David Pratt on Palestinian crisis
Thirty years after he witnessed the first intifada, Foreign Editor DAVID PRATT fears the Trump administration has learnt little from past US mistakes in the Middle East
ONE afternoon back in 1989, while covering the first Palestinian intifada uprising, I lay huddled against a wall in Gaza’s Omar Muktar Street.
From on top of a nearby building, Israeli soldiers had opened fire on some Palestinians next to me in the street below after they had thrown rocks at a passing patrol. It was such a precarious position that I decided to make a run for it across the street to the comparative sanctuary of the main al-ahli Arab Hospital.
Hospitals, though, were not off limits to Israeli soldiers when it came to looking for Palestinians wounded in the exchanges.
That afternoon was no exception and within minutes there was an enormous bang as an Israeli armoured jeep rammed the hospital gates, bursting its way into the compound followed by three or four other vehicles.
Soldiers streamed from the jeeps and quickly fanned out, searching the hospital grounds. Some shoved their way past angry medical staff to enter the wards in the hunt for recently admitted wounded and those that had ferried them there.
Anyone, patients, relatives, or staff, who tried to intervene was beaten or arrested.
“Such behaviour is against all conventions and regulations,” pointed out Jorgen Rosendahl, the Danish then director of administration at al-ahli Hospital. An otherwise unassuming man, Mr Rosendahl was a courageous critic of the methods used by the Israeli Army.
“I have already sent three complaints about the army to the Israeli Knesset, with copies to UN Secretary General Perez de Cuellar, the Danish and American embassies, the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) and the Red Cross,” Mr Rosendahl told me that afternoon.
I have no idea where Mr Rosendahl is now, but those like him running Gaza’s hospitals today still find themselves facing enormous challenges.
Currently the al-ahli hospital is now run by the Anglican Diocese in Jerusalem, and still provides treatment for many of those wounded as well as other patients.
The challenges that Gaza’s hospitals face of late have been compounded because of a decision by the Trump administration to withhold $65 million (£50m) of a $125m aid contribution to the UN agency (UNWRA) and partner institutions that supports both Palestinian refugees and others in dire need.
Al-ahli hospital is just one of many humanitarian institutions and agencies now feeling the profound impact of such a decision. According to the current head of the hospital, Suhaila Tarazi, al-ahli is now also treating patients with malnutrition related illnesses, yet has been forced to drop its number of patient beds from 80 to 50 because of a lack of resources.
In was back in January, that the Trump administration suspended the financial aid it provides Palestinians, pending what it said was a review. Seven months later Mr Trump this week announced the US has ordered that more than $200m in economic aid, which was to be allocated to Gaza and the West Bank, be redirected elsewhere. While Washington has denied it is using the funds as political leverage, few doubt that this is precisely the motive.
Whatever the political motives though, it’s hard to over emphasise the negative impact the US funding cut will have on the most vulnerable Palestinians and deepen an already appalling humanitarian crisis, especially in Gaza.
If the current funding cuts are not restored, or if some other donor doesn’t make up for the shortfall, as many as 20,000 people previously employed within the humanitarian sector in Gaza will join those with no work.
The freeze on tens of millions of dollars is already hobbling aid agencies that received US government funds, among them the US agency Mercy Corps, whose European headquarters are in Edinburgh.
“Humanitarian aid should never be used as a political bargaining chip,” insisted Andy Dwonch, Mercy Corps mission director for Palestine, responding to the US announcement a few days ago. “Punishing Palestinian civilians by suddenly cutting food assistance, access to clean water, health services and opportunities to work, risks exacerbating the political challenges.”
There will of course be those who will be celebrating Mr Trump’s latest foreign policy decision. But they are misguided in doing so. Wrong because of the profoundly negative humanitarian impact it will have on one of the world’s most vulnerable communities. Wrong too because it will do nothing other than make for more insecurity and instability both for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Almost 30 years on from those days of the first Palestinian intifada in Gaza, it seems world leaders remain hell bent only in making things worse across the region.