Palestine Faces Two Challenges: Israeli Occupation and Coronavirus Pandemic

“We have reached leading international players to call for an international conference to facilitate a constructive and meaningful peace process based on the implementation of international law and relevant UN resolutions,” said Palestinian Ambassador Hana Shawa

“The government of Palestine has quickly and effectively responded to the outbreak of COVID-19, using an internationally and nationally coordinated, data-driven approach to contain the spread of the virus within our borders,” has said the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Tirana, Hana Shawa.

In an exclusive interview with ADN the Ambassador made an overview of the measures taken to protect citizens from the infection in the frame of the State of Emergency.   “Palestine currently faces two main challenges, the Israeli occupation and the Coruna virus,” said Ambassador Shawa who dwelt at length on the significant challenges in many aspects in Palestine. She revealed that the State of Palestine has invited its partners to join them in forming a government of Palestine-led coordination mechanism (PAL-COVID-19 Coordination Platform), which will enable the international partners to ensure a coordinated response to COVID-19 in Palestine.

With regard to the Israeli annexation plan the Ambassador said the international community can stop the annexation, and it begins by imposing sanctions against a country that has never respected its most basic obligations under UN resolutions, signed agreements, and international treaties.

“I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Republic of Albania for the opening of the accession negotiations with the European Union, and to express the full support of the Leadership and Government of the State of Palestine to the Republic of Albania for this deserved decision,” said Palestinian Ambassador Hana Shawa in the following interview:

Albanian Daily News: Madame Ambassador as the coronavirus pandemic crisis has spared no area in the world the first interest of Albanian Daily News would be to have an overview on what is happening in the State of Palestine and the Gaza Strip, and the measures taken to cope with the deadly pandemic which is still spreading worldwide?

Palestinian Ambassador Hana Shawa: The government of Palestine has quickly and effectively responded to the outbreak of COVID-19, using an internationally and nationally coordinated, data-driven approach to contain the spread of the virus within our borders. Our government’s approach is containment and suppression, which is designed to protect our citizens (particularly the most vulnerable) from infection, while also mitigating the stress on our already strained health care system. President Mahmoud Abbas immediately declared a State of Emergency when the first cases in the State of Palestine were detected (in Bethlehem) on 5th of March 2020. The government then launched robust national containment measures, supported by an evidence-based communications campaign, to encourage our citizens to protect themselves and follow government guidance.

President Abbas gave a mandate to Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Shtayyeh to take all measures to implement the State of Emergency. Prime Minister Shtayyeh established an Emergency Command Center, supported by inter-ministerial and multilateral emergency committees and regional committees.

The State of Palestine faces significant challenges in this effort, including a severely under-equipped health sector, and an existing fiscal crisis which is caused by Israel’s withholding of our revenues. The COVID-19 and the emergency measures that Israel is taking is already -and will continue to have -a significantly negative impact on our economy. It will lead to shrinking revenues (by at least 40%). This will limit the state of Palestine’s ability to maintain the existing level of services. It will also lead to increasing needs for immediate economic support and longer-term economic recovery.We plan to work jointly with our humanitarian and development-based partners to respond efficiently and accountably to this crisis. We are further seeking financial and diplomatic support to ensure an effective and sustainable response to COVID-19.

-Given such a grave situation with many unknowns even for the future repercussions in many aspects such as economic, social, political etc. what can you say on the behavior of the main Palestinian political forces for combating COVID-19 impact jointly?

-We are asking for $120 million to support our direct public health response to COVID-19 across Palestine (in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Southern Governorates – Gaza Strip). These funds would cover short-term critical gaps that could undermine our ability to contain and manage COVID-19, including: 1) medical staff, 2) medical supplies and equipment and 3) medicine.We are asking for support to cover the expected $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion budget deficit,depending on the extent of government revenue loss. This would enable us to cover operating expenses, pay government salaries and pensions, and maintain the social safety network, with a potential temporary expansion of payments to cover those whose livelihoods are directly impacted by the government of Palestine’s containment measures. Currently we are also working with the World Bank to assess the wider economic impact of COVID-19 on The State of Palestine, in order to prepare our economic recovery plan. We expect to provide an initial estimate, with recommendations for economic recovery in the near future.

