The United Nations Literally Holds the Gaza Strip & The West Bank Together

“This siege is effectively imprisoning the vast majority of Gaza’s population.”

Listen to an Introduction from Citizen Paul

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The United Nations plays a major role in trying to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and there has been strong support for giving the UN greater authority to step in and effectively make the territories a UN trusteeship. During the period of intense conflict in 2002, a strong majority supported the UN’s effort to conduct a fact-finding mission in Jenin and a plurality approved the UN Security Council calling for Israel to withdraw its forces from Palestinian cities. 

The purpose of this fact-finding mission was to establish the facts about what happened in the struggle between the IDF and Palestinian militants in Jenin and to evaluate rumors and reports of war crimes against civilians.

Originally a suggestion of the Israeli Foreign Minister, the UN fact-finding mission was backed by the United States. After a few days, the Israeli government reversed course and refused cooperation with the fact-finding mission.

The “Gaza Strip” is an arid rectangular territory 25 miles long and 6 miles wide that has a population of 1.5 million Palestinians. Through military force Israel fully controls the Gaza Strip from the sea, the air, and on land so that the designation “occupied territory” continues to apply even though 8,000 Israeli settlers were evacuated in 2005. 

Today nearly 80% of Gazans live in poverty and about half of these are classified as “extremely impoverished by the United Nations. Unemployment is today near 50% and the average GDP is less than $1,500 making Gaza one of the poorest as well as most densely populated areas of the world. 

The former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, John Dugard, said in 2006, “Gaza is a prison and Israel seems to have thrown away the keys.”

During my 2008 visit, I attended a meeting where recent findings from the Occupied Palestinian Territory Report (pictured above) were discussed and the obvious facts – that political, economic and social conditions have continued to deteriorate and inter-factional violence increased, making it clear that without greater support for UN and other NGOs, like Mercy Corps, initiatives to help the Palestinian people, the efforts to bring about a solution will fail. 

Since October 2007, Israel has restricted the amount of fuel it allows to supply Gaza’s only power plant. As a result, the plant can only produce 55 megawatts out of a potential 80 megawatts causing power cuts from four to eight hours per day. And Gaza City’s sewage treatment plant requires 14 days of uninterrupted power supply for the full duration of the treatment cycle. 

The bulk of the sewage is being pumped out to the sea in Gaza, and the latest development of sewage being pumped into storm water lagoons in heavily populated areas remains a serious concern. Fishermen at the Gaza harbor claim that the sewage has killed most sea life in the immediate vicinity, and the major health concern is that sewage introduces the ecoli bacteria into bathing water. 

All key aspects of humanitarian assistance from the hospitals, food assistance programs, water, sanitation, and transport of goods from the border crossings to storage or the market are impossible without fuel.

Despite these hardships, the UN continues to fight for the rights and well-being of the Palestinian people. We thank them for their tireless work to alleviate the suffering and bring humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.

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