Draft 6 pages

Kevin Appiah-Kubi

4/14/14

Draft

Writing 201

“We Know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”.-Nelson Mandela. In its very Long and storied history the two states of Israel and Palestine have been at a standstill with bloody and violent conflicts that have spanned more than several decades. The Jewish state of Israel in its history has had its clashes with the Palestinian people since Israel was established in 1948 which has resulted in three Arab-Israeli wars. The first Arab-Israeli war which had spanned from 1948 to 1949 involved the Arab league (Syria, Egypt Jordan and the Holy War Army) and Israel. The end result was a split between the established state of Israel and Palestine with more than 700,000 Palestinians being displaced from their own land. The six day war in 1967 between the Arabs and Israelis was a fierce war that had involved Syria, Egypt and Jordan that had decided the current borders of today’s Israel and Palestine with Israel benefiting from the war the most and controlling Palestine’s current territory in the Gaza strip. They had also taken control of access to the West Bank which was to be believed to be the holy land that god had promised them in the Holy Bible as well as the holy city of Jerusalem. The Israeli leader at the time Ariel Sharon and the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had tried to settle for a peace treaty between the two countries multiple times during the 90’s but both sides could not come to an agreement between one state and two state solutions. The Israeli government has had a control of Palestinian resources since they have taken over the Gaza strip and the West Bank and now the current crisis the people of Palestine are facing now is a lack of access to clean water and their food sources.

Today the current situation between Israelis and the Palestinians is one of the most heated debate topics across the world with many critics of the Israeli regime and accounts of their human rights violations against the people of Palestine. The history of deaths and abuse have piled up more on the Israeli side with their military killing many Palestinian civilians through air raids and bombing Palestinian villages in the Gaza strip. The Palestinian opposition does not go blameless as well as they have killed a number of Israeli civilians and their current leading party, Hamas, is labeled as a terrorist group by the U.N. because of their attacks on Israeli citizens. The current Prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the leader of Hamas, the ruling political party in Palestine, Khaled Mashal has both tried to go about peace talks both still today have not come about in settling for a one or two state solution. One of the problems that come up with the peace process between Israel and Palestine is the claim to resources between the two countries in which Israel has inherently claimed most of the fertile land used to grow crops and raise livestock.

The Current situation occurring in Palestine is the food crisis there. Palestine’s food crisis is a unique situation because there is enough food for everyone there to eat. Compared to other refugee situations like in Sudan where food packages are airdropped to the villages constantly on account of rebels stealing the food supply or like Syria where the situation is just too dangerous to provide for some refugees and starvation is a huge possibility for them. Many Palestinian farmers have land near the border and grow crops as a source of food for their families but are sometimes warded away by the Israeli military force or shot at. Palestine has very fertile land where many families grow orchids like olive trees and many different crops like cucumber and bell peppers and that many of these crops and land have been passed down from generation to generation in Palestinian families. My Friend Manar Kustiro had visited Palestine back in 2009 and visited her grandfather who lives in Hebron. She described the many crops that her grandfather grew ranging to thinks like fig trees, olive trees and grape vines to vegetables like cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. The problem with maintaining these farmlands were the access to water which the Israeli government controlled and was like “winning the lottery” when water came from his hose and soon after his crops failed just waiting for the water Israel would grant him, if any at all. The amount a small Palestinian village gets in water a week isn’t enough to fill a small swimming pool which is completely unacceptable living condition.