Palestine currently faces two main challenges, the Israeli occupation and the Coruna virus. In the Occupied Palestine Territories, the COVID-19 pandemic added up to a reality of diminished capacity of the healthcare system caused by Israel’s systemic failure to respect and protect the right to health of Palestinians in a context of prolonged occupation. Despite the contribution of international agencies to counter the pandemic, Palestinians are far from adequately enjoying their right to health as is protected under international law.

The unjustified delays and shortcomings in addressing the pandemic in East Jerusalem, the continued demolition of public infrastructures and homes of Palestinians in the West Bank, and the ongoing restrictions on the import of medical equipment and supplies to West Bank and Gaza’s Trip demonstrate that Israel has not fulfilled  prescribed under the law of occupation and the ICESCR. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that in the OPT, Israel’s prolonged occupation and institutional discrimination function as instruments of “comorbidity,” the result of which is to exacerbate the conditions for the spread of the disease among the Palestinian population.

In light of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have issued interim guidance that focuses on persons deprived of their liberty. The United Nations has also launched urgent appeals for the release of prisoners and called upon countries to take the necessary measures to protect them during the pandemic. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has emphasized the need for governments to release “every person detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners, and those detained for critical, dissenting views.”

Among several of its racist decisions, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has recently removed 140 essential items, including food, cleaning products, and sterilization tools. It has only kept the expensive products in the prisons’ canteens. Israel still refuses to release the most vulnerable prisoners, including the sick, elderly, children, women, those under administrative detention, and others whose sentences are nearing completion.

Palestine will continue to urge the international community to designate an investigation committee to probe the situation inside Israeli jails towards ensuring the protection of Palestinian prisoners especially amidst the spread of COVID-19.

-WHO has turned into a motto of action the appeal for international solidarity of countries worldwide in the anti-COVID combat. What can you say concretely regarding international solidarity as the Palestinian people represent a special humanitarian case?

-As a nation already suffering from a decades-long military and economic occupation, we recognize that the State of Palestine is already handicapped in our fight to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. We do not have the necessary sovereignty (control over borders, etc) and national resources (medical, financial, etc) to cope with a significant outbreak, particularly when our population has many high-risk characteristics (crowded cities and refugee camps, poverty, food insecurity, non-communicable diseases, etc.).

We invite our partners to join us in forming a government of Palestine-led coordination mechanism (PAL-COVID-19 Coordination Platform), which will enable our international partners to ensure a coordinated response to COVID-19 in Palestine. The PMO will chair the PAL-COVID-19 Coordination Platform as a representative of the government of Palestine, with active participation of the Ministries of Health and Finance and in coordination with key international partners.

The PAL-COVID-19 Coordination Platform will allow the government of Palestine and our partners to quickly share critical needs, coordinate response and funding approaches, provide situation updates, share reports on funding disbursement and jointly track key indicators/delivery targets. The government of Palestine invites all humanitarian and development partners that are planning to provide response to COVID-19 in the State of Palestine and/or Palestinian refugees to participate in the PAL-COVID-19 Coordination Platform. The government of Palestine plans to maintain our “contain and suppress” approach to continue to limit community transmission.

-Madame Ambassador as it is reported the new coalition government of Israel can begin moving forward with applying ‘Israeli sovereignty’ to settlements in the West Bank by July of 2020. First can you unveil the view of the State of Palestine on this annexation scheme, and secondly which can be the expected political and popular reaction in view of this situation?

-The Palestinian leadership has announced that Palestine is absolved of all agreements signed with Israel. Palestine has remained committed to the principles of the Middle East Peace Process throughout the past quarter of a century. Israel has still seized every opportunity to defeat the achievement of peace, turning this process into a total failure. Our nation cannot and will not pay the cost of Israel’s occupation, illegal policies, and violations of its obligations under signed agreements. It is time for a change of direction, through which the international community will hold Israel accountable.

