12 June 2020
This month, Palestinians mark 13 painful years since the start of the illegal closure and blockade on Gaza.
This week, MAP, with our partners Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), launched an online resource and campaign for the lifting of the Gaza closure.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a deadly reminder of how the closure and other unaddressed injustices have harmed Palestinians in Gaza. They are particularly susceptible to COVID-19 due to overcrowding, inadequate clean water and sanitation, and a healthcare system crippled by successive Israeli military attacks and years of structural violence that denies Palestinians their basic health and human rights, with impunity.
Sections of the Gaza 2020* / LifeTheClosure resource includes historical background, its impact on health and healthcare as well as on fishing and agriculture, and highlights the prevailing context of impunity for injustices which the international community has failed to address.
Short videos, animations, infographics, maps and human stories help illustrate life under illegal closure to a range of audiences and of the urgent need for the closure to be lifted.
The closure of Gaza is illegal under international law as stated by the office of the UN Secretary-General and other UN bodies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and authoritative international and national human rights organisations. Since 2012, the UN has repeatedly warned that Gaza would become unliveable by 2020 should Israel fail to lift its illegal closure.
But this illegal collective punishment continues into a 14th year. It will not end unless enough of us demand it. Let’s #LiftTheClosure and #LetGazaLive.
Please read and share the resources. You can also follow the campaign on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @LiftTheClosure.
Sign and promote the petition for lifting the closure. We want 1,000 signatories by 15 June and exponentially more thereafter.
