Around the world 120 million people are displaced, with 43.4 million of them refugees. This includes seven million Palestinian refugees who have been displaced as a result of the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Gazan co-ops were working on assessing the damage suffered as a result of the most recent conflict, but the process was stopped when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended on 18 March. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) estimates that 142,000 Palestinians were displaced in the week since the conflict restarted.
The current war – the deadliest for Palestinians in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict –has led to the displacement of 1.9 million people or 90% of the population on Gaza, including co-op members and their families.
“Many co-operatives in Gaza have been completely destroyed and we need to rebuild what has been destroyed,” said Edin Abu Taha, chair of the Union of Housing Cooperatives (UHC) in Palestine, which is a member of Cooperative Housing International and the International Cooperative Alliance.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), many people have been displaced repeatedly, some 10 times or more. The UN agency reported that no humanitarian aid and supplies have entered Gaza since 2 March, when the Israeli authorities put a halt to the process.
Taha estimates that 80% of co-op societies in agriculture, housing, crafts, savings and credit, services, fishery, and livestock have been damaged in the conflict.
But co-ops in the West Bank and Jerusalem have also been impacted by the war. The UN says that the Israeli recent military operation in the West Bank has “forcibly displaced 40,000 Palestinians”.
“For co-ops in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the very difficult security and economic conditions have caused huge losses and challenges to the continuation of co-ops owing to Israeli military barriers and the military blockade throughout the West Bank,” explains Taha.
“At the end of January, the situation in Gaza improved for a month and a half due to the ceasefire but weeks ago, the truce collapsed. Co-operative families in all sectors, not only housing, are suffering from hunger, lack of food, and fear due to the constant bombardment from Israeli warplanes.
“Hundreds of co-operative families returned to their homes in northern Gaza and Gaza City, but when they returned there were no habitable buildings,” Taha adds. “Most of the co-operatives’ residential buildings had been destroyed and the small part that were not destroyed are uninhabitable and in need of restoration, and these materials are not available due to the closure of the crossings”
He says the Israeli government prohibits the entry of any materials, goods, food, health, relief, or humanitarian aid.”
Taha is hoping co-ops in other countries will help the Palestinian co-op movement rebuild itself once the conflict ends. Catalan housing co-op Sostre Civic has worked with UHC to produce a video that raises awareness about the war’s impact on the movement and is also fundraising for co-ops in Gaza. UHC intends to use the funding raised by Sostre Civic, which has yet to be delivered, to employ technical experts who can complete a report on the war’s impact on co-operatives in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Humanitarian organisations such as Oxfam have warned that measures introduced by the Israeli government have made it “increasingly difficult and dangerous for Oxfam and other organisations to deliver desperately needed humanitarian programmes.”
“Of course, there is an urgent need for assistance from international federations and co-operatives to support co-operatives and federations in Palestine,” said Taha.