Journalist Eva Bartlett had held an event here at UB showing the atrocities of what Palestinian civilians had to go through where a father was killed trying to tend to his farm near the Israeli border and was sadly shot and killed without a way to provide for his family. She also gave account on how the Israeli military had used military bulldozers to destroy their farms. Without these farms, the price of food available exponentially increases and the average household spends over half of their income on food. Another guest speaker, Miko Peled whose father was a general during the six day war and an Israeli citizen, came here in April and described the living conditions where the Israeli government is purposely trying to hurt the Palestinian people and justify their reasons by claiming that they are retaliating against terrorist actions. He also talks about the “lack” of resources and the unwillingness of the Israeli government to aid starving Palestinian families. The Israeli government has also put bans on fishing which greatly effect Palestinian fishermen and the food crisis there leaving many men, women and children hungry. The ban applies to boats that are three miles off the coast of the Gaza border and even then they are hosed away from fishing sites and sent back or even arrested. The Israeli military has also performed airstrikes on chicken farms in the Gaza strip and west bank taking away some civilians only source of food.

Many civilians in the west bank and Gaza live in very poor to inhumane living conditions.  Many homes are submerged in sewage due to lack of proper piping and no electricity available. Because of the poor sewage systems they are also cut off access to fresh clean water since the sewage contaminates their only water source. The Israeli military has performed horrible acts against humanity on the Palestinian people but has gone on deaf ears in the U.N. and are not held responsible for their actions. Israel has violated 45 United Nations resolutions and yet has had no sanctions or punishments put against them while they encroach the Gaza strip and West Bank with their settlements which is also another violation of their U.N. agreement to stay off of the Palestinian territories. In these illegal settlements, settlers from Israel burn many Palestinian crops clearing land for more settlements. The excuse for encroaching on this land is rapid population growth which in their eyes justifies their actions. The Israeli government is smothering the people of Palestine with no sense of remorse or humility and should not go overlooked by the international community.

Palestine is unique from other because it’s not food deprived because of their area or because of poverty, they are impoverished and starving because of the Israeli military cutting all access to food and aid and clean water. There are huge disparities between the Israelis and the Palestinians in how they live. On the other side in Israel many people live in luxury and food security and access to free clean water while the Palestinians starve for their lives. Organizations like the PARC, the Palestinian agricultural relief committee try to ease the burden of hunger by providing Palestinian refugees’ fruit and vegetable plants and teaching women how to use land between buildings and rooftops in order to grow their food for their family and providing greater food security for Palestinians. Other organizations like Bustan also provide livestock like cows and goats to give a meat source for many Palestinians. One of their bigger projects is creating centers in Palestinian villages that provide education and training for six months in ecofriendly construction of buildings and farm environments really giving Palestinians the access and power to provide for themselves.  In Gaza, Palestinians have a harder time trying to grow food in their own backyards because they are sharply watched by the Israeli government and are restricted on their movement and access to goods and food so growing is near impossible for some.

Overall the food crisis in Palestine can simply be avoided if the Israeli government simply negotiated with the Palestinians and release the sanctions on the water allowing refugees to fish. Humanitarian aid is not needed to help the Palestinians from an artificial crisis created by the Israeli government. When military bulldozers destroy many of the agriculture of these refugees the money American citizens give to Israel goes to these senseless and cruel acts. The international community has donated about 7.2 billion dollars between 2000 and 2009 in humanitarian aid and it does not make up to permanently resolve this issue through the political process. The United States government gives the most aid to this country with over 1 billion given to Israel every year when the money is being wasted on military bulldozers and weapons that constantly attack the livelihood and the food sources of many Palestinians. Donations still do very little because of the restriction of moving goods through the Gaza strip and west bank. This situation can get better through many options. One option is for the international community to put political pressure on Israel. Israel is a strategic ally in the Middle East and helps the United States monitor the situation in the region but the humanitarian crisis cannot be ignored. If the United States were to stop federal aid to Israel they would have to comply with our wishes and be demanded to take responsibility for their actions and stop cutting water and food to Palestine. Another option would be to donate to these programs that were aforementioned in the essay like PARC and Bustan because it allow for greater food independence from Israel easing the food crisis in the country rather than just simply donating to world aid. If we donate to smaller venues actually helping people in Palestine there can be a huge change in how they live. These solutions offer a better future for the people of Palestine and allow them to thrive and better themselves through means of their own land buildings and resources even when their water and food access is cut off.