"We don't want your thoughts and prayers. We need action," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
A medical team from the Palestine Red Crescent Society administers polio vaccines to children at Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza on August 22, 2024.
(Photo: Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Aug 24, 2024
COMMON DREAMS
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the lone Palestinian American in the U.S. Congress, said Friday that she is "so saddened and ashamed of our country looking away and pretending they are trying to stop this madness" after the World Health Organization confirmed that a 10-month-old child in Gaza was paralyzed by polio.
"The first case of polio in more than 25 years, but no one will care because the baby is Palestinian," Tlaib (D-Mich.) lamented. "We don't want your thoughts and prayers. We need action."
Tlaib's comments came hours after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris closed out the Democratic National Convention with a speech that acknowledged the "heartbreaking" suffering in Gaza without clearly identifying the perpetrators—the far-right Israeli government and its main arms supplier, the United States—or pledging to break with President Joe Biden's unwavering support for Israel.
"Vice President Harris has said that she supports a cease-fire in Gaza," Abbas Alawieh, co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement, said in a statement Friday. "But a cease-fire cannot happen as long as the U.S. continues supplying the bombs used to kill people we love.
The Biden administration has continued to transfer lethal weaponry to the Israeli military even amid overwhelming evidence that the country's forces are using the arms to commit atrocities in Gaza, wiping out entire families and civilian infrastructure. Israel's blockade, meanwhile, is suffocating the enclave's population, forcing children to search rotting garbage for food as famine takes hold across the territory.
Last month, the already dire humanitarian emergency became even more grave after health officials detected poliovirus in sewage samples at several locations in southern and central Gaza.
On August 16, Gaza's health ministry confirmed that an unvaccinated 10-month-child in Deir al-Balah contracted polio; the World Health Organization said earlier this week that the child was partially paralyzed by the disease, for which there is no known cure.
A coalition of aid agencies and medical professionals warned Tuesday that "without immediate action, an entire generation is at risk of infection, and hundreds of children face paralysis by a highly communicable disease that can be prevented with a simple vaccine."
An urgent vaccination drive is underway, but the effort has been made extremely difficult and dangerous by relentless Israeli bombing.
Over the past 48 hours, Israeli attacks have killed at least 69 Gazans and wounded 212 more, according to the enclave's health ministry.
Al Jazeerareported Saturday that "a woman and a young girl are among those killed in Israel's latest attack on the Bureij refugee camp."
"Their bodies, along with other children wounded by the assault, have been rushed to al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp," the outlet added. "Footage from the hospital, verified by Al Jazeera's fact-checking agency Sanad, shows several bloodied children receiving treatment, while a man weeps over the body of a deceased child."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the lone Palestinian American in the U.S. Congress, said Friday that she is "so saddened and ashamed of our country looking away and pretending they are trying to stop this madness" after the World Health Organization confirmed that a 10-month-old child in Gaza was paralyzed by polio.
"The first case of polio in more than 25 years, but no one will care because the baby is Palestinian," Tlaib (D-Mich.) lamented. "We don't want your thoughts and prayers. We need action."
Tlaib's comments came hours after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris closed out the Democratic National Convention with a speech that acknowledged the "heartbreaking" suffering in Gaza without clearly identifying the perpetrators—the far-right Israeli government and its main arms supplier, the United States—or pledging to break with President Joe Biden's unwavering support for Israel.
"Vice President Harris has said that she supports a cease-fire in Gaza," Abbas Alawieh, co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement, said in a statement Friday. "But a cease-fire cannot happen as long as the U.S. continues supplying the bombs used to kill people we love.
The Biden administration has continued to transfer lethal weaponry to the Israeli military even amid overwhelming evidence that the country's forces are using the arms to commit atrocities in Gaza, wiping out entire families and civilian infrastructure. Israel's blockade, meanwhile, is suffocating the enclave's population, forcing children to search rotting garbage for food as famine takes hold across the territory.
Last month, the already dire humanitarian emergency became even more grave after health officials detected poliovirus in sewage samples at several locations in southern and central Gaza.
On August 16, Gaza's health ministry confirmed that an unvaccinated 10-month-child in Deir al-Balah contracted polio; the World Health Organization said earlier this week that the child was partially paralyzed by the disease, for which there is no known cure.
A coalition of aid agencies and medical professionals warned Tuesday that "without immediate action, an entire generation is at risk of infection, and hundreds of children face paralysis by a highly communicable disease that can be prevented with a simple vaccine."
