Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Food security project in the Gaza Strip

The Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and Israel
The Arab Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) numbers approximately 4 million, of which 1.5 million are located in the Gaza Strip, and 2.5 million are in the West Bank/East Jerusalem. A further 1.4 million Palestinians live inside Israel, comprising approximately 20% of the population of Israel [source: PASSIA, 2009]. Approximately half the Palestinian population of the OPT are refugees in their own land, having fled their homes in the two waves of expulsions during the wars of 1948 and 1967. For example, more than 75% of the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip are refugees. UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (1948) affirms the right of return for Palestinian refugees; this resolution has been reaffirmed by the UN every year since 1948. This Resolution, along with UN Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) and UN Security Council Resolution 338 (1973), form the basis of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations process.

The Palestinians have a long history of an active civil society with a strong sense of community. The Palestinians are one of the most educated societies in the Arab Middle East, with education highly valued as a means to a better future. The Palestinian economy is dominated by the services sector, with the industrial sector largely underdeveloped and the agricultural sector stagnant due to the restrictive access to natural resources. The closure and separation policy imposed by Israel in 1993, and never lifted since, is the main reason behind the Palestinian economic crisis. The term "de-development" has been coined by some analysts to describe the economic situation within the OPT. The de-development theory posits that through "deliberate" policies, "the government of Israel has structurally and institutionally dismantled the Palestinian economy as well as undermined the fabric of Palestinian society and the expression of cultural and political identity."(1) The results of these Israeli policies have been expropriation and dispossession, integration and externalisation, and the deinstitutionalisation and pauperisation of the Palestinian economy and society. The impact on Palestinian families is that, as coping strategies become severely stretched under the systematic violence of the Israeli occupation, the majority of Palestinian households have lost their everyday basis for human survival.
[1. Sara Roy (1995), The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development, Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington DC, p.6]

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Over the past 25 years, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA's projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has contributed to institutional strengthening and skills development for workers in the public, private and community sectors, assisting poverty reduction, administration and management; English language for the labour market; environmental awareness campaigns and training in sustainable dry-land agriculture and organic farming techniques. These projects have involved a range of Australian technical placements in permaculture, English as a Second Language (ESL), curriculum development, project management and evaluation.

One of Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA's longer-term working partnerships in the OPT has been with the MA'AN Development Centre, a Palestinian non-government organisation which works throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. MA'AN was established by Mr Sami Khader in 1989, with the assistance of a A$15,000 funding grant from Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA. MA'AN has since grown to a nationally recognised institution, respected by its peers, donors and in the Palestinian communities with which it works, for the quality programming it delivers.

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has also worked with the Patient's Friends Society (PFS) since 1999. PFS is a small non-government organization attached to the Al-Amal Hospital which provides primary health care services to the rural communities around the town of Jenin in the northern West Bank. Our work with PFS has included capacity building for the organization, such as training in institutional and financial management, as well as supporting their medical outreach program which provides primary health care services to the villages in local area.

In the Gaza Strip, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA continues to work with the El Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital. In a partnership established in 2000, following the outbreak of the second intifada, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has supported the rehabilitation services of the El Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital, the only facility in the Gaza Strip which provides medical support and services for severely disabled Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. With 2.3 percent of the Palestinian population in Gaza of 1.5 million suffering some form of physical disability, the El Wafa Hospital is the only place where patients - and their families - can access not only the technical aids needed to live with their disability, such as wheelchairs or crutches, but also the psychosocial support and community reintegration programs required to help them to live independently back in their communities.

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA's recent projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Gaza Humanitarian Appeal

Fundraising for this appeal continues and your generous donation is greatly appreciated.
Click here to view our recent programming under this appeal.

Capacity Strengthening for Primary Health Care Workers 2008-09

This project was funded by the Australian Government (AusAID) and Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA. The project had two components:

1. Developing primary health care through mobile clinics
PFS is one of the main primary health care services working in the Jenin area and is responsible for 10 clinics in remote villages. This activity addressed women and children living in isolated villages close to the illegal Separation Wall in the western part of the Jenin district, as well as remote villages in the east. Training was provided for 20 health care workers, midwives and nurses on women's health (family planning), chronic diseases, and health administration. The project supported PFS's capacity, experience and skills in successfully resourcing and implementing primary health care under difficult circumstances.

2. Capacity strengthening for children with special needs
The Al-Amal school for handicapped children is the only school of its kind in the Jenin area. This activity supported the physical and mental skills development of 27 students with disabilities, aged between 6-18 years (13 male, 14 female). Capacity strengthening training was also provided for five teachers in current methodologies for training children with disabilities.

Food Security (Beehives) in the Gaza Strip 2006

Food security in the Gaza Strip has been a major priority due to the ongoing closures, high unemployment and increasing number of people living below the poverty line. In April 2006 funds were forwarded to our partner MA'AN Development Centre to provide 15 families with two beehives each as a way of generating an income source. The families were selected from the Baten Al-Samin community in southern Gaza which was identified as an area that was often over looked by donors. The criteria used for selecting families included their size, income, single parent status, impact of the occupation and had not received aid previously from other organisations. On site training for breeding bees was also provided. Through this project families were able to gain an income from selling their honey enabling them to have money to buy nutritious food for the entire family. Palestine Relief Fund, a local Australian community organisation raised $5,000 for this initiative.

