Human crisis of the Middle East
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has been debated in recent days on the floor of the UN Security Council, in Brussels, in Washington, and in the capitals across Europe and the Arab world. Much of what has been said in those sessions, meetings and news briefings has been political – using strong words but mainly in a politically correct context. In another community, though, that of non-governmental medical and rights groups that have been closely involved in the region with their own staff on the ground, the Middle East conflict is a grave reality. Their views of the crisis breaks all rules of diplomacy and it’s the closest one gets these days to the naked truth. «The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is deeply concerned at the flagrant lack of respect for medical services during the unprecedented increase in violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories over recent weeks,» the group said in a statement on Tuesday. The ICRC was reacting to Israeli defense forces (IDF) orders not to permit any medical services to enter the combat areas and care for the wounded Palestinians that were bleeding to death in the streets and their homes in Ramallah and other Palestinian-ruled territories. A team of doctors of the Greek office of Doctors of the World was even denied entry into Israel, being detained for over two hours before being expelled from the country, the group said yesterday. «The Israeli authorities today denied entry into Israel to a five-member team of Greek Doctors of the World, and after a detention of two hours they expelled them with rudeness and no explanation,» the group said from Athens. Moreover, the ICRC spoke openly this week about recent attacks on ambulances in the area, by both Israelis and Palestinians. «The ICRC is outraged over recent attacks against emergency medical services of both the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and of the Magen David Adom (MDA),» the group said. «On March 31, seven persons, out of which four were MDA staff, were injured in a suicide attack near a medical center in Efrat settlement close to Bethlehem. Only three weeks ago, the Palestinian emergency medical services staff, two of them from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, were killed, and several others seriously injured when their ambulances came under fire by Israeli troops in Jenin and Tulkarem.» According to the ICRC, the Israeli army has held medical staff and ambulances up to eight hours at checkpoints, has refused them a safe passage and quick access to victims, and has harassed their medical staff in several occasions. Harsh realities The IDF announced yesterday that some 1,100 Palestinians, including many wanted for anti-Israeli attacks, have been arrested in recent days in the Israeli army offensive on the West Bank. The United Nations’ Children’s Fund released a statement yesterday criticizing the massive roundup of Palestinians and attacks from both sides. It warns that these actions taking place before Palestinian and Israeli children could create a generation of intolerance. «Over the last weeks, Israelis and Palestinians have terrorized each other’s communities, without regard for homes, schools, health centers and other public spaces where children are present,» Unicef Executive Director Carol Bellamy said yesterday from Geneva. «The impact of escalating violence on children’s rights and well-being is both immense and lasting.» According to a report yesterday by Agence France-Presse, 1,701 people have been killed since the start of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in September 2000, including 1,256 Palestinians and 412 Israelis. «Traumatic events such as the death or injury of family and friends, house-to-house searches, and the humiliating roundup and detention of fathers and brothers cause irreparable damage to children’s confidence in adults and increase their acceptance of violence as an adequate method for resolving problems,» Unicef declared. According to Unicef, the lack of tolerance in the two communities can only produce more violence by the next generations. «If today’s generation does not have the opportunity to grow in an atmosphere of trust, tolerance and justice, there can be little hope for stability in the region,» the agency noted. Another international group, the Copenhagen-based International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), an umbrella organization with over 200 centers worldwide working to heal the psychological wounds of trauma victims, has grown alarmed over the safety of its staff in the area of Israeli military operations. «With partner rehabilitation centers and progorams in Ramallah and Gaza, the IRCT remains gravely concerned for the safety of the staff who are presently unable to provide critically needed support to victims of trauma and torture,» the group said in a statement on Wednesday. The anti-torture group repeated the warning by Unicef that the current atmosphere of intolerance by both sides can only lead to more violence. «The effects of war and terror transcend the suffering of the individual to the broader society,» the IRCT declared. «No society can exist in peace when its population is suffering the psychological and physical effects of severe trauma.» Security vs rights Contrary to the stance of the international community, rights groups have repeatedly declared the need for the deployment of international monitors in the area to ensure the respect of human rights from both sides. «Israel’s military action characterized by flagrant human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied territories is fueling a spiraling cycle of violence,» Amnesty International declared in a statement on Wednesday. The group repeated its call for «international human rights monitors to be deployed with the aim of protecting Palestinian and Israeli civilians.» According to the rights group, in the recent negotiations for a ceasefire in Israel and the Palestinian territories there has been much mention of security, but little or none of human rights. «More than 1,000 Palestinians have been arrested by the IDF over the past five days,» Amnesty International noted. «One Palestinian who was released said he was kept handcuffed and lying down in an unfinished building exposed to the elements, and was hooded to go to the toilet. He also reported that, depending on the IDF unit guarding them, prisoners were beaten at times.» The group also declared that in recent days the IDF has occupied scores of houses and apartment blocks in Ramallah, confining up to 60 occupants to one or two rooms without water, electricity or phones. For New York-based Human Rights Watch, these acts are unjustified. «It doesn’t matter whether you call it resistance, self-defense, or a war against terror,» the group stressed on Wednesday. «No political or security objective can justify targeting and punishing the civilian population of an adversary.»
