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West Bank/Gaza
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What we doOur work here focuses on relief aid, women’s rights and improving the Palestinian population’s living conditions. |
Refugees, settlements and poverty
Since Israel in 1967 occupied the West Bank, Gaza and Eastern Jerusalem, Israel has implemented a controversial settlement policy in the occupied areas.
The settlement policy is one of the main reasons for the unending humanitarian crisis, poverty and impairment of the living standards of the Palestinian population.
Another main reason is the Palestinian authorities’ internal rivalry, extensive corruption and incompetence.
Challenges
On the West Bank there are at the moment 135 illegal Israeli settlements with about 450.000 inhabitants (of which 200.000 are from Eastern Jerusalem).
The settlements are placed in areas owned by Palestine, areas that were confiscated for settlements as well as secure zones around the settlements and access roads that only the settlers can use.
According to the World Bank, this system of settlements, secure zones and roads controls about half of the West Bank.
The areas controlled by Palestine are the least fertile with few water resources.
The Palestinian population’s financial, health-related, cultural and religious room to manoeuvre is gradually being reduced by the settlements, the barrier that separates them from the outside and the Israeli army’s numerous checkpoints.
In Gaza the longstanding Israeli blockade – which was only symbolically reduced after the violent fighting between the Islamist Hamas movement and Israel in January 2009 – has deepened the constant humanitarian crisis.
80 % of the population live below the poverty line and need help from the outside in order to make it through the day.
There is extensive unemployment, many children suffer from trauma following intense war-time experiences and thousands of children below the age of 5 are so undernourished that it is disturbing their physical and mental development.
The sentiment in Gaza is characterised by hopelessness and a feeling of powerlessness.
Palestinian women are under twice the strain.
They are forced to live with the settlements as well as the patriarchal system of Palestinian society in which women’s rights are not considered important.
At the same time, they have to endure the anger and frustration of the male members of the family, when the men are unable to fulfill their culturally designated role as providers.
What we do in West Bank/Gaza
DanChurchAid has been active in the Palestinian areas since the early 1950s.
Initially, with the distribution of relief aid to Palestinian refugees following the wars in 1948 and 1967, and later on, with development projects and promoting women’s rights.
The continuous expansion of the illegal settlements has gradually made it more and more difficult to create development in the Palestinian areas, and DanChurchAid and other humanitarian organisations once again have to carry out relief work.
Today, our work focuses on four main fields:
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Relief aid
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Women’s rights
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Improving the living standards of the Palestinian population
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Advocacy
Articles about FKN
08/07/2011
24,318 cubic meters of water
That is how much water DanChurchAid and partner, East Jerusalem YMCA – Women’s Training Program have created for the Bedouins in the desert of Bethlehem.
DanChurchAid educates 70 women and 9 men in campaign management for women's inheritance rights.
01/07/2010
Women claim their legitimate share
Women's legal status is weak in patriarchal Palestinian society. The right to inherit is an especially weak point not least when it comes to the inheritance of land. The EU has granted 5,6 mio. kroner to DanChurchAid's work to secure women their legal right of inheritance.
26/08/2009
Gaza conflict leaves children traumatized
The war is over in Gaza, the rebuilding is slowly on its way, but still people are traumatized after the Israeli attack at the beginning of the year.
11/06/2009
An Absurd Solution
In order to get basic necessities into Gaza, the Palestinian people have developed their own solution: they dig tunnels from buildings on the Gazan side of the border over to the Egyptian side. But while the tunnels may provide temporary relief from strangulation, like so much else in this conflict, it’s an absurd and useless solution.
11/06/2009
A Lifeline of Tunnels
Glass, metal and silicone are just a few of the things that are needed to repair the damages caused by the Israeli bombing of Gaza. But since it is nearly impossible to get goods and building materials into Gaza, the Palestinian people have developed their own solution: they have gone underground.
11/06/2009
Into the prison
The flow of people in – and, more importantly, out – of Gaza, has all but stopped, including exit permits for medical patients in desperate need of treatment in Israel and occupied Jerusalem. But while many in Gaza are trying in vain to get out, we were trying to get in.
