The Orphans of Gaza

Elizabeth West

February 8, 2024

I’ve a bee in my bonnet when it comes to the children of Gaza, and so far, have not found any means to swat it away. The buzzing is making me a little crazy. This may be a very good thing….

Here’s the background on that bee. The official death toll in Gaza is now nearing 28,000. Of that figure, accrued in just 122 days, about 70% were women and children, and a goodly portion of the rest were non-combatant males. Just under half the population of Gaza—prior to the current massacre—were kids. By my estimate, that would add up to these totals: about 20,000 individual women and children killed, of whom more than 11,000 would have been youths.

These numbers—28,000 dead, 20,000 women and children lost, 11,600 kids killed– are ciphers, little bits of fact that are supplied to us, but which fall profoundly short of describing the carnage. They are nothing more than snapshots of the Israeli-wrought destruction, devoid of any hint of the vast humanity lost, the complexity, the richness, the wisdom, the stories–small and large.

The tiny victims we see, white-shrouded, being lamented and then piled into mass graves, were children. They were not Hamas, nor were they PIJ. They never voted. For anyone. They never plotted against the Zionist occupiers. They were never in a position to participate in a coup against Hamas, as many Westerners seem to feel the Gazans ought to have done–and for which Israel insists they are culpable, deserving of their own deaths.

These juvenile fatalities are fairly well reported; it is no secret that the deaths point to massive war crimes.

Those Who Are Living

That said, here is the bee itself: there are other groups of kids whose plight is of equal and possibly even more pressing concern. To begin with, there are the children heartbreakingly labeled WCNSF, or ‘Wounded Child, No Surviving Family.’  Some of these kids have lost entire extended families along with their own eyes, legs, arms, hands, feet and voices. Next, there are those who have survived with bodies as-of-yet intact, but who are all alone in a world with little food or water or shelter, where bombs rain from the sky, and familiar landmarks are reduced to rubble each day.

The total death count to date–28,000–comprises innumerable mothers and fathers, uncles, grandparents, aunts, and older siblings. The very people who would naturally care for the most vulnerable, the children. The ones who would procure food and water and blankets for them, nurse them when they fall ill. The people who would help them locate a center of sanity in the midst of this complete madness. Who would love them–arguably the most essential element to meaningful survival–even while every other aspect of their lives is shattered. The Israelis are not just eradicating people, they are destroying the very vital social networks that we all count on to allow our young to survive and thrive, physically and emotionally.

I find myself wondering: what happens to these children?  According to UNICEF, there are now about 19,000 orphans in Gaza. The organization Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, chaired by Richard Falk, puts that number closer to 25,000. Cold hard figures again, but for some context, can we try to imagine the unimaginable? Think of every single child in Lansing, Michigan violently orphaned in a matter of just four months, and then consider the magnitude of that loss. Add in widespread displacement, homelessness, war and famine, and a sense of what the number really means begins to emerge.

Let’s start with the physical needs: where will they live? Who will care for them? Who will raise them? We are looking at a huge contingent of children who need places to live. Family, including extended family, are the universally preferred options for children who have lost their parents. But for many of these kids, all vestiges of family have been wiped out.

Not only are their families gone, but they are almost certainly traumatized in ways and to an extent we have limited experience in addressing. Given that some solution will at length be found to house and feed them, who, then, will help them find a way to get out of bed each morning, learn to sing again, play with others, swim without fear in their beautiful sea?

Children are resilient, it is frequently noted, and perhaps truly, but no one should just bounce back from what these kids have endured. The human mind and heart are not made to do that. These children, if they survive the genocide, are going to need great quantities of various kinds of support in order to keep on living with some sense of purpose and dignity. The buzzing says: I should be working on how to provide this help.

When I spoke recently with Zeiad Abbas Shamrouch, Executive Director at the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), he acknowledged the breadth of the challenge posed by the needs of the orphans of Gaza, but expressed a position he said was shared by most organizations dedicated to the well-being of Palestinian children: Just let us do the first action to stop the genocide, and then we can discuss what is needed next. For now, he explained, MECA workers in Gaza are intent on getting adequate food, water and shelter to all of Gaza’s children, as well as those who care for them. MECA, like so many NGOs concerned with Palestinian welfare, is very sensibly laser-focused on saving lives today. Only after the immediate and lethal threats are neutralized will they be at liberty to turn their attention fully toward helping Gazans heal and rebuild.

