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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 2004, pages 78-81 Human Rights Palestine Children’s Relief Fund Gala
THE PALESTINE Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) hosted a gala fund-raiser May 8 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, VA, for its ongoing efforts to provide medical care to injured and sick Palestinian children. PCRF founder Steve Sosebee recalled his first humanitarian trip to Palestine, and returning to Jordan with two children, brothers whose limbs were blown off when an Israeli shell was fired into their home as they were eating lunch. He did not have a coin in his pocket, Sosebee said, and only hoped to be able to get those two boys out for help. Following a rousing performance of a dabka by Sarkha, an impressive dance ensemble, Dr. Nader Hebela, a young doctor working with PCRF, welcomed the audience. After a video presentation on “Healing the Wounds of War and Occupation,” Sosebee continued to tell PCRF’s story to the more than 550 guests. Wanting to do hands-on work, he explained, Sosebee approached the various Arab- and Muslim-American groups for aid, and sent a proposal to Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington. According to Sosebee, the embassy came through—not only funding the PCRF for its first three years, but also imparting practical advice on keeping the organization strictly apolitical, and even sending a nurse from the embassy to help. The gala, Sosebee said, was his first opportunity to thank Prince Bandar in Washington, DC. Sosebee was reared to believe that justice was an honored ethic in the U.S., he said, and that supporting the Palestinian struggle was supporting peace. He also reported that PCRF had helped more than 1,000 children in Palestine, with more than 600 flown to the U.S. or Europe for treatment. PCRF also assists children in Syria and Iraq. The medical care PCRF extends covers wounds as well as congenital health problems, and all hospital facilities and doctors’ time—worth tens of thousands of dollars—is donated. Treatment can be had for the cost of an airline ticket. Dr. Hugh Watts, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon based at UCLA Medical Center who frequently works with Shriner’s Hospitals, next spoke about what his work with PCRF means to him. Watts said he gets personal satisfaction from treating the politically disenfranchised children—who, nonetheless, all too often pay the price for the political situation. Teaching, however, he stressed, was an even more important task for him than performing surgery. Watts related the story of a young doctor in Gaza whom he had trained in the pediatric particulars of his field. According to Watts, that doctor is the only pediatric orthopedic surgeon in all of Palestine. With roadblocks and checkpoints, however, his practice is limited to Gaza, Watts pointed out.
Sosebee’s wife, Huda, then spoke briefly about the children of the intifada—and, on this Mother’s Day, remembered their mothers, as well. She then introduced some of the recipients of PCRF care, including a young man on his second trip to the U.S. who hopes to become a doctor and work for PCRF. The keynote address was given by Dr. Hanan Ashrawi of Miftah, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy. Ashrawi reminded the audience that mothers in Palestine were suffering, and mentioned as well Tom Hurndall’s and Rachel Corrie’s mothers, saying that Corrie had become a symbol of resistance to the bulldozers that devastate Palestinian lives. “We only wish they could have lived,” Ashrawi said. While proceeding to paint a bleak picture of daily life, Ashrawi also remained hopeful, saying it was not inevitable that the Palestinian narrative would continue to be one of pain. Nonetheless, she said, the situation was much worse than people on the outside thought. Ashrawi explained that all basic services had been destroyed; that although some Israelis tried daily to humiliate the Palestinian people, it did not mean they succeeded; and that she agreed free and fair elections were needed, but that the occupation must end before that could possibly happen. Hopes were reversed during the peace process, according to Ashrawi. Instead of the settlements being dismantled, she noted, the Palestinian infrastructure was dismantled. The settlements expanded, and were “legalized” during the “Bush-Sharon love fest of April 14.” Ashrawi cited statistics of 60 to 70 percent poverty, 50 to 60 percent unemployment, the eroding of educational programs, particularly for young women, and the recurrence of childhood diseases thought to have been eradicated, but