Gaza siege causing $70000 in daily losses for fishermen

"...the daily losses of the fishing industry in the Gaza Strip is estimated by $70000 and that additional losses of $30000 are caused to the fishermen as they are unable to export their fish out of the Gaza Strip..."

Rafah Fishermen's Syndicate

article by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)

"I've been a fisherman for thirty six years, ever since I was fifteen years old. Myoriginal village, Il Jura, was famous for its fishermen. When my father migrated toGaza in 1948, he came here by boat."

Jamal Mohammed Bassalla is the spokesman of the Rafah Fisherman's Syndicate inthe southern Gaza Strip. The syndicate represents around 450 local fishermen, and itsheadquarters are on the beach just outside Rafah. This morning, however, Jamal andhis crew are sitting under tarpaulin on the beach, drinking tea round a small driftwoodfire. Conditions at sea are treacherous, and they're waiting for the weather toimprove.

"It takes two or three hours to prepare the boats, but we are on stand-by every day"says Jamal. "We check the nets, the diesel for the boat, batteries, our food supplies,the GPS (Global Positioning System), everything we need in order to work. When theweather improves we're ready almost immediately." In summer Jamal has a crew ofeighteen men, and they stay out at sea for up to twenty four hours at a time. But inwinter the crew is just six or seven in total. The crews work together for years, andunderstand each other intimately.

There are around 3,500 professional fishermen working along the forty kilometrecoastline of the Gaza Strip. Between them, they economically support almost 40,000people, including mechanics, fishmongers and thousands of local fishing families. Butthe Gaza fishing industry has been decimated, especially over the last five years,because of increasingly punitive Israeli restrictions on how far out to sea thefishermen can sail without being shot or harassed. The Interim Arrangements on theGaza Strip and West Bank signed between Israel and the PLO in 1994/5 did notconform to international human rights standards, as they restricted the movement ofPalestinian civilians, including the right of Gazan fishermen to fish off their owncoastline. However, the Interim Arrangements did stipulate that Palestinian fishermenare permitted to fish up to 20 nautical miles from the Gaza coastline.

But Jamal and his colleagues claim that now they cannot fish more than 2.5kilometres offshore without risking being shot. "If we sail any further out to sea, theIsraelis can open fire, destroy our nets and boats, or force us back to shore," he says."We've suffered these restrictions since 2003, and recently they have started usingrockets and helicopters against us as well." The Rafah Syndicate fishermen say theIsraeli gunboats are at sea 24 hours a day 7 days a week, so they have no chance ofventuring any further offshore.

Israel claims the fishing restrictions are part of an overall security strategy to combatPalestinian gun-smuggling and suicide-bombing. But Khalil Shahin, Director of theEconomic and Social Rights Unit at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)points out that Israel has never honoured the Interim Arrangements. "Israel has neverpermitted Gazan fishermen to fish 20 nautical miles from the shore" he says. "Thefurthest they have allowed them to fish is 12 nautical miles offshore. That was back inthe mid 1990's, when Gazan fishermen were hauling approximately 3,000 tons of fisha year. But productivity has plummeted since 2002, because of the increasingrestrictions. Now the fishermen are hauling less than 500 tons of fish a year. This is aninevitable consequence of Israel continually violating the Interim Arrangements"As well as having their boats, nets and other fishing equipment damaged or destroyed,more than 70 Gazan fishermen were arrested by the Israelis last year. Jamal Bassallaand his colleagues are angry and frustrated they can no longer earn a sustainableliving from fishing without risking their lives. Another syndicate member, Abdullah,says he does take risks. "I take my boat 4 or 5 kilometres from the shore - what choicedo I have! Sometimes we manage, but other times we are actually hauling our catchwhen they start firing and force us back. Then we have to abandon the whole haul."

The Rafah fishermen say these restrictions have also affected the type of fish theycatch, making them increasingly reliant on shallow-water fish like sardines. Manyhave resorted to using smaller nets, catching smaller and younger fish in order toincrease their haul. Jamal claims they have no choice because of the Israeli blockade,but the fishermen have been criticised for severely over-fishing remaining localstocks. Ironically, the number of fishermen in Gaza has increased since the midnineties, because some of the thousands of men who used to work in Israel haveturned to professional fishing in order to survive.

The sea is Gaza's greatest natural resource, and for the men at the Rafah Syndicate,the solution to their crisis is radically simple: they will settle for their rights as statedin the Interim Arrangements. "We need open seas" says Jamal. "I am an educatedfisherman: I have a geography degree from Beirut University, but I returned to fishingbecause I love the sea." He has two brothers and six sons. All of them are fishermen."We have nets and our boats" he says. "We are ready to work."