11/06/2009
Even paper is not allowed
Even paper is not allowed inside. Nor is glass. Tens of thousands of families can’t replace the windows in their homes that were blown out during the war.
20/04/2009
Three months in rubble
World stands by as Gazans sift through rubble 3 months after ceasefire, warn aid agencies
27/03/2009
Staff member killed in traffic accident
On Tuesday 24 March 2009 Fadia Daibes, DanChurchAid’s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, was killed in a car accident on her way home from work. Seven others were injured.
While some aid has crossed into Gaza, humanitarian access is still quite challenging, reports ACT International. Aid organisations continue to experience significant difficulty in sending staff and additional supplies into the area to support emergency relief work and begin recovery operations.
29/01/2009
Wet meals and water for isolated areas
Since January 12th DanChurchAid has distributed meals to 1300 people (150 families) in Jabalya Refugee Camp, where people have no access to food and water.
Is Israel to compensate for the destruction of clinics after the Gaza war? ACT International’s coordinator in Jerusalem, Liv Steimoeggen has raised the question.
15/01/2009
Much-needed aid reaches Gazans
An initial three truckloads of ACT-supported food, milk and medical supplies have now reached Gazans in desperate need of assistance.
12/01/2009
Health clinic blown to pieces
Israeli missiles destroyed a DCA-supported health clinic in and Gaza on Sunday.
09/01/2009
ACT: Gaza situation report
The situation in Gaza remains to be difficult and dangerous. ACT situation report from Gaza.
Food, medicine, blankets and trauma counselors are being loaded into trucks by ACT International and are headed for Gaza. In cooperation with UN agencies, ACT has prepared the much needed assistance and is awaiting permission from the Israeli army for the trucks to enter the blockaded area.
06/01/2009
Mobile clinics bombed
Three mobile health clinics, run by DanChurchAids partner organisation, have been destroyed in an Israeli air strike.
05/01/2009
Gaza: They kill our children
Bombs continue to fall while the population in Gaza sits by their open windows in the cold, holding their kids and telling lies to the youngest: “It is just new year fire crackers!”
30/12/2008
Gaza is out of food and medicine
Very little aid reaches the population in Gaza.
ACT International warns of a dramatic escalation of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, if Israel, Hamas and other militant groups do not cease the current hostilities and avert a new military conflict.
06/06/2007
40 years of occupation
For 40 years Israel has built settlements on occupied territory, taken from Palestinian farmers. Half of Palestinians now live under the UN poverty line and the two-state solution is wearing thin.
26/01/2007
A call for 'dignified health care'
Going to the hospital for the first time is difficult enough without worrying about strikes by hospital workers. But the relatives of Yousef Abed Elatif Sedqee had to factor that in when they recently took the 7-year-old from the West Bank village of Megaer to the nearby clinic run by Augusta Victoria Hospital in the village of Turmus'ayya.
18/10/2006
Peace and reconciliation
DanChurchAid works with progressive forces within Israeli and Palestinian civil societies to reinforce democracy and respect for human rights, and to support efforts for sustainable peace and justice.
04/10/2006
Women's rights
DanChurchAid supports Palestinian NGOs in promoting the participation of Palestinian women in the development of a Palestinian society based on equal opportunities, universal principles of human rights and priciples enshrined in Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination.
16/09/2006
Access to health care
DanChurchAid works with access to health care in the West Bank/Gaza. The right to access humanitarian aid and services is a human right that includes access to adequate and affordable primary health care. In the context of marginalisation of international humanitarian law in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Palestinian population is effectively deprived of this right.
15/09/2006
DanChurchAid response in the Middle East
DanChurchAid supports ACT member the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) in Beirut. MECC is cooperating closely with other NGOs and with the Lebanese authorities.
01/09/2006
Crisis in Gaza deepens
In recent months in Gaza, air raids, physical barriers and economic sanctions have resulted in disastrous consequences for residents.
25/06/2006
Israeli wall hinders access to hospital
Access to essential medical treatment and medicines at the Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) continues to be difficult as the Israelis have blockaded the West Bank and Gaza.
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