PCHR condemns suppression of protest (11 Aug)
PCHR background on electricity crisis (30 Jun)
Amira Hass: What Hamas is really afraid of (16 Aug)
Ma’an News: Gaza govt suggests ways to end power crisis (16 Aug)
Ma’an News: Fuel crisis ongoing in Gaza (15 Aug)
Ma’an News: PA to send more fuel to Gaza hospitals (11 Aug)

PCHR Condemns Police’s Attack on Public Sit-in Organized by PFLP in Gaza City

Wednesday, 11 August 2010
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The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the attack carried out by the Palestinian police on a public sit-in organized by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the Unknown Soldier Square in the center of Gaza City. The sit-in was organized yesterday in protest to the continued electricity crisis. PCHR calls upon the government in Gaza to respect public freedoms, and stresses that the right to peaceful assembly and the right to freedom of opinion and expression are ensured under the Palestinian basic law and the international human rights standards.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 18:30 on Tuesday, 10 August 2010, the PFLP organized a sit-in in the Unknown Soldier Square in the center of Gaza City, in protest against the continued electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip. The number of participants was approximately 500, including leaders and members of the PFLP in Gaza. The participants raised signs calling upon the governments in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to find a solution for this crisis affecting the Gaza Strip’s population. At approximately 20:00, the Palestinian police arrived and requested the participants to leave the area and end the sit-in, claiming that the sit-in was not licensed by the police. The PFLP’s members refused to leave the area and insisted on continuing their activities according to the program prepared in advance. However, the Palestinian police called backups, fired in the air and attacked dozens of participants by gun butts and clubs. Many of the participants were transported to hospitals for medical treatment. The ones identified are:

1) Abdul Rahman al-Majdalawi;
2) Fayez Abu Ali;
3) Ayman Farahat;
4) Nabeel Barakat;
5) Sarah al-Saifi;
6) Ahmed ’Aziza;
7) Mohammed Abu ’Oun;
8) Abdullah Hejazi;
9) Ahmed al-Ajrami;
10) Waleed Abu Rokba;
11) Soheil Salman;
12) Atallah al-’Amawi; and
13) Amjad Jouda.

It should be noted that PFLP followed all legal measures needed for organizing the sit-in. In his testimony to PCHR, Mr. Jameel Mezher, the Spokesperson of the PFLP, stated that on 5 August 2010, the PFLP sent a letter to the police chief, informing him of the time and place of the sit-in in accordance with the provisions of Public Meetings Law #12 of 1998. On 9 August 2010, a day before the sit-in, the police informed the leadership of the PFLP of rejecting the sit-in.

In light of the above, PCHR:

1) Strongly condemns the use of force by the police to disperse the sit-in, which was called for by the PFLP, and emphasizes that civilians have the full and legitimate right to organize public meetings, sit-ins and peaceful demonstrations according to legal regulations.

2) Emphasizes that the police has no right to license or reject any public meeting, or peaceful demonstrations, or any other type of peaceful assembly, and that the law provides that organizers should only “inform” the governor or police, as the police has the right to take measures to “organize the traffic”.

3) Is concerned over the recurrence of such attacks on the right to freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly, and confirms that these rights are ensured under the basic law and the international human rights standards.

PCHR Position Paper on Aggravation of Electricity Crisis in the Gaza Strip

Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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At midnight on Friday, 25 June 2010, the operation of Gaza Power Plant stopped as the industrial fuel necessary for its operation to produce 65 megawatts of electricity ran out. The stoppage of the operation of the plant coincided with a wave of hot weather in the Gaza Strip and seriously impacted basic services provided to 1. 7 million Palestinians, including drinking water and health and sanitation services. The stoppage also caused extreme suffering to at least 36, 860 students who have been attending final exams of the Genera Certificate of Education (Tawjihi) since 12 June 2010. Electricity outages increased from 8-12 hours to 10-16 hours daily in most areas in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) calls upon both governments in Ramallah and Gaza to prioritize the interests of the population, including the transfer of parts of the funds collected by the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza to the Energy Authority in Ramllah, to ensure enough supplies of industrial fuel to operate Gaza Power Plant, in accordance with the April 2010 agreement between the two sides.