Most of us–myself and those reading this—are citizens of countries that have actively aided and abetted this slaughter. Our tax dollars have purchased the bombs, and our elected leaders have winked and nodded at Netanyahu and his accomplices as they spew racist and genocidal hatred, meanwhile orchestrating the massacre. Biden—as we all know– went beyond the winking to commit that odious embrace. Just recently, a number of our governments defunded UNRWA (based on rock-solid ‘evidence’ from the ever-mendacious IDF and Shin Bet), further endangering Gaza’s children at a critical moment when famine and disease are rampant.

It’s true, and worth noting, that many of us are doing what we can to stop or slow the killing. We are organizing, marching, getting arrested and clogging the courts, insisting that our voices be heard in the AIPAC-infiltrated halls of government. We are praying, we are shouting and we are writing and pleading, sending money as we are able, but …. as it was with the Iraq war, our voices and our bodies out on the street–so far–tend to be brushed off like a small swarm of gnats, annoying but little more. As we continue to rally and do all we can to hold those responsible for this ongoing war crime accountable, the grim reality is that Palestinians continue to die.

That means not only more loss of life, but more orphans, more kids who desperately need universal, wrap-around care.

As we call for a ceasefire, we can think concurrently about the kids, alive but without family, how we can do right by them both now and later, when the slaughter stops. I feel an obligation, foremost because of our shared humanity, but also because I live in the country most complicit in creating this catastrophe. In order to silence that bee, I must do something to counteract the obscene violence that has robbed these children of their families, their homes, their schools, their friends, their teachers, their pets, their ability to feel safe, and to an unknown–but surely considerable–extent, their capacity to grow into the beautiful multi-faceted humans their parents believed was their birthright.

This is a situation that requires solutions encompassing the needs of the whole child– spiritual, emotional and physical. It is one I have seen little discussion of, and yet there is no doubt that it is and will continue to be a complex and urgent issue.  As Zeiad noted, stopping the killing is first, but for those of us not living under Israeli assault, those of us with the luxury to simply turn on the tap to obtain water to boil for coffee, rummage in the fridge for something to eat, pick up our phones and computers at will to communicate, the capacity to contemplate possible answers exists right now.

A Well-Intended But (Likely) Wrong Turn

Some people are at work seeking these answers; I’ve encountered some mention of plans to resettle orphaned children in the US. Although this is a tempting idea in some regards, I have grave concerns. It seems quite transparently to be the case that the Zionist objective is and always has been to remove all Palestinians from the land of their ancestors and further, to dismantle their culture and identity such that they disappear into the diaspora. Transplanting Gaza’s children to the US, the UK or EU countries thus facilitates that criminal and illegal Zionist intention.

For the kids themselves, separation from the familiar sensory landmarks–the sounds, smells, foods, music, language—would be another huge and disorienting loss. Even placed with the most well-meaning and culturally aligned families in the West–and I know there are wonderful people who would open their hearts and homes without hesitation–I strongly suspect that the discordance, the loss of what little remains of ‘home,’ heaped on top of the trauma they are already carrying, would be insurmountable for many kids.

Adoption in the Islamic world, from what I understand, is not seen in the same way as it is in the US and Europe. While raising another’s biological child is not uncommon, particularly in the case of orphans, there is an emphasis placed upon maintaining that child’s birth ties, a tradition that would run counter to sending children to far-off places.

All kids deserve to be cared for and to have their needs met; after a trauma like the one suffered by the young people of Gaza; we must consider their intrinsic need to be Palestinian as one of the most paramount. The complete destruction of the lives they were leading on October 6th is almost certain to be the defining event of their lives. For that reason alone, anything that might undermine their identity as Palestinians would, in my view, be a failure to meet those needs.

There are a host of reasons, then, not to go down the road of ‘resettling’ these kids outside of Palestine and the Middle East. While it might be a beautifully open-hearted reaction to the critical situation of these children (a family without kids for a kid without a family?), it is clearly not a plan that speaks to most of these children’s best interests.