making a comeback due to the lack of basic health care. Instead of a viable statehood as a result of the peace process, the occupation was growing, Ashrawi said, with Gaza being transformed into an isolated prison, the building of a horrific apartheid wall of occupation and oppression, theft of land and water, an imprisoned population; silent transfer. The wall was not even mentioned in the “mutual admiration society of April 14,” Ashrawi observed—though it changed boundaries, just as Bush blithely did with his assurances to Sharon. Bush had negated the very principle of international law, she pointed out, as well as U.N. Resolution 194, and global precedent, when he negated the right of return. While calling that pronouncement very painful, Ashrawi asserted that it was a basic right of Palestinians and not subject to negotiation—nor could it be relinquished by a third party. Referring to Bush’s claims that dismantling all settlements and insisting on the right of return were not “realistic,” Ashrawi emphasized: “I say it is not realistic to expect Palestinians to relinquish their rights.” She spoke of both the existence of and need for programs of empowerment and support systems, like those Miftah and many other indigenous NGOs provide. Moreover, Ashrawi stressed the need for direct links between all Palestinians—in the West Bank and Gaza, in Israel, and in the diaspora—and other Arab Americans. She urged groups in the U.S. to “organize lobby groups, influence elections, be spokespeople, hold elected officials accountable,” and avoid being intimidated. Ashrawi told the Washington Report that while she, personally, was aware of a growing attitude toward justice for Palestinians among the American public, the average Palestinian was not. As an example of a U.S.-based support group, Ashrawi said, PCRF was very close to her heart. She was gratified to be able to witness the effects of direct aid. Ashrawi scorned critics who denigrated PCRF by claiming that the children who received aid were future terrorists. “Suicide bombers are not born,”she said, “they’re made.” For more information or to make a donation see PCRF’s Web site: www.pcrf.net or write the main office PO Box 1926, Kent, OH 44240 or call 330-678-2645. —Sara Powell Israel’s Home Demolitions Make 2,197 Homeless in One Month
Maher Nasser, chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Liaison Office in New York, spoke at the Palestine Center in Washington, DC on May 20. Nasser addressed Israel’s incursion the previous day into the Gaza Strip’s Rafah refugee camp, calling the killing of civilians “the most tragic aspect of the [Palestinian-Israeli] conflict.” Compared with the rest of Gaza and the West Bank, Rafah has had to bear the brunt of Israel’s policies of home demolitions and its targeting of civilians. According to UNRWA, 2,197 Palestinians were made homeless in the first three weeks of May after the Israeli army demolished 191 homes throughout the Gaza Strip. “Hardest hit has been the Rafah area, where 1,064 people, within the last three days, have lost their homes,” the Palestine Center wrote in a statement released May 18. In the past four years, 18,382 Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip have lost their homes. Of those, Nasser revealed, 14,666 are from Rafah. In the first half of May alone, he said, 2,000 people lost their homes. On May 26, UNRWA released a statement updating those figures: from May 1 to May 24, Israeli troops in Rafah demolished 277 buildings, housing 641 families, or 3,451 individuals. Last year, the figure was half of what it is today, Nasser added. In fact, he said, during the past year, Israel destroyed more Palestinian homes than during the first 36 months of the current intifada. Nasser said home demolitions typically take place at night, giving families little time to gather their belongings. Calling it a “heart-wrenching sight,” Nasser described the scene of young Palestinian children looking for their school notebooks, and older women rescuing family heirlooms and their favorite articles of clothing amid the rubble of their destroyed homes. Offering a sobering analysis of the situation of refugees in the West Bank and Gaza, Nasser said there is an “increase in the gap” between what UNRWA wants to do to help the refugees and what it can do with its limited resources. For the past 43 months, Nasser stated, the poverty level in Gaza and the West Bank has increased three-fold, to 60 percent, with a 75 percent rate in refugee camps. He described malnutrition rates as “alarming.” UNRWA, which has registered 4.3 million Palestinian refugees, 1.6 million of whom live in the West Bank and Gaza, works to