Extracts from the report of malnutrition in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food
EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF MALNUTRITION IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES BY JEAN ZIEGLER, UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE RIGHT TO FOOD
Note: The Ziegler report was to be presented to the U.N. General Assembly on November 18th. Israeli authorities are blocking its publication. We are petitioning the UN to publish it.
The Special Rapporteur carried out a mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories from 3-13 July 2003. This mission was undertaken in response to the emergence of a humanitarian catastrophe.
The West Bank and the Gaza Strip make up the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’, which have been under Israeli military administration since 1967. They make up an area of around 5,800 km2 in which more than 3.5 million Palestinians live. The Palestinian Territories, before the present crisis, had fertile lands and mostly have had a vibrant economy, exporting thousands of tonnes of olives, fruits, vegetables to Israel, Europe and the Gulf countries. The current man-made crisis is the result of harsh measures which are preventing the movement of people and goods and which have brought the Palestinian economy and agriculture to the verge of collapse.
In the Palestinian Territories, hunger and malnutrition are being created by the measures currently imposed. Severe malnutrition reported in Gaza is now equivalent to levels found in poor sub-Saharan countries, an absurd situation as Palestine was formerly a middle-income economy. Over 22% of children under five are now suffering from malnutrition, compared to 7.6% in the year 2000. Around 15.6% of children under the age of 5 suffer from acute anemia, which for many will have permanent negative effects on their physical and mental development in the future. Food shortages, particularly of proteins, have been widely reported. More than half of Palestinian households now eat only once per day. Around 60% of Palestinians are now living in acute poverty. Some try to subsist on bread and tea.
An unprecedented level of restrictions on the movements of Palestinians inside the Occupied Territories is depriving the Palestinians not only of their freedom of movement, but also of their right to food. The extensive imposition of curfews, road closures, permit systems, security checkpoints, and back-to-back truck off-loading systems imposed by the occupying military forces are producing the humanitarian crisis. Closures prevent movement not only between Palestinian areas and Israel, but within the Palestinian territories. In some cases, crossing for food and agricultural produce at checkpoints is refused for days, without explanation. At various checkpoints in the West Bank, the Special Rapporteur saw trucks of fruit and vegetables rotting under the sun. Curfews, sometimes imposed for days at a time, keep the populations of whole towns inside their homes under virtual house arrest. These measures make life nearly unbearable and are seriously threatening the food security of all Palestinians. Even access to humanitarian aid is often restricted or denied by the occupying administration.
Water shortages are also serious. With the system of checkpoints and road closures in place, water tankers cannot always reach villages, or are arbitrarily not permitted to cross checkpoints, leaving communities without water for days at a time. Reports of water-borne diseases continue to rise as a result of the destruction of water resources and increased dependence on poor quality water resources.
The destruction of farms and agricultural fields, of olive and citrus trees and irrigation wells, has contributed to the collapse of agriculture. Land is also being confiscated for the extension of settlements, the building of settler-only roads and the building of security buffers around the settlements.
