Looking for Trouble

Washington doctors get briefing on Gaza water crisis as surgeries continue

(This is Part 5 in a series. For the next several days, Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, will be sending back reports from inside blockaded Gaza. As she did twice before, Gerri has organized a team of doctors and other health care providers to work in hospitals and clinics in Gaza in an effort to directly help the people there and to bring attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Israeli blockade has created.)

Leaders of the Coastal Municipality Authority (responsible for monitoring the water supply and planning for improving the water in Gaza) gave members of our group sobering information about their water supply. Five years from now, they said, there will be not one drop of fresh water naturally available in all of Gaza.

Pollution by over-pumping the aquifers, deep contamination by pollutants (nitrates, chlorides and other toxic substances), incursion of the sea into the fresh water supply – are all creating a critical problem for Gaza. The presence of inadequate sewage treatment means that raw or mostly untreated sewage runs openly across areas of land – polluting the land and fresh water and then polluting the sea as it exits the land.

Restoration of the natural aquifer near the Eastern border with Israel is prevented by the heavy clay of the soil – preventing percolation and replenishment of rain water (also in short supply) – and by the wells dug by Israel near the Israeli side of the border – removing water that might flow into the Gaza aquifer.

One new sewage treatment plant will be functional in the near future, but this will not address the magnitude of the need. Other plants are planned, but the presence of the siege and lack of access to materials has prevented construction of these plants. Additionally, the population of Gaza is forecast to double by 2020, creating an unsustainable picture.

Desalination plants are needed – again the siege and lack of access to construction sites and materials make these plants unobtainable.

Gaza is living in a water crisis.

Our group met yesterday with Dr. Eyad Sarraj, founder of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. Dr. Sarraj is scheduled to travel next week to Sweden to receive the Olof Palme Prize for his “self-sacrificing and indefatigable struggle for common sense, reconciliation, and peace.” Members of WPSR first met Dr. Sarraj in Gaza in 1993 and he has been an inspiration for any work we have done in this area.

Members of our delegation also met last evening with Aidan O’Reilly, deputy director of UNRWA, to learn about the work of the United Nations in Gaza. UN schools serve 213,000 children in Gaza.

The facilities available to serve these children are vastly overcrowded – all children double or triple shift in the schools. Israel has promised that building materials for only 9% of the needed materials for school construction will be allowed to enter Gaza. However, due to the siege, only half of the 9% have been received.

Gaza has an unemployment rate of approximately 66%. Prohibition of construction materials, prohibition of export of agricultural and manufactured goods and prohibition of access to deep water fishing all are part of the ongoing unemployment crisis here.

Still, as we meet with the people of Gaza and hear their stories, their resilience continues to be inspiring. One member of the Board of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme introduced us to the Women’s Clinic he has initiated – providing health education, psychosocial consultation and physical exercise possibilities for women in his area.

This gentleman is also on the board of a youth sports clinic which provides organized physical activities for thousands of young people in the southern part of Gaza.

While the pediatric urology team continues to operate into the night, other members of our delegation are working in areas of Gaza that are new to us. Bob Haynes and I spent yesterday morning at the European Hospital near Khan Younis – Bob in the cardiology section and I with the oncology team.

In Gaza, families live together in geographically close groups and when a family member becomes ill, the family is already present for support. The oncology head nurse, whose husband died recently from cancer, explained to me the Islamic belief that all life and death comes from Allah – and said that she regarded her husband’s death as the will of Allah. This belief, and the natural family presence, she noted, would make much of the hospice work we do in the U.S. unnecessary here.

Washington doctors in Gaza continue work with clinics, surgery and lectures

(This is Part 4 in a series. For the next several days, Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, will be sending back reports from inside blockaded Gaza. As she did twice before, Gerri has organized a team of doctors and other health care providers to work in hospitals and clinics in Gaza in an effort to directly help the people there and to bring attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Israeli blockade has created.)

In Gaza, women are working to preserve and improve life in every possible way.

This afternoon, I met with the director of The Palestinian Developmental Women Studies Associations. Dr. Abu Dagga spent two years in an Israeli prison (1968-1970) and now works with women in Gaza who are ex-prisoners – seeking to improve their lives through counseling, education and rehabilitation. Her center conducts research on the needs of women and provides opportunities for youth to be educated to serve the people of Gaza. Seeking not to follow political rhetoric, the Center’s mission is to speak for all Palestinians and serves women from all over Gaza.