Possibly of equal importance is the recognition that answers to the question ‘how can we help the orphans of Gaza?’ must come from Palestinians. And to my knowledge, no one in Palestine is yet asking for Americans or Europeans to rush in and scoop up their orphaned children. Even though I understand the attraction, the personal satisfaction it might offer to anyone who would open their home, it is almost certainly a wrong turn.

What Might Real Help Look Like?

So what can we do? How can those of us who feel compelled, help in a way that is actually… helpful?  Ram Dass and Paul Gorman wrote a book some decades ago titled How Can I Help?.  It is a wonderful compilation of anecdotes and clear thinking about helping, about that which underlies much of our helpfully- intended efforts. The book includes ideas and guidance about how to offer our love and support in ways that truly center the person or people we wish to show up for. One of the key messages I gleaned from it points to the profound power—and often, incredible challenge– of simply being fully present with someone else’s pain or fear. Opening and closing the shades, plumping the pillows, getting more ice for the water jug—these all may be, Ram Dass and Gorman suggest, more for our own benefit than for that of a loved one lying gravely ill in a hospital bed. The person who is in that bed is in fact more or less abandoned by the fussing and fixing of our ‘helping.’ Instead, they say—and I paraphrase–sit with the suffering, join in it, honor it. Be authentic with that person where they are, and in general, this will prove to be of far more actual help than doing a lot of stuff that hasn’t been asked for and isn’t particularly needed. Of course, when you are asked, respond. Getting more ice is indeed very helpful, when it is wanted.

The bee in my bonnet has a terrible time simply sitting with the suffering of Palestinians, orphaned or not. I want to act, to do my little bit to soften the horrors. I am not sure that ‘being present with’ Gazan distress is of much value at all. From what I read and hear, the people of Gaza are actually pleading for us to get more ice, to act on their behalf. So the bee drones on: where will these children best be served?  In orphanages within Palestinian refugee settlements?  Should I be raising the money to enable the Palestinian social workers, doctors, and therapists of all sorts who might provide the staffing for such facilities? Should I think about finding ways to make it possible for Palestinian or even other Arab families to foster or adopt, to take on sponsorship of individual kids?  What else can I do?

I have so much privilege and security, so much choice; these surely add to my obligation to act. Still, it is humbling to see how easy it is to identify a problem from my comfy living room, devise a solution that makes a lot of sense to me and charge ahead.  Being a ‘savior’ is another easy-to-make wrong turn.

So the buzzing continues—I’m sure I will keep searching for ideas about how to help, but against that backdrop, I will persist fiercely in doing the small things I can to stop the killing. This has to be primary, not only because it is a prerequisite for any reconstitution of somewhat normal life, but because this is what the Palestinians I have spoken with ask me to do. What funds I have, I will give to any of a number of incredible organizations that are feeding and sheltering Gaza’s kids. It is clearly not time yet for action on my concerns about the orphans. I will wait for Palestinian leadership on this issue, and I will do my best to show up when a direction is identified.

The pace of global collapse poses another challenge to the future of these children. The speed with which each new disaster captures our attention leaves us all at risk for inconstancy. It is not hard to believe that three months after the shooting stops in Gaza, most of us currently transfixed will have moved on to the next emergency. But this is one excruciating debacle for which we bear some direct responsibility, and we must not turn away from it. As Philippe Lazzarini of UNRWA said, “An entire generation of children is traumatized, and will take years to heal.”  Our bombs did that. Our winks, nods and hugs did that.

I hope that we will show up and stay present, do all we can to make healing a viable option for as many of the orphans of Gaza as possible. It may not be apparent just yet how that will best transpire, but the hard work of regenerating lives and country requires commitment, consistency, and a willingness to work in relative obscurity.

This may or may not call to you, but if it does, and if you have your own bee, let its buzzing serve to keep you from complacency. Let us be poised, then, to help in earnest, once the path is plotted. Let us resolve to do all we can to show up for Palestinian-led efforts to rebuild the networks that support life and love, those that have been ripped apart by Israeli-dropped US bombs. Let us not allow the next riveting train wreck to distract us or banish the orphans of Gaza from our hearts. These innocent and innately worthy children deserve—at a minimum– real help. They are our fellow humans and they must not be abandoned again.

