[Radix] RADIX is a good place to discuss Palestine: The Political
Economy of a Disaster
Ben Wisner
bwisner at igc.org
Tue Apr 3 19:12:12 PDT 2007
As co-founder of RADIX, I object to Dr. Sapirstein's remark that sharing
Prof. Petras' brief essay was inappropriate, and that "Using this forum
to air this type of rhetoric seems counter-productive." There is also
certainly no need for Patrick Meier to apologize.
Ilan Kelman began this thread of discussion with a thoughtful
intervention about a "small" disaster -- the failure of a dam holding
back sewage. Of course, no event of this kind is "small" from the point
of view of people who suffer it. Also, as Kelman pointed out, this
event says a lot about the infrastructural crisis in Gaza.
There are doubtless many complex causes for this event. Petras
mentioned some possibilities. While Petras' remarks are embedded in
his own broader opinions about lobbying in Washington, from the point of
view of "radical interpretations of disaster and radical solutions", we
should welcome his substantive comments about poverty that may have
driven some to informally mine sand for sale.
Other observers and relief teams have added to Petras list of
hypothetical, contributing causes.
Reuters (via ReliefWeb) had this to say:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6ZQ7TC?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
"Aid officials said the capacity of the wastewater plant had been
stretched to breaking point. The narrow coastal strip is home to 1.5
million Palestinians and the plant served two densely populated areas,
Beit Lahiya and Jabalya.
"Local authorities have scant resources. Since the Islamic militant
group Hamas came to power a year ago, Western donors have halted direct
assistance to the Palestinian government and Israel has frozen most tax
revenues.
"Hamas said the cut-off in international aid "prevented the government
from improving and developing the necessary health and humanitarian
services".
"An internal World Bank document, obtained by Reuters, said the plant
and reservoir were built on high ground, putting the "surrounding area
under an imminent threat of possible flooding".
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (via ReliefWeb) stated:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6ZQ2SW?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
"Al Mezan Center had frequently warned various stakeholders about the
possibility of such a disaster. The Palestinian Water Authority (PWA)
and a coalition of north Gaza's municipalities built this basin in late
2006 and said it was a temporary solution that would serve until March
2007. There was a crucial need for the basin as the effluent lake and
the other basins had reached full capacity. However, the Center warned
against the choice of the location on a hill over the village.
"Since 2000, Al Mezan, along with the Palestinian, UN and international
bodies, has been following the environmental and human rights risks that
the North Gaza Sewage Treatment Plant poses on the population. Many
obstacles undermining the solving of the problem had been overcome;
however, the construction of a new treatment plant east of Jabalia to
replace this old, primitive facility, built by Israel in 1977, was
delayed many times. The delays were the result of the prohibition by
Israel of such works in the new site, the lack of funds, and the
frequent closures of border crossings, preventing the entry of materials
and equipment necessary for the construction."
They went on to warn that additional pressure on other holding ponds
could cause other breaches and endanger other villages: "...much of the
flooded water ran into the other basins and the lake south of the
village. Those contain over 50 million cubic meters of raw sewage water
and had reached their full capacity months before this incident. There
is credible fear that one or more of these basins will collapse owing to
the added pressure. The village and adjacent areas of Manshiyeh and
Fadous, both located in north Beit Lahia town, remain at serious risk
because of their even lower levels."
UN OCHA agreed with Al Mezan:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6ZQ324?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
"The western side of the main effluent lake at the waste water
treatment plant is believed to be weak and could be close to collapse if
not reinforced immediately. A further 800 houses could be affected in
the event of additional flooding."
"The flash flooding has led to the discovery of four unexploded Israeli
artillery shells. More unexploded ordnance can be expected to be found."
The statistics that Dr. Sapirstein shared with RADIX are not strictly
relevant to this particular disaster. They are macro-economic
statistics, and if he wanted to contribute to the political economic
understanding of this sewage flood, and the possibility of more to
follow, Sapirstein should have provided the analytical link between the
billions he cites and these sewage holding ponds and adjacent Bedouin
villages in Northern Gaza. As Petras wrote, and is widely
acknowledged, PLO corruption siphoned off much of the aid money that
Sapirstein mentions.
While I certainly agree with Sapirstein that "dialogue between Israelis
and Palestinians" is essential in resolving the underlying conflict, it
can only help to enrich that dialogue if scientists, researchers, and
practitioners concerned with disaster look very closely at individual
events such as this one and attempt to unravel the chain of causation as
honestly as they can. That is what RADIX is for, and I congratulate
Kelman and Meier for sharing what they think is directly relevant analysis.
Dr. Ben Wisner
bwisner at igc.org
Patrick Meier wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Please accept my sincere apologies.
> No offense intended.
>
> Best wishes,
> Patrick
>
>
> On 4/2/07, *Guy Sapirstein* < guysap at gmail.com
> <mailto:guysap at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I am sorry -- I thought this list was for "radical interpretations
> of disasters" not recycled political finger pointing.
>
> A few facts might be in order:
>
> -- From 1994 to 2000 there was an increase of 36% in the GNP of
> Palestinians. in 2000 the "Second Intifada" was initiated by
> Arafat and that progress was halted.
> -- Between 1994-2004 the USA provided the Palestinian Authority
> with $1.3 billion in aid, compared to the EU $1.1 billion and
> Japan $0.53 billion.
> -- in 1992 the per capita GNP for Palestinians was $2683- as
> compared to about $1000 in Yemen, Nigeria, Chad which are not the
> poorest among the nations.
> -- in 2003 Palestinians received aid that averaged out at $470 PER
> PERSON. Compare that with about $30- per person in Yemen.
> Egypt, which has 73 million people received $1.286 billion in
> aid. The Palestinian Authority which has about 3 million people
> received $1.616 billion in aid.
