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Include Gaza Palestinians in the Community Sponsorship Resettlement programme
Eve B.
started this petition to
UNHCR and those in all countries who can take action for Refugees
Globally we are asking the UNHCR to find a safe and humane solution for Gazan Palestinians requesting resettlement rather than attempting to reach a country to ask for asylum.
Locally we are asking the Irish government to open up Community Sponsorship to Palestinians as it is currently only for Syrians and Afghans and are especially appealing to Michael Martin, Simon Harris, Jim O'Callaghan, and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill as well as all interested persons who can drive this much needed action.
Palestinians in Gaza are being herded into what is now a small percentage of the south of Gaza and cannot readily access UNHCR resettlement approval.
Let the UNHCR know that the world is watching and demands that a solution be found.
That the people in Gaza who wish to resettle their families elsewhere cannot wait.
Sign the petition to include Gaza Palestinians in the Community Sponsorship Programme, and to find practical ways to offer and approve resettlement to Gazans cut off from the world and in dire need.
Let the Irish government and all our governments know that we want a concrete solution for Palestinians wishing to resettle.
My dear friend and colleague Dr. Mohammed Abed Abu Mughaiseeb in Gaza writes:
"Gaza Is gone, and so Am I.
Satellite imagery confirms what we already knew in our hearts: Gaza has been annihilated.
At least 70% of its buildings are now uninhabitable.
According to Hebrew University mapping expert Adi Ben-Nun:89% of Rafah is gone.84% of northern Gaza is flattened.78% of Gaza City lies in ruins.160,000 buildings, across homes, schools, hospitals, farms, ministries all destroyed.
Since April, 2,000 buildings are being destroyed every month in Rafah alone.
The Israeli government now plans to build a so-called "humanitarian city" on top of its ruins as if concrete can erase the memory of life, family, and freedom.
Everywhere you look, there is nothing left ,all universities in Gaza have been completely or partially destroyed.501 of 554 schools are unusable.81% of the roads are gone.50 million tons of rubble now blanket the Strip.The cost of cleanup alone? $1.2 billion.
The timeline? 21 years.
And while the buildings fell, so did the lives inside them.
Even this destruction is now systematized.
What bombs didn’t flatten, Israeli bulldozers did some operated by civilian contractors, earning thousands per building.
So tell me what am I supposed to return to?
A pile of ashes?
A city without homes, without schools, without hospitals?
A map where the names of my streets have been buried under concrete dust?
I don’t want to stay anymore in Gaza, because Gaza, as we knew it, no longer exists.
It was not only our buildings that were demolished it was our very right to exist in dignity.
How do you stay in a place that the world allowed to be erased?"
THE PEOPLE OF GAZA HAVE BEEN DRIVEN TO A PLACE WITH NO OPTIONS WHILE THE WORLD WATCHED.
While some of us have worked in solidarity with Palestine,
while some of us have given what help we could,
while some of us have worked to take in medical evacuations...
The time has come where we must listen to the wishes of each Palestinian in Gaza, and find solutions for those who wish to resettle elsewhere because even if the Israelis withdraw completely today - it will take decades for Gaza to be rebuilt.
From our own history we know that there are times when a decimated land and population must be rebuilt through the help of the global diaspora.
This is something that can be supported in a sensible, practical and humane way with the help of UNHCR and the involvement of all of our home countries.
Please Sign and Share Widely
A group of people in solidarity with Palestine here in Ireland are committed to the Community Sponsorship Programme here, but currently it is not available to Palestinians.
Community Sponsorship is a humane and effective form of resettlement described as "programmes where individuals or groups come together to provide financial, emotional and practical support toward reception and integration of refugees that have already been admitted in their country through resettlement after a referral by UNHCR or through a complementary pathway such as education or labour mobility opportunities. While sponsorship programmes have been a great success in Canada for decades, allowing more than 300,000 refugees to be welcomed to the country, most other programmes have been developed relatively recently in response to the Syria crisis and as commitments following the Global Compact on Refugees. At the first Global Refugee Forum held in December 2019, Brazil, Belgium, Malta and Portugal pledged to explore pilot community sponsorship models. As a part of the new 2020 Pact on Asylum and Migration, the European Commission has committed to supporting national community sponsorship schemes through funding, capacity building and knowledge-sharing, in cooperation with civil society, to develop a European model of community sponsorship." https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/build-better-futures/long-term-solutions/local-integration/community-sponsorship
Locally we are asking the Irish government to open up Community Sponsorship to Palestinians as it is currently only for Syrians and Afghans and are especially appealing to Michael Martin, Simon Harris, Jim O'Callaghan, and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill as well as all interested persons who can drive this much needed action.
