House of Commons International Development Committee The Humanitarian and Development Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Eleventh Report of Session 2007–08 Volume II Oral and written evidence Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 17 July 2008 HC 522-II Published on 24 July 2008 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 International Development Committee The International Development Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for International Development and its associated public bodies. Current membership Malcolm Bruce MP (Liberal Democrat, Gordon) (Chairman) John Battle MP (Labour, Leeds West) Hugh Bayley MP (Labour, City of York) John Bercow MP (Conservative, Buckingham) Richard Burden MP (Labour, Birmingham Northfield) Mr Stephen Crabb MP (Conservative, Preseli Pembrokeshire) Daniel Kawczynski MP (Conservative, Shrewsbury and Atcham) Ann McKechin MP (Labour, Glasgow North) Jim Sheridan MP (Labour, Paisley and Renfrewshire North) Mr Marsha Singh MP (Labour, Bradford West) Sir Robert Smith MP (Liberal Democrat, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/indcom Committee staff The staff of the Committee are Carol Oxborough (Clerk), Matthew Hedges (Second Clerk), Anna Dickson (Committee Specialist), Chlöe Challender (Committee Specialist), Ian Hook (Committee Assistant), Sarah Colebrook (Secretary), Alex Paterson (Media Officer) and Miguel Boo Fraga (Senior Office Clerk). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the International Development Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 1223; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] Witnesses Wednesday 30 April 2008 Page Mr John Ging, Director, UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Operations, Gaza Ev 1 Mr David Freud, Chief Executive Officer, The Portland Trust, Ev 7 Mr Adam Leach, Regional Director, Middle East and North Africa, Oxfam Ev 11 Tuesday 20 May 2008 Rt Hon. Douglas Alexander MP, Secretary of State for International Development, and Mr Michael Anderson, Head, Iraq and Middle East Group, Department for International Development; Mr John Jenkins, Director, Middle East and North Africa Directorate, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ev 14 Thursday 5 June 2008 Rt Hon. Tony Blair, Middle East Quartet Representative Ev 33 List of written evidence Department for International Development Ev 44; 51; 54 Al-Haq Ev 55 Joint memorandum submitted by Trocaire and Broederlijk Delen Ev 56 Christian Aid Ev 60 European Commission Ev 63 Funding for Peace Coalition Ev 64 Lord Janner of Braunstone Q.C. Vice-Chairman of the Britain-Israel Parliamentary Group Ev 66 Machsom Watch Ev 75 NGO Monitor Ev 77 Oxfam Ev 84 Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ev 91 Portland Trust Ev 95 Stephanie Koury, Senior Research Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies Ev 99 Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign—Stop the Wall Ev 103 Tax Payers' Alliance Ev 110 UNICEF UK Ev 111 John Ging, Director, UNRWA Operations in Gaza Ev 114 War on Want Ev 116 Processed: 18-07-2008 18:50:50 Page Layout: COENEW [SO] PPSysB Job: 397837 Unit: PAG2 International Development Committee: Evidence Ev 1 Oral evidence Taken before the International Development Committee on Wednesday 30 April 2008 Members present Malcolm Bruce, in the Chair Hugh Bayley Jim Sheridan Richard Burden Mr Marsha Singh Mr Stephen Crabb Sir Robert Smith Ann McKechin Witness: Mr John Ging, Director, UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Operations, Gaza, gave evidence. Q1 Chairman: Welcome. We can start. As you also must condemn the firing of rockets from Gaza, appreciate, the first part of the evidence is by video which continues on an almost daily basis. These link with Gaza and with John Ging. Good morning rockets terrorise the civilian population within to you, John. Can you hear us all right? rocket range of Gaza, and over 2,600 rockets have Mr Ging: I can hear you clearly, thank you. been fired this year so far. That has resulted in three Israeli civilians being killed and over 20 injured. The Q2 Chairman: Thank you very much for doing this. other aspect that is underpinning the humanitarian It is good to talk to you again, although I am not crisis here continues to be the lack of access for sure that what you have to tell us will be good to people and for supplies in and out of Gaza. The V hear. I wonder, for the formal record, if you could entire population here are feeling the e ects of those introduce yourself for the transcript? sanctions. It is a struggle for every family to cope and Mr Ging: Sure. Good morning. My name is John it is one that they are losing. The pathetic Ging; I am the Director of UNRWA’s Operations humanitarian state here in Gaza was clearly evident here in Gaza, and thank you for the opportunity to to everybody on 23 January when there was the address the committee. break-out from Gaza to Rafah. The population just could not take the pressure any more and they broke out of Gaza to do nothing more than buy some We very much appreciate the work Q3 Chairman: household goods—some food, some medicines, and that you do and, obviously, you have frequently so on. That social explosion was predicted, and yet given us updates. I wonder perhaps if we should start the causes that underpinned that explosion were not there: if you could give us your latest assessment of addressed. But the reprieve has been short-lived the current humanitarian situation in Gaza first- because, of course, the borders are sealed again and hand as of today? Mr Ging: Sure. I would characterise the situation the pressure is building and it is again coming to a here as shocking in terms of the deterioration in the point of explosion. The supplies here across the humanitarian situation. I also have to say it is board are either running out or have run out. shameful, what we are now witnessing first-hand Compounding the problem that did not exist in January is the fact that fuel is now in very short here and on the ground. Both the principal issues V continue to be the access issues, whether it is for supply. It even a ected our operations here at the equipment or whether it is for supplies. Also the UN, where we ran out of fuel and had to suspend, violence underpins the humanitarian situation here for the first time ever, our food distribution for three in Gaza. When it comes to violence and that days until we were re-supplied. We have only been pervasive sense of fear and danger that is created in re-supplied with enough to carry us through five every household by any situation here, I will just days and we are trying to overcome this with a more update you on the latest statistics. From January of regular supply, but, again, the fact that we at the UN this year 344 Palestinians have been killed and 756 ran out is just another indication of how diYcult the have been injured, and in those figures are the deaths situation is here. Again, this has been a reduction of of 60 undisputedly innocent children and a further supply that has been going on longer than a month. 175 children injured. All of the danger that all of that If we compare the figures from last September for all amounts to for the civilian population here is the diesel, it was over nine million litres. In March pervasive; it is a reality in everybody’s daily life. that had been reduced to 3.8 million litres. The What we are not seeing is the accountability that one figures for benzine are similar: 1.4 million litres in would expect when it comes to the use of lethal force, September and that was reduced to 20% of that and that is leaving an ever-growing sense of amount in March of this year, so it is aVecting every impunity, bad faith and a sense of despair among the aspect of human existence here. The population are general population. Of course, it is very important reduced to walking. Those vehicles that are on the that when we refer to the security challenges here we road, and it is very few, are being converted to using Processed: 18-07-2008 18:50:50 Page Layout: COENEW [E] PPSysB Job: 397837 Unit: PAG2 Ev 2 International Development Committee: Evidence 30 April 2008 Mr John Ging cooking gas; it is a very dangerous conversion. forth, for many of these treatments the frequency of Doctors, healthcare workers, patients, teachers, treatment is reduced, it is not as regular as it should students, they all must walk now and, if they cannot be because of the shortages. Cancer patients the walk the distance to the school or the clinic, then same: there is a shortage of chemotherapy medicine they do not get there and, again, this is devastating in Gaza. I cannot say that today anybody has died in every respect. because they did not have the medicine that they needed to save their life, but for sure there is a lot of V Q4 Chairman: Can I ask you a question on that? human su ering because of the shortages of That is very helpful.