Ireland must ensure Israel obeys law, says charity

IRELAND is among a number of countries that should publicly state what actions they are taking to ensure Israel complies with international law, a charity has said.

Christian Aid has published a report describing what it calls the extreme poverty into which most Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are sinking.

Three-quarters of Palestinians are living on less than 1.80 a day below the United Nations poverty line.

Christian Aid said Britain and the United States must share responsibility for severe poverty of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

The charity blamed the Israeli government for a humanitarian crisis in the territories, which it said was just as fundamental to the Middle East conflict as suicide bombings.

In its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel was violating international humanitarian law and impoverishing Palestinians by imposing curfews and destroying property, the report, Losing Ground, said.

It called for full Israeli withdrawal from the territories and for international monitors to be put in place to oversee the process.

Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority must shoulder some of the blame for failing to tackle poverty through corruption, collapsing infrastructure and inefficiency, Christian Aid said.

But the report heavily criticised the US, Britain and other European Union countries, including Ireland, for failing to ensure that Israel adhered to the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Regulations, which relate to the protection of civilians during war or under occupation.

"The major powers the US, UK and the rest of the EU have the authority to make international law meaningful.

"That they have not done so means that the downward spiral of Palestinian daily life is in equal measure their responsibility too," the report said.

US, British, Irish and other EU governments must publicly state what actions they are taking to ensure Israel complies with international law, Christian Aid said.

The report said living standards for almost all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip had worsened in the decade since the Oslo peace process. Doctors were reporting a sharp increase in child malnutrition.

There had been a 100% increase in new cases at mental health clinics since the start of the second intifada in September 2000, most of them children.

The report's co-author William Bell, said: "The Palestinians are currently living in a state of extreme, worsening poverty and fear for their future."