Steve Gilbert’s lecture this morning on toxicology raised many questions about lead and the problems caused by lead. Here, the gasoline burned in cars and generators contains lead (no lead-free gas) and the particles released from the thousands of individual generators are likely the source increased environmental toxicity. Simple precautions can decrease individual lead exposure: hand washing, not wearing shoes in homes and damp-dusting home surfaces, but source prevention is critical.

Steve will be meeting throughout the week with medical and environmental personnel and hopes to help build a Palestinian toxicology society. The environment of Gaza is polluted from so many sources that concentrated work will be required to create environmental safety.

Part of the discussion I had with Gaza Community Mental Health Programme personnel this morning involved strategies for removal of garbage from the streets – and how a visually cleaner environment might help to create a more hopeful sense in the community. For now, the streets and roads are covered with litter – signs of despair.

Again today, the urologic surgery teams in our group operated through the day.

The evening was highlighted by a gathering with physicians from Palestinian Medical Relief and short talks by Bob Haynes, Steve Gilbert, Don Mellman, Gerri Haynes and Ismael Zamilpa.

The medical community in Gaza is expert, but some specialties are not available here and the siege prevents access to new equipment and adequate supplies.

Doctors find Gaza still lacking food, clean water, electricity

(This is Part 3 in a series. For the next several days, Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, will be sending back reports from inside blockaded Gaza. As she did twice before, Gerri has organized a team of doctors and other health care providers to work in hospitals and clinics in Gaza in an effort to directly help the people there and to bring attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Israeli blockade has created.)

As we dispersed this morning to our various assignments, we were aware of the huge challenges faced by the people of Gaza: inadequate nutritional food, lack of access to clean air and water, regular cuts in electrical power, the constant threat of military attack, ongoing political turmoil, no freedom of movement beyond the borders – and still, the graciousness of the people who greet us wherever we go.

It is night and three of our surgeons – Laura Hart, Rich Grady and Ismael Zamilpa, along with Johanna Longacre, operating room nurse, are still working.

Steve Gilbert, Toxicologist, wrote this about his experience today:
“To discuss the considerable environmental and public issues of Gaza I met with Chairman, Yousif K. Ibrahim and his staff of the Palestinian National Authority Environmental Quality Authority (EQA). He first described the many challenges facing the Palestinian people, including air pollution, water quality, chemical exposures, and energy generation. All of these issues are connected, interact, and overlap to create serious environmental and human health issues. Without adequate power, people run portable generators, which pollute the air. Wastewater

treatment plants were severely damaged in the conflicts and cannot be operated without adequate power. This failure leads to contaminated ground water and untreated sewage flows as a brown river into the Mediterranean. Pollution knows no boarders and moves with the air, water, and food to other countries. Primary needs were discussed. First is for lab equipment to access, document, and prioritize the issues. For example equipment to assess blood lead levels is needed, as well as, analytical instruments to assess chemical or metal contamination. Second was education and training in toxicology and public health. One way to address these issues is to form a Palestinian Society of Toxicology (PST). PST scientists could interact and develop collaborative relationships with toxicologists from the US through the Society of Toxicology (SOT) and work with regional countries through the International Union of Toxicologists (IUTOX). Toxicologists and public health experts from other countries could assist in persuade neighboring countries to work toward policy changes and funding to support improvements to create a healthy environment and thus healthy people. An additional project would be to document some of the current problems in a paper or presentations at international toxicology meetings. This project would be started by a tour of toxic hot spots in Gaza. It was agreed that we would follow up both suggestions with meetings latter in the week.”

Many physicians have left Gaza in recent years – the challenges of life and medical practice here have encouraged them to seek alternative practice situations. But Gaza does have a new child psychiatrist – recently returned from four years of training in Israel. He reported expressing just yesterday the need for the sand therapy toys we were able to bring to him today and he spoke of great surprise and joy in receiving these tools.

The toys will be used in assisting the children of Gaza to work with their feelings about the constricted life they are experiencing in this externally occupied land.

At Shifa Hospital today, Don Mellman, neurological surgeon from Tampa, Florida assisted in a successful spinal surgery procedure, then participated in discussions of cases involving children and adults. A group of Gaza neurosurgeons also participated in a discussion about their frustrations with the difficulty of continuing their professional education because of severe restrictions on travel outside Gaza.

Bob Haynes, cardiologist, was able to see patients in two hospitals today. As he moved between hospitals, he was able to observe again, the setting up of the vital – yet polluting – system of individual generators in front of every store. Electricity goes off, the generators go on and the air fills with loud noise and noxious fumes.