An urgent vaccination drive is underway, but the effort has been made extremely difficult and dangerous by relentless Israeli bombing.
Over the past 48 hours, Israeli attacks have killed at least 69 Gazans and wounded 212 more, according to the enclave's health ministry.
Al Jazeerareported Saturday that "a woman and a young girl are among those killed in Israel's latest attack on the Bureij refugee camp."
"Their bodies, along with other children wounded by the assault, have been rushed to al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp," the outlet added. "Footage from the hospital, verified by Al Jazeera's fact-checking agency Sanad, shows several bloodied children receiving treatment, while a man weeps over the body of a deceased child."
UN Pleads for Gaza Cease-Fire to Administer Polio Vaccines. Israel Is Refusing
At the medical front in Gaza, the war to save the children is going very badly. It will be lost without a cease-fire.
At the medical front in Gaza, the war to save the children is going very badly. It will be lost without a cease-fire.
Palestinian children carrying empty containers walk near stagnant wastewater in central Gaza on July 19, 2024.
(Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)
Juan Cole
Aug 24, 2024
Aug 24, 2024
Informed Comment
Julian Borger at The Guardian reports that the first verified case of type 2 poliovirus in 25 years in Gaza, in a baby, has resulted in the paralysis of the infant. It is only the first of many if the UN is not allowed to administer vaccines to 650,000 children in the Strip, which will definitely require a cease-fire. The Israeli authorities are refusing to consider this step.
There is no cure for polio once it is contracted. Its victims can be paralyzed or can die.
Without a cease-fire, UNICEF points out, you cannot get the families to line up their children to receive the vaccine by mouth. Some 95% of the infants in Gaza need to have the vaccine administered to prevent an outbreak, and they need two doses. Without a cease-fire, the aid workers cannot even safely move around to make arrangements for giving out the doses. The aid organizations want to use Deir al-Balah to store and distribute the vaccines, but the Israeli army has just once again ordered everyone out of it and has invaded it, risking destroying the remaining medical infrastructure there. Some 250,000 Palestinians have once again been expelled from their shelters since the beginning of August.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini warned regarding Gaza, “Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among children.” He suggested that some Israeli children could suffer from an epidemic, as well, but of course Israeli children have largely been vaccinated continually. Palestinian children had also been almost entirely vaccinated up until the Israeli total war on Gaza was implemented last fall.
UNICEF wrote of another war, Ukraine, “UNICEF helps vaccinate over 400 million children globally against polio every year, to eradicate polio worldwide. In Ukraine, UNICEF works to secure uninterrupted availability of life-saving vaccines for children and adults and to maintain high routine immunization coverage. As the war and subsequent displacement continues, gaps in immunization coverage put children’s health at risk.”
Although children in Ukraine are also at risk from polio outbreaks, the human toll of that war pales in comparison to Gaza. Some 2,000 children have been killed as a result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s total war on the Gaza population has blown over 15,000 children to smithereens.
Whereas Putin’s Russia has been massively sanctioned for its illegal occupation and warfare in Ukraine by the US and most NATO countries, Israel’s government, which illegally occupied Gaza in 1967 and which has shown a reckless disregard for civilian life that may amount to genocide, has been given tens of billions of dollars by the Biden administration.
Type 2 polio vaccinations are substantially down over the past ten months, since the population and the aid workers have been constantly expelled from a succession of supposed safe zones by the Israeli military, medical facilities have been destroyed, and medicine deliveries have been made difficult or impossible by the bombings, artillery barrages, machine gun fire, drone strikes, lack of fuel and general chaos deliberately inflicted on the entire population by monstrously permissive Israeli rules of engagement — which entirely disregard the value of civilian, noncombatant life.
“Gaza Polio,” by Juan Cole, Digital, Dream / Dreamland v. 3 / Clip2Comic, 2024
Although Israeli authorities are allowing the delivery of the refrigerated trucks necessary for the vaccines, as well as the vaccine doses themselves, through the Kerem Shalom crossing, the aid workers are pointing out that these steps do no good at all unless there is a cease-fire that allows the aid workers to move around and give the vaccines to the children. Borger quotes Lazzarini as saying, “It is not enough to bring the vaccines into Gaza and protect the cold chain. To have an impact, the vaccines must end up in the mouths of every child under the age of 10.”
UNICEF points out that “The world has made tremendous progress against polio in the past three decades, vaccinating over 2.5 billion children and reducing cases by 99 percent. But this progress is fragile, and we cannot afford to lose focus. Millions of children are still missing out on routine vaccinations because of pandemic disruptions, conflict, climate disasters, and displacement.”