Medical Relief in the West Bank 2006

In December 2005 we received an urgent appeal from our partner Patient's Friends Society - Jenin requesting support to fund their rural health services. Due to the ongoing effects of the occupation, poverty was preventing patients from being able to afford to pay for medical services. With donations from Palestine Human Rights Campaign, a local Australian community organization, and other individual donors we were able to send $6,380 in March 2006 to support this initiative.

Supporting farmers in the Bethlehem area 2005-06

This appeal sought to help Palestinian farmers withstand the effects of Israel's Separation Wall through assisting them to develop their remaining agricultural lands.

The appeal raised A$3,395. These funds were forwarded to our long-term local partner, MA'AN Development Centre, who worked with local farmers in the al-Makhrour district, near Bethlehem, to build and renovate the stone terraces which support and protect their farm lands. These farms are particularly well-known for their fruits (apricots, grapes and peaches), almonds, vegetables and olive trees, and had always provided a good level of food security for the local community. Rainwater is also harvested and stored in cisterns for irrigation.

Background to the project
The al-Makhrour district is located outside Beit Jala, Bethlehem. The Beit Jala district has already had some of its land confiscated and incorporated into the nearby Israeli settlement of Har Gilo and to an Israeli military camp. The main north-south highway linking Jerusalem and Hebron also runs near to the district. According to maps released by the Israeli military, further segments of the Separation Wall will be built through the middle of the al-Makhrour agricultural district, in effect annexing more of the Palestinian farmers' lands.

Since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000, the Israeli army established a permanent military checkpoint at the main western entrance to the town. This checkpoint prohibited the farmers of Beit Jala and al-Khader village from reaching their agricultural lands in the al-Makhrour area with their vehicles (cars or tractors). Since their farm area is relatively far from the town, it has been impossible for all of the farmers to cultivate their lands as usual during the past three years. During harvest time, farmers had to physically carry their produce and walk via a mountainous area in order to transport the yield to their homes and to the local market.

Project achievements
The project supported 11 farms in the al-Makhrour district with the construction of 560 metres of stone terraces/support walls. The project complemented an on-going land rehabilitation program already underway by MA'AN in the al-Makhrour area. The project added more metres of terraces to assist in halting soil erosion and allowed MA'AN to work with more beneficiaries. To ensure local ownership of the project, the project also required farmers to make a cash and/or in-kind contribution.

One of these farmers was Mrs Nemeh, who had to reduce her visits to her land after suffering a long-term illness in her knees. Without her visits, her farm had deteriorated beyond use after the terraces crumbled, resulting in severe soil erosion. Mrs Nemeh was selected as one of the beneficiaries of this project because she was a widow with a low socio-economic background and had land in the al-Makhrour area. The support to Mrs Nemeh included the rehabilitation of 170 square metres of stone terraces, allowing her to cultivate her land and earn an income, especially since vehicles were later allowed to reach this area at certain times of the day.

The al-Makhrour area is under close surveillance by the Israeli authorities, with district lands in the pathway of Israel's construction of the Wall. The project staff and farmers faced the constant challenge of the patrolling and questioning of farmers by the Israeli military. Despite these challenges, this project has shown an increase in the movement of farmers in al-Makhrour area, accessing and cultivating their lands - an important achievement for the small farming community.

Building livelihoods through food security in south Gaza 2002-2005

This project was funded by a three-year grant from the Australian Government (AusAID). The project was designed to rebuild food production in three villages in the southern Gaza Strip: Qarara, Khuza'a and Abasan.

In these areas significant farm land has been destroyed along the borders with Israel and near Israeli settlements. Closures of Israeli checkpoints meant that farmers could not get the produce to outside markets and workers could not get to jobs outside Gaza, so have little money to buy local vegetables. Over 70% of the Palestinian population lives under the poverty line of around A$3 per day.

The Gaza Strip has a population of 1.3 million, most of whom are refugees, living on 210 square kilometres, about a tenth the size of the Australian Capital Territory. Only 176,347 dunums are cultivated (a dunum is about 1,000 square metres). Access to water supplies and to fishing in the Mediterranean is restricted. Until Israel implemented its disengagement plan and withdrew settlers from the Gaza Strip in September 2005, about 6,000 Israelis lived in 19 illegal settlements that took up over a third of the Gaza Strip, producing cherry tomatoes for export to Europe.

The project trained 17 local community organisations in management skills, and has boosted family food security through training 880 women in animal husbandry, agricultural production, food processing and preservation, nutrition, environment, sanitation and hygiene issues. Nine hundred fruit trees and 1,200 egg-laying chickens were distributed to poor families.

To encourage farmers to keep up production in the face of losses of land, equipment and markets, the project provided 30,000 tomato, cucumber, eggplant and okra seedlings, 45 sets of protective gear, 15 safe storage units for fertilisers and pesticides, and 15 water tanks. Thirty-three dunums were rehabilitated and 12 irrigation networks constructed; 33 greenhouses and 12 irrigation ponds were restored. Almost 300 farmers took part in training on organic agricultural techniques.

The project cannot overcome the constraints caused by the occupation, closures and settlements, but it can help to build self-reliance and maintain some local food production so that nutrition in southern Gaza does not continue to fall.

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© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.

Last Modified: Thursday, 24-Sep-2009 18:22:46 EST
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