| Regardless of power struggle with PA, Israel must allow Gaza medial patients access to urgent medial treatment | | Ghada Majadle - Physicians for Human Rights - In response to
Israel’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank, the Palestinian
Authority decided to halt coordination with Israel. This caused
terrible suffering to a completely innocent group - Gazan medical
patients needing critical treatment not available in the Strip, who
can get permits to leave the Strip only via the Palestinian Civilian
Affairs Committee, a now suspended PA agency. Cancer and heart
patients, adults and babies with critical conditions – all patients
who need urgent, often life-saving treatments are now deprived of
them, becoming pawns in a power game completely beyond their
control. Our conclusion is clear: with or without coordination -
Israel is responsible for the lives of these patients, as it wields
power over their ability to access treatment. To safeguard the lives
and health of Gaza’s residents, the closure has to be lifted, and
patients should be given safe free passage between Gaza and the West
Bank.[ak] | 4/8/2020 |
| The Palestinian Authority is incapable of slowing annexation, but the Joint List could stop it from within | | NAIM MOUSA AND SAED SHORROSH - Mondoweiss - one of the best chances
to stop annexation is through opposition from within Israel led by
the Joint List, that can truly bring it to a halt. It has already
been addressing the issue of annexation since it first came up in the
previous elections cycles. In recent days, Joint List MK Aida Touma
of the Hadash party wrote a letter, signed by the other 14 Joint List
members, to Congress, urging Democratic members to oppose annexation.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading the effort in Congress by
spearheading a letter conditioning aid to Israel should it move
forward with annexation – the letter has been signed by over a dozen
Congress members already. At the same time, the Joint List has urged
the EU to cut ties with Israel if it fails to renounce annexation,
while simultaneously urging British political parties to oppose the
move. Domestically, it has been organizing and participating in
protests opposing and condemning annexation, in addition to
challenging it in the Knesset. The Joint List and Palestinian
citizens of Israel, who know exactly what living as second class
citizens is like, can lead a national solidarity movement along with
other minorities in Israel (such as the Ethiopian community) to
pressure not only Netanyahu’s government to halt its annexation plan,
but also the international community to take meaningful action
against annexation.(rh) | 7/7/2020 |
