Gaza fishing industry under siege

Since the abduction by Palestinian resistance groups of Israeli soldier Gila’d Shalit on June 25, 2006 and the reinvasion of Gaza, Israeli gun ships have prevented Palestinians from fishing off the Gaza coast, which has severely affected the livelihoods of fishermen and the food supply of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.

Thirty thousand people are dependant on Gaza’s fishing industry for employment. Since June 25th, however, the Israeli naval forces have harassed Palestinian fishing boats that have tried to leave the dock. In the main fishing site of Gaza City, Almina, dozens of fishermen trying to feed their children complain of an economic crisis.

A routine method of humiliation

One fisherman, Abdurrahman Abu Riyala, spoke out about harassment from Israeli forces.

I have recently come under fire. While I was working on my boat, I was surprised by them approaching me. They took me to the west, then to Almajdal. They also forced me to strip off my clothes and jump into the water.

The practice of forcing sailors to strip and swim naked from their boats has become a routine method of humiliation. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem reports that near-naked fishermen must endure freezing temperatures, while being taken to an Israeli port. Fishermen are later returned near their boat and again forced to swim across to it.

Over the past eight months, Israeli gunboats have carried out hundreds of attacks, shooting at fishing boats, either forcing them back to shore or detaining them on board.

According to the Oslo agreement, signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, Palestinians are permitted to fish within 20 nautical miles of the coast. By contrast, these incidents have taken place within hundred yards of the shore.

The Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, lawyer Raji Sourani, confirmed that Israeli harassment of Gaza fishermen happens on a daily basis. A spokesperson for B’Tselem, Sarit Mikhaeli denounced the Israeli actions off Gaza’s coast as “unjustified.”

On most days, Gazan fishermen are not even allowed to depart. Most of the time they are unable to fish. Hundreds of violations against the fishing community have occurred, including the destruction of boats, imprisonment, and injuries to fishermen.

Since the abduction of Corporal Shalit, Israel has pursued a policy that any fisherman who takes his boat to the sea beyond a very short distance will be prevented from fishing. This policy has not been made public, there is no official policy, and there is no official comment on it.

The Israeli navy claims that the ban on fishing is to prevent Corporal Shalit from being taken to Egypt by his captors. But since its effect has been to put thousands out of work and to deprive Gaza’s population of vital food, it is clearly a collective punishment.

Many cases of malnutrition

The World Food Program has stated that Israel’s closure of Gaza’s borders has led to a steep rise in malnutrition from loss of fish and other animal protein. According to a nurse at the UN-run clinic in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Hala Abdurrahman, every day they see many cases of malnutrition and low hemoglobin among children as well as adults.

According to nurse Abdurrahma,

The situations of the families are very poor; they can’t serve the children with principal food elements, and that’s led to many complications. First of all, is anemia. We have about fifty percent of children under five years with hemoglobin under 10 grams and seventy percent of adolescents at school with anemia under 10 grams as well.

In the market of Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, fish sellers sit idle as many Gazans are unable to afford the inflated price of fish.

A woman has got only 20 shekels with which she wants to buy vegetables and some sweets for her children,” said Eljorani, a local fish seller. One kilogram of a popular fish called ghobos costs 10 shekels. Fish is now too expensive for most Palestinians.

What can you say? No one believes that the siege of Gaza has anything to do with Corporal Shalit, but rather with the overwhelming election of Hamas in a democratic election. Unfortunately, the Palestinians voted for the wrong candidates, and one must presume that the Israel and the US (along with the EU and Russia) are punishing the Palestinians for engaging in democracy in the wrong way. Fish will apparently not again flow abundantly into the nets of Palestinian fishermen until Israel and the US gets the government it wants.

Facts about the current Israeli fishing embargo are grim. The following facts were culled from Jon Elmer’s report for the Inter Press Service filed on February 14, 2007:

http://fromoccupiedpalestine.org/node/1715

1. Wharfs are sparsely populated and the Gaza markets are all but completely empty of fish.
2. Gaza port is now a museum of derelict fishing skiffs, whose cost of repair far outreaches the resources of their owners.
3. 433 boats are registered at the Gaza port, but only a tiny fraction of them are seaworthy.
4. Few fishermen risk the Israeli-imposed ban.
5. Although there has been a partial ban on fishing in Gaza’s waters of at least 40 percent of the time since October 2003, since late June 2006, for almost eight months, the ban has been total (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
6. Monthly catches have dropped from 823 tons in June 2000 to as low as 50 tons in late 2006.
7. The number of registered fishermen has dropped significantly from as many as 5,000 in the 1980s to less than 3,000 today.
8. 35,000 people directly rely on the fishing industry for subsistence.
9. Scarcity of fish has led to a precipitous rise in the price, which is now beyond what almost all of Gaza’s 1.5 million people can afford.

In its embargo the Palestinian fishing fleet, Israel is clearly in violation of article 52 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), to which Israeli is a signatory. Article 52 states that “no contract, agreement or regulation shall impair the right of any worker, whether voluntary or not. All measures aiming at creating unemployment or at restricting the opportunities offered to workers in an occupied territory, in order to induce them to work for the Occupying Power, are prohibited.”

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza, which has been monitoring the closure, reports that attacks on fisherman and their equipment by Israeli armed forces continues. According to a recent PCHR report, fishermen have been subjected to intensive monitoring by the Israeli occupation forces, which use helicopters, gun ships, and gunboats against the small fishing crafts. Palestinian fishermen are routinely arrested and shot at by the Israeli navy.

In the past year alone, four fishermen have been killed by Israeli forces and dozens arrested.

The diary was based on Gaza’s fishing industry under siege written by Rami Almeghari for the Electric Intifada on March 5, 2007.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6624.shtml

Portions reprinted with permission.