 

Why Cutting the Funding of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza is a Humanitarian Catastrophe

EmilieEl Khoury, Queen’s University, Ontario

(The Conversation) – Shortly after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its ruling in the case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, Israel accused 12 members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) of being involved in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. In response, UNRWA said it fired staff accused of involvement.

Israel demanded that donor countries cease all funding to UNRWA and claimed the organization is supporting Hamas. Additionally, Israel called for the cessation of UNRWA activities in Gaza after the war.

Sixteen mostly western countries, including Canada, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, announced they were suspending their funding to UNRWA.

Western government officials said they have not been able to verify the allegations. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said, “we haven’t had the ability to investigate [the allegations] ourselves. But they are highly, highly credible.”

While Canada pledged $40 million for Palestinians in Gaza through alternative humanitarian channels, others like the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany, Japan, Italy and Switzerland have completely suspended their aid, collectively representing over 60 per cent of UNRWA’s budget.

UNRWA has warned that unless funding is restored it may need to shut down by the end of February. This decision may have serious consequences, not only for Palestine, but also Israel and the broader region.

What is UNRWA?

UNRWA was established in 1949, and has been pivotal in providing humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees since its inception. Following the Nakba (Catastrophe) in 1948, the agency was formed to respond to the urgent needs of the displaced Palestinian population.

It currently supports over six million Palestinians, employing more than 30,000 staff members, with a significant portion dedicated to operations in Gaza.

Operating under a mandate from the UN General Assembly, UNRWA offers essential assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees across the Levant, including Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently said “UNRWA is the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza,” while UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said providing humanitarian assistance in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is “completely dependent on UNRWA being adequately funded and operational.”

Israel’s accusations

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal cited an Israeli “intelligence dossier” claiming 10 per cent of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza have ties to armed groups. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has said Israel has not yet shared the dossier with the United Nations.

While these accusations are serious, maintaining an objective approach and refraining from drawing hasty conclusions about the UNRWA’s 30,000 employees is crucial. The 12 employees accused of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack represent 0.04 per cent of the agency’s staff.

There are questions to be answered about the functioning of the UN agency, particularly regarding its recruitment and staff supervision processes. However, it would be misguided to generalize the conduct of one member or 12 to the entire organization. Particularly as the evidence Israel cites has not been made public.

Funding cuts aren’t new

Israel has long sought to dismantle UNRWA and the agency has faced the threat of funding cuts in the past. In 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump cut funding claiming it was an “irredeemably flawed operation.”

Trump’s proposed “deal of the century” was based on sidelining the Palestinians in a bid to push for normalization between Israel and Arab governments.

Normalization has sparked controversy in Palestine and the broader region, particularly when it comes to the question of Palestinian refugees. Under Trump’s proposals, UNRWA would be dissolved and Palestinian refugees would lose their international legal status, a measure that would be challenging the historical right of return of Palestinian refugees.

UN General Assembly Resolution 194, passed in 1948, enshrines the right of Palestinian refugees to return home and receive compensation for losses suffered. UNRWA is an organization that recognizes the status of Palestinian refugees and, by extension, their right to return at some point.

Palestinians, determined not to compromise their historical rights, rejected Trump’s agreement in the face of political and financial pressures.

It is also important to contextualize the allegations against UNRWA within Israel’s — and the United States’s — broader relationship with the UN. In 2019, both countries announced they were pulling out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, claiming it has an anti-Israel bias.

In the months since Oct. 7, Israeli officials have called for the resignation of the UN Secretary-General, denied UN staff visas and rejected the ICJ’s ruling.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza grows more dire by the day. Vital infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals, has been destroyed or severely damaged.

If UNRWA is unable to function, it could heighten political and social tensions in the region, especially in the countries hosting Palestinians, which will directly feel the repercussions of funding cuts.

It is imperative that foreign countries do not worsen the situation, but instead take steps to mitigate these negative repercussions and work towards finding humane, respectful and sustainable long-term solutions for the region.

 

Pilger & the Palestinians

Consortium News

We lost a major voice in defense of the Palestinian people in the midst of a campaign to eradicate them from Gaza and drive them from the West Bank.

