Because
of its strategic position at the crossroads of civilizations and trade
routes, the Middle East has experienced wars of conquest and armed
conflict since antiquity. However,
the roots of the current conflict between Israelis and Palestinians are
recent and can be found in the break-up of the defeated Ottoman Empire
at the end of the First World War. Arab provinces of the Empire were
established as separate countries in 1922 and placed under the mandate
system of the League of Nations, administered by the victorious powers,
pending independence. The
Palestine mandate was assigned to the British, who had occupied the area
during the war; it recognized "the historical connection of the Jewish
people with Palestine," and set the basis for implementation of the
Balfour Declaration of 1917 by which the British had promised the
Zionist movement support for the establishment of a "national home for
the Jewish people" in Palestine.
The Palestinian Arabs
opposed the mandate because it infringed on their own national rights
and violated the promises of independence made to them by the British in
order to obtain their support in the war against the Ottomans. As Jewish
immigration to Palestine intensified during the 1920s and 1930s, armed
conflict between the two communities and full-scale rebellion broke out.
Unable to manage the situation, the British brought the issue to the
United Nations which in 1947 decided to partition Palestine into two
States, one Arab and one Jewish, joined in economic union, with
Jerusalem as an international territory with open borders.
The Jews, who were
allotted 56% of the territory even though they owned only 6% of the land
and were 1/3 of the population, accepted the partition plan, but the
Palestinian Arabs rejected it as unjust. In the war launched by
neighboring Arab states after the establishment of Israel in 1948, over
720,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes, and Israel
succeeded in extending its boundaries to cover 78% of mandated
Palestine. In the 1967 war, Israel conquered the remaining 22% of
Palestine and established a military occupation that has continued in
various forms despite international condemnation and efforts to achieve
a peaceful settlement. Since accepting the principle of partition in the
late 1980s, the Palestinians have struggled to roll back the occupation
and to establish their own independent and sovereign state in the West
Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Since 2001, interim
peace agreements known as the "Oslo accords" which had led to
partial withdrawal of Israeli troops and a limited form of Palestinian
autonomy have broken down. Violent conflict has escalated, with a series
of suicide attacks by Palestinian militants and massive reprisals and
partial reoccupation by Israeli forces, which have resulted in civilian
suffering on a large scale.
An unknown number of older
persons on both sides have been killed in this conflict. Without a State
to protect them and to provide needed services, older Palestinians in
particular are dependent on the international community and face
daunting challenges in their efforts to cope with dispossession and
social and economic destruction.
Israel
Razes 35 Gaza Houses (September 26, 2004)
Ahmed Abdullah, an elderly Palestinian man has become another victim of
the Israel-Palestine conflict. The old man was killed in an Israeli air
raid that came several hours after an Israeli woman was killed during a
Palestinian mortar strike on a Jewish settlement. The death of the 60
year old man brings the number of people killed in the conflict (since
the start of the Palestinian uprising four years ago) to 4,337.
Israel: Victims Laid to Rest after Beersheba Bombing ( September 2, 2004)
Tamara Dibrashvilli- 70, Shoshana Amos- 64, Margareta Sokolov-58, Eliyahu Ozan-58, Roman Sokolovsky- 53, Vitaly Brodsky- 52 were laid to rest in Beersheba new and old cemeteries. These elderly were recent victims of another twin suicide bus bombing attacks in Israel. The majority of them are new immigrants.
Israel: Twilight Zone / A Sound Sleep ( September 9, 2004)
Routine, daily fear does not help the people of Israel or Palestine get used to the horrors of war. Rasmiya, an elderly Palestinian woman of 70 whose eyes are half- blind and whose body is half-paralyzed cannot stop crying. The Israeli Defense Forces bombarded her house all night looking for "wanted persons." Earlier in the week the President of the Israel Supreme Court had called on the army to stop this type of attack, the so-called "early warning" which substituted for the outlawed "neighborhood procedure." Despite this appeal, the IDF continues to attack civilians in this way
Israel: West Bank City Closed Off After Blasts (September 1, 2004)
Palestinian suicide bombers' actions took 16 lives of civilians in Beersheba, situated in Negev Desert between the Israeli occupied territories close to Hebron and Gaza. Nissim Vaknin traveled on one of the attacked buses. When an elderly woman with shopping bags boarded, Vaknin gave up his seat to her and walked to the back, a gesture that saved his life. The elderly woman was killed in the blast several seconds later. In retaliation, the Israeli military destroyed the home of an accused suicide bomber, arrested the accused's three brothers and sealed off the town of Hebron. In addition, the Israeli military has stepped up "targeted killings" of Palestinians it believes to be militants.
