation, by increasing the range of sectors it can be applied
to and the governmental channels that are used. This way the period
of transition will be minimised, and can take advantage of any
advances made in the establishment of a government of national
unity.
25. However, the solution does not lie in
improving the flow of international aid. CARE urges the UK government
to do all in its power to accelerate a speedy return to normality.
We appreciate that much diplomacy must go on behind the scenes
and away from the public eye. However, we urge the UK Government
take a bolder public stand. The UK currently characterises itself
as a passive player that is abiding by the position of the Quartet.
Yet within the Quartet, the UK is influential both as a member
of the EU and through its relationship with the USA.
26. At the time of writing, US Secretary
of State Rice was attempting to revitalise the Agreement on Movement
and Access (AMA) negotiated in 2005 but never implemented. We
urge the UK Government to add its weight to any process which
will end the increasing stranglehold on the Palestinian economy
imposed by the increasing number of permanent road blocks and
arbitrary flying checkpoints.
27. Furthermore, we urge the UK Government
to do all in its power to encourage all parties to abide by their
obligations under the Paris Protocol, leading to a release of
the VAT revenues currently withheld by the Israeli Government.
This would have a much more significant impact on the humanitarian
situation in the West Bank and Gaza than the resumption of international
aid.
28. Increased humanitarian spending in West
Bank and Gaza will ease the immediate suffering, as well as, temporarily,
some consciences. CARE is a reluctant partner in this process.
The underlying issues that determine the well-being of Palestinians
are the nature of the Israeli occupation and the effectiveness
of the Palestinian government. The current context should not
allow us to be distracted from these central challenges.
October 2006
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