The late John Pilger was arguably the most important journalistic voice in the West on the Palestinian question. Consortium News screened his essential documentary Palestine Is Still the Issue in 2021 followed by a discussion with John and the great Israeli historian Ilan Pappé.  John died on Jan. 30 in the midst of Israel’s genocide against Gaza, his profound warnings having been ignored about where the crisis was headed. 

Acclaimed journalist and filmmaker John Pilger discussed the changes that have come over Palestine since the making of his film Palestine Is Still the Issue, released in 1974 and updated in 2002.

A screening of the full documentary is shown before the discussion.  Pilger gave Consortium News permission to show the entire film, which is on johnpilger.com, and he then appeared on the show for an hour in July 2021 to talk about it.

The Show

The episode is about the past two decades that have seen an extreme turn to the right in Israeli politics with grave consequences for Palestine and its quest for independence, including four major Israeli attacks against Gaza before the 2023 conflict.

Pilger and Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, who appeared in the 2002 film, discussed the worsening situation over the decades for Palestinians and where the future of Palestine and Israel is headed, presaging today’s events.

Pappé is the author of many books, including The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, in which he documents that ethnic cleansing was a long-standing Zionist goal that was planned in detail by Ben-Gurion in the Red House headquarters outside Tel Aviv and included a much greater number of atrocities against Palestinians in the establishment of Israel in the late 1940s than Western establishments acknowledge.

Pappé says it was the start of a process of ethnic cleansing that continues until today.

About the book, Publisher’s Weekly wrote:

“Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called ‘ethnic cleansing.’ Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war, Ilan Pappé offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that, from its very inception, a central plank in Israel’s founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. Indispensable for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Middle East.”

Produced by Cathy Vogan, with hosts Elizabeth Vos and Joe Lauria.

YouTube Blocks It

In July 2021, YouTube stopped the film after 16 minutes claiming that it was “Spam or deceptive practices.”

YouTube then claimed a copyright violation.

It was the second time YouTube has taken down an episode of CN Live!  The first time was in February 2021, when, again without explanation, it removed an interview with journalist Greg Palast about voter suppression in the Georgia Senate run-off race.

 

The Dangers of Complicity: The US Courts, Gaza and Genocide

Binoy Kampmark

 

Holding the foreign policy of a country accountable in court, notably when it comes to matters criminal, can be insuperably challenging.  Judges traditionally shun making decisions on policy, even though they unofficially do so all the time.  The Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based civil liberties group, was not to be discouraged, most notably regarding the Biden administration’s unflagging support for Israel and its war in Gaza.

In a filing in the US District Court for the Northern District of California last November, the CCR, representing a number of Palestinian human rights organisations including Palestinians in Gaza and the United States, sought an order “requiring that the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense adhere to their duty to prevent, and not further, the unfolding genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza.”  Such a duty, arising in the UN Genocide Convention of 1948, “is judicially enforceable as a peremptory norm of customary international law.”

The complaint alleged that the genocidal conditions in Gaza had “so far been made possible because of unconditional support given [to Israel] by the named official-capacity defendants in this case,” namely, President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

At the time proceedings were initiated, the Israeli campaign in Gaza, launched in response to the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas, had already claimed the lives of 11,000 Palestinian civilians, “more than 4,500 of them children, as well as entire families, numerous journalists and UN workers.”  The bombardment had crippled critical infrastructure, led to the displacement of 1.6 million persons, and had been “accompanied by a total siege of Gaza, depriving Palestinians in Gaza the conditions of life necessary for human survival: food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity.”  (Currently, the displaced number exceeds 2 million; the number of dead towers at 26,000.)

In reaching his decision to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds, Jeffrey S. White admitted it was the “most difficult” of his career.  He acknowledged South Africa’s action in the International Court of Justice against Israel, which argues that Israel’s conduct against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip satisfies the elements of genocide.

The January 26 interim order of provisional measures granted by the ICJ explicitly put Israel on notice to comply with the Genocide Convention, punish those responsible for directly and publicly inciting genocide, permit basic humanitarian assistance and essential services to the Gaza Strip, preserve relevant evidence pertaining to potential genocidal acts and submit a report to the ICJ on its compliance within a month.  In international law, these interim measures are accepted as binding.