Palestinians in Gaza are being herded into what is now a small percentage of the south of Gaza and cannot readily access UNHCR resettlement approval.
Let the UNHCR know that the world is watching and demands that a solution be found.
That the people in Gaza who wish to resettle their families elsewhere cannot wait.
Sign the petition to include Gaza Palestinians in the Community Sponsorship Programme, and to find practical ways to offer and approve resettlement to Gazans cut off from the world and in dire need.
Let the Irish government and all our governments know that we want a concrete solution for Palestinians wishing to resettle.
My dear friend and colleague Dr. Mohammed Abed Abu Mughaiseeb in Gaza writes:
"Gaza Is gone, and so Am I.
Satellite imagery confirms what we already knew in our hearts: Gaza has been annihilated.
At least 70% of its buildings are now uninhabitable.
According to Hebrew University mapping expert Adi Ben-Nun:89% of Rafah is gone.84% of northern Gaza is flattened.78% of Gaza City lies in ruins.160,000 buildings, across homes, schools, hospitals, farms, ministries all destroyed.
Since April, 2,000 buildings are being destroyed every month in Rafah alone.
The Israeli government now plans to build a so-called "humanitarian city" on top of its ruins as if concrete can erase the memory of life, family, and freedom.
Everywhere you look, there is nothing left ,all universities in Gaza have been completely or partially destroyed.501 of 554 schools are unusable.81% of the roads are gone.50 million tons of rubble now blanket the Strip.The cost of cleanup alone? $1.2 billion.
The timeline? 21 years.
And while the buildings fell, so did the lives inside them.
Even this destruction is now systematized.
What bombs didn’t flatten, Israeli bulldozers did some operated by civilian contractors, earning thousands per building.
So tell me what am I supposed to return to?
A pile of ashes?
A city without homes, without schools, without hospitals?
A map where the names of my streets have been buried under concrete dust?
I don’t want to stay anymore in Gaza, because Gaza, as we knew it, no longer exists.
It was not only our buildings that were demolished it was our very right to exist in dignity.
How do you stay in a place that the world allowed to be erased?"
THE PEOPLE OF GAZA HAVE BEEN DRIVEN TO A PLACE WITH NO OPTIONS WHILE THE WORLD WATCHED.
While some of us have worked in solidarity with Palestine,
while some of us have given what help we could,
while some of us have worked to take in medical evacuations...
The time has come where we must listen to the wishes of each Palestinian in Gaza, and find solutions for those who wish to resettle elsewhere because even if the Israelis withdraw completely today - it will take decades for Gaza to be rebuilt.
From our own history we know that there are times when a decimated land and population must be rebuilt through the help of the global diaspora.
This is something that can be supported in a sensible, practical and humane way with the help of UNHCR and the involvement of all of our home countries.
Please Sign and Share Widely
A group of people in solidarity with Palestine here in Ireland are committed to the Community Sponsorship Programme here, but currently it is not available to Palestinians.
Community Sponsorship is a humane and effective form of resettlement described as "programmes where individuals or groups come together to provide financial, emotional and practical support toward reception and integration of refugees that have already been admitted in their country through resettlement after a referral by UNHCR or through a complementary pathway such as education or labour mobility opportunities. While sponsorship programmes have been a great success in Canada for decades, allowing more than 300,000 refugees to be welcomed to the country, most other programmes have been developed relatively recently in response to the Syria crisis and as commitments following the Global Compact on Refugees. At the first Global Refugee Forum held in December 2019, Brazil, Belgium, Malta and Portugal pledged to explore pilot community sponsorship models. As a part of the new 2020 Pact on Asylum and Migration, the European Commission has committed to supporting national community sponsorship schemes through funding, capacity building and knowledge-sharing, in cooperation with civil society, to develop a European model of community sponsorship." https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/build-better-futures/long-term-solutions/local-integration/community-sponsorship
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