Protest Against Poverty: Palestinian Man Dies After Setting Himself Alight
By Countercurrents.org
03 September, 2012
Countercurrents.org
Mohamed Abu Nada, a Gaza man has died after setting himself alight, apparently in protest over his family's dire living conditions. Nada's father said: Nada wanted to draw attention to his family's poverty in Gaza .
Guardian.co.uk published a report September 3, 2012 Harriet Sherwood's report datelined Jerusalem on Nada's protest. The report said:
Mohamed Abu Nada died on Sunday from injuries sustained a few days earlier when he poured petrol over his body at the morgue of Gaza City 's Shifa hospital and set himself alight.
His father Abu Mohamed Abu Nada told reporters in Gaza : “I asked my son to go and look for a job, because I don't have a job and we don't have any source for living.”
The unemployment rate in Gaza is 29%, and rises to 58% among young people aged between 20 and 24, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Eight out of 10 households are dependent on some kind of aid, and 39% of the 1.6 million-strong population live below the poverty line.
Overcrowding, lengthy and frequent power cuts, unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and inadequate medical care are features of daily life in Gaza for much of the population.
A UN report released last month forecast a rise in the population to 2.1 million by 2020. “The substantial population growth will thus add some 500,000 people to a living area which is restricted and already heavily urbanized,” said the report, Gaza in 2020 – A Liveable Place ? “The challenges which confront the people of Gaza now will only intensify over the coming years.”
Israel enforced a tight blockade of Gaza for four years after Hamas took control of the area in June 2006, banning most imports, exports and the movement of people. Although it eased the blockade in 2010, there are still heavy restrictions on importing construction materials, exporting almost all goods and the issuing of permits to leave Gaza via Israel .
Suicide, which is forbidden under Islam, is rare in Gaza despite operations by suicide bombers during the second intifada.
Pillaging Dead Sea
On another report by Harriet Sherwood on pillaging Dead Sea resources in occupied territory by Israel guardian.co.uk on September 3, 2012 said:
Israel is “pillaging” the natural resources of the Dead Sea which lie in occupied Palestinian territory in violation of international law, a report which singles out the cosmetics firm Ahava for criticism.
According to the Palestinian human rights organisation al-Haq, the “appropriation and exploitation of Palestinian land and natural resources in the occupied Dead Sea area by Israeli settlers and companies … meet the requirements of the crime of pillage”.
The report, Pillage of the Dead Sea , says Israeli restrictions on planning and movement “have severely hampered the ability of Palestinians to use and access their land and other natural resources in the region. The presence of settlers who directly utilise and profit from the Dead Sea wealth has severely exacerbated this situation and contributed to the over-exploitation of the area, resulting in severe environmental damage.”
Almost two-thirds of the western shore of the Dead Sea lies within the West Bank , which Israel has occupied since 1967. The remaining area is in Israel , and the eastern shore is in Jordan . At the lowest point on Earth, 410 metres below sea level, the inland sea is a magnet for tourists keen to float in its salt-saturated waters and for industries which extract its minerals.
Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, which manufactures and markets beauty products based on Dead Sea minerals and mud, is located within the Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the West Bank . It is licensed by the Israeli government to mine Dead Sea raw materials. According to al-Haq, almost 45% of its shares are owned by Mitzpe Shalem and another Israeli settlement on the Dead Sea shore, Kalia.
Within two decades of its launch in 1988, Ahava's annual global sales had reached almost $150m (£95m). The company has been the target of boycott campaigns by anti-settlement activists, which contributed to its decision to close its store in Covent Garden , London , a year ago.
The al-Haq report says Ahava is “unlawfully utilising the Palestinian natural resources of the Dead Sea area for its own economic profits and therefore can be considered directly responsible for the pillage of the occupied territory's natural resources in clear violation of customary international law”.
However, in a letter circulated in 2010, Ahava said: “The mud and minerals used in Ahava's cosmetic products are not excavated in an occupied area. The minerals are mined in the Israeli part of the Dead Sea , which is undisputed internationally.”
Ahava did not respond to a request for comment on the al-Haq report.
The land along the Dead Sea shore was classified as "Area C" in the 1993 Oslo accords, in which Israel has full military and administrative control. Much of the land has been declared or registered as “state land”, which has “dispossessed Palestinians of extensive portions of the Dead Sea land, effectively depriving them of the possibility of benefiting from [its] natural resources,” according to the report.
Al-Haq says “ Israel is openly in violation of its obligations under international and humanitarian law as an occupying power … because it is encouraging and facilitating the exploitation of Palestinian natural resources and actively assisting their pillaging by private actors.” It cites The Hague regulations and the statute of the international criminal court.
In a statement, the Israeli foreign ministry said that, under the Oslo accords, Israel had territorial jurisdiction that includes land, subsoil and territorial waters in Area C. It “therefore would be entitled to licence a company to excavate mud in that area if it chose to do so”.
The al-Haq report calls on the European Union to adopt restrictions on the import of Israeli products originating from settlements, and urges cosmetic retailers to provide clear information about the origin of products they sell to allow consumers to make an informed choice about purchases.
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