It will no longer be possible to defend Israel’s violations and illegal policies against the land and people of Palestine, which are, in fact, a violation of Article II of its association agreement with the European Union, Israel’s leading trade partner. This article conditions the applicability of the agreement to respecting human rights. It is absurd to condemn Israel’s colonial-settlement project while still welcoming their services and products in international markets that primarily sustain Israeli apartheid.

The international community can stop the annexation. Stopping annexation begins by imposing sanctions against a country that has never respected its most basic obligations under UN resolutions, signed agreements, and international treaties.

Unlike what Israel itself claims, its colonial-settlement enterprise is neither permanent nor irreversible. The family of nations should not yield to Israel’s racism, incitement, and violence. Instead, they should end its unparalleled culture of impunity.

Policies of accountability against the Israeli occupation are essential. But countries such as Germany, Hungary, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S. are doing the opposite: preventing the International Criminal Court from investigating crimes committed in occupied Palestine. That effort is easily taken as an endorsement of Israel’s illegal policies that have allowed it to expand its colonial-settlements to over 600,000 settlers today.

Countries, alliances and blocs must systematically review all agreements signed with Israel, to ensure that they do not contribute to the occupation and domination of Palestinian land and lives. Several of Israel’s Free Trade Agreements, which provide tax exemptions to settlement products, should be suspended. The same applies to the presence of several Christian Zionist organizations and other “charitable organizations” funding Israeli settlements in countries such as the US, UK, France, Canada, or Australia, including the Jewish National Fund (JNF), Ateret Kohanim and the Israel Land Fund.

We have reached leading international players to call for an international conference to facilitate a constructive and meaningful peace process based on the implementation of international law and relevant UN resolutions.

– As a follow up what can you say on the stance of the international factor towards this annexation plan and in this frame please could you be more specific on the EU approach?

-The German parliament has expressed its strong opposition to Israeli plans to annex. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned that the Israeli move would threaten the stability of the entire Middle East. Maas urged Israel to reconsider its plans, saying it was still possible to use “the opportunity and the time window” before a likely annexation. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK would “not recognize any changes” to Israel’s borders set in 1967 unless also agreed to by the Palestinians. Johnson warned Israel, urging an “outcome that delivers justice for both Israelis and Palestinians.” Johnson argued the proposed annexation “would put in jeopardy the progress that Israel has made in improving relationships with the Arab and Muslim world,” adding that Israel’s interests “overlap” with Arab partners. The Belgian parliament adopted a resolution June 26 that urged the government to prepare a list of countermeasures against Israel in case it annexes occupied Palestinian territories.

Earlier, more than 1,000 lawmakers from across Europe condemned the West Bank annexation plan in a joint letter. They urged European leaders to prevent the annexation, save prospects of a two-state solution and expressed support for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s previous statement that warned “annexation could not pass unchallenged.” In total, 1,080 members of national assemblies and the European Parliament from Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK signed the letter.

The Vatican said Israel’s “possible unilateral actions” can worsen the “delicate situation in the Middle East.”Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, expressed the Holy See’s concern that such action could “further jeopardize the search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians”.

-As a follow up, how do you assess the overall situation in your region overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic and its political, economic, social and world global order? A view on the post COVID19 era of the world from Palestine…

-The abrupt decline in economic activities and pressure on the Palestinian Authority’s finances have placed Palestinian livelihoods at high risks, as the impact of COVID-19 continues to hit the economy hard. After growth of a mere 1% in 2019, the economy is projected to contract by at least 7.6% in 2020. Beyond the immediate crisis, lifting restrictions on the development of digital infrastructure and fostering better regulations could play an important role in stimulating an already faltering economy. Several years of declining donor support and the limited economic instruments available have turned the ability of the government to protect livelihoods into a monumental task. Hence, external support will be critical to help grow the economy during this unprecedented period, the World Bank Country Director for West Bank and Gaza said in a statement recently.

