ODVV interview: The situation of human and humanitarian rights in Gaza

ODVV interview with Lydia Canaan: The situation of human and humanitarian rights in Gaza.

We are watching in horror, as the Gaza death statistics are multiplying by thousands. The total death toll is approaching the alarming figure of 8000 and the Ministry of Health announced the staggering death figures for children to be around 3000, about 40 percent of total deaths. The 23-day genocide has taken the lives of the same number of children as in the past 23 YEARS and yet there are much more deaths on the way. Widespread crimes are taking place in the region, while the total blockade and the bombardments has limited the access of the remaining population to food, water, fuel, electricity, medicine, medical treatment, safe shelters and means of communications. Alarmed by the scope and intensity of the human rights violations taking place in Gaza, ODVV is running interviews with some informed figures who share the same concerns. Recently, ODVV has sent questions to Lydia Canaan, a Lebanese-Swiss Singer, song writer and Humanitarian Activist, on "the situation of human and humanitarian rights in Gaza". Lydia Canaan is a Lebanese-Swiss Singer and Humanitarian Activist.

1. Q: Horrible media outlets focus on the access to food and other essential items for the Gaza civilians. What do you think of starvation of civilians and children as a tool for war?
A: First, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak out against the colossal injustice and inhumanity that is deliberately and systemically inflicted upon the Palestinian people by the Apartheid State of Israel.
The Western corporate media which is the mouthpiece of Western governments and their intelligence apparatus, have lost their credibility long time ago. Their outright lies, manipulation, and fabrication of their concocted versions of the “truth” in order to serve their masters’ duplicitous sinister agenda have failed, thankfully, due to activists, humanitarians, and independent media and journalists whose voices of conscience and truth have prevailed and triumphed over theirs. Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is considered a war crime under the Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is monstrous and barbaric because it is pre-meditated and its objective is to wipe out the Palestinian population of Gaza.

2. Q: How do you see the limitation of access to electricity, water, medicine and hygiene items to be affecting the people and children's lives?
A: It’s a horrendous crime, and it amounts to unlawful collective punishment under international human right law. The effects are horrendous, physically and mentally. Depriving and/or limiting people of having these basic essential necessities to survive, have tremendous health consequences on children and adults. These consequences range from carbon monoxide poisoning, gastrointestinal illnesses, temperature-related illness, cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal diseases, and for people relying on electricity-dependent medical equipment. It’s a double war-crime because, the Apartheid Israeli regime is also destroying water services and infrastructure as a punitive measure to the entire population of Gaza.

3. Q: Over the decades, the world has witnessed a multitude of various rounds of attacks on Gaza, with no achievements. In your opinion, what is the reason for the inability of the international community to address the gross violations of human rights by Israel?
A: The International Community has blood on its hands and is an accomplice of Apartheid Israel in the violations, the killings, the ethnic cleansing, the crimes, and the war-crimes against the Palestinian population.

4. Q: We have witnessed the dreadful attack on Gaza hospital, what do you think of the air raids that seem to be indiscriminately targeting the places which are supposed to serve as civilians' sanctuary in war time?

A: The brutal fascist regime of the Apartheid State of Israel, dehumanizes the Palestinians and have one objective, to kill and annihilate as many Palestinians as possible. They attack and demolish hospitals, UN compounds, schools and shelters with impunity, because they know that they can get away with it with zero accountability. Apartheid Israel has violated every single law and humanitarian law since its illegal inception in 1948.

5. Q: Considering the scope and intensity of the destruction of the civilian infrastructure and the blockade which is imposed on the occupied territories, in your opinion, what strategy should be implemented to firstly end the siege of Gaza (permanently and not return to the pre-conflict situation that practically turned Gaza to a prison) and secondly, what should be done to heal this 75-year-old wound which was created since the establishment of Israel?

A: Gaza is not an open air prison because a prison is where guilty people—and presumably guilty people—are legally held as a punishment for a crime committed or awaiting a trial, they get meals three times a day, and can eventually leave. The Palestinians in Gaza don’t have any of that. Gaza is a CONCENTRATION CAMP. The only solution to end the siege of Gaza and the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people is to immediately dismantle the Zionist Apartheid State of Israel, and establish a single democratic state, one state, called Palestine with equal rights for Palestinians, Israelis, and other nationalities living there.