ISRAEL’S ONSLAUGHT on Gaza has not only strengthened the extremists but also created fertile ground for extremism to flourish, John Ging warns.
The Irish national who is chief of Gaza operations for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), argues that the people of Gaza have for many years been caught in a cycle of death and destruction which grows worse with each round and has no conclusive result.
He welcomes the appointment by the Obama administration of George Mitchell, the former US senator who was deeply involved in the Northern Ireland peace process,as envoy to the Middle East. Mr Mitchell’s Irish and Lebanese background are seen as boosting his chances of finding a new formula for dealing with the violence which has plagued the region.
Looking forward to what must be done now that the ceasefire seems to be holding between Israel and the Hamas movement which rules Gaza, Mr Ging says both must be held accountable for their actions. “We want to see truth and justice for all. There must be effective and credible mechanisms [for ensuring accountability] on both sides and applied to both sides.
“The rule of law must prevail...One side cannot justify its actions by [citing] the actions of the other side.”
While the same standards should be applied to both, he observed that “one side has many more questions to answer than the other”. Mr Ging says what is needed now is to “restore to the people of Gaza a life of dignity. We cannot keep people on a life support machine” by allowing only enough humanitarian aid to enter the Strip to keep its 1.5 million people alive.
They cannot continue living on rations of rice, flour, oil and lentils. “They are asking to get on with their lives, to trade and to move freely. The crossings must be opened to create a new reality. If we do that, the recovery of Gaza is possible.” It is necessary to repair the “damaged mindset” of Gazans as well as the physical infrastructure destroyed in this war.
Unfortunately, he says, abandoning the current regime of siege and blockade means falling into a “black hole of political complexity” involving the interests of the various players: Israel, Hamas in Gaza, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, the US, Europe and the Arab governments.
The only way to get round this “black hole” is to give priority to the “interests of ordinary people...There are 1,400 dead, 400 of them children, and 5,000 wounded.”
UNRWA employees worked very well during this conflict, he said. The agency has 10,000 on long-term contracts and another 7,000 on short-term contracts. During the fighting, 1,000 kept the distribution centres and clinics open, feeding 750,000 and giving health care to one million.
UNRWA also looked after 50,000 who took refuge in its schools which open today. Alternative accommodation has been found for all the displaced.
Mr Ging took me to see the still smouldering remains of the warehouse struck with multiple phosphorus shells during Israel’s bombardment of the neighbourhood.
He says that after the first rounds hit the vocational training centre where hundreds of people had sought refuge, the agency contacted the Israelis and told them their munitions were hitting the UNRWA compound and warned about the fuel dump nearby.
However, the next rounds hit the workshop next to the fuel storage area. Courageous staff members kicked away the burning phosphorus gel from under trucks loaded with fuel and drove them out of the compound. “If they had been hit the whole place would have gone up,” he says.
UNRWA’s Commissioner General Karen Koning Abu Zayd counts as one of the main obstacles to recovery the “disunity of the Palestinians and how that affects our ability to work, get donations and deliver.” She says there are certain things that have to be sorted out between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Neither the Israelis nor the PA want Hamas to provide aid.
“Funding is flowing in rather well, especially from the Arabs on the reconstruction side, which is for us only our schools and housing for refugees and not the overall reconstruction which is the business of some other parts of the UN,” she says. “We have had a very good response to our flash appeal [for immediate funding] but now we are putting out a much larger appeal.” She said the $34 million flash appeal had been covered by a donation from the emir of Kuwait.
So far, $60 million of the $190 general emergency appeal for 2009 has been raised. The total UNRWA hopes to raise is $245 million. Donors include the US, EU, Scandanavia and Britain as well as new benefactors, including Estonia, India and the wife of Lebanese president Michel Suleiman.