Palestinians are trapped between the pandemic and Israel’s brutal military occupation
The global spread of coronavirus has necessitated movement restrictions around the world, including in Israel and Palestine.
As the occupying state, Israel controls all entrances to and exits from the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Last week, it closed off Palestinian-administered areas under the pretext of “limiting the spread” of coronavirus. Bethlehem has been fully locked down for weeks.
It is clear to Palestinians that Israel is taking advantage of Covid-19, exploiting the West Bank lockdown to accelerate the annexation of Palestinian land, while allowing Israeli settlers to attack Palestinian civilians - further complicating Palestinian efforts to combat the pandemic.
Movement restrictions
The Israeli army is using the pretext of coronavirus to impose further closures and movement restrictions on Palestinians. This ought to be a matter of public health, and the restrictions should apply equally to Israelis, as anyone can get infected - but the Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, who live just a few hundred metres from the locked-down Palestinian communities, are not facing the same restrictions.
Israelis apparently believe they can take advantage of the current situation to implement the US “deal of the century”. Israel’s imposition of restrictions on movement in bantustan-like Palestinian areas is an early warning of how things would work if US President Donald Trump’s deal were to be implemented.
For me, as a Palestinian born and raised under the Israeli occupation, the new ban on movement brings back memories of the curfews and siege imposed by the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian territories, especially during the Second Intifada, under the pretext of security.
During that time, the Israeli army locked down Palestinian communities and turned our lives into an unbearable nightmare, subject to severe repression.
In 2002, in my hometown of Qira in the northern West Bank, my newborn daughter Lina got a viral infection that caused severe diarrhea and fever for several days - but we couldn’t take her to a hospital or doctor, due to the Israeli-imposed curfew.
A year later, we discovered that this untreated infection had caused chronic kidney failure, and a kidney transplant was needed to save her life. The current restrictions could similarly cause serious problems for chronically ill Palestinians, including my daughter.
Collective punishment
So far, more cases of coronavirus have been reported in Israel than in the West Bank. More than 2,500 cases have been recorded in Israel, compared with fewer than 100 in the Palestinian territories. Yet, despite the unprecedented health crisis and widespread social isolation measures, Israeli police “have chosen now, of all times, to escalate their abuse and collective punishment” of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, according to the human rights group B’Tselem.
The level of violence perpetrated by Jewish settlers has simultaneously increased, with reports citing a campaign of attacks against Palestinian shepherds and farmers. In the Bethlehem area, where Palestinians live under strict quarantine, settlers recently uprooted hundreds of trees belonging to Palestinians....
Re: Israel is using coronavirus to implement "Deal of The Century"
format_quote Originally Posted by Avis
May Allah send a virus, that is much worse than what we are currently facing, to the Evil Jews of Israel. Judgement Day will be terrifying, but at least we will be able to get justice and see the look of horror upon the faces of the enemies of Islam.
السلام عليكم
Israeli PM Netanyahu self-isolating after aide tests positive for coronavirus
icon fm
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed he will be self-isolating after an aide tested positive for the Covid-19 infection. Early indications are that Netanyahu himself was unlikely to have contracted the virus....
"Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his family spent two weeks in quarantine after he was in contact with a senior soldier whose death from Covid-19 was reported on Monday, Middle East Eye has learned. The deaths of two army generals, Shafea Dawoud and Khaled Shaltout, after testing positive for Covid-19.."
The Egyptian military has imposed strict measures in some locations to limit the spread of coronavirus, including banning vacations and isolating soldiers returning from missions.[...] The directive, sent out on Thursday, applies to commanders, soldiers and civilian personnel in some towns and neighbourhoods in Monufia, Damietta, Alexandria, Minya and Qena, for the next 15 days. It requires those already on vacation to stay in place...."
COVID-19 has killed a member of the clerical body that appoints the supreme leader, according to Iranian state media, the latest official in the country to die of the highly infectious disease caused by the new coronavirus. [...] At least 12 Iranian politicians and officials, both sitting and former, have now died of the illness, and 13 more have been infected and are either in quarantine or being treated....
"...The captain of a US aircraft carrier, with 5,000 people onboard, including an unconfirmed number who have tested positive for Covid-19, has called for help to save the lives of his sailors. The US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt was in the Pacific when the navy reported its first coronavirus case a week ago. It has since pulled into port in Guam, a US island territory in the western Pacific..."
Re: Israel is using coronavirus to implement "Deal of The Century"
Over ONE THIRD of crew on France’s only aircraft carrier have contracted coronavirus – military
At least 668 servicemen from the Charles de Gaulle carrier group have tested positive for coronavirus, the French defense ministry has said. The country’s only aircraft carrier was forced to return to port due to the outbreak.
“As of the evening of April 14, 1,767 sailors from the carrier strike group have been tested," the ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
Over 30 sailors have been hospitalized with Covid-19 at a military hospital in Toulon, including one serviceman in an intensive care unit, the military added.
The coronavirus outbreak abroad the aircraft carrier was confirmed last week, when dozens of sailors tested positive for Covid-19. The vessel was forced to cut short its Mediterranean Sea mission, returning to its home port of Toulon on Sunday.
The French military said that the “vast majority” of the coronavirus tests were performed on crew members of the Charles de Gaulle, suggesting concerns that other ships within the carrier group might have been contaminated as well.
France is not the first country to suffer a major coronavirus outbreak aboard a military vessel. Last month, the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt was forced to return to port and more than 4,000 servicemen were isolated after Covid-19 was detected. Nearly 600 sailors tested positive for the disease, and one died from it after spending days in intensive care.
Meanwhile, two out of four US Navy personnel currently assigned to the French vessel have tested positive for Covid-19, the US military said Wednesday. The American sailors were on board as part of an exchange program.
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