According to PCHR’s field observations of the electricity crisis in Gaza, the operation of Gaza Power Plant stopped on Friday midnight, 25 June 2010, as the supplies of industrial fuel needed for its operation ran out. Eng. Cana’an ’Obaid, Deputy Head of the Energy Authority in Gaza, stated the authorities in Ramallah were responsible for repeated stoppages of Gaza Power Plant through not fully paying the costs of industrial fuel to the supplying Israeli fuel company.

On the other hand, Dr. ’Omar Kittana, Head of the Energy Authority in Ramallah, stated to a PCHR researcher that coping with the current crisis requires that the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza be committed to transfering the funds it is required to pay as its contribution to the costs of industrial fuel needed for the operation of one generator in the plant. He also demanded that the company enhance the efficiency of collecting fees for electricity, explaining that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) pays the costs of electricity supplies imported from the Israeli side and from Egypt and a part of the cost of the industrial fuel and maintenance, which means that the PNA covers 85% of the costs of electricity in Gaza. He further called for implementing the April 2010 agreement, which obligates the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza to pay approximately US$ 4 million in contribution to the costs of the industrial fuel needed for the operation one generator in Gaza Power Plant. He stressed that no money transfers have been made this month.

PCHR has made contacts with all concerned parties in Gaza and Ramallah and followed up their positions expressed in the media. PCHR has been able to obtain information and data that can serve as a basis for a crucial solution for the crisis of electricity outages and the stoppage of Gaza Power Plant:

• Mr. Jamal al-Dirdissawi, Public Relations Officer in the Electricity Distribution Company in the Gaza Strip, stated that the current electricity crisis has been the most extreme, as electricity is cut off for 12 hours a day after 6 hours of availability. · Mr. al-Dirdissawi stated that the cost of electricity supplies for the Gaza Strip is estimated at 50 million NIS: 35-40 million NIS electricity supplies imported from Israel; 3. 2-3. 5 million NIS for electricity supplies imported from Egypt; and 10 million NIS to cover the fixed fees, which is to be paid monthly to the Gaza Power Plant whether it is working or not, according to the Convention on Generating.

• Mr. Hani Salman, Financial Officer of the Electricity Distribution Company, stated that fees collected by the company each month are estimated at 15-20 million NIS, while the expenditures of the company are estimated at 3. 5-4 million NIS. He added that USD 22 million has been transferred to the Energy Authority in Ramallah since the beginning of 2010; the last transfer was 2 million NIS according to data in a money transfer sent to the Energy and Natural Resources in Ramallah on 17 June 2010.

• Dr. Ghassan al-Khatib, Spokesman of the Government in Ramallah, stated that the current crisis of the industrial fuel for Gaza Power Plant is fabricated for political purposes related to making use of the suffering of people to gain support and incite against the PNA. He confirmed that the PNA “covers 95-97% of the costs of energy consumed in Gaza, both that imported from Israel and Egypt and that produced in the Gaza Strip, where 1. 5 million people live.” He added that the Gaza population’s contribution to the total cost of electricity supplies “does not exceed 3-5%.”

• Eng. Suhail Skaik, Director-General of the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza, stated the electricity outage crisis, which the people in Gaza have been suffering from for approximately 6 months, has peaked as the daily outage will increase to 16 hours daily because of the stopped operation of Gaza Power Plant. He called for keeping the energy sector separate from ongoing factional differences. He further called on alls parties to make efforts to put an end for the suffering of the Gaza Strip under the siege and the electricity crisis, which impacts all aspects of life, as the deficit in electricity supplies has amounted to 60%.

