Home > A Civil Peace Service for Palestinian waters

A Civil Peace Service for Palestinian waters

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 20 April 2011

Wars and conflicts International

General Goal

Deploying an international third party non violent civil peace service in Palestinian territorial water that will support the rule of law and monitor potential human rights violations.

Specific Goal

CPSGAZA will deploy a limited peace team of around 10 trained professional international observers in Gaza territorial water. Those observers will be in charge of implementing the general and specific goal of this statement and will strictly follow the mission and principles of CPSGAZA. The CPSGAZA team will travel in an identifiable boat, named “Oliva”. The Oliva will accompany Gaza fishermen and will monitor and report on human rights and rule of law violations to the parties and to international community representatives.

Identifying the Boat

The CPSGAZA boat, named Oliva, is a small yacht of 7.40 metres of longitude fully painted white. The CPSGAZA boat will carry on two flags with the logo of CPSGAZA, the same one at the top of this page. All the international observers in the boat will dress fully in white with official orange life jackets.

The Gaza Strip: General Overview

Steadily deteriorating since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has worsened dramatically in the last decade. From the launch of the Second Intifada in 2000 to the current escalation of violence, Israeli policies have done nothing but keep 1.6 million people—over half of them children—condemned to a situation of extreme vulnerability.

The deceptive disengagement plan–unilaterally approved by Israel and enacted in 2005–did not result in an effective easing of Israel’s control over fundamental aspects of the lives of Palestinian in Gaza such as their access to farming land and fishing stocks and their right to move freely within and out of the Strip’s territory. In 2007, following Hamas’ victory in the 2006 legislative elections, Israel imposed an unprecedented land, air and sea blockade, which turned the area into an open air prison.

On 27 December 2008, without warning, Israeli forces began a devastating bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip codenamed Operation Cast Lead. According to figures cited by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1,440 Palestinians were killed over a three week period, including 431 children and 114 women. A further 5,380 Palestinians were injured[1]. For almost a month, the population of Gaza was subjected to incessant bombing raids by the Israeli forces. These attacks targeted not only military assets but also civilian infrastructures and densely populated areas in a clear case of collective punishment in flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions. The war further compromised the already precarious situation of Gaza residents. The destruction of livelihoods, key medical and educational facilitates, and private property left the Gaza Strip in an utterly desperate situation which, due to the extreme restrictions still imposed by Israel, has not been overcome.

After the deadly and illegal attack on the Freedom Flotilla, Israel announced in June 2010 a package of measures aimed at “easeing” access restrictions. However, as stated in OCHA’s latest Special Focus report, these measures have not resulted in significant improvements in people’s livelihoods due to the pivotal remaining restrictions[2]. Six months after the measures were announced, inflow of building materials was at only 11% of pre-blockade. The minimal increase in food imports has been further compromised by the global rise in food prices. As of February 2011, according to OCHA’s projections in its February Humanitarian Monitor, close to 54% of Gaza’s households are food insecure and, according to UNRWA, unemployment rate has reached a staggering 45.5%[3].

The Sea of Gaza: fishermen’s endangered livelihood

Israeli control over Gaza’s crucial resources has also been imposed on the sea. Palestinian territorial waters have been progressively reduced from the 20 nm offshore established in the Oslo Accords to the current 3 nm limit, imposed by gunfire from the Israeli Navy. This limit has further exacerbated the hardships imposed upon Gaza’s fishing industry, which sustained 4000 families at the end of 2010[4].

In Gaza, the majority of profits from fishing have traditionally come from sardines. However, as schools of sardine pass beyond the 3 nm mark, catches are down by 72%[5]. Considering that adult fish are mostly found beyond the 3 nm limit, fishing within the current zone is less profitable and, most importantly, depletes new generations of fish, thus threatening the future sustainability of the already overexploited stocks. Further endangering the marine environment and the fishermen’s livelihoods, the power supply interruptions, the acute shortage of fuel and the lack of spare parts caused by the Israeli siege have impeded the proper operation of Gaza’s sewage treatment plants, which daily pump large quantities of raw sewage water off the Gaza shore.
According to Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, due to this deterioration, poverty among fishermen was the highest of all population groups in Gaza at the end of 2010, when it was estimated at 90%; up from 50% in 2008[6].
Israeli attacks on Palestinian Waters

Besides having to rely on increasingly decimated captures, fishermen are constantly threatened by Israeli military forces deployed in Palestinian territorial waters. According to Al Mezan’s report on the subject, between May 2009 and November 2010, the IOF carried out 53 attacks against fishermen. As a result, two fishermen were killed and up to seven were injured; 42 fishermen, including two children, were arrested and 17 fishing boats, together with fishing equipment and nets were confiscated and destroyed.

These Israeli attacks aim at restricting the access of Palestinian fishermen to their areas of work. According to Oxfam, in practice, access is sometimes restricted by Israeli military forces to as little as one nautical mile, banning access to around 85% of Gaza’s fishing water[7]. Attacks on fishermen are yet another example of the widespread violations of international law perpetrated by Israel in the Gaza Strip. Israeli attacks violate Palestinian fishermen’s right to life, security, and personal safety. The targeting of fishermen, and their property, including seaports, boats, and fishing equipment, constitutes serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Israeli forces periodically escalate their attacks: as stated by OCHA in a recent weekly report, Israeli naval forces opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats in six separate occasions between March 16 and 29 alone.[8]

[1]UN OCHA, Field Update on Gaza from the Humanitarian Coordinator: 3-5 February 2009, available at
www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_gaza_humanitarian_situation_report_2009_02_05_english.pdf

[2]UN OCHA, “Special Focus: Easing the Blockade, Assessing the Humanitarian Impact on the population of the Gaza Strip”, March 2011, available at
www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_special_easing_the_blockade_2011_03_english.pdf

[3]UN OCHA, Monthly Humanitarian Monitor, February 2011, available at
www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_the_humanitarian_monitor_2011_03_18_english.pdf

UNWRA´s representative statement, February 2011, available at
www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=902

[4] Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, “Fact Sheet:Gaza Fishermen: Life with Poverty, Harassment and Suffering”, November 2010, available at
www.mezan.org/upload/11209.pdf

[5] UN OCHA, “Fact sheet: Farming without Land, Fishing without Water: Gaza Agriculture Sector Struggles to Survive”, May 2010, available at
www.ochaopt.org/documents/gaza_agriculture_25_05_2010_fact_sheet_english.pdf

[6] Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, “Fact Sheet:Gaza Fishermen: Life with Poverty, Harassment and Suffering”, November 2010, available at
www.mezan.org/upload/11209.pdf

[7] Oxfam, weekly update, 30 January- 5 February 2011, available at
www.globalgiving.org/pfil/2182/OxfamGaza_Update30_to_5_February2011.pdf

[8] UN OCHA, “Protection of civilians weekly report 16-29 March 2011”, available at
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_report_2011_04_01_english.pdf

http://www.cpsgaza.org/2011/04/civil-peace-service-for-palestinian.html