UN-Truth

Haaretz reported Friday, with some surprise, that Gaza sewage has been pumped straight into the Mediterranean since last January, when the Gaza power plant last had to shut down for lack of fuel, and it was feared that sudden electricity outages could cause catastrophic sewage flooding in Gaza that might even threaten human life (as it did just over a year ago).

Akiva Eldar reported in Haaretz that a UN report says that “Millions of liters of sewage have been released over the past three months into the Mediterranean Sea from the Gaza Strip, according to a new United Nations report. According to the report, an estimated 50-60 million liters of waste have been pumped into the sea. This was done in an effort to prevent an overflow of sewage in residential areas. Normally, the sewage is pumped to prearranged sites for treatment, but the shortage of fuel in the Gaza Strip has caused disruptions in the supply of electricity. These shortages, lack of sufficient quantities of chemicals necessary for treating sewage, and spare parts, has led the Gaza officials to pump the waste into the sea. The report prepared by Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) raises concerns that the untreated sewage is carrying Escherichia coli (e. coli) bacteria into the sea which may affect those swimming in its waters … The authors of the report also wrote that in areas where the sewage is pumped into the sea, the color of the water is dark brown and a strong odor emanates. Fishermen in Gaza bay claim the sewage has killed much of the fish in the area … The treatment plant requires constant electrical supply, and the OCHA report calls on Israel to lift its restrictions on fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip. OCHA says that unless electricity can run continuously it is impossible to make regular use of the sanitation equipment in the Strip. The UN is also calling on Israel to allow the transfer of materials and spare parts that are necessary to upgrade the sewage system, and which would allow the construction of three modern sewage treatment stations in the Strip”. This article can be read in full in Haaretz here .

A separate report in the Jerusalem Post says that “Gaza’s water authority has dumped 60 million liters of partially treated and untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea since January 24, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report released on Wednesday. ‘The sewage discharge is contaminating Gaza seawater and posing health risks for bathers and consumers of seafood. The sewage flows northward to Israeli coasts, including near the Ashkelon desalination plant. Urgent studies are needed to examine the extent of the impact’, the report reads. The report’s authors blamed Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip for the Gazans’ inability to treat the sewage … The UN said Gaza’s water authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, required 14 days of uninterrupted electricity to treat the sewage. The utility provides more than 130 million cubic meters of water per year, according to the report, 80 percent of which ends up as sewage. Moreover, because of the restrictions on imports and exports into and out of the Strip, spare parts needed to repair the sewage treatment plants had not been allowed in”…

Then, the JPost article contains defensive and misleading information such as: “a security source familiar with the situation told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the vast majority of Gaza’s electrical needs were being met by Israel and Egypt. ‘Gaza is receiving 141 megawatts a day out of [its normal requirements of] 200 megawatts at this time from Israel and Egypt’, the source said”. This JPost article can be read in full here .

OK. Let’s take this apart a little bit:
(1) If Gaza is receiving 141 MW a day at this time from Israel and Egypt, that means Israel is providing 124 MW of directly supplied electricity daily from Ashdod or Ashkelon — I think Ashkelon, but both have been reported with great assurance and authority in the Israeli media. And that would mean that Israel has rescinded the electricity cuts that the Israeli military authorized to start on 7 February — and it would only have done so if it realized that any electricity cuts could cause a potentially catastrophic humanitarian crisis that the Israeli military promised it will avoid.

(2) Gaza’s requirements are more than 200 MW a day — they were 240 MW in the winter, and may be just slightly less now, but will rise again as the summer heat sets in. Gaza has been experiencing at least 20% electricity shortfalls, which cause constant brown-outs and black-outs. But, let’s just go along with what this Israeli security source says for a moment: If Gaza normally requires 200 MW per day, and Israel and Egpyt are together supplying 141 MW a day, that means that somewhere, somehow, Gaza must be generating at least 59 MW per day on its own. However, it has not been able to do so, because the Israeli military-ordered fuel cuts affecting Gaza’s only power plant, which operates on Israeli-supplied, European-financed industrial diesel fuel, have restricted production to an average of 45-50 MW per day. Lately, it has only been able to generate 40 MW per day, because fuel deliveries have been short, because the Israeli military says there have been attacks from Gaza on the fuel transfer terminal at Nahal Oz. But, as Sari Bashi, executive director of the Israeli human rights organization GISHA — who has led a fight against these fuel and electricity cuts — says, “if the military can supply some fuel, why can’t it supply enough?”

BUT, we’ve been writing about this for months …

Then, this JPost article also says that Hamas should find a solution.

