Jerusalem
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Tabitha Ross is Communications Officer for the Middle East at Christian Aid. She writes about their work in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories over the years and today.

Over 50 years in the Middle East

Christian Aid was established in the aftermath of the Second World War to help European refugees who had lost everything during the conflict. Since that time, we have consistently worked to alleviate suffering for the most vulnerable people, no matter what their faith.

In the 1940s and early 50s, this approach meant providing food, shelter and general support to European refugees, including Jewish refugees.

In the 1950s, as our work expanded all over the world, this meant providing aid to Palestinians who were displaced in the war following the creation of Israel in 1948.

Our then-director Janet Lacey visited the region in 1954, and saw the work we were supporting in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza through Middle Eastern church organisations.

She noted that our local partners ‘regularly distribute food and clothing, mostly from America, and also provide supplementary education, medical care and housing, self-help programmes and vocational training’.

Combating poverty

Poverty in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) has increased more than threefold since the Oslo peace process began in 1993, while violence on both sides has escalated.

At the same time, the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza makes it impossible for Palestinians to lead normal lives – to access sufficient education, healthcare, employment, even sufficient food and water.

87% of the population in Gaza live below the poverty line, a result of years of restrictions as well as the Israeli blockade, which severely limits supplies such as food, medicines and spare parts for industry and agriculture.

Christian Aid and partners are working to combat these problems both at the local and national levels.

At the local level, several of our partner organisations support individuals and communities to make a living despite the difficult conditions they face. Mu’in Al Atrich, 24, from Bethlehem is one of those individuals, he was shot by an Israeli soldier while on a demonstration, leaving him in a wheelchair.

Our partner the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) gave Mu’in counselling, vocational training, and a business loan and he now runs his own business, carving souvenirs for tourists. Mu’in says: “All this – the workshop, all I have achieved, I have to thank Christian Aid and the YMCA for”. (picture above bottom right)

Christian Aid and partners also work at the national level in Israel and the OPT to challenge the structures that keep people poor. Partner organisations such as Israeli human rights group B’Tselem lobby the Israeli government to protect Palestinian rights, including the lifting of the blockade of Gaza, promoting freedom of movement and access to employment and markets. Christian Aid itself has called upon the British government to use its influence at the international level for the same ends.

Building the foundations of peace

Christian Aid also supports partners doing critical awareness raising and peace campaign work. One such is the Parents’ Circle Families Forum, a group of Israelis and Palestinians who have all lost loved ones in the conflict, and yet come together to campaign for peace. They go into Israeli and Palestinian schools, giving an alternative message of hope and tolerance to children who may never have heard ‘the other side’ of the story before. As Rami Elhanan, (picture above top left) a Parents’ Circle member who lost his daughter in a suicide bombing in 1994, says: ‘Our blood is the same colour and our pain is the same pain. If we who have paid the highest price possible can still talk to one another, then anyone can’.

Another partner organisation doing critical work in breaking down barriers between Israelis and Palestinians is Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHR). Through PHR, Israeli doctors and nurses volunteer in the West Bank, treating Palestinians with reduced access to healthcare. PHR doctor Naomi Stockwell says that the medical benefit isn’t the only value of this work: ‘I want to show Palestinians that not all Israelis are like the ones they meet every day on the checkpoints. For me, the most terrifying thing is that children on both sides will grow up with hatred bred out of ignorance’.

Responding to emergencies: GAZA

All eyes were on Gaza at the beginning of this year, as the ongoing conflict erupted into violence on a huge scale. The UN estimates that the latest Israeli attacks destroyed 14,000 homes, 219 factories and 240 schools, and killed over 1400 Palestinians, 288 of them children (pictures above). 9 Israeli civilians and four soldiers lost their lives.

Christian Aid partners were there in the midst of the crisis, running ambulances and emergency clinics. As soon as a ceasefire ensured safe access, we stepped up the response, providing emergency aid, trauma counselling for children and getting those who had previously been inaccessible to medical care.

Christian Aid and partners will be there over the months ahead, helping Gazans to rebuild their shattered lives. But the crisis isn’t over. The blockade means that not enough humanitarian aid can get in, and essential items continue to be restricted from entering, such as cement for reconstruction, and spare parts for repairs to sewage, water and electricity networks.

Without immediate and unfettered humanitarian access, thousands of displaced Palestinians, many of whom are already refugees forced to flee their homes in 1948 and 1967, will continue to go cold and hungry, simply existing, rather than living their lives in dignity and with hope.

Moreover, the continuing rocket attacks on Israel show us that the Israeli attacks as well as the blockade are counterproductive to the stated aim of putting an end to the rockets in order to protect the security of Israeli civilians. Israel has the right to defend itself, but it must do so within the law. This illegal policy of collective punishment is only serving to deepen despair and frustration in Gaza and therefore does not provide the security Israeli civilians long for.

Christian Aid’s mandate from our sponsoring churches is to strengthen the poor, firm in the belief that all people are made in the image of God and therefore of equal worth. This belief still informs all of our work around the world, including, of course, in the land of Jesus’ birth.

This is why Christian Aid is still working with partner organisations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories – because everyone has the right to live in dignity and peace without fear.

We believe the way forward requires a long-term, just and peaceful solution that brings an end to occupation and guarantees security and viability for both Palestinians and Israelis.

It is as urgent today for Israelis to live without fear of attack, and for Palestinians to rise out of poverty and despair, as it was in 1959 when our former director Janet Lacey wrote only a political settlement can bring freedom to Palestinian refugees waiting for peace’.

‘You can find out more about CA’s work on the Gaza crisis at www.christianaid.org.uk/gaza or about our work across the Holy Land by following the ‘online pilgrimage’ www.christianaid.org.uk/pilgrimage

Christian Aid has now been working in the Middle East for over 50 years. We have built strong relationships with more than 25 local Israeli and Palestinian partner organisations, and work with them to respond to emergencies, for sustainable development, rights and justice for all, and to build the foundations of a just peace that provides security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.