This morning, our delegation was allowed to pass through Erez Checkpoint into Gaza. On the Israeli side, the director of Erez warmly welcomed us. The open tunnel that leads a walker to Gaza from the Israeli side was completed after our visit last fall. Concrete and barbed wire open to views of desolate land and armed Israeli guard towers.

Members of the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility delegation cross into Gaza. (Bob Haynes photo)

Nine delegates of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility have come here to work with medical and allied health care colleagues. We are to attend to patients, consult and teach – while we learn about life here in 2010.

Our initial meeting with leaders of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, our host organization, was an introduction to the “situation” and to the work of the Mental Health Programme.

The majority of the 1.6 million residents of Gaza are traumatized – either directly by Operation Cast Lead, by the daily threat of further attacks or by the effects of the ongoing siege.

With this nearly universal level of trauma, Gaza Community Mental Health is striving to normalize individual responses to an abnormal situation. They are educating medical and allied health practitioners to care for the highest functioning individuals in primary care clinics. In this way, the most seriously affected individuals may be treated by the limited number of mental health specialists.

The siege, in place since 2007, denies residents of Gaza basic the needs of life: a variety of foods, building materials, electricity, fuel, medicines, school supplies…

We will be in Gaza for ten days, trying to understand. Already, we see the human spirit at work – many programs for children, empowerment clinics for women, reuse of materials retrieved from destroyed buildings, small business ventures in development – all attest to resilience and strength of community.

We are grateful to be here.

The event, “Iran-Israel-U.S.: Resolving the Nuclear Impasse,” is planned for December 16th at Seattle’s Town Hall. The organizers say that many in the progressive community are deeply concerned that the United States and/or Israel may take military action against Iran. These fears have been exacerbated by the recent House bill that provides for severe sanctions against Iran and by the continued statements from neocons in the United States and Israel declaring military force as the only way to curb Iran’s nuclear efforts.

The organizers of this event, in a recent fundraising letter, say, “This conference will present a comprehensive approach that could resolve major difference through diplomacy and open a new era in relations between these three current enemies. It will also discuss the best means of supporting the Iran reform movement in its efforts to encourage a government based on democracy and tolerance.”

One of the key organizers, Richard Silverstein, said, “The purpose of this event is to show the American people that there are legitimate ways to resolve the differences between the U.S. and Iran short of force and violence. Most analysts believe that neither sanctions nor a military attack can impede Iran’s nuclear program in any serious way. The only way to resolve this issue is through diplomacy and negotiation.”

The conference will feature three analysts who will discuss U.S. and Israeli policy options including sanctions and the possible military attack. The speakers will be: Reza Firouzbakht, national board chair, National Iranian American Council; Ian Lustick, political science professor, University of Pennsylvania; and Dr. Keith Weissman, former director of AIPAC’s Iran desk.

The conference coalition includes: the Middle East Center, Jackson School of International Studies, Univ. of Washington; the Stroum Jewish Studies Program, Univ. of Washington; the American Friends Service Committee; the United Nations Association; Peace Action of Washington; the Network Promoting Peace with Iran; Jewish Voice for Peace; and American Muslims of Puget Sound.

“I hope to show that Israel sees its interest as stirring up as much animosity as possible against Iran within this country — if Israel had its way I believe it would attack Iran,” Silverstein said. “But I hope we can do everything possible to show that the way to ease a possible Iranian nuclear threat is not through the path Israel would choose.”

The conference, despite its support, is not a done deal. Organizers are still trying to come up with the full $4,000 that the Town Hall event costs. So far, donors have come through with about $1,500. So there is a considerable amount of money to be raised.

If you are able to help, a tax-deductible contribution may be made to:

American Friends Service Committee
c/o Iran Conference (note this on your check as well)
814 NE 40th Street
Seattle, WA 98105

Or you may mail a check to:
Richard Silverstein
1110 37th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122

According to the U.N. press release on the report, “the Mission found that, in the lead up to the Israeli military assault on Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation of the Gaza Strip. During the Israeli military operation, code-named ‘Operation Cast Lead,’ houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations and other public buildings were destroyed. Families are still living amid the rubble of their former homes long after the attacks ended, as reconstruction has been impossible due to the continuing blockade.”

The press release goes on to say, “Significant trauma, both immediate and long-term, has been suffered by the population of Gaza…” And that, “The report concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population. The destruction of food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and residential houses was the result of a deliberate and systematic policy which has made the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population.”

That is one of the most chilling parts of the report to me – the details of deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure. Not only for its implications for the ongoing efforts at peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but also for its implications about international law and international justice.

During the first Gulf War and again in 2003, the United States deliberately targeted Iraq’s electrical grid and its water sanitation systems. And, in fact, for years leading up to the second Gulf War, the United States and the United Nations, itself, enforced a draconian sanctions regime against Iraq, which caused the deaths of, at a minimum, hundreds of thousands of people, mostly the young and the elderly, in a misguided effort to get the civilian population to rise up against Saddam Hussein.

To date there have been no legal repercussions for the United States or the United Nations for that particular “systematic policy… which made the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population.”