• Eng. Skaik emphasized that the Ministry of Finance in Ramllah has been paying the costs of electricity supplies for the Gaza Strip from the three sources. He added that his company was supposed to transfer US$ 4 million to the PNA this month, but it transferred only US$ 2 million.

• It is worth noting that an agreement was concluded between the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza and the Palestinian Energy Authority in Ramallah on 11 April 2010, under the auspices of representatives of Palestinian factions and independent figures. Under the agreement, the Energy Authority in Ramallah would pay 36 million NIS for the cost of the industrial fuel purchased to operate Gaza Power Plant; on the other hand, the Electricity Distribution Company would transfer the fees it collects from the population in Gaza after discounting operational expenditures.

• The Electricity Distribution Company suffers from an increasing deficit as at least 60% of the beneficiaries in the Gaza Strip do not pay their accumulating debts owed to the company. These debts have amounted to 3 billion NIS, which has made the company unable to pay the costs of electricity produced by Gaza Power Plant. On the other hand, thousands of beneficiaries, including public figures, politicians, businesspeople, traders and employees in governmental and non-governmental organizations, do not pay accumulated debts owed to the company although they can pay. They believe that the European Union provides Gaza Power Plant with industrial fuel for its operations, which has encouraged them to abstain from paying electricity bills.

The suffering of the Gaza Strip population has aggravated due to the deterioration of electricity services, which coincided with a wave of extreme hot weather. Many people expressed their dismay for being pushed into the political conflict between the Gaza and Ramallah governments, especially as the current crisis coincides with the final exams of the General Certificate of Education (Tawjihi). Due to the electricity outages, many areas suffered from extreme disruption in water supplies. There are also concerns that access of people to basic services, such as health, education and sanitation, may be impacted.

PCHR is gravely concerned over the catastrophic consequences of that may result from the suspension of basic services in the Gaza Strip due to electricity outages, especially health, water and sanitation services. PCHR has concluded the following:

• On Wednesday, 30 June 2010, the PCHR fieldworker interviewed Mr. Hani Salman, Financial Officer of the Electricity Distribution Company. PCHR received a list of all money transfers from the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza to the Energy Authority in Ramallah. Until 27 June 2010, the money transferred from the Company to the Energy Authority totaled to 22 million NIS.

• According to the money transfers obtained by PCHR, the Electricity Distribution Company retain any money in Gaza. The Company deducts an amount of 4 million NIS of the money collected in order to cover operating expenses and transfers the remaining funds directly to the Energy Authority in Ramallah. From the beginning of 2010 until 29 June 2010, the Company transferred 92, 790, 097 NIS—87% of the money collected—to the Energy Authority. The Company retained an amount of 13, 739, 508 NIS, which was used to cover the operating expenses of the Company.

• PCHR stresses that it obtained copies of all money transfers sent by the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza to the Energy Authority in Ramallah. The two most recent transfers were made on 29 June 2010. The amount of the first transfer is 3, 900, 000 NIS and the amount of the second transfer is 850, 000 NIS.

• PCHR calls upon the electricity distribution company to upheld the beneficiaries’ right to obtain information on the electricity crisis, including the publication of names of people who do not pay highly accumulated fees, even though they are able to.

• PCHR reiterates that the government in Gaza has a duty to coordinate and cooperate with the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza to collect accumulated debts from beneficiaries who are able to pay, including politicians, business people, traders, employees and governmental and non-governmental organizations, who have high accumulated debts, as a first step towards pressuring other beneficiaries to pay. This measure will constitute a part of a strategic solution for the chronic electricity crisis, regardless of the availability of external funding.

PCHR believes that people who pay electricity fees regularly should not endure the result of the failure of concerned parties of the electricity crisis, as these parties must provide them with electricity supplies in all circumstances. PCHR is fully aware that the ongoing siege that has been imposed by Israeli occupation authorities for three years has created catastrophic economic situations for thousands of families, making them unable to pay the costs of electricity supplies; thus there is a need to reconsider mechanisms of assistance to such families, in which costs of electricity supplies should be taken into consideration in order for the electricity fees be paid to the Electricity Distribution Company.