alleviate these conditions. In Nasser’s words, the agency “tries to pick up the pieces by providing [refugees with] food, water, and maybe money to rent places, if funds are available.” Since the beginning of the current intifada, Nasser said, UNRWA has built 374 new homes for refugees, with 241 still under construction. The agency has invested around $20 million in re-housing victims of Israeli demolition operations in Gaza. The funds were supplied by donors to UNRWA’s Emergency Appeals for the occupied Palestinian territory, including the U.S. government, the group’s largest benefactor. This year, UNRWA requested $193.5 million to meet the needs of the refugees, and so far has received $60 million in pledges. The high reconstruction costs have caused the organization to close its field offices in the West Bank and Gaza and to cut back on its food basket program, Nasser said. For more information, or to make a donation, visit UNRWA’s Web site, <www.un.org/unrwa>, or send a check made out to UNRWA (write “for deposit only” on the back) to External Relations Office, UNRWA HQ, Gaza c/o UNRWA Liaison Office, New York, One United Nations Plaza, Room DC1-1265, New York, NY 10017 (telephone 212-963-2255). —Laila Al-Arian Helping Coptic Orphans Survive and Succeed
Funded in 1988, Coptic Orphans (CO), a non-profit organization, is dedicated to the betterment of children in Egypt. CO has grown to become the most effective organization of its kind in combating poverty and improving the lives of Egyptian orphans. The theme of Coptic Orphans’ Second Annual Gala, “An Evening with Shakespeare” held April 24 at the Cannon Building of the House of Representatives, affirmed the organization’s commitment to literacy for all children. “Our vision,” said Nemien Riad, executive director of Coptic Orphans, “is to see that every vulnerable child of Egypt confidently faces the future with a renewed sense of hope and a life enriched with education, health and equality.” On March 2002, Riad and international program manager Phoebe Farag made a dream come true by starting the “Valuable Girl Project,” making real change in the lives of girls and young women in Egypt. “Educate a girl and you change society and the future,” Riad told the audience. “Big sisters assist younger girls in their homework—preventing a higher drop-out rate.” Coptics are the original Egyptians and Coptic Orthodoxy one of the world’s oldest Christian faiths. —Anne Orleans Senator Lieberman on IraqIn an April 26 speech at the Brookings Institution, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) spoke about “Winning the War in Iraq on the Battlefront and the Homefront.” The one-time vice presidential candidate emphasized bipartisanship and cooperation in a time of war, specifically suggesting the creation of a Bipartisan Congressional Consultation and Cooperation Council on Iraq. He urged Republicans and Democrats alike to “stop the bickering, overcome the mistrust, appreciate how similar are our current aspirations in Iraq, and…work together to achieve them.” Lieberman said he fears the election year could distract the nation’s politicians and the media away from crucial questions in Iraq and hopes a new council could keep those issues at the forefront. To say that we will simply “stay the course,” he argued, does not provide sufficient guidance or stimulate appropriate debate on what needs to be done. Brookings senior fellows Kenneth Pollack, director of research for the institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy, and Michael O’Hanlon then joined Lieberman in a question-and-answer panel. Pollack suggested that the loss of Iraqi public support is the biggest problem that the American occupation faces, and that the Bush administration needs to focus on securing the streets and getting young Iraqis employed. The U.S. has been ineffective on both counts, he added. Pollack recommended that a U.N. high commissioner take L. Paul Bremer’s place after he leaves in July, following the transfer of government to a new Iraqi council. The next leader cannot be an “American viceroy” as part of a “colonial government,” added Lieberman, and more international cooperation is desperately needed. When asked what sort of precedent Israeli extrajudicial killings set for a democratic Middle East, Lieberman replied that taking terrorists to court was preferable, but not always possible. Asked whether or not the April 14 Bush-Sharon meeting was fodder for more Arab anger against omnipotent American decision making, Lieberman responded that the Gaza withdrawal currently was the best hope for a two state solution. —Amanda Gibbon |
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