[GushShalom] Petition: Open Gates to Allow Food into Gaza!

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

This came just after we had sent you already a mail. Still it shouldn't 
wait. We already sent you the information about how UNRWA no longer is 
able to get the needed food-aide into the Gaza Strip.

Now there is something you can do:

signing the petition at

 http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Aid2Gaza/


------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Wed, 07 Apr 2004 21:52:42 +0200
From:           	Gila Svirsky <gsvirsky at netvision.net.il>
Subject:        	Petition: Open Gates to Allow Food into Gaza!
To:             	Coalition of Women for Peace <CWJP at yahoogroups.com>
Copies to:      	Alef list <alef at list.haifa.ac.il>,
  	Discussion CWJP <CWJP-discussion at yahoogroups.com>

Dear Friends,

Two of us, both peace and human rights activists in
Israel, have just prepared an online petition called:

 "Open Gates to Allow Food into Gaza"

(For your convenience, we have pasted a copy below.)

This petition refers to the recent suspension of aid into
Gaza by the UNRWA as a result of Israeli actions
that prevent the UN food trucks from entering.

Please read the petition below. If you'd like to sign,
clickon:

 http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Aid2Gaza/

Yours,
Oren Medicks & Gila Svirsky
______________________
The Petition:
To: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
We are appalled to hear that UNRWA has been forced to suspend its food aid in Gaza as a result of n
ew Israeli 
regulations. The severe economic hardship of the children and adults in Gaza is well documented by 
US AID 
and other sources. Preventing the access of humanitarian aid will exacerbate already existing condi
tions of 
starvation and malnourishment.

Therefore, we individuals and organizations concerned with peace, justice, and human rights -- Isra
eli and 
international -- call upon the Israeli government to ensure that UNWRA and other relief agencies ar
e able to 
continue their work or, alternatively, that Israel replace this aid with its own, and thereby ensur
e the well-being 
of the population, as mandated by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

We demand that the Israeli government address this matter with the utmost urgency, as human lives a
re at 
stake. We call upon the governments of other countries to lend weight to this humanitarian appeal, 
which is 
intended to secure Israel's compliance with its obligations under law as well as basic humanitarian
 values.

Sincerely,

If you'd like to sign this petition, clickon:

 http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Aid2Gaza/
Background information:UNRWA Press Release 1 April 2004UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East-Headquarters Gaza
website: www.unrwa.org
Press Release No. HQ/G/06/2004
1 April, 2004

UNRWA suspends emergency food aid in Gaza

Gaza - The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today stopped 
distributing emergency food aid to some 600,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip, or approximately half o
f the 
refugees receiving UNRWA food aid in the occupied Palestinian territory, following restrictions int
roduced by 
Israeli authorities at the sole commercial crossing through which the Agency is able to bring in hu
manitarian 
assistance. Stocks of rice, flour, cooking oil and other essential foodstuffs that UNRWA provides 
to refugees 
reduced to poverty, or otherwise affected by a humanitarian crisis now in its 42nd month, have been
 fully 
depleted.

Efforts to persuade the Israeli authorities to lift the restriction on the transport of UNRWA's emp
ty food 
containers out of Gaza have so far failed, forcing the Agency to suspend the delivery into Gaza of 
11,000 tons 
of food from Ashdod Port to avoid a bottleneck which would result in prohibitive costs. Under norma
l 
circumstances, UNRWA delivers some 250 tons of food aid per day in Gaza alone as part of a wider pr
ogramme 
of emergency assistance to refugees, initiated shortly after the outbreak of strife in the West Ban
k and Gaza 
Strip in September 2000. Since then, the Gaza Strip has been locked into a deep socio-economic cri
sis resulting 
from the prolonged closure of its border with Israel, the destruction of thousands of homes as well
 as of 
agricultural and local industrial assets. Almost two out of three households in Gaza live below th
e poverty 
line, and more than half its workforce is unemployed.

UNRWA is not alone in facing chronic obstacles to the flow of humanitarian assistance. These have b
een 
experienced by all UN agencies operating in the West Bank and Gaza, whose Agency heads in a joint 
statement on 26 March called, without success, on the Government of Israel to loosen the restrictio
ns 
currently in force in Gaza.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said: "The suspension of UNRWA's emergency food aid in the 
Gaza Strip will further distress communities already struggling to cope with unrelieved economic ha
rdship and 
malnutrition. If the new restrictions in Gaza continue, I fear we could see real hunger emerge for
 the first time in 
two generations. Israel's legitimate, and serious, security concerns will not be served by hinder
ing the 
emergency relief work of the United Nations. I appeal to the authorities to lift these restrictions
 and enable us 
to resume our food distributions in Gaza."
_____________________________________

If you'd like to sign our petition, clickon:

 http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Aid2Gaza/

------- End of forwarded message -------