What Hamas is really afraid of

16 August 2010
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Hamas suppression of any Gaza protest that it sees fit shows that the Islamic movement ruling Gaza is in dire need for some public support.

“I wish these pictures reached leftists abroad,” my friend said to herself Tuesday as she watched Hamas police use rifle butts and clubs to beat her friends - activists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Although my friend has never been a fan of the Fatah government in the West Bank, she is outraged by the romanticization of Hamas rule by foreign activists.

Photographs of Tuesday’s protest will be hard to come by, as the Hamas police prevented photojournalists from doing their job. At some point, shots were fired into the air to disperse the PFLP protesters in Gaza City, a demonstration Hamas called an illegal gathering. Many protesters were injured and needed medical attention; others were detained for some time.

“We women weren’t physically attacked by the police,” my friend told me later on the phone.“They only swore at us.” The profanity, mostly variations on “whore,” was accompanied by words like “Marxist,” which the police see as an insult. They don’t need to know exactly what it means - it’s among dreadful words like atheism, communism and dialectic materialism. In other words, all the terms that don’t explain the world as Allah’s creation.

Hamas and the PFLP have a lot in common: opposition to the Oslo Accords, glorification of the armed struggle and opposition to direct negotiations with Israel. Many of the PFLP’s supporters, especially the younger ones, are also religiously observant. But in terms of social vision and ideological temperament, the gaps seem as wide as they were in the 1980s, when the Muslim Brotherhood aimed most of its attacks at “heretics,” especially the Palestinian left, then many times stronger than today.

Senior Hamas officials may watch their language when they talk with representatives of the depleted left, but the real attitude shines through in the conduct of younger activists and people lower in the hierarchy. They don’t stand so much on pretense and openly express the spirit of the times.

But it wasn’t Marxism that brought some 500 PFLP activists to the western end of Omar al-Mukhtar Boulevard in Gaza City, to Unknown Soldier Square in front of the Palestinian Legislative Council (or what was left of it after Operation Cast Lead ). The demonstrators came out to protest the electricity supply crisis in Gaza. Was this an odd choice for a rally by a veteran, proud political organization? Not in Gaza.

Since the beginning of the year, the residents of the Strip have been suffering from scheduled power cuts that last more than eight hours each day. Between 2006 and 2009, the European Union funded the industrial fuel used at the local power station. In November 2009 it was decided, together with the Ramallah government, that the Palestinian Authority will start paying for the diesel, in addition to the electricity bill it pays to Israel.

Since then, the quantity of fuel entering Gaza has fallen steadily. In the first week of August, for example, only 812, 006 liters of diesel fuel - 23 percent of what is needed - entered the Strip. In Ramallah they claim that the company collecting electricity bills in Gaza is not doing its job properly and/or transfers some of the money to Hamas’ coffers. Hamas denies this. Ramallah also says Hamas is playing on the people’s suffering. The PFLP, through its protest, says it doesn’t believe either side, and that the supply of energy has fallen victim of a political rivalry.

According to Palestinian law, demonstrations, public assemblies and political meetings do not need a license from the authorities. The authorities only need to be informed to be able to direct traffic accordingly. On August 5, the PFLP told the Gaza authorities of the protest.

“They said to us there’s no need for the protest because the problem has been solved,” one activist told Haaretz.“We said this was wrong and that the crisis was still going on. We held discussions with Hamas and the Interior Ministry. They insisted we may not protest. We insisted we may.”

“By ’sheer coincidence, ’ an hour and a half before our protest, Hamas women came out in large numbers to the same place to demonstrate in support of the government on the electricity issue, with loudspeakers. When we arrived, hundreds of police with clubs and rifles were waiting, while the driver of the truck that carried our loudspeakers left the place very quickly, following a request from the police,” the activist said.

