Transcript
MS. FERRIS: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Beth Ferris. I’m a senior fellow here at Brookings and co‑director of the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement. We’re happy to see such a large turnout this afternoon for our session on The Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza: Beyond Band-Aid Solutions.
Madame Ogata, the former U.N. high commissioner for refugees, was fond of saying there are no humanitarian solutions for humanitarian crises. And perhaps nowhere else in the world does that apply as aptly as in the present situation in Gaza.
Today we’ll be talking about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, a crisis which is real, which is dire, which is heartbreaking, which is frustrating. The death toll from the round of bombardment and ground invasion, which began on December 27th, is close to a thousand, with thousands more wounded and tens of thousands displaced from their homes. But as I’m sure we’ll hear from today’s speakers, the humanitarian crisis is not a new one.
We’ll begin our presentations with an overview of the humanitarian situation on the ground in Gaza, and we’ll begin with Andrew Whitley, who’s the director of the New York Representative Office of UNRWA, which has, of course, played the leading role in humanitarian assistance in Gaza. Mr. Whitley has worked with the U.N. in different capacities for the past 14 years in countries ranging from East Timor and Kosovo, although most of his background and experience is indeed in the Middle East, where he’s worked as a journalist, an academic, and also as a human rights activist.
But humanitarian crises always occur in a specific political context and the political dynamics around the present crisis in Gaza are particularly complex, including, for example, security in Israel, the role of Hamas in Palestinian politics, the upcoming elections in Israel, the fact that the Israeli offensive began in the closing weeks of the Bush Administration, implications for Al Qaeda as we’ve heard today, concerns in the broader Middle East, the relevance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Tamara Wittes, a senior fellow here at Brookings at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Middle East Democracy and Development Project, will talk about some of the political dynamics around the present humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and particularly what might happen next if and when a cease-fire is finally negotiated.
Finally, we’ll look at the implications of the present crisis in Gaza for humanitarian actors generally. Gaza today raises many of the dilemmas faced by humanitarians in other difficult situations: questions of access to those in need, questions of the security of humanitarian personnel, questions about the relationship of humanitarian action with international humanitarian law.
For some insights into the implications of Gaza on humanitarian work generally, as well as on the present on-the-ground situation in Gaza, we’ll turn to Michael Khambatta. Michael is the deputy head of ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross, Regional Delegation for the U.S. and Canada. In the past, he’s worked with ICRC in the Middle East, as well as Bosnia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Rwanda.
Following their interventions there will certainly be time for questions. I hope that we’ll be able to provide some answers to those questions.
And again, welcome to all of you and we’ll begin with Andrew. Please, Andrew.
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