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Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 22, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- ISRAEL STARVING PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
By G. Dunkel
The Israeli occupation is deliberately inflicting
mass
hunger on the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza as a form of collective punishment. The surprising source for this information is a branch of the U.S. government, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Collective punishment is a violation of international law. USAID has just released a report documenting how
U.S.-
supported-and-financed Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza have produced some of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world among Palestinian children and women of childbearing age. The report can be found online at www.usaid.gov/wbg/reports/Nutritional_Assessment.pdf. Gregg Greenough of the Johns Hopkins University
Schools of
Medicine and Public Health, one of the researchers, said at an Aug. 5 news conference in Jerusalem that the level of Palestinian children suffering from acute or chronic malnutrition is equivalent to that found in Chad and Nigeria, and higher than in Bangladesh and Somalia. Greenough said that the overall malnutrition level
for the
West Bank and Gaza Strip "is considered an emergency by most humanitarians and public-health officials." The Israeli government, which offered its own
medical
experts in a separate news conference, did not challenge the findings of the USAID report. Yael Dayan, a Knesset legislator from the Labor
Party, which
is part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government, told the Christian Science Monitor Aug. 7: "There are many other reasons besides Israeli policies for this situation. This is a result of the policies of the Palestinian Authority. They need to stop the terrorism. The military measures are aimed only at protecting the lives of Israeli citizens." But the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported Aug. 4
that a
staff for "Economic Warfare Against the Palestinians" operates inside Sharon's office. Shlomo Gazit, a former chief of military intelligence, said border closures and embargoes of the West Bank and Gaza are intended to create hardship for the Palestinian civilian population as well as "prevent terrorism." The report makes clear that massive unemployment
caused by
the Israeli occupation, embargoes and roadblocks, is the main reason for the suffering of Palestinian children and adults. Over half of Palestinian families have no income and have to sell their belongings to buy food. One-third of those surveyed had trouble buying even
the
cheapest foods like rice and pasta because they lacked cash. Protein-rich foods like meat and fish were out of reach. The only reason many people have been able to
survive is
thanks to community gardens and solidarity committees that have been set up. Of course, even for those with money, 24-hour-a-day
curfews
and roadblocks make it difficult to get the necessities of life. Local merchants have difficulty getting the supplies they need. There is nothing to suggest that this report will
cause the
Bush administration to change its policy of all-out support for Israel--which serves as a military outpost for U.S. interests in the oil-rich Middle East. Washington gives Israel $15 million a day in military and economic aid, day in and day out, year after year, to use as it wants to crush the Palestinian people. If the United States wanted to do something to stop
the
starvation of Palestinian people, it could threaten to turn off the aid spigot and stop the flow of money and military aid that keeps Israel afloat. Instead the USAID report merely makes the record,
points out
the tragedy and attempts to buff Washington's image a bit by throwing a little light on the vicious and inhumane practices of the Israeli Defense Forces. - END -
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