Israel: Arab Prisoner Murders Elderly Jewish Cellmate (August 30, 2004)
The Israel-Palestine conflict has long gone beyond political circles and entered a dangerous phase of human hatred. Recently, a young Arab career criminal in Kishon detention facility attacked his elderly Jewish cellmate for snoring in his sleep. The Arab cut the 70 year-old Jew numerous times with a razor blade and then beat him to death.
Jordan: Jordan Says Concerned About Prisoners Inside Israeli Jails (August 24, 2004)
Hundreds of Jordanians, including elderly, took part in a sit-in protest in front of the UN office in Amman. Their purpose was to show solidarity with their relatives -- some 70 Jordanian war prisoners and fellow Palestinians who had gone on a hunger strike demanding Israel stop strip searches, allow more frequent family visits, improve sanitary conditions and install public telephones. The protesters appealed to the international community to pressurize Israel to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention on Human Rights and Prisoners of War.
Israel: Israel Urged to Change Occupation Tactics (August 24, 2004)
The international community repeatedly urged Israel to consider adoption of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which will lay out the responsibilities of the Israeli authorities in treating local Palestinian population in occupied territories. Although, Israel has its own arguments, its violent and abusive practices at West Bank military checkpoints and at raiding the refugee camps in search of militants harms innocent vulnerable people, mainly elderly. The recent footage of Associated Press Television showed an Israeli soldier grabbing a blindfolded elderly Palestinian man by the back of his neck, pushing him along violently.
Palestine: Palestine, A Nation of Prisoners (August 22, 2004)
Israel still holds approximately 7200 Palestinians, including women, children, elderly and patients, under harsh detention conditions, inside its various jails and concentration camps. According to the Addamir Prisoner Support Center, a Palestinian organization, about 40 percent of all Palestinian males, elderly included, have spent time in Israeli prisons. Although some of them are real terrorists, many of the rest are political prisoners detained in breach of human rights international conventions.
Palestine: More Palestinian Homes Razed (August 12, 2004)
Over 20 Israeli military vehicles, backed by five bulldozers and Apache helicopters, have demolished at least seven Palestinian homes along the Egyptian border south of Rafah in Gaza. As a result, many old people are left without home and helpless. They are calling on international organizations to rescue them.
Palestine: Martyrdom of Elderly Palestinian Man from Exhaustion after Crossing Rafah Terminal (August 9, 2004)
The Israel-Palestine conflict that has gone on for decades now has sacrificed a lot of innocent lives. Vulnerable elderly Palestinians die not only from targeted or random bullets and missile attacks but in presumably peaceful circumstances as well. Lengthy security measures compromise their fragile health. A 70-year-old Palestinian - Fahmi Mohammed Mahdi- died shortly after crossing the Rafah terminal where he had to wait for three weeks.
Palestine: Elderly Woman Among 7 Palestinians Killed Since Sunday (August 6, 2004)
Recurrent attacks on peaceful Palestinian civilians has acquired a permanent character. On August 8, the Israeli forces' sporadic gunfire killed a nameless Palestinian elderly woman in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. And she is only one of the thousands of civilians, killed over the last decades.
Palestine: UN Emergency Feeding Agency Extends Operations in Palestinian Territories (August 3, 2004)
Physicians for Human Rights has stated that Palestinians residing in the occupied territories are suffering from malnutrition and serious ailments caused by the malnutrition. The situation is especially difficult for the elderly Palestinians estimated to be about 33.3% of the entire refugee population. In order to mitigate the malnutrition problem, the United Nations World Food Programme has announced that it will extend its emergency operations for another year, increasing its aid by more than a third.