And, it then goes on to argue, in a hallucinatory fantasy, that sewage has been dumped from Gaza into the sea for years, so this is nothing new, and that the Gazans (now living under tightening Israeli sanctions) should cheerfully recycle this sewage waste water for agriculture, as happy Israelis are doing.

Again, let’s take this apart:
(1) sewage flowed into the sea from Gaza for years, yes, before the Oslo Peace Process started in 1993. After that, donors paid for various sanitation installations to treat this sewage. SOme of these installations have been damaged during IDF attacks. Now, those that were in working order have now been put out of service by the Israeli military-ordered fuel cuts, and by the lack of spare parts — again, banned by the IDF under its sanctions program against Hamas in Gaza — to conduct normal mantanence operations.

The JPost article reports that the spokesman for Israel’s Water Authority, Uri Schor, told its reporter that “The State of Israel assists in various ways to the pumping and water distribution and to the continued operation of the sewage treatment plants. That assistance includes approval to transfer most of equipment the Palestinian Authority has requested - the rest is in the process of being verified - and all the diesel fuel necessary to run the plants“. The JPOst adds, faithfully, that “Schor added: ‘These plants had not been affected by any cutbacks to electricity’ [and] Schor suggested the PA follow Israel’s example and use treated sewage water for agriculture in place of potable water. ‘Right now, 70% of Israel’s sewage is treated and recycled, and the plan is to recycle all of it. In the PA, all of the agriculture uses freshwater, and using recycled sewage water would enable the Palestinians to redirect tens of millions of cubic meters of water for household use’, he said. Responsible management by the PA would add a respectable amount of expensive freshwater to their supply, he said”…

Yes, sure, but the PA includes the West Bank, which is not under these Israeli military-controlled sanctions that affect Gaza, and except that the supposed freshwater in Gaza is brackish because of seawater infusions due to overpumping of the water tables — some of the overpumping was/is being done by Israel …

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Filed under: Environment, Gaza, International Law, Israel, Law of the Sea Convention, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Sanctions

Haaretz is reporting that the Israeli Defense Forces is saying that its troops who killed Reuters cameraman in Gaza didn’t know they were firing at TV crew: “Israel Defense Forces troops were unable to identify Reuters News cameraman Fadel Shana as a journalist before they fired at him from a tank, the army said on Wednesday, citing the preliminary results of an investigation. Shana died while filming on a road in central Gaza on April 16. Five other Palestinians also died in the attack. Shana had been travelling in a vehicle that was marked with large press and TV stickers on the front and sides and was wearing blue body armour with ‘Press’ in large blue letters on a white fluorescent panel on the front. Responding to repeated requests for an official explanation of the incident, IDF spokeswoman Major Avital Leibovich said the army had not yet completed its investigation but would provide a full account as soon as possible. ‘The initial investigation showed they were not identified as members of the press’, she said … Reuters News editors met Leibovich and representatives of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office on Wednesday to urge the Israeli military to share the findings of its investigation. ‘We owe it to the family of Fadel Shana and journalists working for Reuters and other media organisations to establish exactly what happened two weeks ago’, said Mark Thompson, Reuters News managing editor for Europe, Middle East and Africa”. This report is published on Haaretz here .

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Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Journalism and Journalists, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians

The Jerusalem Post has reported that in today’s meeting of Israel’s Security Cabinet — at which Defense Minister Ehud Barak was not present, to the great annoyance of Prime Minister Ehud Barak, thus apparently preventing the taking of any decisions — “Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i reported that Israel was transferring fuel to the Gaza Strip but that the Palestinians were not picking it up at the Nahal Oz fuel terminal. ‘Israel is transferring goods to the Gaza Strip to avoid a humanitarian crisis there’, he said”.
here .

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An urgent call was issued jointly Tuesday by Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups who are calling for an end to restrictions on Gaza’s fuel supply — and to the “unprecedented harm being caused to Gaza’s humanitarian needs”.

The groups, in their joint statement, expressed “concern and outrage at the systematic dismantling of the Gaza Strip’s vital systems”.

They called for an immediate end by Israel — the occupying power – to the six-month long military-ordered restrictions on fuel supply that have paralyzed Gaza’s infrastructure and endangered the health and well-being of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents.

The fuel cuts have drained reserves and left essential systems vulnerable to supply interruptions, the statement explained.

Meanwhile, Haaretz newspaper reports that Israel is somehow trying to block criticism by international donors and/or the Quartet in meetings scheduled in London on the 1st and 2nd of May.

