Tunis – Palestinians are using the five days of the World Social Forum, in Tunis, to call for the attention of the international public community about the precarious life conditions at the Gaza Strip. Besides promoting debates about issues such as refugees, political prisoners and territory occupation, they set up tents and are distributing flyers to mobilize delegations from other countries about the crisis faced by the Palestinian people. <\/p>\n
The director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), Amjad Shawa, lives in Gaza and was one of the few that were able to leave the territory to attend the forum. He said the around 100 people from Gaza were planning tto go to Tunis, but weren’t able to get permission from Israel. <\/p>\n
Shawa told that the situation is dire in Gaza after three wars with Israel in less than six years. “The Israeli war in Gaza destroyed the vast majority of infrastructure, with 120,000 homes totally or partially destroyed, 18 hospitals in the ground and 150 schools damaged. Approximately 2,200 people were killed in last year’s war, with 2,000 more wounded. Israel continues to impose its embargo, preventing basic supplies from entering Gaza. We’re unable to fix the damage caused by the wars. Gaza is suffering with the worst humanitarian conditions, with food insecurity, difficulty in accessing potable water, poverty and unemployment.”<\/p>\n
Despite the aid of international organizations, Shawa pointed out that Palestinians need the embargo to end to be able to live freely. “We are here to remind that approximately 2 million people live in the biggest prison in the world in Gaza, one of the most populated areas in the planet. It’s very small and overcrowded”. According to him, around 20,000 people are living in schools and shelters. <\/p>\n
“Gaza is the result of a failure by the international community. Since governments failed, we are searching for the people and social movements to pressure the countries to fulfill its commitments [with Palestine]”, he said. <\/p>\n
The head of the Palestinian delegation at the forum, Yousef Habache, said that around 400 Palestinians are attending the event, between Palestine residentes and refugees from Lebanon and Syria. “Due to the embargo [imposed by Israel] to Gaza, only two residents were able to get out.”<\/p>\n
He said that the Palestinian people are asking for international solidarity to its cause, of independence from Israel, of freedom and of the creation of the Palestinian State. “Without solving this problem (the conflict between Israel and Palestine), there will be no solution in the Middle East region, and even in the world.”<\/p>\n
After the attacks in Gaza, people have electricity only for three to four hours per day, said Habache. “We’re in 2015 and people are living under these conditions. There is no justice. Governments from all over the world are responsible for what is happening in Gaza because no one stops the Israeli.”<\/p>\n
To Habache, the reelection of Israel’s prime-minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared to oppose the creation of a Palestinian State, is a clear message from the Israeli that they do not want a solution for the conflict. <\/p>\n
Besides the open clashes that resulted in thousands of deaths (the majority of the among Palestinians, the relationship between Israeli and Palestinians in the last decades has been marked by attacks, conflicts between Israeli military forces and civil Palestinians, intifadas (popular uprisings) and attempts at peace agreements that are always held up for some reason. <\/p>\n
Among the points in disagreement are the division of Jerusalem, the withdrawn of Israeli settlers, the return of the refugees from the Arabs-Israeli wars to their old land and the acknowledgment of Palestine as an independent state. <\/p>\n
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani<\/strong><\/p>\n