The ICJ also showed some scepticism to arguments that Israel had taken adequate measures to minimise harm to Palestinian civilians and respond to instances where an incitement to genocide could be imputed.  None of the measures taken till that point had removed the risk of irreparable harm; to merely assert compliance was not sufficient evidence of it.

In White’s words, “the undisputed evidence before this Court comports with the finding of the ICJ and indicates that the current treatment of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military may plausibly constitute a genocide in violation of international law.”  Lawyers representing the government also chose not to cross-examine witnesses, bar one Holocaust scholar who testified that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip could be classed as genocidal.  Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, the claims advanced in this case, involving disputes over foreign policy, raised “fundamentally non-justiciable political questions.”  To compel the US government to cease military and financial assistance to Israel were matters “intimately related to foreign policy and national security”.

The plaintiffs had encountered that great limitation articulated by Chief Justice Marshall in 1803: that ‘[q]uestions, in their nature political, or which are, by the constitution and laws, submitted to the executive, can never be made in this court”.  To do so would violate the separation of powers.  The judiciary was, according to White, “not equipped with the intelligence or the acumen necessary to make foreign policy decisions on behalf of the government.”

Despite being bound by weighty precedent and rulings in previous cases, White concludes with a plea.  The ICJ had found it “plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide.”  The judge implored the “Defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.”  Not bad for one lacking intelligence or the acumen necessary to make foreign policy decisions.

While disappointed in White’s ruling, Brad Parker, a senior advisor to one of the organisational plaintiffs, Defense for Children International Palestine, saw the thickest of silver linings.  Along with the ICJ decision, “and the increasing recognition that what Israel is carrying out is a genocide and the US is complicit in those genocidal acts, I think the strong language from a US federal court judge increasingly works to isolate Israel’s actions and also bring pressure on the Biden administration to change course.”

To date, the slaughter in Gaza continues.  Israeli politicians and military officials persist in claiming that murderously innovative approaches to killing Palestinian civilians are not, by definition, genocidal.  But the walls of justifiable impunity, so proudly claimed by Israel in its righteous mission of self-defence, are proving increasingly porous.

 

Demonstrators Block Presidential Motorcade in NYC to Demand Ceasefire in Gaza

Chris Walker

More than 500 Jewish protesters and their allies gathered in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on Wednesday to demonstrate against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire.

 

The protest took place while President Joe Biden was attending a fundraiser at the Met, his first visit to New York City since October 7. Demonstrators called on the president to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire, and demanded that he stop providing funds to aid in Israel’s relentless military and starvation campaign against Palestinians in Gaza.

Hundreds of Jewish demonstrators gathered in New York City on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, to protest against the United States' continued funding of Israel's war on Gaza and to call for a permanent ceasefire.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed nearly 28,000 Palestinians — including at least 12,150 children — since October 7, injuring another 67,317. Thousands more are believed to be trapped under the rubble.

Outside of the Met, protesters chanted “Ceasefire Now” and held banners encouraging Biden to demand an end to the genocide. They also unfurled a 50-foot long banner that read “Let Gaza Live,” which could be seen from the windows of the room where the fundraiser took place.

NYPD officers lead away a handcuffed protester as hundreds of Jewish demonstrators gathered in New York City to protest against the United States' continued funding of Israel's war on Gaza and to call for a permanent ceasefire.

Demonstrators blocked the presidential motorcade during the protest, resulting in around 100 arrests by New York City police.

Several participants in the demonstration condemned Biden’s role in the genocide.

“As Jewish New Yorkers we want to make crystal clear that President Biden is not welcome in our city while he continues to fund and arm the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” read a statement from Jay Saper of Jewish Voice for Peace that was shared with Truthout.

A demonstrator holds a Palestinian flag as hundreds of Jewish demonstrators gathered in New York City to protest against the United States' continued funding of Israel's war on Gaza and to call for a permanent ceasefire.

Demonstrators also rejected the Biden administration’s attempts to justify the U.S.’s participation in the genocide.

“Biden says that he is funding and arming Israel for Jewish safety. We’re here to call his bluff,” said Eve Feldberg of Jewish Voice for Peace. “The President is advancing the US’s own military interests. And the price has been the lives of almost 30,000 Palestinians.”