Palestine: Israeli Troops Gun Down Palestinians (August 1, 2004)
It seems even refugee camp is not a safe haven for the Palestinian refugees. Recently the Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians including a 60 year old woman in a refugee camp in Gaza in two separate attacks.
Israel: Israeli Protesters Form Human Chain (July 26, 2004)
More than 100,000 Israelis gathered on Sunday to form a human chain from Jerusalem to the Gaza Strip to protest against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon 's plan to pull Jewish settlers from the occupied territory. Among others, elderly Israelis join their hands as a
part of human chain in Jerusalem Old City. Does this human chain know the UN Resolutions No. 446(1979) and No. 465(1980) that condemn the existence of these settlements in the occupied territory?
Disabled Man Dies in Gaza Rubble (July 12, 2004)
Palestine: Israeli tanks demolished the house of 70 year old Mohammed Khallas who lived in the Gaza Strip and killed him. Continuing the Israeli Government policy of
demolition of Palestinian homes, the soldiers in the heavily armored tank claimed another Palestinian victim. Disabled and unable to rescue himself,
the old man died as his house collapsed around him. His daughter, Mona, said she had tried to persuade the Israeli soldiers to give her more time to get him out but they did not listen.
Palestine: Bulldozers Don't Have Heart (June 4, 2004)
In late May 2004 Israeli troops swept into Rafah refugee camp in Gaza bulldozing hundreds of homes and leaving many dead and hundreds of others homeless, most of which are elderly. Such destruction violates the Geneva Convention on "Collateral Damage" forbidding even accidental damage of non-military property, particularly civilian homes, in war times.
Israel: Israeli Official Offers Empathy but Hits a Nerve (May 24, 2004)
Yosef Lapid, Israel's justice minister started a political uproar when he protested against the demolition of Palestinian homes in the southern Gaza Strips. After seeing the picture of an old woman in the ruins of her home looking under some floor tiles for her medicines, Mr. Lapid imagined that this woman could have been his grandmother.
Six Killed in Israeli Raids on West
Bank (April 4, 2003)
15 Killed in Haifa Bus Blast (March 6,
2003)
My Son the Suicide Bomber
(March 2, 2004)
An older Palestinian man reflects on the situation of his family. Even as a child he spent time in a refugee camp as a result of the Israeli occupation of Palestine; now his son died as a suicide bomber in response to the long occupation. Retaliating, Israel Defense Forces blew up Yousef's home along with damaging some neighbors' homes.
Older Palestinians Lose Homes in Israeli Raid (October 15, 2003)
Following a suicide bombing
in Haifa that killed 19 people,
Israeli forces carried out punishing raids in the Rafah refugee camp in
southern Gaza, ostensibly to uncover
tunnels used for smuggling weapons from Egypt. Hundreds of Palestinian
homes were razed and orchards destroyed in this operation, the most
destructive in Gaza since the beginning of the
second intifada, but only three tunnels and no weapons were found.
Several older Palestinians and their families lost their homes and all
their possessions
Israel
Faulted for Ignoring Victims (April 19, 2002)
Condition
of Elderly in Palestinian Occupied Territories Among Issues Raised at
Second World Assembly on Ageing (April 11, 2002)
During a Second World
Assembly on Ageing plenary session, several states voiced concern that
elderly Palestinian civilians have suffered particularly severely from
Israel's actions in the Occupied Territories. The representative of
Israel countered that Israeli older people have also been killed during
the crisis.
Israel and the Occupied Territories
- Shielded from Scrutiny: IDF Violations in Jenin and Nablus (2002)
Grassroots Organization Fights Deplorable Circumstances of Palestinian
Older Persons
Atta
Services is one of the few organizations serving older persons in the
occupied Palestinian territories. In addition to its regular program,
which includes provision of hot meals, doctors' visits, house
cleaning, and visits by staff, Atta Services has also launched an
emergency relief program to alleviate the critical conditions of elderly
Palestinians due to the repeated invasions by Israeli forces during the
second intifada. Almost all of their elderly beneficiaries need
counseling and psychological assistance; many need help in repairing
their homes damaged by the army; and regular delivery of staple
foodstuffs is hampered by checkpoints, curfews and closures.