Haaretz notes that Egypt also made a complaint a few days ago to both the UN Security Council and to the Quartet describing “a dangerously explosive situation in the Gaza Strip”.  The Egyptian complaint apparently also expressed concern that “an explosion in the Gaza Strip would result in a serious escalation in the region’.”

The Israeli military exerts total control on all entry and exit of people and goods to and from Gaza.  Fuel can enter only through a complex fuel transfer system at Nahal Oz crossing.

“Since an attack on the Nahal Oz crossing on 9 April that killed two civilians, Israel has restricted fuel supplies to levels far below even the minimum, insufficient levels promised to the Supreme Court. It has transferred no diesel or petrol supply and just 1/3 of the industrial diesel needed for Gaza’s power plant”, the statement by the human rights groups explained.

Due to the shortage of fuel, the Gaza power plant reduced its output to only 40 MW of electricity.  It had been producing 55 MW daily earlier in April, and 65 MW a day before the fuel cuts began on 28 October.  It is capable, now, of producing 80 MW of electricity daily, if only it had enough fuel.

The statement notes that two days before the deadly attack on Nahal Oz, on 7 April, “Gaza’s petroleum company owners began striking, refusing to deliver the minimal quantities of petrol and diesel on the Palestinian side of Nahal Oz”.

Reuters reported Monday that Hamas is now pleading with the Association for Petroleum Companies in Gaza to release the fuel that is blocked in storage in Nahal Oz.

Sari Bashi, executive director of the Israeli human rights organization Gisha, who has led the court battle and co-authored Tuesday’s statement, said in an interview on Tuesday that “Certainly the strike intensifies the shortage of fuel in Gaza, but the main problem is that Israel is restricting the quantities it permits in”.

“We note that the fuel shortages were manufactured by Israel’s policy of closures, and of depriving the people of Gaza of the fuel needed for daily life”, Bashi added.  “We’re very concerned about the effects of the fuel restrictions on the residents of Gaza”.

Bashi said that the Israeli military has replied via the State Attorney to Gisha’s questions about the urgent need for delivery of all types of fuel to Gaza, acknowledging that only 1 million liters of fuel per week have been permitted into Gaza for the power plant – because there have been attacks at the crossings, according to the IDF.

The military did not indicate that it was backing down from its commitment to Israel’s Supreme Court to deliver a minimum of 2.2 million liters of fuel per week for Gaza’s vital power plant, Bashi said.

Instead, the military explained that it is interpreting this commitment as being subject to conditions on the ground which can justify further reductions in fuel to Gaza, Bashi said.

The military wrote that “The State is permitted to take the necessary steps to defend the soldiers and citizens of Israel, including closing the crossings into Gaza, even if that means a de facto reduction of the quantities of fuel that are delivered”.

But, Bashi said, “We are asking why, if they can pump some fuel in, why can’t they pump more”?

Bashi says the military reported that 300 tons of cooking gas were delivered today (Tuesday), UNRWA took some 55,000 liters of regular diesel fuel – and, according to the Israeli the military, Hamas took 22,000 liters of diesel and 22,000 liters of gasoline/benzene used for transportation.

The Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday that Hamas gunmen on Tuesday stole fuel from the Palestinian side of the Nahal Oz fuel terminal.  According to the Jerusalem Post, “Mojahed Salam[a], head of the Palestinian Authority’s gas agency, told Israel Radio that that his workers were threatened at gunpoint and that he told them obey the orders of the armed men so they wouldn’t get hurt.  ‘They took control of the fuel and fired toward the terminal in order to torpedo the flow of fuel to the Strip and to pressure Egypt into reopening the Rafah border crossing’, said Salam[a].

[Actually, the Jerusalem Post story said that Hamas stole fuel that was destined for the Gaza power plant -- but that is industrial diesel fuel that simply cannot be used instead of regular diesel for transport or to power stand-by generators.]

The regular diesel fuel and the gasoline/benzene is ordered through the Palestinian Authority, and payment is channeled through the PA as well.  The industrial diesel fuel used only for the power plant is ordered by the PA, but paid for by the European Union, and is handled separately.

Nine Israeli and Palestinian organizations signed Tuesday’s urgent call for a lifting of fuel restrictions – one fewer than the number who had unsuccessfully petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to block the fuel cuts.  The Galilee-based Israeli-Arab organization ADALAH did not join in today’s statement.  An Adalah official explained that they could not sign because their mandate, as a human rights organization, is only to address state parties, but not non-state actors.

Tuesday’s statement was addressed both to Israel and to “armed groups in Gaza”.