This evening, we met with Wasseem Al Sarraj, whose father is the founder of our host organization. Wasseem is working on two research projects with TIDA: reading habits in Gaza and the role of Hamas in government here. You may read of Tida’s work at www.tidagaza.org.

My morning today was spent with a brilliant young woman who was a long-time employee of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. Last year, she accepted the directorship of the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development. Much of their work is focused on psychosocial support for women and children who have suffered the effects of war – particularly in the marginalized areas near the border with Israel. Also, they are running a resource center for women who need legal support in questions of divorce, child custody and equal rights. Women in this society are finding ways to support their homes and their culture in the midst of the exquisite and unrelenting challenges of the ongoing siege.

“Inspiring” is an insufficient word for the work being done here in the midst of heartbreak.

Doctors get warm welcome in Gaza

(This is Part 2 of a series. For the next several days, Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, will be sending back reports from inside blockaded Gaza. As she did twice before, Gerri has organized a team of doctors and other health care providers to work in hospitals and clinics in Gaza in an effor t to directly help the people there and to bring attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Israeli blockade has created.)

The Mediterranean is frosty-looking and the pewter sky breaks to a cool sun, but the open-air prison that is Gaza is constantly warmed by the generous spirit of the people here.

To enter Gaza, our application was submitted at the beginning of October, 2010. After many telephone and email contacts with Israeli authorities, permission to enter was received on January 11, 2011. Still, we, eight of us, were required to wait at the entry point for nearly two hours in the chilly breeze and intermittent showers for the gate to be opened.

We were delighted to receive the warm greetings of our Gazan friends. This afternoon, our hosts, the Gaza Community Medical Health Programme, held an organizing meeting with personnel and directors from the hospitals and clinics where we will be working.

By evening, Drs. Rich Grady and Ismael Zamilpa, pediatric urologists, were operating on some of the children who had been assembled for care.

In our afternoon meeting, we heard that the difficulties of life in Gaza have not changed greatly since our May, 2010 visit. Following the disaster of the attacks on Marvi Marmara humanitarian relief flotilla (May, 2010), there was a promise from Israel that more goods would be allowed to enter Gaza. This promise was referred to by our hosts as “window dressing” since there has been no remarkable increase in desperately needed goods and building materials required to repair the bomb damage suffered in Operation Cast Lead (December 2009-January 2010) are not available.

A new type of employment has been created: recovering materials from buildings destroyed by bombing. These materials do not provide essential strength for safe buildings however, and the possible toxic residue from bombs make the materials suspect.

Several members of our delegation took a brief tour along the coast of Gaza and into the city to witness that: raw sewage still flows into the Mediterranean (sewage treatment facilities are extremely limited due to bomb damage and cuts in electricity), fishing boats are still beached because Israel does not permit deep-sea fishing off the coast of Gaza, and the air remains polluted with the fumes cast off by the generators required for commerce, medical care and home life.

Tomorrow is a work day.

Guest blog by Gerri Haynes: Washington physicians group heading for Gaza again

(For the next several days, Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, will be sending back reports from inside blockaded Gaza. As she did twice before, Gerri has organized a team of doctors and other health care providers to work in hospitals and clinics in Gaza in an effort to directly help the people there and to bring attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Israeli blockade has created.)

A third delegation of physicians and other health care providers from Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility is in Jerusalem on the way to Gaza to offer medical care and consultation.

It’s cold in Jerusalem now and the streets of East Jerusalem are nearly empty. We will spend today, Saturday, meeting medical care providers and medical school instructors here in Jerusalem, then drive to Gaza early tomorrow morning.

Our host in Gaza is the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and, at their request, we are bringing them a supply of therapy toys for the children. Kara Mochan, nurse practitioner of Seattle, assembled a mountain of grouped toys to be used in helping children process their life in Gaza.

These children are all affected by living under external occupation, limited access to food and clean water, the threat and actuality of ongoing attacks by air and sea, and the reality that invasion by military troops is a constant possibility. Sleep disturbances and difficulty learning are common. The level of childhood chronic malnutrition in Gaza has risen to 10.2 percent.

Much of the available food comes through the dangerous tunnel system between Egypt and southern Gaza.

The WPSR group will focus on providing care to children and adults in clinics and hospitals – working along side their Palestinian colleagues.

Last May, physicians from WPSR initiated some surgical staging procedures on children in Gaza City and this visit will provide the opportunity to complete those procedures.

