Israeli Occupation Factsheet
142 schools have been shelled and fired upon by Israeli soldiers.
(Palestinian Authority
Ministry of Education)
132
Palestinian students killed and 2390 injured
(Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education)
“The Education Ministry does not allocate as much money per head for Palestinian Arab children [in Israel] as it does for Jewish children. Their classes are 20 percent larger on average. They get far fewer enrichment and remedial programs-even though they need them more-in part because the Ministry uses a different scale to assess need for Jewish children. Their school buildings are in worse condition, and many communities lack kindergartens for three and four-year-olds. Palestinian Arab schoolchildren do not have the same access to counseling and vocational programs. One of the largest gaps is in special education, where disabled Palestinian Arab children get less funding and fewer services, have limited access to special schools, and lack appropriate curricula.”
(Human
Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/12/SecondClass1205.htm)
Health
116 Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Emergency Medical Technicians have been injured by Israeli attacks over the last two years.
(Palestinian Red Crescent Society)
60 (68% of their fleet) PRCS ambulances hit by live ammunition, rubber bullets, and/or stones thrown by Israeli settlers in 159 separate attacks.
(Palestinian Red Crescent Society)
221 incidents of
denial of access to PRCS ambulances at roadblocks were reported.
(Palestinian Red Crescent
Society)
On March 4, the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Service (PRCS) emergency medical service in Jenin, Dr. Khalil Sulieman, was killed and another five PRCS staff injured when Israeli troops shot at their ambulances in Jenin refugee camp.
(Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/press/2002/03/medics030902.htm)
Kamal Hamdan, a UN refugee worker, was killed March 7 "when several bullets were fired by Israeli soldiers from a road controlled by the IDF [Israeli Defense Force] that runs parallel to the camp at their clearly marked, well-lit UN ambulance that also had a UN flag mounted on it."
(UN Reliefs and Work Agency:
http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/2002/wb-0102.PDF)
Homes and Resources
From 1987 to 1999, Israeli authorities have demolished at least 2,650 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. As a result, an estimated 16,700 Palestinians (including 7,300 children) have lost their homes.
(Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty-usa.org/countries/israel_and_occupied_territories/reports/demolition_summary.html)
"Over the past 16 months [Sept ’00-Jan ‘02], at least 250 homes have been demolished in Rafah making more than 1,500 people homeless, the vast majority of them children."
(Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty-usa.org/news/2002/israel01142002.html)
In the Gaza strip, 1.2 million Palestinians subsist on 60% of the land, while 6,000 Israeli settlers (.5% of the total population) live on 30% (the rest are non-settlement areas under Israeli military control, such as bases and bypass roads). Israeli settlers in the Gaza strip have access to 699 times more land per capita than refugee camp residents.
(Sara Roy.
The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development. 1995. p.
178)
Israel diverts 88% of the renewable water resources of the OPT for its own use or for the use of its settlements.[2] In the Gaza strip, Israel also forbids Palestinians from digging any new agricultural wells, while settlers continue to dig wells at will. As a result, annual per capita consumption of water among settlers in the Gaza strip is 1,000 cubic metres, compared to 172 per Palestinian.[3] Israeli government subsidies make water available to settlers at one-fourth the price of water for Palestinians in the Gaza strip, despite the enormous income disparities.
(Ibrahim Mater, “Jewish
Settlements, Palestinian Rights, and Peace – Information Paper Number 4,”
Centre for Policy Analysis on Palestine, January 1996, p. 12. Palestinian
Hydrology Group, http://www.phg.org/report_02.html
Jeffrey Dillman, “Water Rights in the Occupied Territories,” Journal of
Palestine Studies, Fall 1989, p.55.)
Economics
Unemployment: Gaza 48%, West Bank 31.5%
(UN Office of the Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories)
46% of Palestinians
in the Occupied Territories live in poverty (less than $2 a day)
(UN Office of the Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories)
Earnings of the
approximately 120,000 Palestinians who used to work in Israel before the al-Aqsa
Intifada, which constituted 25% of the labor income of the Palestinian
economy, have evaporated.
(UN Office
of the Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories)
Free
Movement
“Since March 1993, Israel has required that all West Bank and Gaza residents obtain permits to enter Israel and Jerusalem. However, Israel often denies applicants permits with no explanation, and does not allow effective means of appeal. Palestinian officials with VIP passes, including PA cabinet officials and members of the Palestinian Council, regularly have been subjected to long delays and searches at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, despite the fact that they were traveling on special passes issued by the Israeli Government.”
(US State
Department report: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/nea/8262.htm)
Due to Israel’s closure policy, Palestinian lawyers have been unable to visit their clients in Israel since 1996, and visits by families have been made almost impossible, despite the efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
(Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights)
(UN Relief
and Works Agency: http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/2002/wb-0202.PDF
and http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/2002/wb-0302.PDF)
Torture,
Murder, and Assassination
Sep 28, ’00-Mar 5, ’02: 1125 Palestinian deaths including 103 assassinations (war crime according to the Hague Convention- 1907) of whom 24% were 18 year old or younger and 84% were civilians
(Health
Development Information, and Policy Institute www.hdip.org)
Total number of Palestinian deaths in West Bank & Gaza since Sept 29th, 2000 is 1,221, injuries 18,494 (Figures inclusive to Midnight March 17, 2002)
(Palestinian
Red Crescent Society)
49
Children under the age of 12 killed; 234 children under the age of 18 (Sept
29, 2000 to Feb 25, 2002)
(Palestinian Red Crescent Society)
Israeli security forces committed numerous, serious human rights abuses during the year [2000]. Security forces killed at least 501 Palestinians and 1 foreign national and injured 6,300 Palestinians and other persons during the year, including innocent bystanders.
(US State
Department report: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/nea/8262.htm)
Israelis who commit crimes in the Occupied Territories (OPT) face civil courts in Israel (even though Israeli domestic law should not apply outside the country’s borders), while Palestinians from the OPT arrested by Israel face military courts, which fail to meet international standards for fair trials, and are likely to be tortured.
(Palestine
Centre for Human Rights -- http://www.pchrgaza.org/facts/fact3.htm)
Between 9 December 1987 and 1 April 2001, Israeli settlers killed 119 Palestinians in the OPT, yet there were only 6 murder convictions in connection with these cases, and only 1 life sentence
(B’Tselem,
“Summary of investigations and trials in cases where Palestinians were killed
by Israeli civilians,” http://www.btselem.org/english/Israeli_Civilians/Trials_of_Is.asp.)
"The killing and wounding of children has revealed a reckless disregard for life by Israeli soldiers... In every case investigated by Amnesty International, the killing of a child appeared to have been an unlawful killing."
(Amnesty International report: http://www.web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/4e5be749f06b3e4880256af600687348/64f59dc0b44c5fef80256aff0058b1b8/$FILE/ch2.pdf)
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