"The market is hungry for fish but the amount of fish caught is not enough to feed the people"

The title is extracted from an article published on January 31st by MEL FRYKBERG for the Middle East Times. The article is a good recapitulation of the fisheries situation in the Strip of Gaza.

Key points are:

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords, Gazan fishermen were permitted to fish up to 20 nautical miles from the coast. That limit was reduced to 12 miles in 2002 during the second intifada. In October 2006, Israel imposed a further six nautical mile restriction on fishing following the capture of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit by Hamas fighters on the Gaza border.

The bans have seriously limited the quantity and quality of catch Gazans can make: i) Gaza's sardines (the main catch) and shrimp seasonally migrate further out to sea and beyond the enforced limit, and ii) the permitted fishing zone is overfished. Furthermore, Israel forbids Gazans to export their catches to higher paying customers abroad. Collectively, Palestinian fishermen saw their monthly catch plummet from 823 tons in 2000 to 50 tons in 2006. Fishing has become so bad that most think it's pointless to go out to sea (too costly if you don't catch anything0.

"The market is hungry for fish but the amount of fish caught is not enough to feed the people," said Finn Ebbesen of the Danish International Development Assistance, which has been working in Gaza for almost a decade.

Gazan fishermen are kept alive by monthly World Food Programme (WFP) food rations of wheat flour, sugar, olive oil and lentils in exchange for maintaining the upkeep of their boats and nets. The Programme supports some 1,470 fishermen households, or 8,820 people affected by the conflict.

[All figures are those of the article]

The Border Breakthrough

On Wednesday 23^rd January, thousands of Gazans made a brief escape to Rafah, Egypt, in order to eat and buy those products they are short of.

The million and a half residents of Gaza still depend almost entirely on importation of goods through crossings which are controlled by Israel. These crossings have been closed for the past eight months leaving Gazans without food.

The border breakthrough was made possible because Hamas militants had mined sections of the barrier separating the Strip from Egypt. In an article written for the weekly Italian magazine, l’Internazionale, of this week (February 1-7), Amira Haas, an Israeli journalist living in the Palestinian territory, reports that the plan was to blow the barrier as a last resort strategy. Following reopening of negotiations with Al Fatah or a request from Cairo to open the Rafah crossing, the Hamas militants would have blown the barrier to show the unsustainability of the Israeli siege and defy Israel. Yet, Amira Haas points out that the reopening of negotiations between Hamas and Al Fatah or a request from Cairo to open the Rafah crossing require other strategies and signs of civilian disobedience than firing rockets. Amira Hamas carries on calling onto governing authority in Ramallah to listen to the voice of Palestinians, and not to the requests from the Unites States, the European Union and Israel to boycott Hamas.

There is currently concern amongst Israeli human rights organizations (http://www.btselem.org/english/Press_Releases/20080124.asp) that Israel will step up punitive measures against the population in response to the border breakthrough. In the meantime, the temporary border break brought some relief to Gazans.

You've been saying this since...

" ... and hoping that the new year will be good to everybody, and the political situation will calm down, and everything will go back to normal...

- mom you've been saying this since 1975"

I've seen this on Mazen Kerbaj's blog. and thought somehow it could apply to the Palestianian Territory: sadly, it's not getting any better.

Humanitarian Catastrophe in Gaza

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights calls on the International Community to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

More on their website

Blogging from gaza

Interesting to read inside stories. Here is the blog of Laila El-Haddad, a journalist and mother, living in between the US and Gaza.

http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/

Heba's blog, which I found reading that of Laila

http://www.contemplating-from-gaza.blogspot.com/

Gaza's 2 billion pounds of natural gas

Twenty miles from the beach of Gaza there is a reserve of 2 billion worth of natural gas, according to estimates. So enough to generate revenues for the Palestinians and not rely on international aid. Yet the plan to develop the gas marine field was blocked by Ariel Sharon during the second Intifada. Ariel Sharon said that there was no way he would allow a project to grow that would earn money for Yasser Arafat. With Sharon in coma, and the intifada sort of ended, there has been a plan for Israel to become the purchaser, in what the journalist sees as a win-win situation (secure source of gas for Israel/secure revenues for Palestine). Yet no agreement is in sight in spite of public statement by Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, in support of the project, leaving Palestinians dependent on international aid.

The journalist concludes that: "If Mr Blair is serious about his mission to help develop a sustainable Palestinian economy, he could put his weight behind getting the Gaza gas project off the ground. So far, he has set his sights a bit lower, talking publicly only about redeveloping a sewage plant in Gaza and cautiously dodging attempts to involve him with Gaza Marine."