Thanks to all of the people in Washington state who helped to provide therapy toys for the children of Gaza!

Disabled U.S. Army veteran set to be deported despite years of service

(This comes from Oneamerica, the largest immigrant advocacy organization in Washington State, which is working “to ensure that immigrant communities and their rights are recognized and upheld in our democracy.”)

Take action: a system that deports a wounded veteran is truly un-American!

On January 12, an immigration judge refused to stay the deportation of U.S. Army veteran Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry.

Zahid has been a permanent resident for more than a decade and spent nearly six years in the Army National Guard, during which time he sustained injuries to his back that require him to use a wheelchair.

After being honorably discharged from the military Zahid applied for U.S. citizenship. His failure to previously report misdemeanors committed in Australia in the 1990s on his residency application led to deportation proceedings.

Zahid and his wife Anne continue to fight his deportation to Pakistan.

Seattle media campaign, vigil remember and protest Israel’s assault on Gaza

(The following is from a Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign press release.)

On Dec. 27, the second anniversary of Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza, Seattle-area activists are launching a Metro bus ad campaign to expose the use of U.S. taxpayer money to support Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.

Inspired by similar public advertising campaigns in Chicago, San Francisco, Albuquerque and other cities, the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign is launching the advertising campaign aimed at securing equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis, as well as an end to United States military aid to Israel, which continues at a time of economic crisis and severe budget cuts that have resulted in massive unemployment. A companion website at www.stop30billion-Seattle.org suggests ways that people can get involved locally.

The initial campaign begins on 12 Metro bus routes in the city of Seattle, with the slogan “ISRAELI WAR CRIMES: Your Tax Dollars At Work”. The ads will run 4 weeks.

Seattle activists will also hold a vigil and protest in downtown Seattle on Monday, December 27, starting at 5:00 pm at 4th & Pine St. The walking vigil will be in memory of those killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza and in protest of Israel’s ongoing crimes against human rights.

December 27, 2008 was the first day of Israel’s three-week military offensive against the captive population of Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Palestinians, most of them non-combatants, more than 300 of them children.

A formal inquiry by the United Nations found grounds for a criminal investigation i nto war crimes by Israel. The UN report concluded that Israel’s assault was not in self-defense, but was “a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population”. Amnesty International found evidence that Israeli soldiers used Palestinian civilians as human shields, and Israeli soldiers have testified publicly to other human rights violations. Yet the U.S. government has pledged $30 billion in military aid to Israel over the next 10 years, even though the U.S. Arms Export Control Act prohibits the use of U.S. weapons against civilians.

An increasing number of US citizens are becoming aware of this issue. “I had never heard the whole story of the Israeli occupation. I never anticipated US complicity in Israel’s crimes. I had no idea,” says one volunteer with the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign. “When I began to learn the truth, it was like an avalanche. I became angry. Why all the lies? Why the blackout of information? Why the silence from our government?”

Another volunteer was in the West Bank during Israel’s assault on Gaza. “I was in Ramallah during the entire Operation Cast Lead – watching TV with people from Gaza in the evening in the hotel reception area, talking with our staff in Gaza each morning to see if they had survived the night of bombings.”

The Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign is incorporated in Washington State.

For more information: www.stop30billion-Seattle.org.

Director of Wi’am, a Palestinian conflict resolution center talks of hope

Zoughbi Zoughbi, the of Director of Wi’am, the Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem, speaks in this video about his reasons for having hope about the challenges facing Palestinians in the long struggle to find peace in the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Wi’am is a grassroots organization working to promote peace by training people on both sides of the Palestine-Israel conflict in peaceful relationship-building, non-violent responses to injustice and conflict, and the promotion of human rights.

“Wi’am” in Arabic means “cordial relationships,” and developing relationships, Zoughbi said, is the essence of Wi’am’s mission.

The video is from an interview in Kirkland, WA on Saturday, Dec. 18. He was scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. at the University Lutheran Church, at 1604 NE 50th St. in Seattle.

KEXP (Seattle) interview on Afghanistan, Iraq, journalism, etc.

I’m just catching up to this interview done in August. Forgot it was available as an embed. Thanks to Mike McCormick, who does a great job for KEXP and the Seattle community.