“He was only hired for that, and he was scared. After some friction with the police, our representative said a few brief sentences about our position. After that, we were dispersed very violently.” Some of the younger activists tried to defend themselves by pushing the police away with the plastic chairs left from the pro-Hamas demonstration.

Hamas understood the subtext of the PFLP protest all too well. The PFLP is unwilling to see the Hamas regime as a mere victim, either of Israel or the PA. You took power? Take responsibility as well.

But the shamelessly brutal suppression of the protest shows just how scared the Gaza government is. It has suppressed all activities by Fatah in the Strip, be it public or internal.

Last week, it prevented a protest by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the al-Maghazi refugee camp, also based on the electricity crisis. It even banned a celebration by the Khan Yunis refugee committee for students who passed their matriculation exams.

This is because any activity not controlled by Hamas or protesting the Israeli siege is defined as a threat to the movement’s rule. If Hamas felt it still had public support, it wouldn’t need to suppress any activity that it didn’t initiate or finds unflattering.

Gaza govt suggests ways to end power crisis

16 Aug 2010
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GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The Gaza government has suggested assisting the Electricity Company in collecting consumer bills to provide enough funds for the increased entry of industrial diesel, an aide told Ma’an on Sunday.

Yousef Rizqa, political adviser to Gaza premier Ismail Haniyeh, said the collection would result in increased funds, which the Palestinian Authority will use to provide enough fuel amid an ongoing shortage, which has led to rolling blackouts.

The adviser further said the government is suggesting a deduction of 170 shekels from Hamas and PA civil servants whose salaries are above 1, 500 shekels, in order to cover fuel costs.

The proposal, he said, is expected to receive a positive response from the PA, who announced it would be implementing a salary deduction from September for all employed Gaza residents who receive electricity from the company.

Should the suggestions be implemented, the fuel crisis will be solved by next week, Rizqa said, adding that Palestinian organizations have been approached to make a similar contribution.

On Friday, vice-president of the Palestinian Energy Authority in Gaza Kin’an Obed said fuel for generators is running out as the power crisis continues, resulting in daily power cuts for up to 10 hours a day.

Gaza’s hospitals declared a state of emergency shortly after the Strip’s sole generator was forced to shut down, amid fears that the fuel crisis would lead to casualties.

Fuel crisis ongoing in Gaza

15 Aug 2010
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GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Fuel for generators is running out as the power crisis in Gaza continues, an electricity company official said Friday.

Kin’an Obed, vice-president of the Energy Authority in Gaza, said the quantity of industrial diesel that Israeli authorities allowed into the Strip on Thursday was only sufficient to power one generator and would run out on Sunday.

Already, the power company has been forced to schedule 8- to 10-hour power cuts every day for several months, Obed added.

Explaining that the company sends $4 million, received from power bills, to Ramallah’s Finance Ministry every month to pay for fuel, Obed said the electricity crisis is political.

The sole power station in Gaza shut down on Saturday due to a shortage of fuel. By Sunday, hospitals announced a state of emergency as life-saving equipment was left reliant on generators.

The governments in Ramallah and Gaza held each other responsible for the crisis.

Under current arrangements, the Gaza government is meant to collect electricity bill payments and transfer the cash to the Palestinian Authority, which in turn pays Israel through which the fuel is transferred.

The PA said it had not received payments from the Gaza government.

Gaza officials cited 50 percent unemployment figures and the PA plan to deduct bills from Civil Servant salaries as factors making it nearly impossible to collect sufficient payments to keep the plant fueled.

PA to send more fuel to Gaza hospitals

11 Aug 2010
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NABLUS (Ma’an) -- The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health announced Tuesday that it would double the quantity of diesel being sent to hospitals and clinics in the Gaza Strip.

The ministry said in a statement that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad ordered the increase following concerns in Gaza that patients were being put at risk by the Strip’s rolling blackouts.

The ministry, however, disputes that patients were ever placed in harm’s way and further accuses the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, of stealing fuel from the deliveries.