En plus de l’appel au secours lancé à titre individuel par plus d’une centaine de femmes de Gaza, le département Femmes du réseau des Organisations Palestiniennes Non Gouvernementales (PNGO) qui regroupe 25 associations de femmes, nous fait parvenir ce communiqué et cette invitation officielle.
Communiqué des organisations de Femmes de Gaza du Réseau PNGO
Women’s Affairs Technical Committee
Statement Against the Closure of Gaza
We, Palestinian women living under Israel’s ongoing occupation and siege of the Gaza Strip, call upon you to stand in solidarity with us to end this unjust, inhumane and illegal situation.
You may know that Israel removed its settlements and military bases from Gaza in 2005. What you may not know is that Israel still controls who and what enters and exits Gaza. Israel controls the sea, blocking the development of a modern seaport that is key to the future of the Palestinian economy. Israel controls the air, prohibiting us from rebuilding and using the airport that we opened in 1998 and it destroyed in 2001. It controls our population registry – our legal existence, which determines who is a Gaza resident and who gets to pass through its crossings. It controls our only access to other parts of Palestine, which today is only allowed for exceptional humanitarian reasons.
And since 2007, Israel has engaged in economic warfare against Gaza, often blocking the import of food, medicine, fuel, and construction materials. In other words, Israel has laid siege to Gaza. For these reasons, the international community recognizes that Gaza remains under Israeli occupation.
And you probably know that the Israeli military has attacked Gaza several times since 2005, including “Operation Cast Lead” in 2008-2009, which left over 1,400 Palestinians dead and over 5,000 wounded, and “Operation Pillar of Defense” in 2012, which killed over 100 Palestinians and injured over 900.
As women, mothers and professionals, the occupation, the siege, and the threat of Israeli aggression influence every aspect of our lives.
We are part of the 1.5 million Palestinians trapped within this 365 km2 (141 mi2) strip, one of the most densely populated places on earth. This siege makes our lives nearly intolerable, as we are denied such basics as clean water, electricity and fuel. In sum, we continue to suffer from Israel’s dehumanizing policy towards the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The siege is a violation of:
– Our right to life and the integrity of our family lives, as we continue to endure frequent Israeli bombings.
– Our right to freedom of movement, as the siege denies us the chance to visit other parts of Palestine and the outside world.
– Our right of access to education, for Israeli restrictions on building materials prevent us from building the schools that our growing population needs, while Israeli travel restrictions deny us the chance to study at universities elsewhere in Palestine and around the world.
– Our right to work which we are deprived from due to the increasing unemployment rates caused by the siege.
– Our right to human security, as the siege has decimated our economy and left over 70 percent of our population reliant on humanitarian aid.
We ask you to stand in solidarity with us. We ask you to demand that Israel stop denying us our basic human rights. And we ask that you demand your government not turn a blind eye to Israel’s immoral and illegal practices against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
CAPJPO-EuroPalestine