Online journal on indigenous peoples wins project censored award

(This article, used by permission, originally appeared at International Cry, which describes itself as “an independent online journal that provides news, videos, and action alerts on the struggles of Indigenous Peoples to reclaim their lands, defend their cultures, enact their rights, and to quite literally survive.” The online journal is maintained and authored by John Ahniwanika Schertow, “a Two-Spirit of Haudenosaunee and European descent.” The author, known as Ahni, is a self-taught writer, painter, musician, poet and web-designer. He is based in in Winnipeg, Manitoba.)

As a lot of you may know, the crises I write about here on Intercontinental Cry usually don’t get much exposure in the press.

It’s pretty infuriating, to be honest, and it’s something that I’d really like to get into at some point; but for now, let me just say that I’m glad we can create our own spaces to talk about what we want to talk about, even if the number of spaces is lacking.

Actually, that’s the whole reason I started this website, and I can’t even begin to tell you how hard I’ve worked to carry it forward. All I can say is that I’ve always done my best. But even so, I never ever thought I would get and award for for my efforts, let alone one from Project Censored! I actually got the news a few months back, but I wanted to wait until the book Censored 2011 was on the shelves before I really mentioned it.

I must say, it’s bitter sweet. On the one hand I’m honoured to get the recognition. It’s a pretty big coup for me. But it’s also a little painful because of the actual story that was chosen and the fact that it was ignored by NGOs and all those well paid professionals out there who’d rather write about Britney Spears or “how to bake bran muffins”.

The story, chosen to be #7 in the top 25 most Censored Stories for 2009-2010 is “Stop Killing and Starvation of Samburu People in Kenya,” published November 20, 2009, http://intercontinentalcry.org/stop-killing-and-starvation-of-samburu-people-in-kenya

I must admit, I didn’t even blink when I wrote that. I was still reeling from the images in my mind of what was happening. In any case I’m thankful for the honour and that this crisis finally received some much-needed exposure.

On an even brighter note, things are looking up for the Samburu. Following my initial report, Cultural Survival (CS) went to Kenya to investigate. Their trip resulted in the report, When the Police are the Perpetrators which really turned out to be a blessing for the Samburu and the other Pastoralists in Kenya.

With the help of Paula Palmer, one of the CS delegates and authors of the report, I was able to put together this update for Project Censored:

In the months following this report, Kenyan police forces led two more full-scale attacks against the Samburu, one of Kenya’s seven distinct indigenous peoples. These attacks, like the ones that occurred throughout 2009, were unprovoked.
For centuries, the indigenous peoples have competed with each other for scarce water resources, to replenish cattle stocks in times of drought, to covet pastures for grazing their animals, and to gain favor in their communities. But for the past fifteen years, arms traders have made weapons available to the population, turning the peoples’ traditional struggle of survival and dignity into one of needless violence.

The government therefore ordered the police to get rid of the illegal weapons and restore peace and stability to the region. However, once they arrived, the police immediately criminalized the Samburu and began to attack their villages, steal their possessions, and confiscate their cattle.

“The brutal intrusion . . . [has] altered and dismantled our oral history. We shall never be the same again,” states Michael Lolwerikoi, in a heartfelt letter on behalf of the Samburu to the US-based group Cultural Survival (CS).

In January 2010, CS sent a research delegation to gather evidence of the attacks. They had been receiving reports from Africa since February 2009. The research delegation was not able to verify some of the reports, including those concerning the military; but after spending two weeks in Kenya, the reason for the Samburu’s “limbo state” was clear. In April 2010, they published a report on their findings: “When the Police Are the Perpetrators.”

Ultimately, the organization’s visit to Kenya played a key role in ending the unnecessary attacks on the Samburu. After their report was received by Kenya’s Minister of Internal Security, the police were ordered to stop using force and to conduct the disarmament operation peacefully. Since then, CS says there have been no further full-scale attacks on the Samburu. However, there is still room for history to repeat. “It’s something that clearly needs international pressure, because the police in Kenya continue to enjoy impunity,” comments Paula Palmer, a member of the research delegation and one of the authors of the report. “[It] mirrors what occurred during the post-election violence being investigated by the International Court of Justice,” she adds.

There is an equal need for international exposure and there has never been any major coverage of these tragic events. Palmer says they have tried to reach out to journalists from the Guardian, the New York Times, and others but none of the journalists have responded.

The Samburu are asking the government to compensate them for their heavy losses. And they, along with the Borana, Rendille, Turkana, Somali, Meru, and Pokot, want to build lasting peace in the region with the help of their traditional elders. And everybody is eager to get rid of the weapons. “It’s something everybody wants,” says Palmer.

For more information and to learn what you can do to help, please visit www.culturalsurvival.org.