>
> Using this forum to air this type of rhetoric seems
> counter-productive. Casting blame has not prevented a single
> disaster from happening. The learned Dr. Petras and his followers
> might want to use his ownership of "50 years of struggle" to work
> towards dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians rather than
> blaming either side.
>
> Guy
> _________________________________
> Guy Sapirstein, Ph.D
>
>
>
> On Apr 2, 2007, at 3:44 PM, Patrick Meier wrote:
>
>>
>> The Political Economy of a Disaster
>>
>> By JAMES PETRAS
>>
>> On Monday, March 26, 2007 in Northern Gaza a river of raw sewage
>> and debris overflowed from a collapsed earth embankment into a
>> refugee camp driving 3,000 Palestinians from their homes. Five
>> residents drowned, 25 were injured and scores of houses were
>> destroyed.
>>
>> The New York Times, Washington Post and the television media
>> blamed shoddy infrastructure. The Daily Alert (the house organ of
>> the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations) blamed
>> the Palestinians who they claimed were removing sand to sell to
>> construction contractors thus undermining the earth embankment.
>> The disaster at Umm Naser (the village in question) is emblematic
>> of everything that is wrong with US-Israeli politics in the
>> Middle East. The disaster in this isolated village has its roots
>> first and foremost in Washington where AIPAC and its political
>> allies have successfully secured US backing for Israel's
>> financial and economic boycott of the Palestinian government
>> subsequent to the democratic electoral victory of Hamas.
>>
>> AIPAC's victory in Washington reverberated throughout Europe and
>> beyond ñ as the European Union also applied sanctions shutting
>> off financing of all new infrastructure projects and the
>> maintenance of existing facilities. At the AIPAC conventions of
>> 2005 through 2007, the leaders of both major American parties,
>> congressional leaders and the White House pledged to re-enforce
>> AIPAC's boycott and sanctions strategy. AIPAC celebrated its
>> victory for Israeli policy and claimed authorship of the
>> legislation. In addition to malnutrition, the policy undermined
>> all public maintenance projects.
>>
>> Equally central to the disaster, Israel's massive sustained
>> bombing attack on Gaza in the summer of 2006, demolished roads,
>> bridges, sewage treatment facilities, water purification and
>> electrical power plants. Northern Gaza was one of its many
>> targets, putting severe strain on already precarious
>> infrastructure and government budgets ñ including the maintenance
>> of sewage treatment plants and cesspools.
>>
>> The Israeli economic blockade of Gaza increased unemployment,
>> poverty and hunger to unprecedented levels. Out of work Gazans
>> reached over 60% of the population ñ large families with young
>> children were reduced to one meal a day. Family heads desperately
>> looked for any way to earn funds to buy a pound of chickpeas,
>> oil, rice and flour for bread. It is possible that forced by the
>> AIPAC- induced US-EU boycott and Israeli bombing and blockade,
>> that some desperate workers removed some sand around the
>> cesspool. The pretext cited by the Presidents of the Major
>> American Jewish Organizations (PMAJO) for blaming the Palestinian
>> victims for their own suffering, and exonerating the Israelis,
>> AIPAC and their congressional clients.
>>
>> The PMAJO has justified thirty-nine years of Israeli occupation
>> and criminal neglect of Gaza's basic sewage treatment facilities.
>> Israel spends less than 2% on a per capita basis for basic
>> services in the Occupied Territories that it is obligated under
>> international law to provide responsibly than it spends in
>> Israel. The United Nations and Israeli human rights groups have
>> documented Israel's callous lack of responsibility toward the
>> Palestinian civilians under its brutal occupation. It is not
>> surprising that the Presidents of the Major American Jewish
>> Organizations can think of nothing better than to blame the
>> destitute Palestinians for the collapse of a primitive earth
>> embankment and the horrific
>> deaths.
>>
>> To the extent that any Palestinian leader can be held
>> responsible, the finger points to the US and Israeli-backed PLO
>> and its titular head Abbas who receives whatever ëhumanitarian'
>> aid flows into Palestine. The tens of millions of dollars of
>> Palestinian import taxes held by Israeli banks were handed over
>> to Mahmoud Abbas , to arm the anti-Hamas vigilantes. Over the
>> past two decades the US-backed ëmoderate' PLO leaders and crony
>> ëcapitalists' have diverted tens of millions of dollars and euros
>> to their private overseas bank accounts, with the acquiescence of
>> their European, US and Israeli patrons. What is a bit of
>> Palestinian corruption if it means propping up an incompetent
>> group of
>> pliant ëleaders'?
>>
>> The plight of the Umm Naser villagers deluged by their own sewage
>> was neither an act of fate nor a result of local negligence or
>> theft: It was a direct consequence of all that is wrong in
>> US-Middle East politics, the taking sides with a brutal colonial
>> power and its powerful voices and organizations in Washington.
>> Umm Naser is written large throughout Palestine, Iraq and
>> Lebanon: Millions of Arab villagers suffer the consequences of
>> pre-emptive wars to secure Greater Israel as both President Bush
>> and Vice President have publicly stated in justifying their
>> aggression.
>>
>> *James Petras*, a former Professor of Sociology at Binghamton
>> University, New York, owns a 50 year membership in the class
>> struggle, is an adviser to the landless and jobless in brazil and
>> argentina and is co-author of Globalization Unmasked
>> <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1856499383/counterpunch>
>> (Zed). His new book with Henry Veltmeyer, Social Movements and
>> the State: Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina
>> <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745324231/counterpunchmaga>,
>> will be published in October 2007. He can be reached at:
>> jpetras at binghamton.edu <mailto:jpetras at binghamton.edu>
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>
>
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