In 2012, the United Nations forecasted that Gaza, Palestine may be unlivable by 2020. For the nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, Israel’s persecution and collective punishment has already made life there unbearable.
#Gaza2020 Unliveable is a campaign promoted by the Palestine Information Network (PIN) to highlight the herculean challenges facing Palestinians living in the Occupied Gaza Strip at the onset of the year 2020, and the urgent need to affirm and restore the rights, hopes and dignity of these inhabitants. The choice of the onset of 2020 for the launching of this campaign is inspired by the leading question of the aforementioned 2012 United Nations report that probed whether Gaza will be liveable in 2020.
The campaign is focused on bringing awareness to the gravity of the situation, and is a call to action to all concerned individuals, organisations, institutions and governments to engage in all appropriate action to restore dignity and seek accountability.
F A CTSThe Palestine Information Network has prepared this comprehensive fact sheet on the situation in Gaza, Palestine, that explains how Gaza has become unliveable; the levels of frustration and desperation in Gaza; what the United Nations and human rights organisations have said about the situation; challenges facing Gaza’s youth; how conditions in Gaza are inextricably linked to the wider Palestinian quest for freedom from Occupation; and what is the solution to the imbroglio in Gaza.
The fact sheet is ideal to gather a personal understanding on the challenges facing Gaza, as well as to share with friends, colleagues and decision makers to enhance their awareness of the situation. Information can also be excerpted for letters to the media, governments, petitions and social media posts.
Download fact sheet hereV I DEO
Watch and share this informative video produced by Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq titled “Gaza 2020: Uninhabitable.” The video highlights the variant challenges rendering Gaza unliveable for its inhabitants from a series of Israeli military onslaughts on the territory, to medical and electricity crises, a health system meltdown, undrinkable water, restrictions on fishing, industry and agriculture, barriers to education, and the suppression of the ‘Great March of Return’
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View the video, share on social media, or arrange a screening of it during your awareness event.
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Deepen your understanding of Gaza via our resource page, which shares suggestions for further reading and viewing on Gaza’s history, culture and challenges.
C O NTR I B UTE
Assist the programmes of the Poor Patient Fund (PPF) in Gaza, amongst other areas in Palestine. PPF partners with bona-fide organisations in South Africa and internationally to serve poor patients wherever they may be, especially in disaster and crisis areas. This is facilitated through reliable medical organisations and the relevant health departments in each area. The idea of the programme is built on the coverage of the costs of medical services which are not available in the public health sector and whose costs are too high in the private sector. Browse through PPF’s database of eligible patients and help attend to their most urgent needs.
A C T
As 2020 advances, we have to acknowledge that Gaza being unliveable is a stain on the collective conscience of the world.
As David Hearst writes, “by neglect, or default, all western governments have actively contributed to its misery. All are deeply complicit in an inhuman experiment: how to keep more than 2 million people on a level of subsistence considered intolerable and unliveable by the UN, without tipping them over into mass death.
“What has to happen for this to change? For how much longer will we delete…Gaza, its refugees, its daily suffering from the collective consciousness of the world?”
Palestinians in Gaza don’t just need food, water and medicine. They are crying out for freedom, dignity and hope.
The Palestine Information Network (PIN) calls for a concerted effort to highlight the gravity of ‘unliveability’ in #Gaza2020. Let no effort be spared to raise widespread awareness of this catastrophe and initiate and participate in all appropriate ventures that seek to restore the rights and prioritise the dignity of Palestinians in Gaza.
Click the button for a range of practical ideas that can guide your awareness and activism.
What Can You Do# H A SHTA G
In the upcoming weeks, the Palestine Information Network will be intensifying the Gaza 2020 campaign through a sustained social media focus and a series of infographics relating to Gaza. Each week for the duration of the campaign, we will focus on a particular aspect of life in Gaza and expound upon it with the relevant statistics, background information, human stories, pictures and videos.
Follow these regular posts via the hashtags #Gaza2020 and #GazaUnliveable, and share and refer the content to others. Additionally, share your own campaigns, sentiments, events and initiatives for the cause using the same hashtags and we retweet and share – as far as possible – for amplification.
Let us connect and act!
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