It quotes Yuliia Dovjanych, Head Doctor at the ‘Dbayu’ medical centre “Infectious diseases do not disappear during the war. The fight against them is our ‘medical front’ where we must remain resilient. Therefore, we must continue to get vaccinated, take care of our health and the health of our children!” Some 11,520 civilians have been killed in the Ukraine war, whereas over 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza, a majority of them women and children.
At the medical front in Gaza, the war to save the children is going very badly. It will be lost without a cease-fire.
Julian Borger at The Guardian reports that the first verified case of type 2 poliovirus in 25 years in Gaza, in a baby, has resulted in the paralysis of the infant. It is only the first of many if the UN is not allowed to administer vaccines to 650,000 children in the Strip, which will definitely require a cease-fire. The Israeli authorities are refusing to consider this step.
There is no cure for polio once it is contracted. Its victims can be paralyzed or can die.
Without a cease-fire, UNICEF points out, you cannot get the families to line up their children to receive the vaccine by mouth. Some 95% of the infants in Gaza need to have the vaccine administered to prevent an outbreak, and they need two doses. Without a cease-fire, the aid workers cannot even safely move around to make arrangements for giving out the doses. The aid organizations want to use Deir al-Balah to store and distribute the vaccines, but the Israeli army has just once again ordered everyone out of it and has invaded it, risking destroying the remaining medical infrastructure there. Some 250,000 Palestinians have once again been expelled from their shelters since the beginning of August.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini warned regarding Gaza, “Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among children.” He suggested that some Israeli children could suffer from an epidemic, as well, but of course Israeli children have largely been vaccinated continually. Palestinian children had also been almost entirely vaccinated up until the Israeli total war on Gaza was implemented last fall.
UNICEF wrote of another war, Ukraine, “UNICEF helps vaccinate over 400 million children globally against polio every year, to eradicate polio worldwide. In Ukraine, UNICEF works to secure uninterrupted availability of life-saving vaccines for children and adults and to maintain high routine immunization coverage. As the war and subsequent displacement continues, gaps in immunization coverage put children’s health at risk.”
Although children in Ukraine are also at risk from polio outbreaks, the human toll of that war pales in comparison to Gaza. Some 2,000 children have been killed as a result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s total war on the Gaza population has blown over 15,000 children to smithereens.
Whereas Putin’s Russia has been massively sanctioned for its illegal occupation and warfare in Ukraine by the US and most NATO countries, Israel’s government, which illegally occupied Gaza in 1967 and which has shown a reckless disregard for civilian life that may amount to genocide, has been given tens of billions of dollars by the Biden administration.
Type 2 polio vaccinations are substantially down over the past ten months, since the population and the aid workers have been constantly expelled from a succession of supposed safe zones by the Israeli military, medical facilities have been destroyed, and medicine deliveries have been made difficult or impossible by the bombings, artillery barrages, machine gun fire, drone strikes, lack of fuel and general chaos deliberately inflicted on the entire population by monstrously permissive Israeli rules of engagement — which entirely disregard the value of civilian, noncombatant life.
“Gaza Polio,” by Juan Cole, Digital, Dream / Dreamland v. 3 / Clip2Comic, 2024
Although Israeli authorities are allowing the delivery of the refrigerated trucks necessary for the vaccines, as well as the vaccine doses themselves, through the Kerem Shalom crossing, the aid workers are pointing out that these steps do no good at all unless there is a cease-fire that allows the aid workers to move around and give the vaccines to the children. Borger quotes Lazzarini as saying, “It is not enough to bring the vaccines into Gaza and protect the cold chain. To have an impact, the vaccines must end up in the mouths of every child under the age of 10.”
UNICEF points out that “The world has made tremendous progress against polio in the past three decades, vaccinating over 2.5 billion children and reducing cases by 99 percent. But this progress is fragile, and we cannot afford to lose focus. Millions of children are still missing out on routine vaccinations because of pandemic disruptions, conflict, climate disasters, and displacement.”
It quotes Yuliia Dovjanych, Head Doctor at the ‘Dbayu’ medical centre “Infectious diseases do not disappear during the war. The fight against them is our ‘medical front’ where we must remain resilient. Therefore, we must continue to get vaccinated, take care of our health and the health of our children!” Some 11,520 civilians have been killed in the Ukraine war, whereas over 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza, a majority of them women and children.
At the medical front in Gaza, the war to save the children is going very badly. It will be lost without a cease-fire.
No comments:
Post a Comment