CIAO DATE: 10/2008
November 2007
The upcoming Israeli-Palestinian meeting in Annapolis, Maryland provides an opportunity to address the humanitarian crisis, which is an essential step for successful negotiations leading to the end of the occupation of Palestine, and for delivering a just settlement and lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Since January 2006, the people in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) have faced increasing suffering due to an array of policies adopted by the government of Israel and Western donors in the aftermath of Hamas' victory in the parliamentary elections. For its part, Hamas has failed to stop armed Palestinian groups from undertaking indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel. These attacks are unacceptable and must end. The Israeli government's blockade of the Gaza Strip constitutes collective punishment and cannot be justified.
As a result of policies that include the severance of international aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel's suspension of the transfer of tax revenues, the number of people in the occupied Palestinian territory experiencing deep poverty nearly doubled in 2006, to more than one million [1]. In the first half of 2007, 58 per cent of Palestinians were living below the poverty line, and 30 per cent in extreme poverty [2]. Essential-service delivery and Palestinian institutions were seriously undermined, and the economy declined alarmingly [3] contributing to unprecedented factional violence among Palestinians.
The promise of the Annapolis meeting can only be achieved if negotiations end the siege of Gaza, lift debilitating restrictions on the movement of people and goods, and end settlement expansion in the West Bank, while ensuring all parties uphold international humanitarian and human-rights law and protect civilians. As UN Under-Secretary General John Holmes stresses, ‘it is increasingly hard to see how the desperately needed political progress in the peace process can be made on the back of the kind of human suffering we are seeing today [1].
Progress towards peace will equally require the meeting to establish an inclusive process engaging all political actors and relevant stakeholders, including civil society, refugees, and women, in efforts to resolve the final-status issues that have been at the heart of decades of conflict. If there is to be an inclusive process, there will have to be an immediate end to the aforementioned policies that are dividing the Palestinian people. A divided Palestine is not the basis on which to negotiate a lasting peace.
This briefing note considers the current situation in the Gaza strip and the West Bank, and draws out some important considerations and challenges for the Annapolis meeting and the process of securing peace.
Resource link: Breaking the impasse: ending the humanitarian stranglehold on Palestine [PDF] - 159K