Biden is refusing to respond to “the majority of his base that is calling for a ceasefire,” added demonstrator Maya Edery, and is instead “meeting with corporate donors behind closed doors” in New York.

Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, Students for Justice in Palestine, Within Our Lifetime, and countless other organizations have taken to the streets in dozens of cities across the U.S. since October 7, demanding that Israel stop the genocide.

Organizers engaged in disruptive protests in eight major American cities in mid-December, for example, blocking vehicles on bridges in Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Chicago.

Hundreds of Jewish demonstrators gathered in New York City on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, to protest against the United States' continued funding of Israel's war on Gaza and to call for a permanent ceasefire.

In November, over 1,000 Jewish Voice for Peace protesters held a demonstration at the Israeli consulate offices in Chicago, which are located in the same building as the Ogilvie Transportation Center, a train station that was also temporarily shut down by protesters.

And in October, just days after Israel began its bloody siege of Gaza, Jews, Palestinians and allies held a massive rally at the U.S. Capitol building — part of a broader protest action that aimed to have “ten thousand American Jews…lead a week of massive protests” against the genocide.

 

‘We try every day to escape’: Palestinians struggle to afford Gaza exit fees

Ruwaida Kamal Amer

After months of a war like no other in Gaza — a war of endless bombing, displacement, hunger, and thirst — those who have lost hope of finding safety in the Strip are desperately trying to find a way out. But escaping death in Gaza comes at a very high price — one that most Palestinians are, quite literally, unable to afford.

 

For Palestinians who hold foreign passports, getting out of Gaza has been relatively feasible. Since the beginning of the war, numerous governments have asked Egypt to open the Rafah Crossing in the south in order to facilitate the safe passage of these dual citizens (the Erez Crossing into Israel from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza has been closed by the Israeli authorities since October 7.) After weeks of pleading and diplomatic efforts, hundreds of dual citizens have been able to slowly leave Gaza, hoping to return once hostilities end.

But more than 2.2 million Palestinians remain stuck inside the Strip, living under bombardment and siege with no foreign government to help them. To have their names added to the daily list of people permitted to exit through Rafah, these residents are being forced to pay exorbitant fees to one of the private travel agencies in Gaza or Cairo, which then work with Egyptian security forces to coordinate their flight from the Strip.

Before the war, travel was usually only permitted for medical treatment, education, or employment, while a small minority who could afford to would also pay high fees in order to leave for leisure. The cost of crossing the border alone was around $50, and travel agencies often charged several hundreds of dollars to expedite the process. Now, however, travel agencies have begun charging upward of $5,000 to coordinate the exit of each individual. And for the hundreds of thousands of Gazans who’ve been left with only the clothes on their back after being displaced multiple times during the war, such fees are a pipe dream. 

Reem Awadallah, a 35-year-old mother from Gaza City, has been displaced to the city of Khan Younis in the south of the Strip since mid-October. “We have no friends or relatives here,” she said. “I came to the school [which is now functioning as a shelter], but I am looking for a chance to leave Gaza. I want to escape death with my daughter, and I will return to Gaza when this madness stops.

“I have a brother in Germany who tried to submit a request for us to leave through Rafah, but the request was denied; only requests for one’s mother or father are allowed, according to the German embassy,” Awadallah continued. “So I started looking for other ways to leave — through travel agencies.

“They asked us for $4,500, which was a very large amount,” she recounted. “After several consultations with my family, we agreed to pay it in order to get out of this death trap. But when we asked the agency to coordinate our exit from Gaza, they asked me for $6,000 each [for Awadallah and her daughter], which we couldn’t afford. So we surrendered to our situation — we will wait for the war to end, or until we find a travel agency that will take a smaller amount.”

Awadallah’s daughter, Sarah, is 11 years old. “She often jokes with me that we are in a place with no water or food, and it’s like going camping in a desert,” Awadallah said. “Sarah spends a lot of her time silently just looking around. My brother from Germany tries to console and support us, telling us that we should remain strong, but it’s so painful that [we don’t have the] right to travel. We need a lot of money in order to escape this hell, even for a few days.”