The nine groups who endorsed the statement said, jointly: “We emphasize Israel’s obligation as the primary duty bearer under the law of occupation to ensure the humane treatment of the civilian population, including with respect to the provision of fuel to the Gaza Strip, ensuring the maintenance of hospitals, public health services and food and medical supplies and refraining from rendering useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population”.

The fuel is needed to generate electricity, power hospitals, run transportation, pump water and sewage, and provide for basic social and economic needs, the statement said.

The statement called on “armed groups in Gaza to refrain from attacking civilians, including at the crossings that channel fuel, food, and other goods into the Gaza Strip”, and it also called on Israel “to refrain from attacking civilians and depriving them of basic rights and needs”.

“Acts of reprisals and collective penalties against civilians are unjustified and could be considered war crimes that must be investigated and stopped”, the statement said.  The groups also called on “all parties to respect their obligations under human rights and humanitarian law, especially the obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants”.

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Filed under: Egypt, Gaza, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Sanctions

ABC reported after the much-anticipated briefing by the U.S. Administration to members of Congress on Israel’s attack on a Syrian target last September that “Committee chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, and ranking member Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., are furious with the Bush administration for failing to brief Congress until eight months after Israeli jets bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear site Sept. 6, 2007 … Leading lawmakers from the House Intelligence Committee accused the Bush administration of leaving them out of the loop by refusing to provide adequate intelligence briefings on North Korean help in constructing a nuclear facility in Syria until today. Both sides of the aisle warned the administration it would now face a steeper battle to gain congressional approval for any deal that may be reached to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear program through the so-called six-party talks … Neither Israeli nor U.S. officials had previously acknowledged the bombing in public and, according to satellite imagery taken in recent months, Syria quietly paved over the wreckage in an attempt to hide what had been built there. Hoekstra suggested that today’s briefing was motivated more by the administration’s attempts to advance the six-party talks than to fulfill its obligations to keep the relevant oversight committees on Capitol Hill informed. Those talks have deadlocked in recent months over North Korea’s failure to provide a satisfactory declaration of its nuclear programs by a Dec. 31, 2007 deadline. A deal may be in the works, however, under which North Korea would simply “acknowledge” U.S. concerns about Pyongyang’s proliferation activities”. The full ABC report can be seen here.

The Israeli press has gone quiet again — except for some anxiety-producing speculation that this briefing will provoke a Syrian attack (while there is much public activity elsewhere about Turkish efforts to bring Israel and Syria back into peace negotiations”.

Meanwhile, the IAEA is indignant. AP reported that “The head of the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency angrily criticized Israel on Friday for bombing an alleged Syrian nuclear facility, and chastised the U.S. for withholding information on the site.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei also was not provided information about the site until Thursday, the same day U.S. officials briefed members of the House Intelligence Committee about evidence including dozens of photographs taken from ground level and footage of the interior of the building gathered by spy satellites after the Israeli strike seven months ago … ‘The Director General deplores the fact that this information was not provided to the Agency in a timely manner, in accordance with the Agency’s responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to enable it to verify its veracity and establish the facts’, ElBaradei’s office said. Additionally, ‘the Director General views the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime‘, it said … Top U.S. intelligence officials who briefed reporters in Washington Thursday said they had high confidence in the judgment that North Korea had aided Syria with its nuclear program and the intention was to produce plutonium. But they claimed only low confidence for the conclusion that it was meant for weapons development, in part because there was no reprocessing facility at the site — something that would be needed to extract plutonium from spent reactor fuel for use in a bomb. The Syrian reactor was within weeks or months of being functional when Israeli jets destroyed it, a top U.S. official told The Associated Press in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The official said the facility was mostly completed but still had needed significant testing before it could have been declared operational”. The full AP report can be read here .

Syria says the evidence is fabricated.

There is a very interesting analysis which analyzes “inconsistencies in the presentation” and suggests that the Administration’s slide-show to Congress could have been — indeed, that it was — fake, posted over at the Moon of Alabama blog, here.

This posting calls the presentation an “elaborate information operation”, and says: “Some of these pictures are manipulated. Others might have been made in a different context and at a different place than alleged. Some are outright misleading.”

It also says: “one slide shows some undefinable structure in a very blurry aerial photograph next to a CIA computer graphic and the text says: ‘Internal Structure of Destroyed Building Matches Reactor Computer Model’. One really wonders how that could be. These CIA indeed managed to paint a computer graphic so that it fits their interpretation of a very blurry photograph. Who would have expected such a capability within that organisation?”

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Filed under: Disarmament, International Atomic Energy Agency - IAEA, North Korea, Nuclear technology and weapons, Syria