Tim Butcher in the Dayly Telegraph - British Newspaper - 07/11/2007

Israel Navy harassing and humiliating Gaza fishermen

in the Ha'aretz, Israeli newspaper, on 26 February 2007, so a few months ago, but still an interesting article.

"An Israeli human rights group has charged that the Israel Navy is harassing and humiliating Gaza fishermen, who said they cannot make a living because of restrictions."

"Musalam Abu Shalouf, 32, said he was taken in January after trying to retrieve a fishing net about two kilometers (one mile) from the shore. An Israel Navy boat approached and fired bullets in his direction. He was then told to strip to his underwear and swim toward the boat - but it kept moving away."I swam for about 20 minutes. I was then handcuffed and blindfolded," Abu Shalouf said."

"Before Israeli-Palestinian fighting broke out in 2000, fishing accounted for almost 7 percent of agricultural output," said Tarek Saker, director general of fisheries at the Palestinian Agriculture Ministry. "But in 2006, Palestinian fishermen caught half as much as they did in 1999 - largely due to Israeli restrictions on fishing.""It is endangering their life and certainly their health, and it's also very humiliating and threatening," said Sarit Michaeli, a B'Tselem spokeswoman"

28 october: a boat of palestinian refugees breaks into pieces before reaching Italian coast

Seen in Italian news -

"Un barcone carico di palestinesi si spezza davanti a Roccella JonicaSalvi in 110, 25 i feriti. Erano partiti dall'Egitto in 170"

my translation: "A boat of palestinian refugees breaks into pieces before reaching Roccella Jonica (Italy). Out of 135 people, 25 are injured. There were 170 refugees when the boat left from Egypt."

It is the first time I hear this happening in the news. I mean since I started this blog. The news item doesn't say where they originally came from (Gaza, as the boat left from Egypt?) but it clearly shows desparation.

Israeli cabinet to impose sanctions on supplies of electricity, fuel and other basic goods and services to the civilian population of Gaza

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) calls upon the international community to prevent this crime against humanity from being carried out. Indeed, the very legal framework invoked by Israel to carry out this illegal and immoral act – declaring Gaza a “hostile entity” within a “conflict short of war” – has absolutely no standing in international law. The collective punishment of an entire civilian population, by contrast, is explicitly prohibited. http://www.icahd.org/eng/

Gaza 'hostile'

From BBC website (dated September 19 2007)

The Israeli government has declared the Gaza Strip a "hostile entity" in response to the continued rocket attacks by Palestinian militants there.

A spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that there would be "limitations on imports to the Gaza Strip and a reduction in the supply of fuel and electricity".

Correspondents say that by formally declaring Gaza "hostile", Israel could argue that it is no longer bound by international law governing the administration of occupied territory to supply utilities to its 1.5 million inhabitants.

But the current position is that, under international law, Israel remains legally responsible for the coastal strip, despite withdrawing two years ago, because it still controls Gaza's borders, air space and territorial waters.

Call on International Agencies to Support the Fishers of Gaza

The freegaza group (human rights observers, aid workers, and journalists with experience in Gaza and the West Bank) calls:

• upon Fisheries Research Institutes around the globe to conduct research and promote technological development in the fishery sector of Gaza.
• ask this industry to raise their voice over this issue.
• call on them to join the Free Gaza international initiative as independent researchers when we sail to Gaza in the fall.
• ask them to conduct on-the-ground research to reveal the environmental impact of over fishing that has devastated the people of the Gaza Strip.

Their aim is to publicise the problem amongst Fisheries Institutes b) so that Fisheries Institutes take the decision to conduct research in the Strip.

More information on their site. Their research work is based on two UN documents:
http://overfishing.org/interesting/documents/fisheries_gaza/2007_OCHA_special_report_gaza_fisheries.pdf
http://overfishing.org/interesting/documents/fisheries_gaza/2007_gaza_WFP_food-security.pdf

Gaza Situation Report

Dated June 20, OCHA reports:

Crossing points into Gaza remain largely closed.The re-opening of Karni crossing vital to prevent general food shortages is expected within 2-4 weeks. UNRWA wheat flour reserves 10 days, and WFP food reserves 7 days, unless normal imports are resumed. Seven truckloads of food (WFP) and 3 trucks of medical supplies (ICRC/WHO) entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom on 19 June.

