A recently released USAID funded nutritional assessment indicates that acute and chronic malnutrition rates of Palestinian children under 5 have reached disastrous levels, with 13.2% suffering from emergency levels of chronic malnutrition (stunted growth) and 1/5 suffering moderate and/or severe anemia. The study, designed by Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health, and carried out in conjunction with Al-Quds University and Global Management Consulting Group, surveyed nutrition levels, availability of food in the market and household consumption, and found that the factors affecting the dangerous rise in malnutrition directly relates to Israeli imposed roadblocks, closures and curfews and the dismal economic situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Major food shortages were caused primarily by Israeli imposed closures, checkpoints, and curfews, while the economic situation and subsequent loss in purchasing power was the main factor inhibiting people’s ability to buy food. Fifty-six percent of surveyed families indicated that they had been forced to decrease the amount of food consumed for more than one day in the previous two week period. Of those, 2/3 cited lack of money and 1/3 cited Israeli imposed curfews and closures as the reason. The study found that 36.6% of Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip lack the purchasing power to consistently feed their families. Families affected were highest in Gaza City, where 41.3% of families reported selling assets to buy food.
According to the nutritional assessment, Palestinian wholesalers and retailers are facing difficulty getting food into the market, particularly fresh meat and dairy products (powdered milk, infant formula). Once they do, many families are either unable to reach the store, due to Israeli imposed restrictions on freedom of movement, or they cannot afford to buy adequate food, both in terms of quality and quantity. The lack of purchasing power has forced Palestinians to buy less of more expensive high protein foods, such as fish, beef, and chicken. Lack of protein is one of the direct causes of malnutrition and anemia.
This situation is not the result of a natural disaster or a lack of natural resources, it is a result of Israeli government sanctioned policies of collective punishment, implemented by an occupying power against civilians. Israel imposes restrictions on freedom of movement, Palestinians lose their jobs inside Israel or can no longer reach their places of work in the occupied territories, and their level of income decreases. As of December 2001, unemployment had reached 35% in the occupied territories according to the World Bank. Figures released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in April 2002 indicate that in the first two months of the year 2002 more than two-thirds of Palestinian households were living below the poverty line set at $340/month (less than $1.90/day). PCBS also reports that more than half of Palestinian households have lost more than 50% of their income since September 2000.
These policies are part and parcel of the Israeli occupation, an occupation that has resulted in gross and systematic violations of Palestinian human rights for 35 years. What the nutrition assessment illustrates clearly is that the Israeli occupation is more than a soldier with a gun – it is a system of control that impacts every aspect of the lives of three million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 53% of whom are children. DCI/PS stresses that this economic war against Palestinian children and resulting malnutrition is a direct violation of Israel’s responsibilities under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that entered into force in 1991 following Israel’s ratification of the CRC. Article 27, paragraph 1, of the CRC recognizes, "… the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development." Paragraph 2 of the same article indicates that the "primary responsibility" for this well being lies in the hands of parents. The systematic destruction of the Palestinian economy thus violates the CRC, article 27, paragraph 3 that states, "States Parties… shall take appropriate measures to assist parents and others responsible for the child to implement this right."
Moreover, article 6, paragraph 2 requires States Parties to "ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child," and article 24, paragraph 1, notes that "States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health…"
In subjecting Palestinian children to policies of collective punishment, the Israeli government is violating article 2, paragraph 2 of the CRC, which states that "States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members."
Israeli actions are having a similarly devastating impact on other areas related to children’s well being. The Israeli government repeatedly asserts that it is not targeting the Palestinian civilian population, but you cannot implement policies such as these without bringing a society to its knees, and you certainly cannot do it for two years and claim that the results are unintended.
The reality for Palestinian children is that they live in an environment where they suffer collective and simultaneous violations of their rights at all times. Israeli occupation policies simultaneously prevent Palestinian children from receiving adequate nutrition, interrupt the educational process, deprive children of homes, parents and siblings, lead to the death, injury, and arrest of thousands of Palestinian children, and imprison hundreds of thousands of children in their homes for days on end, under the policy of curfew. These factors not only impact the child’s daily life, they constitute a major obstacle to the child’s healthy development, and, thus, robs the child of prospects for a bright future.
The USAID study pointed out in its conclusion that "today’s acute malnutrition (an easily reversible state) will be tomorrow’s chronic malnutrition (less easily reversible), adding to already unacceptably high rates of malnutrition, unless a variety of interventions – economic, political and health related – take place."
On Aug. 5, the UN General Assembly, convened for a meeting of the 10th Emergency Session to consider illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian Territory, passed yet another watered-down resolution calling for an end to the violence on both sides. However, another resolution is not what is called for, but rather concrete action on the part of the international community to intervene to end the Israeli occupation.
(This is a report from: Defense for Children International/Palestine Section. It provides another side to the continued conflict in the Middle East and a stark and dark illustration of the brutal effects of the Israeli occupation, the closures, blockades and curfews.
The facts speak for themselves and cannot be denied by the 'official' spin of the Israeli government. This will be part one in a series to be released to the world media in support of the children of Palestine and the critical need to push even more diligently for a cease-fire and a pathway to peace. Although we are of the opinion the Israeli government does not want peace, but to obscure the desire for total transfer by any and all calculated means available to them. It is our children that are the ultimate victims, says Patrick Johnston of VoxRx.org.
VOXRX.ORG — A United Nations/UNESCO Culture of Peace conciliation and human rights NGO, providing lobbying and advocacy services for the at risk and displaced in regions of conflict and hostility. One World — One Peace.)