‘The agencies are not alleviating our suffering, they are making it worse’

Several travel offices in Khan Younis and Rafah told +972 that a major reason for this price hike is the demands from Egyptian authorities. During wartime, they said, the price of coordinating with Egypt for travel through the Rafah Crossing ranges between $2,000 and $6,000 dollars per person, and this amount is split between Egyptian security forces and the offices in Gaza (in normal circumstances, the price would range from $200 to $1,000 depending on the travel season, according to one office).

The agencies also noted that there is currently a massive demand from Palestinians to travel, many of them seeking urgent medical treatment. But even if residents could theoretically afford to pay the high cost, many of them have left their homes and much of their money behind while escaping the Israeli bombardment.

Khaled al-Atrash was displaced with his wife and four children from Jabalia in the north of the Strip. They came to Rafah specifically, al-Atrash said, to be close to the border crossing. “I was traveling in Egypt for a month with my children [over the summer], and we returned for their schooling,” he explained. “I tried to travel again [after the war began]; they asked us to pay $5,000 each. We are six people: $30,000 dollars in order to leave Gaza. This is impossible.

“My house was completely destroyed, and I already spent a large amount to travel [last summer],” al-Atrash continued. “How will we save this much? [The travel agencies] are not alleviating our suffering, they are only making it worse for us. We try every day to escape. I go to Rafah with a friend of mine and we try to make plans together, and every day we search for a travel agency that will take a lower amount.”

Even if the public demand for such services has skyrocketed as a result of the war, for al-Atrash, these private companies were taking advantage of the desperate situation. “Last summer, I left Gaza with my family to relax after a long school year. We paid the travel agency $500 dollars per person. During the summer, prices are a little high, but nothing like what they are charging now. It’s an exploitation of our need to travel.

“We do not know how to live in this war — there’s no shelter here and we cannot leave,” he said, exasperated. “We do not want to leave Gaza permanently, only temporarily, until the war ends. I have four children whose mental and physical health are deteriorating. The cold is terrible. There is no food. There is little medicine in Gaza. And what’s most painful is the restriction on our travel and their exploitation of us.”

Laila Rizk is a 22-year-old student from Gaza City. She was studying in Egypt but returned to Gaza to visit her family a few weeks before the war began; she was supposed to return to Egypt in mid-October, but has been unable to.

“I tried several times to ask the university to coordinate my travel through the Rafah Crossing, but there was no response,” she explained. “Then I went to a travel agency to coordinate and expedite my exit from Gaza, but they asked me for $4,000 and told me that if I left successfully, I would have another $2,000 left to pay.

 

“No Evidence” of UNRWA Hamas Allegations

TomFeeley

Israel gave the dossier to major UNRWA donor countries just after the ICJ made their interim ruling regarding South Africa’s charge of genocide against Israel. U.K.’s Channel 4 claims it ‘contains no evidence’ for Israel’s allegations against UNRWA’s workers.

The story was presented by Channel 4’s Lindsey Hilsum who then posted it to her X account, formerly Twitter, along with the caption “We got hold of Israel’s dossier against UNRWA – why did the donors including the U.K. withdraw funding on such flimsy unproven allegations before an investigation?”

The allegations, which were detailed in a confidential Israeli intelligence brief originally reported on in the Wall Street Journal, involve 12 UNRWA employees who Israel claims were involved in the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israeli Gaza border communities on October 7.

According to Channel 4, the intelligence report “contains no evidence to support Israel’s explosive new claim other than stating, ‘From intelligence information, documents, and identity cards seized during the course of the fighting, it is now possible to flag around 190 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist operatives who serve as UNRWA employees. More than 10 UNRWA staffers took part in the events of October 7.’”

According to Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s director of communications, who was interviewed by Channel 4, employees and contractors are placed on a list that is given to Israel every year for approval. As recently as last May, according to Channel 4, all UNRWA workers had been vetted and approved by Israel.

Channel 4 reported that Israel gave the dossier to major UNRWA donor countries just after the ICJ made their interim ruling regarding South Africa’s charge of genocide against Israel.

The UNRWA is reportedly set to lose $65 million by the end of February as donors’ funding cuts take effect, imperiling the agency’s operations in Gaza and across the Middle East.

“We are going to be forced to make very tough decisions that humanitarian aid workers are not supposed to be forced to make,” she said.