The new World Bank economic monitoring report highlights critical challenges facing the Palestinian economy. The economy may shrink by at least 7.6%, based on a gradual return to normality from the containment, and by up to 11% in the case of a slower recovery or further restrictions. The PA’s fiscal situation is expected to become increasingly difficult, due to a decline in revenues and substantial increase in public spending on people’s medical, social and economic needs. Even with reallocations of some expenditures, the financing gap could increase alarmingly, from an already high $800 million in 2019 to over $1.5 billion in 2020 to adequately address these needs.

Even prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, more than a quarter of Palestinians lived below the poverty line. The share of poor households is now expected to increase to 30% in the West Bank and to 64% in Gaza. Even more striking is the youth unemployment rate of 38%, well beyond the Middle East & North Africa’s regional average. The economy’s potential remains confined by restrictions on the movement of people and goods. The report makes a case for developing a digital economy to help bridge this divide and create high-end jobs.

-Madame Ambassador, according to your expectations, how much effective can the reaction of the international factor be to impede a deterioration of the political situation particularly at these times of coronavirus response in your region?

-The European Union’s collective action should enforce on Israel diplomatic measures, individual restrictive measures (asset freeze and travel restrictions), restrictions on economic relations, economic sanctions, and restrictions on economic cooperation such as freezing the Horizon Europe 2021-2027 program and suspending the EU–Israel Association Agreement. Although Israel is primarily responsible for the internationally wrongful act of annexation, it must be emphasised that there are important responsibilities on third states when addressing a situation resulting from a serious breach of international law, in particular to “not render aid or assistance to the responsible state in maintaining the situation so created”, and to cooperate to bring the illegal situation to an end.

One clear step in assuring non-recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory, is for third states to formally recognise the State of Palestine and categorically reject the Trump administration’s so-called ‘Peace to Prosperity’ Plan. These duties are already underscored in Security Council resolutions such as Resolution 2334 (2016), which calls “upon all States…to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”. This can take the form of implementing legislation domestically, such as the Irish Control of Economic Activities in Occupied Territories Bill 2018 to prohibit the import of illegal settlement goods and services. At this juncture, it is also critical that states support the continuation of the UN database on businesses active in illegal settlements. This database provides a tool to end corporate complicity in Israel’s settler-colonial endeavour and to ensure that corporations are carrying out their enhanced due diligence in conflict-affected areas, including situations of belligerent occupation. It further acts as a soft law mechanism to assist third states in identifying human rights violating corporations, which is integral for internal public procurement assessments.

Critically, third states must respect the independence and impartiality of the International Criminal Court as it examines the situation in the State of Palestine, and commit to protect the Court from any attacks, including recent attacks by the United States. In addition, third states have an obligation as High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to prosecute or extradite nationals or persons on their territory who have committed international crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, including corporate agents complicit in pillaging Palestine’s natural resources. Finally, states should support an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the question of state responsibility in light of the permanent and therefore illegal nature of Israel’s prolonged occupation of the Palestinian territory, should such an opinion be requested.

-In conclusion you are aware that Albania has got the green light for the opening of the accession talks with the EU entering into a new stage of joining the Union. Which is your assessment on that development, and secondly as the exchange of information on the pandemic is crucial at regional and international levels are you in contact with relevant Albanian authorities?

-I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Republic of Albania for the opening of the accession negotiations with the European Union, and to express the full support of the Leadership and Government of the State of Palestine to the Republic of Albania for this deserved decision. On this occasion I would like to congratulate the Albanian authorities and the Albanian people for this long-awaited and well-deserved decision. For sure, to reach this moment, Albania has consistently delivered essential efforts and reforms and shown a true commitment towards EU integration. There is no doubt that the path towards full accession is still long, and that the country needs to continue delivering on key reforms in order to meet the pre-conditions to open accession talks. We wish Albania and the Albanian people success in their path towards accession steps.