The Gaza Strip has been relatively calm since 15 June. The Ministry of Health reports 135 deceased and 487 injured as a result of fighting. These are official numbers. Independent estimates are higher. There are intermittent reports of extrajudicial killings raising concerns about violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

More in the report.

Alvaro de Soto's end of mission report

Dated may 2007, the end of mission report of the Under Secretary General United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process is worth a read. Key points for me are:

• the Gaza disengagement process (paragraphs 8 to 22)
• The role of the Quartet in the current crisis (following election of Hamas)
• The value of the UN as the guardian of international law and not as a political actor (paragraphs 105 to 114)

Crisis in Gaza

What future for Gaza?

The humanitarian situation in the Strip of Gaza has been deteriorating as a result of continued Israeli control of borders, trade, entry into Gaza and of the suspension of international aid to the Palestinian National Authority following the election of Hamas last January.

The bloody fighting between Hamas and Fatah movement, which has peaked with Hamas’ complete control of the Gaza Strip by its military wing—Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades, has taken the lives of 146 Palestinians (36 of them are civilians), including 5 children and 8 women, and has wounded at least 700 others according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

With Israel closing all border crossings with the Strip, Gaza being defined as a hostile entity, its whole population seen as allied to Hamas, it is expected that the humanitarian situation will further deteriorate.

Sailing a boat to Gaza

Sailing a boat to Gaza or challenging Israel's claim that they no longer occupy Gaza.

For the second anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, Greta Berlin, a 66 years old businesswoman from Los Angeles, USA, is one of the many people organizing an unusual project: sailing to Gaza. The idea which sprang last October is a political as well as humanitarian decision - Greta Berlin says.

The journey will begin in Alexandria or Cyprus toward the end of this summer. 50 to 80 of men and women, many over 50, will embark on a boat called FREE GAZA. Their mission states:" We tried to enter Palestine by ground. We tried to enter by air. Now we are going to go by sea."

Today the sardines broke the blockade

In spite of the Israeli restrictions to fish only up to 6 nautical miles off the Gaza coast, sardines this season made their way up to fishermen nets. Joy in Gaza.

The article dated May, 11th, is by Yousef Alhelou, a freelance Palestinian journalist based in Gaza, who can be contacted at ydamadan@hotmail.com.

Gaza Fishing Industry in Danger

18 April 2007 - the latest OCHA report looks at the economic, social and environmental impact of Israeli restrictions on the fishing industry. Key observations include:

• There is a need for an immediate increase in the fishing range beyond the current 6 nautical miles;
• If fishing range restrictions continue, future fishing stocks will be threatened;
• The fishing industry faces long term decline: It generated over $10 million in revenue pre-Intifada; today it brings in less than half this amount.
• Fishermen and those dependent on the industry for their livelihoods are moving from self reliance to dependence on food aid and job creation schemes.

• April is peak season for many migrating fish in the Mediterranean.
• Without an easing of fishing restrictions, Gazans will lose up to 70% of their annual catch.

Implementation of the Agreement on Movement and Acess (AMA)

"In one of many reports and accounts of economic life in the Gaza Strip that I have recently read, I was struck by a description of an old man standing on the beach in Gaza throwing his oranges into the sea. The description leapt out at me because it was this very same scene I myself witnessed some 21 years ago during my very first visit to the territory. It was the summer of 1985 and I was taken on a tour of Gaza by a friend named Alya. As we drove along Gaza's coastal road I saw an elderly Palestinian man standing at the shoreline with some boxes of oranges next to him. I was puzzled by this and asked Alya to stop the car. One by one, the elderly Palestinian took an orange and threw it into the water. His was not an action of playfulness but of pain and regret. His movements were slow and labored as if the weight of each orange was more than he could bear. I asked my friend why he was doing this and she explained that he was prevented from exporting his oranges to Israel and rather than watch them rot in his orchards, the old man chose to cast them into the sea. I have never forgotten this scene and the impact it had on me." by Sara Roy, Senior Research Scholar at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard.

Are Gazans still throwing their oranges into the sea?

In the period going from 21 March to 03 April 2007, the UN report on the implementation of the Agreement on Movement and Acess (AMA)* notes that: no commercial goods went through Rafah (the crossing point for exports to Egypt); Karni, the primary crossing point for commercial goods into and out of Gaza, was open for imports and exports on all schedules working days, although actual opering hours varied between 3 hours and 8,5 hours (i.e. 43% of schedules operating hours) and the number of trucks importing goods into Gaza exceeded that of exporting goods (p6). There were no operations at Seaport and Airport - still closed.

*concerned with the movement of Palestinians and with the traffic of commercial goods into and out of Gaza.